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4776 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building%20society | Building society | A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. They exist in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and formerly in Ireland and several Commonwealth countries, including South Africa as mutual banks. They are similar to credit unions, but rather than promoting thrift and offering unsecured and business loans, the purpose of a building society is to provide home mortgages to members. Borrowers and depositors are society members, setting policy and appointing directors on a one-member, one-vote basis. Building societies often provide other retail banking services, such as current accounts, credit cards and personal loans. The term "building society" first arose in the 19th century in Great Britain from cooperative savings groups.
In the United Kingdom, building societies compete with banks for most consumer banking services, especially mortgage lending and savings accounts, and regulations permit up to half of their lending to be funded by debt to non-members, allowing societies to access wholesale bond and money markets to fund mortgages. The world's largest building society is Britain's Nationwide Building Society. In Australia, building societies also compete with retail banks and offer the full range of banking services to consumers.
History in the United Kingdom
Building societies as an institution began in late-18th century Birmingham – a town which was undergoing rapid economic and physical expansion driven by a multiplicity of small metalworking firms, whose many highly skilled and prosperous owners readily invested in property. Many of the early building societies were based in taverns or coffeehouses, which had become the focus for a network of clubs and societies for co-operation and the exchange of ideas among Birmingham's highly active citizenry as part of the movement known as the Midlands Enlightenment. The first building society to be established was Ketley's Building Society, founded by Richard Ketley, the landlord of the Golden Cross inn, in 1775. Members of Ketley's society paid a monthly subscription to a central pool of funds which was used to finance the building of houses for members, which in turn acted as collateral to attract further funding to the society, enabling further construction. By 1781 three more societies had been established in Birmingham, with a fourth in the nearby town of Dudley; and 19 more formed in Birmingham between 1782 and 1795. The first outside the English Midlands was established in Leeds in 1785.
Most of the original societies were fully terminating, where they would be dissolved when all members had a house: the last of them, First Salisbury and District Perfect Thrift Building Society, was wound up in March 1980. In the 1830s and 1840s a new development took place with the permanent building society, where the society continued on a rolling basis, continually taking in new members as earlier ones completed purchases, such as Leek Building Society. The main legislative framework for the building society was the Building Societies Act 1874, with subsequent amending legislation in 1894, 1939 (see Coney Hall), and 1960.
In their heyday, there were hundreds of building societies: just about every town in the country had a building society named after that town. Over succeeding decades the number of societies has decreased, as various societies merged to form larger ones, often renaming in the process, and other societies opted for demutualisation followed by – in the great majority of cases – eventual takeover by a listed bank. Most of the existing larger building societies are the end result of the mergers of many smaller societies.
All building societies in the UK are members of the Building Societies Association. At the start of 2008, there were 59 building societies in the UK, with total assets exceeding £360 billion. The number of societies in the UK fell by four during 2008 due to a series of mergers brought about, to a large extent, by the consequences of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. There were three further mergers in each of 2009 and 2010, a demutualisation and a merger in 2011, and four further mergers 2013–2018 which resulted in there being only one building society headquartered respectively in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Since then, the only merger has been in 2023, when the Manchester society merged with the Newcastle society.
Demutualisation
In the 1980s, changes to British banking laws allowed building societies to offer banking services equivalent to normal banks. The management of a number of societies still felt that they were unable to compete with the banks, and a new Building Societies Act was passed in 1986 in response to their concerns. This permitted societies to 'demutualise'. If more than 75% of members voted in favour, the building society would then become a limited company like any other. Members' mutual rights were exchanged for shares in this new company. A number of the larger societies made such proposals to their members and all were accepted. Some listed on the London Stock Exchange, while others were acquired by larger financial groups.
The process began with the demutualisation of the Abbey National Building Society in 1989. Then, from 1995 to late 1999, eight societies demutualised accounting for two-thirds of building societies assets as at 1994. Five of these societies became joint stock banks (plc), one merged with another and the other four were taken over by plcs (in two cases after the mutual had previously converted to a plc).
As mentions, demutualisation moves succeeded immediately because neither Conservative nor Labour party UK governments created a framework which put obstacles in the way of demutualisation. Political acquiescence in demutualisation was clearest in the case of the position on 'carpetbaggers', that is those who joined societies by lodging minimum amounts of £100 or so in the hope of profiting from a distribution of surplus after demutualisation. The deregulating Building Societies Act 1986 contained an anti-carpetbagger provision in the form of a two-year rule. This prescribed a qualifying period of two years before savers could participate in a residual claim. But, before the 1989 Abbey National Building Society demutualisation, the courts found against the two-year rule after legal action brought by Abbey National itself to circumvent the intent of the legislators. After this the legislation did prevent a cash distribution to members of less than two years standing, but the same result was obtained by permitting the issue of 'free' shares in the acquiring plc, saleable for cash. The Thatcher Conservative government declined to introduce amending legislation to make good the defect in the 'two-year rule'.
1980s and 1990s
Building societies, like mutual life insurers, arose as people clubbed together to address a common need interest; in the case of the building societies, this was housing and members were originally both savers and borrowers. But it very quickly became clear that 'outsider' savers were needed whose motive was profit through interest on deposits. Thus permanent building societies quickly became mortgage banks and in such institutions there always existed a conflict of interest between borrowers and savers. It was the task of the movement to reconcile that conflict of interest so as to enable savers to conclude that their interests and those of borrowers were to some extent complementary rather than conflictive. Conflict of interest between savers and borrowers was never fully reconciled in the building societies but upon deregulation that reconciliation became something of a lost cause. The management of building societies apparently could expend considerable time and resources (which belonged the organisation) planning their effective capture—of as much of the assets as they could. If so, this is arguably insider dealing on a grand scale with the benefit of inside specialist knowledge of the business and resources of the firm not shared with outsiders like politicians and members (and, perhaps, regulators). Once the opportunity to claim was presented by management the savers in particular could be relied upon to seize it. There were sufficient hard-up borrowers to take the inducement offered them by management (in spite of few simple sums sufficing to demonstrate that they were probably going to end up effectively paying back the inducement).
Management promoting demutualisation also thereby met managerial objectives because the end of mutuality brought joint stock company (plc) style remuneration committee pay standards and share options. Share options for management of converting societies appear to be a powerful factor in management calculation. refers to this in the following terms:
Instead of deploying their margin advantage as a defence of mutuality, around 1980 building societies began setting mortgage rates with reference to market clearing levels. In sum they began behaving more like banks, seeking to maximise profit instead of the advantages of a mutual organisation. Thus, according to the Bank of England's :
As also observe:
draws a rather more direct and cynical conclusion:
Some of these managements ended up in dispute with their own members. Of the first major conversion of the Abbey in 1989, observed:
In the end, after a number of large demutualisations, and pressure from carpetbaggers moving from one building society to another to cream off the windfalls, most of the societies whose management wished to keep them mutual modified their rules of membership in the late 1990s. The method usually adopted were membership rules to ensure that anyone newly joining a society would, for the first few years, be unable to get any profit out of a demutualisation. With the chance of a quick profit removed, the wave of demutualisations came to an end in 2000.
One academic study found that demutualised societies' pricing behaviour on deposits and mortgages was more favourable to shareholders than to customers, with the remaining mutual building societies offering consistently better rates.
2000s and 2010s
The Building Societies (Funding) and Mutual Societies (Transfers) Act 2007, known as the Butterfill Act, was passed in 2007 giving building societies greater powers to merge with other companies. These powers have been used by the Britannia in 2009 and Kent Reliance in 2011 leading to their demutualisation.
Prior to 31 December 2010, deposits with building societies of up to £50,000 per individual, per institution, were normally protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), but Nationwide and Yorkshire building societies negotiated a temporary change to the terms of the FSCS to protect members of the societies they acquired in late 2008/early 2009. The amended terms allowed former members of multiple societies which merge into one to maintain multiple entitlements to FSCS protection until 30 September 2009 (later extended to 30 December 2010), so (for example) a member with £50,000 in each of Nationwide, Cheshire and Derbyshire at the time of the respective mergers would retain £150,000 of FSCS protection for their funds in the merged Nationwide. On 31 December 2010 the general FSCS limit for retail deposits was increased to £85,000 for banks and building societies and the transitional arrangements in respect of building society mergers came to an end.
List of building societies
United Kingdom
Current
As of July 2023, there are 42 independent building societies, all of which are members of the Building Societies Association.
Demutualised
Ten building societies of the United Kingdom demutualised between 1989 and 2000, either becoming a bank or being acquired by a larger bank. By 2008, every building society that floated on the stock market in the wave of demutualisations of the 1980s and 1990s had either been sold to a conventional bank, or been nationalised.
No longer exist
The following is an incomplete list of building societies in the United Kingdom that no longer exist independently, since they either merged with or were taken over by other organisations. They may still have an active presence on the high street (or online) as a trading name or as a distinct brand. This is typically because brands will often build up specific reputations and attract certain clientele, and this can continue to be marketed successfully.
Australia
In Australia, building societies evolved along British lines. Following the end of World War II, the terminating model was revived to fund returning servicemen's need for new houses. Hundreds were created with government seed capital, whereby the capital was returned to the government and the terminating societies retained the interest accumulated. Once all the seed funds were loaned, each terminating society could reapply for more seed capital to the point where they could re-lend their own funds and thus became a permanent society. Terminating loans were still available and used inside the permanent businesses by staff up until the 1980s because their existence was not widely known after the early 1960s. Because of strict regulations on banks, building societies flourished until the deregulation of the Australian financial industry in the 1980s. Eventually many of the smaller building societies disappeared, while some of the largest (such as St. George) officially attained the status of banks. Recent conversions have included Heritage Bank which converted from building society to bank in 2011, Hume in 2014, while Wide Bay Building Society became Auswide Bank and IMB followed suit in 2015, and Greater Building Society became Greater Bank in 2016. Building societies converting to banks are no longer required to demutualise.
A particular difference between Australian building societies and those elsewhere, is that Australian building societies are required to incorporate as limited companies.
Current building societies are
Bass & Equitable Building Society (Tasmania)
Maitland Mutual Building Society (Maitland)
Eswatini
The Building Societies Act of 1962 allowed for the registration of building societies in Eswatini. For a long time the country only had one building society. A second was registered in late 2019.
Swaziland Building Society: Registered in the 1960s, this is the first and oldest building society in Eswatini. It has branches in almost every town and city within the Kingdom and has been known to be conservative. There have been many rumours of this institution wishing to demutualise to the extent that an amendment to the Building Societies Act was passed in 2019 permitting building societies to demutualise and apply for banking licences.
Status Capital Building Society: Status Capital Building Society was registered as the country's second building society and granted a licence in 2019 by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority after approval and recommendation from the Minister of Finance.
Ireland
The Republic of Ireland had around 40 building societies at the mid-20th century peak. Many of these were very small and, as the Irish commercial banks began to originate residential mortgages, the small building societies ceased to be competitive. Most merged or dissolved or, in the case of First Active plc, converted into conventional banks. The last remaining building societies, EBS Building Society and Irish Nationwide Building Society, demutualised and were transferred or acquired into Bank subsidiaries in 2011 following the effects of the Irish financial crisis.
Leeds Building Society Ireland and Nationwide UK (Ireland) were Irish branches of a building societies based in the United Kingdom; both have since ceased all Irish operations.
Between 1970 and early 2010's most towns had agents for them.
Society closures
Ballygall Building Society, 1977
City and Provincial Building Society, 1978
Dublin Model Building Society, 1984
Dublin Savings Building Society, 1977
Four Provinces Building Society, 1978
Independent Building Society, 1977
Irish Savings Building Society, 1984
National Provincial Building Society, 1977
Progressive Building Society, 1977
West of Ireland Building Society, 1977
Jamaica
In Jamaica, three building societies compete with commercial banks and credit unions for most consumer financial services:
Jamaica National Building Society
Victoria Mutual Building Society
Scotia Jamaica Building Society
New Zealand
Regulation
In New Zealand, building societies are registered with the Registrar of Building Societies under the Building Societies Act 1965. Registration as a building society is merely a process of establishing the entity as a corporation. It is largely a formality, and easily achieved, as the capital requirement is minimal (20 members must be issued shares of not less than NZ$1,000 each, for a total minimum foundation share capital of NZ$200,000).
As regards prudential supervision, a divide exists between building societies that operate in New Zealand, on the one hand, and those that (although formally registered in New Zealand) operate offshore:
Building societies that accept deposits from members of the public in New Zealand are regulated as "non-bank deposit takers" under the Non-bank Deposit Takers Act 2013. Such building societies must (unless they qualify for a particular exemption) comply with the prudential regulations. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand monitors compliance with the prudential regulations, but does not prudentially supervise individual building societies for financial soundness. Most such building societies are supervised for compliance with the terms of their debt securities by trustees appointed under securities legislation, and those trustees have various reporting requirements to the Reserve Bank.
Building societies that accept deposits only from offshore customers are not regulated under the Non-bank Deposit Takers Act 2013 or New Zealand's financial markets legislation. Consequently, they are not prudentially monitored by the Reserve Bank or by the Financial Markets Authority. The Reserve Bank cautions on its website that it does not monitor transactions undertaken by New Zealand registered building societies operating in overseas markets. The Department of Internal Affairs is ultimately responsible for all entities that do not expressly fall into other categories for anti money laundering purposes.
Building societies' registration details and filed documents are available in the Register of Building Societies held at the New Zealand Companies Office.
Individual building societies
Over the years, a number of building societies were established.
Some, including Countrywide Building Society and United Building Society, became banks in the 1980s and 1990s. Heartland Building Society (created in 2011 through a merger of Canterbury Building Society, Southern Cross Building Society, and two other financial institutions) became Heartland Bank on 17 December 2012.
Remaining building societies include:
Pacific Eagle Capital (formerly General Equity Building Society)
Heretaunga Building Society
Kiwi Deposit Building Society (in the process of dissolution since 2013)
Manawatu Permanent Building Society
Nelson Building Society
Southland Building Society, which in October 2008 became a registered bank known as SBS Bank. However, it remains a building society and retains its mutual structure.
Hastings Building Society merged with SBS Bank in October 2010, but with the Hastings Building Society brand continuing to operate as a building society under the name of HBS Bank. In November 2015, HBS Bank brand was discontinued.
Wairarapa Building Society.
Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe, Central Africa Building Society (CABS) is the leading building society offering a diverse range of financial products and services that include transaction and savings accounts, mobile banking, mortgage loans, money market investments, term deposits and pay-roll loans.
Similar organisations in other countries
In other countries there are mutual organisations similar to building societies:
Austria: In Austria there are four co-operative banks: Allgemeine Bausparkasse (ABV), Raiffeisen-Bausparkasse, Bausparkasse Wüstenrot AG and Bausparkasse der Sparkassen (savings bank).
Finland: In Finland the Mortgage Society of Finland, a permanent building society, was founded in 1860. Since 2002 mortgage loans are handled by Suomen AsuntoHypoPankki, the licensed bank owned by the society.
Germany: In Germany there are 8 Bausparkassen of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe named Landesbausparkassen (LBS) and 12 private Bausparkassen, for example Schwäbisch Hall, Wüstenrot, Deutsche Bank Bauspar AG and so on.
United States: In the United States, savings and loan associations, as well as credit unions, have a similar organisation and purpose.
Other: See Cooperative banking.
Operational differences from banks
Roll numbers
Because most building societies were not direct members of the UK clearing system, it was common for them to use a roll number to identify accounts rather than to allocate a six-digit sort-code and eight-digit account number to the BACS standards.
More recently, building societies have tended to obtain sort-code and account number allocations within the clearing system, and hence the use of roll numbers has diminished. When using BACS, one needs to enter roll numbers for the reference field and the building society's generic sort code and account number would be entered in the standard BACS fields.
See also
Banking in the United Kingdom
Mutual organisation
Mutualism
References
Further reading |
4778 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch%20Davidians | Branch Davidians | The Branch Davidians (or the General Association of Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists) are an apocalyptic cult founded in 1955 by Benjamin Roden. They regard themselves as a continuation of the General Association of Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists, established by Victor Houteff in 1935.
Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant and a Seventh-day Adventist, wrote a series of tracts titled the "Shepherd's Rod", which called for the reform of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. After his ideas were rejected by Adventist leaders, Houteff and his followers formed the group that later became known as "Davidians" and some of them moved onto a tract of land outside and west of Waco, Texas, United States, where they built a community called the Mount Carmel Center, which served as the headquarters for the movement. After Houteff's death in 1955, his wife Florence took control of the Davidian organization. That same year, Roden (a follower of Houteff), proclaimed what he believed to be a new message from God and wrote a series of letters presenting it to Davidians. He signed these letters "The Branch" believing that to be the new name Jesus had taken (according to biblical prophecies such as Revelation 3:12 and Zechariah 6:12-13) to reflect a new stage of his work in the heavenly sanctuary. Those who accepted Roden's teachings became known as Branch Davidians Seventh Day Adventists.
In 1957, Florence sold the original Mount Carmel Center and purchased 941 acres near Elk, Texas – thirteen miles northeast of Waco – naming the property New Mount Carmel Center. After the failure of Florence's prophecy of apocalyptic events on or near April 22, 1959, she dissolved the Davidian Association in 1962 and sold all but 77.86 acres of the New Mount Carmel property. Roden took possession of New Mount Carmel in 1962 and began his efforts to purchase the remaining 77.86 acres. On February 27, 1973, New Mount Carmel was sold to "Benjamin Roden, Lois Roden, and their son George Roden, Trustees for the General Association of Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists." From this point on, the property was simply known as Mount Carmel. Upon the death of Roden in 1978, his wife Lois became the next Davidian prophet at the compound.
In 1981, a young man named Vernon Howell, later known as David Koresh, came to New Mount Carmel and studied biblical prophecy under Lois Roden. By the end of 1983, Howell had gained a group of followers and they separated from the Lois's organization to form a new organization by the name "The Davidian Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Association." Meanwhile, Lois continued to operate the Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Association from Mt. Carmel Center near Waco. It is notable that Howell's group and the Branch Davidians (Lois's group) were two separate organizations with different leaders and different names operating from different locations from 1983 forward. It was not until 1987, after Lois had died, that Howell filed a document claiming to be the president of the Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Association (even though he had been leading a competing group for several years). Also in 1987, Koresh and some of his followers went to Mt. Carmel center and engaged in a shootout with George Roden that eventually resulted in Koresh's group occupying the land. The actions of Koresh and his followers in 1987 (taking the name and property of the Branch Davidian SDA organization) are regarded by Branch Davidians who remained loyal to Lois Roden as an act of identity theft against them. Koresh's leadership of his group ended at the climax of the Waco siege of 1993, a 51-day standoff between members of the sect and federal agents, when New Mount Carmel was destroyed in a fire. Four agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and two residents of Mt. Carmel were killed by members of the sect during the initial raid, while four sect members were killed by ATF agents on February 28, 1993. Seventy-six members of Koresh's group, many of them children, died in a fire that erupted during the siege on April 19, 1993.
Early history
In 1929, Victor Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant and a Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath School teacher from southern California, claimed that he had a new message for the entire Adventist church. He presented his views in a book, The Shepherd's Rod: The 144,000 – A Call for Reformation. The Adventist leadership rejected Houteff's views as contrary to the church's basic teachings, and local church congregations disfellowshipped Houteff and his followers.
In 1934, Houteff established his headquarters to the west of Waco, Texas, and his group became known as the Davidians. In 1942, he renamed the group the General Association of Davidian Seventh-day Adventists 'Davidian' which indicated its belief in the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom of Israel. Following Houteff's death in 1955, his wife Florence usurped the leadership believing herself to be a prophet. Convinced that an apocalypse would occur in 1959, a date which is not found in her husband's original writings, Florence and her council gathered hundreds of their faithful followers at the Mount Carmel Center, the group's compound which was located near Waco, for the fulfillment of the prophecy which is written in Ezekiel 9.
The anticipated events did not occur, and following this disappointment, Benjamin Roden formed another group which he called the Branch Davidians and succeeded in taking control of Mount Carmel. The name of this group is an allusion to the anointed 'Branch' (mentioned in Zechariah 3:8; 6:12). When Benjamin Roden died in 1978, he was succeeded by his wife Lois Roden. Members of the Branch Davidians were torn between allegiance to Ben's wife or to his son, George. After Lois died, George assumed the right to the Presidency. However, less than a year later, Vernon Howell rose to power and became the leader over those in the group who sympathized with him.
Rise of David Koresh
Howell's arrival at Mount Carmel in 1981 was well received by nearly everyone at the Davidian commune. He had engaged in an affair with Lois Roden while he was in his early 20s and she was in her late 60s. Howell wanted to father a child with her, who, according to his understanding, would be the Chosen One. When she died, George Roden inherited the positions of prophet and leader of the sect. A power struggle ensued between Roden and Howell, who soon gained the loyalty of the majority of the Davidians. In 1984, Howell and his followers left Mount Carmel (Roden accused Howell of starting a fire that consumed a $500,000 administration building and press), which Roden subsequently renamed "Rodenville". Another splinter group, led by Charlie Pace, also left, and settled in Alabama.
As an attempt to regain support, Roden challenged Howell to raise the dead, going so far as to exhume the corpse of a two-decades deceased Davidian in order to demonstrate his spiritual supremacy (Roden denied this, saying he had only been moving the community cemetery). This illegal act gave Howell an opportunity to attempt to file charges against Roden, but he was told that he needed evidence in order to substantiate the charges. On November 3, 1987, Howell and seven of his followers raided Mount Carmel, equipped with five .223 caliber semi-automatic rifles, two .22 caliber rifles, two 12-gauge shotguns and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition, in an apparent attempt to retake the compound. Although Howell's group claimed that it was trying to obtain evidence of Roden's illegal activities, its members did not take a camera with them.
The trial ended with the jury finding Howell's followers not guilty, but the jury members were unable to agree on a verdict for Howell himself. After his followers were acquitted, Howell invited the prosecutors to Mount Carmel for ice cream.
It is claimed that Howell was never authorized to name his breakaway sect the "Branch Davidians", and the church which bears that name continues to represent the members of the Branch church who did not follow him.
As a spiritual leader
Howell, who acquired the position of spiritual leader from Roden, asserted it by changing his name to David Koresh, suggesting that he had ties to the biblical King David and Cyrus the Great (Koresh is the Hebrew version of the name Cyrus). He wanted to create a new lineage of world leaders. This practice later served as the basis for allegations that Koresh was committing child abuse, which contributed to the siege by the ATF.
Interpreting Revelation 5:2, Koresh identified himself with the Lamb mentioned therein. This is traditionally believed to symbolize Jesus Christ; however, Koresh suggested that the Lamb would come before Jesus and pave the way for his Second Coming.
By the time of the 1993 Waco siege, Koresh had encouraged his followers to think of themselves as "students of the Seven Seals," rather than as "Branch Davidians." During the standoff, one of his followers publicly announced that he wanted them to thereafter be identified by the name "Koreshians".
Federal siege
On February 28, 1993, at 4:20 am, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant relating to alleged sexual abuse charges and illegal weapons violations. The ATF attempted to breach the compound for approximately two hours until their ammunition ran low. Four ATF agents (Steve Willis, Robert Williams, Todd McKeehan, and Conway Charles LeBleu) were killed and another 16 agents were wounded during the raid. The five Branch Davidians killed in the 9:45 am raid were Winston Blake (British), Peter Gent (Australian), Peter Hipsman, Perry Jones, and Jaydean Wendell; two were killed by the Branch Davidians. Almost six hours after the ceasefire, Michael Schroeder was shot dead by ATF agents who alleged he fired a pistol at agents as he attempted to re-enter the compound with Woodrow Kendrick and Norman Allison. His wife said he was merely returning from work and had not participated in the day's earlier altercation.
After the raid, ATF agents established contact with Koresh and others inside of the compound. The FBI took command after the deaths of federal agents, and managed to facilitate the release of 19 children (without their parents) relatively early into the negotiations. The children were then interviewed by the FBI and the Texas Rangers.
On April 19, 1993, the FBI moved for a final siege of the compound using large weaponry such as .50 caliber (12.7 mm) rifles and armored combat engineering vehicles (CEV) to combat the heavily armed Branch Davidians. The FBI attempted to use tear gas to flush out the Branch Davidians. Officially, FBI agents were only permitted to return any incoming fire, not to actively assault the Branch Davidians. When several Branch Davidians opened fire, the FBI's response was to increase the amount of gas being used. Around noon, three fires broke out simultaneously in different parts of the building. The government maintains that the fires were deliberately started by Branch Davidians. Some Branch Davidian survivors maintain that the fires were started either accidentally or deliberately by the assault. Of the 85 Branch Davidians in the compound when the final siege began, 76 died on April 19 in various ways, from falling rubble to suffocating effects of the fire, or by gunshot from fellow Branch Davidians. The siege had lasted 51 days.
Aftermath
In all, four ATF agents were killed, 16 were wounded, and six Branch Davidians died in the initial raid on February 28. 76 more died in the final assault on April 19. The events at Waco spurred criminal prosecution and civil litigation. A federal grand jury indicted 12 of the surviving Branch Davidians – including Clive Doyle, Brad Branch, Ruth Riddle, and Livingstone Fagan – charging them with aiding and abetting in murder of federal officers, and unlawful possession and use of various firearms. Eight Branch Davidians were convicted on firearms charges, five convicted of voluntary manslaughter, and four were acquitted of all charges. As of July 2007, all Branch Davidians had been released from prison.
Civil suits were brought against the United States government, federal officials, former governor of Texas Ann Richards, and members of the Texas Army National Guard. The bulk of these claims were dismissed because they were insufficient as a matter of law or because the plaintiffs could advance no material evidence in support of them. One case, Andrade v. Chojnacki, made it to the Fifth Circuit, which upheld a previous ruling of "take-nothing, denied".
After the siege
There are several groups that claim descent from the Branch Davidians today. The group that retains the original name "Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventist" regards Lois Roden's immediate successor to have been Doug Mitchell (who joined the Branch Davidians in 1978 and led the group from 1986 until his death in 2013) and Mitchell's successor was to be Trent Wilde (who has led the group since 2013). This group never followed David Koresh.
Another group exists under the leadership of Charles Pace, called The Branch, The Lord Our Righteousness. It is a legally recognized denomination with 12 members. Pace, while regarding Koresh as appointed by God, says that Koresh twisted the Bible's teachings by fathering more than a dozen children with members' wives. Pace believes that the Lord "has anointed me and appointed me to be the leader", but he says he is "not a prophet" but "a teacher of righteousness". Others, once led by Clive Doyle, continue to believe Koresh was a prophet and await his resurrection, along with the followers who were killed. Both of these groups are still waiting for the end of times. Doyle died in June 2022.
Relationship with Seventh-Day Adventists
The Seventh-day Adventist Church, the main church in the Adventist tradition, rejected Victor Houteff's teachings and revoked his membership in 1930.
Houteff then went on to found the Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Church (an offshoot which is also known as the Shepherd's Rod). The Branch Davidians are an offshoot of the Davidians and they are also a product of a schism which was initiated by Benjamin Roden, after Houteff's death and in light of Florence's (Houteff's wife) usurpation of power.
Florence believed that she was a prophet. But her prediction of the demise of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which according to her should have occurred 42 months after Houteff's death (1959) failed to materialize. Likewise, Ben Roden believed that he was a prophet as well as a rightful heir to the leadership of the Davidians.
While they were still formally members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Branch Davidian leaders demanded a reform of the church and when their demand was met with opposition (by both the Seventh-day Adventists and the Davidians), they decided to leave that denomination and at the same time, they widely distanced themselves from the Davidians.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church deprived both the Branch Davidians and the Davidians of their membership in the denomination, in spite of this fact, the Branch Davidians actively continued to "hunt" members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and encourage them to leave it and join their group. The Seventh-day Adventists were reportedly "apprehensive" about the group's views because Branch Davidians claimed that they were the "only rightful continuation of the Adventist message", based on their belief that Victor Houteff was the divinely selected prophet and the successor of Ellen G. White. Both the Davidians and the Branch Davidians claimed that Houteff was their spiritual inspiration, as the founder of the Davidians. The Seventh-day Adventist Church issued warnings about the Branch Davidian sect's views to its members on a regular basis.
Schisms within the Branch Davidian sect
There is documented evidence (FBI negotiation transcripts, during the standoff, with Kathryn Shroeder and Steve Schneider with interjections from Koresh himself) that David Koresh and his followers did not call themselves Branch Davidians. In addition, David Koresh, through forgery, stole the identity of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists for the purpose of obtaining the New Mount Carmel Center's property.
See also
Alamo Christian Foundation
Apocalypticism
British Israelism
Christian fundamentalism
Christian Zionism
Christianity and Judaism
Christianity and violence
Cult
Judaizers
Judeo-Christian
List of Christian denominations
List of messiah claimants
List of cults
List of people claimed to be Jesus
List of Seventh-day Adventists
Millenarianism
Philo-Semitism
Polygamy in Christianity
Polygamy in North America
Religious abuse
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4781 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine | Benzodiazepine | Benzodiazepines (BZD, BDZ, BZs), colloquially called "benzos", are a class of depressant drugs whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring. They are prescribed to treat conditions such as anxiety disorders, insomnia, and seizures. The first benzodiazepine, chlordiazepoxide (Librium), was discovered accidentally by Leo Sternbach in 1955 and was made available in 1960 by Hoffmann–La Roche, who soon followed with diazepam (Valium) in 1963. By 1977, benzodiazepines were the most prescribed medications globally; the introduction of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), among other factors, decreased rates of prescription, but they remain frequently used worldwide.
Benzodiazepines are depressants that enhance the effect of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) at the GABAA receptor, resulting in sedative, hypnotic (sleep-inducing), anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant properties. High doses of many shorter-acting benzodiazepines may also cause anterograde amnesia and dissociation. These properties make benzodiazepines useful in treating anxiety, panic disorder, insomnia, agitation, seizures, muscle spasms, alcohol withdrawal and as a premedication for medical or dental procedures. Benzodiazepines are categorized as short, intermediate, or long-acting. Short- and intermediate-acting benzodiazepines are preferred for the treatment of insomnia; longer-acting benzodiazepines are recommended for the treatment of anxiety.
Benzodiazepines are generally viewed as safe and effective for short-term use—about two to four weeks—although cognitive impairment and paradoxical effects such as aggression or behavioral disinhibition can occur. A minority of people have paradoxical reactions after taking benzodiazepines such as worsened agitation or panic. Benzodiazepines are associated with an increased risk of suicide due to aggression, impulsivity, and negative withdrawal effects. Long-term use is controversial because of concerns about decreasing effectiveness, physical dependence, benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome, and an increased risk of dementia and cancer. The elderly are at an increased risk of both short- and long-term adverse effects, and as a result, all benzodiazepines are listed in the Beers List of inappropriate medications for older adults. There is controversy concerning the safety of benzodiazepines in pregnancy. While they are not major teratogens, uncertainty remains as to whether they cause cleft palate in a small number of babies and whether neurobehavioural effects occur as a result of prenatal exposure; they are known to cause withdrawal symptoms in the newborn.
Taken in overdose, benzodiazepines can cause dangerous deep unconsciousness, but they are less toxic than their predecessors, the barbiturates, and death rarely results when a benzodiazepine is the only drug taken. Combined with other central nervous system (CNS) depressants such as alcohol and opioids, the potential for toxicity and fatal overdose increases significantly. Benzodiazepines are commonly used recreationally and also often taken in combination with other addictive substances, and are controlled in most countries.
Medical uses
Benzodiazepines possess psycholeptic, sedative, hypnotic, anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, muscle relaxant, and amnesic actions, which are useful in a variety of indications such as alcohol dependence, seizures, anxiety disorders, panic, agitation, and insomnia. Most are administered orally; however, they can also be given intravenously, intramuscularly, or rectally. In general, benzodiazepines are well tolerated and are safe and effective drugs in the short term for a wide range of conditions. Tolerance can develop to their effects and there is also a risk of dependence, and upon discontinuation a withdrawal syndrome may occur. These factors, combined with other possible secondary effects after prolonged use such as psychomotor, cognitive, or memory impairments, limit their long-term applicability. The effects of long-term use or misuse include the tendency to cause or worsen cognitive deficits, depression, and anxiety. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia recommends discontinuing the usage of benzodiazepines in those on opioids and those who have used them long term. Benzodiazepines can have serious adverse health outcomes, and these findings support clinical and regulatory efforts to reduce usage, especially in combination with non-benzodiazepine receptor agonists.
Panic disorder
Because of their effectiveness, tolerability, and rapid onset of anxiolytic action, benzodiazepines are frequently used for the treatment of anxiety associated with panic disorder. However, there is disagreement among expert bodies regarding the long-term use of benzodiazepines for panic disorder. The views range from those holding benzodiazepines are not effective long-term and should be reserved for treatment-resistant cases to those holding they are as effective in the long term as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) guidelines note that, in general, benzodiazepines are well tolerated, and their use for the initial treatment for panic disorder is strongly supported by numerous controlled trials. APA states that there is insufficient evidence to recommend any of the established panic disorder treatments over another. The choice of treatment between benzodiazepines, SSRIs, serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), tricyclic antidepressants, and psychotherapy should be based on the patient's history, preference, and other individual characteristics. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are likely to be the best choice of pharmacotherapy for many patients with panic disorder, but benzodiazepines are also often used, and some studies suggest that these medications are still used with greater frequency than the SSRIs. One advantage of benzodiazepines is that they alleviate the anxiety symptoms much faster than antidepressants, and therefore may be preferred in patients for whom rapid symptom control is critical. However, this advantage is offset by the possibility of developing benzodiazepine dependence. APA does not recommend benzodiazepines for persons with depressive symptoms or a recent history of substance use disorder. The APA guidelines state that, in general, pharmacotherapy of panic disorder should be continued for at least a year, and that clinical experience supports continuing benzodiazepine treatment to prevent recurrence. Although major concerns about benzodiazepine tolerance and withdrawal have been raised, there is no evidence for significant dose escalation in patients using benzodiazepines long-term. For many such patients, stable doses of benzodiazepines retain their efficacy over several years.
Guidelines issued by the UK-based National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), carried out a systematic review using different methodology and came to a different conclusion. They questioned the accuracy of studies that were not placebo-controlled. And, based on the findings of placebo-controlled studies, they do not recommend use of benzodiazepines beyond two to four weeks, as tolerance and physical dependence develop rapidly, with withdrawal symptoms including rebound anxiety occurring after six weeks or more of use. Nevertheless, benzodiazepines are still prescribed for long-term treatment of anxiety disorders, although specific antidepressants and psychological therapies are recommended as the first-line treatment options with the anticonvulsant drug pregabalin indicated as a second- or third-line treatment and suitable for long-term use. NICE stated that long-term use of benzodiazepines for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia is an unlicensed indication, does not have long-term efficacy, and is, therefore, not recommended by clinical guidelines. Psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy are recommended as a first-line therapy for panic disorder; benzodiazepine use has been found to interfere with therapeutic gains from these therapies.
Benzodiazepines are usually administered orally; however, very occasionally lorazepam or diazepam may be given intravenously for the treatment of panic attacks.
Generalized anxiety disorder
Benzodiazepines have robust efficacy in the short-term management of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), but were not shown effective in producing long-term improvement overall. According to National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), benzodiazepines can be used in the immediate management of GAD, if necessary. However, they should not usually be given for longer than 2–4 weeks. The only medications NICE recommends for the longer term management of GAD are antidepressants.
Likewise, Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA) recommends benzodiazepines alprazolam, bromazepam, lorazepam, and diazepam only as a second-line choice, if the treatment with two different antidepressants was unsuccessful. Although they are second-line agents, benzodiazepines can be used for a limited time to relieve severe anxiety and agitation. CPA guidelines note that after 4–6 weeks the effect of benzodiazepines may decrease to the level of placebo, and that benzodiazepines are less effective than antidepressants in alleviating ruminative worry, the core symptom of GAD. However, in some cases, a prolonged treatment with benzodiazepines as the add-on to an antidepressant may be justified.
A 2015 review found a larger effect with medications than talk therapy. Medications with benefit include serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, benzodiazepines, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
Anxiety
Benzodiazepines are sometimes used in the treatment of acute anxiety, as they bring about rapid and marked relief of symptoms in most individuals; however, they are not recommended beyond 2–4 weeks of use due to risks of tolerance and dependence and a lack of long-term effectiveness. As for insomnia, they may also be used on an irregular/"as-needed" basis, such as in cases where said anxiety is at its worst. Compared to other pharmacological treatments, benzodiazepines are twice as likely to lead to a relapse of the underlying condition upon discontinuation. Psychological therapies and other pharmacological therapies are recommended for the long-term treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. Antidepressants have higher remission rates and are, in general, safe and effective in the short and long term.
Insomnia
Benzodiazepines can be useful for short-term treatment of insomnia. Their use beyond 2 to 4 weeks is not recommended due to the risk of dependence. The Committee on Safety of Medicines report recommended that where long-term use of benzodiazepines for insomnia is indicated then treatment should be intermittent wherever possible. It is preferred that benzodiazepines be taken intermittently and at the lowest effective dose. They improve sleep-related problems by shortening the time spent in bed before falling asleep, prolonging the sleep time, and, in general, reducing wakefulness. However, they worsen sleep quality by increasing light sleep and decreasing deep sleep. Other drawbacks of hypnotics, including benzodiazepines, are possible tolerance to their effects, rebound insomnia, and reduced slow-wave sleep and a withdrawal period typified by rebound insomnia and a prolonged period of anxiety and agitation.
The list of benzodiazepines approved for the treatment of insomnia is fairly similar among most countries, but which benzodiazepines are officially designated as first-line hypnotics prescribed for the treatment of insomnia varies between countries. Longer-acting benzodiazepines such as nitrazepam and diazepam have residual effects that may persist into the next day and are, in general, not recommended.
Since the release of nonbenzodiazepines, also known as z-drugs, in 1992 in response to safety concerns, individuals with insomnia and other sleep disorders have increasingly been prescribed nonbenzodiazepines (2.3% in 1993 to 13.7% of Americans in 2010), less often prescribed benzodiazepines (23.5% in 1993 to 10.8% in 2010). It is not clear as to whether the new non benzodiazepine hypnotics (Z-drugs) are better than the short-acting benzodiazepines. The efficacy of these two groups of medications is similar. According to the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, indirect comparison indicates that side-effects from benzodiazepines may be about twice as frequent as from nonbenzodiazepines. Some experts suggest using nonbenzodiazepines preferentially as a first-line long-term treatment of insomnia. However, the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence did not find any convincing evidence in favor of Z-drugs. NICE review pointed out that short-acting Z-drugs were inappropriately compared in clinical trials with long-acting benzodiazepines. There have been no trials comparing short-acting Z-drugs with appropriate doses of short-acting benzodiazepines. Based on this, NICE recommended choosing the hypnotic based on cost and the patient's preference.
Older adults should not use benzodiazepines to treat insomnia unless other treatments have failed. When benzodiazepines are used, patients, their caretakers, and their physician should discuss the increased risk of harms, including evidence that shows twice the incidence of traffic collisions among driving patients, and falls and hip fracture for older patients.
Seizures
Prolonged convulsive epileptic seizures are a medical emergency that can usually be dealt with effectively by administering fast-acting benzodiazepines, which are potent anticonvulsants. In a hospital environment, intravenous clonazepam, lorazepam, and diazepam are first-line choices. In the community, intravenous administration is not practical and so rectal diazepam or buccal midazolam are used, with a preference for midazolam as its administration is easier and more socially acceptable.
When benzodiazepines were first introduced, they were enthusiastically adopted for treating all forms of epilepsy. However, drowsiness and tolerance become problems with continued use and none are now considered first-line choices for long-term epilepsy therapy. Clobazam is widely used by specialist epilepsy clinics worldwide and clonazepam is popular in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Clobazam was approved for use in the United States in 2011. In the UK, both clobazam and clonazepam are second-line choices for treating many forms of epilepsy. Clobazam also has a useful role for very short-term seizure prophylaxis and in catamenial epilepsy. Discontinuation after long-term use in epilepsy requires additional caution because of the risks of rebound seizures. Therefore, the dose is slowly tapered over a period of up to six months or longer.
Alcohol withdrawal
Chlordiazepoxide is the most commonly used benzodiazepine for alcohol detoxification, but diazepam may be used as an alternative. Both are used in the detoxification of individuals who are motivated to stop drinking, and are prescribed for a short period of time to reduce the risks of developing tolerance and dependence to the benzodiazepine medication itself. The benzodiazepines with a longer half-life make detoxification more tolerable, and dangerous (and potentially lethal) alcohol withdrawal effects are less likely to occur. On the other hand, short-acting benzodiazepines may lead to breakthrough seizures, and are, therefore, not recommended for detoxification in an outpatient setting. Oxazepam and lorazepam are often used in patients at risk of drug accumulation, in particular, the elderly and those with cirrhosis, because they are metabolized differently from other benzodiazepines, through conjugation.
Benzodiazepines are the preferred choice in the management of alcohol withdrawal syndrome, in particular, for the prevention and treatment of the dangerous complication of seizures and in subduing severe delirium. Lorazepam is the only benzodiazepine with predictable intramuscular absorption and it is the most effective in preventing and controlling acute seizures.
Other indications
Benzodiazepines are often prescribed for a wide range of conditions:
They can sedate patients receiving mechanical ventilation or those in extreme distress. Caution is exercised in this situation due to the risk of respiratory depression, and it is recommended that benzodiazepine overdose treatment facilities should be available. They have also been found to increase the likelihood of later PTSD after people have been removed from ventilators.
Benzodiazepines are indicated in the management of breathlessness (shortness of breath) in advanced diseases, in particular where other treatments have failed to adequately control symptoms.
Benzodiazepines are effective as medication given a couple of hours before surgery to relieve anxiety. They also produce amnesia, which can be useful, as patients may not remember unpleasantness from the procedure. They are also used in patients with dental phobia as well as some ophthalmic procedures like refractive surgery; although such use is controversial and only recommended for those who are very anxious. Midazolam is the most commonly prescribed for this use because of its strong sedative actions and fast recovery time, as well as its water solubility, which reduces pain upon injection. Diazepam and lorazepam are sometimes used. Lorazepam has particularly marked amnesic properties that may make it more effective when amnesia is the desired effect.
Benzodiazepines are well known for their strong muscle-relaxing properties and can be useful in the treatment of muscle spasms, although tolerance often develops to their muscle relaxant effects. Baclofen or tizanidine are sometimes used as an alternative to benzodiazepines. Tizanidine has been found to have superior tolerability compared to diazepam and baclofen.
Benzodiazepines are also used to treat the acute panic caused by hallucinogen intoxication. Benzodiazepines are also used to calm the acutely agitated individual and can, if required, be given via an intramuscular injection. They can sometimes be effective in the short-term treatment of psychiatric emergencies such as acute psychosis as in schizophrenia or mania, bringing about rapid tranquillization and sedation until the effects of lithium or neuroleptics (antipsychotics) take effect. Lorazepam is most commonly used but clonazepam is sometimes prescribed for acute psychosis or mania; their long-term use is not recommended due to risks of dependence. Further research investigating the use of benzodiazepines alone and in combination with antipsychotic medications for treating acute psychosis is warranted.
Clonazepam, a benzodiazepine is used to treat many forms of parasomnia. Rapid eye movement behavior disorder responds well to low doses of clonazepam. Restless legs syndrome can be treated using clonazepam as a third line treatment option as the use of clonazepam is still investigational.
Benzodiazepines are sometimes used for obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), although they are generally believed ineffective for this indication. Effectiveness was, however, found in one small study. Benzodiazepines can be considered as a treatment option in treatment resistant cases.
Antipsychotics are generally a first-line treatment for delirium; however, when delirium is caused by alcohol or sedative hypnotic withdrawal, benzodiazepines are a first-line treatment.
There is some evidence that low doses of benzodiazepines reduce adverse effects of electroconvulsive therapy.
Contraindications
Because of their muscle relaxant action, benzodiazepines may cause respiratory depression in susceptible individuals. For that reason, they are contraindicated in people with myasthenia gravis, sleep apnea, bronchitis, and COPD. Caution is required when benzodiazepines are used in people with personality disorders or intellectual disability because of frequent paradoxical reactions. In major depression, they may precipitate suicidal tendencies and are sometimes used for suicidal overdoses. Individuals with a history of excessive alcohol use or non-medical use of opioids or barbiturates should avoid benzodiazepines, as there is a risk of life-threatening interactions with these drugs.
Pregnancy
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has categorized benzodiazepines into either category D or X meaning potential for harm in the unborn has been demonstrated.
Exposure to benzodiazepines during pregnancy has been associated with a slightly increased (from 0.06 to 0.07%) risk of cleft palate in newborns, a controversial conclusion as some studies find no association between benzodiazepines and cleft palate. Their use by expectant mothers shortly before the delivery may result in a floppy infant syndrome. Newborns with this condition tend to have hypotonia, hypothermia, lethargy, and breathing and feeding difficulties. Cases of neonatal withdrawal syndrome have been described in infants chronically exposed to benzodiazepines in utero. This syndrome may be hard to recognize, as it starts several days after delivery, for example, as late as 21 days for chlordiazepoxide. The symptoms include tremors, hypertonia, hyperreflexia, hyperactivity, and vomiting and may last for up to three to six months. Tapering down the dose during pregnancy may lessen its severity. If used in pregnancy, those benzodiazepines with a better and longer safety record, such as diazepam or chlordiazepoxide, are recommended over potentially more harmful benzodiazepines, such as temazepam or triazolam. Using the lowest effective dose for the shortest period of time minimizes the risks to the unborn child.
Elderly
The benefits of benzodiazepines are least and the risks are greatest in the elderly. They are listed as a potentially inappropriate medication for older adults by the American Geriatrics Society. The elderly are at an increased risk of dependence and are more sensitive to the adverse effects such as memory problems, daytime sedation, impaired motor coordination, and increased risk of motor vehicle accidents and falls, and an increased risk of hip fractures. The long-term effects of benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine dependence in the elderly can resemble dementia, depression, or anxiety syndromes, and progressively worsens over time. Adverse effects on cognition can be mistaken for the effects of old age. The benefits of withdrawal include improved cognition, alertness, mobility, reduced risk incontinence, and a reduced risk of falls and fractures. The success of gradual-tapering benzodiazepines is as great in the elderly as in younger people. Benzodiazepines should be prescribed to the elderly only with caution and only for a short period at low doses. Short to intermediate-acting benzodiazepines are preferred in the elderly such as oxazepam and temazepam. The high potency benzodiazepines alprazolam and triazolam and long-acting benzodiazepines are not recommended in the elderly due to increased adverse effects. Nonbenzodiazepines such as zaleplon and zolpidem and low doses of sedating antidepressants are sometimes used as alternatives to benzodiazepines.
Long-term use of benzodiazepines is associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment and dementia, and reduction in prescribing levels is likely to reduce dementia risk. The association of a history of benzodiazepine use and cognitive decline is unclear, with some studies reporting a lower risk of cognitive decline in former users, some finding no association and some indicating an increased risk of cognitive decline.
Benzodiazepines are sometimes prescribed to treat behavioral symptoms of dementia. However, like antidepressants, they have little evidence of effectiveness, although antipsychotics have shown some benefit. Cognitive impairing effects of benzodiazepines that occur frequently in the elderly can also worsen dementia.
Adverse effects
The most common side-effects of benzodiazepines are related to their sedating and muscle-relaxing action. They include drowsiness, dizziness, and decreased alertness and concentration. Lack of coordination may result in falls and injuries, in particular, in the elderly. Another result is impairment of driving skills and increased likelihood of road traffic accidents. Decreased libido and erection problems are a common side effect. Depression and disinhibition may emerge. Hypotension and suppressed breathing (hypoventilation) may be encountered with intravenous use. Less common side effects include nausea and changes in appetite, blurred vision, confusion, euphoria, depersonalization and nightmares. Cases of liver toxicity have been described but are very rare.
The long-term effects of benzodiazepine use can include cognitive impairment as well as affective and behavioural problems. Feelings of turmoil, difficulty in thinking constructively, loss of sex-drive, agoraphobia and social phobia, increasing anxiety and depression, loss of interest in leisure pursuits and interests, and an inability to experience or express feelings can also occur. Not everyone, however, experiences problems with long-term use. Additionally, an altered perception of self, environment and relationships may occur. A study published in 2020 found that long-term use of prescription benzodiazepines is associated with an increase in all-cause mortality among those age 65 or younger, but not those older than 65. The study also found that all-cause mortality was increased further in cases in which benzodiazepines are co-prescribed with opioids, relative to cases in which benzodiazepines are prescribed without opioids, but again only in those age 65 or younger.
Compared to other sedative-hypnotics, visits to the hospital involving benzodiazepines had a 66% greater odds of a serious adverse health outcome. This included hospitalization, patient transfer, or death, and visits involving a combination of benzodiazepines and non-benzodiapine receptor agonists had almost four-times increased odds of a serious health outcome.
In September 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required the boxed warning be updated for all benzodiazepine medicines to describe the risks of abuse, misuse, addiction, physical dependence, and withdrawal reactions consistently across all the medicines in the class.
Cognitive effects
The short-term use of benzodiazepines adversely affects multiple areas of cognition, the most notable one being that it interferes with the formation and consolidation of memories of new material and may induce complete anterograde amnesia. However, researchers hold contrary opinions regarding the effects of long-term administration. One view is that many of the short-term effects continue into the long-term and may even worsen, and are not resolved after stopping benzodiazepine usage. Another view maintains that cognitive deficits in chronic benzodiazepine users occur only for a short period after the dose, or that the anxiety disorder is the cause of these deficits.
While the definitive studies are lacking, the former view received support from a 2004 meta-analysis of 13 small studies. This meta-analysis found that long-term use of benzodiazepines was associated with moderate to large adverse effects on all areas of cognition, with visuospatial memory being the most commonly detected impairment. Some of the other impairments reported were decreased IQ, visiomotor coordination, information processing, verbal learning and concentration. The authors of the meta-analysis and a later reviewer noted that the applicability of this meta-analysis is limited because the subjects were taken mostly from withdrawal clinics; the coexisting drug, alcohol use, and psychiatric disorders were not defined; and several of the included studies conducted the cognitive measurements during the withdrawal period.
Paradoxical effects
Paradoxical reactions, such as increased seizures in epileptics, aggression, violence, impulsivity, irritability and suicidal behavior sometimes occur. These reactions have been explained as consequences of disinhibition and the subsequent loss of control over socially unacceptable behavior. Paradoxical reactions are rare in the general population, with an incidence rate below 1% and similar to placebo. However, they occur with greater frequency in recreational abusers, individuals with borderline personality disorder, children, and patients on high-dosage regimes. In these groups, impulse control problems are perhaps the most important risk factor for disinhibition; learning disabilities and neurological disorders are also significant risks. Most reports of disinhibition involve high doses of high-potency benzodiazepines. Paradoxical effects may also appear after chronic use of benzodiazepines.
Long-term worsening of psychiatric symptoms
While benzodiazepines may have short-term benefits for anxiety, sleep and agitation in some patients, long-term (i.e., greater than 2–4 weeks) use can result in a worsening of the very symptoms the medications are meant to treat. Potential explanations include exacerbating cognitive problems that are already common in anxiety disorders, causing or worsening depression and suicidality, disrupting sleep architecture by inhibiting deep stage sleep, withdrawal symptoms or rebound symptoms in between doses mimicking or exacerbating underlying anxiety or sleep disorders, inhibiting the benefits of psychotherapy by inhibiting memory consolidation and reducing fear extinction, and reducing coping with trauma/stress and increasing vulnerability to future stress. The latter two explanations may be why benzodiazepines are ineffective and/or potentially harmful in PTSD and phobias. Anxiety, insomnia and irritability may be temporarily exacerbated during withdrawal, but psychiatric symptoms after discontinuation are usually less than even while taking benzodiazepines. Functioning significantly improves within 1 year of discontinuation.
Physical Dependence, Withdrawal and Post-Withdrawal Syndromes
Tolerance
The main problem of the chronic use of benzodiazepines is the development of tolerance and dependence. Tolerance manifests itself as diminished pharmacological effect and develops relatively quickly to the sedative, hypnotic, anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant actions of benzodiazepines. Tolerance to anti-anxiety effects develops more slowly with little evidence of continued effectiveness beyond four to six months of continued use. In general, tolerance to the amnesic effects does not occur. However, controversy exists as to tolerance to the anxiolytic effects with some evidence that benzodiazepines retain efficacy and opposing evidence from a systematic review of the literature that tolerance frequently occurs and some evidence that anxiety may worsen with long-term use. The question of tolerance to the amnesic effects of benzodiazepines is, likewise, unclear. Some evidence suggests that partial tolerance does develop, and that, "memory impairment is limited to a narrow window within 90 minutes after each dose".
A major disadvantage of benzodiazepines is that tolerance to therapeutic effects develops relatively quickly while many adverse effects persist. Tolerance develops to hypnotic and myorelaxant effects within days to weeks, and to anticonvulsant and anxiolytic effects within weeks to months. Therefore, benzodiazepines are unlikely to be effective long-term treatments for sleep and anxiety. While BZD therapeutic effects disappear with tolerance, depression and impulsivity with high suicidal risk commonly persist. Several studies have confirmed that long-term benzodiazepines are not significantly different from placebo for sleep or anxiety. This may explain why patients commonly increase doses over time and many eventually take more than one type of benzodiazepine after the first loses effectiveness. Additionally, because tolerance to benzodiazepine sedating effects develops more quickly than does tolerance to brainstem depressant effects, those taking more benzodiazepines to achieve desired effects may experience sudden respiratory depression, hypotension or death. Most patients with anxiety disorders and PTSD have symptoms that persist for at least several months, making tolerance to therapeutic effects a distinct problem for them and necessitating the need for more effective long-term treatment (e.g., psychotherapy, serotonergic antidepressants).
Withdrawal symptoms and management
Discontinuation of benzodiazepines or abrupt reduction of the dose, even after a relatively short course of treatment (two to four weeks), may result in two groups of symptoms—rebound and withdrawal. Rebound symptoms are the return of the symptoms for which the patient was treated but worse than before. Withdrawal symptoms are the new symptoms that occur when the benzodiazepine is stopped. They are the main sign of physical dependence.
The most frequent symptoms of withdrawal from benzodiazepines are insomnia, gastric problems, tremors, agitation, fearfulness, and muscle spasms. The less frequent effects are irritability, sweating, depersonalization, derealization, hypersensitivity to stimuli, depression, suicidal behavior, psychosis, seizures, and delirium tremens. Severe symptoms usually occur as a result of abrupt or over-rapid withdrawal. Abrupt withdrawal can be dangerous and lead to excitotoxicity, causing damage and even death to nerve cells as a result of excessive levels of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Increased glutamatergic activity is thought to be part of a compensatory mechanism to chronic GABAergic inhibition from benzodiazepines. Therefore, a gradual reduction regimen is recommended.
Symptoms may also occur during a gradual dosage reduction, but are typically less severe and may persist as part of a protracted withdrawal syndrome for months after cessation of benzodiazepines. Approximately 10% of patients experience a notable protracted withdrawal syndrome, which can persist for many months or in some cases a year or longer. Protracted symptoms tend to resemble those seen during the first couple of months of withdrawal but usually are of a sub-acute level of severity. Such symptoms do gradually lessen over time, eventually disappearing altogether.
Benzodiazepines have a reputation with patients and doctors for causing a severe and traumatic withdrawal; however, this is in large part due to the withdrawal process being poorly managed. Over-rapid withdrawal from benzodiazepines increases the severity of the withdrawal syndrome and increases the failure rate. A slow and gradual withdrawal customised to the individual and, if indicated, psychological support is the most effective way of managing the withdrawal. Opinion as to the time needed to complete withdrawal ranges from four weeks to several years. A goal of less than six months has been suggested, but due to factors such as dosage and type of benzodiazepine, reasons for prescription, lifestyle, personality, environmental stresses, and amount of available support, a year or more may be needed to withdraw.
Withdrawal is best managed by transferring the physically dependent patient to an equivalent dose of diazepam because it has the longest half-life of all of the benzodiazepines, is metabolised into long-acting active metabolites and is available in low-potency tablets, which can be quartered for smaller doses. A further benefit is that it is available in liquid form, which allows for even smaller reductions. Chlordiazepoxide, which also has a long half-life and long-acting active metabolites, can be used as an alternative.
Nonbenzodiazepines are contraindicated during benzodiazepine withdrawal as they are cross tolerant with benzodiazepines and can induce dependence. Alcohol is also cross tolerant with benzodiazepines and more toxic and thus caution is needed to avoid replacing one dependence with another. During withdrawal, fluoroquinolone-based antibiotics are best avoided if possible; they displace benzodiazepines from their binding site and reduce GABA function and, thus, may aggravate withdrawal symptoms. Antipsychotics are not recommended for benzodiazepine withdrawal (or other CNS depressant withdrawal states) especially clozapine, olanzapine or low potency phenothiazines e.g. chlorpromazine as they lower the seizure threshold and can worsen withdrawal effects; if used extreme caution is required.
Withdrawal from long term benzodiazepines is beneficial for most individuals. Withdrawal of benzodiazepines from long-term users, in general, leads to improved physical and mental health particularly in the elderly; although some long term users report continued benefit from taking benzodiazepines, this may be the result of suppression of withdrawal effects.
Controversial associations
Beyond the well established link between benzodiazepines and psychomotor impairment resulting in motor vehicle accidents and falls leading to fracture; research in the 2000s and 2010s has raised the association between benzodiazepines (and Z-drugs) and other, as of yet unproven, adverse effects including dementia, cancer, infections, pancreatitis and respiratory disease exacerbations.
Dementia
A number of studies have drawn an association between long-term benzodiazepine use and neuro-degenerative disease, particularly Alzheimer's disease. It has been determined that long-term use of benzodiazepines is associated with increased dementia risk, even after controlling for protopathic bias.
Infections
Some observational studies have detected significant associations between benzodiazepines and respiratory infections such as pneumonia where others have not. A large meta-analysis of pre-marketing randomized controlled trials on the pharmacologically related Z-Drugs suggest a small increase in infection risk as well. An immunodeficiency effect from the action of benzodiazepines on GABA-A receptors has been postulated from animal studies.
Cancer
A Meta-analysis of observational studies has determined an association between benzodiazepine use and cancer, though the risk across different agents and different cancers varied significantly. In terms of experimental basic science evidence, an analysis of carcinogenetic and genotoxicity data for various benzodiazepines has suggested a small possibility of carcinogenesis for a small number of benzodiazepines.
Pancreatitis
The evidence suggesting a link between benzodiazepines (and Z-Drugs) and pancreatic inflammation is very sparse and limited to a few observational studies from Taiwan. A criticism of confounding can be applied to these findings as with the other controversial associations above. Further well-designed research from other populations as well as a biologically plausible mechanism is required to confirm this association.
Overdose
Although benzodiazepines are much safer in overdose than their predecessors, the barbiturates, they can still cause problems in overdose. Taken alone, they rarely cause severe complications in overdose; statistics in England showed that benzodiazepines were responsible for 3.8% of all deaths by poisoning from a single drug. However, combining these drugs with alcohol, opiates or tricyclic antidepressants markedly raises the toxicity. The elderly are more sensitive to the side effects of benzodiazepines, and poisoning may even occur from their long-term use. The various benzodiazepines differ in their toxicity; temazepam appears most toxic in overdose and when used with other drugs. The symptoms of a benzodiazepine overdose may include; drowsiness, slurred speech, nystagmus, hypotension, ataxia, coma, respiratory depression, and cardiorespiratory arrest.
A reversal agent for benzodiazepines exists, flumazenil (Anexate). Its use as an antidote is not routinely recommended because of the high risk of resedation and seizures. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 326 people, 4 people had serious adverse events and 61% became resedated following the use of flumazenil. Numerous contraindications to its use exist. It is contraindicated in people with a history of long-term use of benzodiazepines, those having ingested a substance that lowers the seizure threshold or may cause an arrhythmia, and in those with abnormal vital signs. One study found that only 10% of the people presenting with a benzodiazepine overdose are suitable candidates for treatment with flumazenil.
Interactions
Individual benzodiazepines may have different interactions with certain drugs. Depending on their metabolism pathway, benzodiazepines can be divided roughly into two groups. The largest group consists of those that are metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes and possess significant potential for interactions with other drugs. The other group comprises those that are metabolized through glucuronidation, such as lorazepam, oxazepam, and temazepam, and, in general, have few drug interactions.
Many drugs, including oral contraceptives, some antibiotics, antidepressants, and antifungal agents, inhibit cytochrome enzymes in the liver. They reduce the rate of elimination of the benzodiazepines that are metabolized by CYP450, leading to possibly excessive drug accumulation and increased side-effects. In contrast, drugs that induce cytochrome P450 enzymes, such as St John's wort, the antibiotic rifampicin, and the anticonvulsants carbamazepine and phenytoin, accelerate elimination of many benzodiazepines and decrease their action. Taking benzodiazepines with alcohol, opioids and other central nervous system depressants potentiates their action. This often results in increased sedation, impaired motor coordination, suppressed breathing, and other adverse effects that have potential to be lethal. Antacids can slow down absorption of some benzodiazepines; however, this effect is marginal and inconsistent.
Pharmacology
Pharmacodynamics
Benzodiazepines work by increasing the effectiveness of the endogenous chemical, GABA, to decrease the excitability of neurons. This reduces the communication between neurons and, therefore, has a calming effect on many of the functions of the brain.
GABA controls the excitability of neurons by binding to the GABAA receptor. The GABAA receptor is a protein complex located in the synapses between neurons. All GABAA receptors contain an ion channel that conducts chloride ions across neuronal cell membranes and two binding sites for the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), while a subset of GABAA receptor complexes also contain a single binding site for benzodiazepines. Binding of benzodiazepines to this receptor complex does not alter binding of GABA. Unlike other positive allosteric modulators that increase ligand binding, benzodiazepine binding acts as a positive allosteric modulator by increasing the total conduction of chloride ions across the neuronal cell membrane when GABA is already bound to its receptor. This increased chloride ion influx hyperpolarizes the neuron's membrane potential. As a result, the difference between resting potential and threshold potential is increased and firing is less likely.
Different GABAA receptor subtypes have varying distributions within different regions of the brain and, therefore, control distinct neuronal circuits. Hence, activation of different GABAA receptor subtypes by benzodiazepines may result in distinct pharmacological actions. In terms of the mechanism of action of benzodiazepines, their similarities are too great to separate them into individual categories such as anxiolytic or hypnotic. For example, a hypnotic administered in low doses produces anxiety-relieving effects, whereas a benzodiazepine marketed as an anti-anxiety drug at higher doses induces sleep.
The subset of GABAA receptors that also bind benzodiazepines are referred to as benzodiazepine receptors (BzR). The GABAA receptor is a heteromer composed of five subunits, the most common ones being two αs, two βs, and one γ (α2β2γ1). For each subunit, many subtypes exist (α1–6, β1–3, and γ1–3). GABAA receptors that are made up of different combinations of subunit subtypes have different properties, different distributions in the brain and different activities relative to pharmacological and clinical effects. Benzodiazepines bind at the interface of the α and γ subunits on the GABAA receptor. Binding also requires that alpha subunits contain a histidine amino acid residue, (i.e., α1, α2, α3, and α5 containing GABAA receptors). For this reason, benzodiazepines show no affinity for GABAA receptors containing α4 and α6 subunits with an arginine instead of a histidine residue. Once bound to the benzodiazepine receptor, the benzodiazepine ligand locks the benzodiazepine receptor into a conformation in which it has a greater affinity for the GABA neurotransmitter. This increases the frequency of the opening of the associated chloride ion channel and hyperpolarizes the membrane of the associated neuron. The inhibitory effect of the available GABA is potentiated, leading to sedative and anxiolytic effects. For instance, those ligands with high activity at the α1 are associated with stronger hypnotic effects, whereas those with higher affinity for GABAA receptors containing α2 and/or α3 subunits have good anti-anxiety activity.
GABAA receptors participate in the regulation of synaptic pruning by prompting microglial spine engulfment. Benzodiazepines have been shown to upregulate microglial spine engulfment and prompt overzealous eradication of synaptic connections. This mechanism may help explain the increased risk of dementia associated with long-term benzodiazepine treatment.
The benzodiazepine class of drugs also interact with peripheral benzodiazepine receptors. Peripheral benzodiazepine receptors are present in peripheral nervous system tissues, glial cells, and to a lesser extent the central nervous system. These peripheral receptors are not structurally related or coupled to GABAA receptors. They modulate the immune system and are involved in the body response to injury. Benzodiazepines also function as weak adenosine reuptake inhibitors. It has been suggested that some of their anticonvulsant, anxiolytic, and muscle relaxant effects may be in part mediated by this action. Benzodiazepines have binding sites in the periphery, however their effects on muscle tone is not mediated through these peripheral receptors. The peripheral binding sites for benzodiazepines are present in immune cells and gastrointestinal tract.
Pharmacokinetics
A benzodiazepine can be placed into one of three groups by its elimination half-life, or time it takes for the body to eliminate half of the dose. Some benzodiazepines have long-acting active metabolites, such as diazepam and chlordiazepoxide, which are metabolised into desmethyldiazepam. Desmethyldiazepam has a half-life of 36–200 hours, and flurazepam, with the main active metabolite of desalkylflurazepam, with a half-life of 40–250 hours. These long-acting metabolites are partial agonists.
Short-acting compounds have a median half-life of 1–12 hours. They have few residual effects if taken before bedtime, rebound insomnia may occur upon discontinuation, and they might cause daytime withdrawal symptoms such as next day rebound anxiety with prolonged usage. Examples are brotizolam, midazolam, and triazolam.
Intermediate-acting compounds have a median half-life of 12–40 hours. They may have some residual effects in the first half of the day if used as a hypnotic. Rebound insomnia, however, is more common upon discontinuation of intermediate-acting benzodiazepines than longer-acting benzodiazepines. Examples are alprazolam, estazolam, flunitrazepam, clonazepam, lormetazepam, lorazepam, nitrazepam, and temazepam.
Long-acting compounds have a half-life of 40–250 hours. They have a risk of accumulation in the elderly and in individuals with severely impaired liver function, but they have a reduced severity of rebound effects and withdrawal. Examples are diazepam, clorazepate, chlordiazepoxide, and flurazepam.
Chemistry
Benzodiazepines share a similar chemical structure, and their effects in humans are mainly produced by the allosteric modification of a specific kind of neurotransmitter receptor, the GABAA receptor, which increases the overall conductance of these inhibitory channels; this results in the various therapeutic effects as well as adverse effects of benzodiazepines. Other less important modes of action are also known.
The term benzodiazepine is the chemical name for the heterocyclic ring system (see figure to the right), which is a fusion between the benzene and diazepine ring systems. Under Hantzsch–Widman nomenclature, a diazepine is a heterocycle with two nitrogen atoms, five carbon atom and the maximum possible number of cumulative double bonds. The "benzo" prefix indicates the benzene ring fused onto the diazepine ring.
Benzodiazepine drugs are substituted 1,4-benzodiazepines, although the chemical term can refer to many other compounds that do not have useful pharmacological properties. Different benzodiazepine drugs have different side groups attached to this central structure. The different side groups affect the binding of the molecule to the GABAA receptor and so modulate the pharmacological properties. Many of the pharmacologically active "classical" benzodiazepine drugs contain the 5-phenyl-1H-benzo[e] [1,4]diazepin-2(3H)-one substructure (see figure to the right). Benzodiazepines have been found to mimic protein reverse turns structurally, which enable them with their biological activity in many cases.
Nonbenzodiazepines also bind to the benzodiazepine binding site on the GABAA receptor and possess similar pharmacological properties. While the nonbenzodiazepines are by definition structurally unrelated to the benzodiazepines, both classes of drugs possess a common pharmacophore (see figure to the lower-right), which explains their binding to a common receptor site.
Types
2-keto compounds:
clorazepate, diazepam, flurazepam, halazepam, prazepam, and others
3-hydroxy compounds:
lorazepam, lormetazepam, oxazepam, temazepam
7-nitro compounds:
clonazepam, flunitrazepam, nimetazepam, nitrazepam
Triazolo compounds:
adinazolam, alprazolam, estazolam, triazolam
Imidazo compounds:
climazolam, loprazolam, midazolam
1,5-benzodiazepines:
clobazam
History
The first benzodiazepine, chlordiazepoxide (Librium), was synthesized in 1955 by Leo Sternbach while working at Hoffmann–La Roche on the development of tranquilizers. The pharmacological properties of the compounds prepared initially were disappointing, and Sternbach abandoned the project. Two years later, in April 1957, co-worker Earl Reeder noticed a "nicely crystalline" compound left over from the discontinued project while spring-cleaning in the lab. This compound, later named chlordiazepoxide, had not been tested in 1955 because of Sternbach's focus on other issues. Expecting pharmacology results to be negative, and hoping to publish the chemistry-related findings, researchers submitted it for a standard battery of animal tests. The compound showed very strong sedative, anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant effects. These impressive clinical findings led to its speedy introduction throughout the world in 1960 under the brand name Librium. Following chlordiazepoxide, diazepam marketed by Hoffmann–La Roche under the brand name Valium in 1963, and for a while the two were the most commercially successful drugs. The introduction of benzodiazepines led to a decrease in the prescription of barbiturates, and by the 1970s they had largely replaced the older drugs for sedative and hypnotic uses.
The new group of drugs was initially greeted with optimism by the medical profession, but gradually concerns arose; in particular, the risk of dependence became evident in the 1980s. Benzodiazepines have a unique history in that they were responsible for the largest-ever class-action lawsuit against drug manufacturers in the United Kingdom, involving 14,000 patients and 1,800 law firms that alleged the manufacturers knew of the dependence potential but intentionally withheld this information from doctors. At the same time, 117 general practitioners and 50 health authorities were sued by patients to recover damages for the harmful effects of dependence and withdrawal. This led some doctors to require a signed consent form from their patients and to recommend that all patients be adequately warned of the risks of dependence and withdrawal before starting treatment with benzodiazepines. The court case against the drug manufacturers never reached a verdict; legal aid had been withdrawn and there were allegations that the consultant psychiatrists, the expert witnesses, had a conflict of interest. The court case fell through, at a cost of £30 million, and led to more cautious funding through legal aid for future cases. This made future class action lawsuits less likely to succeed, due to the high cost from financing a smaller number of cases, and increasing charges for losing the case for each person involved.
Although antidepressants with anxiolytic properties have been introduced, and there is increasing awareness of the adverse effects of benzodiazepines, prescriptions for short-term anxiety relief have not significantly dropped. For treatment of insomnia, benzodiazepines are now less popular than nonbenzodiazepines, which include zolpidem, zaleplon and eszopiclone. Nonbenzodiazepines are molecularly distinct, but nonetheless, they work on the same benzodiazepine receptors and produce similar sedative effects.
Benzodiazepines have been detected in plant specimens and brain samples of animals not exposed to synthetic sources, including a human brain from the 1940s. However, it is unclear whether these compounds are biosynthesized by microbes or by plants and animals themselves. A microbial biosynthetic pathway has been proposed.
Society and culture
Legal status
In the United States, benzodiazepines are Schedule IV drugs under the Federal Controlled Substances Act, even when not on the market (for example, nitrazepam and bromazepam). Flunitrazepam is subject to more stringent regulations in certain states and temazepam prescriptions require specially coded pads in certain states.
In Canada, possession of benzodiazepines is legal for personal use. All benzodiazepines are categorized as Schedule IV substances under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
In the United Kingdom, benzodiazepines are Class C controlled drugs, carrying the maximum penalty of 7 years imprisonment, an unlimited fine or both for possession and a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment an unlimited fine or both for supplying benzodiazepines to others.
In the Netherlands, since October 1993, benzodiazepines, including formulations containing less than 20 mg of temazepam, are all placed on List 2 of the Opium Law. A prescription is needed for possession of all benzodiazepines. Temazepam formulations containing 20 mg or greater of the drug are placed on List 1, thus requiring doctors to write prescriptions in the List 1 format.
In East Asia and Southeast Asia, temazepam and nimetazepam are often heavily controlled and restricted. In certain countries, triazolam, flunitrazepam, flutoprazepam and midazolam are also restricted or controlled to certain degrees. In Hong Kong, all benzodiazepines are regulated under Schedule 1 of Hong Kong's Chapter 134 Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. Previously only brotizolam, flunitrazepam and triazolam were classed as dangerous drugs.
Internationally, benzodiazepines are categorized as Schedule IV controlled drugs, apart from flunitrazepam, which is a Schedule III drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances.
Recreational use
Benzodiazepines are considered major addictive substances. Non-medical benzodiazepine use is mostly limited to individuals who use other substances, i.e., people who engage in polysubstance use. On the international scene, benzodiazepines are categorized as Schedule IV controlled drugs by the INCB, apart from flunitrazepam, which is a Schedule III drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Some variation in drug scheduling exists in individual countries; for example, in the United Kingdom, midazolam and temazepam are Schedule III controlled drugs.
British law requires that temazepam (but not midazolam) be stored in safe custody. Safe custody requirements ensures that pharmacists and doctors holding stock of temazepam must store it in securely fixed double-locked steel safety cabinets and maintain a written register, which must be bound and contain separate entries for temazepam and must be written in ink with no use of correction fluid (although a written register is not required for temazepam in the United Kingdom). Disposal of expired stock must be witnessed by a designated inspector (either a local drug-enforcement police officer or official from health authority). Benzodiazepine use ranges from occasional binges on large doses, to chronic and compulsive drug use of high doses.
Benzodiazepines are commonly used recreationally by poly-drug users. Mortality is higher among poly-drug users that also use benzodiazepines. Heavy alcohol use also increases mortality among poly-drug users. Polydrug use involving benzodiazepines and alcohol can result in an increased risk of blackouts, risk-taking behaviours, seizures, and overdose. Dependence and tolerance, often coupled with dosage escalation, to benzodiazepines can develop rapidly among people who misuse drugs; withdrawal syndrome may appear after as little as three weeks of continuous use. Long-term use has the potential to cause both physical and psychological dependence and severe withdrawal symptoms such as depression, anxiety (often to the point of panic attacks), and agoraphobia. Benzodiazepines and, in particular, temazepam are sometimes used intravenously, which, if done incorrectly or in an unsterile manner, can lead to medical complications including abscesses, cellulitis, thrombophlebitis, arterial puncture, deep vein thrombosis, and gangrene. Sharing syringes and needles for this purpose also brings up the possibility of transmission of hepatitis, HIV, and other diseases. Benzodiazepines are also misused intranasally, which may have additional health consequences. Once benzodiazepine dependence has been established, a clinician usually converts the patient to an equivalent dose of diazepam before beginning a gradual reduction program.
A 1999–2005 Australian police survey of detainees reported preliminary findings that self-reported users of benzodiazepines were less likely than non-user detainees to work full-time and more likely to receive government benefits, use methamphetamine or heroin, and be arrested or imprisoned. Benzodiazepines are sometimes used for criminal purposes; they serve to incapacitate a victim in cases of drug assisted rape or robbery.
Overall, anecdotal evidence suggests that temazepam may be the most psychologically habit-forming (addictive) benzodiazepine. Non-medical temazepam use reached epidemic proportions in some parts of the world, in particular, in Europe and Australia, and is a major addictive substance in many Southeast Asian countries. This led authorities of various countries to place temazepam under a more restrictive legal status. Some countries, such as Sweden, banned the drug outright. Temazepam also has certain pharmacokinetic properties of absorption, distribution, elimination, and clearance that make it more apt to non-medical use compared to many other benzodiazepines.
Veterinary use
Benzodiazepines are used in veterinary practice in the treatment of various disorders and conditions. As in humans, they are used in the first-line management of seizures, status epilepticus, and tetanus, and as maintenance therapy in epilepsy (in particular, in cats). They are widely used in small and large animals (including horses, swine, cattle and exotic and wild animals) for their anxiolytic and sedative effects, as pre-medication before surgery, for induction of anesthesia and as adjuncts to anesthesia.
References
External links
National Institute on Drug Abuse: "NIDA for Teens: Prescription Depressant Medications".
Benzodiazepines – information from mental health charity The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Chemical classes of psychoactive drugs
GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulators
Glycine receptor antagonists
Sedatives
Hypnotics
Muscle relaxants |
4788 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body%20mass%20index | Body mass index | Body mass index (BMI) is a value derived from the mass (weight) and height of a person. The BMI is defined as the body mass divided by the square of the body height, and is expressed in units of kg/m2, resulting from mass in kilograms (kg) and height in metres (m).
The BMI may be determined first by measuring its components by means of a weighing scale and a stadiometer. The multiplication and division may be carried out directly, by hand or using a calculator, or indirectly using a lookup table (or chart). The table displays BMI as a function of mass and height and may show other units of measurement (converted to metric units for the calculation). The table may also show contour lines or colours for different BMI categories.
The BMI is a convenient rule of thumb used to broadly categorize a person as based on tissue mass (muscle, fat, and bone) and height. Major adult BMI classifications are underweight (under 18.5 kg/m2), normal weight (18.5 to 24.9), overweight (25 to 29.9), and obese (30 or more). When used to predict an individual's health, rather than as a statistical measurement for groups, the BMI has limitations that can make it less useful than some of the alternatives, especially when applied to individuals with abdominal obesity, short stature, or high muscle mass.
BMIs under 20 and over 25 have been associated with higher all-cause mortality, with the risk increasing with distance from the 20–25 range.
History
Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician, and sociologist, devised the basis of the BMI between 1830 and 1850 as he developed what he called "social physics". Quetelet himself never intended for the index, then called the Quetelet Index, to be used as a means of medical assessment. Instead, it was a component of his study of , or the average man. Quetelet thought of the average man as a social ideal, and developed the body mass index as a means of discovering the socially ideal human person. According to Lars Grue and Arvid Heiberg in the Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, Quetelet's idealization of the average man would be elaborated upon by Francis Galton a decade later in the development of Eugenics.
The modern term "body mass index" (BMI) for the ratio of human body weight to squared height was coined in a paper published in the July 1972 edition of the Journal of Chronic Diseases by Ancel Keys and others. In this paper, Keys argued that what he termed the BMI was "if not fully satisfactory, at least as good as any other relative weight index as an indicator of relative obesity".
The interest in an index that measures body fat came with observed increasing obesity in prosperous Western societies. Keys explicitly judged BMI as appropriate for population studies and inappropriate for individual evaluation. Nevertheless, due to its simplicity, it has come to be widely used for preliminary diagnoses. Additional metrics, such as waist circumference, can be more useful.
The BMI is expressed in kg/m2, resulting from mass in kilograms and height in metres. If pounds and inches are used, a conversion factor of 703 (kg/m2)/(lb/in2) is applied. When the term BMI is used informally, the units are usually omitted.
BMI provides a simple numeric measure of a person's thickness or thinness, allowing health professionals to discuss weight problems more objectively with their patients. BMI was designed to be used as a simple means of classifying average sedentary (physically inactive) populations, with an average body composition. For such individuals, the BMI value recommendations are as follows: 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2 may indicate optimal weight, lower than 18.5 may indicate underweight, 25 to 29.9 may indicate overweight, and 30 or more may indicate obese. Lean male athletes often have a high muscle-to-fat ratio and therefore a BMI that is misleadingly high relative to their body-fat percentage.
Categories
A common use of the BMI is to assess how far an individual's body weight departs from what is normal for a person's height. The weight excess or deficiency may, in part, be accounted for by body fat (adipose tissue) although other factors such as muscularity also affect BMI significantly (see discussion below and overweight).
The WHO regards an adult BMI of less than 18.5 as underweight and possibly indicative of malnutrition, an eating disorder, or other health problems, while a BMI of 25 or more is considered overweight and 30 or more is considered obese. In addition to the principle, international WHO BMI cut-off points (16, 17, 18.5, 25, 30, 35 and 40), four additional cut-off points for at-risk Asians were identified (23, 27.5, 32.5 and 37.5). These ranges of BMI values are valid only as statistical categories.
Children and youth
BMI is used differently for people aged 2 to 20. It is calculated in the same way as for adults but then compared to typical values for other children or youth of the same age. Instead of comparison against fixed thresholds for underweight and overweight, the BMI is compared against the percentiles for children of the same sex and age.
A BMI that is less than the 5th percentile is considered underweight and above the 95th percentile is considered obese. Children with a BMI between the 85th and 95th percentile are considered to be overweight.
Studies in Britain from 2013 have indicated that females between the ages 12 and 16 had a higher BMI than males of the same age by 1.0 kg/m2 on average.
International variations
These recommended distinctions along the linear scale may vary from time to time and country to country, making global, longitudinal surveys problematic. People from different populations and descent have different associations between BMI, percentage of body fat, and health risks, with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease at BMIs lower than the WHO cut-off point for overweight, 25 kg/m2, although the cut-off for observed risk varies among different populations. The cut-off for observed risk varies based on populations and subpopulations in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Hong Kong
The Hospital Authority of Hong Kong recommends the use of the following BMI ranges:
Japan
A 2000 study from the Japan Society for the Study of Obesity (JASSO) presents the following table of BMI categories:
Singapore
In Singapore, the BMI cut-off figures were revised in 2005 by the Health Promotion Board (HPB), motivated by studies showing that many Asian populations, including Singaporeans, have a higher proportion of body fat and increased risk for cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus, compared with general BMI recommendations in other countries. The BMI cut-offs are presented with an emphasis on health risk rather than weight.
United Kingdom
In the UK, NICE guidance recommends prevention of type 2 diabetes should start at a BMI of 30 in White and 27.5 in Black African, African-Caribbean, South Asian, and Chinese populations.
New research based on a large sample of almost 1.5 million people in England found that some ethnic groups would benefit from prevention at or above a BMI of (rounded):
30 in White
28 in Black
just below 30 in Black British
29 in Black African
27 in Black Other
26 in Black Caribbean
27 in Arab and Chinese
24 in South Asian
24 in Pakistani, Indian and Nepali
23 in Tamil and Sri Lankan
21 in Bangladeshi
United States
In 1998, the U.S. National Institutes of Health brought U.S. definitions in line with World Health Organization guidelines, lowering the normal/overweight cut-off from a BMI of 27.8 (men) and 27.3 (women) to a BMI of 25. This had the effect of redefining approximately 25 million Americans, previously healthy, to overweight.
This can partially explain the increase in the overweight diagnosis in the past 20 years, and the increase in sales of weight loss products during the same time. WHO also recommends lowering the normal/overweight threshold for southeast Asian body types to around BMI 23, and expects further revisions to emerge from clinical studies of different body types.
A survey in 2007 showed 63% of Americans were then overweight or obese, with 26% in the obese category (a BMI of 30 or more). By 2014, 37.7% of adults in the United States were obese, 35.0% of men and 40.4% of women; class 3 obesity (BMI over 40) values were 7.7% for men and 9.9% for women. The U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 2015-2016 showed that 71.6% of American men and women had BMIs over 25. Obesity—a BMI of 30 or more—was found in 39.8% of the US adults.
Consequences of elevated level in adults
The BMI ranges are based on the relationship between body weight and disease and death. Overweight and obese individuals are at an increased risk for the following diseases:
Coronary artery disease
Dyslipidemia
Type 2 diabetes
Gallbladder disease
Hypertension
Osteoarthritis
Sleep apnea
Stroke
Infertility
At least 10 cancers, including endometrial, breast, and colon cancer
Epidural lipomatosis
Among people who have never smoked, overweight/obesity is associated with 51% increase in mortality compared with people who have always been a normal weight.
Applications
Public health
The BMI is generally used as a means of correlation between groups related by general mass and can serve as a vague means of estimating adiposity. The duality of the BMI is that, while it is easy to use as a general calculation, it is limited as to how accurate and pertinent the data obtained from it can be. Generally, the index is suitable for recognizing trends within sedentary or overweight individuals because there is a smaller margin of error. The BMI has been used by the WHO as the standard for recording obesity statistics since the early 1980s.
This general correlation is particularly useful for consensus data regarding obesity or various other conditions because it can be used to build a semi-accurate representation from which a solution can be stipulated, or the RDA for a group can be calculated. Similarly, this is becoming more and more pertinent to the growth of children, since the majority of children are sedentary.
Cross-sectional studies indicated that sedentary people can decrease BMI by becoming more physically active. Smaller effects are seen in prospective cohort studies which lend to support active mobility as a means to prevent a further increase in BMI.
Legislation
In France, Italy, and Spain, legislation has been introduced banning the usage of fashion show models having a BMI below 18. In Israel, a model with BMI below 18.5 is banned. This is done to fight anorexia among models and people interested in fashion.
Relationship to health
A study published by Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2005 showed that overweight people had a death rate similar to normal weight people as defined by BMI, while underweight and obese people had a higher death rate.
A study published by The Lancet in 2009 involving 900,000 adults showed that overweight and underweight people both had a mortality rate higher than normal weight people as defined by BMI. The optimal BMI was found to be in the range of 22.5–25. The average BMI of athletes is 22.4 for women and 23.6 for men.
High BMI is associated with type 2 diabetes only in people with high serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase.
In an analysis of 40 studies involving 250,000 people, patients with coronary artery disease with normal BMIs were at higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease than people whose BMIs put them in the overweight range (BMI 25–29.9).
One study found that BMI had a good general correlation with body fat percentage, and noted that obesity has overtaken smoking as the world's number one cause of death. But it also notes that in the study 50% of men and 62% of women were obese according to body fat defined obesity, while only 21% of men and 31% of women were obese according to BMI, meaning that BMI was found to underestimate the number of obese subjects.
A 2010 study that followed 11,000 subjects for up to eight years concluded that BMI is not a good measure for the risk of heart attack, stroke or death. A better measure was found to be the waist-to-height ratio. A 2011 study that followed 60,000 participants for up to 13 years found that waist–hip ratio was a better predictor of ischaemic heart disease mortality.
Limitations
The medical establishment and statistical community have both highlighted the limitations of BMI. Part of the statistical limitations of the BMI scale is the result of Quetelet's original sampling methods. As noted in his primary work, A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties, the data from which Quetelet derived his formula was taken mostly from Scottish Highland soldiers and French Gendarmerie. The BMI was always designed as a metric for European men. For women, and people of non-European origin, the scale is often biased. As noted by sociologist Sabrina Strings, the BMI is largely inaccurate for black people especially, disproportionately labelling them as overweight even for healthy individuals.
Scaling
The exponent in the denominator of the formula for BMI is arbitrary. The BMI depends upon weight and the square of height. Since mass increases to the third power of linear dimensions, taller individuals with exactly the same body shape and relative composition have a larger BMI. BMI is proportional to the mass and inversely proportional to the square of the height. So, if all body dimensions double, and mass scales naturally with the cube of the height, then BMI doubles instead of remaining the same. This results in taller people having a reported BMI that is uncharacteristically high, compared to their actual body fat levels. In comparison, the Ponderal index is based on the natural scaling of mass with the third power of the height.
However, many taller people are not just "scaled up" short people but tend to have narrower frames in proportion to their height. Carl Lavie has written that "The B.M.I. tables are excellent for identifying obesity and body fat in large populations, but they are far less reliable for determining fatness in individuals."
For US adults, exponent estimates range from 1.92 to 1.96 for males and from 1.45 to 1.95 for females.
Physical characteristics
The BMI overestimates roughly 10% for a large (or tall) frame and underestimates roughly 10% for a smaller frame (short stature). In other words, people with small frames would be carrying more fat than optimal, but their BMI indicates that they are normal. Conversely, large framed (or tall) individuals may be quite healthy, with a fairly low body fat percentage, but be classified as overweight by BMI.
For example, a height/weight chart may say the ideal weight (BMI 21.5) for a man is . But if that man has a slender build (small frame), he may be overweight at and should reduce by 10% to roughly (BMI 19.4). In the reverse, the man with a larger frame and more solid build should increase by 10%, to roughly (BMI 23.7). If one teeters on the edge of small/medium or medium/large, common sense should be used in calculating one's ideal weight. However, falling into one's ideal weight range for height and build is still not as accurate in determining health risk factors as waist-to-height ratio and actual body fat percentage.
Accurate frame size calculators use several measurements (wrist circumference, elbow width, neck circumference, and others) to determine what category an individual falls into for a given height. The BMI also fails to take into account loss of height through ageing. In this situation, BMI will increase without any corresponding increase in weight.
Muscle versus fat
Assumptions about the distribution between muscle mass and fat mass are inexact. BMI generally overestimates adiposity on those with leaner body mass (e.g., athletes) and underestimates excess adiposity on those with fattier body mass.
A study in June 2008 by Romero-Corral et al. examined 13,601 subjects from the United States' third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and found that BMI-defined obesity (BMI ≥ 30) was present in 21% of men and 31% of women. Body fat-defined obesity was found in 50% of men and 62% of women. While BMI-defined obesity showed high specificity (95% for men and 99% for women), BMI showed poor sensitivity (36% for men and 49% for women). In other words, the BMI will be mostly correct when determining a person to be obese, but can err quite frequently when determining a person not to be. Despite this undercounting of obesity by BMI, BMI values in the intermediate BMI range of 20–30 were found to be associated with a wide range of body fat percentages. For men with a BMI of 25, about 20% have a body fat percentage below 20% and about 10% have body fat percentage above 30%.
Body composition for athletes is often better calculated using measures of body fat, as determined by such techniques as skinfold measurements or underwater weighing and the limitations of manual measurement have also led to new, alternative methods to measure obesity, such as the body volume indicator.
Variation in definitions of categories
It is not clear where on the BMI scale the threshold for overweight and obese should be set. Because of this, the standards have varied over the past few decades. Between 1980 and 2000 the U.S. Dietary Guidelines have defined overweight at a variety of levels ranging from a BMI of 24.9 to 27.1. In 1985 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) consensus conference recommended that overweight BMI be set at a BMI of 27.8 for men and 27.3 for women.
In 1998, an NIH report concluded that a BMI over 25 is overweight and a BMI over 30 is obese. In the 1990s the World Health Organization (WHO) decided that a BMI of 25 to 30 should be considered overweight and a BMI over 30 is obese, the standards the NIH set. This became the definitive guide for determining if someone is overweight.
The current WHO and NIH ranges of normal weights are proved to be associated with decreased risks of some diseases such as diabetes type II; however using the same range of BMI for men and women is considered arbitrary and makes the definition of underweight quite unsuitable for men.
One study found that the vast majority of people labelled 'overweight' and 'obese' according to current definitions do not in fact face any meaningful increased risk for early death. In a quantitative analysis of several studies, involving more than 600,000 men and women, the lowest mortality rates were found for people with BMIs between 23 and 29; most of the 25–30 range considered 'overweight' was not associated with higher risk.
Alternatives
Corpulence index (exponent of 3)
The corpulence index uses an exponent of 3 rather than 2. The corpulence index yields valid results even for very short and very tall people, which is a problem with BMI. For example, a tall person at an ideal body weight of gives a normal BMI of 20.74 and CI of 13.6, while a tall person with a weight of gives a BMI of 24.84, very close to an overweight BMI of 25, and a CI of 12.4, very close to a normal CI of 12.
New BMI (exponent of 2.5)
An exponent of 5/2 was proposed by Quetelet in the 19 century:
In general, we do not err much when we assume that during development the squares of the weight at different ages are as the fifth powers of the height
This exponent of 2.5 is used in a revised formula for Body Mass Index, proposed by Nick Trefethen, Professor of numerical analysis at the University of Oxford, which minimizes the distortions for shorter and taller individuals resulting from the use of an exponent of 2 in the traditional BMI formula:
The scaling factor of 1.3 was determined to make the proposed new BMI formula align with the traditional BMI formula for adults of average height, while the exponent of 2.5 is a compromise between the exponent of 2 in the traditional formula for BMI and the exponent of 3 that would be expected for the scaling of weight (which at constant density would theoretically scale with volume, i.e., as the cube of the height) with height. In Trefethen's analysis, an exponent of 2.5 was found to fit empirical data more closely with less distortion than either an exponent of 2 or 3.
BMI prime (exponent of 2, normalization factor)
BMI Prime, a modification of the BMI system, is the ratio of actual BMI to upper limit optimal BMI (currently defined at 25 kg/m2), i.e., the actual BMI expressed as a proportion of upper limit optimal. BMI Prime is a dimensionless number independent of units. Individuals with BMI Prime less than 0.74 are underweight; those with between 0.74 and 1.00 have optimal weight; and those at 1.00 or greater are overweight. BMI Prime is useful clinically because it shows by what ratio (e.g. 1.36) or percentage (e.g. 136%, or 36% above) a person deviates from the maximum optimal BMI.
For instance, a person with BMI 34 kg/m2 has a BMI Prime of 34/25 = 1.36, and is 36% over their upper mass limit. In South East Asian and South Chinese populations (see § international variations), BMI Prime should be calculated using an upper limit BMI of 23 in the denominator instead of 25. BMI Prime allows easy comparison between populations whose upper-limit optimal BMI values differ.
Waist circumference
Waist circumference is a good indicator of visceral fat, which poses more health risks than fat elsewhere. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), waist circumference in excess of for men and for (non-pregnant) women is considered to imply a high risk for type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease CVD. Waist circumference can be a better indicator of obesity-related disease risk than BMI. For example, this is the case in populations of Asian descent and older people. for men and for women has been stated to pose "higher risk", with the NIH figures "even higher".
Waist-to-hip circumference ratio has also been used, but has been found to be no better than waist circumference alone, and more complicated to measure.
A related indicator is waist circumference divided by height. The values indicating increased risk are: greater than 0.5 for people under 40 years of age, 0.5 to 0.6 for people aged 40–50, and greater than 0.6 for people over 50 years of age.
Surface-based body shape index
The Surface-based Body Shape Index (SBSI) is far more rigorous and is based upon four key measurements: the body surface area (BSA), vertical trunk circumference (VTC), waist circumference (WC) and height (H). Data on 11,808 subjects from the National Health and Human Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) 1999–2004, showed that SBSI outperformed BMI, waist circumference, and A Body Shape Index (ABSI), an alternative to BMI.
A simplified, dimensionless form of SBSI, known as SBSI*, has also been developed.
Modified body mass index
Within some medical contexts, such as familial amyloid polyneuropathy, serum albumin is factored in to produce a modified body mass index (mBMI). The mBMI can be obtained by multiplying the BMI by serum albumin, in grams per litre.
See also
Allometry
Body water
History of anthropometry
List of countries by body mass index
Obesity paradox
Relative Fat Mass
Somatotype and constitutional psychology
Explanatory notes
References
Further reading
External links
U.S. National Center for Health Statistics:
Belgian inventions
Body shape
Classification of obesity
Human body weight
Human height
Mathematics in medicine
Medical signs
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4792 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry%20Goldwater | Barry Goldwater | Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Republican Party's nominee for president in 1964.
Goldwater was born in Phoenix, where he helped manage his family's department store. During World War II, he flew aircraft between the U.S. and India. After the war, Goldwater served in the Phoenix City Council. In 1952, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he rejected the legacy of the New Deal and, along with the conservative coalition, fought against the New Deal coalition. Goldwater also challenged his party's moderate to liberal wing on policy issues. He supported the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 and the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution but opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, disagreeing with Title II and Title VII. In the 1964 U.S. presidential election, Goldwater mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the Republican nomination, but then lost the general election to incumbent Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide.
Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969 and specialized in defense and foreign policy. He successfully urged president Richard Nixon to resign in 1974 when evidence of a cover-up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent. In 1986, he oversaw passage of the Goldwater–Nichols Act, which strengthened civilian authority in the U.S. Department of Defense. Near the end of his career, Goldwater's views on social and cultural issues grew increasingly libertarian.
After leaving the Senate, Goldwater became supportive of homosexuals serving openly in the military, environmental protection, gay rights, abortion rights, adoption rights for same-sex couples, and the legalization of medicinal marijuana. Many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican Party began a long-term realignment in American politics, which helped to bring about the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. He also had a substantial impact on the American libertarian movement.
Early life and family background
Goldwater was born in Phoenix in what was then the Arizona Territory, the son of Baron M. Goldwater and his wife, Hattie Josephine "JoJo" Williams. His father's family founded Goldwater's Department Store, a leading upscale department store in Phoenix. Goldwater's paternal grandfather, Michel Goldwasser, a Polish Jew, was born in 1821 in Konin, then part of Congress Poland. He emigrated to London following the Revolutions of 1848. Soon after arriving in London, Michel anglicized his name to Michael Goldwater. Michel married Sarah Nathan, a member of an English-Jewish family, in the Great Synagogue of London.
The Goldwaters later emigrated to the United States, first arriving in San Francisco, California before finally settling in the Arizona Territory, where Michael Goldwater opened a small department store that was later taken over and expanded by his three sons, Henry, Baron and Morris. Morris Goldwater (1852–1939) was an Arizona territorial and state legislator, mayor of Prescott, Arizona, delegate to the Arizona Constitutional Convention and later President of the Arizona State Senate.
Goldwater's father, Baron, was Jewish; but he was raised in his mother's Episcopalian faith. Hattie Williams came from an established New England family that included the theologian Roger Williams of Rhode Island. Goldwater's parents were married in an Episcopal church in Phoenix; for his entire life, Goldwater was an Episcopalian, though on rare occasions he referred to himself as Jewish. While he did not often attend church, he stated that "If a man acts in a religious way, an ethical way, then he's really a religious man—and it doesn't have a lot to do with how often he gets inside a church." His first cousin was Julius Goldwater, a convert to Buddhism and Jodo Shinshu priest who assisted interned Japanese Americans during World War II.
After he did poorly as a freshman in high school, Goldwater's parents sent him to Staunton Military Academy in Virginia where he played varsity football, basketball, track and swimming, was senior class treasurer and attained the rank of captain. He graduated from the academy in 1928 and enrolled at the University of Arizona. but dropped out after one year. Barry Goldwater is the most recent non-college graduate to be the nominee of a major political party in a presidential election. Goldwater entered the family's business around the time of his father's death in 1930. Six years later, he took over the department store, though he was not particularly enthused about running the business.
Military career
With America's entry into World War II, Goldwater received a reserve commission in the United States Army Air Force. Goldwater trained as a pilot and was assigned to the Ferry Command, a newly formed unit that flew aircraft and supplies to war zones worldwide. He spent most of the war flying between the U.S. and India, via the Azores and North Africa or South America, Nigeria, and Central Africa. Goldwater also flew "the hump", one of the most dangerous routes for supply planes during WWII, as it required aircraft to fly directly over the Himalayas in order to deliver desperately needed supplies to the Republic of China.
Following World War II, Goldwater was a leading proponent of creating the United States Air Force Academy, and later served on the academy's Board of Visitors. The visitor center at the academy is now named in his honor. Goldwater remained in the Army Air Reserve after the war and in 1946, at the rank of Colonel, Goldwater founded the Arizona Air National Guard. Goldwater ordered the Arizona Air National Guard desegregated, two years before the rest of the U.S. military. In the early 1960s, while a senator, he commanded the 9999th Air Reserve Squadron as a major general. Goldwater was instrumental in pushing the Pentagon to support the desegregation of the armed services.
Goldwater remained in the Arizona Air National Guard until 1967, retiring as a Command Pilot with the rank of major general.
As a U.S. Senator, Goldwater had a sign in his office that referenced his military career and mindset: "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots."
Early political career
In a heavily Democratic state, Goldwater became a conservative Republican and a friend of Herbert Hoover. He was outspoken against New Deal liberalism, especially its close ties to labor unions. A pilot, amateur radio operator, outdoorsman and photographer, he criss-crossed Arizona and developed a deep interest in both the natural and the human history of the state. He entered Phoenix politics in 1949, when he was elected to the City Council as part of a nonpartisan team of candidates pledged to clean up widespread prostitution and gambling. The team won every mayoral and council election for the next two decades. Goldwater rebuilt the weak Republican party and was instrumental in electing Howard Pyle as Governor in 1950.
Local support for civil rights
Barry Goldwater was a placid supporter of racial equality. Goldwater integrated his family's business upon taking over control in the 1930s. A lifetime member of the NAACP, Goldwater helped found the group's Arizona chapter. Goldwater saw to it that the Arizona Air National Guard was racially integrated from its inception in 1946, two years before President Truman ordered the military as a whole be integrated (a process that was not completed until 1954). Goldwater worked with Phoenix civil rights leaders to successfully integrate public schools a year prior to Brown v. Board of Education.
Goldwater was an early member and largely unrecognized supporter of the National Urban League Phoenix chapter, going so far as to cover the group's early operating deficits with his personal funds. Though the NAACP denounced Goldwater in the harshest of terms when he ran for president, the Urban League conferred on Goldwater the 1991 Humanitarian Award "for 50 years of loyal service to the Phoenix Urban League." In response to League members who objected, citing Goldwater's vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the League president pointed out that Goldwater had saved the League more than once, saying he preferred to judge a person "on the basis of his daily actions rather than on his voting record."
Senator
Running as a Republican, Goldwater won a narrow upset victory seat in the 1952 Arizona Senate election against veteran Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Ernest McFarland. He won largely by defeating McFarland in his native Maricopa County by 12,600 votes, almost double the overall margin of 6,725 votes.
Goldwater defeated McFarland by a larger margin when he ran again in 1958. Following his strong re-election showing, he became the first Arizona Republican to win a second term in the U.S. Senate. Goldwater's victory was all the more remarkable since it came in a year Democrats gained 13 seats in the Senate.
During his Senate career, Goldwater was regarded as the "Grand Old Man of the Republican Party and one of the nation's most respected exponents of conservatism".
Criticism of the Eisenhower administration
Goldwater was outspoken about the Eisenhower administration, calling some of the policies of the Eisenhower administration too liberal for a Republican president. "Democrats delighted in pointing out that the junior senator was so headstrong that he had gone out his way to criticize the president of his own party." There was a Democratic majority in Congress for most of Eisenhower's career and Goldwater felt that President Dwight Eisenhower was compromising too much with Democrats in order to get legislation passed. Early on in his career as a senator for Arizona, he criticized the $71.8 billion budget that President Eisenhower sent to Congress, stating "Now, however, I am not so sure. A $71.8 billion budget not only shocks me, but it weakens my faith." Goldwater opposed Eisenhower's pick of Earl Warren for Chief Justice of the United States. "The day that Eisenhower appointed Governor Earl Warren of California as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Goldwater did not hesitate to express his misgivings." However, Goldwater was present in the United States Senate on March 1, 1954, when Warren was unanimously confirmed, voted in favor of Eisenhower's nomination of John Marshall Harlan II on March 16, 1955, was present for the unanimous nominations of William J. Brennan Jr. and Charles Evans Whittaker on March 19, 1957, and voted in favor of the nomination of Potter Stewart on May 5, 1959.
Stance on civil rights
In his first year in the Senate, Goldwater was responsible for the desegregation of the Senate cafeteria after he insisted that his black legislative assistant, Katherine Maxwell, be served along with every other Senate employee.
Goldwater and the Eisenhower administration supported the integration of schools in the South, but Goldwater felt the states should choose how they wanted to integrate and should not be forced by the federal government. "Goldwater criticized the use of federal troops. He accused the Eisenhower administration of violating the Constitution by assuming powers reserved by the states. While he agreed that under the law, every state should have integrated its schools, each state should integrate in its own way." There were high-ranking government officials following Goldwater's critical stance on the Eisenhower administration, even an Army General. "Fulbright's startling revelation that military personnel were being indoctrinated with the idea that the policies of the Commander in Chief were treasonous dovetailed with the return to the news of the strange case of General Edwin Walker."
In his 1960 book The Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater stated that he supported the stated objectives of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, but argued that the federal government had no role in ordering states to desegregate public schools. He wrote:"I believe that it is both wise and just for negro children to attend the same schools as whites, and that to deny them this opportunity carries with it strong implications of inferiority. I am not prepared, however, to impose that judgement of mine on the people of Mississippi or South Carolina, or to tell them what methods should be adopted and what pace should be kept in striving toward that goal. That is their business, not mine. I believe that the problem of race relations, like all social and cultural problems, is best handled by the people directly concerned. Social and cultural change, however desirable, should not be effected by the engines of national power."Goldwater voted in favor of both the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but did not vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1960 because he was absent from the chamber while Senate Minority Whip Thomas Kuchel (R–CA) announced that Goldwater would have voted in favor if present. While he did vote in favor of it while in committee, Goldwater reluctantly voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it came to the floor. Later, Goldwater would state that he was mostly in support of the bill, but he disagreed with Titles II and VII, which both dealt with employment, making him imply that the law would end in the government dictating hiring and firing policy for millions of Americans. Congressional Republicans overwhelmingly supported the bill, with Goldwater being joined by only 5 other Republican senators in voting against it. It is likely that Goldwater significantly underestimated the effect this would have, as his vote against the bill hurt him with voters across the country, including from his own party. In the 1990s, Goldwater would call his vote on the Civil Rights Act, "one of his greatest regrets." Goldwater was absent from the Senate during President John F. Kennedy's nomination of Byron White to Supreme Court on April 11, 1962, but was present when Arthur Goldberg was unanimously confirmed.
1964 presidential election
Goldwater's maverick and direct style had made him extremely popular with the Republican Party's suburban conservative voters, based in the South and the senator's native West. Following the success of Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater became the frontrunner for the GOP Presidential nomination to run against his close friend John F. Kennedy. Despite their disagreements on politics, Goldwater and Kennedy had grown to become close friends during the eight years they served alongside each other in the Senate. With Goldwater the clear GOP frontrunner, he and Kennedy began planning to campaign together, holding Lincoln-Douglas style debates across the country and avoiding a race defined by the kind of negative attacks that were increasingly coming to define American politics.
Republican primary
Goldwater was grief-stricken by the assassination of Kennedy and was greatly disappointed that his opponent in 1964 would not be Kennedy but instead his vice president, former Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. Goldwater disliked Johnson, later telling columnist John Kolbe that Johnson had "used every dirty trick in the bag."
At the time of Goldwater's presidential candidacy, the Republican Party was split between its conservative wing (based in the West and South) and moderate/liberal wing, sometimes called Rockefeller Republicans (based in the Northeast and Midwest). Goldwater alarmed even some of his fellow partisans with his brand of staunch fiscal conservatism and militant anti-communism. He was viewed by many moderate and liberal Republicans as being too far on the right wing of the political spectrum to appeal to the mainstream majority necessary to win a national election. As a result, moderate and liberal Republicans recruited a series of opponents, including New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton, to challenge him. Goldwater received solid backing from most of the few Southern Republicans then in politics. A young Birmingham lawyer, John Grenier, secured commitments from 271 of 279 Southern convention delegates to back Goldwater. Grenier would serve as executive director of the national GOP during the Goldwater campaign, the number two position to party chairman Dean Burch of Arizona. Goldwater fought and won a multi-candidate race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.
1964 Republican National Convention
Eisenhower gave his support to Goldwater when he told reporters, "I personally believe that Goldwater is not an extremist as some people have made him, but in any event we're all Republicans." His nomination was staunchly opposed by the so-called Liberal Republicans, who thought Goldwater's demand for active measures to defeat the Soviet Union would foment a nuclear war. In addition to Rockefeller, prominent Republican office-holders refused to endorse Goldwater's candidacy, including both Republican Senators from New York Kenneth B. Keating and Jacob Javits, Pennsylvania governor William Scranton, Michigan governor George Romney and Congressman John V. Lindsay (NY-17). Rockefeller Republican Jackie Robinson walked out of the convention in disgust over Goldwater's nomination. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who was Richard Nixon's running mate in 1960, also opposed Goldwater, calling his proposal of realigning the Democrat and Republican parties into two Liberal and Conservative parties "totally abhorrent" and thought that no one in their right mind should oppose the federal government in having a role in the future of America.
In the face of such opposition, Goldwater delivered a well-received acceptance speech. According to the author Lee Edwards: "[Goldwater] devoted more care [to it] than to any other speech in his political career. And with good reason: he would deliver it to the largest and most attentive audience of his life." Journalist John Adams commented: "his acceptance speech was bold, reflecting his conservative views, but not irrational. Rather than shrinking from those critics who accuse him of extremism, Goldwater challenged them head-on" in his acceptance speech at the 1964 Republican Convention. In his own words:
His paraphrase of Cicero was included at the suggestion of Harry V. Jaffa, though the speech was primarily written by Karl Hess. Because of President Johnson's popularity, Goldwater refrained from attacking the president directly. He did not mention Johnson by name at all in his convention speech.
Although raised as an Episcopalian, Goldwater was the first candidate of Jewish descent, through his father, to be nominated for president by a major American party.
General election campaign
After securing the Republican presidential nomination, Goldwater chose his political ally, RNC Chairman William E. Miller to be his running mate. Goldwater joked he chose Miller because "he drives Johnson nuts". In choosing Miller, Goldwater opted for a running mate who was ideologically aligned with his own conservative wing of the Republican party. Miller balanced the ticket in other ways, being a practicing Catholic from the East Coast. Miller had low name recognition but was popular in the Republican party and viewed as a skilled political strategist.
Former U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, a moderate Republican from Connecticut, was a friend of Goldwater and supported him in the general election campaign.
Future Chief Justice of the United States and fellow Arizonan William H. Rehnquist also first came to the attention of national Republicans through his work as a legal adviser to Goldwater's presidential campaign. Rehnquist had begun his law practice in 1953 in the firm of Denison Kitchel of Phoenix, Goldwater's national campaign manager and friend of nearly three decades.
Goldwater's advocacy of active interventionism to prevent the spread of communism and defend American values and allies led to effective counterattacks from Lyndon B. Johnson and his supporters, who said that Goldwater's militancy would have dire consequences, possibly even nuclear war. In a May 1964 speech, Goldwater suggested that nuclear weapons should be treated more like conventional weapons and used in Vietnam, specifically that they should have been used at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 to defoliate trees. Regarding Vietnam, Goldwater charged that Johnson's policy was devoid of "goal, course, or purpose," leaving "only sudden death in the jungles and the slow strangulation of freedom". Goldwater's rhetoric on nuclear war was viewed by many as quite uncompromising, a view buttressed by off-hand comments such as, "Let's lob one into the men's room at the Kremlin." He also advocated that field commanders in Vietnam and Europe should be given the authority to use tactical nuclear weapons (which he called "small conventional nuclear weapons") without presidential confirmation.
Goldwater countered the Johnson attacks by criticizing the administration for its perceived ethical lapses, and stating in a commercial that "we, as a nation, are not far from the kind of moral decay that has brought on the fall of other nations and people.... I say it is time to put conscience back in government. And by good example, put it back in all walks of American life." Goldwater campaign commercials included statements of support by actor Raymond Massey and moderate Republican senator Margaret Chase Smith.
Before the 1964 election, Fact magazine, published by Ralph Ginzburg, ran a special issue titled, "The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater". The two main articles contended that Goldwater was mentally unfit to be president. The magazine supported this claim with the results of a poll of board-certified psychiatrists. Fact had mailed questionnaires to 12,356 psychiatrists, receiving responses from 2,417, of whom 1,189 said Goldwater was mentally incapable of holding the office of president. Most of the other respondents declined to diagnose Goldwater because they had not clinically interviewed him but said that, although not psychologically unfit to preside, Goldwater would be negligent in the role.
After the election, Goldwater sued the publisher, the editor and the magazine for libel in Goldwater v. Ginzburg. "Although the jury awarded Goldwater only $1.00 in compensatory damages against all three defendants, it went on to award him punitive damages of $25,000 against Ginzburg and $50,000 against Fact magazine, Inc." According to Warren Boroson, then-managing editor of Fact and later a financial columnist, the main biography of Goldwater in the magazine was written by David Bar-Illan, the Israeli pianist.
Political advertising
A Democratic campaign advertisement known as Daisy showed a young girl counting daisy petals, from one to ten. Immediately following this scene, a voiceover counted down from ten to one. The child's face was shown as a still photograph followed by images of nuclear explosions and mushroom clouds. The campaign advertisement ended with a plea to vote for Johnson, implying that Goldwater (though not mentioned by name) would provoke a nuclear war if elected. The advertisement, which featured only a few spoken words and relied on imagery for its emotional impact, was one of the most provocative in American political campaign history, and many analysts credit it as being the birth of the modern style of "negative political ads" on television. The ad aired only once and was immediately pulled, but it was then shown many times by local television stations covering the controversy.
Goldwater did not have ties to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), but he was publicly endorsed by members of the organization. Lyndon B. Johnson exploited this association during the elections, but Goldwater barred the KKK from supporting him and denounced them.
Throughout the presidential campaign, Goldwater refused to appeal to racial tensions or backlash against civil rights. After the outbreak of the Harlem riot of 1964, Goldwater privately gathered news reporters on his campaign plane and said that if anyone attempted to sow racial violence on his political behalf, he would withdraw from the presidential raceeven if it was the day before the election.
Past comments came back to haunt Goldwater throughout the campaign. He had once called the Eisenhower administration "a dime-store New Deal", and the former president never fully forgave him. However, Eisenhower did film a television commercial with Goldwater. Eisenhower qualified his voting for Goldwater in November by remarking that he had voted not specifically for Goldwater, but for the Republican Party. In December 1961, Goldwater had told a news conference that "sometimes I think this country would be better off if we could just saw off the Eastern Seaboard and let it float out to sea." That comment boomeranged on him during the campaign in the form of a Johnson television commercial, as did remarks about making Social Security voluntary, and statements in Tennessee about selling the Tennessee Valley Authority, a large local New Deal employer.
The Goldwater campaign spotlighted Ronald Reagan, who appeared in a campaign ad. In turn, Reagan gave a stirring, nationally televised speech, "A Time for Choosing", in support of Goldwater.
Results
Goldwater only won his home state of Arizona and five states in the Deep South. The Southern states, traditionally Democratic up to that time, voted Republican primarily as a statement of opposition to the Civil Rights Act, which had been signed into law by Johnson earlier that year. Despite Johnson's support for the Civil Rights Act, the bill received split support from Congressional Democrats due to southerner opposition. In contrast, Congressional Republicans overwhelmingly supported the bill, with Goldwater being joined by only 5 other Republican senators in voting against it.
In the end, Goldwater received 38% of the popular vote and carried just six states: Arizona (with 51% of the popular vote) and the core states of the Deep South: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. In carrying Georgia by a margin of 54–45%, Goldwater became the first Republican nominee to win the state.
Goldwater's poor showing pulled down many supporters. Of the 57 Republican Congressmen who endorsed Goldwater before the convention, 20 were defeated for reelection, along with many promising young Republicans. In contrast, Republican Congressman John Lindsay (NY-17), who refused to endorse Goldwater, was handily re-elected in a district where Democrats held a 10% overall advantage. On the other hand, the defeat of so many older politicians created openings for young conservatives to move up the ladder. While the loss of moderate Republicans was temporary—they were back by 1966—Goldwater also permanently pulled many conservative Southerners and whites out of the New Deal Coalition.
According to Steve Kornacki of Salon, "Goldwater broke through and won five [Southern] states—the best showing in the region for a GOP candidate since Reconstruction. In Mississippi—where Franklin D. Roosevelt had won nearly 100 percent of the vote 28 years earlier—Goldwater claimed a staggering 87 percent." It has frequently been argued that Goldwater's strong performance in Southern states previously regarded as Democratic strongholds foreshadowed a larger shift in electoral trends in the coming decades that would make the South a Republican bastion (an end to the "Solid South")—first in presidential politics and eventually at the congressional and state levels, as well. Also, Goldwater's uncompromising promotion of freedom was the start of a continuing shift in American politics from liberalism to a conservative economic philosophy.
Return to the Senate
Goldwater remained popular in Arizona, and in the 1968 Senate election he was elected to the seat of retiring Senator Carl Hayden. He was reelected in 1974 and 1980.
Throughout the late 1970s, as the conservative wing under Ronald Reagan gained control of the Republican Party, Goldwater concentrated on his Senate duties, especially in military affairs. Goldwater purportedly did not like Richard Nixon on either a political or personal level, later calling the California Republican "the most dishonest individual I have ever met in my life". Accordingly, he played little part in Nixon's election or administration, but he helped force Nixon's resignation in 1974. At the height of the Watergate scandal, Goldwater met with Nixon at the White House and urged him to resign. At the time, Nixon's impeachment by the House of Representatives was imminent and Goldwater warned him that fewer than 10 Republican senators would vote against conviction.
Despite being a difficult year for Republicans candidates, the 1974 election saw Goldwater easily reelected over his Democratic opponent, Jonathan Marshall, the publisher of The Scottsdale Progress.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention, Goldwater helped block Nelson Rockefeller's renomination as vice president. When Reagan challenged Gerald Ford for the presidential nomination in 1976, Goldwater endorsed the incumbent Ford, looking for consensus rather than conservative idealism. As one historian notes, "The Arizonan had lost much of his zest for battle."
In 1979, when President Carter normalized relations with Communist China, Goldwater and some other Senators sued him in the Supreme Court, arguing that the President could not terminate the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty with the Republic of China (Taiwan) without the approval of Congress. The case, Goldwater v. Carter (444 U.S. 996), was dismissed by the court as a political question.
On June 9, 1969, Goldwater was absent during President Nixon's nomination of Warren E. Burger as Chief Justice of the United States while Senate Minority Whip Hugh Scott announced that Goldwater would have voted in favor if present. Goldwater voted in favor of Nixon's failed Supreme Court nomination of Clement Haynsworth on November 21, 1969, and a few months later, Goldwater voted in favor of Nixon's failed Supreme Court nomination of Harrold Carswell on April 8, 1970. The following month, Goldwater was absent when Nixon nominee Harry Blackmun was confirmed on May 12, 1970, while Senate Minority Whip Robert P. Griffin announced that Goldwater would have voted in favor if present. On December 6, 1971, Goldwater voted in favor of Nixon's nomination of Lewis F. Powell Jr., and on December 10, Goldwater voted in favor of Nixon's nomination of William Rehnquist as Associate Justice. On December 17, 1975, Goldwater voted in favor of President Gerald Ford's nomination of John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court.
Final campaign and Senate term
With his fourth Senate term due to end in January 1981, Goldwater seriously considered retiring from the Senate in 1980 before deciding to run for one final term. It was a surprisingly tough campaign for re-election. Goldwater was viewed by some as out of touch and vulnerable for several reasons, chiefly because he had planned to retire in 1981 and he had not visited many areas of Arizona outside of Phoenix and Tucson. Additionally, his Democrat challenger, Bill Schulz, proved to be a formidable opponent. A former Republican and a wealthy real estate developer, Schultz's campaign slogan was "Energy for the Eighties." Arizona's changing population also hurt Goldwater. The state's population had greatly increased, and a large portion of the electorate had not lived in the state at the time Goldwater was previously elected, meaning unlike most incumbents, many voters were less familiar with Goldwater's actual beliefs. Goldwater spent most of the campaign on the defensive. Although he was eventually declared as the winning candidate in the general election by a very narrow margin, receiving 49.5% of the vote to Schulz's 48.4%, early returns on election night indicated that Schulz would win. The counting of votes continued through the night and into the next morning. At around daybreak, Goldwater learned that he had been reelected thanks to absentee ballots, which were among the last to be counted.
Goldwater's close victory in 1980 came despite Reagan's 61% landslide over Jimmy Carter in Arizona. Despite Goldwater's struggles, in 1980, Republicans were able to pick up 12 senate seats, regaining control of the chamber for the first time since 1955, when Goldwater was in his first term. Goldwater was now in the most powerful position he had ever been in the Senate. In October 1983, Goldwater voted against the legislation establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday.
On September 21, 1981, Goldwater voted in favor of Reagan's Supreme Court nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor. Goldwater was absent during the nominations of William Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the United States and Antonin Scalia as Associate Justice on September 17, 1986.
After the new Senate convened in January 1981, Goldwater became chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In this role he clashed with the Reagan administration in April 1984 when he discovered that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been mining the waters of Nicaragua since February, something that he had first denied when the matter was raised. In a note to the CIA director William Casey, Goldwater denounced what he called an "act of war", saying that "this is no way to run a railroad" as he stated crossly that only Congress had the power to declare war and accused the CIA of illegally mining Nicaraguan waters without the permission of Congress. Goldwater concluded, "The President has asked us to back his foreign policy. Bill, how can we back his foreign policy when we don't know what the hell he is doing? Lebanon, yes, we all knew that he sent troops over there. But mine the harbors in Nicaragua? This is an act violating international law. It is an act of war. For the life of me, I don't see how we are going to explain it." Goldwater felt compelled to issue an apology on the floor of the Senate because the Senate Intelligence Committee had failed in its duties to oversee the CIA as he stated, saying, "I am forced to apologize for the members of my committee because I did not know the facts on this case. And I apologize to all the members of the Senate for the same reason". Goldwater subsequently voted for a Congressional resolution condemning the mining.
In his 1980 Senate reelection campaign, Goldwater won support from religious conservatives but in his final term voted consistently to uphold legal abortion and in 1981 gave a speech on how he was angry about the bullying of American politicians by religious organizations and would "fight them every step of the way".
He introduced the 1984 Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act, which allowed local governments to require the transmission of public, educational, and government access (PEG) channels, barred cable operators from exercising editorial control over the content of programs carried on PEG channels and absolved them from liability for their content. On May 12, 1986, Goldwater was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan.
In response to Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell's opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, of which Falwell had said, "Every good Christian should be concerned", Goldwater retorted, "Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass." According to John Dean, Goldwater actually suggested that good Christians ought to kick Falwell in the "nuts", but the news media "changed the anatomical reference". Goldwater also had harsh words for his one-time political protégé, President Reagan, particularly after the Iran–Contra Affair became public in 1986. Journalist Robert MacNeil, a friend of Goldwater's from the 1964 presidential campaign, recalled interviewing him in his office shortly afterward. "He was sitting in his office with his hands on his cane... and he said to me, 'Well, aren't you going to ask me about the Iran arms sales?' It had just been announced that the Reagan administration had sold arms to Iran. And I said, 'Well, if I asked you, what would you say?' He said, 'I'd say it's the god-damned stupidest foreign policy blunder this country's ever made! Aside from the Iran–Contra scandal, Goldwater thought nonetheless that Reagan was a good president.
Retirement
Goldwater said later that the close result in 1980 convinced him not to run again. He retired in 1987, serving as Chair of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees in his final term. Despite his reputation as a firebrand in the 1960s, by the end of his career, he was considered a stabilizing influence in the Senate, one of the most respected members of either major party. Although Goldwater remained staunchly anti-communist and "hawkish" on military issues, he was a key supporter of the fight for ratification of the Panama Canal Treaty in the 1970s, which would give control of the canal zone to the Republic of Panama. His most important legislative achievement may have been the Goldwater–Nichols Act, which reorganized the U.S. military's senior-command structure.
Policies
Goldwater became most associated with anti-union work and anti-communism; he was a supporter of the conservative coalition in Congress. His work on labor issues led to Congress passing major anti-labor reforms in 1957, and subsequently a campaign by the AFL–CIO to challenge his 1958 reelection bid. He voted against the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954, who had been making unfound claims about communists infiltrating the U.S. State Department during the Red Scare, but never actually accused any individual of being a communist or Soviet agent. Goldwater emphasized his strong opposition to the worldwide spread of communism in his 1960 book The Conscience of a Conservative. The book became an important reference text in conservative political circles.
In 1964, Goldwater ran a conservative campaign that emphasized states' rights. Goldwater's 1964 campaign was a magnet for conservatives since he opposed interference by the federal government in state affairs. Goldwater voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but did not vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1960 because he was absent from the chamber, with Senate Minority Whip Thomas Kuchel (R–CA) announcing that Goldwater would have voted in favor if present. Though Goldwater had supported the original Senate version of the bill, Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His public stance was based on his view that Article II and Article VII of the Act interfered with the rights of private persons to do or not to do business with whomever they chose and believed that the private employment provisions of the Act would lead to racial quotas. In the segregated city of Phoenix in the 1950s, he had quietly supported civil rights for blacks, but would not let his name be used.
All this appealed to white Southern Democrats, and Goldwater was the first Republican to win the electoral votes of all of the Deep South states (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana) since Reconstruction. However, Goldwater's vote on the Civil Rights Act proved devastating to his campaign everywhere outside the South (besides Dixie, Goldwater won only in Arizona, his home state), contributing to his landslide defeat in 1964.
While Goldwater had been depicted by his opponents in the Republican primaries as a representative of a conservative philosophy that was extreme and alien, his voting records show that his positions were in generally aligned with those of other Republicans in the Congress.
Goldwater fought in 1971 to stop U.S. funding of the United Nations after the People's Republic of China was admitted to the organization. He said:
Goldwater and the revival of American conservatism
Although Goldwater was not as important in the American conservative movement as Ronald Reagan after 1965, he shaped and redefined the movement from the late 1950s to 1964. Arizona Senator John McCain, who succeeded Goldwater in the Senate in 1987, said of Goldwater's legacy, "He transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan." Columnist George Will remarked that Reagan's victory in the 1980 presidential election was the metaphoric culmination of 16 years of counting the votes for Goldwater from the 1964 presidential race.
The Republican Party recovered from the 1964 election debacle, acquiring 47 seats in the House of Representatives in the 1966 mid-term election. In January 1969, after Goldwater had been re-elected to the Senate, he wrote an article in the National Review "affirming that he [was] not against liberals, that liberals are needed as a counterweight to conservatism, and that he had in mind a fine liberal like Max Lerner."
Goldwater was a strong supporter of environmental protection. He explained his position in 1969:
Later life
By the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan as president and the growing involvement of the religious right in conservative politics, Goldwater's libertarian views on personal issues were revealed; he believed that they were an integral part of true conservatism. Goldwater viewed abortion as a matter of personal choice and as such supported abortion rights. As a passionate defender of personal liberty, he saw the religious right's views as an encroachment on personal privacy and individual liberties. Although he voted against making Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday in his last term as senator, Goldwater later expressed support for it.
In 1987, he received the Langley Gold Medal from the Smithsonian Institution. In 1988, Princeton University's American Whig-Cliosophic Society awarded Goldwater the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service in recognition of his career.
After his retirement in 1987, Goldwater described Arizona Governor Evan Mecham as "hardheaded" and called on him to resign, and two years later stated that the Republican party had been taken over by a "bunch of kooks".
During the 1988 presidential campaign, he told vice-presidential nominee Dan Quayle at a campaign event in Arizona, "I want you to go back and tell George Bush to start talking about the issues."
Some of Goldwater's statements in the 1990s alienated many social conservatives. He endorsed Democrat Karan English in an Arizona congressional race, urged Republicans to lay off Bill Clinton over the Whitewater scandal, and criticized the military's ban on homosexuals, saying, "Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar", and, "You don't need to be 'straight' to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight." A few years before his death, he addressed establishment Republicans by saying, "Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."
In a 1994 interview with The Washington Post, Goldwater said:
Also in 1994, he repeated his concerns about religious groups attempting to gain control of the Republican party, saying,
In 1996, he told Bob Dole, whose own presidential campaign received lukewarm support from conservative Republicans, "We're the new liberals of the Republican party. Can you imagine that?" In that same year, with Senator Dennis DeConcini, Goldwater endorsed an Arizona initiative to legalize medical marijuana against the countervailing opinion of social conservatives.
Personal life
In 1934, Goldwater married Margaret "Peggy" Johnson, daughter of a prominent industrialist from Muncie, Indiana. The couple had four children: Joanne (born January 18, 1936), Barry (born July 15, 1938), Michael (born March 15, 1940), and Peggy (born July 27, 1944). Goldwater became a widower in 1985 and, in 1992, he married Susan Wechsler, a nurse 32 years his junior. Goldwater's son Barry Goldwater Jr. served as a Republican Congressman, representing California from 1969 to 1983.
Goldwater's grandson, Ty Ross, is an interior designer and former Zoli model. Ross, who is openly gay and HIV positive, has been credited as inspiring the elder Goldwater "to become an octogenarian proponent of gay civil rights".
Goldwater ran track and cross country in high school, where he specialized in the 880 yard run. His parents strongly encouraged him to compete in these sports, to his dismay. In 1940, he became one of the first people to run the Colorado River recreationally through the Grand Canyon, participating as an oarsman on Norman Nevills' second commercial river trip. Goldwater joined them in Green River, Utah, and rowed his own boat down to Lake Mead. In 1970, the Arizona Historical Foundation published the daily journal Goldwater had maintained on the Grand Canyon journey, including his photographs, in a 209-page volume titled Delightful Journey.
In 1963, he joined the Arizona Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was also a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and Sigma Chi fraternity. He belonged to both the York Rite and Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and was awarded the 33rd degree in the Scottish Rite.
Hobbies and interests
Amateur radio
Goldwater was an avid amateur radio operator from the early 1920s onwards, with the call signs 6BPI, K3UIG and K7UGA. The last is now used by an Arizona club honoring him as a commemorative call. During the Vietnam War he was a Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) operator.
Goldwater was a spokesman for amateur radio and its enthusiasts. Beginning in 1969, and for the rest of his life, he appeared in many educational and promotional films (and later videos) about the hobby that were produced for the American Radio Relay League (the United States national society representing the interests of radio amateurs) by such producers as Dave Bell (W6AQ), ARRL Southwest Director John R. Griggs (W6KW), Alan Kaul (W6RCL), Forrest Oden (N6ENV), and Roy Neal (K6DUE). His first appearance was in Dave Bell's The World of Amateur Radio where Goldwater discussed the history of the hobby and demonstrated a live contact with Antarctica. His last on-screen appearance dealing with "ham radio" was in 1994, explaining a then-upcoming, Earth-orbiting ham radio relay satellite.
Electronics was a hobby for Goldwater beyond amateur radio. He enjoyed assembling Heathkits, completing more than 100 and often visiting their maker in Benton Harbor, Michigan, to buy more, before the company exited the kit business in 1992.
Kachina dolls
In 1916, Goldwater visited the Hopi reservation with Phoenix architect John Rinker Kibby and obtained his first kachina doll. Eventually his doll collection included 437 items and was presented in 1969 to the Heard Museum in Phoenix.
Photography
Goldwater was an amateur photographer and, in his estate, left some 15,000 of his images to three Arizona institutions. He was keen on candid photography. He became interested in the hobby after receiving a camera as a gift from his wife on their first Christmas together. He was known to use a 4×5 Graflex, Rolleiflex, 16 mm Bell and Howell motion picture camera, and 35 mm Nikkormat FT. He was a member of the Royal Photographic Society from 1941, becoming a Life Member in 1948.
For decades, he contributed photographs of his home state to Arizona Highways and was known for his Western landscapes and pictures of native Americans in the United States. Three books with his photographs are People and Places, from 1967; Barry Goldwater and the Southwest, from 1976; and Delightful Journey, first published in 1940 and reprinted in 1970. Ansel Adams wrote a foreword to the 1976 book.
Goldwater's photography interests occasionally crossed over with his political career. John F. Kennedy, as president, was known to invite former congressional colleagues to the White House for a drink. On one occasion, Goldwater brought his camera and photographed President Kennedy. When Kennedy received the photo, he returned it to Goldwater, with the inscription: "For Barry Goldwater—Whom I urge to follow the career for which he has shown such talent—photography!—from his friend—John Kennedy." This quip became a classic of American political humor after it was relayed by humorist Bennett Cerf. The photo itself was prized by Goldwater for the rest of his life and sold for $17,925 in a 2010 Heritage auction.
Son Michael Prescott Goldwater formed the Goldwater Family Foundation with the goal of making his father's photography available via the internet. (Barry Goldwater Photographs) was launched in September 2006 to coincide with the HBO documentary Mr. Conservative, produced by granddaughter CC Goldwater.
UFOs
On March 28, 1975, Goldwater wrote to Shlomo Arnon: "The subject of UFOs has interested me for some long time. About ten or twelve years ago I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where the information has been stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied this request. It is still classified above Top Secret." Goldwater further wrote that there were rumors the evidence would be released, and that he was "just as anxious to see this material as you are, and I hope we will not have to wait much longer". The April 25, 1988, issue of The New Yorker carried an interview with Goldwater in which he recounted efforts to gain access to the room. He did so again in a 1994 Larry King Live interview, saying:
Death
Goldwater's public appearances ended in late 1996 after he had a massive stroke. Family members disclosed he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. He died on May 29, 1998, at the age of 89, at his long-time home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, of complications from the stroke. His funeral was co-officiated by both a Christian minister and a rabbi. His ashes were buried at the Episcopal Christ Church of the Ascension in Paradise Valley, Arizona. A memorial statue set in a small park has been erected to honor the memory of Goldwater in that town, near his former home and current resting place.
Legacy
Buildings and monuments
Among the buildings and monuments named after Barry Goldwater are the Barry M. Goldwater Terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Goldwater Memorial Park in Paradise Valley, Arizona, the Barry Goldwater Air Force Academy Visitor Center at the United States Air Force Academy, and Barry Goldwater High School in northern Phoenix. In 2010, former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, himself a Goldwater scholar and supporter, founded the Goldwater Women's Tennis Classic Tournament to be held annually at the Phoenix Country Club in Phoenix. On February 11, 2015, a statue of Goldwater by Deborah Copenhaver Fellows was unveiled by U.S. House and Senate leaders at a dedication ceremony in National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Barry Goldwater Peak is the highest peak in the White Tank Mountains.
Goldwater Scholarship
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986. Its goal is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.
The Scholarship is widely considered the most prestigious award in the U.S. conferred upon undergraduates studying the sciences. It is awarded to about 300 students (college sophomores and juniors) nationwide in the amount of $7,500 per academic year (for their senior year, or junior and senior years). It honors Goldwater's keen interest in science and technology.
Documentary
Goldwater's granddaughter, CC Goldwater, has co-produced with longtime friend and independent film producer Tani L. Cohen a documentary on Goldwater's life, Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, first shown on HBO on September 18, 2006.
In popular culture
In his song "I Shall Be Free No. 10", Bob Dylan refers to Goldwater: "I'm liberal to a degree, I want everybody to be free. But if you think I'll let Barry Goldwater move in next door and marry my daughter, you must think I'm crazy." In the 1965 film The Bedford Incident, the actor Richard Widmark playing the film's antagonist, Captain Eric Finlander of the fictional destroyer USS Bedford, modelled his character's mannerisms and rhetorical style after Goldwater.
Military awards
Command Pilot Badge
Service Pilot Badge (former U.S. Army Air Forces rating)
Legion of Merit
Air Medal
Army Commendation Medal
American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal with campaign star
World War II Victory Medal
Armed Forces Reserve Medal with three bronze hourglasses
Other awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1986)
American Legion Distinguished Service Medal
Marconi Gold Medal, Veteran Wireless Operators Association (1968)
Marconi Medal of Achievement (1968)
Bob Hope Five Star Civilian Award (1976)
Good Citizenship Award, Daughters of the American Revolution
33rd Degree Mason
The Douglas MacArthur Memorial Award
Top Gun Award, Luke Air Force Base
Order of Fifinella Award – Champion of the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) (1978)
Thomas D. White National Defense Award 1978
Conservative Digest Award (1980)
Senator John Warner Award for Public Service in the field of Nuclear Disarmament (1983)
Alexander M. Haig, Jr. Memorial Award (1983)
National Congress of American Indians Congressional Award (1985)
Space Pioneer Award, Sixth Space Development Conference (1987)
James Madison Award, American Whig-Cliosophic Society (1988)
National Aviation Hall of Fame (1982)
Books
The Conscience of a Conservative (1960)
Why Not Victory? A Fresh Look at American Policy (1963)
Where I Stand (1964)
Conscience of a Majority (1971)
The Coming Breakpoint (1976)
Arizona (1977)
With No Apologies: The Personal and Political Memoirs of Senator Barry M. Goldwater (1980)
Goldwater (1988)
Relatives
Goldwater's son Barry Goldwater Jr. served as a Congressman from California from 1969 to 1983. He was the first Congressman to serve while having a father in the Senate. Goldwater's uncle Morris Goldwater served in the Arizona territorial and state legislatures and as mayor of Prescott, Arizona. Goldwater's nephew Don Goldwater sought the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona in 2006, but he was defeated by Len Munsil.
See also
Electoral history of Barry Goldwater
Goldwater Institute
Goldwater rule
Notes
References
Primary
Goldwater, Barry M. with Jack Casserly. Goldwater (Doubleday, 1988), autobiography.
by Goldwater's speechwriter
Shadegg, Stephen. What Happened to Goldwater? The Inside Story of the 1964 Republican Campaign (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965).
White, F. Clifton. Suite 3505: The Story of the Draft Goldwater Movement (Arlington House, 1967).
Secondary
Annunziata, Frank. "The Revolt Against the Welfare State: Goldwater Conservatism and the Election of 1964." Presidential Studies Quarterly 10.2 (1980): 254–265. online
Conley, Brian M. The Rise of the Republican Right: From Goldwater to Reagan (Routledge, 2019).
Conley, Brian M. "The Politics of Party Renewal: The 'Service Party' and the Origins of the Post-Goldwater Republican Right." Studies in American Political Development 27.1 (2013): 51+ online.
Crespi, Irving. "The Structural Basis for Right-Wing Conservatism: The Goldwater Case," Public Opinion Quarterly 29#4 (Winter, 1965–66): 523–543.
Cunningham, Sean P. "Man of the West: Goldwater's Reflection in the Oasis of Frontier Conservatism." Journal of Arizona History 61.1 (2020): 79–88.
, the standard scholarly biography
Jurdem, Laurence R. "'The Media Were Not Completely Fair to You': Foreign Policy, the Press and the 1964 Goldwater Campaign." Journal of Arizona History 61.1 (2020): 161–180.
Mann, Robert. Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds: LBJ, Barry Goldwater and the Ad That Changed American Politics (Louisiana State UP, 2011).
Middendorf, J. William. A Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement (Basic Books, 2006).
Schuparra, Kurt. "Barry Goldwater and Southern California Conservatism: Ideology, Image and Myth in the 1964 California Republican Presidential Primary." Southern California Quarterly 74.3 (1992): 277–298. online
Shepard, Christopher. "A True Jeffersonian: The Western Conservative Principles of Barry Goldwater and His Vote Against the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Journal of the West. 49, no. 1, (2010): 34–40
Shermer, Elizabeth Tandy (ed.) (2013). Barry Goldwater and the Remaking of the American Political Landscape. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2013.
Smith, Dean (1986). The Goldwaters of Arizona, includes brief coverage of the parents.
Taylor, Andrew. "Barry Goldwater: insurgent conservatism as constitutive rhetoric." Journal of Political Ideologies 21, no. 3 (2016): 242–260. online
Taylor, Andrew (2018). "The Oratory of Barry Goldwater." in Republican Orators from Eisenhower to Trump. Palgrave Macmillan. 41–66.
Thorburn, Wayne. "Barry's Boys and Goldwater Girls: Barry Goldwater and the Mobilization of Young Conservatives in the Early 1960s." Journal of Arizona History 61.1 (2020): 89–107. excerpt
Tønnessen, Alf Tomas. "Goldwater, Bush, Ryan and the Failed Attempts by Conservative Republicans to Reform Federal Entitlement Programs." American Studies in Scandinavia 47.2 (2015): 47–62 online.
Young, Nancy Beck (2019). Two Suns of the Southwest: Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater, and the 1964 Battle between Liberalism and Conservatism. UP of Kansas. online
Further reading
Flynn, John T. Goldwater Either/or: A Self-portrait Based Upon His Own Words. Public Affairs Press, 1949.
online
External links
"Barry Goldwater, Presidential Contender" from C-SPAN's The Contenders
The Goldwater Institute
Speech delivered by Barry Goldwater to the Comstock Club of Sacramento, California on June 22, 1966
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Conservatism in the United States |
4800 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon%205 | Babylon 5 | Babylon 5 is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Television. After the successful airing of a test pilot movie on February 22, 1993, Babylon 5: The Gathering, Warner Bros. commissioned the series for production in May 1993 as part of its Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). The show premiered in the US on January 26, 1994, and ran for five 22-episode seasons.
The series follows the human military staff and alien diplomats stationed on a space station, Babylon 5, built in the aftermath of several major inter-species wars as a neutral ground for galactic diplomacy and trade. Major plotlines included intra-race intrigue and upheaval, inter-race wars and their aftermaths, and embroilment in a millennial cyclic conflict between ancient races. The human characters, in particular, become pivotal to the resistance against Earth's descent into totalitarianism.
Many episodes focused on the effect of wider events on individual characters, with episodes containing themes such as personal change, loss, oppression, corruption and redemption.
Unusual at the time of its airing, Babylon 5 was conceived as a "novel for television" with a pre-planned five-year story arc, each episode envisioned as a "chapter". Whereas contemporaneous television shows tended to maintain the overall status quo, confining conflicts to individual episodes, Babylon 5 featured story arcs which spanned multiple episodes and even seasons, effecting permanent changes to the series universe. Tie-in novels, comic books, and short stories were also developed to play a significant canonical part in the overall story.
Straczynski announced plans for a reboot of the series in September 2021 in conjunction with Warner Bros. Television. An animated feature-length, direct-to-video film, Babylon 5: The Road Home, was released in August 2023.
Setting
The main Babylon 5 story arc occurs between the years 2257 and 2262. The show depicts a future where Earth has a unified Earth government and has gained the technology for faster-than-light travel using 'jump gates', a kind of wormhole technology allowing transport through the alternate dimension of hyperspace. The Colonies within the Solar System and beyond make up the Earth Alliance, which has established contact with other spacefaring species. Ten years before the series is set, Earth barely escaped destruction by the technologically superior Minbari, who sought revenge after an Earth starship unwittingly killed their leader during first contact, only for them to unexpectedly surrender on the brink of victory. Earth has since established peaceful relationships with them and the Earth Alliance has become a significant and generally respected power within the galactic community.
Among the other species are the imperialist Centauri; the Narn, who only recently gained independence from the Centauri empire; and the mysterious, powerful Vorlons. Several dozen less powerful species from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds also have diplomatic contact with the major races, including the Drazi, Brakiri, Vree, Markab, and pak'ma'ra. An ancient and secretive race, the Shadows, unknown to humans but documented in many other races' religious texts, malevolently influence events to bring chaos and war among the known species. Among the chaos the Shadows cause is a Centauri descent into irredentism and Earth sliding into totalitarianism under President Morgan Clark.
The Babylon 5 space station is located in the Epsilon Eridani system, at the fifth Lagrangian point of the fictional planet Epsilon III and its moon. It is an O'Neill cylinder long and in diameter. The station is the last of its line; the first three stations were all destroyed during construction, while Babylon 4 was completed but mysteriously vanished shortly after being made operational. It contains living areas which accommodate various alien species, providing differing atmospheres and gravities. Human visitors to the alien sectors are shown using breathing equipment and other measures to tolerate the conditions.
Cast
Regular cast
Babylon 5 featured an ensemble cast which changed over the course of the show's run:
Michael O'Hare as Commander (later Ambassador) Jeffrey Sinclair (season 1; guest seasons 2–3): The first commander of Babylon 5, later appointed Earth's ambassador to Minbar.
Bruce Boxleitner as Captain (later President) John Sheridan (seasons 2–5): Sinclair's replacement on Babylon 5 after his reassignment and a central figure of several prophecies within the Shadow war. Becomes president of the newly formed Interstellar Alliance in season 5.
Claudia Christian as Lt. Commander (later promoted to Commander) Susan Ivanova (seasons 1–4, guest season 5): Second in command of Babylon 5.
Jerry Doyle as Michael Garibaldi: Babylon 5s Chief of Security for seasons 1-4; leads the covert intelligence arm of the Interstellar Alliance in season 5.
Mira Furlan as Delenn: The Minbari ambassador to Babylon 5. Born Minbari, she uses a special artifact at the start of the second season to become a Minbari-human hybrid, and later marries Captain Sheridan.
Richard Biggs as Doctor Stephen Franklin: Babylon 5s chief medical officer.
Andrea Thompson as Talia Winters (season 1–2): A commercial Psi-Corps telepath who works aboard the station.
Stephen Furst as Vir Cotto: Diplomatic aide to Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari.
Bill Mumy as Lennier: Diplomatic aide to Minbari Ambassador Delenn.
Tracy Scoggins as Captain Elizabeth Lochley (season 5): Babylon 5s station commander following Ivanova's departure and Sheridan's resignation.
Jason Carter as Marcus Cole (seasons 3–4): A Ranger, one of a group of covert agents who fight against the Shadows.
Caitlin Brown (season 1, guest season 5) and Mary Kay Adams (season 2) as Na'Toth: Diplomatic aide to Narn Ambassador G'Kar.
Robert Rusler as Warren Keffer (season 2): Commander of the Zeta Wing, one of Babylon 5s small fighter wings.
Jeff Conaway as Zack Allan (guest season 2, main seasons 3–5): A sergeant in the Babylon 5 security force, replaces Garibaldi as Chief of Security by season 5.
Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander (original TV movie, guest seasons 2–3, main seasons 4–5): A commercial Psi-Corps telepath who takes over for Talia when she leaves the station.
Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar: The Narn ambassador to Babylon 5.
Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari: The Centauri ambassador to Babylon 5.
Recurring guests
Wayne Alexander as Lorien: An alien of unknown origin that comes to Sheridan's aid after a critical moment in the Shadow War
Ardwight Chamberlain (voice) /Jeffery Willerth (in the encounter-suit) as Kosh Naranek, the Vorlon ambassador to Babylon 5
Tim Choate as Zathras, an alien of unknown origins that is central to the disappearance of Babylon 4
Joshua Cox as Lt. David Corwin, a technician in Babylon 5s Command and Control center
David L. Crowley as Ofc. Lou Welch, a member of the Babylon 5 security staff
Robin Atkin Downes as Byron, a rogue telepath
William Forward as Lord Antono Refa, a colleague of Ambassador Mollari who has his own designs on the Centauri throne.
Robert Foxworth as General William Hague, the officer overseeing military operations related to Babylon 5
Denise Gentile as Lise Hampton, a former romantic interest for Michael Garibaldi during his time on the Mars colony
Melissa Gilbert as Anna Sheridan, Captain Sheridan's wife. The first appearance of Anna Sheridan was portrayed by Beth Toussaint in a recorded message.
Lenore Kasdorf as a reporter for the Interstellar News (ISN) network
Walter Koenig as Alfred Bester, a senior officer of Psi-Corps
Wortham Krimmer as Centauri Emperor Cartagia
Damian London as Regent Virini, a member of the Centauri court under Emperor Cartagia
Leigh McCloskey as Thomas
Marjorie Monaghan as Number One / Tessa Holloran, the leader of the Mars resistance
Julia Nickson-Soul as Catherine Sakai, a commercial explorer and Commander Sinclair's love interest
Jim Norton as Ombuds Wellington, a judge aboard Babylon 5
John Schuck as Draal (younger), Delenn's teacher and friend from Minbar that becomes part of the Great Machine buried within Epsilon III
Louis Turenne as Brother Theo, the leader of a group of Roman Catholic monks living aboard Babylon 5.
John Vickery as Neroon, a member of the Minbari warrior caste that replaced Delenn on the Grey Council following her transformation
Ed Wasser as Morden, a human agent working for the Shadows
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as William Edgars, a business leader based on the Mars colony
In addition, several other actors filled more than one minor role on the series. Kim Strauss played the Drazi Ambassador in four episodes, as well as nine other characters in ten more episodes. Some actors had difficulty dealing with the application of prosthetics required to play some of the alien characters. The producers therefore used the same group of people (as many as 12) in various mid-level speaking roles, taking full head and body casts from each. The group came to be unofficially known by the production as the "Babylon 5 Alien Rep Group."
Synopsis
The five seasons of the series each correspond to one fictional sequential year in the period 2258–2262. Each season shares its title with an episode that is central to that season's plot.
Pilot film (1993)
In the pilot film, Babylon 5: The Gathering, the Vorlon ambassador Kosh is nearly killed by an assassin shortly after arriving at the station. Jeffrey Sinclair, the commander of Babylon 5, is named as the prime suspect, but is proven to have been framed.
Season 1: Signs and Portents (1994)
Commander Sinclair, a hero of the Minbari war, is troubled by his inability to remember events of the war's last day. Though supported by Minbari ambassador Delenn, who is secretly a member of the Minbari ruling Grey Council, other Minbari remain distrustful of him. The Narn ambassador G'Kar continually presses for concessions from their former overlords the Centauri Republic. Centauri ambassador Londo Mollari finds a new ally in the enigmatic Mr. Morden to strike back at the Narn. Meanwhile, xenophobic groups on Earth challenge humanity's tolerance of aliens. This tension culminates in the assassination of Earth's President Santiago, who favored such contact.
Season 2: The Coming of Shadows (1994–1995)
Sinclair is transferred to be ambassador to Minbar, and General Hague assigns captain John Sheridan command of the station. Hague and Sheridan believe now-president Clark conspired in Santiago's death but have no proof. Clark gradually moves Earth in an isolationist direction and takes steps to install a totalitarian government. When the aging Centauri Emperor Turhan dies, Mollari and his ally Lord Refa install Turhan's unstable nephew Cartagia as emperor and force a war against the Narn. Aided by Mr. Morden's "associates" the Shadows, the Centauri decimate the Narn. The war ends with a planetary bombardment of the Narn homeworld, followed by the enslavement of the surviving Narns. Delenn and Vorlon ambassador Kosh request Sheridan's help to fight against their ancient foe, the Shadows.
Season 3: Point of No Return (1995–1996)
Sheridan and Delenn establish a "conspiracy of light" to fight the influence of the Shadows. When Clark declares martial law, Sheridan declares Babylon 5 independence from the Earth government. Mollari realizes his deal with Mr. Morden has become dangerous but is unable to end it. As the Shadows cause conflict and chaos throughout the galaxy, Sheridan confronts Kosh and successfully convinces the Vorlons to provide military assistance. In retaliation for Vorlon intervention, the Shadows assassinate Kosh. Sinclair travels back in time a thousand years to aid the Minbari in the previous Shadow War, becoming the legendary Minbari religious leader Valen. Sheridan discovers vulnerabilities in the Shadow vessels and learns to predict their objectives, leading to the first major military defeat of the Shadows. Despite Kosh's warnings, Sheridan confronts the Shadows on their homeworld Z'ha'dum. He crashes a spacecraft packed with nuclear weapons into the planet, seemingly dying in the explosion.
Season 4: No Surrender, No Retreat (1996–1997)
Sheridan is rescued from Z'ha'dum by the mysterious Lorien. With the Shadows in retreat, the Vorlons begin destroying any planet allied with or influenced by the Shadows. Mollari overthrows the mad emperor Cartagia with the aid of G'Kar in exchange for the liberation of the Narn from Centauri rule. Mollari betrays the Shadows in order to save the Centauri homeworld from the Vorlons. Sheridan realizes the Vorlons and Shadows have used the younger races in a proxy war, and convinces both sides to permanently end their conflict and to leave the younger races alone in peace. Sheridan next refocuses on returning democracy to Earth. He forges a new Interstellar Alliance along with the Minbari, Centauri, and Narn governments. With their help, Sheridan is able to win the Earth civil war and forces President Clark out of office. Sheridan is forced to resign from the Earth military, but is named president of the Interstellar Alliance.
Season 5: The Wheel of Fire (1998)
An ex-lover of Sheridan's, Elizabeth Lochley, is assigned to command the station. A group of rogue human telepaths take sanctuary on the station, seeking Sheridan's aid to escape the control of Psi Corps, the autocratic Earth agency that oversees telepaths. The Interstellar Alliance refuses to grant them a planet of their own, and they are eventually expelled from the station. Meanwhile, the Drakh, former supporters of the Shadows, seek revenge for the Shadows' defeat. They infiltrate the Centauri government and orchestrate attacks against other Alliance members. Mollari attempts to purge the alien manipulation of his government but is too late. After a devastating attack by Alliance forces on Centauri Prime, Mollari is installed as emperor, but under Drakh control. He then withdraws the Centauri from the Interstellar Alliance. Twenty years later, Sheridan has a last reunion with his friends before leaving to join Lorien and the older races "beyond the rim".
Spin-offs and television movies
The original show spawned a multimedia franchise of spin-offs consisting of a miniseries, five television movies, twenty-two novels, two tabletop games (an RPG and a wargame), and various other media such as technical books, comics, and trading cards.
Production
Origin
Having worked on a number of television science fiction shows which had regularly gone over budget, Straczynski concluded that a lack of long-term planning was to blame, and set about looking at ways in which a series could be done responsibly. Taking note of the lessons of mainstream television, which brought stories to a centralized location such as a hospital, police station, or law office, he decided that instead of "[going] in search of new worlds, building them anew each week", a fixed space station setting would keep costs at a reasonable level. A fan of sagas such as the Foundation series, Childhood's End, The Lord of the Rings, Dune and the Lensman series, Straczynski wondered why no one had done a television series with the same epic sweep, and concurrently with the first idea started developing the concept for a vastly ambitious epic covering massive battles and other universe-changing events. Realizing that both the fixed-locale series and the epic could be done in a single series, he began to sketch the initial outline of what would become Babylon 5.
Straczynski set five goals for Babylon 5. He said that the show "would have to be good science fiction". It would also have to be good television, "and rarely are SF shows both good SF *and* good TV; there're generally one or the other." It would have to do for science fiction television what Hill Street Blues had done for police dramas, by taking an adult approach to the subject. It would have to be reasonably budgeted, and "it would have to look unlike anything ever seen before on TV, presenting individual stories against a much broader canvas." He further stressed that his approach was "to take [science fiction] seriously, to build characters for grown-ups, to incorporate real science but keep the characters at the center of the story." Some of the staples of television science fiction were also out of the question (the show would have "no kids or cute robots"). The idea was not to present a perfect utopian future, but one with greed and homelessness; one where characters grow, develop, live, and die; one where not everything was the same at the end of the day's events. Citing Mark Twain as an influence, Straczynski said he wanted the show to be a mirror to the real world and to covertly teach.
Following production on Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, Straczynski approached John Copeland and Doug Netter, who had also been involved with Captain Power and showed him the bible and pilot script for his show, and both were impressed with his ideas. They were able to secure an order for the pilot from Warner Bros. who were looking at the time to get programming for a planned broadcast network. Warner Bros. had remained skeptical about the show even after greenlighting the pilot. According to Straczynski, Warner Bros. had three main concerns: that American attention spans were too short for a series-long narrative to work, that it would be difficult to sell the show into syndication as the syndicate networks would air the episodes out of order, and that no other science-fiction television show outside of Star Trek had gone more than three seasons before being canceled. Straczynski had proved out that the syndication fear was incorrect, since syndicate stations told him they show their shows in episode order to track broadcasts for royalties; however, he could not assure Warner Bros. about the attention span or premature cancellation concerns, but still set out to show Warner Bros. they were wrong.
Writing
Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 episodes of Babylon 5, including all 44 episodes in the third and fourth seasons, a feat never before accomplished in American television. Other writers to have contributed scripts to the show include Peter David, Neil Gaiman, Kathryn M. Drennan, Lawrence G. DiTillio, D. C. Fontana, and David Gerrold. Harlan Ellison, a creative consultant on the show, received story credits for two episodes. Each writer was informed of the overarching storyline, enabling the show to be produced consistently under-budget. The rules of production were strict; scripts were written six episodes in advance, and changes could not be made once production had started.
With not all cast members being hired for every episode of a season, the five-year plot length caused some planning difficulties. If a critical scene involving an actor not hired for every episode had to be moved, that actor had to be paid for work on an extra episode. It was sometimes necessary to adjust the plotline to accommodate external influences, an example being the "trap door" that was written for every character: in the event of that actor's unexpected departure from the series, the character could be written out with minimal impact on the storyline. Straczynski stated, "As a writer, doing a long-term story, it'd be dangerous and short-sighted for me to construct the story without trap doors for every single character. ... That was one of the big risks going into a long-term storyline which I considered long in advance;..." This device was eventually used to facilitate the departures of Claudia Christian and Andrea Thompson from the series.
Straczynski purposely went light on elements of the five-year narrative during the first season as he felt the audience would not be ready for the full narrative at that time, but he still managed to drop in some scenes that would be critical to the future narrative. This also made it challenging for the actors to understand their motivations without knowing where their characters were going; Straczynski said "I didn't want to tell them too much, because that risks having them play the result, rather than the process." He recalled that Peter Jurasik had asked him about the context of Londo's premonition, shown partially in "Midnight on the Firing Line", of himself and G'Kar choking each other to death, but Straczynski had to be coy about it. The full death scene was shown in context in "War Without End - Part 2" near the end of the third season.
During production of the fourth season, the Prime Time Entertainment Network, which Warner Bros. opted to use for Babylon 5, was shut down, leaving the planned fifth season in doubt. Unwilling to short-change fans of the show, Straczynski began preparing modifications to the fourth season that would allow him to conclude his overall arc should a fifth season not be greenlit, which ultimately became the direction the fourth season took. Straczynski identified three primary narrative threads which would require resolution: the Shadow war, Earth's slide into a dictatorship, and a series of sub-threads which branched off from those. Estimating they would still take around 27 episodes to resolve without having the season feel rushed, the solution came when the TNT network commissioned two Babylon 5 television films. Several hours of material was thus able to be moved into the films, including a three-episode arc which would deal with the background to the Earth–Minbari War, and a sub-thread which would have set up the sequel series, Crusade. Further standalone episodes and plot-threads were dropped from season four, which could be inserted into Crusade, or the fifth season, were it to be given the greenlight. The intended series finale, "Sleeping in Light", was filmed during season four as a precaution against cancellation. When word came that TNT had picked up Babylon 5, this was moved to the end of season five and replaced with a newly filmed season four finale, "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars".
Costume
Ann Bruice Aling was costume designer for the show, after production designer John Iacovelli suggested her for the position, having previously worked with her on a number of film and theatrical productions.
With the variety of costumes required she compared Babylon 5 to "eclectic theatre", with fewer rules about period, line, shape and textures having to be adhered to. Preferring natural materials whenever possible, such as ostrich leather in the Narn body armor, Bruice combined and layered fabrics as diverse as rayon and silk with brocades from the 1930s and '40s to give the clothing the appearance of having evolved within different cultures.
With an interest in costume history, she initially worked closely with Straczynski to get a sense of the historical perspective of the major alien races, "so I knew if they were a peaceful people or a warring people, cold climate etc. and then I would interpret what kind of sensibility that called for." Collaborating with other departments to establish co-ordinated visual themes for each race, a broad palette of colors was developed with Iacovelli, which he referred to as "spicy brights". These warm shades of gray and secondary colors, such as certain blues for the Minbari, would often be included when designing both the costumes and relevant sets. As the main characters evolved, Bruice referred back to Straczynski and producer John Copeland who she viewed as "surprisingly more accessible to me as advisors than other producers and directors", so the costumes could reflect these changes. Ambassador Londo Mollari's purple coat became dark blue and more tailored while his waistcoats became less patterned and brightly colored as Bruice felt "Londo has evolved in my mind from a buffoonish character to one who has become more serious and darker."
Normally there were three changes of costume for the primary actors; one for on set, one for the stunt double and one on standby in case of "coffee spills". For human civilians, garments were generally purchased off-the-rack and altered in various ways, such as removing lapels from jackets and shirts while rearranging closures, to suggest future fashions. For some of the main female characters a more couture approach was taken, as in the suits worn by Talia Winters, which Bruice described as being designed and fitted to within "an inch of their life". Costumes for the destitute residents of downbelow would be distressed through a combination of bleaching, sanding, dipping in dye baths and having stage blood added.
Like many of the crew on the show, members of the costume department made onscreen cameos. During the season 4 episode "Atonement", the tailors and costume supervisor appeared as the Minbari women fitting Zack Allan for his new uniform as the recently promoted head of security. His complaints, and the subsequent stabbing of him with a needle by costume supervisor Kim Holly, was a light-hearted reference to the previous security uniforms, a design carried over from the pilot movie, which was difficult to work with and wear due to the combination of leather and wool.
Prosthetic makeup and animatronics
While the original pilot film featured some aliens which were puppets and animatronics, the decision was made early on in the show's production to portray most alien species as humanoid in appearance. Barring isolated appearances, fully computer-generated aliens were discounted as an idea due to the "massive rendering power" required. Long-term use of puppets and animatronics was also discounted, as Straczynski believed they would not be able to convey "real emotion" without an actor inside.
Visuals
In anticipation of the emerging HDTV standard, rather than the usual 4:3 format, the series was shot in 16:9, with the image cropped to 4:3 for initial television transmissions. It was one of the first television shows to use computer technology in creating visual effects, rather than models and miniatures, primarily out of budgetary concerns; Straczynski estimated that each of their episodes cost to make, compared to the cost of each episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The visual effects were achieved using Amiga-based Video Toasters at first, and later Pentium, Macintosh, and Alpha-based systems using LightWave 3D. The effects sequences were designed to simulate Newtonian physics, with particular emphasis on the effects of inertia on the motion of spacecraft.
Foundation Imaging provided the special effects for the pilot film (for which it won an Emmy) and the first three seasons of the show, led by Ron Thornton. After co-executive producer Douglas Netter and producer John Copeland approached Straczynski with the idea of producing the effects in-house, Straczynski agreed to replace Foundation, for season 4 and 5, once a new team had been established by Netter Digital, and an equal level of quality was assured, by using similar technology and a number of former Foundation employees. The Emmy-winning alien make-up was provided by Optic Nerve Studios.
Music and scoring
Christopher Franke composed and scored the musical soundtrack for all five years of the show when Stewart Copeland, who worked on the original telefilm, was unable to return for the first season due to recording and touring commitments.
Initially concerned composing for an episodic television show could become "annoying because of the repetition", Franke found the evolving characters and story of Babylon 5 afforded him the opportunity to continually take new directions. Given creative freedom by the producers, Franke also orchestrated and mixed all the music, which one reviewer described as having "added another dimension of mystery, suspense, and excitement to the show, with an easily distinguishable character that separates 'Babylon 5 from other sci-fi television entries of the era."
With his recording studio in the same building as his home located in the Hollywood Hills, Franke would attend creative meetings before scoring the on average 25 minutes of music for each episode. Using the "acoustic dirt produced by live instruments and the ability to play so well between two semitones" and the "frequency range, dynamics and control" provided by synthesizers, he described his approach "as experimental friendly as possible without leaving the happy marriage between the orchestral and electronic sounds".
Using Cubase software through an electronic keyboard, or for more complex pieces a light pen and graphics tablet, he would begin by developing the melodic content round which the ambient components and transitions were added. Using playbacks with digital samples of the appropriate instruments, such as a group of violins, he would decide which tracks to produce electronically or record acoustically.
Scores for the acoustic tracks were emailed to his Berlin scoring stage, and would require from four musicians to the full orchestra, with a maximum of 24 present at any one time. One of three conductors would also be required for any score that involved more than six musicians. Franke would direct recording sessions via six fiber optic digital telephone lines to transmit and receive video, music and the SMPTE timecode. The final edit and mixing of the tracks would take place in his Los Angeles studio.
A total of 24 episode and three television film soundtracks were released under Franke's record label, Sonic Images Records, between 1995 and 2001. These contain the musical scores in the same chronological order as they played in the corresponding episodes, or television films. Three compilation albums were also produced, containing extensively re-orchestrated and remixed musical passages taken from throughout the series to create more elaborate suites. In 2007 his soundtrack for The Lost Tales was released under the Varèse Sarabande record label.
Broadcast history
Warner Bros. slotted the show to premiere on its nascent Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). As original content from another studio, it was somewhat anomalous in a stable of syndicated content from Warner Bros. and the cause of some friction between Straczynski's company and Warner Bros.
The pilot film, The Gathering, premiered on February 22, 1993, with strong viewing figures, achieving a 9.7 in the Nielsen national syndication rankings. The regular series initially aired from January 26, 1994 through November 25, 1998, first on PTEN, then in first-run syndication, debuting with a 6.8 rating/10 share. Figures dipped in its second week, and while it posted a solid 5.0 rating/8 share, with an increase in several major markets, ratings for the first season continued to fall, to a low of 3.4 during reruns. Ratings remained low-to-middling throughout the first four seasons, but Babylon 5 scored well with the demographics required to attract the leading national sponsors and saved up to $300,000 per episode by shooting off the studio lot, therefore remaining profitable. The fifth season, which aired on cable network TNT, had ratings about 1.0% lower than seasons two through four.
In the United Kingdom, the show aired every week on Channel 4 without a break, with the result that the last four or five episodes of the early seasons screened in the UK before the US. Babylon 5 was one of the better-rated US television shows on Channel 4, and achieved high audience Appreciation Indexes, with the season 4 episode "Endgame" achieving the rare feat of beating the prime-time soap operas for first position.
Straczynski stated that PTEN only required the show to be profitable for the network to remain in production, and said that while this was the case for its first four seasons, on paper it was always losing money; he also remarked in a 2019 interview that in terms of contractual profit definition the show remained about in the red on paper, and stated that he had therefore never made any profits on Babylon 5. The entire series cost an estimated $90 million for 110 episodes.
Babylon 5 successfully completed its five-year story arc on November 25, 1998, after five seasons and 109 aired episodes, when TNT aired the 110th (epilogue) episode "Sleeping in Light," which had been filmed as the Season 4 finale, when Babylon 5 was under threat of ending production at that point. After a fifth season was assured, a new Season 4 finale was used so that "Sleeping in Light" could remain as the series finale.
Remastered version
In November 2020 a remastered version of the show in 4:3 format was released to the iTunes Store and Amazon Prime Video. This version uses the original negatives for filmed elements, and algorithmically upscales the digitally created elements to HD resolution with fewer visual artifacts, for a more visually consistent presentation. In January 2021, it was made available for streaming on HBO Max.
In February 2023, HBO's license expired and streaming rights were acquired by the free streaming service Tubi.
Themes
Throughout its run, Babylon 5 found ways to portray themes relevant to modern and historical social issues. It marked several firsts in television science fiction, such as the exploration of the political and social landscapes of the first human colonies, their interactions with Earth, and the underlying tensions. Babylon 5 was also one of the first television science fiction shows to denotatively refer to a same-sex relationship. In the show, sexual orientation is as much of an issue as "being left-handed or right-handed". Unrequited love is explored as a source of pain for the characters, though not all the relationships end unhappily.
Order vs. chaos; authoritarianism vs. free will
The clash between order and chaos, and the people caught in between, plays an important role in Babylon 5. The conflict between two unimaginably powerful older races, the Vorlons and the Shadows, is represented as a battle between competing ideologies, each seeking to turn the humans and the other younger races to their beliefs. The Vorlons represent an authoritarian philosophy of unquestioning obedience. Vorlon characters frequently ask, "who are you?" focusing on identity as a catalyst for shaping personal goals; the intention is not to solicit a correct answer, but to "tear down the artifices we construct around ourselves until we're left facing ourselves, not our roles." The Shadows represent another authoritarian philosophy cloaked in a disguise of evolution through fire, of fomenting conflict in order to promote evolutionary progress. Characters affiliated with the Shadows repeatedly ask, "what do you want?" emphasising personal desire and ambition, using it to shape identity, encouraging conflict between groups who choose to serve their own glory or profit. The representation of order and chaos was informed by the Babylonian myth that the universe was born in the conflict between both. The climax of this conflict comes with the younger races' exposing of the Vorlons' and the Shadows' "true faces" and the rejection of both philosophies, heralding the dawn of a new age without their interference.
The notion that the war was about "killing your parents" is echoed in the portrayal of the civil war between the human colonies and Earth. Deliberately dealing in historical and political metaphor, with particular emphasis upon McCarthyism and the HUAC, the Earth Alliance becomes increasingly authoritarian, eventually sliding into a dictatorship. The show examines the impositions on civil liberties under the pretext of greater defense against outside threats which aid its rise, and the self-delusion of a populace which believes its moral superiority will never allow a dictatorship to come to power, until it is too late. The successful rebellion led by the Babylon 5 station results in the restoration of a democratic government and true autonomy for Mars and the colonies.
War and peace
The Babylon 5 universe portrays numerous armed conflicts on an interstellar scale, including the Dilgar war, Narn-Centauri conflict, Minbari civil war, Drakh War, Interstellar Alliance-Centauri war, and the Great Burn. The story begins in the aftermath of a war which brought the human race to the brink of extinction, caused by a misunderstanding during a first contact with the Minbari. Babylon 5 is built to foster peace through diplomacy, described as the "last, best hope for peace" in the opening credits monologue during its first three seasons. Wars between separate alien civilizations are featured. The conflict between the Narn and the Centauri is followed from its beginnings as a minor territorial dispute amplified by historical animosity, through to its end, in which weapons of mass destruction are employed to subjugate and enslave a planet. The war is an attempt to portray a more sobering kind of conflict than usually seen on science fiction television. Informed by the events of the first Gulf War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Soviet invasion of Prague, the intent was to recreate these moments when "the world held its breath" and the emotional core of the conflict was the disbelief that the situation could have occurred at all, and the desperation to find a way to bring it to an end. By the start of the third season, the opening monolog had changed to say that the hope for peace had "failed" and the Babylon 5 station had become the "last, best hope for victory", indicating that while peace is ostensibly a laudable goal, it can also mean a capitulation to an enemy intent on committing horrendous acts and that "peace is a byproduct of victory against those who do not want peace."
The Shadow War also features prominently in the show, wherein the Shadows work to instigate conflict between other races to promote technological and cultural advancement, opposed by the Vorlons who are attempting to impose their own authoritarian philosophy of obedience. The gradual discovery of the scheme and the rebellion against it underpin the first three seasons, but also as a wider metaphor for competing forces of order and chaos. In that respect, Straczynski stated he presented Earth's descent into a dictatorship as its own "shadow war". In ending the Shadow War before the conclusion of the series, the show was able to more fully explore its aftermath, and it is this "war at home" which forms the bulk of the remaining two seasons. The struggle for independence between Mars and Earth culminates with a civil war between the human colonies (led by the Babylon 5 station) and the home planet. Choosing Mars as both the spark for the civil war, and the staging ground for its dramatic conclusion, enabled the viewer to understand the conflict more fully than had it involved an anonymous colony orbiting a distant star. The conflict, and the reasons behind it, were informed by Nazism, McCarthyism and the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the destruction of the state also served as partial inspiration for the Minbari civil war.
The post-war landscape has its roots in the Reconstruction. The attempt to resolve the issues of the American Civil War after the conflict had ended, and this struggle for survival in a changed world was also informed by works such as Alas, Babylon, a novel dealing with the after-effects of a nuclear war on a small American town. The show expresses that the end of these wars is not an end to war itself. Events shown hundreds of years into the show's future tell of wars which will once again bring the human race to the edge of annihilation, demonstrating that humanity will not change, and the best that can be hoped for after it falls is that it climbs a little higher each time, until it can one day "take [its] place among the stars, teaching those who follow."
Religion
Many of Earth's contemporary religions are shown to still exist, with the main human characters often having religious convictions. Among those specifically identified are the Roman Catholic branch of Christianity (including the Jesuits), Judaism, and the fictional Foundationism (which developed after first contact with alien races). Alien beliefs in the show range from the Centauri's Bacchanalian-influenced religions, of which there are up to seventy different denominations, to the more pantheistic as with the Narn and Minbari religions. In the show's third season, a community of Cistercian monks takes up residence on the Babylon 5 station, in order to learn what other races call God, and to come to a better understanding of the different religions through study at close quarters.
References to both human and alien religion is often subtle and brief, but can also form the main theme of an episode. The first season episode "The Parliament of Dreams" is a conventional "showcase" for religion, in which each species on the Babylon 5 station has an opportunity to demonstrate its beliefs (humanity's are presented as being numerous and varied), while "Passing Through Gethsemane" focuses on a specific position of Roman Catholic beliefs, as well as concepts of justice, vengeance, and biblical forgiveness. Other treatments have been more contentious, such as the David Gerrold-scripted "Believers", in which alien parents would rather see their son die than undergo a life-saving operation because their religious beliefs forbid it.
When religion is an integral part of an episode, various characters express differing view points. In the episode "Soul Hunter", where the concept of an immortal soul is touched upon, and whether after death it is destroyed, reincarnated, or simply does not exist. The character arguing the latter, Doctor Stephen Franklin, often appears in the more spiritual storylines as his scientific rationality is used to create dramatic conflict. Undercurrents of religions such as Buddhism have been viewed by some in various episode scripts, and while identifying himself as an atheist, Straczynski believes that passages of dialog can take on distinct meanings to viewers of differing faiths, and that the show ultimately expresses ideas which cross religious boundaries.
Addiction
Substance abuse and its impact on human personalities also features in the Babylon 5 storyline. Garibaldi is a relapsing-remitting alcoholic, who practices complete abstinence throughout most of the series until the middle of season five, only recovering at the end of the season. Zack Allan, his eventual replacement as chief of security, was given a second chance by Garibaldi after overcoming his own addiction to an unspecified drug. Dr. Stephen Franklin develops an addiction to injectable stimulant drugs while trying to cope with the chronic stress and work overload in Medlab, and takes a leave of absence from his position to recover. Executive Officer Susan Ivanova mentions that her father became an alcoholic after her mother's suicide. Captain Elizabeth Lochley tells Garibaldi that her father was an alcoholic, and that she is a recovering alcoholic herself.
Influences
Babylon 5 draws upon a number of cultural, historical, political and religious influences to inform and illustrate its characters and storylines. Straczynski has stated that there was no intent to wholly represent any particular period of history or preceding work of fiction, but has acknowledged their influence on the series, inasmuch as it uses similar well established storytelling structures, such as the hero's journey.
There are a number of specific literary references. Several episodes take their titles from Shakespearean monologs, and at least one character quotes Shakespeare directly. The Psi-Cop Alfred Bester was named after the science fiction author of the same name, as his work influenced the autocratic Psi Corps organization the character represents.
There are a number of references to the legend of King Arthur, with ships named Excalibur appearing in the main series and the Crusade spin-off, and a character in "A Late Delivery from Avalon" claiming to possess the sword itself. Straczynski links the incident which sparked the Earth-Minbari war, in which actions are misinterpreted during a tense situation, to a sequence in Le Morte d'Arthur, in which a standoff between two armies turns violent when innocent actions are misinterpreted as hostile.
The series also references contemporary and ancient history. The Centauri are in part modeled on the Roman empire. Emperor Cartagia believes himself to be a god, a deliberate reference to Caligula. His eventual assassination leads to the ascension of Londo and eventually Vir, both unlikely candidates for the throne, similar to Claudius' improbable ascension after Caligula was assassinated. The series also references the novel I, Claudius by Robert Graves when Cartagia jokes that he has cured a man of his cough after having him beheaded, something also done by Caligula. In the episode "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dhum," Sheridan ponders Winston Churchill's Coventry dilemma, of whether or not to act on covertly gathered intelligence during a war. Lives would be saved, but at the risk of revealing to the enemy that their intentions are known, which may be far more damaging in the long term. The swearing in of Vice President Morgan Clark invokes the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, being deliberately staged to mirror the scene aboard Air Force One when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President.
Although Straczynski is a professed atheist, Babylon 5 refers to the Christian faith in a number of places. Several episodes have titles which refer to the Christian faith, such as "Passing Through Gethsemane", "A Voice in the Wilderness," and "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," the latter being a line from the gospel song "There's no Hiding Place Down Here." The monks led by Brother Theo who, in the episode "Convictions," take up residence on Babylon 5, belong to the Dominican Order, a Roman Catholic mendicant Order.
Use of the Internet
The show employed Internet marketing to create a buzz among online readers far in advance of the airing of the pilot episode, with Straczynski participating in online communities on USENET (in the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated newsgroup), and the GEnie and CompuServe systems before the Web came together as it exists today. The station's location, in "grid epsilon" at coordinates of 470/18/22, was a reference to GEnie ("grid epsilon" = "GE") and the original forum's address on the system's bulletin boards (page 470, category 18, topic 22).
Also during this time, Warner Bros. executive Jim Moloshok created and distributed electronic trading cards to help advertise the series. In 1995, Warner Bros. started the Official Babylon 5 Website on the now defunct Pathfinder portal. In September 1995, they hired series fan Troy Rutter to take over the site and move it to its own domain name, and to oversee the Keyword B5 area on America Online.
Reception
In 2004 and 2007, TV Guide ranked Babylon 5 #13 and #16 on its list of the top cult shows ever.
Awards
Awards presented to Babylon 5 include:
Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects, 1993 (The Gathering)
Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Hairstyling for a Series , 1994 (episode, "The Parliament of Dreams")
Hugo Award: Best Dramatic Presentation, 1996 (episode, "The Coming of Shadows")
Hugo Award: Best Dramatic Presentation, 1997 (episode, "Severed Dreams")
Saturn Award: Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series, 1998
Space Frontier Foundation Award: Vision of the Future, 1994
Space Frontier Foundation Award: Vision of the Future, 1996
E Pluribus Unum Award: (Presented By American Cinema Association), 1997
Nebula Award Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, 1998.
Nominated Awards include:
Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series, 1995 (episode, "Acts of Sacrifice")
Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Hairstyling for a Series, 1995 (episode, "The Geometry of Shadows")
Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography for a Series, 1995 (episode, "The Geometry Of Shadows")
Emmy Award: Outstanding Cinematography for a Series, 1996
Emmy Award: Outstanding Makeup for a Series, 1997 (episode, "The Summoning")
Emmy Award: Outstanding Makeup for a Series, 1998 (television movie, In The Beginning)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Paramount plagiarism controversy
Straczynski indicated that Paramount Television was aware of his concept as early as 1989, when he attempted to sell the show to the studio, and provided them with the series bible, pilot script, artwork, lengthy character background histories, and plot synopses for 22 "or so planned episodes taken from the overall course of the planned series".
Paramount declined to produce Babylon 5, but later announced Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was in development, two months after Warner Bros. announced its plans for Babylon 5. Unlike previous Star Trek shows, Deep Space Nine was based on a space station, and had themes similar to those of Babylon 5, which drew some to compare it with Babylon 5. Straczynski stated that, even though he was confident that Deep Space Nine producer/creators Rick Berman and Michael Piller had not seen this material, he suspected that Paramount executives used his bible and scripts to steer development of Deep Space Nine. Straczynski and Warner did not file suit against Paramount, largely because he believed it would negatively affect both TV series. He argued the same when confronted by claims that the lack of legal action was proof that his allegation was unfounded. According to a 2017 interview with Patricia Tallman, there was a legal case and an out-of-court settlement with Paramount.
Influence and legacy
Generally viewed as having "launched the new era of television CGI visual effects", Babylon 5 received multiple awards during its initial run, including two consecutive Hugo Awards for best dramatic presentation, and continues to regularly feature prominently in various polls and listings highlighting top-rated science fiction series.
Babylon 5 has been praised for its depth and complexity against a backdrop of contemporary shows which largely lacked long-term consequences, with plots typically being resolved in the course of a single episode, occasionally two. Straczynski was deeply involved in scriptwriting, writing 92 of 110 teleplays, a greater proportion than some of his contemporaries. Reviewers rated the quality of writing on a widely varying scale, identifying both eloquent soliloquies and dialogue that felt "stilted and theatrical."
Straczynski has claimed that the multi-year story arc, now a feature of most mainstream televised drama, is the lasting legacy of the series. He stated that both Ronald D. Moore and Damon Lindelof used the 5-year narrative structure of Babylon 5 as blueprints for their respective shows, Battlestar Galactica and Lost. He also claims Babylon 5 was the first series to be shot in the 16:9 aspect ratio, and to use 5.1 channel sound mixes. It was an early example of widespread use of CGI rather than models for space scenes, which allowed for more freedom and larger scale in creating said scenes. While praised at the time, due to budgetary and mastering issues these sequences are considered to have aged poorly.
A recurring theme among reviewers is that the series was more than the sum of its parts: while variously criticizing the writing, directing, acting and effects, particularly by comparison to current television productions, reviewers praised the consistency of plotting over the series' run, transcending the quality of its individual elements. Many retrospectives, while criticizing virtually every individual aspect of the production, have praised the series as a whole for its narrative cohesion and contribution to serialized television. Producer John Copeland said: "You're not really tuning in to watch the visual effects," instead, people are watching a two-decades-old show because "the storytelling does hold up" and "you wanna spend more time with the characters."
DC began publishing Babylon 5 comics in 1994, with stories (initially written by Straczynski) that closely tied in with events depicted in the show, with events in the comics eventually being referenced onscreen in the actual television series. The franchise continued to expand into short stories, RPGs, and novels, with the Technomage trilogy of books being the last to be published in 2001, shortly after the spin-off television series, Crusade, was canceled. Excepting movie rights, which are retained by Straczynski, all production rights for the franchise are owned by Warner Bros.
Media franchise
In November 1994, DC began publishing monthly Babylon 5 comics. A number of short stories and novels were also produced between 1995 and 2001. Additional books were published by the gaming companies Chameleon Eclectic and Mongoose Publishing, to support their desk-top strategy and role-playing games.
Three TV films were released by Turner Network Television (TNT) in 1998, after funding a fifth season of Babylon 5, following the demise of the Prime Time Entertainment Network the previous year. In addition to In the Beginning, Thirdspace, and The River of Souls, they released a re-edited special edition of the original 1993 tv film, The Gathering. In 1999, a fifth tv film was also produced, A Call to Arms, which acted as a pilot movie for the spin-off series Crusade, which TNT canceled after 13 episodes had been filmed.
Dell Publishing started publication of a series of Babylon 5 novels in 1995, which were ostensibly considered canon within the TV series' continuity, nominally supervised by Straczynski, with later novels in the line being more directly based upon Straczynski's own notes and story outlines. In 1997, Del Rey obtained the publication license from Warner Bros., and proceeded to release a number of original trilogies directly scenarized by Straczynski, as well as novelizations of three of the TNT telefilms (In the Beginning, Thirdspace, and A Call to Arms). All of the Del Rey novels are considered completely canonical within the filmic Babylon 5 universe.
In 2000, the Sci-Fi Channel purchased the rights to rerun the Babylon 5 series, and premiered a new telefilm, The Legend of the Rangers in 2002, which failed to be picked up as a series. In 2007, the first in a planned anthology of straight-to-DVD short stories entitled The Lost Tales, was released by Warner Home Video, but no others were produced, due to funding issues.
Straczynski announced a Babylon 5 film at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, but stated in 2016 that it had been delayed while he completed other productions. In 2018 Straczynski stated that although he possesses the movie rights, he believed that neither a film nor television series revival would happen while Warner Bros. retained the intellectual property for the TV series, believing that Warner Bros would insist on handling production, and that other studios would be hesitant to produce a film without also having the rights to the TV series.
Reboot
A reboot of Babylon 5 was announced in September 2021. The reboot is being produced by Straczynski through Studio JMS, and developed by Warner Bros. Television for The CW. As of May 2022, despite several changes at The CW due to numerous cancellations of other shows resulting from the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the project was still in active development. However, it was later put on hold amidst the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.
Direct-to-video animated film
Straczynski revealed in May 2023 that he had been working in secret with Warner Bros. Animation to produce Babylon 5: The Road Home, a full-length animated film. Most of the main surviving cast members will voice their characters in the film, including Boxleitner, Christian, Jurasik, Mumy, Scoggins and Tallman. Other voice actors, replacing roles of those that had died, include Paul Guyet as Zathras and Jeffery Sinclair, Anthony Hansen as Michael Garibaldi, Mara Junot as Reporter and Computer Voice, Phil LaMarr as Dr. Stephen Franklin, Piotr Michael as David Sheridan, Andrew Morgado as G'Kar, and Rebecca Riedy as Delenn. The film is scheduled to premiere at Comic-Con in July 2023, and will be available on streaming services on August 15, 2023. Physical media releases are also planned.
Home media
In July 1995, Warner Home Video began distributing Babylon 5 VHS video tapes under its Beyond Vision label in the UK. Beginning with the original telefilm, The Gathering, these were PAL tapes, showing video in the same 4:3 aspect ratio as the initial television broadcasts. By the release of Season 2, tapes included closed captioning of dialogue and Dolby Surround sound. Columbia House began distributing NTSC tapes, via mail order in 1997, followed by repackaged collector's editions and three-tape boxed sets in 1999, by which time the original pilot telefilm had been replaced by the re-edited TNT special edition. Additional movie and complete season boxed-sets were also released by Warner Bros. until 2000.
Image Entertainment released Babylon 5 laserdiscs between December 1998 and September 1999. Produced on double-sided 12-inch Pioneer discs, each contained two episodes displayed in the 4:3 broadcast aspect-ratio, with Dolby Surround audio and closed captioning for the dialogue. Starting with two TNT telefilms, In the Beginning and the re-edited special edition of The Gathering, Seasons 1 and 5 were released simultaneously over a six-month period. Seasons 2 and 4 followed, but with the decision to halt production due to a drop in sales, precipitated by rumors of a pending DVD release, only the first twelve episodes of Season 2 and the first six episodes of Season 4 were ultimately released.
In November 2001, Warner Home Video began distributing Babylon 5 DVDs with a two-movie set containing the re-edited TNT special edition of The Gathering and In The Beginning. The telefilms were later individually released in region 2 in April 2002, though some markets received the original version of The Gathering in identical packaging.
DVD boxed sets of the individual seasons, each containing six discs, began being released in October 2002. Each included a printed booklet containing episode summaries, with each disc containing audio options for German, French, and English, plus subtitles in a wider range of languages, including Arabic and Dutch. Video was digitally remastered from higher resolution PAL broadcast masters and displayed in anamorphic widescreen with remastered and remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Disc 1 of each set contained an introduction to the season by Straczynski, while disc 6 included featurettes containing interviews with various production staff, as well as information on the fictional universe, and a gag reel. Three episodes in each season also contained commentary from either Straczynski, members of the main cast, and/or the episode director.
Since its initial release, a number of repackaged DVD boxed sets have been produced for various regional markets. With slightly altered cover art, they included no additional content, but the discs were more securely stored in slimline cases, rather than the early "book" format, with hard plastic pages used during the original release of the first three seasons.
On July 19, 2023, Warner announced that Babylon 5 would be released on Blu-ray on December 5, 2023, for the show’s 30th anniversary.
Mastering problems
While the series was in pre-production, studios were looking at ways for their existing shows to make the transition from the standard 4:3 aspect ratio to the widescreen formats that would accompany the next generation of televisions. After visiting Warner Bros., which was stretching the horizontal interval for an episode of Lois & Clark, producer John Copeland convinced them to allow Babylon 5 to be shot on Super 35mm film stock. "The idea being that we would telecine to 4:3 for the original broadcast of the series. But what it also gave us was a negative that had been shot for the new 16×9 widescreen-format televisions that we knew were on the horizon."
Though the CG scenes, and those containing live action combined with digital elements, could have been created in a suitable widescreen format, a cost-saving decision was taken to produce them in the 4:3 aspect ratio. When those images were prepared for widescreen release, the top and bottom of the images were simply cropped, and the remaining image 'blown up' to match the dimensions of the live action footage, noticeably reducing the image quality. The scenes containing live action ready to be composited with matte paintings, CG animation, etc., were delivered on tape already telecined to the 4:3 aspect-ratio, and contained a high level of grain, which resulted in further image noise being present when enlarged and stretched for widescreen.
For the purely live-action scenes, rather than using the film negatives, according to Copeland, "Warners had even forgotten that they had those. They used PAL versions and converted them to NTSC for the US market. They actually didn't go back and retransfer the shows." With the resulting aliasing, and the progressive scan transfer of the video to DVD, this has created a number of visual flaws throughout the widescreen release. In particular, quality has been noted to drop significantly in composite shots.
In 2020 a new remastered version was created (as detailed above) which restored the original picture quality and repaired the damage to the CGI scenes, although this also involved reverting to the original 4:3 aspect ratio. The negatives were scanned at ultra HD quality and then down converted to HD and upscaling programs were used to enhance the CGI to HD at the same time.
See also
Babylon 5's use of the Internet
rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
The Be Five
The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
Babylon 5 (franchise)
References
External links
Babylon 5 official site. Archived from the original on June 6, 2007.
Babylon 5 official site (Syfy). Archived from the original on February 8, 2002.
The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5: Babylon 5 reference and episode guide
The Babylon 5 Scrolls: Collection of interviews, concept art and screen used 3D models from FX artists who created Babylon 5
Early Babylon 5 Designs: Information from the original 1991 promotional flyer, with different character names and Peter Ledger's artwork
First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
1990s American science fiction television series
Prime Time Entertainment Network
American adventure television series
Serial drama television series
Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios
TNT (American TV network) original programming
1993 American television series debuts
Television franchises
1998 American television series endings
Hugo Award-winning television series
Saturn Award-winning television series
Space adventure television series
Television series set in the 23rd century
English-language television shows
Television shows adapted into comics
Television shows adapted into novels
Television series about extraterrestrial life
Television series created by J. Michael Straczynski
Fictional space stations
Television shows filmed in Los Angeles
Artificial wormholes in fiction
Fiction set around Epsilon Eridani |
4802 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biome | Biome | A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader term than habitat and can comprise a variety of habitats.
While a biome can cover small areas, a microbiome is a mix of organisms that coexist in a defined space on a much smaller scale. For example, the human microbiome is the collection of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that are present on or in a human body.
A biota is the total collection of organisms of a geographic region or a time period, from local geographic scales and instantaneous temporal scales all the way up to whole-planet and whole-timescale spatiotemporal scales. The biotas of the Earth make up the biosphere.
Etymology
The term was suggested in 1916 by Clements, originally as a synonym for biotic community of Möbius (1877). Later, it gained its current definition, based on earlier concepts of phytophysiognomy, formation and vegetation (used in opposition to flora), with the inclusion of the animal element and the exclusion of the taxonomic element of species composition. In 1935, Tansley added the climatic and soil aspects to the idea, calling it ecosystem. The International Biological Program (1964–74) projects popularized the concept of biome.
However, in some contexts, the term biome is used in a different manner. In German literature, particularly in the Walter terminology, the term is used similarly as biotope (a concrete geographical unit), while the biome definition used in this article is used as an international, non-regional, terminology—irrespectively of the continent in which an area is present, it takes the same biome name—and corresponds to his "zonobiome", "orobiome" and "pedobiome" (biomes determined by climate zone, altitude or soil).
In Brazilian literature, the term "biome" is sometimes used as synonym of biogeographic province, an area based on species composition (the term floristic province being used when plant species are considered), or also as synonym of the "morphoclimatic and phytogeographical domain" of Ab'Sáber, a geographic space with subcontinental dimensions, with the predominance of similar geomorphologic and climatic characteristics, and of a certain vegetation form. Both include many biomes in fact.
Classifications
To divide the world into a few ecological zones is difficult, notably because of the small-scale variations that exist everywhere on earth and because of the gradual changeover from one biome to the other. Their boundaries must therefore be drawn arbitrarily and their characterization made according to the average conditions that predominate in them.
A 1978 study on North American grasslands found a positive logistic correlation between evapotranspiration in mm/yr and above-ground net primary production in g/m2/yr. The general results from the study were that precipitation and water use led to above-ground primary production, while solar irradiation and temperature lead to below-ground primary production (roots), and temperature and water lead to cool and warm season growth habit. These findings help explain the categories used in Holdridge's bioclassification scheme (see below), which were then later simplified by Whittaker. The number of classification schemes and the variety of determinants used in those schemes, however, should be taken as strong indicators that biomes do not fit perfectly into the classification schemes created.
Holdridge (1947, 1964) life zones
In 1947, the American botanist and climatologist Leslie Holdridge classified climates based on the biological effects of temperature and rainfall on vegetation under the assumption that these two abiotic factors are the largest determinants of the types of vegetation found in a habitat. Holdridge uses the four axes to define 30 so-called "humidity provinces", which are clearly visible in his diagram. While this scheme largely ignores soil and sun exposure, Holdridge acknowledged that these were important.
Allee (1949) biome-types
The principal biome-types by Allee (1949):
Tundra
Taiga
Deciduous forest
Grasslands
Desert
High plateaus
Tropical forest
Minor terrestrial biomes
Kendeigh (1961) biomes
The principal biomes of the world by Kendeigh (1961):
Terrestrial
Temperate deciduous forest
Coniferous forest
Woodland
Chaparral
Tundra
Grassland
Desert
Tropical savanna
Tropical forest
Marine
Oceanic plankton and nekton
Balanoid-gastropod-thallophyte
Pelecypod-annelid
Coral reef
Whittaker (1962, 1970, 1975) biome-types
Whittaker classified biomes using two abiotic factors: precipitation and temperature. His scheme can be seen as a simplification of Holdridge's; more readily accessible, but missing Holdridge's greater specificity.
Whittaker based his approach on theoretical assertions and empirical sampling. He had previously compiled a review of biome classifications.
Key definitions for understanding Whittaker's scheme
Physiognomy: sometimes referring to the plants' appearance; or the biome's apparent characteristics, outward features, or appearance of ecological communities or species - including plants.
Biome: a grouping of terrestrial ecosystems on a given continent that is similar in vegetation structure, physiognomy, features of the environment and characteristics of their animal communities.
Formation: a major kind of community of plants on a given continent.
Biome-type: grouping of convergent biomes or formations of different continents, defined by physiognomy.
Formation-type: a grouping of convergent formations.
Whittaker's distinction between biome and formation can be simplified: formation is used when applied to plant communities only, while biome is used when concerned with both plants and animals. Whittaker's convention of biome-type or formation-type is a broader method to categorize similar communities.
Whittaker's parameters for classifying biome-types
Whittaker used what he called "gradient analysis" of ecocline patterns to relate communities to climate on a worldwide scale. Whittaker considered four main ecoclines in the terrestrial realm.
Intertidal levels: The wetness gradient of areas that are exposed to alternating water and dryness with intensities that vary by location from high to low tide
Climatic moisture gradient
Temperature gradient by altitude
Temperature gradient by latitude
Along these gradients, Whittaker noted several trends that allowed him to qualitatively establish biome-types:
The gradient runs from favorable to the extreme, with corresponding changes in productivity.
Changes in physiognomic complexity vary with how favorable of an environment exists (decreasing community structure and reduction of stratal differentiation as the environment becomes less favorable).
Trends in the diversity of structure follow trends in species diversity; alpha and beta species diversities decrease from favorable to extreme environments.
Each growth-form (i.e. grasses, shrubs, etc.) has its characteristic place of maximum importance along the ecoclines.
The same growth forms may be dominant in similar environments in widely different parts of the world.
Whittaker summed the effects of gradients (3) and (4) to get an overall temperature gradient and combined this with a gradient (2), the moisture gradient, to express the above conclusions in what is known as the Whittaker classification scheme. The scheme graphs average annual precipitation (x-axis) versus average annual temperature (y-axis) to classify biome-types.
Biome-types
Tropical rainforest
Tropical seasonal rainforest
deciduous
semideciduous
Temperate giant rainforest
Montane rainforest
Temperate deciduous forest
Temperate evergreen forest
needleleaf
sclerophyll
Subarctic-subalpine needle-leaved forests (taiga)
Elfin woodland
Thorn forests and woodlands
Thorn scrub
Temperate woodland
Temperate shrublands
deciduous
heath
sclerophyll
subalpine-needleleaf
subalpine-broadleaf
Savanna
Temperate grassland
Alpine grasslands
Tundra
Tropical desert
Warm-temperate desert
Cool temperate desert scrub
Arctic-alpine desert
Bog
Tropical fresh-water swamp forest
Temperate fresh-water swamp forest
Mangrove swamp
Salt marsh
Wetland
Goodall (1974–) ecosystem types
The multi-authored series Ecosystems of the World, edited by David W. Goodall, provides a comprehensive coverage of the major "ecosystem types or biomes" on Earth:
Walter (1976, 2002) zonobiomes
The eponymously named Heinrich Walter classification scheme considers the seasonality of temperature and precipitation. The system, also assessing precipitation and temperature, finds nine major biome types, with the important climate traits and vegetation types. The boundaries of each biome correlate to the conditions of moisture and cold stress that are strong determinants of plant form, and therefore the vegetation that defines the region. Extreme conditions, such as flooding in a swamp, can create different kinds of communities within the same biome.
Schultz (1988) eco-zones
Schultz (1988, 2005) defined nine ecozones (his concept of ecozone is more similar to the concept of biome than to the concept of ecozone of BBC):
polar/subpolar zone
boreal zone
humid mid-latitudes
dry mid-latitudes
subtropics with winter rain
subtropics with year-round rain
dry tropics and subtropics
tropics with summer rain
tropics with year-round rain
Bailey (1989) ecoregions
Robert G. Bailey nearly developed a biogeographical classification system of ecoregions for the United States in a map published in 1976. He subsequently expanded the system to include the rest of North America in 1981, and the world in 1989. The Bailey system, based on climate, is divided into four domains (polar, humid temperate, dry, and humid tropical), with further divisions based on other climate characteristics (subarctic, warm temperate, hot temperate, and subtropical; marine and continental; lowland and mountain).
100 Polar Domain
120 Tundra Division (Köppen: Ft)
M120 Tundra Division – Mountain Provinces
130 Subarctic Division (Köppen: E)
M130 Subarctic Division – Mountain Provinces
200 Humid Temperate Domain
210 Warm Continental Division (Köppen: portion of Dcb)
M210 Warm Continental Division – Mountain Provinces
220 Hot Continental Division (Köppen: portion of Dca)
M220 Hot Continental Division – Mountain Provinces
230 Subtropical Division (Köppen: portion of Cf)
M230 Subtropical Division – Mountain Provinces
240 Marine Division (Köppen: Do)
M240 Marine Division – Mountain Provinces
250 Prairie Division (Köppen: arid portions of Cf, Dca, Dcb)
260 Mediterranean Division (Köppen: Cs)
M260 Mediterranean Division – Mountain Provinces
300 Dry Domain
310 Tropical/Subtropical Steppe Division
M310 Tropical/Subtropical Steppe Division – Mountain Provinces
320 Tropical/Subtropical Desert Division
330 Temperate Steppe Division
340 Temperate Desert Division
400 Humid Tropical Domain
410 Savanna Division
420 Rainforest Division
Olson & Dinerstein (1998) biomes for WWF / Global 200
A team of biologists convened by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) developed a scheme that divided the world's land area into biogeographic realms (called "ecozones" in a BBC scheme), and these into ecoregions (Olson & Dinerstein, 1998, etc.). Each ecoregion is characterized by a main biome (also called major habitat type).
This classification is used to define the Global 200 list of ecoregions identified by the WWF as priorities for conservation.
For the terrestrial ecoregions, there is a specific EcoID, format XXnnNN (XX is the biogeographic realm, nn is the biome number, NN is the individual number).
Biogeographic realms (terrestrial and freshwater)
NA: Nearctic
PA: Palearctic
AT: Afrotropic
IM: Indomalaya
AA: Australasia
NT: Neotropic
OC: Oceania
AN: Antarctic
The applicability of the realms scheme above - based on Udvardy (1975)—to most freshwater taxa is unresolved.
Biogeographic realms (marine)
Arctic
Temperate Northern Atlantic
Temperate Northern Pacific
Tropical Atlantic
Western Indo-Pacific
Central Indo-Pacific
Eastern Indo-Pacific
Tropical Eastern Pacific
Temperate South America
Temperate Southern Africa
Temperate Australasia
Southern Ocean
Biomes (terrestrial)
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (tropical and subtropical, humid)
Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests (tropical and subtropical, semihumid)
Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests (tropical and subtropical, semihumid)
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests (temperate, humid)
Temperate coniferous forests (temperate, humid to semihumid)
Boreal forests/taiga (subarctic, humid)
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands (tropical and subtropical, semiarid)
Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands (temperate, semiarid)
Flooded grasslands and savannas (temperate to tropical, fresh or brackish water inundated)
Montane grasslands and shrublands (alpine or montane climate)
Tundra (Arctic)
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub or sclerophyll forests (temperate warm, semihumid to semiarid with winter rainfall)
Deserts and xeric shrublands (temperate to tropical, arid)
Mangrove (subtropical and tropical, salt water inundated)
Biomes (freshwater)
According to the WWF, the following are classified as freshwater biomes:
Large lakes
Large river deltas
Polar freshwaters
Montane freshwaters
Temperate coastal rivers
Temperate floodplain rivers and wetlands
Temperate upland rivers
Tropical and subtropical coastal rivers
Tropical and subtropical floodplain rivers and wetlands
Tropical and subtropical upland rivers
Xeric freshwaters and endorheic basins
Oceanic islands
Biomes (marine)
Biomes of the coastal and continental shelf areas (neritic zone):
Polar
Temperate shelves and sea
Temperate upwelling
Tropical upwelling
Tropical coral
Summary of the scheme
Biosphere
Biogeographic realms (terrestrial) (8)
Ecoregions (867), each characterized by a main biome type (14)
Ecosystems (biotopes)
Biosphere
Biogeographic realms (freshwater) (8)
Ecoregions (426), each characterized by a main biome type (12)
Ecosystems (biotopes)
Biosphere
Biogeographic realms (marine) (12)
(Marine provinces) (62)
Ecoregions (232), each characterized by a main biome type (5)
Ecosystems (biotopes)
Example:
Biosphere
Biogeographic realm: Palearctic
Ecoregion: Dinaric Mountains mixed forests (PA0418); biome type: temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
Ecosystem: Orjen, vegetation belt between 1,100 and 1,450 m, Oromediterranean zone, nemoral zone (temperate zone)
Biotope: Oreoherzogio-Abietetum illyricae Fuk. (Plant list)
Plant: Silver fir (Abies alba)
Other biomes
Marine biomes
Pruvot (1896) zones or "systems":
Littoral zone
Pelagic zone
Abyssal zone
Longhurst (1998) biomes:
Coastal
Polar
Trade wind
Westerly
Other marine habitat types (not covered yet by the Global 200/WWF scheme):
Open sea
Deep sea
Hydrothermal vents
Cold seeps
Benthic zone
Pelagic zone (trades and westerlies)
Abyssal
Hadal (ocean trench)
Littoral/Intertidal zone
Salt marsh
Estuaries
Coastal lagoons/Atoll lagoons
Kelp forest
Pack ice
Anthropogenic biomes
Humans have altered global patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem processes. As a result, vegetation forms predicted by conventional biome systems can no longer be observed across much of Earth's land surface as they have been replaced by crop and rangelands or cities. Anthropogenic biomes provide an alternative view of the terrestrial biosphere based on global patterns of sustained direct human interaction with ecosystems, including agriculture, human settlements, urbanization, forestry and other uses of land. Anthropogenic biomes offer a way to recognize the irreversible coupling of human and ecological systems at global scales and manage Earth's biosphere and anthropogenic biomes.
Major anthropogenic biomes:
Dense settlements
Croplands
Rangelands
Forested
Indoor
Microbial biomes
Endolithic biomes
The endolithic biome, consisting entirely of microscopic life in rock pores and cracks, kilometers beneath the surface, has only recently been discovered, and does not fit well into most classification schemes.
Effects of climate change
Anthropogenic climate change has the potential to greatly alter the distribution of Earth's biomes. Meaning, biomes around the world could change so much that they would be at risk of becoming new biomes entirely. General frequency models have been a staple in finding out the impact climate change could have on biomes. More specifically, 54% and 22% of global land area will experience climates that correspond to other biomes. 3.6% of land area will experience climates that are completely new or unusual. Average temperatures have risen more than twice the usual amount in both arctic and mountainous biomes, which leads to the conclusion that arctic and mountainous biomes are currently the most vulnerable to climate change. The current reasoning surrounding as to why this is the case are based around the fact that colder environments tend to reflect more sunlight, as a result of the snow and ice covering the ground. Since the annual average temperatures are rising, ice and snow is melting. As a result, albedo is lowered. Keeping a keen eye on terrestrial biomes is important, as they play a crucial role in climate regulation. South American terrestrial biomes have been predicted to go through the same temperature trends as arctic and mountainous biomes. With its annual average temperature continuing to increase, the moisture currently located in forest biomes will dry up.
See also
References
Further reading
Ritter, Michael E. (2005). The Physical Environment: an Introduction to Physical Geography. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
External links
University of California Museum of Paleontology Berkeley's The World's Biomes
Gale/Cengage Biome Overview (archived 11 July 2011)
Global Currents and Terrestrial Biomes Map
WorldBiomes.com (archived 22 February 2011)
Panda.org's Major Habitat Types (archived 6 July 2017)
NASA's Earth Observatory Mission: Biomes
World Map of Desert Biomes
Habitats |
4806 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle%20of%20Marathon | Battle of Marathon | The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. The Greek army inflicted a crushing defeat on the more numerous Persians, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars.
The first Persian invasion was a response to Athenian involvement in the Ionian Revolt, when Athens and Eretria sent a force to support the cities of Ionia in their attempt to overthrow Persian rule. The Athenians and Eretrians had succeeded in capturing and burning Sardis, but they were then forced to retreat with heavy losses. In response to this raid, Darius swore to burn down Athens and Eretria. According to Herodotus, Darius had his bow brought to him and then shot an arrow "upwards towards heaven", saying as he did so: "Zeus, that it may be granted me to take vengeance upon the Athenians!" Herodotus further writes that Darius charged one of his servants to say "Master, remember the Athenians" three times before dinner each day.
At the time of the battle, Sparta and Athens were the two largest city-states in Greece. Once the Ionian revolt was finally crushed by the Persian victory at the Battle of Lade in 494 BC, Darius began plans to subjugate Greece. In 490 BC, he sent a naval task force under Datis and Artaphernes across the Aegean, to subjugate the Cyclades, and then to make punitive attacks on Athens and Eretria. Reaching Euboea in mid-summer after a successful campaign in the Aegean, the Persians proceeded to besiege and capture Eretria. The Persian force then sailed for Attica, landing in the bay near the town of Marathon. The Athenians, joined by a small force from Plataea, marched to Marathon, and succeeded in blocking the two exits from the plain of Marathon. The Athenians also sent a message to the Spartans asking for support. When the messenger arrived in Sparta, the Spartans were involved in a religious festival and gave this as a reason for not coming to help the Athenians.
The Athenians and their allies chose a location for the battle, with marshes and mountainous terrain, that prevented the Persian cavalry from joining the Persian infantry. Miltiades, the Athenian general, ordered a general attack against the Persian forces, composed primarily of missile troops. He reinforced his flanks, luring the Persians' best fighters into his center. The inward wheeling flanks enveloped the Persians, routing them. The Persian army broke in panic towards their ships, and large numbers were slaughtered. The defeat at Marathon marked the end of the first Persian invasion of Greece, and the Persian force retreated to Asia. Darius then began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece; however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted, indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition. After Darius died, his son Xerxes I restarted the preparations for a second invasion of Greece, which finally began in 480 BC.
The Battle of Marathon was a watershed in the Greco-Persian wars, showing the Greeks that the Persians could be beaten; the eventual Greek triumph in these wars can be seen to have begun at Marathon. The battle also showed the Greeks that they were able to win battles without the Spartans, as Sparta was seen as the major military force in Greece. This victory was overwhelmingly won by the Athenians, and Marathon raised Greek esteem of them. The following two hundred years saw the rise of the Classical Greek civilization, which has been enduringly influential in Western society, and so the Battle of Marathon is often seen as a pivotal moment in Mediterranean and European history, and is often celebrated today.
Background
The first Persian invasion of Greece had its immediate roots in the Ionian Revolt, the earliest phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. However, it was also the result of the longer-term interaction between the Greeks and Persians. In 500 BC the Persian Empire was still relatively young and highly expansionistic, but prone to revolts amongst its subject peoples. Moreover, the Persian King Darius was a usurper, and had spent considerable time extinguishing revolts against his rule. Even before the Ionian Revolt, Darius had begun to expand the empire into Europe, subjugating Thrace, and forcing Macedon to become a vassal of Persia. Attempts at further expansion into the politically fractious world of ancient Greece may have been inevitable. However, the Ionian Revolt had directly threatened the integrity of the Persian empire, and the states of mainland Greece remained a potential menace to its future stability. Darius thus resolved to subjugate and pacify Greece and the Aegean, and to punish those involved in the Ionian Revolt.
The Ionian Revolt had begun with an unsuccessful expedition against Naxos, a joint venture between the Persian satrap Artaphernes and the Milesian tyrant Aristagoras. In the aftermath, Artaphernes decided to remove Aristagoras from power, but before he could do so, Aristagoras abdicated, and declared Miletus a democracy. The other Ionian cities followed suit, ejecting their Persian-appointed tyrants, and declaring themselves democracies. Aristagoras then appealed to the states of mainland Greece for support, but only Athens and Eretria offered to send troops.
The involvement of Athens in the Ionian Revolt arose from a complex set of circumstances, beginning with the establishment of the Athenian Democracy in the late 6th century BC.
In 510 BC, with the aid of Cleomenes I, King of Sparta, the Athenian people had expelled Hippias, the tyrant ruler of Athens. With Hippias's father Peisistratus, the family had ruled for 36 out of the previous 50 years and fully intended to continue Hippias's rule. Hippias fled to Sardis to the court of the Persian satrap, Artaphernes and promised control of Athens to the Persians if they were to help restore him. In the meantime, Cleomenes helped install a pro-Spartan tyranny under Isagoras in Athens, in opposition to Cleisthenes, the leader of the traditionally powerful Alcmaeonidae family, who considered themselves the natural heirs to the rule of Athens. Cleisthenes, however, found himself being politically defeated by a coalition led by Isagoras and decided to change the rules of the game by appealing to the demos (the people), in effect making them a new faction in the political arena. This tactic succeeded, but the Spartan King, Cleomenes I, returned at the request of Isagoras and so Cleisthenes, the Alcmaeonids and other prominent Athenian families were exiled from Athens. When Isagoras attempted to create a narrow oligarchic government, the Athenian people, in a spontaneous and unprecedented move, expelled Cleomenes and Isagoras. Cleisthenes was thus restored to Athens (507 BC), and at breakneck speed began to reform the state with the aim of securing his position. The result was not actually a democracy or a real civic state, but he enabled the development of a fully democratic government, which would emerge in the next generation as the demos realized its power. The new-found freedom and self-governance of the Athenians meant that they were thereafter exceptionally hostile to the return of the tyranny of Hippias, or any form of outside subjugation, by Sparta, Persia, or anyone else.
Cleomenes was not pleased with events, and marched on Athens with the Spartan army. Cleomenes's attempts to restore Isagoras to Athens ended in a debacle, but fearing the worst, the Athenians had by this point already sent an embassy to Artaphernes in Sardis, to request aid from the Persian empire. Artaphernes requested that the Athenians give him an 'earth and water', a traditional token of submission, to which the Athenian ambassadors acquiesced. They were, however, severely censured for this when they returned to Athens. At some later point Cleomenes instigated a plot to restore Hippias to the rule of Athens. This failed and Hippias again fled to Sardis and tried to persuade the Persians to subjugate Athens. The Athenians dispatched ambassadors to Artaphernes to dissuade him from taking action, but Artaphernes merely instructed the Athenians to take Hippias back as tyrant. The Athenians indignantly declined, and instead resolved to open war with Persia. Having thus become the enemy of Persia, Athens was already in a position to support the Ionian cities when they began their revolt. The fact that the Ionian democracies were inspired by the example the Athenians had set no doubt further persuaded the Athenians to support the Ionian Revolt, especially since the cities of Ionia were originally Athenian colonies.
The Athenians and Eretrians sent a task force of 25 triremes to Asia Minor to aid the revolt. Whilst there, the Greek army surprised and outmaneuvered Artaphernes, marching to Sardis and burning the lower city. This was, however, as much as the Greeks achieved, and they were then repelled and pursued back to the coast by Persian horsemen, losing many men in the process. Despite the fact that their actions were ultimately fruitless, the Eretrians and in particular the Athenians had earned Darius's lasting enmity, and he vowed to punish both cities. The Persian naval victory at the Battle of Lade (494 BC) all but ended the Ionian Revolt, and by 493 BC, the last hold-outs were vanquished by the Persian fleet. The revolt was used as an opportunity by Darius to extend the empire's border to the islands of the eastern Aegean and the Propontis, which had not been part of the Persian dominions before. The pacification of Ionia allowed the Persians to begin planning their next moves; to extinguish the threat to the empire from Greece and to punish Athens and Eretria.
In 492 BC, after the Ionian Revolt had finally been crushed, Darius dispatched an expedition to Greece under the command of his son-in-law, Mardonius. Mardonius re-subjugated Thrace and made Macedonia a fully subordinate part of the Persians; they had been vassals of the Persians since the late 6th century BC, but retained their general autonomy. Not long after however, his fleet became wrecked by a violent storm, which brought a premature end to the campaign.
However, in 490 BC, following the successes of the previous campaign, Darius decided to send a maritime expedition led by Artaphernes, (son of the satrap to whom Hippias had fled) and Datis, a Median admiral. Mardonius had been injured in the prior campaign and had fallen out of favor. The expedition was intended to bring the Cyclades into the Persian empire, to punish Naxos (which had resisted a Persian assault in 499 BC) and then to head to Greece to force Eretria and Athens to submit to Darius or be destroyed. After island-hopping across the Aegean, including successfully attacking Naxos, the Persian task force arrived off Euboea in mid summer. The Persians then proceeded to besiege, capture, and burn Eretria. They then headed south down the coast of Attica, en route to complete the final objective of the campaign—punish Athens.
Prelude
The Persians sailed down the coast of Attica, and landed at the bay of Marathon, about northeast of Athens, on the advice of the exiled Athenian tyrant Hippias (who had accompanied the expedition). Under the guidance of Miltiades, the Athenian general with the greatest experience of fighting the Persians, the Athenian army marched quickly to block the two exits from the plain of Marathon, and prevent the Persians moving inland. At the same time, Athens's greatest runner, Pheidippides (or Philippides in some accounts) had been sent to Sparta to request that the Spartan army march to the aid of Athens. Pheidippides arrived during the festival of Carneia, a sacrosanct period of peace, and was informed that the Spartan army could not march to war until the full moon rose; Athens could not expect reinforcement for at least ten days. The Athenians would have to hold out at Marathon for the time being, although they were reinforced by the full muster of 1,000 hoplites from the small city of Plataea, a gesture which did much to steady the nerves of the Athenians and won unending Athenian gratitude to Plataea.
For approximately five days the armies therefore confronted each other across the plain of Marathon in stalemate. The flanks of the Athenian camp were protected by either a grove of trees or an abbatis of stakes (depending on the exact reading). Since every day brought the arrival of the Spartans closer, the delay worked in favor of the Athenians. There were ten Athenian strategoi (generals) at Marathon, elected by each of the ten tribes that the Athenians were divided into; Miltiades was one of these. In addition, in overall charge, was the War-Archon (polemarch), Callimachus, who had been elected by the whole citizen body. Herodotus suggests that command rotated between the strategoi, each taking in turn a day to command the army. He further suggests that each strategos, on his day in command, instead deferred to Miltiades. In Herodotus's account, Miltiades is keen to attack the Persians (despite knowing that the Spartans are coming to aid the Athenians), but strangely, chooses to wait until his actual day of command to attack. This passage is undoubtedly problematic; the Athenians had little to gain by attacking before the Spartans arrived, and there is no real evidence of this rotating generalship. There does, however, seem to have been a delay between the Athenian arrival at Marathon and the battle; Herodotus, who evidently believed that Miltiades was eager to attack, may have made a mistake while seeking to explain this delay.
As is discussed below, the reason for the delay was probably simply that neither the Athenians nor the Persians were willing to risk battle initially. This then raises the question of why the battle occurred when it did. Herodotus explicitly tells us that the Greeks attacked the Persians (and the other sources confirm this), but it is not clear why they did this before the arrival of the Spartans. There are two main theories to explain this.
The first theory is that the Persian cavalry left Marathon for an unspecified reason, and that the Greeks moved to take advantage of this by attacking. This theory is based on the absence of any mention of cavalry in Herodotus' account of the battle, and an entry in the Suda dictionary. The entry χωρίς ἱππέων ("without cavalry") is explained thus: The cavalry left. When Datis surrendered and was ready for retreat, the Ionians climbed the trees and gave the Athenians the signal that the cavalry had left. And when Miltiades realized that, he attacked and thus won. From there comes the above-mentioned quote, which is used when someone breaks ranks before battle. There are many variations of this theory, but perhaps the most prevalent is that the cavalry were completing the time-consuming process of re-embarking on the ships, and were to be sent by sea to attack (undefended) Athens in the rear, whilst the rest of the Persians pinned down the Athenian army at Marathon. This theory therefore utilises Herodotus' suggestion that after Marathon, the Persian army began to re-embark, intending to sail around Cape Sounion to attack Athens directly. Thus, this re-embarcation would have occurred before the battle (and indeed have triggered the battle).
The second theory is simply that the battle occurred because the Persians finally moved to attack the Athenians. Although this theory has the Persians moving to the strategic offensive, this can be reconciled with the traditional account of the Athenians attacking the Persians by assuming that, seeing the Persians advancing, the Athenians took the tactical offensive, and attacked them. Obviously, it cannot be firmly established which theory (if either) is correct. However, both theories imply that there was some kind of Persian activity which occurred on or about the fifth day which ultimately triggered the battle. It is also possible that both theories are correct: when the Persians sent the cavalry by ship to attack Athens, they simultaneously sent their infantry to attack at Marathon, triggering the Greek counterattack.
Date of the battle
Herodotus mentions for several events a date in the lunisolar calendar, of which each Greek city-state used a variant. Astronomical computation allows us to derive an absolute date in the proleptic Julian calendar which is much used by historians as the chronological frame. Philipp August Böckh in 1855 concluded that the battle took place on September 12, 490 BC in the Julian calendar, and this is the conventionally accepted date. However, this depends on when exactly the Spartans held their festival and it is possible that the Spartan calendar was one month ahead of that of Athens. In that case the battle took place on August 12, 490 BC.
Opposing forces
Athenians
Herodotus does not give a figure for the size of the Athenian army. However, Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias and Plutarch all give the figure of 9,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans; while Justin suggests that there were 10,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans. These numbers are highly comparable to the number of troops Herodotus says that the Athenians and Plataeans sent to the Battle of Plataea 11 years later. Pausanias noticed on the monument to the battle the names of former slaves who were freed in exchange for military services. Modern historians generally accept these numbers as reasonable. The areas ruled by Athens (Attica) had a population of 315,000 at this time including slaves, which implies the full Athenian army at the times of both Marathon and Plataea numbered about 3% of the population.
Persians
According to Herodotus, the fleet sent by Darius consisted of 600 triremes. Herodotus does not estimate the size of the Persian army, only saying that they were a "large infantry that was well packed". Among ancient sources, the poet Simonides, another near-contemporary, says the campaign force numbered 200,000; while a later writer, the Roman Cornelius Nepos estimates 200,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, of which only 100,000 fought in the battle, while the rest were loaded into the fleet that was rounding Cape Sounion; Plutarch and Pausanias both independently give 300,000, as does the Suda dictionary. Plato and Lysias give 500,000; and Justinus 600,000.
Modern historians have proposed wide-ranging numbers for the infantry, from 20,000 to 100,000 with a consensus of perhaps 25,000; estimates for the cavalry are in the range of 1,000.
The fleet included various contingents from different parts of the Achaemenid Empire, particularly Ionians and Aeolians, although they are not mentioned as participating directly to the battle and may have remained on the ships:
Regarding the ethnicities involved in the battle, Herodotus specifically mentions the presence of the Persians and the Sakae at the center of the Achaemenid line:
Strategic and tactical considerations
From a strategic point of view, the Athenians had some disadvantages at Marathon. In order to face the Persians in battle, the Athenians had to summon all available hoplites; even then they were still probably outnumbered at least 2 to 1. Furthermore, raising such a large army had denuded Athens of defenders, and thus any secondary attack in the Athenian rear would cut the army off from the city; and any direct attack on the city could not be defended against. Still further, defeat at Marathon would mean the complete defeat of Athens, since no other Athenian army existed. The Athenian strategy was therefore to keep the Persian army pinned down at Marathon, blocking both exits from the plain, and thus preventing themselves from being outmaneuvered. However, these disadvantages were balanced by some advantages. The Athenians initially had no need to seek battle, since they had managed to confine the Persians to the plain of Marathon. Furthermore, time worked in their favour, as every day brought the arrival of the Spartans closer. Having everything to lose by attacking, and much to gain by waiting, the Athenians remained on the defensive in the run up to the battle. Tactically, hoplites were vulnerable to attacks by cavalry, and since the Persians had substantial numbers of cavalry, this made any offensive maneuver by the Athenians even more of a risk, and thus reinforced the defensive strategy of the Athenians.
The Persian strategy, in contrast, was probably principally determined by tactical considerations. The Persian infantry was evidently lightly armoured, and no match for hoplites in a head-on confrontation (as would be demonstrated at the later battles of Thermopylae and Plataea.) Since the Athenians seem to have taken up a strong defensive position at Marathon, the Persian hesitance was probably a reluctance to attack the Athenians head-on. The camp of the Athenians was located on a spur of mount Agrieliki next to the plain of Marathon; remains of its fortifications are still visible.
Whatever event eventually triggered the battle, it obviously altered the strategic or tactical balance sufficiently to induce the Athenians to attack the Persians. If the first theory is correct (see above), then the absence of cavalry removed the main Athenian tactical disadvantage, and the threat of being outflanked made it imperative to attack. But if the second theory is correct, then the Athenians were merely reacting to the Persians attacking them. Since the Persian force obviously contained a high proportion of missile troops, a static defensive position would have made little sense for the Athenians; the strength of the hoplite was in the melee, and the sooner that could be brought about, the better, from the Athenian point of view. If the second theory is correct, this raises the further question of why the Persians, having hesitated for several days, then attacked. There may have been several strategic reasons for this; perhaps they were aware (or suspected) that the Athenians were expecting reinforcements. Alternatively, they may have felt the need to force some kind of victory—they could hardly remain at Marathon indefinitely.
Battle
First phase: the two armies form their lines
The distance between the two armies at the point of battle had narrowed to "a distance not less than 8 stadia" or about 1,500 meters. Miltiades ordered the two tribes forming the center of the Greek formation, the Leontis tribe led by Themistocles and the Antiochis tribe led by Aristides, to be arranged in the depth of four ranks while the rest of the tribes at their flanks were in ranks of eight. Some modern commentators have suggested this was a deliberate ploy to encourage a double envelopment of the Persian centre. However, this suggests a level of training that the Greeks are thought not to have possessed. There is little evidence for any such tactical thinking in Greek battles until Leuctra in 371 BC. It is therefore possible that this arrangement was made, perhaps at the last moment, so that the Athenian line was as long as the Persian line, and would not therefore be outflanked.
Second phase: the Greeks attack and the lines make contact
When the Athenian line was ready, according to one source, the simple signal to advance was given by Miltiades: "At them". Herodotus implies the Athenians ran the whole distance to the Persian lines, a feat under the weight of hoplite armory generally thought to be physically impossible. More likely, they marched until they reached the limit of the archers' effectiveness, the "beaten zone" (roughly 200 meters), and then broke into a run towards their enemy. Another possibility is that they ran up to the 200 meter-mark in broken ranks, and then reformed for the march into battle from there. Herodotus suggests that this was the first time a Greek army ran into battle in this way; this was probably because it was the first time that a Greek army had faced an enemy composed primarily of missile troops. All this was evidently much to the surprise of the Persians; "... in their minds they charged the Athenians with madness which must be fatal, seeing that they were few and yet were pressing forwards at a run, having neither cavalry nor archers". Indeed, based on their previous experience of the Greeks, the Persians might be excused for this; Herodotus tells us that the Athenians at Marathon were "first to endure looking at Median dress and men wearing it, for up until then just hearing the name of the Medes caused the Hellenes to panic". Passing through the hail of arrows launched by the Persian army, protected for the most part by their armour, the Greek line finally made contact with the enemy army.
Third phase: the Greek center is pushed back
Fourth phase: the Persian wings collapse
The Athenian wings quickly routed the inferior Persian levies on the flanks, before turning inwards to surround the Persian centre, which had been more successful against the thin Greek centre.
Fifth phase: the Persians are routed and retreat to their ships
The battle ended when the Persian centre then broke in panic towards their ships, pursued by the Greeks. Some, unaware of the local terrain, ran towards the swamps where unknown numbers drowned. The Athenians pursued the Persians back to their ships, and managed to capture seven ships, though the majority were able to launch successfully. Herodotus recounts the story that Cynaegirus, brother of the playwright Aeschylus, who was also among the fighters, charged into the sea, grabbed one Persian trireme, and started pulling it towards shore. A member of the crew saw him, cut off his hand, and Cynaegirus died.
Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies were counted on the battlefield, and it is unknown how many more perished in the swamps. He also reported that the Athenians lost 192 men and the Plataeans 11. Among the dead were the war archon Callimachus and the general Stesilaos.
Conclusions
There are several explanations of the Greek success. Most scholars believe that the Greeks had better equipment and used superior tactics. According to Herodotus, the Greeks were better equipped. They did not use bronze upper body armour at this time, but that of leather or linen. The phalanx formation proved successful, because the hoplites had a long tradition in hand-to-hand combat, whereas the Persian soldiers were accustomed to a very different kind of conflict. At Marathon, the Athenians thinned their centre in order to make their army equal in length to the Persian army, not as a result of a tactical planning. It seems that the Persian centre tried to return, realizing that their wings had broken, and was caught in the flanks by the victorious Greek wings. Lazenby (1993) believes that the ultimate reason for the Greek success was the courage the Greeks displayed:
Marathon was won because ordinary, amateur soldiers found the courage to break into a trot when the arrows began to fall, instead of grinding to a halt, and when surprisingly the enemy wings fled, not to take the easy way out and follow them, but to stop and somehow come to the aid of the hard pressured centre.
According to Vic Hurley, the Persian defeat is explained by the "complete failure ... to field a representative army", calling the battle the "most convincing" example of the fact that infantry-bowmen cannot defend any position while stationed in close-quarters and unsupported (i.e. by fortifications, or failing to support them by cavalry and chariots, as was the common Persian tactic).
Aftermath
In the immediate aftermath of the battle, Herodotus says that the Persian fleet sailed around Cape Sounion to attack Athens directly. As has been discussed above, some modern historians place this attempt just before the battle. Either way, the Athenians evidently realised that their city was still under threat, and marched as quickly as possible back to Athens.
The two tribes which had been in the centre of the Athenian line stayed to guard the battlefield under the command of Aristides. The Athenians arrived in time to prevent the Persians from securing a landing, and seeing that the opportunity was lost, the Persians turned about and returned to Asia. Connected with this episode, Herodotus recounts a rumour that this manoeuver by the Persians had been planned in conjunction with the Alcmaeonids, the prominent Athenian aristocratic family, and that a "shield-signal" had been given after the battle. Although many interpretations of this have been offered, it is impossible to tell whether this was true, and if so, what exactly the signal meant. On the next day, the Spartan army arrived at Marathon, having covered the in only three days. The Spartans toured the battlefield at Marathon, and agreed that the Athenians had won a great victory.
The Athenian and Plataean dead of Marathon were buried on the battlefield in two tumuli. On the tomb of the Athenians this epigram composed by Simonides was written:
Meanwhile, Darius began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece; however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted, indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition. Darius then died whilst preparing to march on Egypt, and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I. Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt, and very quickly restarted the preparations for the invasion of Greece. The epic second Persian invasion of Greece finally began in 480 BC, and the Persians met with initial success at the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium. Defeat at the Battle of Salamis happened after Xerxes burnt Athens to the ground after Athenians left the city, and the next year the expedition was ended by the decisive Greek victory at the Battle of Plataea.
Significance
The defeat at Marathon barely touched the vast resources of the Persian empire, yet for the Greeks it was an enormously significant victory. It was the first time the Greeks had beaten the Persians, proving that the Persians were not invincible, and that resistance, rather than subjugation, was possible.
The battle was a defining moment for the young Athenian democracy, showing what might be achieved through unity and self-belief; indeed, the battle effectively marks the start of a "golden age" for Athens. This was also applicable to Greece as a whole; "their victory endowed the Greeks with a faith in their destiny that was to endure for three centuries, during which Western culture was born". John Stuart Mill's famous opinion was that "the Battle of Marathon, even as an event in British history, is more important than the Battle of Hastings". According to Isaac Asimov, "if the Athenians had lost in Marathon, . . . Greece might have never gone to develop the peak of its civilization, a peak whose fruits we moderns have inherited."
It seems that the Athenian playwright Aeschylus considered his participation at Marathon to be his greatest achievement in life (rather than his plays) since on his gravestone there was the following epigram:
Militarily, a major lesson for the Greeks was the potential of the hoplite phalanx. This style had developed during internecine warfare amongst the Greeks; since each city-state fought in the same way, the advantages and disadvantages of the hoplite phalanx had not been obvious. Marathon was the first time a phalanx faced more lightly armed troops, and revealed how effective the hoplites could be in battle. The phalanx formation was still vulnerable to cavalry (the cause of much caution by the Greek forces at the Battle of Plataea), but used in the right circumstances, it was now shown to be a potentially devastating weapon.
Sources
The main source for the Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus. Herodotus, who has been called the "Father of History", was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus, Asia Minor (then under Persian overlordship). He wrote his Enquiries (Greek – Historiai; English – (The) Histories) around 440–430 BC, trying to trace the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, which would still have been relatively recent history (the wars finally ended in 450 BC). Herodotus's approach was entirely novel, and at least in Western society, he does seem to have invented "history" as we know it. As Holland has it: "For the first time, a chronicler set himself to trace the origins of a conflict not to a past so remote so as to be utterly fabulous, nor to the whims and wishes of some god, nor to a people's claim to manifest destiny, but rather explanations he could verify personally."
Some subsequent ancient historians, despite following in his footsteps, criticised Herodotus, starting with Thucydides. Nevertheless, Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off (at the Siege of Sestos), and may therefore have felt that Herodotus's history was accurate enough not to need re-writing or correcting. Plutarch criticised Herodotus in his essay On the malice of Herodotus, describing Herodotus as "Philobarbaros" (barbarian-lover), for not being pro-Greek enough, which suggests that Herodotus might actually have done a reasonable job of being even-handed. A negative view of Herodotus was passed on to Renaissance Europe, though he remained well read. However, since the 19th century his reputation has been dramatically rehabilitated by archaeological finds which have repeatedly confirmed his version of events. The prevailing modern view is that Herodotus generally did a remarkable job in his Historiai, but that some of his specific details (particularly troop numbers and dates) should be viewed with skepticism. Nevertheless, there are still some historians who believe Herodotus made up much of his story.
The Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the 1st century BC in his Bibliotheca Historica, also provides an account of the Greco-Persian wars, partially derived from the earlier Greek historian Ephorus. This account is fairly consistent with Herodotus's. The Greco-Persian wars are also described in less detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch, Ctesias of Cnidus, and are alluded by other authors, such as the playwright Aeschylus. Archaeological evidence, such as the Serpent Column, also supports some of Herodotus's specific claims.
Legacy
Legends associated with the battle
The most famous legend associated with Marathon is that of the runner Pheidippides (or Philippides) bringing news to Athens of the battle, which is described below.
Pheidippides' run to Sparta to bring aid has other legends associated with it. Herodotus mentions that Pheidippides was visited by the god Pan on his way to Sparta (or perhaps on his return journey). Pan asked why the Athenians did not honor him and the awed Pheidippides promised that they would do so from then on. The god apparently felt that the promise would be kept, so he appeared in battle and at the crucial moment he instilled the Persians with his own brand of fear, the mindless, frenzied fear that bore his name: "panic". After the battle, a sacred precinct was established for Pan in a grotto on the north slope of the Acropolis, and a sacrifice was annually offered.
Similarly, after the victory the festival of the Agroteras Thysia ("sacrifice to the Agrotéra") was held at Agrae near Athens, in honor of Artemis Agrotera ("Artemis the Huntress"). This was in fulfillment of a vow made by the city before the battle, to offer in sacrifice a number of goats equal to that of the Persians slain in the conflict. The number was so great, it was decided to offer 500 goats yearly until the number was filled. Xenophon notes that at his time, 90 years after the battle, goats were still offered yearly.
Plutarch mentions that the Athenians saw the phantom of King Theseus, the mythical hero of Athens, leading the army in full battle gear in the charge against the Persians, and indeed he was depicted in the mural of the Stoa Poikile fighting for the Athenians, along with the twelve Olympian gods and other heroes. Pausanias also tells us that: They say too that there chanced to be present in the battle a man of rustic appearance and dress. Having slaughtered many of the foreigners with a plough he was seen no more after the engagement. When the Athenians made enquiries at the oracle, the god merely ordered them to honor Echetlaeus ("he of the Plough-tail") as a hero.
Another tale from the conflict is of the dog of Marathon. Aelian relates that one hoplite brought his dog to the Athenian encampment. The dog followed his master to battle and attacked the Persians at his master's side. He also informs us that this dog is depicted in the mural of the Stoa Poikile.
Marathon run
According to Herodotus, an Athenian runner named Pheidippides was sent to run from Athens to Sparta to ask for assistance before the battle. He ran a distance of over 225 kilometers (140 miles), arriving in Sparta the day after he left. Then, following the battle, the Athenian army marched the 40 kilometers (25 miles) or so back to Athens at a very high pace (considering the quantity of armour, and the fatigue after the battle), in order to head off the Persian force sailing around Cape Sounion. They arrived back in the late afternoon, in time to see the Persian ships turn away from Athens, thus completing the Athenian victory.
Later, in popular imagination, these two events were conflated, leading to a legendary but inaccurate version of events. This myth has Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens after the battle, to announce the Greek victory with the word "nenikēkamen!" (Attic: ; we've won!), whereupon he promptly died of exhaustion. Most accounts incorrectly attribute this story to Herodotus; actually, the story first appears in Plutarch's On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century AD, who quotes from Heracleides of Pontus's lost work, giving the runner's name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles. Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD) gives the same story but names the runner Philippides (not Pheidippides). In some medieval codices of Herodotus, the name of the runner between Athens and Sparta before the battle is given as Philippides, and this name is also preferred in a few modern editions.
When the idea of a modern Olympics became a reality at the end of the 19th century, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, recalling the ancient glory of Greece. The idea of organizing a "marathon race" came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This idea was heavily supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, as well as the Greeks. This would echo the legendary version of events, with the competitors running from Marathon to Athens. So popular was this event that it quickly caught on, becoming a fixture at the Olympic games, with major cities staging their own annual events. The distance eventually became fixed at , though for the first years it was variable, being around —the approximate distance from Marathon to Athens.
See also
Ancient Greek warfare
Timeline of ancient Greece
Notes
References
Ancient sources
Herodotus, The Histories
Thucydides, History of The Peloponnesian Wars
Diodorus Siculus, Library
Lysias, Funeral Oration
Plato, Menexenus
Xenophon Anabasis
Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution
Aristophanes, The Knights
Cornelius Nepos Lives of the Eminent Commanders (Miltiades)
Plutarch Parallel Lives (Aristides, Themistocles, Theseus), On the Malice of Herodotus
Lucian, Mistakes in Greeting
Pausanias, Description of Greece
Claudius Aelianus Various history & On the Nature of Animals
Marcus Junianus Justinus Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus
Photius, Bibliotheca or Myriobiblon: Epitome of Persica by Ctesias
Suda Dictionary
Modern studies
Hans W. Giessen, Mythos Marathon. Von Herodot über Bréal bis zur Gegenwart. Verlag Empirische Pädagogik, Landau (= Landauer Schriften zur Kommunikations- und Kulturwissenschaft. Band 17) 2010. .
Lacey, Jim. The First Clash: The Miraculous Greek Victory at Marathon and Its Impact on Western Civilization (2011), popular
Lagos, Constantinos. Karyanos Fotis, Who Really Won the Battle of Marathon? A Bold Re-Appraisal of One of History's Most Famous Battles, Pen and Sword, Barnsley, 2020, ()
Lazenby, J.F. The Defence of Greece 490–479 BC. Aris & Phillips Ltd., 1993 ()
Lloyd, Alan. Marathon: The Crucial Battle That Created Western Democracy. Souvenir Press, 2004. ()
Davis, Paul. 100 Decisive Battles. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Powell J., Blakeley D.W., Powell, T. Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences: The Nineteenth Century, 1800–1914. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.
Fuller, J.F.C. A Military History of the Western World. Funk & Wagnalls, 1954.
Fehling, D. Herodotus and His "Sources": Citation, Invention, and Narrative Art. Translated by J.G. Howie. Leeds: Francis Cairns, 1989.
D.W. Olson et al., "The Moon and the Marathon", Sky & Telescope Sep. 2004
Krentz, Peter. The Battle of Marathon. Yale University Press, 2010
Historiography
Fink, Dennis L. The Battle of Marathon in Scholarship: Research, Theories and Controversies since 1850 (McFarland, 2014). 240 pp. online review
External links
The Importance of the Battle of Marathon on The History Notes website
Black-and-white photo-essay of Marathon
Hood, E. The Greek Victory at Marathon , Clio History Journal, 1995.
Battle of Marathon by e-marathon.gr
The Battle of Marathon September 490 BC
The Battle of Marathon September 490 BC, by Major General Dimitris Gedeon, HEAR
Digital representation of the Battle of Marathon 490 BC
Marathon, the beginning of history A documentary from ET1, 2011
Doenges, N.A. "The Campaign and Battle of Marathon." Historia vol. 47 (1998): 1–17.
490s BC conflicts
Battles involving Athens
Last stands
Battles involving the Achaemenid Empire
Amphibious operations |
4810 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance%20of%20trade | Balance of trade | The balance of trade, commercial balance, or net exports (sometimes symbolized as NX), is the difference between the monetary value of a nation's exports and imports over a certain time period. Sometimes a distinction is made between a balance of trade for goods versus one for services. The balance of trade measures a flow of exports and imports over a given period of time. The notion of the balance of trade does not mean that exports and imports are "in balance" with each other.
If a country exports a greater value than it imports, it has a trade surplus or positive trade balance, and conversely, if a country imports a greater value than it exports, it has a trade deficit or negative trade balance. As of 2016, about 60 out of 200 countries have a trade surplus. The notion that bilateral trade deficits are bad in and of themselves is overwhelmingly rejected by trade experts and economists.
Explanation
The balance of trade forms part of the current account, which includes other transactions such as income from the net international investment position as well as international aid. If the current account is in surplus, the country's net international asset position increases correspondingly. Equally, a deficit decreases the net international asset position.
The trade balance is identical to the difference between a country's output and its domestic demand (the difference between what goods a country produces and how many goods it buys from abroad; this does not include money re-spent on foreign stock, nor does it factor in the concept of importing goods to produce for the domestic market).
Measuring the balance of trade can be problematic because of problems with recording and collecting data. As an illustration of this problem, when official data for all the world's countries are added up, exports exceed imports by almost 1%; it appears the world is running a positive balance of trade with itself. This cannot be true, because all transactions involve an equal credit or debit in the account of each nation. The discrepancy is widely believed to be explained by transactions intended to launder money or evade taxes, smuggling and other visibility problems. While the accuracy of developing countries' statistics would be suspicious, most of the discrepancy actually occurs between developed countries of trusted statistics.
Factors that can affect the balance of trade include:
The cost of production (land, labor, capital, taxes, incentives, etc.) in the exporting economy vis-à-vis those in the importing economy;
The cost and availability of raw materials, intermediate goods and other inputs;
Currency exchange rate movements;
Multilateral, bilateral and unilateral taxes or restrictions on trade;
Non-tariff barriers such as environmental, health or safety standards;
The availability of adequate foreign exchange with which to pay for imports; and
Prices of goods manufactured at home (influenced by the responsiveness of supply)
In addition, the trade balance is likely to differ across the business cycle. In export-led growth (such as oil and early industrial goods), the balance of trade will shift towards exports during an economic expansion. However, with domestic demand-led growth (as in the United States and Australia) the trade balance will shift towards imports at the same stage in the business cycle.
The monetary balance of trade is different from the physical balance of trade (which is expressed in amount of raw materials, known also as Total Material Consumption). Developed countries usually import a substantial amount of raw materials from developing countries. Typically, these imported materials are transformed into finished products and might be exported after adding value. Financial trade balance statistics conceal material flow. Most developed countries have a large physical trade deficit because they consume more raw materials than they produce.
Examples
Historical example
Many countries in early modern Europe adopted a policy of mercantilism, which theorized that a trade surplus was beneficial to a country. Mercantilist ideas also influenced how European nations regulated trade policies with their colonies, promoting the idea that natural resources and cash crops should be exported to Europe, with processed goods being exported back to the colonies in return. Ideas such as bullionism spurred the popularity of mercantilism in European governments.
An early statement concerning the balance of trade appeared in Discourse of the Common Wealth of this Realm of England, 1549: "We must always take heed that we buy no more from strangers than we sell them, for so should we impoverish ourselves and enrich them." Similarly, a systematic and coherent explanation of balance of trade was made public through Thomas Mun's 1630 "England's treasure by foreign trade, or, The balance of our foreign trade is the rule of our treasure".
Since the mid-1980s, the United States has had a growing deficit in tradeable goods, especially with Asian nations (China and Japan) which now hold large sums of U.S debt that has in part funded the consumption. The U.S. has a trade surplus with nations such as Australia. The issue of trade deficits can be complex. Trade deficits generated in tradeable goods such as manufactured goods or software may impact domestic employment to different degrees than do trade deficits in raw materials.
Economies that have savings surpluses, such as Japan and Germany, typically run trade surpluses. China, a high-growth economy, has tended to run trade surpluses. A higher savings rate generally corresponds to a trade surplus. Correspondingly, the U.S. with its lower savings rate has tended to run high trade deficits, especially with Asian nations.
Some have said that China pursues a mercantilist economic policy. Russia pursues a policy based on protectionism, according to which international trade is not a "win-win" game but a zero-sum game: surplus countries get richer at the expense of deficit countries.
In 2016
Country example: Armenia
For the last two decades, the Armenian trade balance has been negative, reaching 203.9 USD million in March 2019, which was considered the highest by then, however the most recent ratio of the same indicator is -273,5 USD million in Oct 2021, which is evidently one of the consequences of 6 weeks war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in autumn of 2020. The reason for the trade deficit is that Armenia's foreign trade is limited by its landlocked location and border disputes with Turkey and Azerbaijan, to the west and east respectively. The situation results in the country's typically reporting large trade deficits.
Views on economic impact
The notion that bilateral trade deficits are bad in and of themselves is overwhelmingly rejected by trade experts and economists. According to the IMF trade deficits can cause a balance of payments problem, which can affect foreign exchange shortages and hurt countries. On the other hand, Joseph Stiglitz points out that countries running surpluses exert a "negative externality" on trading partners, and pose a threat to global prosperity, far more than those in deficit. Ben Bernanke argues that "persistent imbalances within the euro zone are... unhealthy, as they lead to financial imbalances as well as to unbalanced growth. The fact that Germany is selling so much more than it is buying redirects demand from its neighbors (as well as from other countries around the world), reducing output and employment outside Germany." According to Carla Norrlöf, there are three main benefits to trade deficits for the United States:
Greater consumption than production: the US enjoys the better side of the bargain by being able to consume more than it produces
Usage of efficiently produced foreign-made intermediate goods is productivity-enhancing for US firms: the US makes the most effective use of the global division of labor
A large market that other countries are reliant on for exports enhances American bargaining power in trade negotiations
A 2018 National Bureau of Economic Research paper by economists at the International Monetary Fund and University of California, Berkeley, found in a study of 151 countries over 1963-2014 that the imposition of tariffs had little effect on the trade balance.
Classical theory
Adam Smith on the balance of trade
Keynesian theory
In the last few years of his life, John Maynard Keynes was much preoccupied with the question of balance in international trade. He was the leader of the British delegation to the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in 1944 that established the Bretton Woods system of international currency management.
He was the principal author of a proposal – the so-called Keynes Plan – for an International Clearing Union. The two governing principles of the plan were that the problem of settling outstanding balances should be solved by 'creating' additional 'international money', and that debtor and creditor should be treated almost alike as disturbers of equilibrium. In the event, though, the plans were rejected, in part because "American opinion was naturally reluctant to accept the principle of equality of treatment so novel in debtor-creditor relationships".
The new system is not founded on free-trade (liberalisation of foreign trade) but rather on the regulation of international trade, in order to eliminate trade imbalances: the nations with a surplus would have a powerful incentive to get rid of it, and in doing so they would automatically clear other nations' deficits. He proposed a global bank that would issue its own currency – the bancor – which was exchangeable with national currencies at fixed rates of exchange and would become the unit of account between nations, which means it would be used to measure a country's trade deficit or trade surplus. Every country would have an overdraft facility in its bancor account at the International Clearing Union. He pointed out that surpluses lead to weak global aggregate demand – countries running surpluses exert a "negative externality" on trading partners, and posed far more than those in deficit, a threat to global prosperity.
In "National Self-Sufficiency" The Yale Review, Vol. 22, no. 4 (June 1933), he already highlighted the problems created by free trade.
His view, supported by many economists and commentators at the time, was that creditor nations may be just as responsible as debtor nations for disequilibrium in exchanges and that both should be under an obligation to bring trade back into a state of balance. Failure for them to do so could have serious consequences. In the words of Geoffrey Crowther, then editor of The Economist, "If the economic relationships between nations are not, by one means or another, brought fairly close to balance, then there is no set of financial arrangements that can rescue the world from the impoverishing results of chaos."
These ideas were informed by events prior to the Great Depression when – in the opinion of Keynes and others – international lending, primarily by the U.S., exceeded the capacity of sound investment and so got diverted into non-productive and speculative uses, which in turn invited default and a sudden stop to the process of lending.
Influenced by Keynes, economics texts in the immediate post-war period put a significant emphasis on balance in trade. For example, the second edition of the popular introductory textbook, An Outline of Money, devoted the last three of its ten chapters to questions of foreign exchange management and in particular the 'problem of balance'. However, in more recent years, since the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, with the increasing influence of monetarist schools of thought in the 1980s, and particularly in the face of large sustained trade imbalances, these concerns – and particularly concerns about the destabilising effects of large trade surpluses – have largely disappeared from mainstream economics discourse and Keynes' insights have slipped from view. They are receiving some attention again in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007–08.
Monetarist theory
Prior to 20th-century monetarist theory, the 19th-century economist and philosopher Frédéric Bastiat expressed the idea that trade deficits actually were a manifestation of profit, rather than a loss. He proposed as an example to suppose that he, a Frenchman, exported French wine and imported British coal, turning a profit. He supposed he was in France and sent a cask of wine which was worth 50 francs to England. The customhouse would record an export of 50 francs. If in England, the wine sold for 70 francs (or the pound equivalent), which he then used to buy coal, which he imported into France (the customhouse would record an import of 70 francs), and was found to be worth 90 francs in France, he would have made a profit of 40 francs. But the customhouse would say that the value of imports exceeded that of exports and was trade deficit of 20 against the ledger of France.This is not true for the current account that would be in surplus.
By reductio ad absurdum, Bastiat argued that the national trade deficit was an indicator of a successful economy, rather than a failing one. Bastiat predicted that a successful, growing economy would result in greater trade deficits, and an unsuccessful, shrinking economy would result in lower trade deficits. This was later, in the 20th century, echoed by economist Milton Friedman.
In the 1980s, Friedman, a Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist and a proponent of monetarism, contended that some of the concerns of trade deficits are unfair criticisms in an attempt to push macroeconomic policies favorable to exporting industries.
Friedman argued that trade deficits are not necessarily important, as high exports raise the value of the currency, reducing aforementioned exports, and vice versa for imports, thus naturally removing trade deficits not due to investment. Since 1971, when the Nixon administration decided to abolish fixed exchange rates, America's Current Account accumulated trade deficits have totaled $7.75 trillion as of 2010. This deficit exists as it is matched by investment coming into the United States – purely by the definition of the balance of payments, any current account deficit that exists is matched by an inflow of foreign investment.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the U.S. had experienced high inflation and Friedman's policy positions tended to defend the stronger dollar at that time. He stated his belief that these trade deficits were not necessarily harmful to the economy at the time since the currency comes back to the country (country A sells to country B, country B sells to country C who buys from country A, but the trade deficit only includes A and B). However, it may be in one form or another including the possible tradeoff of foreign control of assets. In his view, the "worst-case scenario" of the currency never returning to the country of origin was actually the best possible outcome: the country actually purchased its goods by exchanging them for pieces of cheaply made paper. As Friedman put it, this would be the same result as if the exporting country burned the dollars it earned, never returning it to market circulation.
This position is a more refined version of the theorem first discovered by David Hume. Hume argued that England could not permanently gain from exports, because hoarding gold (i.e., currency) would make gold more plentiful in England; therefore, the prices of English goods would rise, making them less attractive exports and making foreign goods more attractive imports. In this way, countries' trade balances would balance out.
Friedman presented his analysis of the balance of trade in Free to Choose, widely considered his most significant popular work.
Trade balance’s effects upon a nation's GDP
Exports directly increase and imports directly reduce a nation's balance of trade (i.e. net exports). A trade surplus is a positive net balance of trade, and a trade deficit is a negative net balance of trade. Due to the balance of trade being explicitly added to the calculation of the nation's gross domestic product using the expenditure method of calculating gross domestic product (i.e. GDP), trade surpluses are contributions and trade deficits are "drags" upon their nation's GDP; however, foreign made goods sold (e.g., retail) contribute to total GDP.
Balance of trade vs. balance of payments
See also
List of countries by net exports
Dutch disease
Transfer problem
References
External links
Where Do U.S. Dollars Go When the United States Runs a Trade Deficit? from Dollars & Sense magazine
OECD Trade balance statistics
U.S. Government Export Assistance
U.S Trade Deficit Depicted in an Infographic
Balance of payments
International trade theory
International trade
International macroeconomics |
4820 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour%20Declaration | Balfour Declaration | The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The declaration was contained in a letter dated 2November 1917 from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The text of the declaration was published in the press on 9November 1917.
Immediately following their declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914, the British War Cabinet began to consider the future of Palestine; within two months a memorandum was circulated to the Cabinet by a Zionist Cabinet member, Herbert Samuel, proposing the support of Zionist ambitions in order to enlist the support of Jews in the wider war. A committee was established in April 1915 by British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith to determine their policy towards the Ottoman Empire including Palestine. Asquith, who had favoured post-war reform of the Ottoman Empire, resigned in December 1916; his replacement David Lloyd George favoured partition of the Empire. The first negotiations between the British and the Zionists took place at a conference on 7 February 1917 that included Sir Mark Sykes and the Zionist leadership. Subsequent discussions led to Balfour's request, on 19 June, that Rothschild and Chaim Weizmann submit a draft of a public declaration. Further drafts were discussed by the British Cabinet during September and October, with input from Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews but with no representation from the local population in Palestine.
By late 1917, in the lead-up to the Balfour Declaration, the wider war had reached a stalemate, with two of Britain's allies not fully engaged: the United States had yet to suffer a casualty, and the Russians were in the midst of a revolution with Bolsheviks taking over the government. A stalemate in southern Palestine was broken by the Battle of Beersheba on 31 October 1917. The release of the final declaration was authorised on 31 October; the preceding Cabinet discussion had referenced perceived propaganda benefits amongst the worldwide Jewish community for the Allied war effort.
The opening words of the declaration represented the first public expression of support for Zionism by a major political power. The term "national home" had no precedent in international law, and was intentionally vague as to whether a Jewish state was contemplated. The intended boundaries of Palestine were not specified, and the British government later confirmed that the words "in Palestine" meant that the Jewish national home was not intended to cover all of Palestine. The second half of the declaration was added to satisfy opponents of the policy, who had claimed that it would otherwise prejudice the position of the local population of Palestine and encourage antisemitism worldwide by "stamping the Jews as strangers in their native lands". The declaration called for safeguarding the civil and religious rights for the Palestinian Arabs, who composed the vast majority of the local population, and also the rights and political status of the Jewish communities in other countries outside of Palestine. The British government acknowledged in 1939 that the local population's wishes and interests should have been taken into account, and recognised in 2017 that the declaration should have called for the protection of the Palestinian Arabs' political rights.
The declaration had many long-lasting consequences. It greatly increased popular support for Zionism within Jewish communities worldwide, and became a core component of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founding document of Mandatory Palestine. It indirectly led to the emergence of Israel and is considered a principal cause of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, often described as the world's most intractable conflict. Controversy remains over a number of areas, such as whether the declaration contradicted earlier promises the British made to the Sharif of Mecca in the McMahon–Hussein correspondence.
Background
Early British support
Early British political support for an increased Jewish presence in the region of Palestine was based upon geopolitical calculations. This support began in the early 1840s and was led by Lord Palmerston, following the occupation of Syria and Palestine by separatist Ottoman governor Muhammad Ali of Egypt. French influence had grown in Palestine and the wider Middle East, and its role as protector of the Catholic communities began to grow, just as Russian influence had grown as protector of the Eastern Orthodox in the same regions. This left Britain without a sphere of influence, and thus a need to find or create their own regional "protégés". These political considerations were supported by a sympathetic evangelical Christian sentiment towards the "restoration of the Jews" to Palestine among elements of the mid-19th-century British political elite – most notably Lord Shaftesbury. The British Foreign Office actively encouraged Jewish emigration to Palestine, exemplified by Charles Henry Churchill's 1841–1842 exhortations to Moses Montefiore, the leader of the British Jewish community.
Such efforts were premature, and did not succeed; only 24,000 Jews were living in Palestine on the eve of the emergence of Zionism within the world's Jewish communities in the last two decades of the 19th century. With the geopolitical shakeup occasioned by the outbreak of the First World War, the earlier calculations, which had lapsed for some time, led to a renewal of strategic assessments and political bargaining over the Middle and Far East.
British anti-Semitism
Although other factors played their part, Jonathan Schneer says that stereotypical thinking by British officials about Jews also played a role in the decision to issue the Declaration. Robert Cecil, Hugh O’Bierne and Sir Mark Sykes all held an unrealistic view of "world Jewry", the former writing "I do not think it is possible to exaggerate the international power of the Jews." Zionist representatives saw advantage in encouraging such views. James Renton concurs, writing that the British foreign policy elite, including Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Foreign Secretary A.J. Balfour, believed that Jews possessed real and significant power that could be of use to them in the war.
Early Zionism
Zionism arose in the late 19th century in reaction to anti-Semitic and exclusionary nationalist movements in Europe. Romantic nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe had helped to set off the Haskalah, or "Jewish Enlightenment", creating a split in the Jewish community between those who saw Judaism as their religion and those who saw it as their ethnicity or nation. The 1881–1884 anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire encouraged the growth of the latter identity, resulting in the formation of the Hovevei Zion pioneer organizations, the publication of Leon Pinsker's Autoemancipation, and the first major wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine – retrospectively named the "First Aliyah".
In 1896, Theodor Herzl, a Jewish journalist living in Austria-Hungary, published the foundational text of political Zionism, Der Judenstaat ("The Jews' State" or "The State of the Jews"), in which he asserted that the only solution to the "Jewish Question" in Europe, including growing anti-Semitism, was the establishment of a state for the Jews. A year later, Herzl founded the Zionist Organization, which at its first congress called for the establishment of "a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law". Proposed measures to attain that goal included the promotion of Jewish settlement there, the organisation of Jews in the diaspora, the strengthening of Jewish feeling and consciousness, and preparatory steps to attain necessary governmental grants. Herzl died in 1904, 44 years before the establishment of State of Israel, the Jewish state that he proposed, without having gained the political standing required to carry out his agenda.
Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, later President of the World Zionist Organisation and first President of Israel, moved from Switzerland to the UK in 1904 and met Arthur Balfour – who had just launched his 1905–1906 election campaign after resigning as Prime Minister – in a session arranged by Charles Dreyfus, his Jewish constituency representative. Earlier that year, Balfour had successfully driven the Aliens Act through Parliament with impassioned speeches regarding the need to restrict the wave of immigration into Britain from Jews fleeing the Russian Empire. During this meeting, he asked what Weizmann's objections had been to the 1903 Uganda Scheme that Herzl had supported to provide a portion of British East Africa to the Jewish people as a homeland. The scheme, which had been proposed to Herzl by Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary in Balfour's Cabinet, following his trip to East Africa earlier in the year, had been subsequently voted down following Herzl's death by the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905 after two years of heated debate in the Zionist Organization. Weizmann responded that he believed the English are to London as the Jews are to Jerusalem.
In January 1914 Weizmann first met Baron Edmond de Rothschild, a member of the French branch of the Rothschild family and a leading proponent of the Zionist movement, in relation to a project to build a Hebrew university in Jerusalem. The Baron was not part of the World Zionist Organization, but had funded the Jewish agricultural colonies of the First Aliyah and transferred them to the Jewish Colonization Association in 1899. This connection was to bear fruit later that year when the Baron's son, James deRothschild, requested a meeting with Weizmann on 25November 1914, to enlist him in influencing those deemed to be receptive within the British government to their agenda of a "Jewish State" in Palestine. Through James's wife Dorothy, Weizmann was to meet Rózsika Rothschild, who introduced him to the English branch of the familyin particular her husband Charles and his older brother Walter, a zoologist and former Member of Parliament (MP). Their father, Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, head of the English branch of the family, had a guarded attitude towards Zionism, but he died in March 1915 and his title was inherited by Walter.
Prior to the declaration, about 8,000 of Britain's 300,000 Jews belonged to a Zionist organisation. Globally, as of 1913 – the latest known date prior to the declaration – the equivalent figure was approximately 1%.
Ottoman Palestine
The year 1916 marked four centuries since Palestine had become part of the Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire. For most of this period, the Jewish population represented a small minority, approximately 3% of the total, with Muslims representing the largest segment of the population, and Christians the second.
Ottoman government in Constantinople began to apply restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine in late 1882, in response to the start of the First Aliyah earlier that year. Although this immigration was creating a certain amount of tension with the local population, mainly among the merchant and notable classes, in 1901 the Sublime Porte (the Ottoman central government) gave Jews the same rights as Arabs to buy land in Palestine and the percentage of Jews in the population rose to 7% by 1914. At the same time, with growing distrust of the Young Turks (Turkish nationalists who had taken control of the Empire in 1908) and the Second Aliyah, Arab nationalism and Palestinian nationalism was on the rise; and in Palestine anti-Zionism was a characteristic that unified these forces. Historians do not know whether these strengthening forces would still have ultimately resulted in conflict in the absence of the Balfour Declaration.
First World War
1914–16: Initial Zionist–British Government discussions
In July 1914 war broke out in Europe between the Triple Entente (Britain, France, and the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and, later that year, the Ottoman Empire).
The British Cabinet first discussed Palestine at a meeting on 9November 1914, four days after Britain's declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire, of which the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalemoften referred to as Palestinewas a component. At the meeting David Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, "referred to the ultimate destiny of Palestine". The Chancellor, whose law firm Lloyd George, Roberts and Co had been engaged a decade before by the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland to work on the Uganda Scheme, was to become Prime Minister by the time of the declaration, and was ultimately responsible for it.
Weizmann's political efforts picked up speed, and on 10December 1914 he met with Herbert Samuel, a British Cabinet member and a secular Jew who had studied Zionism; Samuel believed Weizmann's demands were too modest. Two days later, Weizmann met Balfour again, for the first time since their initial meeting in 1905; Balfour had been out of government ever since his electoral defeat in 1906, but remained a senior member of the Conservative Party in their role as Official Opposition.
A month later, Samuel circulated a memorandum entitled The Future of Palestine to his Cabinet colleagues. The memorandum stated: "I am assured that the solution of the problem of Palestine which would be much the most welcome to the leaders and supporters of the Zionist movement throughout the world would be the annexation of the country to the British Empire". Samuel discussed a copy of his memorandum with Nathan Rothschild in February 1915, a month before the latter's death. It was the first time in an official record that enlisting the support of Jews as a war measure had been proposed.
Many further discussions followed, including the initial meetings in 1915–16 between Lloyd George, who had been appointed Minister of Munitions in May 1915, and Weizmann, who was appointed as a scientific advisor to the ministry in September 1915. Seventeen years later, in his War Memoirs, Lloyd George described these meetings as being the "fount and origin" of the declaration; historians have rejected this claim.
1915–16: Prior British commitments over Palestine
In late 1915 the British High Commissioner to Egypt, Henry McMahon, exchanged ten letters with Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, in which he promised Hussein to recognize Arab independence "in the limits and boundaries proposed by the Sherif of Mecca" in return for Hussein launching a revolt against the Ottoman Empire. The pledge excluded "portions of Syria" lying to the west of "the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo". In the decades after the war, the extent of this coastal exclusion was hotly disputed since Palestine lay to the southwest of Damascus and was not explicitly mentioned.
The Arab Revolt was launched on June5th, 1916, on the basis of the quid pro quo agreement in the correspondence. However, less than three weeks earlier the governments of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia secretly concluded the Sykes–Picot Agreement, which Balfour described later as a "wholly new method" for dividing the region, after the 1915 agreement "seems to have been forgotten".
This Anglo-French treaty was negotiated in late 1915 and early 1916 between Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, with the primary arrangements being set out in draft form in a joint memorandum on 5 January 1916. Sykes was a British Conservative MP who had risen to a position of significant influence on Britain's Middle East policy, beginning with his seat on the 1915 De Bunsen Committee and his initiative to create the Arab Bureau. Picot was a French diplomat and former consul-general in Beirut. Their agreement defined the proposed spheres of influence and control in Western Asia should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World WarI, dividing many Arab territories into British- and French-administered areas. In Palestine, internationalisation was proposed, with the form of administration to be confirmed after consultation with both Russia and Hussein; the January draft noted Christian and Muslim interests, and that "members of the Jewish community throughout the world have a conscientious and sentimental interest in the future of the country."
Prior to this point, no active negotiations with Zionists had taken place, but Sykes had been aware of Zionism, was in contact with Moses Gaster – a former President of the English Zionist Federation – and may have seen Samuel's 1915 memorandum. On 3 March, while Sykes and Picot were still in Petrograd, Lucien Wolf (secretary of the Foreign Conjoint Committee, set up by Jewish organizations to further the interests of foreign Jews) submitted to the Foreign Office, the draft of an assurance (formula) that could be issued by the allies in support of Jewish aspirations:
In the event of Palestine coming within the spheres of influence of Great Britain or France at the close of the war, the governments of those powers will not fail to take account of the historic interest that country possesses for the Jewish community. The Jewish population will be secured in the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, equal political rights with the rest of the population, reasonable facilities for immigration and colonisation, and such municipal privileges in the towns and colonies inhabited by them as may be shown to be necessary.
On 11 March, telegrams were sent in Grey's name to Britain's Russian and French ambassadors for transmission to Russian and French authorities, including the formula, as well as:
The scheme might be made far more attractive to the majority of Jews if it held out to them the prospect that when in course of time the Jewish colonists in Palestine grow strong enough to cope with the Arab population they may be allowed to take the management of the internal affairs of Palestine (with the exception of Jerusalem and the holy places) into their own hands.
Sykes, having seen the telegram, had discussions with Picot and proposed (making reference to Samuel's memorandum) the creation of an Arab Sultanate under French and British protection, some means of administering the holy places along with the establishment of a company to purchase land for Jewish colonists, who would then become citizens with equal rights to Arabs.
Shortly after returning from Petrograd, Sykes briefed Samuel, who then briefed a meeting of Gaster, Weizmann and Sokolow. Gaster recorded in his diary on 16 April 1916: "We are offered French-English condominium in Palest[ine]. Arab Prince to conciliate Arab sentiment and as part of the Constitution a Charter to Zionists for which England would stand guarantee and which would stand by us in every case of friction ... It practically comes to a complete realisation of our Zionist programme. However, we insisted on: national character of Charter, freedom of immigration and internal autonomy, and at the same time full rights of citizenship to [illegible] and Jews in Palestine." In Sykes' mind, the agreement which bore his name was outdated even before it was signed – in March 1916, he wrote in a private letter: "to my mind the Zionists are now the key of the situation". In the event, neither the French nor the Russians were enthusiastic about the proposed formulation and eventually on 4 July, Wolf was informed that "the present moment is inopportune for making any announcement."
These wartime initiatives, inclusive of the declaration, are frequently considered together by historians because of the potential, real or imagined, for incompatibility between them, particularly in regard to the disposition of Palestine. In the words of Professor Albert Hourani, founder of the Middle East Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford: "The argument about the interpretation of these agreements is one which is impossible to end, because they were intended to bear more than one interpretation."
1916–17: Change in British Government
In terms of British politics, the declaration resulted from the coming into power of Lloyd George and his Cabinet, which had replaced the H. H. Asquith led-Cabinet in December 1916. Whilst both Prime Ministers were Liberals and both governments were wartime coalitions, Lloyd George and Balfour, appointed as his Foreign Secretary, favoured a post-war partition of the Ottoman Empire as a major British war aim, whereas Asquith and his Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, had favoured its reform.
Two days after taking office, Lloyd George told General Robertson, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, that he wanted a major victory, preferably the capture of Jerusalem, to impress British public opinion, and immediately consulted his War Cabinet about a "further campaign into Palestine when El Arish had been secured." Subsequent pressure from Lloyd George, over the reservations of Robertson, resulted in the recapture of the Sinai for British-controlled Egypt, and, with the capture of El Arish in December 1916 and Rafah in January 1917, the arrival of British forces at the southern borders of the Ottoman Empire. Following two unsuccessful attempts to capture Gaza between 26 March and 19 April, a six-month stalemate in Southern Palestine began; the Sinai and Palestine Campaign would not make any progress into Palestine until 31October 1917.
1917: British-Zionist formal negotiations
Following the change in government, Sykes was promoted into the War Cabinet Secretariat with responsibility for Middle Eastern affairs. In January 1917, despite having previously built a relationship with Moses Gaster, he began looking to meet other Zionist leaders; by the end of the month he had been introduced to Weizmann and his associate Nahum Sokolow, a journalist and executive of the World Zionist Organization who had moved to Britain at the beginning of the war.
On 7February 1917, Sykes, claiming to be acting in a private capacity, entered into substantive discussions with the Zionist leadership. The previous British correspondence with "the Arabs" was discussed at the meeting; Sokolow's notes record Sykes' description that "The Arabs professed that language must be the measure [by which control of Palestine should be determined] and [by that measure] could claim all Syria and Palestine. Still the Arabs could be managed, particularly if they received Jewish support in other matters." At this point the Zionists were still unaware of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, although they had their suspicions. One of Sykes' goals was the mobilization of Zionism to the cause of British suzerainty in Palestine, so as to have arguments to put to France in support of that objective.
Late 1917: Progress of the wider war
During the period of the British War Cabinet discussions leading up to the declaration, the war had reached a period of stalemate. On the Western Front the tide would first turn in favour of the Central Powers in spring 1918, before decisively turning in favour of the Allies from July 1918 onwards. Although the United States declared war on Germany in the spring of 1917, it did not suffer its first casualties until 2 November 1917, at which point President Woodrow Wilson still hoped to avoid dispatching large contingents of troops into the war. The Russian forces were known to be distracted by the ongoing Russian Revolution and the growing support for the Bolshevik faction, but Alexander Kerensky's Provisional Government had remained in the war; Russia only withdrew after the final stage of the revolution on 7November 1917.
Approvals
April to June: Allied discussions
Balfour met Weizmann at the Foreign Office on 22 March 1917; two days later, Weizmann described the meeting as being "the first time I had a real business talk with him". Weizmann explained at the meeting that the Zionists had a preference for a British protectorate over Palestine, as opposed to an American, French or international arrangement; Balfour agreed, but warned that "there may be difficulties with France and Italy".
The French position in regard to Palestine and the wider Syria region during the lead up to the Balfour Declaration was largely dictated by the terms of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and was complicated from 23 November 1915 by increasing French awareness of the British discussions with the Sherif of Mecca. Prior to 1917, the British had led the fighting on the southern border of the Ottoman Empire alone, given their neighbouring Egyptian colony and the French preoccupation with the fighting on the Western Front that was taking place on their own soil. Italy's participation in the war, which began following the April 1915 Treaty of London, did not include involvement in the Middle Eastern sphere until the April 1917 Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne; at this conference, Lloyd George had raised the question of a British protectorate of Palestine and the idea "had been very coldly received" by the French and the Italians. In May and June 1917, the French and Italians sent detachments to support the British as they built their reinforcements in preparation for a renewed attack on Palestine.
In early April, Sykes and Picot were appointed to act as the chief negotiators once more, this time on a month-long mission to the Middle East for further discussions with the Sherif of Mecca and other Arab leaders. On 3 April 1917, Sykes met with Lloyd George, Lord Curzon and Maurice Hankey to receive his instructions in this regard, namely to keep the French onside while "not prejudicing the Zionist movement and the possibility of its development under British auspices, [and not] enter into any political pledges to the Arabs, and particularly none in regard to Palestine". Before travelling to the Middle East, Picot, via Sykes, invited Nahum Sokolow to Paris to educate the French government on Zionism. Sykes, who had prepared the way in correspondence with Picot, arrived a few days after Sokolow; in the meantime, Sokolow had met Picot and other French officials, and convinced the French Foreign Office to accept for study a statement of Zionist aims "in regard to facilities of colonization, communal autonomy, rights of language and establishment of a Jewish chartered company." Sykes went on ahead to Italy and had meetings with the British ambassador and British Vatican representative to prepare the way for Sokolow once again.
Sokolow was granted an audience with Pope Benedict XV on 6 May 1917. Sokolow's notes of the meeting – the only meeting records known to historians – stated that the Pope expressed general sympathy and support for the Zionist project. On 21 May 1917 Angelo Sereni, president of the Committee of the Jewish Communities, presented Sokolow to Sidney Sonnino, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was also received by Paolo Boselli, the Italian prime minister. Sonnino arranged for the secretary general of the ministry to send a letter to the effect that, although he could not express himself on the merits of a program which concerned all the allies, "generally speaking" he was not opposed to the legitimate claims of the Jews. On his return journey, Sokolow met with French leaders again and secured a letter dated 4 June 1917, giving assurances of sympathy towards the Zionist cause by Jules Cambon, head of the political section of the French foreign ministry. This letter was not published, but was deposited at the British Foreign Office.
Following the United States' entry into the war on 6 April, the British Foreign Secretary led the Balfour Mission to Washington, D.C., and New York, where he spent a month between mid-April and mid-May. During the trip he spent significant time discussing Zionism with Louis Brandeis, a leading Zionist and a close ally of Wilson who had been appointed as a Supreme Court Justice a year previously.
June and July: Decision to prepare a declaration
By 13 June 1917, it was acknowledged by Ronald Graham, head of the Foreign Office's Middle Eastern affairs department, that the three most relevant politiciansthe Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Robert Cecilwere all in favour of Britain supporting the Zionist movement; on the same day Weizmann had written to Graham to advocate for a public declaration.
Six days later, at a meeting on 19June, Balfour asked Lord Rothschild and Weizmann to submit a formula for a declaration. Over the next few weeks, a 143-word draft was prepared by the Zionist negotiating committee, but it was considered too specific on sensitive areas by Sykes, Graham and Rothschild. Separately, a very different draft had been prepared by the Foreign Office, described in 1961 by Harold Nicolson – who had been involved in preparing the draft – as proposing a "sanctuary for Jewish victims of persecution". The Foreign Office draft was strongly opposed by the Zionists, and was discarded; no copy of the draft has been found in the Foreign Office archives.
Following further discussion, a revised – and at just 46 words in length, much shorter – draft declaration was prepared and sent by Lord Rothschild to Balfour on 18 July. It was received by the Foreign Office, and the matter was brought to the Cabinet for formal consideration.
September and October: American consent and War Cabinet approval
The decision to release the declaration was taken by the British War Cabinet on 31 October 1917. This followed discussion at four War Cabinet meetings (including the 31 October meeting) over the space of the previous two months. In order to aid the discussions, the War Cabinet Secretariat, led by Maurice Hankey, the Cabinet Secretary and supported by his Assistant Secretaries – primarily Sykes and his fellow Conservative MP and pro-Zionist Leo Amery – solicited outside perspectives to put before the Cabinet. These included the views of government ministers, war allies – notably from President Woodrow Wilson – and in October, formal submissions from six Zionist leaders and four non-Zionist Jews.
British officials asked President Wilson for his consent on the matter on two occasions – first on 3 September, when he replied the time was not ripe, and later on 6 October, when he agreed with the release of the declaration.
Excerpts from the minutes of these four War Cabinet meetings provide a description of the primary factors that the ministers considered:
3 September 1917: "With reference to a suggestion that the matter might be postponed, [Balfour] pointed out that this was a question on which the Foreign Office had been very strongly pressed for a long time past. There was a very strong and enthusiastic organisation, more particularly in the United States, who were zealous in this matter, and his belief was that it would be of most substantial assistance to the Allies to have the earnestness and enthusiasm of these people enlisted on our side. To do nothing was to risk a direct breach with them, and it was necessary to face this situation."
4 October 1917: "... [Balfour] stated that the German Government were making great efforts to capture the sympathy of the Zionist Movement. This Movement, though opposed by a number of wealthy Jews in this country, had behind it the support of a majority of Jews, at all events in Russia and America, and possibly in other countries ... Mr. Balfour then read a very sympathetic declaration by the French Government which had been conveyed to the Zionists, and he stated that he knew that President Wilson was extremely favourable to the Movement."
25 October 1917: "... the Secretary mentioned that he was being pressed by the Foreign Office to bring forward the question of Zionism, an early settlement of which was regarded as of great importance."
31 October 1917: "[Balfour] stated that he gathered that everyone was now agreed that, from a purely diplomatic and political point of view, it was desirable that some declaration favourable to the aspirations of the Jewish nationalists should now be made. The vast majority of Jews in Russia and America, as, indeed, all over the world, now appeared to be favourable to Zionism. If we could make a declaration favourable to such an ideal, we should be able to carry on extremely useful propaganda both in Russia and America."
Drafting
Declassification of British government archives has allowed scholars to piece together the choreography of the drafting of the declaration; in his widely cited 1961 book, Leonard Stein published four previous drafts of the declaration.
The drafting began with Weizmann's guidance to the Zionist drafting team on its objectives in a letter dated 20 June 1917, one day following his meeting with Rothschild and Balfour. He proposed that the declaration from the British government should state: "its conviction, its desire or its intention to support Zionist aims for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine; no reference must be made I think to the question of the Suzerain Power because that would land the British into difficulties with the French; it must be a Zionist declaration."
A month after the receipt of the much-reduced 12 July draft from Rothschild, Balfour proposed a number of mainly technical amendments. The two subsequent drafts included much more substantial amendments: the first in a late August draft by Lord Milner – one of the original five members of Lloyd George's War Cabinet as a minister without portfolio – which reduced the geographic scope from all of Palestine to "in Palestine", and the second from Milner and Amery in early October, which added the two "safeguard clauses".
Subsequent authors have debated who the "primary author" really was. In his posthumously published 1981 book The Anglo-American Establishment, Georgetown University history professor Carroll Quigley explained his view that Lord Milner was the primary author of the declaration, and more recently, William D. Rubinstein, Professor of Modern History at Aberystwyth University, Wales, proposed Amery instead. Huneidi wrote that Ormsby-Gore, in a report he prepared for Shuckburgh, claimed authorship, together with Amery, of the final draft form.
Key issues
The agreed version of the declaration, a single sentence of just 67 words, was sent on 2November 1917 in a short letter from Balfour to Walter Rothschild, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The declaration contained four clauses, of which the first two promised to support "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", followed by two "safeguard clauses" with respect to "the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine", and "the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".
The "national home for the Jewish people" vs. Jewish state
The term "national home" was intentionally ambiguous, having no legal value or precedent in international law, such that its meaning was unclear when compared to other terms such as "state". The term was intentionally used instead of "state" because of opposition to the Zionist program within the British Cabinet. According to historian Norman Rose, the chief architects of the declaration contemplated that a Jewish State would emerge in time while the Palestine Royal Commission concluded that the wording was "the outcome of a compromise between those Ministers who contemplated the ultimate establishment of a Jewish State and those who did not."
Interpretation of the wording has been sought in the correspondence leading to the final version of the declaration. An official report to the War Cabinet sent by Sykes on 22 September said that the Zionists did not want "to set up a Jewish Republic or any other form of state in Palestine or in any part of Palestine" but rather preferred some form of protectorate as provided in the Palestine Mandate. A month later, Curzon produced a memorandum circulated on 26 October 1917 where he addressed two questions, the first concerning the meaning of the phrase "a National Home for the Jewish race in Palestine"; he noted that there were different opinions ranging from a fully fledged state to a merely spiritual centre for the Jews.
Sections of the British press assumed that a Jewish state was intended even before the Declaration was finalized. In the United States the press began using the terms "Jewish National Home", "Jewish State", "Jewish republic" and "Jewish Commonwealth" interchangeably.
Treaty expert David Hunter Miller, who was at the conference and subsequently compiled a 22 volume compendium of documents, provides a report of the Intelligence Section of the American Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which recommended that "there be established a separate state in Palestine," and that "it will be the policy of the League of Nations to recognize Palestine as a Jewish state, as soon as it is a Jewish state in fact." The report further advised that an independent Palestinian state under a British League of Nations mandate be created. Jewish settlement would be allowed and encouraged in this state and this state's holy sites would be under the control of the League of Nations. Indeed, the Inquiry spoke positively about the possibility of a Jewish state eventually being created in Palestine if the necessary demographics for this were to exist.
Historian Matthew Jacobs later wrote that the US approach was hampered by the "general absence of specialist knowledge about the region" and that "like much of the Inquiry's work on the Middle East, the reports on Palestine were deeply flawed" and "presupposed a particular outcome of the conflict". He quotes Miller, writing about one report on the history and impact of Zionism, "absolutely inadequate from any standpoint and must be regarded as nothing more than material for a future report".
Lord Robert Cecil on 2 December 1917, assured an audience that the government fully intended that "Judea [was] for the Jews." Yair Auron opines that Cecil, then a deputy Foreign Secretary representing the British Government at a celebratory gathering of the English Zionist Federation, "possibly went beyond his official brief" in saying (he cites Stein) "Our wish is that Arabian countries shall be for the Arabs, Armenia for the Armenians and Judaea for the Jews".
The following October Neville Chamberlain, while chairing a Zionist meeting, discussed a "new Jewish State." At the time, Chamberlain was a Member of Parliament for Ladywood, Birmingham; recalling the event in 1939, just after Chamberlain had approved the 1939 White Paper, the Jewish Telegraph Agency noted that the Prime Minister had "experienced a pronounced change of mind in the 21 years intervening" A year later, on the Declaration's second anniversary, General Jan Smuts said that Britain "would redeem her pledge ... and a great Jewish state would ultimately rise." In similar vein, Churchill a few months later stated:
At the 22 June 1921 meeting of the Imperial Cabinet, Churchill was asked by Arthur Meighen, the Canadian Prime Minister, about the meaning of the national home. Churchill said "If in the course of many years they become a majority in the country, they naturally would take it over ... pro rata with the Arab. We made an equal pledge that we would not turn the Arab off his land or invade his political and social rights".
Responding to Curzon in January 1919, Balfour wrote "Weizmann has never put forward a claim for the Jewish Government of Palestine. Such a claim in my opinion is clearly inadmissible and personally I do not think we should go further than the original declaration which I made to Lord Rothschild".
In February 1919, France issued a statement that it would not oppose putting Palestine under British trusteeship and the formation of a Jewish State. Friedman further notes that France's attitude went on to change; Yehuda Blum, while discussing France's "unfriendly attitude towards the Jewish national movement", notes the content of a report made by Robert Vansittart (a leading member of the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference) to Curzon in November 1920 which said:
Greece's Foreign Minister told the editor of the Salonica Jewish organ Pro-Israel that "the establishment of a Jewish State meets in Greece with full and sincere sympathy ... A Jewish Palestine would become an ally of Greece." In Switzerland, a number of noted historians including professors Tobler, Forel-Yvorne, and Rogaz, supported the idea of establishing a Jewish state, with one referring to it as "a sacred right of the Jews." While in Germany, officials and most of the press took the Declaration to mean a British sponsored state for the Jews.
The British government, including Churchill, made it clear that the Declaration did not intend for the whole of Palestine to be converted into a Jewish National Home, "but that such a Home should be founded in Palestine." Emir Faisal, King of Syria and Iraq, made a formal written agreement with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, which was drafted by T.E. Lawrence, whereby they would try to establish a peaceful relationship between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. The 3 January 1919 Faisal–Weizmann Agreement was a short-lived agreement for Arab–Jewish cooperation on the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Faisal did treat Palestine differently in his presentation to the Peace Conference on 6 February 1919 saying "Palestine, for its universal character, [should be] left on one side for the mutual consideration of all parties concerned". The agreement was never implemented. In a subsequent letter written in English by Lawrence for Faisal's signature, he explained:
When the letter was tabled at the Shaw Commission in 1929, Rustam Haidar spoke to Faisal in Baghdad and cabled that Faisal had "no recollection that he wrote anything of the sort". In January 1930, Haidar wrote to a newspaper in Baghdad that Faisal: "finds it exceedingly strange that such a matter is attributed to him as he at no time would consider allowing any foreign nation to share in an Arab country". Awni Abd al-Hadi, Faisal's secretary, wrote in his memoirs that he was not aware that a meeting between Frankfurter and Faisal took place and that: "I believe that this letter, assuming that it is authentic, was written by Lawrence, and that Lawrence signed it in English on behalf of Faisal. I believe this letter is part of the false claims made by Chaim Weizmann and Lawrence to lead astray public opinion." According to Allawi, the most likely explanation for the Frankfurter letter is that a meeting took place, a letter was drafted in English by Lawrence, but that its "contents were not entirely made clear to Faisal. He then may or may not have been induced to sign it", since it ran counter to Faisal's other public and private statements at the time. A 1 March interview by Le Matin quoted Faisal as saying:
This feeling of respect for other religions dictates my opinion about Palestine, our neighbor. That the unhappy Jews come to reside there and behave as good citizens of this country, our humanity rejoices given that they are placed under a Muslim or Christian government mandated by The League of Nations. If they want to constitute a state and claim sovereign rights in this region, I foresee very serious dangers. It is to be feared that there will be a conflict between them and the other races.
Referring to his 1922 White Paper, Churchill later wrote that "there is nothing in it to prohibit the ultimate establishment of a Jewish State." And in private, many British officials agreed with the Zionists' interpretation that a state would be established when a Jewish majority was achieved.
When Chaim Weizmann met with Churchill, Lloyd George and Balfour at Balfour's home in London on 21 July 1921, Lloyd George and Balfour assured Weizmann "that by the Declaration they had always meant an eventual Jewish State," according to Weizmann minutes of that meeting. Lloyd George stated in 1937 that it was intended that Palestine would become a Jewish Commonwealth if and when Jews "had become a definite majority of the inhabitants", and Leo Amery echoed the same position in 1946. In the UNSCOP report of 1947, the issue of home versus state was subjected to scrutiny arriving at a similar conclusion to that of Lloyd George.
Scope of the national home "in Palestine"
The statement that such a homeland would be found "in Palestine" rather than "of Palestine" was also deliberate. The proposed draft of the declaration contained in Rothschild's 12 July letter to Balfour referred to the principle "that Palestine should be reconstituted as the National Home of the Jewish people." In the final text, following Lord Milner's amendment, the word "reconstituted" was removed and the word "that" was replaced with "in".
This text thereby avoided committing the entirety of Palestine as the National Home of the Jewish people, resulting in controversy in future years over the intended scope, especially the Revisionist Zionism sector, which claimed entirety of Mandatory Palestine and Emirate of Transjordan as Jewish Homeland This was clarified by the 1922 Churchill White Paper, which wrote that "the terms of the declaration referred to do not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded 'in Palestine.
The declaration did not include any geographical boundaries for Palestine. Following the end of the war, three documents – the declaration, the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence and the Sykes-Picot Agreement – became the basis for the negotiations to set the boundaries of Palestine.
Civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine
The declaration's first safeguard clause referred to protecting the civil and religious rights of non-Jews in Palestine. The clause had been drafted together with the second safeguard by Leo Amery in consultation with Lord Milner, with the intention to "go a reasonable distance to meeting the objectors, both Jewish and pro-Arab, without impairing the substance of the proposed declaration".
The "non-Jews" constituted 90% of the population of Palestine; in the words of Ronald Storrs, Britain's Military Governor of Jerusalem between 1917 and 1920, the community observed that they had been "not so much as named, either as Arabs, Moslems or Christians, but were lumped together under the negative and humiliating definition of 'Non-Jewish Communities' and relegated to subordinate provisos". The community also noted that there was no reference to protecting their "political status" or political rights, as there was in the subsequent safeguard relating to Jews in other countries. This protection was frequently contrasted against the commitment to the Jewish community, and over the years a variety of terms were used to refer to these two obligations as a pair; a particularly heated question was whether these two obligations had "equal weight", and in 1930 this equal status was confirmed by the Permanent Mandates Commission and by the British government in the Passfield white paper.
Balfour stated in February 1919 that Palestine was considered an exceptional case in which, referring to the local population, "we deliberately and rightly decline to accept the principle of self-determination," although he considered that the policy provided self-determination to Jews. Avi Shlaim considers this the declaration's "greatest contradiction". This principle of self-determination had been declared on numerous occasions subsequent to the declarationPresident Wilson's January 1918 Fourteen Points, McMahon's Declaration to the Seven in June 1918, the November 1918 Anglo-French Declaration, and the June 1919 Covenant of the League of Nations that had established the mandate system. In an August 1919 memo Balfour acknowledged the inconsistency among these statements, and further explained that the British had no intention of consulting the existing population of Palestine. The results of the ongoing American King–Crane Commission of Enquiry consultation of the local population – from which the British had withdrawn – were suppressed for three years until the report was leaked in 1922. Subsequent British governments have acknowledged this deficiency, in particular the 1939 committee led by the Lord Chancellor, Frederic Maugham, which concluded that the government had not been "free to dispose of Palestine without regard for the wishes and interests of the inhabitants of Palestine", and the April 2017 statement by British Foreign Office minister of state Baroness Anelay that the government acknowledged that "the Declaration should have called for the protection of political rights of the non-Jewish communities in Palestine, particularly their right to self-determination."
Rights and political status of Jews in other countries
The second safeguard clause was a commitment that nothing should be done which might prejudice the rights of the Jewish communities in other countries outside of Palestine. The original drafts of Rothschild, Balfour, and Milner did not include this safeguard, which was drafted together with the preceding safeguard in early October, in order to reflect opposition from influential members of the Anglo-Jewish community. Lord Rothschild took exception to the proviso on the basis that it presupposed the possibility of a danger to non-Zionists, which he denied.
The Conjoint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association had published a letter in The Times on 24 May 1917 entitled Views of Anglo-Jewry, signed by the two organisations' presidents, David Lindo Alexander and Claude Montefiore, stating their view that: "the establishment of a Jewish nationality in Palestine, founded on this theory of homelessness, must have the effect throughout the world of stamping the Jews as strangers in their native lands, and of undermining their hard-won position as citizens and nationals of these lands." This was followed in late August by Edwin Montagu, an influential anti-Zionist Jew and Secretary of State for India, and the only Jewish member of the British Cabinet, who wrote in a Cabinet memorandum that: "The policy of His Majesty's Government is anti-Semitic in result and will prove a rallying ground for anti-Semites in every country of the world."
Reaction
The text of the declaration was published in the press one week after it was signed, on 9November 1917. Other related events took place within a short timeframe, the two most relevant being the almost immediate British military capture of Palestine and the leaking of the previously secret Sykes-Picot Agreement. On the military side, both Gaza and Jaffa fell within several days, and Jerusalem was surrendered to the British on 9 December. The publication of the Sykes–Picot Agreement, following the Russian Revolution, in the Bolshevik Izvestia and Pravda on 23 November 1917 and in the British Manchester Guardian on 26 November 1917, represented a dramatic moment for the Allies' Eastern campaign: "the British were embarrassed, the Arabs dismayed and the Turks delighted." The Zionists had been aware of the outlines of the agreement since April and specifically the part relevant to Palestine, following a meeting between Weizmann and Cecil where Weizmann made very clear his objections to the proposed scheme.
Zionist reaction
The declaration represented the first public support for Zionism by a major political power – its publication galvanized Zionism, which finally had obtained an official charter. In addition to its publication in major newspapers, leaflets were circulated throughout Jewish communities. These leaflets were airdropped over Jewish communities in Germany and Austria, as well as the Pale of Settlement, which had been given to the Central Powers following the Russian withdrawal.
Weizmann had argued that the declaration would have three effects: it would swing Russia to maintain pressure on Germany's Eastern Front, since Jews had been prominent in the March Revolution of 1917; it would rally the large Jewish community in the United States to press for greater funding for the American war effort, underway since April of that year; and, lastly, that it would undermine German Jewish support for Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The declaration spurred an unintended and extraordinary increase in the number of adherents of American Zionism; in 1914 the 200 American Zionist societies comprised a total of 7,500 members, which grew to 30,000 members in 600 societies in 1918 and 149,000 members in 1919. Whilst the British had considered that the declaration reflected a previously established dominance of the Zionist position in Jewish thought, it was the declaration itself that was subsequently responsible for Zionism's legitimacy and leadership.
Exactly one month after the declaration was issued, a large-scale celebration took place at the Royal Opera House – speeches were given by leading Zionists as well as members of the British administration including Sykes and Cecil. From 1918 until the Second World War, Jews in Mandatory Palestine celebrated Balfour Day as an annual national holiday on 2November. The celebrations included ceremonies in schools and other public institutions and festive articles in the Hebrew press. In August 1919 Balfour approved Weizmann's request to name the first post-war settlement in Mandatory Palestine, "Balfouria", in his honour. It was intended to be a model settlement for future American Jewish activity in Palestine.
Herbert Samuel, the Zionist MP whose 1915 memorandum had framed the start of discussions in the British Cabinet, was asked by Lloyd George on 24April 1920 to act as the first civil governor of British Palestine, replacing the previous military administration that had ruled the area since the war. Shortly after beginning the role in July 1920, he was invited to read the haftarah from Isaiah 40 at the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem, which, according to his memoirs, led the congregation of older settlers to feel that the "fulfilment of ancient prophecy might at last be at hand".
Opposition in Palestine
The local Christian and Muslim community of Palestine, who constituted almost 90% of the population, strongly opposed the declaration. As described by the Palestinian-American philosopher Edward Said in 1979, it was perceived as being made: "(a)by a European power, (b)about a non-European territory, (c)in a flat disregard of both the presence and the wishes of the native majority resident in that territory, and (d)it took the form of a promise about this same territory to another foreign group."
According to the 1919 King–Crane Commission, "No British officer, consulted by the Commissioners, believed that the Zionist programme could be carried out except by force of arms." A delegation of the Muslim-Christian Association, headed by Musa al-Husayni, expressed public disapproval on 3November 1918, one day after the Zionist Commission parade marking the first anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. They handed a petition signed by more than 100 notables to Ronald Storrs, the British military governor:
The group also protested the carrying of new "white and blue banners with two inverted triangles in the middle", drawing the attention of the British authorities to the serious consequences of any political implications in raising the banners. Later that month, on the first anniversary of the occupation of Jaffa by the British, the Muslim-Christian Association sent a lengthy memorandum and petition to the military governor protesting once more any formation of a Jewish state. The majority of Britain's military leaders considered Balfour's declaration either a mistake, or one that presented grave risks.
Broader Arab response
In the broader Arab world, the declaration was seen as a betrayal of the British wartime understandings with the Arabs. The Sharif of Mecca and other Arab leaders considered the declaration a violation of a previous commitment made in the McMahon–Hussein correspondence in exchange for launching the Arab Revolt.
Following the publication of the declaration in an Egyptian newspaper, Al Muqattam, the British dispatched Commander David George Hogarth to see Hussein in January 1918 bearing the message that the "political and economic freedom" of the Palestinian population was not in question. Hogarth reported that Hussein "would not accept an independent Jewish State in Palestine, nor was I instructed to warn him that such a state was contemplated by Great Britain". Hussein had also learned of the Sykes–Picot Agreement when it was leaked by the new Soviet government in December 1917, but was satisfied by two disingenuous messages from Sir Reginald Wingate, who had replaced McMahon as High Commissioner of Egypt, assuring him that the British commitments to the Arabs were still valid and that the Sykes–Picot Agreement was not a formal treaty.
Continuing Arab disquiet over Allied intentions also led during 1918 to the British Declaration to the Seven and the Anglo-French Declaration, the latter promising "the complete and final liberation of the peoples who have for so long been oppressed by the Turks, and the setting up of national governments and administrations deriving their authority from the free exercise of the initiative and choice of the indigenous populations".
In 1919, King Hussein refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. After February, 1920, the British ceased to pay subsidy to him. In August 1920, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres, which formally recognized the Kingdom of Hejaz, Curzon asked Cairo to procure Hussein's signature to both treaties and agreed to make a payment of £30,000 conditional on signature. Hussein declined and in 1921, stated that he could not be expected to "affix his name to a document assigning Palestine to the Zionists and Syria to foreigners." Following the 1921 Cairo Conference, Lawrence was sent to try and obtain the King's signature to a treaty as well as to Versailles and Sèvres, a £60,000 annual subsidy being proposed; this attempt also failed. During 1923, the British made one further attempt to settle outstanding issues with Hussein and once again, the attempt foundered, Hussein continued in his refusal to recognize the Balfour Declaration or any of the Mandates that he perceived as being his domain. In March 1924, having briefly considered the possibility of removing the offending article from the treaty, the government suspended any further negotiations; within six months they withdrew their support in favour of their central Arabian ally Ibn Saud, who proceeded to conquer Hussein's kingdom.
Allies and Associated Powers
The declaration was first endorsed by a foreign government on 27 December 1917, when Serbian Zionist leader and diplomat David Albala announced the support of Serbia's government in exile during a mission to the United States. The French and Italian governments offered their endorsements, on 14 February and 9 May 1918, respectively. At a private meeting in London on 1 December 1918, Lloyd George and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau agreed to certain modifications to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, including British control of Palestine.
On 25 April 1920, the San Remo conference – an outgrowth of the Paris Peace Conference attended by the prime ministers of Britain, France and Italy, the Japanese Ambassador to France, and the United States Ambassador to Italy – established the basic terms for three League of Nations mandates: a French mandate for Syria, and British mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine. With respect to Palestine, the resolution stated that the British were responsible for putting into effect the terms of the Balfour Declaration. The French and the Italians made clear their dislike of the "Zionist cast of the Palestinian mandate" and objected especially to language that did not safeguard the "political" rights of non-Jews, accepting Curzon's claim that "in the British language all ordinary rights were included in "civil rights"". At the request of France, it was agreed that an undertaking was to be inserted in the mandate's procès-verbal that this would not involve the surrender of the rights hitherto enjoyed by the non-Jewish communities in Palestine. The Italian endorsement of the Declaration had included the condition "... on the understanding that there is no prejudice against the legal and political status of the already existing religious communities ..." (in Italian "... che non ne venga nessun pregiudizio allo stato giuridico e politico delle gia esistenti communita religiose ..." The boundaries of Palestine were left unspecified, to "be determined by the Principal Allied Powers." Three months later, in July 1920, the French defeat of Faisal's Arab Kingdom of Syria precipitated the British need to know "what is the 'Syria' for which the French received a mandate at San Remo?" and "does it include Transjordania?" – it subsequently decided to pursue a policy of associating Transjordan with the mandated area of Palestine without adding it to the area of the Jewish National Home.
In 1922, Congress officially endorsed America's support for the Balfour Declaration through the passage of the Lodge–Fish Resolution, notwithstanding opposition from the State Department. Professor Lawrence Davidson, of West Chester University, whose research focuses on American relations with the Middle East, argues that President Wilson and Congress ignored democratic values in favour of "biblical romanticism" when they endorsed the declaration. He points to an organized pro-Zionist lobby in the United States, which was active at a time when the country's small Arab American community had little political power.
Central Powers
The publication of the Balfour Declaration was met with tactical responses from the Central Powers; however the participation of the Ottoman Empire in the alliance meant that Germany was unable to effectively counter the British pronouncement.
Two weeks following the declaration, Ottokar Czernin, the Austrian Foreign Minister, gave an interview to Arthur Hantke, President of the Zionist Federation of Germany, promising that his government would influence the Turks once the war was over. On 12December, the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Talaat Pasha, gave an interview to the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung that was published on 31December and subsequently released in the German-Jewish periodical Jüdische Rundschau on 4January 1918, in which he referred to the declaration as "une blague" (a deception) and promised that under Ottoman rule "all justifiable wishes of the Jews in Palestine would be able to find their fulfilment" subject to the absorptive capacity of the country. This Turkish statement was endorsed by the German Foreign Office on 5January 1918. On 8January 1918, a German-Jewish Society, the Union of German Jewish Organizations for the Protection of the Rights of the Jews of the East (VJOD), was formed to advocate for further progress for Jews in Palestine.
Following the war, the Treaty of Sèvres was signed by the Ottoman Empire on 10August 1920. The treaty dissolved the Ottoman Empire, requiring Turkey to renounce sovereignty over much of the Middle East. Article95 of the treaty incorporated the terms of the Balfour Declaration with respect to "the administration of Palestine, within such boundaries as may be determined by the Principal Allied Powers". Since incorporation of the declaration into the Treaty of Sèvres did not affect the legal status of either the declaration or the Mandate, there was also no effect when Sèvres was superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne, which did not include any reference to the declaration.
In 1922, German anti-Semitic theorist Alfred Rosenberg in his primary contribution to Nazi theory on Zionism, Der Staatsfeindliche Zionismus ("Zionism, the Enemy of the State"), accused German Zionists of working for a German defeat and supporting Britain and the implementation of the Balfour Declaration, in a version of the stab-in-the-back myth. Adolf Hitler took a similar approach in some of his speeches from 1920 onwards.
The Holy See
With the advent of the declaration and the British entry into Jerusalem on 9 December, the Vatican reversed its earlier sympathetic attitude to Zionism and adopted an oppositional stance that was to continue until the early 1990s.
Evolution of British opinion
The British policy as stated in the declaration was to face numerous challenges to its implementation in the following years. The first of these was the indirect peace negotiations which took place between Britain and the Ottomans in December 1917 and January 1918 during a pause in the hostilities for the rainy season; although these peace talks were unsuccessful, archival records suggest that key members of the War Cabinet may have been willing to permit leaving Palestine under nominal Turkish sovereignty as part of an overall deal.
In October 1919, almost a year after the end of the war, Lord Curzon succeeded Balfour as Foreign Secretary. Curzon had been a member of the 1917 Cabinet that had approved the declaration, and according to British historian Sir David Gilmour, Curzon had been "the only senior figure in the British government at the time who foresaw that its policy would lead to decades of Arab–Jewish hostility". He therefore determined to pursue a policy in line with its "narrower and more prudent rather than the wider interpretation". Following Bonar Law's appointment as Prime Minister in late 1922, Curzon wrote to Law that he regarded the declaration as "the worst" of Britain's Middle East commitments and "a striking contradiction of our publicly declared principles".
In August 1920 the report of the Palin Commission, the first in a long line of British Commissions of Inquiry on the question of Palestine during the Mandate period, noted that "The Balfour Declaration ... is undoubtedly the starting point of the whole trouble". The conclusion of the report, which was not published, mentioned the Balfour Declaration three times, stating that "the causes of the alienation and exasperation of the feelings of the population of Palestine" included:
"inability to reconcile the Allies' declared policy of self-determination with the Balfour Declaration, giving rise to a sense of betrayal and intense anxiety for their future";
"misapprehension of the true meaning of the Balfour Declaration and forgetfulness of the guarantees determined therein, due to the loose rhetoric of politicians and the exaggerated statements and writings of interested persons, chiefly Zionists"; and
"Zionist indiscretion and aggression since the Balfour Declaration aggravating such fears".
British public and government opinion became increasingly unfavourable to state support for Zionism; even Sykes had begun to change his views in late 1918. In February 1922 Churchill telegraphed Samuel, who had begun his role as High Commissioner for Palestine 18 months earlier, asking for cuts in expenditure and noting:
Following the issuance of the Churchill White Paper in June 1922, the House of Lords rejected a Palestine Mandate that incorporated the Balfour Declaration by 60 votes to 25, following a motion issued by Lord Islington. The vote proved to be only symbolic as it was subsequently overruled by a vote in the House of Commons following a tactical pivot and variety of promises made by Churchill.
In February 1923, following the change in government, Cavendish, in a lengthy memorandum for the Cabinet, laid the foundation for a secret review of Palestine policy:
His covering note asked for a statement of policy to be made as soon as possible and that the cabinet ought to focus on three questions: (1) whether or not pledges to the Arabs conflict with the Balfour declaration; (2) if not, whether the new government should continue the policy set down by the old government in the 1922 White Paper; and (3) if not, what alternative policy should be adopted.
Stanley Baldwin, replacing Bonar Law as Prime Minister, in June 1923 set up a cabinet sub-committee whose terms of reference were:
The Cabinet approved the report of this committee on 31 July 1923. Describing it as "nothing short of remarkable", Quigley noted that the government was admitting to itself that its support for Zionism had been prompted by considerations having nothing to do with the merits of Zionism or its consequences for Palestine. As Huneidi noted, "wise or unwise, it is well nigh impossible for any government to extricate itself without a substantial sacrifice of consistency and self-respect, if not honour."
The wording of the declaration was thus incorporated into the British Mandate for Palestine, a legal instrument that created Mandatory Palestine with an explicit purpose of putting the declaration into effect and was finally formalized in September 1923. Unlike the declaration itself, the Mandate was legally binding on the British government. In June 1924, Britain made its report to the Permanent Mandates Commission for the period July 1920 to the end of 1923 containing nothing of the candor reflected in the internal documents; the documents relating to the 1923 reappraisal stayed secret until the early 1970s.
Historiography and motivations
Lloyd George and Balfour remained in government until the collapse of the coalition in October 1922. Under the new Conservative government, attempts were made to identify the background to and motivations for the declaration. A private Cabinet memorandum was produced in January 1923, providing a summary of the then-known Foreign Office and War Cabinet records leading up to the declaration. An accompanying Foreign Office note asserted that the primary authors of the declaration were Balfour, Sykes, Weizmann, and Sokolow, with "perhaps Lord Rothschild as a figure in the background", and that "negotiations seem to have been mainly oral and by means of private notes and memoranda of which only the scantiest records seem to be available."
Following the 1936 general strike that was to degenerate into the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, the most significant outbreak of violence since the Mandate began, a British Royal Commission – a high-profile public inquiry – was appointed to investigate the causes of the unrest. The Palestine Royal Commission, appointed with significantly broader terms of reference than the previous British inquiries into Palestine, completed its 404-page report after six months of work in June 1937, publishing it a month later. The report began by describing the history of the problem, including a detailed summary of the origins of the Balfour Declaration. Much of this summary relied on Lloyd-George's personal testimony; Balfour had died in 1930 and Sykes in 1919. He told the commission that the declaration was made "due to propagandist reasons ... In particular Jewish sympathy would confirm the support of American Jewry, and would make it more difficult for Germany to reduce her military commitments and improve her economic position on the eastern front". Two years later, in his Memoirs of the Peace Conference, Lloyd George described a total of nine factors motivating his decision as Prime Minister to release the declaration, including the additional reasons that a Jewish presence in Palestine would strengthen Britain's position on the Suez Canal and reinforce the route to their imperial dominion in India.
These geopolitical calculations were debated and discussed in the following years. Historians agree that the British believed that expressing support would appeal to Jews in Germany and the United States, given two of Woodrow Wilson's closest advisors were known to be avid Zionists; they also hoped to encourage support from the large Jewish population in Russia. In addition, the British intended to pre-empt the expected French pressure for an international administration in Palestine.
Some historians argue that the British government's decision reflected what James Gelvin, Professor of Middle Eastern History at UCLA, calls 'patrician anti-Semitism' in the overestimation of Jewish power in both the United States and Russia. American Zionism was still in its infancy; in 1914 the Zionist Federation had a small budget of about $5,000 and only 12,000 members, despite an American Jewish population of three million but the Zionist organizations had recently succeeded, following a show of force within the American Jewish community, in arranging a Jewish congress to debate the Jewish problem as a whole. This impacted British and French government estimates of the balance of power within the American Jewish public.
Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International Relations in the University of Oxford, asserts that two main schools of thought have been developed on the question of the primary driving force behind the declaration, one presented in 1961 by Leonard Stein, a lawyer and former political secretary to the World Zionist Organization, and the other in 1970 by Mayir Vereté, then Professor of Israeli History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Shlaim states that Stein does not reach any clear cut conclusions, but that implicit in his narrative is that the declaration resulted primarily from the activity and skill of the Zionists, whereas according to Vereté, it was the work of hard-headed pragmatists motivated by British imperial interests in the Middle East. Much of modern scholarship on the decision to issue the declaration focuses on the Zionist movement and rivalries within it, with a key debate being whether the role of Weizmann was decisive or whether the British were likely to have issued a similar declaration in any event. Danny Gutwein, Professor of Jewish History at the University of Haifa, proposes a twist on an old idea, asserting that Sykes's February 1917 approach to the Zionists was the defining moment, and that it was consistent with the pursuit of the government's wider agenda to partition the Ottoman Empire. Historian J. C. Hurewitz has written that British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine was part of an effort to secure a land bridge between Egypt and the Persian Gulf by annexing territory from the Ottoman Empire.
Long-term impact
The declaration had two indirect consequences, the emergence of Israel and a chronic state of conflict between Arabs and Jews throughout the Middle East. It has been described as the "original sin" with respect to both Britain's failure in Palestine and for wider events in Palestine. The statement also had a significant impact on the traditional anti-Zionism of religious Jews, some of whom saw it as divine providence; this contributed to the growth of religious Zionism amid the larger Zionist movement.
Starting in 1920, intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine broke out, which widened into the regional Arab–Israeli conflict, often referred to as the world's "most intractable conflict". The "dual obligation" to the two communities quickly proved to be untenable; the British subsequently concluded that it was impossible for them to pacify the two communities in Palestine by using different messages for different audiences. The Palestine Royal Commission – in making the first official proposal for partition of the region – referred to the requirements as "contradictory obligations", and that the "disease is so deep-rooted that, in our firm conviction, the only hope of a cure lies in a surgical operation". Following the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, and as worldwide tensions rose in the buildup to the Second World War, the British Parliament approved the White Paper of 1939 – their last formal statement of governing policy in Mandatory Palestine – declaring that Palestine should not become a Jewish State and placing restrictions on Jewish immigration. Whilst the British considered this consistent with the Balfour Declaration's commitment to protect the rights of non-Jews, many Zionists saw it as a repudiation of the declaration. Although this policy lasted until the British surrendered the Mandate in 1948, it served only to highlight the fundamental difficulty for Britain in carrying out the Mandate obligations.
Britain's involvement in this became one of the most controversial parts of its Empire's history and damaged its reputation in the Middle East for generations. According to historian Elizabeth Monroe: "measured by British interests alone, [the declaration was] one of the greatest mistakes in [its] imperial history." The 2010 study by Jonathan Schneer, specialist in modern British history at Georgia Tech, concluded that because the build-up to the declaration was characterized by "contradictions, deceptions, misinterpretations, and wishful thinking", the declaration sowed dragon's teeth and "produced a murderous harvest, and we go on harvesting even today". The foundational stone for modern Israel had been laid, but the prediction that this would lay the groundwork for harmonious Arab-Jewish cooperation proved to be wishful thinking.
On the bicentenary of its foundation, the British newspaper The Guardian, reflecting on its major errors of judgment, included the support the paper's editor, C. P. Scott, gave to Balfour's declaration. Israel had not become, it said, 'the country the Guardian foresaw or would have wanted.' The Board of Deputies of British Jews through its president Marie van der Zyl denounced the column as 'breathtakingly ill-considered', declaring that the Guardian appeared "to do everything it can to undermine the legitimacy of the world's only Jewish state".
The document
The document was presented to the British Museum in 1924 by Walter Rothschild; today it is held in the British Library, which separated from the British Museum in 1973, as Additional Manuscripts number 41178. From October 1987 to May 1988 it was lent outside the UK for display in Israel's Knesset.
See also
Diplomatic history of World War I
Mandate for Palestine
Proposals for a Jewish state
Notes
Primary supporting quotes
Explanatory notes and scholarly perspectives
References
Bibliography
Specialised works
Also online at: Biography: Arthur Balfour by Brian Klug | Balfour Project.
General histories
Works by involved parties
Also online at Internet Archive.
Also at Internet Archive.
online
External links
UK Commons 2017 Centennial Debate on the Balfour Declaration, 16 November 2016
The Guardian: The contested centenary of Britain's 'calamitous promise', 17 October 2017
1917 documents
1917 in British-administered Palestine
1917 in international relations
1917 in Judaism
1917 in Ottoman Syria
1917 in the United Kingdom
British Library
Documents of Mandatory Palestine
Edicts
Government documents of the United Kingdom
History of Mandatory Palestine
Israel–United Kingdom relations
Israeli Declaration of Independence
November 1917 events
Pre-1948 Zionist documents
Proclamations
World War I documents
Zionism in the United Kingdom
Zionism
1910s in Islam
Arthur Balfour |
4822 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board%20of%20directors | Board of directors | A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organization, or a government agency.
The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulations (including the jurisdiction's corporate law) and the organization's own constitution and by-laws. These authorities may specify the number of members of the board, how they are to be chosen, and how often they are to meet.
In an organization with voting members, the board is accountable to, and may be subordinate to, the organization's full membership, which usually elect the members of the board. In a stock corporation, non-executive directors are elected by the shareholders, and the board has ultimate responsibility for the management of the corporation. In nations with codetermination (such as Germany and Sweden), the workers of a corporation elect a set fraction of the board's members.
The board of directors appoints the chief executive officer of the corporation and sets out the overall strategic direction. In corporations with dispersed ownership, the identification and nomination of directors (that shareholders vote for or against) are often done by the board itself, leading to a high degree of self-perpetuation. In a non-stock corporation with no general voting membership, the board is the supreme governing body of the institution, and its members are sometimes chosen by the board itself.
Terminology
Other names include board of directors and advisors, board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors. It may also be called the executive board.
Roles
Typical duties of boards of directors include:
Governing the organization by establishing broad policies and setting out strategic objectives
Selecting, appointing, supporting and reviewing the performance of the chief executive (of which the titles vary from organization to organization; the chief executive may be titled chief executive officer, president or executive director)
Terminating the chief executive
Ensuring the availability of adequate financial resources
Approving annual budgets
Accounting to the stakeholders for the organization's performance
Setting the salaries, compensation and benefits of senior management
The legal responsibilities of boards and board members vary with the nature of the organization, and between jurisdictions. For companies with shares publicly listed for negotiation, these responsibilities are typically much more rigorous and complex than for those of other types.
Typically, the board chooses one of its members to be the chairman (often now called the "chair" or "chairperson"), who holds whatever title is specified in the by-laws or articles of association. However, in membership organizations, the members elect the president of the organization and the president becomes the board chair, unless the by-laws say otherwise.
Directors
The directors of an organization are the persons who are members of its board. Several specific terms categorize directors by the presence or absence of their other relationships to the organization.
Honorary members
Corporations, often appoint a former senior executive and ex-board member as honorary president, a position that does not carry any executive authority and represents recognition of the person's corporate governorship and performance.
Inside director
An inside director is a director who is also an employee, officer, chief executive, major shareholder, or someone similarly connected to the organization. Inside directors represent the interests of the entity's stakeholders, and often have special knowledge of its inner workings, its financial or market position, and so on.
Typical inside directors are:
A chief executive officer (CEO) who may also be chair of the board
Other executives of the organization, such as its chief financial officer (CFO) or executive vice president
Large shareholders (who may or may not also be employees or officers)
Representatives of other stakeholders such as labor unions, major lenders, or members of the community in which the organization is located
An inside director who is employed as a manager or executive of the organization is sometimes referred to as an executive director (not to be confused with the title executive director sometimes used for the CEO position in some organizations). Executive directors often have a specified area of responsibility in the organization, such as finance, marketing, human resources, or production.
Outside director
An outside director is a member of the board who is not otherwise employed by or engaged with the organization, and does not represent any of its stakeholders. A typical example is a director who is president of a firm in a different industry. Outside directors are not employees of the company or affiliated with it in any other way.
Outside directors bring outside experience and perspectives to the board. For example, for a company that serves a domestic market only, the presence of CEOs from global multinational corporations as outside directors can help to provide insights on export and import opportunities and international trade options. One of the arguments for having outside directors is that they can keep a watchful eye on the inside directors and on the way the organization is run. Outside directors are unlikely to tolerate "insider dealing" between inside directors, as outside directors do not benefit from the company or organization. Outside directors are often useful in handling disputes between inside directors, or between shareholders and the board. They are thought to be advantageous because they can be objective and present little risk of conflict of interest. On the other hand, they might lack familiarity with the specific issues connected to the organization's governance, and they might not know about the industry or sector in which the organization is operating.
Terminology
Director – a person appointed to serve on the board of an organization, such as an institution or business.
Inside director – a director who, in addition to serving on the board, has a meaningful connection to the organization
Outside director – a director who, other than serving on the board, has no meaningful connections to the organization
Executive director – an inside director who is also an executive with the organization. The term is also used, in a completely different sense, to refer to a CEO
Non-executive director – an inside director who is not an executive with the organization
De facto director – an individual who acts as a director of the company but has not actually or validly been appointed as such.
Shadow director – an individual who acts as a director of the company but is not a named director (a de jure director) and does not claim or purport to act as director.
Nominee director – an individual who is appointed by a shareholder, creditor or interest group (whether contractually or by resolution at a company meeting) and who has a continuing loyalty to the appointors or other interest in the appointing company
Individual directors often serve on more than one board. This practice results in an interlocking directorate, where a relatively small number of individuals have significant influence over many important entities. This situation can have important corporate, social, economic, and legal consequences, and has been the subject of significant research.
Process and structure
The process for running a board, sometimes called the board process, includes the selection of board members, the setting of clear board objectives, the dissemination of documents or board package to the board members, the collaborative creation of an agenda for the meeting, the creation and follow-up of assigned action items, and the assessment of the board process through standardized assessments of board members, owners, and CEOs. The science of this process has been slow to develop due to the secretive nature of the way most companies run their boards, however some standardization is beginning to develop. Some who are pushing for this standardization in the USA are the National Association of Corporate Directors, McKinsey and The Board Group.
Board meetings
A board of directors conducts its meetings according to the rules and procedures contained in its governing documents. These procedures may allow the board to conduct its business by conference call or other electronic means. They may also specify how a quorum is to be determined.
Non-corporate boards
The responsibilities of a board of directors vary depending on the nature and type of business entity and the laws applying to the entity (see types of business entity). For example, the nature of the business entity may be one that is traded on a public market (public company), not traded on a public market (a private, limited or closely held company), owned by family members (a family business), or exempt from income taxes (a non-profit, not for profit, or tax-exempt entity). There are numerous types of business entities available throughout the world such as a corporation, limited liability company, cooperative, business trust, partnership, private limited company, and public limited company.
Much of what has been written about boards of directors relates to boards of directors of business entities actively traded on public markets. More recently, however, material is becoming available for boards of private and closely held businesses including family businesses.
A board-only organization is one whose board is self-appointed, rather than being accountable to a base of members through elections; or in which the powers of the membership are extremely limited.
Membership organizations
In membership organizations, such as a society made up of members of a certain profession or one advocating a certain cause, a board of directors may have the responsibility of running the organization in between meetings of the membership, especially if the membership meets infrequently, such as only at an annual general meeting. The amount of powers and authority delegated to the board depend on the bylaws and rules of the particular organization. Some organizations place matters exclusively in the board's control while in others, the general membership retains full power and the board can only make recommendations.
The setup of a board of directors vary widely across organizations and may include provisions that are applicable to corporations, in which the "shareholders" are the members of the organization. A difference may be that the membership elects the officers of the organization, such as the president and the secretary, and the officers become members of the board in addition to the directors and retain those duties on the board. The directors may also be classified as officers in this situation. There may also be ex-officio members of the board, or persons who are members due to another position that they hold. These ex-officio members have all the same rights as the other board members.
Members of the board may be removed before their term is complete. Details on how they can be removed are usually provided in the bylaws. If the bylaws do not contain such details, the section on disciplinary procedures in Robert's Rules of Order may be used.
Corporations
In a publicly held company, directors are elected to represent and are legally obligated as fiduciaries to represent owners of the company—the shareholders/stockholders. In this capacity they establish policies and make decisions on issues such as whether there is dividend and how much it is, stock options distributed to employees, and the hiring/firing and compensation of upper management.
Governance
Theoretically, the control of a company is divided between two bodies: the board of directors, and the shareholders in general meeting. In practice, the amount of power exercised by the board varies with the type of company. In small private companies, the directors and the shareholders are normally the same people, and thus there is no real division of power. In large public companies, the board tends to exercise more of a supervisory role, and individual responsibility and management tends to be delegated downward to individual professional executives (such as a finance director or a marketing director) who deal with particular areas of the company's affairs.
Another feature of boards of directors in large public companies is that the board tends to have more de facto power. Most shareholders do not attend shareholder meetings, but rather cast proxy votes via mail, phone, or internet, thus allowing the board to vote for them. However, proxy votes are not a total delegation of the voting power, as the board must vote the proxy shares as directed by their owner even when it contradicts the board's views. In addition, many shareholders vote to accept all recommendations of the board rather than try to get involved in management, since each shareholder's power, as well as interest and information is so small. Larger institutional investors also grant the board proxies. The large number of shareholders also makes it hard for them to organize. However, there have been moves recently to try to increase shareholder activism among both institutional investors and individuals with small shareholdings.
A contrasting view is that in large public companies it is upper management and not boards that wield practical power, because boards delegate nearly all of their power to the top executive employees, adopting their recommendations almost without fail. As a practical matter, executives even choose the directors, with shareholders normally following management recommendations and voting for them.
In most cases, serving on a board is not a career unto itself. For major corporations, the board members are usually professionals or leaders in their field. In the case of outside directors, they are often senior leaders of other organizations. Nevertheless, board members often receive remunerations amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year since they often sit on the boards of several companies. Inside directors are usually not paid for sitting on a board, but the duty is instead considered part of their larger job description. Outside directors are usually paid for their services. These remunerations vary between corporations, but usually consist of a yearly or monthly salary, additional compensation for each meeting attended, stock options, and various other benefits. such as travel, hotel and meal expenses for the board meetings. Tiffany & Co., for example, pays directors an annual retainer of $46,500, an additional annual retainer of $2,500 if the director is also a chairperson of a committee, a per-meeting-attended fee of $2,000 for meetings attended in person, a $500 fee for each meeting attended via telephone, in addition to stock options and retirement benefits.
Two-tier system
In some European and Asian countries, there are two separate boards, an executive board (or management board) for day-to-day business and a supervisory board (elected by the shareholders and employees) for supervising the executive board. In these countries, the chairman of the supervisory board is equivalent to the chairman of a single-tier board, while the chairman of the management board is reckoned as the company's CEO or managing director. These two roles are always held by different people. This ensures a distinction between management by the executive board and governance by the supervisory board and allows for clear lines of authority. The aim is to prevent a conflict of interest and too much power being concentrated in the hands of one person. There is a strong parallel here with the structure of government, which tends to separate the political cabinet from the management civil service.
In the United States, the board of directors (elected by the shareholders) is often equivalent to the supervisory board, while the executive board may often be known as the executive committee (operating committee or executive council), composed of the CEO and their direct reports (other C-level officers, division/subsidiary heads).
Board structures and procedures vary both within and among OECD countries. Some countries have two-tier boards that separate the supervisory function and the management function into different bodies. Such systems typically have a "supervisory board" composed of nonexecutive board members and a "management board" composed entirely of executives. Other countries have "unitary" boards, which bring together executive and non-executive board members. In some countries there is also an additional statutory body for audit purposes. The OECD Principles are intended to be sufficiently general to apply to whatever board structure is charged with the functions of governing the enterprise and monitoring management.
History
The development of a separate board of directors to manage/govern/oversee a company has occurred incrementally and indefinitely over legal history. Until the end of the 19th century, it seems to have been generally assumed that the general meeting (of all shareholders) was the supreme organ of a company, and that the board of directors merely acted as an agent of the company subject to the control of the shareholders in general meeting.
However, by 1906, the English Court of Appeal had made it clear in the decision of Automatic Self-Cleansing Filter Syndicate Co Ltd v Cuninghame [1906] 2 Ch 34 that the division of powers between the board and the shareholders in general meaning depended on the construction of the articles of association and that, where the powers of management were vested in the board, the general meeting could not interfere with their lawful exercise. The articles were held to constitute a contract by which the members had agreed that "the directors and the directors alone shall manage."
The new approach did not secure immediate approval, but it was endorsed by the House of Lords in Quin & Axtens v Salmon [1909] AC 442 and has since received general acceptance. Under English law, successive versions of Table A have reinforced the norm that, unless the directors are acting contrary to the law or the provisions of the Articles, the powers of conducting the management and affairs of the company are vested in them.
The modern doctrine was expressed in John Shaw & Sons (Salford) Ltd v Shaw [1935] 2 KB 113 by Greer LJ as follows:
A company is an entity distinct alike from its shareholders and its directors. Some of its powers may, according to its articles, be exercised by directors, certain other powers may be reserved for the shareholders in general meeting. If powers of management are vested in the directors, they and they alone can exercise these powers. The only way in which the general body of shareholders can control the exercise of powers by the articles in the directors is by altering the articles, or, if opportunity arises under the articles, by refusing to re-elect the directors of whose actions they disapprove. They cannot themselves usurp the powers which by the articles are vested in the directors any more than the directors can usurp the powers vested by the articles in the general body of shareholders.
It has been remarked that this development in the law was somewhat surprising at the time, as the relevant provisions in Table A (as it was then) seemed to contradict this approach rather than to endorse it.
Election and removal
In most legal systems, the appointment and removal of directors is voted upon by the shareholders in general meeting or through a proxy statement. For publicly traded companies in the U.S., the directors which are available to vote on are largely selected by either the board as a whole or a nominating committee. Although in 2002 the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ required that nominating committees consist of independent directors as a condition of listing, nomination committees have historically received input from management in their selections even when the CEO does not have a position on the board. Shareholder nominations can only occur at the general meeting itself or through the prohibitively expensive process of mailing out ballots separately; in May 2009 the SEC proposed a new rule allowing shareholders meeting certain criteria to add nominees to the proxy statement. In practice for publicly traded companies, the managers (inside directors) who are purportedly accountable to the board of directors have historically played a major role in selecting and nominating the directors who are voted on by the shareholders, in which case more "gray outsider directors" (independent directors with conflicts of interest) are nominated and elected.
In countries with co-determination, a fixed fraction of the board is elected by the corporation's workers.
Directors may also leave office by resignation or death. In some legal systems, directors may also be removed by a resolution of the remaining directors (in some countries they may only do so "with cause"; in others the power is unrestricted).
Some jurisdictions also permit the board of directors to appoint directors, either to fill a vacancy which arises on resignation or death, or as an addition to the existing directors.
In practice, it can be quite difficult to remove a director by a resolution in general meeting. In many legal systems, the director has a right to receive special notice of any resolution to remove them; the company must often supply a copy of the proposal to the director, who is usually entitled to be heard by the meeting. The director may require the company to circulate any representations that they wish to make. Furthermore, the director's contract of service will usually entitle them to compensation if they are removed, and may often include a generous "golden parachute" which also acts as a deterrent to removal.
A 2010 study examined how corporate shareholders voted in director elections in the United States. It found that directors received fewer votes from shareholders when their companies performed poorly, had excess CEO compensation, or had poor shareholder protection. Also, directors received fewer votes when they did not regularly attend board meetings or received negative recommendations from a proxy advisory firm. The study also shows that companies often improve their corporate governance by removing poison pills or classified boards and by reducing excessive CEO pay after their directors receive low shareholder support.
Board accountability to shareholders is a recurring issue. In 2010, the New York Times noted that several directors who had overseen companies which had failed in the financial crisis of 2007–2010 had found new positions as directors. The SEC sometimes imposes a ban (a "D&O bar") on serving on a board as part of its fraud cases, and one of these was upheld in 2013.
Exercise of powers
The exercise by the board of directors of its powers usually occurs in board meetings. Most legal systems require sufficient notice to be given to all directors of these meetings, and that a quorum must be present before any business may be conducted. Usually, a meeting which is held without notice having been given is still valid if all of the directors attend, but it has been held that a failure to give notice may negate resolutions passed at a meeting, because the persuasive oratory of a minority of directors might have persuaded the majority to change their minds and vote otherwise.
In most common law countries, the powers of the board are vested in the board as a whole, and not in the individual directors. However, in instances an individual director may still bind the company by their acts by virtue of their ostensible authority (see also: the rule in Turquand's Case).
Duties
Because directors exercise control and management over the organization, but organizations are (in theory) run for the benefit of the shareholders, the law imposes strict duties on directors in relation to the exercise of their duties. The duties imposed on directors are fiduciary duties, similar to those that the law imposes on those in similar positions of trust: agents and trustees.
The duties apply to each director separately, while the powers apply to the board jointly. Also, the duties are owed to the company itself, and not to any other entity. This does not mean that directors can never stand in a fiduciary relationship to the individual shareholders; they may well have such a duty in certain circumstances.
"Proper purpose"
Directors must exercise their powers for a proper purpose. While in many instances an improper purpose is readily evident, such as a director looking to enrich themselves or divert an investment opportunity to a relative, such breaches usually involve a breach of the director's duty to act in good faith. Greater difficulties arise where the director, while acting in good faith, is serving a purpose that is not regarded by the law as proper.
The seminal authority in the United Kingdom in relation to what amounts to a proper purpose is the Supreme Court decision in Eclairs Group Ltd v JKX Oil & Gas plc (2015). The case concerned the powers of directors under the articles of association of the company to disenfranchise voting rights attached to shares for failure to properly comply with notice served on the shareholders. Prior to that case the leading authority was Howard Smith Ltd v Ampol Ltd [1974] AC 821. The case concerned the power of the directors to issue new shares. It was alleged that the directors had issued many new shares purely to deprive a particular shareholder of his voting majority. An argument that the power to issue shares could only be properly exercised to raise new capital was rejected as too narrow, and it was held that it would be a proper exercise of the director's powers to issue shares to a larger company to ensure the financial stability of the company, or as part of an agreement to exploit mineral rights owned by the company. If so, the mere fact that an incidental result (even if it was a desired consequence) was that a shareholder lost their majority, or a takeover bid was defeated, this would not itself make the share issue improper. But if the sole purpose was to destroy a voting majority, or block a takeover bid, that would be an improper purpose.
Not all jurisdictions recognised the "proper purpose" duty as separate from the "good faith" duty however.
"Unfettered discretion"
Directors cannot, without the consent of the company, fetter their discretion in relation to the exercise of their powers, and cannot bind themselves to vote in a particular way at future board meetings. This is so even if there is no improper motive or purpose, and no personal advantage to the director.
This does not mean, however, that the board cannot agree to the company entering into a contract which binds the company to a certain course, even if certain actions in that course will require further board approval. The company remains bound, but the directors retain the discretion to vote against taking the future actions (although that may involve a breach by the company of the contract that the board previously approved).
"Conflict of duty and interest"
As fiduciaries, the directors may not put themselves in a position where their interests and duties conflict with the duties that they owe to the company. The law takes the view that good faith must not only be done, but must be manifestly seen to be done, and zealously patrols the conduct of directors in this regard; and will not allow directors to escape liability by asserting that their decisions were in fact well founded. Traditionally, the law has divided conflicts of duty and interest into three sub-categories.
Transactions with the company
By definition, where a director enters into a transaction with a company, there is a conflict between the director's interest (to enrich themselves with the transaction) and their duty to the company (to ensure that the company gets as much as it can out of the transaction). In some places, this rule is so strictly enforced that, even where the conflict of interest or conflict of duty is purely hypothetical, the directors can be forced to disgorge all personal gains arising from it. In Aberdeen Ry v Blaikie (1854) 1 Macq HL 461 Lord Cranworth stated in his judgment that:
"A corporate body can only act by agents, and it is, of course, the duty of those agents so to act as best to promote the interests of the corporation whose affairs they are conducting. Such agents have duties to discharge of a fiduciary nature towards their principal. And it is a rule of universal application that no one, having such duties to discharge, shall be allowed to enter into engagements in which he has, or can have, a personal interest conflicting or which possibly may conflict, with the interests of those whom he is bound to protect... So strictly is this principle adhered to that no question is allowed to be raised as to the fairness or unfairness of the contract entered into..." (emphasis added)
However, in many jurisdictions the members of the company are permitted to ratify transactions which would otherwise fall foul of this principle. It is also largely accepted in most jurisdictions that this principle can be overridden in the company's constitution.
In many countries, there is also a statutory duty to declare interests in relation to any transactions, and the director can be fined for failing to make disclosure.
Use of corporate property, opportunity, or information
Directors must not, without the informed consent of the company, use for their own profit the company's assets, opportunities, or information. This prohibition is much less flexible than the prohibition against the transactions with the company, and attempts to circumvent it using provisions in the articles have met with limited success.
In Regal (Hastings) Ltd v Gulliver [1942] All ER 378 the House of Lords, in upholding what was regarded as a wholly unmeritorious claim by the shareholders, held that:
"(i) that what the directors did was so related to the affairs of the company that it can properly be said to have been done in the course of their management and in the utilisation of their opportunities and special knowledge as directors; and (ii) that what they did resulted in profit to themselves."
And accordingly, the directors were required to disgorge the profits that they made, and the shareholders received their windfall.
The decision has been followed in several subsequent cases, and is now regarded as settled law.
Competing with the company
Directors cannot compete directly with the company without a conflict of interest arising. Similarly, they should not act as directors of competing companies, as their duties to each company would then conflict with each other.
Common law duties of care and skill
Traditionally, the level of care and skill which has to be demonstrated by a director has been framed largely with reference to the non-executive director. In Re City Equitable Fire Insurance Co [1925] Ch 407, it was expressed in purely subjective terms, where the court held that:
"a director need not exhibit in the performance of his duties a greater degree of skill than may reasonably be expected from a person of his knowledge and experience." (emphasis added)
However, this decision was based firmly in the older notions (see above) that prevailed at the time as to the mode of corporate decision making, and effective control residing in the shareholders; if they elected and put up with an incompetent decision maker, they should not have recourse to complain.
However, a more modern approach has since developed, and in Dorchester Finance Co Ltd v Stebbing [1989] BCLC 498 the court held that the rule in Equitable Fire related only to skill, and not to diligence. With respect to diligence, what was required was:
"such care as an ordinary man might be expected to take on his own behalf."
This was a dual subjective and objective test, and one deliberately pitched at a higher level.
More recently, it has been suggested that both the tests of skill and diligence should be assessed objectively and subjectively; in the United Kingdom, the statutory provisions relating to directors' duties in the new Companies Act 2006 have been codified on this basis.
Remedies for breach of duty
In most jurisdictions, the law provides for a variety of remedies in the event of a breach by the directors of their duties:
Account of profits
Damages or compensation
Injunction or declaration
Rescission of the relevant contract
Restoration of the company's property
Summary dismissal
Current trends
Historically, directors' duties have been owed almost exclusively to the company and its members, and the board was expected to exercise its powers for the financial benefit of the company. However, more recently there have been attempts to "soften" the position, and provide for more scope for directors to act as good corporate citizens. For example, in the United Kingdom, the Companies Act 2006 requires directors of companies "to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole" and sets out the following six factors regarding a director's duty to promote success:
The likely consequences of any decision in the long term
The interests of the company's employees
The need to foster the company's business relationships with suppliers, customers and others
The impact of the company's operations on the community and the environment
The desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct
The need to act fairly as between members of a company
This represents a considerable departure from the traditional notion that directors' duties are owed only to the company. Previously in the United Kingdom, under the Companies Act 1985, protections for non-member stakeholders were considerably more limited (see, for example, s.309 which permitted directors to take into account the interests of employees but which could only be enforced by the shareholders and not by the employees themselves). The changes have therefore been the subject of some criticism.
Board of directors technology
The adoption of technology that facilitates the meeting preparation and execution of directors continues to grow. Board directors are increasingly leveraging this technology to communicate and collaborate within a secure environment to access meeting materials, communicate with each other, and execute their governance responsibilities. This trend is particularly acute in the United States where a robust market of early adopters garnered acceptance of board software by organizations resulting in higher penetration of the board portal services in the region.
The board and society
Most companies have weak mechanisms for bringing the voice of society into the board room. They rely on personalities who were not appointed for their understanding of societal issues. Often they give limited focus (both through time and financial resource) to issues of corporate responsibility and sustainability. A social board has society designed into its structure. It elevates the voice of society through specialist appointments to the board and mechanisms that empower innovation from within the organisation. Social boards align themselves with themes that are important to society. These may include measuring worker pay ratios, linking personal social and environmental objectives to remuneration, integrated reporting, fair tax and B-Corp certification.
Social boards recognise that they are part of society and that they require more than a licence to operate to succeed. They balance short-term shareholder pressure against long-term value creation, managing the business for a plurality of stakeholders including employees, shareholders, supply chains and civil society.
United States
Sarbanes–Oxley Act
The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 has introduced new standards of accountability on boards of U.S. companies or companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Under the act, directors risk large fines and prison sentences in the case of accounting crimes. Internal control is now the direct responsibility of directors. The vast majority of companies covered by the act have hired internal auditors to ensure that the company adheres to required standards of internal control. The internal auditors are required by law to report directly to an audit board, consisting of directors more than half of whom are outside directors, one of whom is a "financial expert".
The law requires companies listed on the major stock exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ) to have a majority of independent directors—directors who are not otherwise employed by the firm or in a business relationship with it.
Size
According to the Corporate Library's study, the average size of publicly traded company's board is 9.2 members, and most boards range from 3 to 31 members. According to Investopedia, some analysts think the ideal size is seven. State law may specify a minimum number of directors, maximum number of directors, and qualifications for directors (e.g. whether board members must be individuals or may be business entities).
Committees
While a board may have several committees, two—the compensation committee and audit committee—are critical and must be made up of at least three independent directors and no inside directors. Other common committees in boards are nominating and governance.
Compensation
Directors of Fortune 500 companies received median pay of $234,000 in 2011. Directorship is a part-time job. A 2011 study by the National Association of Corporate Directors in the United States estimated that directors averaged 4.3 hours a week on board work. Surveys have indicated that about 20% of nonprofit foundations pay their board members, and 2% of American nonprofit organizations do. 80% of nonprofit organizations require board members to personally contribute to the organization. As of 2007, this percentage had increased in recent years.
Criticism
According to John Gillespie, a former investment banker and co-author of a book critical of boards, "Far too much of their time has been for check-the-box and cover-your-behind activities rather than real monitoring of executives and providing strategic advice on behalf of shareholders". At the same time, scholars have found that individual directors have a large effect on major corporate initiatives such as mergers and acquisitions and cross-border investments.
The issue of gender representation on corporate boards of directors has been the subject of much criticism in recent years. Governments and corporations have responded with measures such as legislation mandating gender quotas and comply or explain systems to address the disproportionality of gender representation on corporate boards. A study of the French corporate elite has found that certain social classes are also disproportionately represented on boards, with those from the upper and, especially, upper-middle classes tending to dominate.
See also
Alternate director
Celebrity board director
Governing boards of colleges and universities in the United States
Parliamentary procedure in the corporate world
Vorstand, German for 'management board'
Worker representation on corporate boards of directors
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
P. Blumberg, 'Reflections on Proposals for Corporate Reform Through Change in the Composition of the Board of Directors: "Special Interest" or "Public" Directors' (1973) 53 Boston University Law Review 547
KJ Hopt, 'The German Two-Tier Board: Experience, Theories, Reforms' in KJ Hopt and others. (eds), Comparative Corporate Governance: The State of the Art and Emerging Research (Clarendon 1998)
KJ Hopt and PC Leyens, 'Board Models in Europe – Recent Developments of Internal Corporate Governance Structures in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy' (2004) EGCI Working Paper
Acre Resources LTD (2018), The Case for a Social Board, London, UK
External links
NEDonBoard — UK professional body for non-executive directors and board members
Website of the board of a large U.S. university, illustrating a typical board's composition, duties, concerns, etc.
National Association of Corporate Directors
Institute of Directors UK
GBAC Global Board Advisors Corp
Business law
Business terms
Corporate law
Committees |
4823 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkan%20Wars | Balkan Wars | The Balkan Wars were a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, in the process stripping the Ottomans of their European provinces, leaving only Eastern Thrace under the Ottoman Empire's control. In the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria fought against the other four original combatants of the first war. It also faced an attack from Romania from the north. The Ottoman Empire lost the bulk of its territory in Europe. Although not involved as a combatant, Austria-Hungary became relatively weaker as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples. The war set the stage for the July crisis of 1914 and thus served as a prelude to the First World War.
By the early 20th century, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia had achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large elements of their ethnic populations remained under Ottoman rule. In 1912, these countries formed the Balkan League. The First Balkan War began on 8 October 1912, when the League member states attacked the Ottoman Empire, and ended eight months later with the signing of the Treaty of London on 30 May 1913. The Second Balkan War began on 16 June 1913, when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its loss of Macedonia, attacked its former Balkan League allies. The combined forces of Serbian and Greek armies, with their superior numbers repelled the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked Bulgaria by invading it from the west and the south. Romania, having taken no part in the conflict, had intact armies to strike with and invaded Bulgaria from the north in violation of a peace treaty between the two states. The Ottoman Empire also attacked Bulgaria and advanced in Thrace regaining Adrianople. In the resulting Treaty of Bucharest, Bulgaria managed to regain most of the territories it had gained in the First Balkan War. However, it was forced to cede the ex-Ottoman south part of Dobruja province to Romania.
The Balkan Wars were marked by ethnic cleansing with all parties being responsible for grave atrocities against civilians and helped inspire later atrocities including war crimes during the 1990s Yugoslav Wars.
Background
The background to the wars lies in the incomplete emergence of nation-states on the European territory of the Ottoman Empire during the second half of the 19th century. Serbia had gained substantial territory during the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878, while Greece acquired Thessaly in 1881 (although it lost a small area back to the Ottoman Empire in 1897) and Bulgaria (an autonomous principality since 1878) incorporated the formerly distinct province of Eastern Rumelia (1885). All three countries, as well as Montenegro, sought additional territories within the large Ottoman-ruled region known as Rumelia, comprising Eastern Rumelia, Albania, Macedonia, and Thrace.
The First Balkan War had some main causes, which included:
The Ottoman Empire was unable to reform itself, govern satisfactorily, or deal with the rising ethnic nationalism of its diverse peoples.
The Italo-Ottoman war of 1911 and the Albanian Revolts in the Albanian Provinces showed that the Empire was deeply "wounded" and unable to strike back against another war.
The Great Powers quarreled amongst themselves and failed to ensure that the Ottomans would carry out the needed reforms. This led the Balkan states to impose their own solution.
The Christian populations of the European part of the Ottoman Empire were oppressed by the Ottoman Reign, thus forcing the Christian Balkan states to take action.
Most importantly, the Balkan League was formed, and its members were confident that under those circumstances an organised and simultaneous declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire would be the only way to protect their compatriots and expand their territories in the Balkan Peninsula.
Policies of the Great Powers
Throughout the 19th century, the Great Powers shared different aims over the "Eastern Question" and the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. Russia wanted access to the "warm waters" of the Mediterranean from the Black Sea; it pursued a pan-Slavic foreign policy and therefore supported Bulgaria and Serbia. Britain wished to deny Russia access to the "warm waters" and supported the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, although it also supported a limited expansion of Greece as a backup plan in case integrity of the Ottoman Empire was no longer possible. France wished to strengthen its position in the region, especially in the Levant (today's Lebanon, Syria, and Israel).
Habsburg-ruled Austria-Hungary wished for a continuation of the existence of the Ottoman Empire, since both were troubled multinational entities and thus the collapse of the one might weaken the other. The Habsburgs also saw a strong Ottoman presence in the area as a counterweight to the Serbian nationalistic call to their own Serb subjects in Bosnia, Vojvodina and other parts of the empire. Italy's primary aim at the time seems to have been the denial of access to the Adriatic Sea to another major sea power. The German Empire, in turn, under the "Drang nach Osten" policy, aspired to turn the Ottoman Empire into its own de facto colony, and thus supported its integrity. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Bulgaria and Greece contended for Ottoman Macedonia and Thrace. Ethnic Greeks sought the forced "Hellenization" of ethnic Bulgars, who sought "Bulgarization" of Greeks (Rise of nationalism). Both nations sent armed irregulars into Ottoman territory to protect and assist their ethnic kindred. From 1904, there was low-intensity warfare in Macedonia between the Greek and Bulgarian bands and the Ottoman army (the Struggle for Macedonia). After the Young Turk revolution of July 1908, the situation changed drastically.
Young Turk Revolution
The 1908 Young Turk Revolution saw the reinstatement of constitutional monarchy in the Ottoman Empire and the start of the Second Constitutional Era. When the revolt broke out, it was supported by intellectuals, the army, and almost all the ethnic minorities of the Empire. It forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to re-adopt the defunct Ottoman constitution of 1876 and parliament. Hopes were raised among the Balkan ethnicities of reforms and autonomy. Elections were held to form a representative, multi-ethnic, Ottoman parliament. However, following the Sultan's failed counter-coup of 1909, the liberal element of the Young Turks was sidelined and the nationalist element became dominant.
In October 1908, Austria-Hungary seized the opportunity of the Ottoman political upheaval to annex the de jure Ottoman province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it had occupied since 1878 (see Bosnian Crisis). Bulgaria declared independence as it had done in 1878, but this time the independence was internationally recognized. The Greeks of the autonomous Cretan State proclaimed unification with Greece, though the opposition of the Great Powers prevented the latter action from taking practical effect.
Reaction in the Balkan states
Serbia was frustrated in the north by Austria-Hungary's incorporation of Bosnia. In March 1909, Serbia was forced to accept the annexation and restrain anti-Habsburg agitation by Serbian nationalists. Instead, the Serbian government (PM: Nikola Pašić) looked to formerly Serb territories in the south, notably "Old Serbia" (the Sanjak of Novi Pazar and the province of Kosovo).
On 15 August 1909, the Military League, a group of Greek officers, launched a coup. The Military League sought the creation of a new political system and thus summoned the Cretan politician Eleutherios Venizelos to Athens as its political advisor. Venizelos persuaded King George I to revise the constitution and asked the League to disband in favor of a National Assembly. In March 1910, the Military League dissolved itself.
Bulgaria, which had secured Ottoman recognition of her independence in April 1909 and enjoyed the friendship of Russia, also looked to annex districts of Ottoman Thrace and Macedonia. In August 1910, Montenegro followed Bulgaria's precedent by becoming a kingdom.
Pre-War treaties
Following the Italian victory in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, the severity of the Ottomanizing policy of the Young Turkish regime and a series of three revolts in Ottoman held Albania, the Young Turks fell from power after a coup. The Christian Balkan countries were forced to take action and saw this as an opportunity to promote their national agenda by expanding in the territories of the falling empire and liberating their enslaved co-patriots. In order to achieve that, a wide net of treaties was constructed and an alliance was formed.
The negotiation among the Balkan states' governments started in the latter part of 1911 and was all conducted in secret. The treaties and military conventions were published in French translations after the Balkan Wars on 24–26 of November in Le Matin, Paris, France
In April 1911, Greek PM Eleutherios Venizelos’ attempt to reach an agreement with the Bulgarian PM and form a defensive alliance against the Ottoman Empire was fruitless, because of the doubts the Bulgarians held on the strength of the Greek Army. Later that year, in December 1911, Bulgaria and Serbia agreed to start negotiations in forming an alliance under the tight inspection of Russia. The treaty between Serbia and Bulgaria was signed on 29 of February/13 of March 1912. Serbia sought expansion to "Old Serbia" and as Milan Milovanovich noted in 1909 to the Bulgarian counterpart, "As long as we are not allied with you, our influence over the Croats and Slovens will be insignificant". On the other side, Bulgaria wanted the autonomy of Macedonia region under the influence of the two countries. The then Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs General Stefan Paprikov stated in 1909 that, "It will be clear that if not today then tomorrow, the most important issue will again be the Macedonian Question. And this question, whatever happens, cannot be decided without more or less direct participation of the Balkan States". Last but not least, they noted down the divisions that should be made of the Ottoman territories after a victorious outcome of the war. Bulgaria would gain all the territories eastern of Rodopi Mountains and River Strimona, while Serbia would annex the territories northern and western of Mount Skardu.
The alliance pact between Greece and Bulgaria was finally signed on 16/29 of May 1912, without stipulating any specific division of Ottoman territories. In summer 1912, Greece proceeded on making "gentlemen's agreements" with Serbia and Montenegro. Despite the fact that a draft of the alliance pact with Serbia was submitted on 22 of October, a formal pact was never signed due to the outbreak of the war. As a result, Greece did not have any territorial or other commitments, other than the common cause to fight the Ottoman Empire.
In April 1912 Montenegro and Bulgaria reached an agreement including financial aid to Montenegro in case of war with the Ottoman Empire. A gentlemen's agreement with Greece was reached soon after, as mentioned before. By the end of September a political and military alliance between Montenegro and Serbia was achieved.
By the end of September 1912, Bulgaria had formal-written alliances with Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro. A formal alliance was also signed between Serbia and Montenegro, while Greco-Montenegrin and Greco-Serbian agreements were basically oral "gentlemen's agreements". All these completed the formation of the Balkan League.
Balkan League
At that time, the Balkan states had been able to maintain armies that were both numerous, in relation to each country's population, and eager to act, being inspired by the idea that they would free enslaved parts of their homeland. The Bulgarian Army was the leading army of the coalition. It was a well-trained and fully equipped army, capable of facing the Imperial Army. It was suggested that the bulk of the Bulgarian Army would be in the Thracian front, as it was expected that the front near the Ottoman Capital would be the most crucial one. The Serbian Army would act on the Macedonian front, while the Greek Army was thought powerless and was not taken under serious consideration. Greece was needed in the Balkan League for its navy and its capability to dominate the Aegean Sea, cutting off the Ottoman Armies from reinforcements.
On 13/26 of September 1912, the Ottoman mobilization in Thrace forced Serbia and Bulgaria to act and order their own mobilization. On 17/30 of September Greece also ordered mobilization. On 25 of September/8 of October, Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, after negotiations failed regarding the border status. On 30 of September/13 of October, the ambassadors of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece delivered the common ultimatum to the Ottoman government, which was immediately rejected. The Empire withdrew its ambassadors from Sofia, Belgrade, and Athens, while the Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek diplomats left the Ottoman capital delivering the war declaration on 4/17 of October 1912.
First Balkan War
The three Slavic allies (Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro) had laid out extensive plans to coordinate their war efforts, in continuation of their secret prewar settlements and under close Russian supervision (Greece was not included). Serbia and Montenegro would attack in the theater of Sanjak, Bulgaria, and Serbia in Macedonia and Thrace.
The Ottoman Empire's situation was difficult. Its population of about 26 million people provided a massive pool of manpower, but three-quarters of the population lived in the Asian part of the Empire. Reinforcements had to come from Asia mainly by sea, which depended on the result of battles between the Turkish and Greek navies in the Aegean.
With the outbreak of the war, the Ottoman Empire activated three Army HQs: the Thracian HQ in Constantinople, the Western HQ in Salonika, and the Vardar HQ in Skopje, against the Bulgarians, the Greeks and the Serbians respectively. Most of their available forces were allocated to these fronts. Smaller independent units were allocated elsewhere, mostly around heavily fortified cities.
Montenegro was the first to declare war on 8 October (25 September O.S.). Its main thrust was towards Shkodra, with secondary operations in the Novi Pazar area. The rest of the Allies, after giving a common ultimatum, declared war a week later. Bulgaria attacked towards Eastern Thrace, being stopped only at the outskirts of Constantinople at the Çatalca line and the isthmus of the Gallipoli peninsula, while secondary forces captured Western Thrace and Eastern Macedonia. Serbia attacked south towards Skopje and Monastir and then turned west to present-day Albania, reaching the Adriatic, while a second Army captured Kosovo and linked with the Montenegrin forces. Greece's main forces attacked from Thessaly into Macedonia through the Sarantaporo strait. On 7 November, in response to an Ottoman initiative, they entered into negotiations for the surrender of Thessaloniki. With the Greeks already there, and the Bulgarian 7th Rila Division moving swiftly from the north towards Thessaloniki, Hassan Tahsin Pasha considered his position to be hopeless. The Greeks offered more attractive terms than the Bulgarians did. On 8 November, Tahsin Pasha agreed to terms and 26,000 Ottoman troops passed over into Greek captivity. Before the Greeks entered the city, a German warship whisked the former sultan Abdul Hamid II out of Thessaloniki to continue his exile, across the Bosporus from Constantinople. With their army in Thessaloniki, the Greeks took new positions to the east and northeast, including Nigrita. On 12 November (on 26 October 1912, O.S.) Greece expanded its occupied area and teamed up with the Serbian army to the northwest, while its main forces turned east towards Kavala, reaching the Bulgarians. Another Greek army attacked into Epirus towards Ioannina.
On the naval front, the Ottoman fleet twice exited the Dardanelles and was twice defeated by the Greek Navy, in the battles of Elli and Lemnos. Greek dominance on the Aegean Sea made it impossible for the Ottomans to transfer the planned troops from the Middle East to the Thracian (against the Bulgarian) and to the Macedonian (against the Greeks and Serbians) fronts. According to E.J. Erickson the Greek Navy also played a crucial, albeit indirect role, in the Thracian campaign by neutralizing no less than three Thracian Corps (see First Balkan War, the Bulgarian theater of operations), a significant portion of the Ottoman Army there, in the all-important opening round of the war. After the defeat of the Ottoman fleet, the Greek Navy was also free to occupy the islands of the Aegean. General Nikola Ivanov identified the activity of the Greek Navy as the chief factor in the general success of the allies.
In January, after a successful coup by young army officers, the Ottoman Empire decided to continue the war. After a failed Ottoman counter-attack in the Western-Thracian front, Bulgarian forces, with the help of the Serbian Army, managed to conquer Adrianople, while Greek forces managed to take Ioannina after defeating the Ottomans in the Battle of Bizani. In the joint Serbian-Montenegrin theater of operation, the Montenegrin army besieged and captured the Shkodra, ending the Ottoman presence in Europe west of the Çatalca line after nearly 500 years. The war ended officially with the Treaty of London on 30(17) May 1913.
Prelude to the Second Balkan War
After pressure from the Great Powers towards Greece and Serbia, who had postponed signing in order to fortify their defensive positions, the signing of the Treaty of London took place on 30 May 1913. With this treaty, the war between the Balkan Allies and the Ottoman Empire came to an end. From now on, the Great Powers had the right of decision on the territorial adjustments that had to be made, which even led to the creation of an independent Albania. Every Aegean island belonging to the Ottoman Empire, with the exception of Imbros and Tenedos, was handed over to the Greeks, including the island of Crete.
Furthermore, all European territory of the Ottoman Empire west of the Enos-Midiya (Enez-Kıyıköy) line, was ceded to the Balkan League, but the division of the territory among the League was not to be decided by the Treaty itself.
This event led to the formation of two ‘de facto’ military occupation zones on Macedonian territory, as Greece and Serbia tried to create a common border. In turn, Bulgarians were furious about Serbia's refusal to honour its commitments under the 1912 Serbo-Bulgarian Treaty, which had split the geographic region of Macedonia into two zones, one contested between Serbia and Bulgaria, and another one, recognised by the two countries as Bulgarian by rights.
Before the war, Serbia had relinquished its claim to the territory east of the Ohrid-Kriva Palanka line in favour of Bulgaria (the ‘Uncontested Zone’), while the future of some 11,000 square km2 of territory, forming the northwestern corner of geographic region of Macedonia (the ‘Contested Zone’), was to be decided by the Russian Emperor, who was Senior Arbitrary and Guarantor of the alliance.
Assured by the clauses of the Treaty that it would receive what it considered its fair share of Macedonia, Bulgaria sent almost all of its troops to the Thracian front, which was expected to, and eventually did indeed, decide the outcome of the war. At the same time, Serbia pushed into Kosovo and northern Macedonia.
As the establishment of an independent Albanian state, brokered by Italy and Austria-Hungary, deprived the Serbs of their much-coveted Adriatic port, they demanded not only the entire Contested Zone, but also all of the Uncontested one they had occupied. Bulgarian efforts to appeal to the Russian Emperor, quoting, for example, the clauses of the Treaty, the material difference between Serbian (29,698) and Bulgarian casualties (87,926) or the surrender of the Bulgarian City of Silistra to Romania as compensation for its continued neutrality proved futile. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov instead kept encouraging Bulgaria to accede to an ever-increasing list of Serbian demands.
In the end, Bulgaria's overreliance on the Russian Empire, a power which had anathemised the Unification of Bulgaria, invited the Ottoman Sultan to reconquer Eastern Rumelia and organised a coup against the Bulgarian Prince only three decades prior and which had watched Ferdinand's charge towards Istanbul with ill-disguised alarm due to its own long-standing aspirations towards the Turkish Straits, Bulgaria's unwillingness to reach a compromise with Greece, despite several attempts made by Greek Prime Minister Venizelos, and Serbian insistence to keep all conquered territory paved the way to another conflict.
On 1 May 1913, Greece and Serbia settled their differences and signed a military alliance directed against Bulgaria. On the night of 29 June 1913, the Bulgarian army made an ill-advised attempt to gain an advantage in the negotiations by pushing out Serbian and Greek forces out of several disputed territories without a battle plan or declaration of war, naively thinking that this would be regarded as a mere altercation. Instead, the action gave Serbia and Greece casus belli and kicked off the Second Balkan War.
Second Balkan War
Though the Balkan allies had fought together against the common enemy, that was not enough to overcome their mutual rivalries. In the original document for the Balkans league, Serbia promised Bulgaria most of Macedonia. But before the first war had come to an end, Serbia (in violation of the previous agreement) and Greece revealed their plan to keep possession of the territories that their forces had occupied. This act prompted the tsar of Bulgaria to invade his allies. The Second Balkan War broke out on 29 (16) June 1913, when Bulgaria attacked its erstwhile allies in the First Balkan War, Serbia and Greece, while Montenegro and the Ottoman Empire intervened later against Bulgaria, with Romania attacking Bulgaria from the north in violation of a peace treaty.
When the Greek army had entered Thessaloniki in the First Balkan War ahead of the Bulgarian 7th division by only a day, they were asked to allow a Bulgarian battalion to enter the city. Greece accepted in exchange for allowing a Greek unit to enter the city of Serres. The Bulgarian unit that entered Thessaloniki turned out to be an 18,000-strong division instead of the battalion, which caused concern among the Greeks, who viewed it as a Bulgarian attempt to establish a condominium over the city. In the event, due to the urgently needed reinforcements in the Thracian front, Bulgarian Headquarters was soon forced to remove its troops from the city (while the Greeks agreed by mutual treaty to remove their units based in Serres) and transport them to Dedeağaç (modern Alexandroupolis), but it left behind a battalion that started fortifying its positions.
Greece had also allowed the Bulgarians to control the stretch of the Thessaloniki-Constantinople railroad that lay in Greek-occupied territory since Bulgaria controlled the largest part of this railroad towards Thrace. After the end of the operations in Thrace, and confirming Greek concerns, Bulgaria was not satisfied with the territory it controlled in Macedonia and immediately asked Greece to relinquish its control over Thessaloniki and the land north of Pieria, effectively handing over all of Greek Macedonia. These demands, with the Bulgarian refusal to demobilize its army after the Treaty of London had ended the common war against the Ottomans, alarmed Greece, which decided to also keep its army mobilized. A month after the Second Balkan War started, the Bulgarian community of Thessaloniki no longer existed, as hundreds of long-time Bulgarian locals were arrested. Thirteen hundred Bulgarian soldiers and about five hundred komitadjis were also arrested and transferred to Greek prisons. In November 1913, the Bulgarians were forced to admit their defeat, as the Greeks received international recognition on their claim of Thessaloniki.
Similarly, in modern North Macedonia, the tension between Serbia and Bulgaria due to the latter's aspirations over Vardar Macedonia generated many incidents between their respective armies, prompting Serbia to keep its army mobilized. Serbia and Greece proposed that each of the three countries reduce its army by a quarter, as the first step towards a peaceful solution, but Bulgaria rejected it. Seeing the omens, Greece and Serbia started a series of negotiations and signed a treaty on 1 June(19 May) 1913. With this treaty, a mutual border was agreed between the two countries, together with an agreement for mutual military and diplomatic support in case of a Bulgarian or/and Austro-Hungarian attack. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, being well informed, tried to stop the upcoming conflict on 8 June, by sending an identical personal message to the Kings of Bulgaria and Serbia, offering to act as arbitrator according to the provisions of the 1912 Serbo-Bulgarian treaty. But Bulgaria, by making the acceptance of Russian arbitration conditional, in effect denied any discussion, causing Russia to repudiate its alliance with Bulgaria (see Russo-Bulgarian military convention signed 31 May 1902).
The Serbs and the Greeks had a military advantage on the eve of the war because their armies confronted comparatively weak Ottoman forces in the First Balkan War and suffered relatively light casualties, while the Bulgarians were involved in heavy fighting in Thrace. The Serbs and Greeks had time to fortify their positions in Macedonia. The Bulgarians also held some advantages, controlling internal communication and supply lines.
On 29(16) June 1913, General Savov, under direct orders of Tsar Ferdinand I, issued attack orders against both Greece and Serbia without consulting the Bulgarian government and without an official declaration of war. During the night of 30(17) June 1913, they attacked the Serbian army at Bregalnica river and then the Greek army in Nigrita. The Serbian army resisted the sudden night attack, while most of the soldiers did not even know who they were fighting with, as Bulgarian camps were located next to Serbs and were considered allies. Montenegro's forces were just a few kilometers away and also rushed to the battle. The Bulgarian attack was halted.
The Greek army was also successful. It retreated according to plan for two days while Thessaloniki was cleared of the remaining Bulgarian regiment. Then, the Greek army counterattacked and defeated the Bulgarians at Kilkis (Kukush), after which the mostly Bulgarian town was plundered and burnt and part of its mostly Bulgarian population massacred by the Greek army. Following the capture of Kilkis, the Greek army's pace was not quick enough to prevent the retaliatory destruction of Nigrita, Serres, and Doxato and massacres of non-combatant Greek inhabitants at Sidirokastro and Doxato by the Bulgarian army. The Greek army then divided its forces and advanced in two directions. Part proceeded east and occupied Western Thrace. The rest of the Greek army advanced up to the Struma River valley, defeating the Bulgarian army in the battles of Doiran and Mt. Beles, and continued its advance to the north towards Sofia. In the Kresna straits, the Greeks were ambushed by the Bulgarian 2nd and 1st Armies, newly arrived from the Serbian front, that had already taken defensive positions there following the Bulgarian victory at Kalimanci.
By 30 July, the Greek army was outnumbered by the counter-attacking Bulgarian army, which attempted to encircle the Greeks in a Cannae-type battle, by applying pressure on their flanks. The Greek army was exhausted and faced logistical difficulties. The battle was continued for 11 days, between 29 July and 9 August over 20 km of a maze of forests and mountains with no conclusion. The Greek king, seeing that the units he fought were from the Serbian front, tried to convince the Serbs to renew their attack, as the front ahead of them was now thinner, but the Serbs declined. By then, news came of the Romanian advance toward Sofia and its imminent fall. Facing the danger of encirclement, Constantine realized that his army could no longer continue hostilities. Thus, he agreed to Eleftherios Venizelos' proposal and accepted the Bulgarian request for an armistice as had been communicated through Romania.
Romania had raised an army and declared war on Bulgaria on 10 July (27 June) as it had from 28 (15) June officially warned Bulgaria that it would not remain neutral in a new Balkan war, due to Bulgaria's refusal to cede the fortress of Silistra as promised before the First Balkan War in exchange for Romanian neutrality. Its forces encountered little resistance and, by the time the Greeks accepted the Bulgarian request for an armistice, they had reached Vrazhdebna, from the center of Sofia.
Seeing the military position of the Bulgarian army, the Ottomans decided to intervene. They attacked, and, finding no opposition, managed to win back all of their lands which had been officially ceded to Bulgaria as a part of the Sofia Conference in 1914, i.e. Thrace with its fortified city of Adrianople, regaining an area in Europe which was only slightly larger than the present-day European territory of the Republic of Turkey.
Reactions among the Great Powers during the wars
The developments that led to the First Balkan War did not go unnoticed by the Great Powers. Although there was an official consensus between the European Powers over the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, which led to a stern warning to the Balkan states, unofficially each of them took a different diplomatic approach due to their conflicting interests in the area. As a result, any possible preventive effect of the common official warning was cancelled by the mixed unofficial signals, and failed to prevent or to stop the war:
Russia was a prime mover in the establishment of the Balkan League and saw it as an essential tool in case of a future war against its rival, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, it was unaware of the Bulgarian plans over Thrace and Constantinople, territories on which it had long-held ambitions, and on which it had just secured a secret agreement of expansion from its allies France and Britain, as a reward for participating in the upcoming Great War against the Central Powers.
France, not feeling ready for a war against Germany in 1912, took a totally negative position against the war, firmly informing its ally Russia that it would not take part in a potential conflict between Russia and Austria-Hungary if it resulted from the actions of the Balkan League. The French, however, failed to achieve British participation in a common intervention to stop the Balkan conflict.
Great Britain, although officially a staunch supporter of the Ottoman Empire's integrity, took secret diplomatic steps encouraging Greek entry into the League in order to counteract Russian influence. At the same time, it encouraged Bulgarian aspirations over Thrace, preferring a Bulgarian Thrace to a Russian one, despite the assurances the British government had given to the Russians in regard to Russia's expansion there.
Austria-Hungary, struggling for a port on the Adriatic and seeking ways for expansion in the south at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, was totally opposed to any other nation's expansion in the area. At the same time, the Habsburg empire had its own internal problems with significant Slav populations that campaigned against German-Hungarian control of the multinational state. Serbia, whose aspirations in the direction of Austrian-held Bosnia were no secret, was considered an enemy and the main tool of Russian machinations that were behind the agitation of Austria's Slav subjects. But Austria-Hungary failed to secure German backup for a firm reaction. Initially, Emperor Wilhelm II told the Archduke Franz Ferdinand that Germany was ready to support Austria in all circumstances — even at the risk of a world war, but the Austro-Hungarians hesitated. Finally, in the German Imperial War Council of 8 December 1912 the consensus was that Germany would not be ready for war until at least mid-1914 and passed notes to that effect to the Habsburgs. Consequently, no actions could be taken when the Serbs acceded to the Austrian ultimatum of 18 October and withdrew from Albania.
Germany, already heavily involved in internal Ottoman politics, officially opposed a war against the Empire. But, in her effort to win Bulgaria for the Central Powers, and seeing the inevitability of Ottoman disintegration, was toying with the idea of replacing the Balkan area of the Ottomans with a friendly Greater Bulgaria in her San Stefano borders—an idea that was based on the German origin of the Bulgarian King and his anti-Russian sentiments.
The Second Balkan war was a catastrophic blow to Russian policies in the Balkans, which for centuries had focused on access to the "warm seas". First, it marked the end of the Balkan League, a vital arm of the Russian system of defense against Austria-Hungary. Second, the clearly pro-Serbian position Russia had been forced to take in the conflict, mainly due to the disagreements over land partitioning between Serbia and Bulgaria, caused a permanent break-up between the two countries. Accordingly, Bulgaria reverted its policy to one closer to the Central Powers' understanding over an anti-Serbian front, due to its new national aspirations, now expressed mainly against Serbia. As a result, Serbia was isolated militarily against its rival Austria-Hungary, a development that eventually doomed Serbia in the coming war a year later. Most damaging, the new situation effectively trapped Russian foreign policy: After 1913, Russia could not afford to lose its last ally in this crucial area and thus had no alternatives but to unconditionally support Serbia when the crisis between Serbia and Austria escalated in 1914. This was a position that inevitably drew Russia into an unwelcome World War with devastating results since it was less prepared (both militarily and socially) for that event than any other Great Power.
Austria-Hungary took alarm at the great increase in Serbia's territory at the expense of its national aspirations in the region, as well as Serbia's rising status, especially to Austria-Hungary's Slavic populations. This concern was shared by Germany, which saw Serbia as a satellite of Russia. These concerns contributed significantly to the two Central Powers' willingness to go to war against Serbia. This meant that when a Serbian backed organization assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the reform-minded heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, causing the 1914 July Crisis, the conflict quickly escalated and resulted in the First World War.
Epilogue
The Treaty of Bucharest
The epilogue to this nine-month pan-Balkan war was drawn mostly by the treaty of Bucharest, 10 August 1913. Delegates of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria, hosted by the deputy of Romania arrived in Bucharest to settle negotiations. Ottoman's request to participate was rejected, on the basis that the talks were to deal with matters strictly among the Balkan allies. The Great Powers maintained a very influential presence, but they did not dominate the proceedings. The Treaty partitioned Macedonia, made changes to the Balkan borders and established the independent state of Albania.
Serbia gained the territory of north-east Macedonia, settled the eastern borders with Bulgaria and gained the eastern half of the Sanjak of Novi-Bazar, doubling its size. Montenegro gained the western half of the Sanjak of Novi-Bazar and secured the borders with Serbia. Greece more than doubled its size by gaining southern Epirus, the biggest part of southern Macedonia, including the city-port of Kavala in its eastern border. The Aegean Islands were annexed by the Greek Kingdom, apart from the Dodecanese, and the Cretan unification was completed and formalized. Romania annexed the southern part of Dobruja province. Bulgaria, even though defeated, managed to hold some territorial gains from the First Balkan War. Bulgaria embraced a portion of Macedonia, including the town of Strumnitza, and western Thrace with a 70-mile Aegean coastline including the port-town of Alexandroupolis.
The Final Treaties
The Bulgarian delegates then met the Ottomans for negotiations in Constantinople. Bulgaria's hope to regain lost territories in Eastern Thrace, where the bulk of Bulgarian forces had struggled to conquer and many died, was dashed as the Turks retained the lands they had regained in the counter-attack. The straight line of Ainos-Midia was not accepted for the eastern Border; the regions of Lozengrad, Lyule Burgas-Buni Hisar, and Adrianople reverted to the Ottomans. After this Treaty of Constantinople, 30 September 1913, Bulgaria sought an alliance with the Ottoman Empire against Greece and Serbia (in support of their claims to Macedonia).
This was followed by the Treaty of Athens, 14 November 1913, between the Turks and Greeks, concluding the conflict between them. However, the status of the Aegean Islands, under Greek control, was left in question. Especially the islands of Imvros and Tenedos strategically positioned near the Dardanelles Straights. Even after signing this treaty, relations between the two countries remained very bad, and war almost broke out in spring 1914.
Finally, the second Treaty in Constantinople re-established the relations between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire, concluding officially the Balkan Wars. Montenegro never signed a pact with the Turks.
Aftermath
The Balkan Wars brought to an end Ottoman rule of the Balkan Peninsula, except for eastern Thrace and Constantinople (now Istanbul). The Young Turk regime was unable to reverse their Empire's decline, but remained in power, establishing a dictatorship in June 1913. A large influx of Turks fled from the lost lands to the Ottoman heartland. By 1914, the remaining Empire saw a population increase of around 2.5 million. The estimated war dead were 122,000 killed in action, 20,000 of direct war wounds, and 82,000 of disease (according to Soviet demographer Boris Urlanis in Voini I Narodo-Nacelenie Europi [1960]).
A major issue was the partitioning of these Ottoman territories, inhabited by Greeks, Bulgarians, Aromanians, Serbs, Jews, Turks, Albanians, and other nationalities. Albanians were largely unsatisfied since the majority of their population was left outside of the country's borders, mostly in areas like Kosovo and Macedonia, but also in small areas of Montenegro and Greece. On the other hand, Greece also claimed parts of Southern Albania because of the Greek minority there. Serbia complained that it lost an area with access to the Adriatic Sea.
During and after the wars, the Greek fleet proved the only considerable naval power in the Aegean Sea, blocking the Turkish fleet inside the Dardanelles. The Hellenic Navy managed to liberate the Greek islands and boost the morale of the Greeks. However, the Greek populations in Asia Minor and Pontus faced the rage of the Young Turks' regime, answering for the defeat with embargoes, exiles, persecutions, and population exchange between Turkey and Greece.
All Balkan War conflicts
First Balkan War conflicts
Bulgarian-Ottoman battles
Greek–Ottoman battles
{| style="width:76%;" class="wikitable"
|-
! style="width:25%;"| Battle
! style="width:8%;"| Year
! style="width:10%;"| Commander
! style="width:15%;"| Commander
! style="width:12%;"| Result
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Battle of Sarantaporo|| style="text-align:center;"| 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Constantine I || style="text-align:center;"| Hasan Pasha|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Battle of Yenidje|| style="text-align:center;"| 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Constantine I || style="text-align:center;"| Hasan Pasha|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Battle of Pente Pigadia|| style="text-align:center;"| 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Sapountzakis || style="text-align:center;"| Esat Pasha|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|- style="background:#F2CECE;"
|align="left"| Battle of Sorovich|| style="text-align:center;"| 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Matthaiopoulos|| style="text-align:center;"| Hasan Pasha|| style="text-align:center;"| Ottoman Victory
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Revolt of Himara|| style="text-align:center;"| 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Sapountzakis || style="text-align:center;"| Esat Pasha|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Battle of Lesbos|| style="text-align:center;"| 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Kountouriotis || style=text-aligb center;"| Abdul Ghani|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Battle of Chios|| style="text-align:center;"| 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Damianos || style="text-align:center;"| Zihne Bey|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|- style="background:#F2CECE;"
|align="left"| Battle of Driskos|| style="text-align:center;" | 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Matthaiopoulos|| style="text-align:center;"| Esat Pasha|| style="text-align:center;"| Ottoman Victory
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Battle of Elli|| style="text-align:center;"| 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Kountouriotis|| style="text-align:center;"| Remzi Bey|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Capture of Korytsa|| style="text-align:center;"| 1912 || style="text-align:center;"| Damianos|| style="text-align:center;"| Davit Pasha|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Battle of Lemnos|| style="text-align:center;"| 1913 || style="text-align:center;"| Kountouriotis|| style="text-align:center;"| Remzi Bey|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|- style="background:LightSkyBlue;"
|align="left"| Battle of Bizani|| style="text-align:center;"| 1913 || style="text-align:center;"| Constantine I || style="text-align:center;"| Esat Pasha|| style="text-align:center;"| Greek Victory
|}
Serbian–Ottoman battles
Second Balkan War conflicts
Bulgarian–Greek battles
Bulgarian–Serbian battles
Bulgarian–Ottoman battles
Bulgarian–Romanian battles
Legacy
Citizens of Turkey regard the Balkan Wars as a major disaster (Balkan harbi faciası) in the nation's history. The Ottoman Empire lost all its European territories west of the River Maritsa as a result of the two Balkan Wars, which thus delineated present-day Turkey's western border. By 1923, only 38% of the Muslim population of 1912 still lived in the Balkans and majority of Balkan Turks had been killed or expelled. The unexpected fall and sudden relinquishing of Turkish-dominated European territories created a traumatic event amongst many Turks that triggered the ultimate collapse of the empire itself within five years. Paul Mojzes has called the Balkan Wars an ''unrecognized genocide''.
Nazım Pasha, Chief of Staff of the Ottoman Army, was held responsible for the failure and was assassinated on 23 January 1913 during the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état.
Most Greeks regard the Balkan Wars as a period of epic achievements. They managed to liberate and gain territories that had been inhabited by Greeks since ancient times and doubled the size of the Greek Kingdom, capturing major cities such as Thessaloniki and Ioannina that had been under Ottoman rule for almost half a millennium. The Greek Army, small and ill-equipped compared to the superior Ottoman but also Bulgarian and Serbian armies, won very important battles. That made Greece a viable pawn in the Great Powers' chess play. Two great personalities rose in the Greek political arena, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, the leading mind behind the Greek foreign policy, and Crown Prince, and later King, Konstantinos I, the Major General of the Greek Army.
See also
History of the Balkans
International relations (1814–1919)
Ottoman wars in Europe
Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885)
Albanian Revolt of 1910
Albanian Revolt of 1911
Albanian Revolt of 1912
Destruction of the Thracian Bulgarians in 1913
Balkans Campaign (World War I)
Balkans Campaign (World War II)
List of places burned during the Balkan Wars
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Antić, Čedomir. Ralph Paget: a diplomat in Serbia (Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2006) online free.
Bobroff, Ronald. (2000) "Behind the Balkan Wars: Russian Policy toward Bulgaria and the Turkish Straits, 1912–13." Russian Review 59.1 (2000): 76–95 online
Boeckh, Katrin, and Sabine Rutar. eds. (2020) The Wars of Yesterday: The Balkan Wars and the Emergence of Modern Military Conflict, 1912–13 (2020)
Dakin, Douglas. (1962) "The diplomacy of the Great Powers and the Balkan States, 1908-1914." Balkan Studies 3.2 (1962): 327–374. online
Farrar Jr, Lancelot L. (2003) "Aggression versus apathy: the limits of nationalism during the Balkan wars, 1912-1913." East European Quarterly 37.3 (2003): 257.
Ginio, Eyal. The Ottoman Culture of Defeat: The Balkan Wars and their Aftermath (Oxford UP, 2016) 377 pp. online review
Hall, Richard C. ed. War in the Balkans: An Encyclopedic History from the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Breakup of Yugoslavia (2014)
Howard, Harry N. "The Balkan Wars in perspective: their significance for Turkey." Balkan Studies'' 3.2 (1962): 267–276 online.
External links
U.S. State Department. "The Formation of the Balkan Alliance of 1912" (1918)
C. Hall, Richard: Balkan Wars 1912–1913, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Project Gutenberg's The Balkan Wars: 1912–1913, by Jacob Gould Schurman
US Library of Congress in the Balkan Wars
The Balkan crises, 1903–1914
Balkan Wars from a Turkish perspective
Wikisource: The New Student's Reference Work/The Balkans and the Peace of Europe
Historic films about the Balkan Wars at europeanfilmgateway.eu
Causes of World War I
1910s in Europe |
4827 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomedical%20engineering | Biomedical engineering | Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences to advance health care treatment, including diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy. Also included under the scope of a biomedical engineer is the management of current medical equipment in hospitals while adhering to relevant industry standards. This involves procurement, routine testing, preventive maintenance, and making equipment recommendations, a role also known as a Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET) or as clinical engineering.
Biomedical engineering has recently emerged as its own study, as compared to many other engineering fields. Such an evolution is common as a new field transition from being an interdisciplinary specialization among already-established fields to being considered a field in itself. Much of the work in biomedical engineering consists of research and development, spanning a broad array of subfields (see below). Prominent biomedical engineering applications include the development of biocompatible prostheses, various diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices ranging from clinical equipment to micro-implants, common imaging equipment such as MRIs and EKG/ECGs, regenerative tissue growth, pharmaceutical drugs and therapeutic biologicals.
Subfields and related fields
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combines computer science, statistics, mathematics, and engineering to analyze and interpret biological data.
Bioinformatics is considered both an umbrella term for the body of biological studies that use computer programming as part of their methodology, as well as a reference to specific analysis "pipelines" that are repeatedly used, particularly in the field of genomics. Common uses of bioinformatics include the identification of candidate genes and nucleotides (SNPs). Often, such identification is made with the aim of better understanding the genetic basis of disease, unique adaptations, desirable properties (esp. in agricultural species), or differences between populations. In a less formal way, bioinformatics also tries to understand the organizational principles within nucleic acid and protein sequences.
Biomechanics
Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of the mechanical aspects of biological systems, at any level from whole organisms to organs, cells and cell organelles, using the methods of mechanics.
Biomaterial
A biomaterial is any matter, surface, or construct that interacts with living systems. As a science, biomaterials is about fifty years old. The study of biomaterials is called biomaterials science or biomaterials engineering. It has experienced steady and strong growth over its history, with many companies investing large amounts of money into the development of new products. Biomaterials science encompasses elements of medicine, biology, chemistry, tissue engineering and materials science.
Biomedical optics
Biomedical optics combines the principles of physics, engineering, and biology to study the interaction of biological tissue and light, and how this can be exploited for sensing, imaging, and treatment. It has a wide range of applications, including optical imaging, microscopy, ophthalmoscopy, spectroscopy, and therapy. Examples of biomedical optics techniques and technologies include optical coherence tomography (OCT), fluorescence microscopy, confocal microscopy, and photodynamic therapy (PDT). OCT, for example, uses light to create high-resolution, three-dimensional images of internal structures, such as the retina in the eye or the coronary arteries in the heart. Fluorescence microscopy involves labeling specific molecules with fluorescent dyes and visualizing them using light, providing insights into biological processes and disease mechanisms. More recently, adaptive optics is helping imaging by correcting aberrations in biological tissue, enabling higher resolution imaging and improved accuracy in procedures such as laser surgery and retinal imaging.
Tissue engineering
Tissue engineering, like genetic engineering (see below), is a major segment of biotechnology – which overlaps significantly with BME.
One of the goals of tissue engineering is to create artificial organs (via biological material) for patients that need organ transplants. Biomedical engineers are currently researching methods of creating such organs. Researchers have grown solid jawbones and tracheas from human stem cells towards this end. Several artificial urinary bladders have been grown in laboratories and transplanted successfully into human patients. Bioartificial organs, which use both synthetic and biological component, are also a focus area in research, such as with hepatic assist devices that use liver cells within an artificial bioreactor construct.
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation (GM) and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct manipulation of an organism's genes. Unlike traditional breeding, an indirect method of genetic manipulation, genetic engineering utilizes modern tools such as molecular cloning and transformation to directly alter the structure and characteristics of target genes. Genetic engineering techniques have found success in numerous applications. Some examples include the improvement of crop technology (not a medical application, but see biological systems engineering), the manufacture of synthetic human insulin through the use of modified bacteria, the manufacture of erythropoietin in hamster ovary cells, and the production of new types of experimental mice such as the oncomouse (cancer mouse) for research.
Neural engineering
Neural engineering (also known as neuroengineering) is a discipline that uses engineering techniques to understand, repair, replace, or enhance neural systems. Neural engineers are uniquely qualified to solve design problems at the interface of living neural tissue and non-living constructs.
Pharmaceutical engineering
Pharmaceutical engineering is an interdisciplinary science that includes drug engineering, novel drug delivery and targeting, pharmaceutical technology, unit operations of Chemical Engineering, and Pharmaceutical Analysis. It may be deemed as a part of pharmacy due to its focus on the use of technology on chemical agents in providing better medicinal treatment.
Hospital and medical devices
This is an extremely broad category—essentially covering all health care products that do not achieve their intended results through predominantly chemical (e.g., pharmaceuticals) or biological (e.g., vaccines) means, and do not involve metabolism.
A medical device is intended for use in:
the diagnosis of disease or other conditions
in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.
Some examples include pacemakers, infusion pumps, the heart-lung machine, dialysis machines, artificial organs, implants, artificial limbs, corrective lenses, cochlear implants, ocular prosthetics, facial prosthetics, somato prosthetics, and dental implants.
Stereolithography is a practical example of medical modeling being used to create physical objects. Beyond modeling organs and the human body, emerging engineering techniques are also currently used in the research and development of new devices for innovative therapies, treatments, patient monitoring, of complex diseases.
Medical devices are regulated and classified (in the US) as follows (see also Regulation):
Class I devices present minimal potential for harm to the user and are often simpler in design than Class II or Class III devices. Devices in this category include tongue depressors, bedpans, elastic bandages, examination gloves, and hand-held surgical instruments, and other similar types of common equipment.
Class II devices are subject to special controls in addition to the general controls of Class I devices. Special controls may include special labeling requirements, mandatory performance standards, and postmarket surveillance. Devices in this class are typically non-invasive and include X-ray machines, PACS, powered wheelchairs, infusion pumps, and surgical drapes.
Class III devices generally require premarket approval (PMA) or premarket notification (510k), a scientific review to ensure the device's safety and effectiveness, in addition to the general controls of Class I. Examples include replacement heart valves, hip and knee joint implants, silicone gel-filled breast implants, implanted cerebellar stimulators, implantable pacemaker pulse generators and endosseous (intra-bone) implants.
Medical imaging
Medical/biomedical imaging is a major segment of medical devices. This area deals with enabling clinicians to directly or indirectly "view" things not visible in plain sight (such as due to their size, and/or location). This can involve utilizing ultrasound, magnetism, UV, radiology, and other means.
Alternatively, navigation-guided equipment utilizes electromagnetic tracking technology, such as catheter placement into the brain or feeding tube placement systems. For example, ENvizion Medical's ENvue, an electromagnetic navigation system for enteral feeding tube placement. The system uses an external field generator and several EM passive sensors enabling scaling of the display to the patient's body contour, and a real-time view of the feeding tube tip location and direction, which helps the medical staff ensure the correct placement in the GI tract.
Imaging technologies are often essential to medical diagnosis, and are typically the most complex equipment found in a hospital including: fluoroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography (PET), PET-CT scans, projection radiography such as X-rays and CT scans, tomography, ultrasound, optical microscopy, and electron microscopy.
Medical implants
An implant is a kind of medical device made to replace and act as a missing biological structure (as compared with a transplant, which indicates transplanted biomedical tissue). The surface of implants that contact the body might be made of a biomedical material such as titanium, silicone or apatite depending on what is the most functional. In some cases, implants contain electronics, e.g. artificial pacemakers and cochlear implants. Some implants are bioactive, such as subcutaneous drug delivery devices in the form of implantable pills or drug-eluting stents.
Bionics
Artificial body part replacements are one of the many applications of bionics. Concerned with the intricate and thorough study of the properties and function of human body systems, bionics may be applied to solve some engineering problems. Careful study of the different functions and processes of the eyes, ears, and other organs paved the way for improved cameras, television, radio transmitters and receivers, and many other tools.
Biomedical sensors
In recent years biomedical sensors based in microwave technology have gained more attention. Different sensors can be manufactured for specific uses in both diagnosing and monitoring disease conditions, for example microwave sensors can be used as a complementary technique to X-ray to monitor lower extremity trauma. The sensor monitor the dielectric properties and can thus notice change in tissue (bone, muscle, fat etc.) under the skin so when measuring at different times during the healing process the response from the sensor will change as the trauma heals.
Clinical engineering
Clinical engineering is the branch of biomedical engineering dealing with the actual implementation of medical equipment and technologies in hospitals or other clinical settings. Major roles of clinical engineers include training and supervising biomedical equipment technicians (BMETs), selecting technological products/services and logistically managing their implementation, working with governmental regulators on inspections/audits, and serving as technological consultants for other hospital staff (e.g. physicians, administrators, I.T., etc.). Clinical engineers also advise and collaborate with medical device producers regarding prospective design improvements based on clinical experiences, as well as monitor the progression of the state of the art so as to redirect procurement patterns accordingly.
Their inherent focus on practical implementation of technology has tended to keep them oriented more towards incremental-level redesigns and reconfigurations, as opposed to revolutionary research & development or ideas that would be many years from clinical adoption; however, there is a growing effort to expand this time-horizon over which clinical engineers can influence the trajectory of biomedical innovation. In their various roles, they form a "bridge" between the primary designers and the end-users, by combining the perspectives of being both close to the point-of-use, while also trained in product and process engineering. Clinical engineering departments will sometimes hire not just biomedical engineers, but also industrial/systems engineers to help address operations research/optimization, human factors, cost analysis, etc. Also, see safety engineering for a discussion of the procedures used to design safe systems. The clinical engineering department is constructed with a manager, supervisor, engineer, and technician. One engineer per eighty beds in the hospital is the ratio. Clinical engineers are also authorized to audit pharmaceutical and associated stores to monitor FDA recalls of invasive items.
Rehabilitation engineering
Rehabilitation engineering is the systematic application of engineering sciences to design, develop, adapt, test, evaluate, apply, and distribute technological solutions to problems confronted by individuals with disabilities. Functional areas addressed through rehabilitation engineering may include mobility, communications, hearing, vision, and cognition, and activities associated with employment, independent living, education, and integration into the community.
While some rehabilitation engineers have master's degrees in rehabilitation engineering, usually a subspecialty of Biomedical engineering, most rehabilitation engineers have an undergraduate or graduate degrees in biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering. A Portuguese university provides an undergraduate degree and a master's degree in Rehabilitation Engineering and Accessibility. Qualification to become a Rehab' Engineer in the UK is possible via a University BSc Honours Degree course such as Health Design & Technology Institute, Coventry University.
The rehabilitation process for people with disabilities often entails the design of assistive devices such as Walking aids intended to promote the inclusion of their users into the mainstream of society, commerce, and recreation.
Regulatory issues
Regulatory issues have been constantly increased in the last decades to respond to the many incidents caused by devices to patients. For example, from 2008 to 2011, in US, there were 119 FDA recalls of medical devices classified as class I. According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Class I recall is associated to "a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death"
Regardless of the country-specific legislation, the main regulatory objectives coincide worldwide. For example, in the medical device regulations, a product must be: 1) safe and 2) effective and 3) for all the manufactured devices (why is this part deleted?)
A product is safe if patients, users, and third parties do not run unacceptable risks of physical hazards (death, injuries, ...) in its intended use. Protective measures have to be introduced on the devices to reduce residual risks at an acceptable level if compared with the benefit derived from the use of it.
A product is effective if it performs as specified by the manufacturer in the intended use. Effectiveness is achieved through clinical evaluation, compliance to performance standards or demonstrations of substantial equivalence with an already marketed device.
The previous features have to be ensured for all the manufactured items of the medical device. This requires that a quality system shall be in place for all the relevant entities and processes that may impact safety and effectiveness over the whole medical device lifecycle.
The medical device engineering area is among the most heavily regulated fields of engineering, and practicing biomedical engineers must routinely consult and cooperate with regulatory law attorneys and other experts. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the principal healthcare regulatory authority in the United States, having jurisdiction over medical devices, drugs, biologics, and combination products. The paramount objectives driving policy decisions by the FDA are safety and effectiveness of healthcare products that have to be assured through a quality system in place as specified under 21 CFR 829 regulation. In addition, because biomedical engineers often develop devices and technologies for "consumer" use, such as physical therapy devices (which are also "medical" devices), these may also be governed in some respects by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The greatest hurdles tend to be 510K "clearance" (typically for Class 2 devices) or pre-market "approval" (typically for drugs and class 3 devices).
In the European context, safety effectiveness and quality is ensured through the "Conformity Assessment" which is defined as "the method by which a manufacturer demonstrates that its device complies with the requirements of the European Medical Device Directive". The directive specifies different procedures according to the class of the device ranging from the simple Declaration of Conformity (Annex VII) for Class I devices to EC verification (Annex IV), Production quality assurance (Annex V), Product quality assurance (Annex VI) and Full quality assurance (Annex II). The Medical Device Directive specifies detailed procedures for Certification. In general terms, these procedures include tests and verifications that are to be contained in specific deliveries such as the risk management file, the technical file, and the quality system deliveries. The risk management file is the first deliverable that conditions the following design and manufacturing steps. The risk management stage shall drive the product so that product risks are reduced at an acceptable level with respect to the benefits expected for the patients for the use of the device. The technical file contains all the documentation data and records supporting medical device certification. FDA technical file has similar content although organized in a different structure. The Quality System deliverables usually include procedures that ensure quality throughout all product life cycles. The same standard (ISO EN 13485) is usually applied for quality management systems in the US and worldwide.
In the European Union, there are certifying entities named "Notified Bodies", accredited by the European Member States. The Notified Bodies must ensure the effectiveness of the certification process for all medical devices apart from the class I devices where a declaration of conformity produced by the manufacturer is sufficient for marketing. Once a product has passed all the steps required by the Medical Device Directive, the device is entitled to bear a CE marking, indicating that the device is believed to be safe and effective when used as intended, and, therefore, it can be marketed within the European Union area.
The different regulatory arrangements sometimes result in particular technologies being developed first for either the U.S. or in Europe depending on the more favorable form of regulation. While nations often strive for substantive harmony to facilitate cross-national distribution, philosophical differences about the optimal extent of regulation can be a hindrance; more restrictive regulations seem appealing on an intuitive level, but critics decry the tradeoff cost in terms of slowing access to life-saving developments.
RoHS II
Directive 2011/65/EU, better known as RoHS 2 is a recast of legislation originally introduced in 2002. The original EU legislation "Restrictions of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronics Devices" (RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC) was replaced and superseded by 2011/65/EU published in July 2011 and commonly known as RoHS 2.
RoHS seeks to limit the dangerous substances in circulation in electronics products, in particular toxins and heavy metals, which are subsequently released into the environment when such devices are recycled.
The scope of RoHS 2 is widened to include products previously excluded, such as medical devices and industrial equipment. In addition, manufacturers are now obliged to provide conformity risk assessments and test reports – or explain why they are lacking. For the first time, not only manufacturers but also importers and distributors share a responsibility to ensure Electrical and Electronic Equipment within the scope of RoHS complies with the hazardous substances limits and have a CE mark on their products.
IEC 60601
The new International Standard IEC 60601 for home healthcare electro-medical devices defining the requirements for devices used in the home healthcare environment. IEC 60601-1-11 (2010) must now be incorporated into the design and verification of a wide range of home use and point of care medical devices along with other applicable standards in the IEC 60601 3rd edition series.
The mandatory date for implementation of the EN European version of the standard is June 1, 2013. The US FDA requires the use of the standard on June 30, 2013, while Health Canada recently extended the required date from June 2012 to April 2013. The North American agencies will only require these standards for new device submissions, while the EU will take the more severe approach of requiring all applicable devices being placed on the market to consider the home healthcare standard.
AS/NZS 3551:2012
AS/ANS 3551:2012 is the Australian and New Zealand standards for the management of medical devices. The standard specifies the procedures required to maintain a wide range of medical assets in a clinical setting (e.g. Hospital). The standards are based on the IEC 606101 standards.
The standard covers a wide range of medical equipment management elements including, procurement, acceptance testing, maintenance (electrical safety and preventive maintenance testing) and decommissioning.
Training and certification
Education
Biomedical engineers require considerable knowledge of both engineering and biology, and typically have a Bachelor's (B.Sc., B.S., B.Eng. or B.S.E.) or Master's (M.S., M.Sc., M.S.E., or M.Eng.) or a doctoral (Ph.D., or MD-PhD) degree in BME (Biomedical Engineering) or another branch of engineering with considerable potential for BME overlap. As interest in BME increases, many engineering colleges now have a Biomedical Engineering Department or Program, with offerings ranging from the undergraduate (B.Sc., B.S., B.Eng. or B.S.E.) to doctoral levels. Biomedical engineering has only recently been emerging as its own discipline rather than a cross-disciplinary hybrid specialization of other disciplines; and BME programs at all levels are becoming more widespread, including the Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering which includes enough biological science content that many students use it as a "pre-med" major in preparation for medical school. The number of biomedical engineers is expected to rise as both a cause and effect of improvements in medical technology.
In the U.S., an increasing number of undergraduate programs are also becoming recognized by ABET as accredited bioengineering/biomedical engineering programs. As of 2023, 155 programs are currently accredited by ABET.
In Canada and Australia, accredited graduate programs in biomedical engineering are common. For example, McMaster University offers an M.A.Sc, an MD/PhD, and a PhD in Biomedical engineering. The first Canadian undergraduate BME program was offered at Ryerson University as a four-year B.Eng. program. The Polytechnique in Montreal is also offering a bachelors's degree in biomedical engineering as is Flinders University.
As with many degrees, the reputation and ranking of a program may factor into the desirability of a degree holder for either employment or graduate admission. The reputation of many undergraduate degrees is also linked to the institution's graduate or research programs, which have some tangible factors for rating, such as research funding and volume, publications and citations. With BME specifically, the ranking of a university's hospital and medical school can also be a significant factor in the perceived prestige of its BME department/program.
Graduate education is a particularly important aspect in BME. While many engineering fields (such as mechanical or electrical engineering) do not need graduate-level training to obtain an entry-level job in their field, the majority of BME positions do prefer or even require them. Since most BME-related professions involve scientific research, such as in pharmaceutical and medical device development, graduate education is almost a requirement (as undergraduate degrees typically do not involve sufficient research training and experience). This can be either a Masters or Doctoral level degree; while in certain specialties a Ph.D. is notably more common than in others, it is hardly ever the majority (except in academia). In fact, the perceived need for some kind of graduate credential is so strong that some undergraduate BME programs will actively discourage students from majoring in BME without an expressed intention to also obtain a master's degree or apply to medical school afterwards.
Graduate programs in BME, like in other scientific fields, are highly varied, and particular programs may emphasize certain aspects within the field. They may also feature extensive collaborative efforts with programs in other fields (such as the university's Medical School or other engineering divisions), owing again to the interdisciplinary nature of BME. M.S. and Ph.D. programs will typically require applicants to have an undergraduate degree in BME, or another engineering discipline (plus certain life science coursework), or life science (plus certain engineering coursework).
Education in BME also varies greatly around the world. By virtue of its extensive biotechnology sector, its numerous major universities, and relatively few internal barriers, the U.S. has progressed a great deal in its development of BME education and training opportunities. Europe, which also has a large biotechnology sector and an impressive education system, has encountered trouble in creating uniform standards as the European community attempts to supplant some of the national jurisdictional barriers that still exist. Recently, initiatives such as BIOMEDEA have sprung up to develop BME-related education and professional standards. Other countries, such as Australia, are recognizing and moving to correct deficiencies in their BME education. Also, as high technology endeavors are usually marks of developed nations, some areas of the world are prone to slower development in education, including in BME.
Licensure/certification
As with other learned professions, each state has certain (fairly similar) requirements for becoming licensed as a registered Professional Engineer (PE), but, in US, in industry such a license is not required to be an employee as an engineer in the majority of situations (due to an exception known as the industrial exemption, which effectively applies to the vast majority of American engineers). The US model has generally been only to require the practicing engineers offering engineering services that impact the public welfare, safety, safeguarding of life, health, or property to be licensed, while engineers working in private industry without a direct offering of engineering services to the public or other businesses, education, and government need not be licensed. This is notably not the case in many other countries, where a license is as legally necessary to practice engineering as it is for law or medicine.
Biomedical engineering is regulated in some countries, such as Australia, but registration is typically only recommended and not required.
In the UK, mechanical engineers working in the areas of Medical Engineering, Bioengineering or Biomedical engineering can gain Chartered Engineer status through the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The Institution also runs the Engineering in Medicine and Health Division. The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) has a panel for the accreditation of MSc courses in Biomedical Engineering and Chartered Engineering status can also be sought through IPEM.
The Fundamentals of Engineering exam – the first (and more general) of two licensure examinations for most U.S. jurisdictions—does now cover biology (although technically not BME). For the second exam, called the Principles and Practices, Part 2, or the Professional Engineering exam, candidates may select a particular engineering discipline's content to be tested on; there is currently not an option for BME with this, meaning that any biomedical engineers seeking a license must prepare to take this examination in another category (which does not affect the actual license, since most jurisdictions do not recognize discipline specialties anyway). However, the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) is, as of 2009, exploring the possibility of seeking to implement a BME-specific version of this exam to facilitate biomedical engineers pursuing licensure.
Beyond governmental registration, certain private-sector professional/industrial organizations also offer certifications with varying degrees of prominence. One such example is the Certified Clinical Engineer (CCE) certification for Clinical engineers.
Career prospects
In 2012 there were about 19,400 biomedical engineers employed in the US, and the field was predicted to grow by 5% (faster than average) from 2012 to 2022. Biomedical engineering has the highest percentage of female engineers compared to other common engineering professions.
Notable figures
Julia Tutelman Apter (deceased) - One of the first specialists in neurophysiological research and a founding member of the Biomedical Engineering Society
Earl Bakken (deceased) – Invented the first transistorised pacemaker, co-founder of Medtronic.
Forrest Bird (deceased) – aviator and pioneer in the invention of mechanical ventilators
Y.C. Fung (deceased) – professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, considered by many to be the founder of modern biomechanics
Leslie Geddes (deceased) – professor emeritus at Purdue University, electrical engineer, inventor, and educator of over 2000 biomedical engineers, received a National Medal of Technology in 2006 from President George Bush for his more than 50 years of contributions that have spawned innovations ranging from burn treatments to miniature defibrillators, ligament repair to tiny blood pressure monitors for premature infants, as well as a new method for performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Willem Johan Kolff (deceased) – pioneer of hemodialysis as well as in the field of artificial organs
Robert Langer – Institute Professor at MIT, runs the largest BME laboratory in the world, pioneer in drug delivery and tissue engineering
John Macleod (deceased) – one of the co-discoverers of insulin at Case Western Reserve University.
Alfred E. Mann – Physicist, entrepreneur and philanthropist. A pioneer in the field of Biomedical Engineering.
J. Thomas Mortimer – Emeritus professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University. Pioneer in Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)
Robert M. Nerem – professor emeritus at Georgia Institute of Technology. Pioneer in regenerative tissue, biomechanics, and author of over 300 published works. His works have been cited more than 20,000 times cumulatively.
P. Hunter Peckham – Donnell Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedics at Case Western Reserve University. Pioneer in Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)
Nicholas A. Peppas – Chaired Professor in Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, pioneer in drug delivery, biomaterials, hydrogels and nanobiotechnology.
Robert Plonsey – professor emeritus at Duke University, pioneer of electrophysiology
Otto Schmitt (deceased) – biophysicist with significant contributions to BME, working with biomimetics
Ascher Shapiro (deceased) – Institute Professor at MIT, contributed to the development of the BME field, medical devices (e.g. intra-aortic balloons)
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic – University Professor at Columbia University, pioneer in tissue engineering and bioreactor design
John G. Webster – professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a pioneer in the field of instrumentation amplifiers for the recording of electrophysiological signals
Fred Weibell, coauthor of Biomedical Instrumentation and Measurements
U.A. Whitaker (deceased) – provider of the Whitaker Foundation, which supported research and education in BME by providing over $700 million to various universities, helping to create 30 BME programs and helping finance the construction of 13 buildings
See also
Biomedical Engineering and Instrumentation Program (BEIP)
References
Further reading
External links |
4829 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans | Balkans | The Balkans ( ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Musala, , in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria.
The concept of the Balkan Peninsula was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, who mistakenly considered the Balkan Mountains the dominant mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for Rumelia in the 19th century, the parts of Europe that were provinces of the Ottoman Empire at the time. It had a geopolitical rather than a geographical definition, which was further promoted during the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the early 20th century. The definition of the Balkan Peninsula's natural borders does not coincide with the technical definition of a peninsula; hence modern geographers reject the idea of a Balkan Peninsula, while historical scholars usually discuss the Balkans as a region. The term has acquired a stigmatized and pejorative meaning related to the process of Balkanization. The alternative term used for the region is Southeast Europe.
The borders of the Balkans are, due to many contrasting definitions, disputed. There exists no universal agreement on the region's components. The term by most definitions fully encompasses Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, European Turkey, and large parts of Croatia and Serbia. Sometimes the term also includes Romania and southern parts of Slovenia. Italy, although by some definitions having a small part of its territory (the Province of Trieste) on the Peninsula, is generally excluded.
Name
Etymology
The origin of the word Balkan is obscure; it may be related to Turkish bālk 'mud' (from Proto-Turkic *bal 'mud, clay; thick or gluey substance', cf. also Turkic bal 'honey'), and the Turkish suffix an 'swampy forest' or Persian bālā-khāna 'big high house'. Related words are also found in other Turkic languages: Karakhanid or , Turkish , Tatar , Middle Turkic or , Uzbek , Uighur , Azerbaijani , Turkmen , Khakassian , Oyrat , Khalaj , Chuvash , Yakut , Tuvinian or , Tofalar , Kazakh or , Noghai , Bashkir , Karaim , Salar , Kumyk . It was used mainly during the time of the Ottoman Empire. In both Ottoman Turkish and modern Turkish, means 'chain of wooded mountains'.
Historical names and meaning
Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages
From classical antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains were called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment and the mountain has remained with his name. A reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus (Αἷμος) is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge'. A third possibility is that "Haemus" () derives from the Greek word haima () meaning 'blood'. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon. Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhon's blood fell on the mountains, giving them their name.
Late Middle Ages and Ottoman period
The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, in which the Haemus Mountains are referred to as Balkan. The first attested time the name "Balkan" was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria was in a letter sent in 1490 to Pope Innocent VIII by Buonaccorsi Callimaco, an Italian humanist, writer and diplomat. The Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, although other Turkic tribes had already settled in or were passing through the region. There is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its general meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊, but it was especially applied to the Haemus mountain. The name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains) and the Balkan Region of Turkmenistan. The English traveler John Bacon Sawrey Morritt introduced this term into English literature at the end of the 18th century, and other authors started applying the name to the wider area between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The concept of the "Balkans" was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, who mistakenly considered it as the dominant central mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. During the 1820s, "Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers... Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term". In European books printed until late 1800s it was also known as Illyrian Peninsula or Illyrische Halbinsel in German.
Evolution of meaning in the 19th and 20th centuries
The term was not commonly used in geographical literature until the mid-19th century because, already then, scientists like Carl Ritter warned that only the part south of the Balkan Mountains could be considered as a peninsula and considered it to be renamed as "Greek peninsula". Other prominent geographers who did not agree with Zeune were Hermann Wagner, Theobald Fischer, Marion Newbigin, and Albrecht Penck, while Austrian diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn, in 1869, for the same territory, used the term Südostereuropäische Halbinsel ('southeasterneuropean peninsula'). Another reason it was not commonly accepted as the definition of then European Turkey had a similar land extent. However, after the Congress of Berlin (1878) there was a political need for a new term and gradually "the Balkans" was revitalized, but in the maps, the northern border was in Serbia and Montenegro without Greece (it only depicted the Ottoman occupied parts of Europe), while Yugoslavian maps also included Croatia and Bosnia. The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for European Turkey, the political borders of former Ottoman Empire provinces.
The usage of the term changed in the very end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when it was embraced by Serbian geographers, most prominently by Jovan Cvijić. It was done with political reasoning as affirmation for Serbian nationalism on the whole territory of the South Slavs, and also included anthropological and ethnological studies of the South Slavs through which were claimed various nationalistic and racialist theories. Through such policies and Yugoslavian maps the term was elevated to the modern status of a geographical region. The term acquired political nationalistic connotations far from its initial geographic meaning, arising from political changes from the late 19th century to the creation of post–World War I Yugoslavia (initially the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918). After the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans acquired a negative political meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, as well in worldwide casual usage for war conflicts and fragmentation of territory (see Balkanization).
Southeast Europe
In part due to the historical and political connotations of the term Balkans, especially since the military conflicts of the 1990s in Yugoslavia in the western half of the region, the term Southeast Europe is becoming increasingly popular. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe.
The online newspaper Balkan Times renamed itself Southeast European Times in 2003.
Current
In other languages of the region, the region is known as:
Slavic languages:
Bulgarian and , transliterated:
Bosnian, Montenegrin and /
Bosnian and
Romance languages:
or
or
or
Other languages:
and
, transliterated:
or Balkanlar
Definitions and boundaries
Balkan Peninsula
The Balkan Peninsula is bounded by the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea (including the Ionian and Aegean seas) and the Sea of Marmara to the south and the Black Sea to the east. Its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has a combined area of about (slightly smaller than Spain). It is more or less identical to the region known as Southeast Europe.
Italy currently holds a small area around Trieste that is by some older definitions considered a part of the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, due to their definition of the Balkans that limits its western border to the Kupa River.
Balkans
The borders of the Balkans are due to many contrasting definitions disputed. There exists no universal agreement on the region's components. The term by most definitions fully encompasses Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, European Turkey, and a large part of Croatia and Serbia. Sometimes the term also includes Romania and southern parts of Slovenia. Italy, although by some definitions having a small part of its territory on the Peninsula, is generally excluded.
The term Southeast Europe is also used for the region, with various definitions. Individual Balkan states can also be considered part of other regions, including Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Europe. Turkey, including its European territory, is generally included in Western Asia or the Middle East.
Western Balkans
The Western Balkans is a political neologism coined to refer to Albania and the territory of the former Yugoslavia, except Slovenia, since the early 1990s. The region of the Western Balkans, a coinage exclusively used in Pan-European parlance, roughly corresponds to the Dinaric Alps territory.
The institutions of the European Union have generally used the term Western Balkans to mean the Balkan area that includes countries that are not members of the European Union, while others refer to the geographical aspects.
Each of these countries aims to be part of the future enlargement of the European Union and reach democracy and transmission scores but, until then, they will be strongly connected with the pre-EU waiting program Central European Free Trade Agreement. Croatia, considered part of the Western Balkans, joined the EU in July 2013.
Criticism of the geographical definition
The term is criticized for having a geopolitical, rather than a geographical meaning and definition, as a multiethnic and political area in the southeastern part of Europe. The geographical term of a peninsula defines that the water border must be longer than land, with the land side being the shortest in the triangle, but that is not the case with the Balkan Peninsula. Both Eastern and Western water cathetus from Odesa to Cape Matapan (–1350 km) and from Trieste to Cape Matapan (–1285 km) are shorter than land cathetus from Trieste to Odesa (–1365 km). The land has a too wide line connected to the continent to be technically proclaimed as a peninsula – Szczecin (920 km) and Rostock (950 km) at the Baltic Sea are closer to Trieste than Odesa yet it is not considered as another European peninsula. Since the late 19th and early 20th-century literature is not known where is exactly the northern border between the peninsula and the continent, with an issue, whether the rivers are suitable for its definition. In the studies the Balkans' natural borders, especially the northern border, are often avoided to be addressed, considered as a "fastidious problem" by André Blanc in Geography of the Balkans (1965), while John Lampe and Marvin Jackman in Balkan Economic History (1971) noted that "modern geographers seem agreed in rejecting the old idea of a Balkan Peninsula". Another issue is the name because the Balkan Mountains which are mostly located in Northern Bulgaria are not dominating the region by length and area like the Dinaric Alps. An eventual Balkan peninsula can be considered a territory South of the Balkan Mountains, with a possible name "Greek-Albanian Peninsula." The term influenced the meaning of Southeast Europe which again is not properly defined by geographical factors yet historical borders of the Balkans.
Croatian geographers and academics are highly critical of inclusion of Croatia within the broad geographical, social-political and historical context of the Balkans, while the neologism Western Balkans is perceived as a humiliation of Croatia by the European political powers. According to M. S. Altić, the term has two different meanings, "geographical, ultimately undefined, and cultural, extremely negative, and recently strongly motivated by the contemporary political context". In 2018, President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović stated that the use of the term "Western Balkans" should be avoided because it does not imply only a geographic area, but also negative connotations, and instead must be perceived as and called Southeast Europe because it is part of Europe.
Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek said of the definition,
Nature and natural resources
Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from the northwest to southeast. The main ranges are the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina in Bulgarian language), running from the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria to the border with Serbia, the Rila-Rhodope massif in southern Bulgaria, the Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro, the Korab-Šar mountains which spreads from Kosovo to Albania and North Macedonia, and the Pindus range, spanning from southern Albania into central Greece and the Albanian Alps, and the Alps at the northwestern border. The highest mountain of the region is Rila in Bulgaria, with Musala at 2,925 m, second being Mount Olympus in Greece, with Mytikas at 2,917 m, and Pirin mountain with Vihren, also in Bulgaria, being the third at 2915 m. The karst field or polje is a common feature of the landscape.
On the Adriatic and Aegean coasts the climate is Mediterranean, on the Black Sea coast the climate is humid subtropical and oceanic, and inland it is humid continental. In the northern part of the peninsula and on the mountains, winters are frosty and snowy, while summers are hot and dry. In the southern part, winters are milder. The humid continental climate is predominant in Bosnia and Herzegovina, northern Croatia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, northern Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, and the interior of Albania and Serbia. Meanwhile, the other less common climates, the humid subtropical and oceanic climates, are seen on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey). The Mediterranean climate is seen on the Adriatic coasts of Albania, Croatia and Montenegro, as well as the Ionian coasts of Albania and Greece, in addition to the Aegean coasts of Greece and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey).
Over the centuries forests have been cut down and replaced with bush. In the southern part and on the coast there is evergreen vegetation. Inland there are woods typical of Central Europe (oak and beech, and in the mountains, spruce, fir and pine). The tree line in the mountains lies at the height of 1800–2300 m. The land provides habitats for numerous endemic species, including extraordinarily abundant insects and reptiles that serve as food for a variety of birds of prey and rare vultures.
The soils are generally poor, except on the plains, where areas with natural grass, fertile soils and warm summers provide an opportunity for tillage. Elsewhere, land cultivation is mostly unsuccessful because of the mountains, hot summers and poor soils, although certain cultures such as olive and grape flourish.
Resources of energy are scarce, except in Kosovo, where considerable coal, lead, zinc, chromium and silver deposits are located. Other deposits of coal, especially in Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia, also exist. Lignite deposits are widespread in Greece. Petroleum scarce reserves exist in Greece, Serbia and Albania. Natural gas deposits are scarce. Hydropower is in wide use, from over 1,000 dams. The often relentless bora wind is also being harnessed for power generation.
Metal ores are more usual than other raw materials. Iron ore is rare, but in some countries there is a considerable amount of copper, zinc, tin, chromite, manganese, magnesite and bauxite. Some metals are exported.
History and geopolitical significance
Antiquity
The Balkan region was the first area in Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures in the Neolithic era. The Balkans have been inhabited since the Paleolithic and are the route by which farming from the Middle East spread to Europe during the Neolithic (7th millennium BC). The practices of growing grain and raising livestock arrived in the Balkans from the Fertile Crescent by way of Anatolia and spread west and north into Central Europe, particularly through Pannonia. Two early culture-complexes have developed in the region, Starčevo culture and Vinča culture. The Balkans are also the location of the first advanced civilizations. Vinča culture developed a form of proto-writing before the Sumerians and Minoans, known as the Old European script, while the bulk of the symbols had been created in the period between 4500 and 4000 BC, with the ones on the Tărtăria clay tablets even dating back to around 5300 BC.
The identity of the Balkans is dominated by its geographical position; historically the area was known as a crossroads of cultures. It has been a juncture between the Latin and Greek bodies of the Roman Empire, the destination of a massive influx of pagan Bulgars and Slavs, an area where Orthodox and Catholic Christianity met, as well as the meeting point between Islam and Christianity.
In pre-classical and classical antiquity, this region was home to Greeks, Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, Dacians, and other ancient groups. The Achaemenid Persian Empire incorporated parts of the Balkans comprising Macedonia, Thrace, parts of present-day Bulgaria, and the Black Sea coastal region of Romania between the late sixth and the first half of the fifth-century BC into its territories. Later the Roman Empire conquered the region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language, but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence. The Romans considered the Rhodope Mountains to be the northern limit of the Peninsula of Haemus and the same limit applied approximately to the border between Greek and Latin use in the region (later called the Jireček Line). However large spaces south of Jireček Line were and are inhabited by Vlachs (Aromanians), the Romance-speaking heirs of Roman Empire.
The Bulgars and Slavs arrived in the sixth-century and began assimilating and displacing already-assimilated (through Romanization and Hellenization) older inhabitants of the northern and central Balkans, forming the Bulgarian Empire. During the Middle Ages, the Balkans became the stage for a series of wars between the Byzantine Roman and the Bulgarian Empires. Prior to the Slavic landing, parts of the western peninsula have been home to the Proto-Albanians. Including cities like Nish, Shtip. This can be proven through the development of the names, for example Naissos > Nish and Astibos > Shtip follow Albanian phonetic sound rules and have entered Slavic, indicating that Proto-Albanian was spoken prior to the Slavic invasion of the Balkans.
Early modern period
By the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had become the controlling force in the region after expanding from Anatolia through Thrace to the Balkans. Many people in the Balkans place their greatest folk heroes in the era of either the onslaught or the retreat of the Ottoman Empire. As examples, for Greeks, Constantine XI Palaiologos and Kolokotronis; and for Serbs, Miloš Obilić, Tsar Lazar and Karadjordje; for Albanians, George Kastrioti Skanderbeg; for ethnic Macedonians, Nikola Karev and Goce Delčev; for Bulgarians, Vasil Levski, Georgi Sava Rakovski and Hristo Botev and for Croats, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski.
In the past several centuries, because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe fought in and around the Balkans and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream of economic advance (reflecting the shift of Europe's commercial and political centre of gravity towards the Atlantic), the Balkans have been the least developed part of Europe. According to Halil İnalcık, "The population of the Balkans, according to one estimate, fell from a high of 8 million in the late 16th-century to only 3 million by the mid-eighteenth. This estimate is based on Ottoman documentary evidence."
Most of the Balkan nation-states emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries as they gained independence from the Ottoman Empire or the Austro-Hungarian empire: Greece in 1821, Serbia, and Montenegro in 1878, Romania in 1881, Bulgaria in 1908 and Albania in 1912.
Recent history
World wars
In 1912–1913 the First Balkan War broke out when the nation-states of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro united in an alliance against the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the war, almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire were captured and partitioned among the allies. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albanian state. Bulgaria insisted on its status quo territorial integrity, divided and shared by the Great Powers next to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) in other boundaries and on the pre-war Bulgarian-Serbian agreement. Bulgaria was provoked by the backstage deals between its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on the allocation of the spoils at the end of the First Balkan War. At the time, Bulgaria was fighting at the main Thracian Front. Bulgaria marks the beginning of Second Balkan War when it attacked them. The Serbs and the Greeks repulsed single attacks, but when the Greek army invaded Bulgaria together with an unprovoked Romanian intervention in the back, Bulgaria collapsed. The Ottoman Empire used the opportunity to recapture Eastern Thrace, establishing its new western borders that still stand today as part of modern Turkey.
World War I was sparked in the Balkans in 1914 when members of Young Bosnia, a revolutionary organization with predominantly Serb and pro-Yugoslav members, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo. That caused a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which—through the existing chains of alliances—led to the World War I. The Ottoman Empire soon joined the Central Powers becoming one of the three empires participating in that alliance. The next year Bulgaria joined the Central Powers attacking Serbia, which was successfully fighting Austro-Hungary to the north for a year. That led to Serbia's defeat and the intervention of the Entente in the Balkans which sent an expeditionary force to establish a new front, the third one of that war, which soon also became static. The participation of Greece in the war three years later, in 1918, on the part of the Entente finally altered the balance between the opponents leading to the collapse of the common German-Bulgarian front there, which caused the exit of Bulgaria from the war, and in turn, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ending the First World War.
Between the two wars, in order to maintain the geopolitical status quo in the region after the end of World War I, the Balkan Pact, or Balkan Entente, was formed by a treaty between Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934 in Athens.
With the start of the World War II, all Balkan countries, with the exception of Greece, were allies of Nazi Germany, having bilateral military agreements or being part of the Axis Pact. Fascist Italy expanded the war in the Balkans by using its protectorate Albania to invade Greece. After repelling the attack, the Greeks counterattacked, invading Italy-held Albania and causing Nazi Germany's intervention in the Balkans to help its ally. Days before the German invasion, a successful coup d'état in Belgrade by neutral military personnel seized power.
Although the new government reaffirmed its intentions to fulfill its obligations as a member of the Axis, Germany, with Bulgaria, invaded both Greece and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia immediately disintegrated when those loyal to the Serbian King and the Croatian units mutinied. Greece resisted, but, after two months of fighting, collapsed and was occupied. The two countries were partitioned between the three Axis allies, Bulgaria, Germany and Italy, and the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of Italy and Germany.
During the occupation, the population suffered considerable hardship due to repression and starvation, to which the population reacted by creating a mass resistance movement. Together with the early and extremely heavy winter of that year (which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths among the poorly fed population), the German invasion had disastrous effects in the timetable of the planned invasion in Russia causing a significant delay, which had major consequences during the course of the war.
Finally, at the end of 1944, the Soviets entered Romania and Bulgaria forcing the Germans out of the Balkans. They left behind a region largely ruined as a result of wartime exploitation.
Cold War
During the Cold War, most of the countries on the Balkans were governed by communist governments. Greece became the first battleground of the emerging Cold War. The Truman Doctrine was the US response to the civil war, which raged from 1944 to 1949. This civil war, unleashed by the Communist Party of Greece, backed by communist volunteers from neighboring countries (Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia), led to massive American assistance for the non-communist Greek government. With this backing, Greece managed to defeat the partisans and, ultimately, remained one of the two only non-communist countries in the region with Turkey.
However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania (1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria and instead sought closer relations with the West, later even spearheaded, together with India and Egypt the Non-Aligned Movement. Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China, later adopting an isolationist position.
On 28 February 1953, Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia signed the treaty of Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation in Ankara to form the Balkan Pact of 1953. The treaty's aim was to deter Soviet expansion in the Balkans and eventual creation of a joint military staff for the three countries. When the pact was signed, Turkey and Greece were members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while Yugoslavia was a non-aligned communist state. With the Pact, Yugoslavia was able to indirectly associate itself with NATO. Though, it was planned for the pact to remain in force for 20 years, it dissolved in 1960.
As the only non-communist countries, Greece and Turkey were (and still are) part of NATO composing the southeastern wing of the alliance.
Post–Cold War
In the 1990s, the transition of the regions' ex-Eastern bloc countries towards democratic free-market societies went peacefully. While in the non-aligned Yugoslavia, Wars between the former Yugoslav republics broke out after Slovenia and Croatia held free elections and their people voted for independence on their respective countries' referendums. Serbia, in turn, declared the dissolution of the union as unconstitutional and the Yugoslav People's Army unsuccessfully tried to maintain the status quo. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991, which prompted the Croatian War of Independence in Croatia and the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. The Yugoslav forces eventually withdrew from Slovenia in 1991 while the war in Croatia continued until late 1995. The two were followed by Macedonia and later Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Bosnia being the most affected by the fighting. The wars prompted the United Nations' intervention and NATO ground and air forces took action against Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and FR Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro).
From the dissolution of Yugoslavia six states achieved internationally recognized sovereignty: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia; all of them are traditionally included in the Balkans which is often a controversial matter of dispute. In 2008, while under UN administration, Kosovo declared independence (according to the official Serbian policy, Kosovo is still an internal autonomous region). In July 2010, the International Court of Justice, ruled that the declaration of independence was legal. Most UN member states recognise Kosovo. After the end of the wars a revolution broke in Serbia and Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian communist leader (elected president between 1989 and 2000), was overthrown and handed for a trial to the International Criminal Tribunal for crimes against the International Humanitarian Law during the Yugoslav wars. Milošević died of a heart attack in 2006 before a verdict could have been released. Ιn 2001 an Albanian uprising in Macedonia (North Macedonia) forced the country to give local autonomy to the ethnic Albanians in the areas where they predominate.
With the dissolution of Yugoslavia, an issue emerged over the name under which the former (federated) republic of Macedonia would internationally be recognized, between the new country and Greece. Being the Macedonian part of Yugoslavia (see Vardar Macedonia), the federated republic under the Yugoslav identity had the name (Socialist) Republic of Macedonia on which it declared its sovereignty in 1991. Greece, having a large homonymous region (see Macedonia), opposed the usage of the name as an indication of a nationality and ethnicity. Thus dubbed Macedonia naming dispute was resolved under UN mediation in the June 2018 Prespa agreement was reached, which saw the country's renaming into North Macedonia in 2019.
Balkan countries control the direct land routes between Western Europe and South-West Asia (Asia Minor and the Middle East). Since 2000, all Balkan countries are friendly towards the EU and the US.
Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981, while Slovenia is a member since 2004, Bulgaria and Romania are members since 2007, and Croatia is a member since 2013. In 2005, the European Union decided to start accession negotiations with candidate countries; Turkey, and North Macedonia were accepted as candidates for EU membership. In 2012, Montenegro started accession negotiations with the EU. In 2014, Albania is an official candidate for accession to the EU. In 2015, Serbia was expected to start accession negotiations with the EU, however this process has been stalled over the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by existing EU member states.
Greece and Turkey have been NATO members since 1952. In March 2004, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia have become members of NATO. As of April 2009, Albania and Croatia are members of NATO. Montenegro joined in June 2017. The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.
Almost all other countries have expressed a desire to join the EU, NATO, or both at some point in the future.
Politics and economy
Currently, all of the states are republics, but until World War II all countries were monarchies. Most of the republics are parliamentary, excluding Romania and Bosnia which are semi-presidential. All the states have open market economies, most of which are in the upper-middle-income range ($4,000–12,000 p.c.), except Croatia, Romania, Greece, and Slovenia that have high income economies (over $12,000 p.c.), and are classified with very high HDI, along with Bulgaria, in contrast to the remaining states, which are classified with high HDI. The states from the former Eastern Bloc that formerly had planned economy system and Turkey mark gradual economic growth each year. The gross domestic product per capita is highest in Slovenia (over $29,000), followed by Croatia and Greece (~$20,000), Romania, Bulgaria (over $11,000), Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia (between $10,000 and $9,000), and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, North Macedonia (~$7,000) and Kosovo ($5,000). The Gini coefficient, which indicates the level of difference by monetary welfare of the layers, is on the second level at the highest monetary equality in Albania, Bulgaria, and Serbia, on the third level in Greece, Montenegro and Romania, on the fourth level in North Macedonia, on the fifth level in Turkey, and the most unequal by Gini coefficient is Bosnia at the eighth level which is the penultimate level and one of the highest in the world. The unemployment is lowest in Romania and Bulgaria (around 5%), followed by Serbia and Albania (11–12%), Turkey, Greece, Bosnia, North Macedonia (13–16%), Montenegro (~18%), and Kosovo (~25%).
On political, social and economic criteria the divisions are as follows:
Territories members of the European Union: Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Slovenia
Territories currently in negotiation process for EU membership: Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey
Territories with "candidate " status for EU membership: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Territories with "potential candidates" status for EU membership: Kosovo
On border control and trade criteria the divisions are as follows:
Territories in the Schengen Area: Croatia, Greece, Slovenia
Territories that are legally bound to join the Schengen Area: Bulgaria, Romania
Territories in a customs union with the EU: Turkey
Territories members of the Central European Free Trade Agreement: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia.
On currency criteria, the divisions are as follows:
Territories that are members of the Eurozone: Croatia, Greece, and Slovenia
Territories using the euro without authorization by the EU: Kosovo, Montenegro
Territories using national currencies that are candidates for the Eurozone: Bulgaria (lev), Romania (leu)
Territories using national currencies: Albania (lek), Bosnia and Herzegovina (convertible mark), North Macedonia (denar), Serbia (dinar), Turkey (lira).
On military criteria the divisions are as follows:
Member territories of NATO: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey
Member territories of the Partnership for Peace with Individual Partnership Action Plan and Membership Action Plan for joining NATO: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Member territories of the Partnership for Peace: Serbia
On the recent political, social and economic criteria there are two groups of countries:
Former communist territories: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia
Capitalist and aligned to the West during the Cold War: Greece, Turkey
During the Cold War the Balkans were disputed between the two blocks. Greece and Turkey were members of NATO, Bulgaria and Romania of the Warsaw Pact, while Yugoslavia was a proponent of a third way and was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina kept an observer status within the organization.
Regional organizations
See also the Black Sea regional organizations
Statistics
Demographics
The region is inhabited by Albanians, Aromanians, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Croats, Gorani, Greeks, Istro-Romanians, Macedonians, Megleno-Romanians, Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenes, Romanians, Turks, and other ethnic groups which present minorities in certain countries like the Romani and Ashkali.
Religion
The region is a meeting point of Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Roman Catholic Christianity. Eastern Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both the Balkan Peninsula and the Balkan region, The Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. A variety of different traditions of each faith are practiced, with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own national church. A part of the population in the Balkans defines itself as irreligious.
Islam has a significant history in the region where Muslims make up a large percentage of the population. A 2013 estimate placed the total Muslim population of the Balkans at around 8 million. Islam is the largest religion in nations like Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo with significant minorities in Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro. Smaller populations of Muslims are also found in Romania, Serbia and Greece.
The Jewish communities of the Balkans were some of the oldest in Europe and date back to ancient times. These communities were Sephardi Jews, except in Croatia and Slovenia, where the Jewish communities were mainly Ashkenazi Jews. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the small and close-knit Jewish community is 90% Sephardic, and Ladino is still spoken among the elderly. The Sephardi Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo has tombstones of a unique shape and inscribed in ancient Ladino. Sephardi Jews used to have a large presence in the city of Thessaloniki, and by 1900, some 80,000, or more than half of the population, were Jews. The Jewish communities in the Balkans suffered immensely during World War II, and the vast majority were killed during the Holocaust. An exception were the Bulgarian Jews who Boris III of Bulgaria sent to forced labor camps instead of Nazi concentration camps. Almost all of the few survivors have emigrated to the (then) newly founded state of Israel and elsewhere. Almost no Balkan country today has a significant Jewish minority.
Languages
The Balkan region today is a very diverse ethnolinguistic region, being home to multiple Slavic and Romance languages, as well as Albanian, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian and others. Romani is spoken by a large portion of the Romanis living throughout the Balkan countries. Throughout history, many other ethnic groups with their own languages lived in the area, among them Thracians, Illyrians, Romans, Celts and various Germanic tribes. All of the aforementioned languages from the present and from the past belong to the wider Indo-European language family, with the exception of the Turkic languages (e.g., Turkish and Gagauz) and Hungarian.
Urbanization
Most of the states in the Balkans are predominantly urbanized, with the lowest number of urban population as % of the total population found in Bosnia and Herzegovina at 49%, Kosovo at 50% and Slovenia at 55%.
A list of largest cities:
Only the European part of Istanbul is a part of the Balkans. It is home to two-thirds of the city's 15,519,267 inhabitants.
Time zones
The time zones in the Balkans are defined as the following:
Territories in the time zone of UTC+01:00: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia
Territories in the time zone of UTC+02:00: Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania
Territories in the time zone of UTC+03:00: Turkey
Culture
Cuisine of the Balkans
Balkan music
Balkan Athletics Championships
Balkan Athletics Indoor Championships
Imagining the Balkans
Historiography
See also
Balkan Insight
Balkan Universities Network
Balkanization
History of the Balkans
Balkan Wars
Yugoslav Wars
Languages of the Balkans
Balkan sprachbund
Balkan music
Notes
References
Further reading
Carter, Francis W., ed. (1977). An Historical Geography of the Balkans Academic Press.
Dvornik, Francis (1962). The Slavs in European History and Civilization Rutgers University Press.
Fine, John V. A., Jr. The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century [1983]; The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, [1987].
Forbes, Nevill (1915). The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Rumania, Turkey Clarendon Press, online
Lampe, John R., and Marvin R. Jackson (1982). Balkan Economic History, 1550–1950: From Imperial Borderlands to Developing Nations Indiana University Press.
Király, Béla K., ed. (1984). East Central European Society in the Era of Revolutions, 1775–1856.
online free to borrow
Zametica, John (2017). Folly and malice: the Habsburg empire, the Balkans and the start of World War One London: Shepheard–Walwyn. 416 pp. .
External links
Balkan Insight – Analysis from Balkans
Balkanalysis, in-depth research on Balkan geopolitics
Western Balkans Photo impression
Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015.
Geography of Europe
Peninsulas of Europe
Regions of Europe
Southeastern Europe
Turkish toponyms |
4831 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr%20model | Bohr model | In atomic physics, the Bohr model or Rutherford–Bohr model of the atom, presented by Niels Bohr and Ernest Rutherford in 1913, consists of a small, dense nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. It is analogous to the structure of the Solar System, but with attraction provided by electrostatic force rather than gravity, and with the electron energies quantized (assuming only discrete values).
In the history of atomic physics, it followed, and ultimately replaced, several earlier models, including Joseph Larmor's Solar System model (1897), Jean Perrin's model (1901), the cubical model (1902), Hantaro Nagaoka's Saturnian model (1904), the plum pudding model (1904), Arthur Haas's quantum model (1910), the Rutherford model (1911), and John William Nicholson's nuclear quantum model (1912). The improvement over the 1911 Rutherford model mainly concerned the new quantum mechanical interpretation introduced by Haas and Nicholson, but forsaking any attempt to explain radiation according to classical physics.
The model's key success lay in explaining the Rydberg formula for hydrogen's spectral emission lines. While the Rydberg formula had been known experimentally, it did not gain a theoretical basis until the Bohr model was introduced. Not only did the Bohr model explain the reasons for the structure of the Rydberg formula, it also provided a justification for the fundamental physical constants that make up the formula's empirical results.
The Bohr model is a relatively primitive model of the hydrogen atom, compared to the valence shell model. As a theory, it can be derived as a first-order approximation of the hydrogen atom using the broader and much more accurate quantum mechanics and thus may be considered to be an obsolete scientific theory. However, because of its simplicity, and its correct results for selected systems (see below for application), the Bohr model is still commonly taught to introduce students to quantum mechanics or energy level diagrams before moving on to the more accurate, but more complex, valence shell atom. A related quantum model was proposed by Arthur Erich Haas in 1910 but was rejected until the 1911 Solvay Congress where it was thoroughly discussed. The quantum theory of the period between Planck's discovery of the quantum (1900) and the advent of a mature quantum mechanics (1925) is often referred to as the old quantum theory.
Origin
In the early 20th century, experiments by Ernest Rutherford established that atoms consisted of a diffuse cloud of negatively charged electrons surrounding a small, dense, positively charged nucleus. Given this experimental data, Rutherford naturally considered a planetary model of the atom, the Rutherford model of 1911. This had electrons orbiting a solar nucleus, but involved a technical difficulty: the laws of classical mechanics (i.e. the Larmor formula) predict that the electron will release electromagnetic radiation while orbiting a nucleus. Because the electron would lose energy, it would rapidly spiral inwards, collapsing into the nucleus on a timescale of around 16 picoseconds. Rutherford's atom model is disastrous because it predicts that all atoms are unstable. Also, as the electron spirals inward, the emission would rapidly increase in frequency due to the orbital period becoming shorter, resulting in electromagnetic radiation with a continuous spectrum. However, late 19th-century experiments with electric discharges had shown that atoms will only emit light (that is, electromagnetic radiation) at certain discrete frequencies. By the early twentieth century, it was expected that the atom would account for the spectral lines. In 1897, Lord Rayleigh analyzed the problem. By 1906, Rayleigh said, “the frequencies observed in the spectrum may not be frequencies of disturbance or of oscillation in the ordinary sense at all, but rather form an essential part of the original constitution of the atom as determined by conditions of stability.”
The outline of Bohr's atom came during the proceedings of the first Solvay Conference in 1911 on the subject of Radiation and Quanta, at which Bohr's mentor, Rutherford was present. Max Planck’s lecture ended with this remark: “... atoms or electrons subject to the molecular bond would obey the laws of quantum theory”. Hendrik Lorentz in the discussion of Planck's lecture raised the question of the composition of the atom based on Thomson's model with a great portion of the discussion around the atomic model developed by Arthur Erich Haas. Lorentz explained that Planck's constant could be taken as determining the size of atoms, or that the size of atoms could be taken to determine Planck's constant. Lorentz included comments regarding the emission and absorption of radiation concluding that “A stationary state will be established in which the number of electrons entering their spheres is equal to the number of those leaving them.” In the discussion of what could regulate energy differences between atoms, Max Planck simply stated: “The intermediaries could be the electrons.” The discussions outlined the need for the quantum theory to be included in the atom and the difficulties in an atomic theory. Planck in his talk said explicitly: “In order for an oscillator [molecule or atom] to be able to provide radiation in accordance with the equation, it is necessary to introduce into the laws of its operation, as we have already said at the beginning
of this Report, a particular physical hypothesis which is, on a fundamental point, in contradiction with classical Mechanics, explicitly or tacitly.” Bohr's first paper on his atomic model quotes Planck almost word for word, saying: “Whatever the alteration in the laws of motion of the electrons may be, it seems necessary to introduce in the laws in question a quantity foreign to the classical electrodynamics, i. e. Planck's constant, or as it often is called the elementary quantum of action.” Bohr's footnote at the bottom of the page is to the French translation of the 1911 Solvay Congress, proving he patterned his model directly on the proceedings and fundamental principles laid down by Planck, Lorentz, and the quantized Arthur Haas model of the atom which was mentioned seventeen times. Lorentz ended the discussion of Einstein's talk explaining: “The assumption that this energy must be a multiple of leads to the following formula, where is an integer: .” Rutherford could have outlined these points to Bohr or given him a copy of the proceedings since he quoted from them and used them as a reference. In a later interview, Bohr said it was very interesting to hear Rutherford's remarks about the Solvay Congress. But Bohr said, “I saw the actual reports” of the Solvay Congress.
Then in 1912, Bohr came across the John William Nicholson theory of the atom model that quantized angular momentum as . According to a centennial celebration of the Bohr atom in Nature magazine, it was Nicholson who discovered that electrons radiate the spectral lines as they descend towards the nucleus and his theory was both nuclear and quantal. Niels Bohr quoted him in his 1913 paper of the Bohr model of the atom. The importance of the work of Nicholson's nuclear quantum atomic model on Bohr's model has been emphasized by many historians.
Next, Bohr was told by his friend, Hans Hansen, that the Balmer series is calculated using the Balmer formula, an empirical equation discovered by Johann Balmer in 1885 that described wavelengths of some spectral lines of hydrogen. This was further generalized by Johannes Rydberg in 1888, resulting in what is now known as the Rydberg formula.
After this, Bohr declared, “everything became clear”.
To overcome the problems of Rutherford's atom, in 1913 Niels Bohr put forth three postulates that sum up most of his model:
The electron is able to revolve in certain stable orbits around the nucleus without radiating any energy, contrary to what classical electromagnetism suggests. These stable orbits are called stationary orbits and are attained at certain discrete distances from the nucleus. The electron cannot have any other orbit in between the discrete ones.
The stationary orbits are attained at distances for which the angular momentum of the revolving electron is an integer multiple of the reduced Planck constant: , where is called the principal quantum number, and . The lowest value of is 1; this gives the smallest possible orbital radius, known as the Bohr radius, of 0.0529 nm for hydrogen. Once an electron is in this lowest orbit, it can get no closer to the nucleus. Starting from the angular momentum quantum rule as Bohr admits is previously given by Nicholson in his 1912 paper, Bohr was able to calculate the energies of the allowed orbits of the hydrogen atom and other hydrogen-like atoms and ions. These orbits are associated with definite energies and are also called energy shells or energy levels. In these orbits, the electron's acceleration does not result in radiation and energy loss. The Bohr model of an atom was based upon Planck's quantum theory of radiation.
Electrons can only gain and lose energy by jumping from one allowed orbit to another, absorbing or emitting electromagnetic radiation with a frequency determined by the energy difference of the levels according to the Planck relation: , where is Planck's constant.
Other points are:
Like Einstein's theory of the photoelectric effect, Bohr's formula assumes that during a quantum jump a discrete amount of energy is radiated. However, unlike Einstein, Bohr stuck to the classical Maxwell theory of the electromagnetic field. Quantization of the electromagnetic field was explained by the discreteness of the atomic energy levels; Bohr did not believe in the existence of photons.
According to the Maxwell theory the frequency of classical radiation is equal to the rotation frequency rot of the electron in its orbit, with harmonics at integer multiples of this frequency. This result is obtained from the Bohr model for jumps between energy levels and when is much smaller than . These jumps reproduce the frequency of the -th harmonic of orbit . For sufficiently large values of (so-called Rydberg states), the two orbits involved in the emission process have nearly the same rotation frequency, so that the classical orbital frequency is not ambiguous. But for small (or large ), the radiation frequency has no unambiguous classical interpretation. This marks the birth of the correspondence principle, requiring quantum theory to agree with the classical theory only in the limit of large quantum numbers.
The Bohr–Kramers–Slater theory (BKS theory) is a failed attempt to extend the Bohr model, which violates the conservation of energy and momentum in quantum jumps, with the conservation laws only holding on average.
Bohr's condition, that the angular momentum be an integer multiple of , was later reinterpreted in 1924 by de Broglie as a standing wave condition: the electron is described by a wave and a whole number of wavelengths must fit along the circumference of the electron's orbit:
According to de Broglie's hypothesis, matter particles such as the electron behave as waves. The de Broglie wavelength of an electron is
which implies that
or
where is the angular momentum of the orbiting electron. Writing for this angular momentum, the previous equation becomes
which is Bohr's second postulate.
Bohr described angular momentum of the electron orbit as while de Broglie's wavelength of described divided by the electron momentum. In 1913, however, Bohr justified his rule by appealing to the correspondence principle, without providing any sort of wave interpretation. In 1913, the wave behavior of matter particles such as the electron was not suspected.
In 1925, a new kind of mechanics was proposed, quantum mechanics, in which Bohr's model of electrons traveling in quantized orbits was extended into a more accurate model of electron motion. The new theory was proposed by Werner Heisenberg. Another form of the same theory, wave mechanics, was discovered by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger independently, and by different reasoning. Schrödinger employed de Broglie's matter waves, but sought wave solutions of a three-dimensional wave equation describing electrons that were constrained to move about the nucleus of a hydrogen-like atom, by being trapped by the potential of the positive nuclear charge.
Electron energy levels
The Bohr model gives almost exact results only for a system where two charged points orbit each other at speeds much less than that of light. This not only involves one-electron systems such as the hydrogen atom, singly ionized helium, and doubly ionized lithium, but it includes positronium and Rydberg states of any atom where one electron is far away from everything else. It can be used for K-line X-ray transition calculations if other assumptions are added (see Moseley's law below). In high energy physics, it can be used to calculate the masses of heavy quark mesons.
Calculation of the orbits requires two assumptions.
Classical mechanics
The electron is held in a circular orbit by electrostatic attraction. The centripetal force is equal to the Coulomb force.
where me is the electron's mass, e is the elementary charge, ke is the Coulomb constant and Z is the atom's atomic number. It is assumed here that the mass of the nucleus is much larger than the electron mass (which is a good assumption). This equation determines the electron's speed at any radius:
It also determines the electron's total energy at any radius:
The total energy is negative and inversely proportional to r. This means that it takes energy to pull the orbiting electron away from the proton. For infinite values of r, the energy is zero, corresponding to a motionless electron infinitely far from the proton. The total energy is half the potential energy, the difference being the kinetic energy of the electron. This is also true for noncircular orbits by the virial theorem.
A quantum rule
The angular momentum is an integer multiple of ħ:
Derivation
If an electron in an atom is moving on an orbit with period T, classically the electromagnetic radiation will repeat itself every orbital period. If the coupling to the electromagnetic field is weak, so that the orbit doesn't decay very much in one cycle, the radiation will be emitted in a pattern which repeats every period, so that the Fourier transform will have frequencies which are only multiples of 1/T. This is the classical radiation law: the frequencies emitted are integer multiples of 1/T.
In quantum mechanics, this emission must be in quanta of light, of frequencies consisting of integer multiples of 1/T, so that classical mechanics is an approximate description at large quantum numbers. This means that the energy level corresponding to a classical orbit of period 1/T must have nearby energy levels which differ in energy by h/T, and they should be equally spaced near that level,
Bohr worried whether the energy spacing 1/T should be best calculated with the period of the energy state , or , or some average—in hindsight, this model is only the leading semiclassical approximation.
Bohr considered circular orbits. Classically, these orbits must decay to smaller circles when photons are emitted. The level spacing between circular orbits can be calculated with the correspondence formula. For a hydrogen atom, the classical orbits have a period T determined by Kepler's third law to scale as r3/2. The energy scales as 1/r, so the level spacing formula amounts to
It is possible to determine the energy levels by recursively stepping down orbit by orbit, but there is a shortcut.
The angular momentum L of the circular orbit scales as . The energy in terms of the angular momentum is then
Assuming, with Bohr, that quantized values of L are equally spaced, the spacing between neighboring energies is
This is as desired for equally spaced angular momenta. If one kept track of the constants, the spacing would be ħ, so the angular momentum should be an integer multiple of ħ,
This is how Bohr arrived at his model.
Substituting the expression for the velocity gives an equation for r in terms of n:
so that the allowed orbit radius at any n is
The smallest possible value of r in the hydrogen atom () is called the Bohr radius and is equal to:
The energy of the n-th level for any atom is determined by the radius and quantum number:
An electron in the lowest energy level of hydrogen () therefore has about 13.6 eV less energy than a motionless electron infinitely far from the nucleus. The next energy level () is −3.4 eV. The third (3) is −1.51 eV, and so on. For larger values of n, these are also the binding energies of a highly excited atom with one electron in a large circular orbit around the rest of the atom. The hydrogen formula also coincides with the Wallis product.
The combination of natural constants in the energy formula is called the Rydberg energy (RE):
This expression is clarified by interpreting it in combinations that form more natural units:
is the rest mass energy of the electron (511 keV),
is the fine-structure constant,
.
Since this derivation is with the assumption that the nucleus is orbited by one electron, we can generalize this result by letting the nucleus have a charge , where Z is the atomic number. This will now give us energy levels for hydrogenic (hydrogen-like) atoms, which can serve as a rough order-of-magnitude approximation of the actual energy levels. So for nuclei with Z protons, the energy levels are (to a rough approximation):
The actual energy levels cannot be solved analytically for more than one electron (see n-body problem) because the electrons are not only affected by the nucleus but also interact with each other via the Coulomb Force.
When Z = 1/α (), the motion becomes highly relativistic, and Z2 cancels the α2 in R; the orbit energy begins to be comparable to rest energy. Sufficiently large nuclei, if they were stable, would reduce their charge by creating a bound electron from the vacuum, ejecting the positron to infinity. This is the theoretical phenomenon of electromagnetic charge screening which predicts a maximum nuclear charge. Emission of such positrons has been observed in the collisions of heavy ions to create temporary super-heavy nuclei.
The Bohr formula properly uses the reduced mass of electron and proton in all situations, instead of the mass of the electron,
However, these numbers are very nearly the same, due to the much larger mass of the proton, about 1836.1 times the mass of the electron, so that the reduced mass in the system is the mass of the electron multiplied by the constant 1836.1/(1+1836.1) = 0.99946. This fact was historically important in convincing Rutherford of the importance of Bohr's model, for it explained the fact that the frequencies of lines in the spectra for singly ionized helium do not differ from those of hydrogen by a factor of exactly 4, but rather by 4 times the ratio of the reduced mass for the hydrogen vs. the helium systems, which was much closer to the experimental ratio than exactly 4.
For positronium, the formula uses the reduced mass also, but in this case, it is exactly the electron mass divided by 2. For any value of the radius, the electron and the positron are each moving at half the speed around their common center of mass, and each has only one fourth the kinetic energy. The total kinetic energy is half what it would be for a single electron moving around a heavy nucleus.
(positronium).
Rydberg formula
The Rydberg formula, which was known empirically before Bohr's formula, is seen in Bohr's theory as describing the energies of transitions or quantum jumps between orbital energy levels. Bohr's formula gives the numerical value of the already-known and measured the Rydberg constant, but in terms of more fundamental constants of nature, including the electron's charge and the Planck constant.
When the electron gets moved from its original energy level to a higher one, it then jumps back each level until it comes to the original position, which results in a photon being emitted. Using the derived formula for the different energy levels of hydrogen one may determine the wavelengths of light that a hydrogen atom can emit.
The energy of a photon emitted by a hydrogen atom is given by the difference of two hydrogen energy levels:
where is the final energy level, and is the initial energy level.
Since the energy of a photon is
the wavelength of the photon given off is given by
This is known as the Rydberg formula, and the Rydberg constant is , or in natural units. This formula was known in the nineteenth century to scientists studying spectroscopy, but there was no theoretical explanation for this form or a theoretical prediction for the value of , until Bohr. In fact, Bohr's derivation of the Rydberg constant, as well as the concomitant agreement of Bohr's formula with experimentally observed spectral lines of the Lyman ( =1), Balmer ( =2), and Paschen ( =3) series, and successful theoretical prediction of other lines not yet observed, was one reason that his model was immediately accepted.
To apply to atoms with more than one electron, the Rydberg formula can be modified by replacing with or with where is constant representing a screening effect due to the inner-shell and other electrons (see Electron shell and the later discussion of the "Shell Model of the Atom" below). This was established empirically before Bohr presented his model.
Shell model (heavier atoms)
Bohr's original three papers in 1913 described mainly the electron configuration in lighter elements. Bohr called his electron shells, “rings” in 1913. Atomic orbitals within shells did not exist at the time of his planetary model. Bohr explains in Part 3 of his famous 1913 paper that the maximum electrons in a shell is eight, writing: “We see, further, that a ring of n electrons cannot rotate in a single ring round a nucleus of charge ne unless n < 8.” For smaller atoms, the electron shells would be filled as follows: “rings of electrons will only join together if they contain equal numbers of electrons; and that accordingly the numbers of electrons on inner rings will only be 2, 4, 8”. However, in larger atoms the innermost shell would contain eight electrons, “on the other hand, the periodic system of the elements strongly suggests that already in neon N = 10 an inner ring of eight electrons will occur”. Bohr wrote "From the above we are led to the following possible scheme for the arrangement of the electrons in light atoms:"
In Bohr's third 1913 paper Part III called "Systems Containing Several Nuclei", he says that two atoms form molecules on a symmetrical plane and he reverts to describing hydrogen. The 1913 Bohr model did not discuss higher elements in detail and John William Nicholson was one of the first to prove in 1914 that it couldn't work for lithium, but was an attractive theory for hydrogen and ionized helium.
In 1921, following the work of chemists and others involved in work on the periodic table, Bohr extended the model of hydrogen to give an approximate model for heavier atoms. This gave a physical picture that reproduced many known atomic properties for the first time although these properties were proposed contemporarily with the identical work of chemist Charles Rugeley Bury
Bohr's partner in research during 1914 to 1916 was Walther Kossel who corrected Bohr's work to show that electrons interacted through the outer rings, and Kossel called the rings: “shells.” Irving Langmuir is credited with the first viable arrangement of electrons in shells with only two in the first shell and going up to eight in the next according to the octet rule of 1904, although Kossel had already predicted a maximum of eight per shell in 1916. Heavier atoms have more protons in the nucleus, and more electrons to cancel the charge. Bohr took from these chemists the idea that each discrete orbit could only hold a certain number of electrons. Per Kossel, after that the orbit is full, the next level would have to be used. This gives the atom a shell structure designed by Kossel, Langmuir, and Bury, in which each shell corresponds to a Bohr orbit.
This model is even more approximate than the model of hydrogen, because it treats the electrons in each shell as non-interacting. But the repulsions of electrons are taken into account somewhat by the phenomenon of screening. The electrons in outer orbits do not only orbit the nucleus, but they also move around the inner electrons, so the effective charge Z that they feel is reduced by the number of the electrons in the inner orbit.
For example, the lithium atom has two electrons in the lowest 1s orbit, and these orbit at Z = 2. Each one sees the nuclear charge of Z = 3 minus the screening effect of the other, which crudely reduces the nuclear charge by 1 unit. This means that the innermost electrons orbit at approximately 1/2 the Bohr radius. The outermost electron in lithium orbits at roughly the Bohr radius, since the two inner electrons reduce the nuclear charge by 2. This outer electron should be at nearly one Bohr radius from the nucleus. Because the electrons strongly repel each other, the effective charge description is very approximate; the effective charge Z doesn't usually come out to be an integer. But Moseley's law experimentally probes the innermost pair of electrons, and shows that they do see a nuclear charge of approximately Z − 1, while the outermost electron in an atom or ion with only one electron in the outermost shell orbits a core with effective charge Z − k where k is the total number of electrons in the inner shells.
The shell model was able to qualitatively explain many of the mysterious properties of atoms which became codified in the late 19th century in the periodic table of the elements. One property was the size of atoms, which could be determined approximately by measuring the viscosity of gases and density of pure crystalline solids. Atoms tend to get smaller toward the right in the periodic table, and become much larger at the next line of the table. Atoms to the right of the table tend to gain electrons, while atoms to the left tend to lose them. Every element on the last column of the table is chemically inert (noble gas).
In the shell model, this phenomenon is explained by shell-filling. Successive atoms become smaller because they are filling orbits of the same size, until the orbit is full, at which point the next atom in the table has a loosely bound outer electron, causing it to expand. The first Bohr orbit is filled when it has two electrons, which explains why helium is inert. The second orbit allows eight electrons, and when it is full the atom is neon, again inert. The third orbital contains eight again, except that in the more correct Sommerfeld treatment (reproduced in modern quantum mechanics) there are extra "d" electrons. The third orbit may hold an extra 10 d electrons, but these positions are not filled until a few more orbitals from the next level are filled (filling the n=3 d orbitals produces the 10 transition elements). The irregular filling pattern is an effect of interactions between electrons, which are not taken into account in either the Bohr or Sommerfeld models and which are difficult to calculate even in the modern treatment.
Moseley's law and calculation (K-alpha X-ray emission lines)
Niels Bohr said in 1962: "You see actually the Rutherford work was not taken seriously. We cannot understand today, but it was not taken seriously at all. There was no mention of it any place. The great change came from Moseley."
In 1913, Henry Moseley found an empirical relationship between the strongest X-ray line emitted by atoms under electron bombardment (then known as the K-alpha line), and their atomic number . Moseley's empiric formula was found to be derivable from Rydberg's formula and later Bohr's formula (Moseley actually mentions only Ernest Rutherford and Antonius Van den Broek in terms of models as these had been published before Moseley's work and Moseley's 1913 paper was published the same month as the first Bohr model paper). The two additional assumptions that [1] this X-ray line came from a transition between energy levels with quantum numbers 1 and 2, and [2], that the atomic number when used in the formula for atoms heavier than hydrogen, should be diminished by 1, to .
Moseley wrote to Bohr, puzzled about his results, but Bohr was not able to help. At that time, he thought that the postulated innermost "K" shell of electrons should have at least four electrons, not the two which would have neatly explained the result. So Moseley published his results without a theoretical explanation.
It was Walther Kossel in 1914 and in 1916 who explained that in the periodic table new elements would be created as electrons were added to the outer shell. In Kossel's paper, he writes: “This leads to the conclusion that the electrons, which are added further, should be put into concentric rings or shells, on each of which ... only a certain number of electrons—namely, eight in our case—should be arranged. As soon as one ring or shell is completed, a new one has to be started for the next element; the number of electrons, which are most easily accessible, and lie at the outermost periphery, increases again from element to element and, therefore, in the formation of each new shell the chemical periodicity is repeated.” Later, chemist Langmuir realized that the effect was caused by charge screening, with an inner shell containing only 2 electrons. In his 1919 paper, Irving Langmuir postulated the existence of "cells" which could each only contain two electrons each, and these were arranged in "equidistant layers”.
In the Moseley experiment, one of the innermost electrons in the atom is knocked out, leaving a vacancy in the lowest Bohr orbit, which contains a single remaining electron. This vacancy is then filled by an electron from the next orbit, which has n=2. But the n=2 electrons see an effective charge of Z − 1, which is the value appropriate for the charge of the nucleus, when a single electron remains in the lowest Bohr orbit to screen the nuclear charge +Z, and lower it by −1 (due to the electron's negative charge screening the nuclear positive charge). The energy gained by an electron dropping from the second shell to the first gives Moseley's law for K-alpha lines,
or
Here, Rv = RE/h is the Rydberg constant, in terms of frequency equal to 3.28 x 1015 Hz. For values of Z between 11 and 31 this latter relationship had been empirically derived by Moseley, in a simple (linear) plot of the square root of X-ray frequency against atomic number (however, for silver, Z = 47, the experimentally obtained screening term should be replaced by 0.4). Notwithstanding its restricted validity, Moseley's law not only established the objective meaning of atomic number, but as Bohr noted, it also did more than the Rydberg derivation to establish the validity of the Rutherford/Van den Broek/Bohr nuclear model of the atom, with atomic number (place on the periodic table) standing for whole units of nuclear charge. Van den Broek had published his model in January 1913 showing the periodic table was arranged according to charge while Bohr's atomic model was not published until July 1913.
The K-alpha line of Moseley's time is now known to be a pair of close lines, written as (Kα1 and Kα2) in Siegbahn notation.
Shortcomings
The Bohr model gives an incorrect value for the ground state orbital angular momentum: The angular momentum in the true ground state is known to be zero from experiment. Although mental pictures fail somewhat at these levels of scale, an electron in the lowest modern "orbital" with no orbital momentum, may be thought of as not to rotate "around" the nucleus at all, but merely to go tightly around it in an ellipse with zero area (this may be pictured as "back and forth", without striking or interacting with the nucleus). This is only reproduced in a more sophisticated semiclassical treatment like Sommerfeld's. Still, even the most sophisticated semiclassical model fails to explain the fact that the lowest energy state is spherically symmetric – it doesn't point in any particular direction.
Nevertheless, in the modern fully quantum treatment in phase space, the proper deformation (careful full extension) of the semi-classical result adjusts the angular momentum value to the correct effective one. As a consequence, the physical ground state expression is obtained through a shift of the vanishing quantum angular momentum expression, which corresponds to spherical symmetry.
In modern quantum mechanics, the electron in hydrogen is a spherical cloud of probability that grows denser near the nucleus. The rate-constant of probability-decay in hydrogen is equal to the inverse of the Bohr radius, but since Bohr worked with circular orbits, not zero area ellipses, the fact that these two numbers exactly agree is considered a "coincidence". (However, many such coincidental agreements are found between the semiclassical vs. full quantum mechanical treatment of the atom; these include identical energy levels in the hydrogen atom and the derivation of a fine-structure constant, which arises from the relativistic Bohr–Sommerfeld model (see below) and which happens to be equal to an entirely different concept, in full modern quantum mechanics).
The Bohr model also has difficulty with, or else fails to explain:
Much of the spectra of larger atoms. At best, it can make predictions about the K-alpha and some L-alpha X-ray emission spectra for larger atoms, if two additional ad hoc assumptions are made. Emission spectra for atoms with a single outer-shell electron (atoms in the lithium group) can also be approximately predicted. Also, if the empiric electron–nuclear screening factors for many atoms are known, many other spectral lines can be deduced from the information, in similar atoms of differing elements, via the Ritz–Rydberg combination principles (see Rydberg formula). All these techniques essentially make use of Bohr's Newtonian energy-potential picture of the atom.
The relative intensities of spectral lines; although in some simple cases, Bohr's formula or modifications of it, was able to provide reasonable estimates (for example, calculations by Kramers for the Stark effect).
The existence of fine structure and hyperfine structure in spectral lines, which are known to be due to a variety of relativistic and subtle effects, as well as complications from electron spin.
The Zeeman effect – changes in spectral lines due to external magnetic fields; these are also due to more complicated quantum principles interacting with electron spin and orbital magnetic fields.
The model also violates the uncertainty principle in that it considers electrons to have known orbits and locations, two things which cannot be measured simultaneously.
Doublets and triplets appear in the spectra of some atoms as very close pairs of lines. Bohr's model cannot say why some energy levels should be very close together.
Multi-electron atoms do not have energy levels predicted by the model. It does not work for (neutral) helium.
Refinements
Several enhancements to the Bohr model were proposed, most notably the Sommerfeld or Bohr–Sommerfeld models, which suggested that electrons travel in elliptical orbits around a nucleus instead of the Bohr model's circular orbits. This model supplemented the quantized angular momentum condition of the Bohr model with an additional radial quantization condition, the Wilson–Sommerfeld quantization condition
where pr is the radial momentum canonically conjugate to the coordinate qr, which is the radial position, and T is one full orbital period. The integral is the action of action-angle coordinates. This condition, suggested by the correspondence principle, is the only one possible, since the quantum numbers are adiabatic invariants.
The Bohr–Sommerfeld model was fundamentally inconsistent and led to many paradoxes. The magnetic quantum number measured the tilt of the orbital plane relative to the xy plane, and it could only take a few discrete values. This contradicted the obvious fact that an atom could be turned this way and that relative to the coordinates without restriction. The Sommerfeld quantization can be performed in different canonical coordinates and sometimes gives different answers. The incorporation of radiation corrections was difficult, because it required finding action-angle coordinates for a combined radiation/atom system, which is difficult when the radiation is allowed to escape. The whole theory did not extend to non-integrable motions, which meant that many systems could not be treated even in principle. In the end, the model was replaced by the modern quantum-mechanical treatment of the hydrogen atom, which was first given by Wolfgang Pauli in 1925, using Heisenberg's matrix mechanics. The current picture of the hydrogen atom is based on the atomic orbitals of wave mechanics, which Erwin Schrödinger developed in 1926.
However, this is not to say that the Bohr–Sommerfeld model was without its successes. Calculations based on the Bohr–Sommerfeld model were able to accurately explain a number of more complex atomic spectral effects. For example, up to first-order perturbations, the Bohr model and quantum mechanics make the same predictions for the spectral line splitting in the Stark effect. At higher-order perturbations, however, the Bohr model and quantum mechanics differ, and measurements of the Stark effect under high field strengths helped confirm the correctness of quantum mechanics over the Bohr model. The prevailing theory behind this difference lies in the shapes of the orbitals of the electrons, which vary according to the energy state of the electron.
The Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization conditions lead to questions in modern mathematics. Consistent semiclassical quantization condition requires a certain type of structure on the phase space, which places topological limitations on the types of symplectic manifolds which can be quantized. In particular, the symplectic form should be the curvature form of a connection of a Hermitian line bundle, which is called a prequantization.
Bohr also updated his model in 1922, assuming that certain numbers of electrons (for example, 2, 8, and 18) correspond to stable "closed shells".
Model of the chemical bond
Niels Bohr proposed a model of the atom and a model of the chemical bond. According to his model for a diatomic molecule, the electrons of the atoms of the molecule form a rotating ring whose plane is perpendicular to the axis of the molecule and equidistant from the atomic nuclei. The dynamic equilibrium of the molecular system is achieved through the balance of forces between the forces of attraction of nuclei to the plane of the ring of electrons and the forces of mutual repulsion of the nuclei. The Bohr model of the chemical bond took into account the Coulomb repulsion – the electrons in the ring are at the maximum distance from each other.
See also
1913 in science
Balmer's Constant
Bohr–Sommerfeld model
The Franck–Hertz experiment provided early support for the Bohr model.
The inert-pair effect is adequately explained by means of the Bohr model.
Introduction to quantum mechanics
Theoretical and experimental justification for the Schrödinger equation
References
Footnotes
Primary sources
Reprinted in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, A. Engel translator, (1997) Princeton University Press, Princeton. 6 p. 434. (provides an elegant reformulation of the Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization conditions, as well as an important insight into the quantization of non-integrable (chaotic) dynamical systems.)
Further reading
Reprint:
Klaus Hentschel: Elektronenbahnen, Quantensprünge und Spektren, in: Charlotte Bigg & Jochen Hennig (eds.) Atombilder. Ikonografien des Atoms in Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit des 20. Jahrhunderts, Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag 2009, pp. 51–61
External links
Standing waves in Bohr’s atomic model An interactive simulation to intuitively explain the quantization condition of standing waves in Bohr's atomic mode
Atomic physics
Foundational quantum physics
Hydrogen physics
Niels Bohr
Old quantum theory
1913 in science |
4833 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%20Wills | Bob Wills | James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although Spade Cooley self-promoted the moniker "King of Western Swing" from 1942 to 1969). He was also noted for punctuating his music with his trademark "ah-haa" calls.
Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin who played steel guitar and bass. Oklahoma guitar player Eldon Shamblin joined the band in 1937 bringing jazzy influence and arrangements. The band played regularly on Tulsa, Oklahoma, radio station KVOO and added Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section that expanded the band's sound. Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as "Steel Guitar Rag", "San Antonio Rose", "Smoke on the Water", "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima", and "New Spanish Two Step".
Wills and the Texas Playboys recorded with several publishers and companies, including Vocalion, Okeh, Columbia, and MGM. In 1950, Wills had two top 10 hits, "Ida Red likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love", which were his last hits for a decade. Throughout the 1950s, he struggled with poor health and tenuous finances. He continued to perform frequently despite a decline in the popularity of his earlier hit songs, and the growing popularity of rock and roll. Wills had a heart attack in 1962, and a second one the next year, which forced him to disband the Texas Playboys. Wills continued to perform solo.
The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Wills in 1968 and the Texas State Legislature honored him for his contribution to American music.
In 1972, Wills accepted a citation from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in Nashville. He recorded an album with fan Merle Haggard in 1973. Wills suffered two strokes that left him partially paralyzed, and unable to communicate. He was comatose the last two months of his life, and died in a Fort Worth nursing home in 1975. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Wills and the Texas Playboys in 1999.
Biography
Early years
He was born on a cotton farm in Kosse, Texas, to Emma Lee Foley and John Tompkins Wills. His parents were both of primarily English ancestry but had distant Irish ancestry as well. The entire Wills family was musically inclined. His father was a statewide champion fiddle player, and several of his siblings played musical instruments. The family frequently held country dances in their home, and while living in Hall County, Texas, they also played at "ranch dances", which were popular throughout west Texas. In this environment, Wills learned to play the fiddle and the mandolin early.
Wills not only learned traditional music from his family, but he also learned some blues songs directly from African American families who worked in the cotton fields near Lakeview, Texas. As a child, he mainly interacted with African American children, learning their musical styles and dances such as jigs. Aside from his own family, he knew few other white children until he was seven or eight years old.
New Mexico and Texas
The family moved to Hall County in the Texas Panhandle in 1913, and in 1919 they bought a farm between the towns of Lakeview, Texas, and Turkey, Texas. At the age of 16, Wills left the family and hopped a freight train, travelling under the name Jim Rob. He drifted from town to town trying to earn a living for several years, once nearly falling from a moving train.
In his 20s, he attended barber school, married his first wife Edna, and moved first to Roy, New Mexico, then returned to Turkey in Hall County (now considered his home town) to work as a barber at Hamm's Barber Shop. He alternated barbering and fiddling even when he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, after leaving Hall County in 1929. There he played in minstrel and medicine shows, and, as with other Texas musicians such as Ocie Stockard, continued to earn money as a barber. He wore blackface makeup to appear in comedy routines, something that was common at the time. Wills played the violin and sang, and had two guitarists and a banjo player with him. "Bob was in blackface and was the comic; he cracked jokes, sang, and did an amazing jig dance."
Since there was already a Jim on the show, the manager began calling him Bob. However, it was as Jim Rob Wills, paired with Herman Arnspiger, that he made his first commercial (though unissued) recordings in November 1929 for Brunswick/Vocalion. Wills quickly became known for being talkative on the bandstand, a tendency he picked up from family, local cowboys, and the style of Black musicians he had heard growing up.
While in Fort Worth, Wills added the "rowdy city blues" of Bessie Smith and Emmett Miller, whom he idolized, to a repertoire of mainly waltzes and breakdowns he had learned from his father, and patterned his vocal style after that of Miller and other performers such as Al Bernard. His 1935 version of "St. Louis Blues" replicates Al Bernard's patter from the 1928 version of the song. He described his love of Bessie Smith's music with an anecdote: "I rode horseback from the place between the rivers to Childress to see Bessie Smith... She was about the greatest thing I had ever heard. In fact, there was no doubt about it. She was the greatest thing I ever heard."
In Fort Worth, Wills met Herman Arnspiger and formed The Wills Fiddle Band. In 1930 Milton Brown joined the group as lead vocalist and brought a sense of innovation and experimentation to the band, which became known as the Aladdin Laddies and then soon renamed itself the Light Crust Doughboys because of radio sponsorship by the makers of Light Crust Flour. Brown left the band in 1932 to form the Musical Brownies, the first true Western swing band. Brown added twin fiddles, tenor banjo and slap bass, pointing the music in the direction of swing, which they played on local radio and at dancehalls.
The Texas Playboys
After forming a new band, The Playboys, and relocating to Waco, Texas, Wills found enough popularity there to decide on a bigger market. They left Waco in January 1934 for Oklahoma City. Wills soon settled the renamed Texas Playboys in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and began broadcasting noon shows over the 50,000-watt KVOO radio station, from the stage of Cain's Ballroom. They also played dances in the evenings. Wills largely sang blues and sentimental ballads. "One Star Rag", "Rat Cheese Under the Hill", "Take Me Back to Tulsa", "Basin Street Blues", "Steel Guitar Rag", and "Trouble in Mind" were some of the songs in the extensive repertory played by Wills and the Playboys.
Wills added a trumpet to the band inadvertently when he hired Everet Stover as an announcer, not knowing that he had played with the New Orleans symphony and had directed the governor's band in Austin. Stover, thinking he had been hired as a trumpeter, began playing with the band, and Wills never stopped him. Although Wills initially disapproved of it, young saxophonist Zeb McNally was eventually hired. Wills hired the young, "modern-style musician" Smoky Dacus as a drummer to balance out the horns.
He continued to expand the lineup through the mid to late 1930s. The addition of steel guitar whiz Leon McAuliffe in March 1935 added not only a formidable instrumentalist, but also a second engaging vocalist. Wills and the Texas Playboys did their first recordings on September 23–25, 1935, in Dallas. Session rosters from 1938 show both lead guitar and electric guitar in addition to guitar and steel guitar in the Texas Playboys recordings. About this time, Wills purchased and performed with an antique Guadagnini violin. The instrument, worth an estimated $7,600 at the time, was purchased for only $1,600. In 1940, "New San Antonio Rose" sold a million records and became the signature song of The Texas Playboys. The "front line" of Wills' orchestra consisted of either fiddles or guitars after 1944.
Film career
In 1940, Wills, along with the Texas Playboys, co-starred with Tex Ritter in Take Me Back to Oklahoma. Altogether, Wills appeared in nineteen films, including The Lone Prairie (1942), Riders of the Northwest Mounted (1943), Saddles and Sagebrush (1943), The Vigilantes Ride (1943), The Last Horseman (1944), Rhythm Round-Up (1945), Blazing the Western Trail (1945), and Lawless Empire (1945).
Swing era
In December 1942, after several band members had left the group, and as World War II raged, Wills joined the Army at the age of 37, but received a medical discharge in 1943. After leaving the Army in 1943, Wills moved to Hollywood and began to reorganize the Texas Playboys. He became an enormous draw in Los Angeles, where many of his fans had relocated during the Great Depression and World War II in search of jobs. Monday through Friday, the band played the noon hour timeslot over KMTR-AM (now KLAC) in Los Angeles. They also played regularly at the Mission Beach Ballroom in San Diego.
He commanded enormous fees playing dances there, and began to make more creative use of electric guitars to replace the big horn sections the Tulsa band had boasted. For a very brief period in 1944, the Wills band included 23 members, and around mid-year he toured Northern California and the Pacific Northwest with 21 pieces in the orchestra. Billboard reported that Wills out-grossed Harry James, Benny Goodman, "both Dorsey brothers bands, et al." at Civic Auditorium in Oakland, California, in January 1944.
Wills and His Texas Playboys began their first cross-country tour in November 1944, and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry on December 30, 1944. According to Opry policy, drums and horns were considered pop instruments, inappropriate to country music. The Opry had two western swing bands on its roster, led by Pee Wee King and Paul Howard. Neither were allowed to use their drummers at the Opry. Wills' band at the time consisted of two fiddlers, two bass fiddles, two electric guitars, electric steel guitar, and a trumpet. Wills's then-drummer was Monte Mountjoy, who played in the Dixieland style. Wills battled Opry officials and refused to perform without his drummer. An attempt to compromise by keeping Mountjoy behind a curtain collapsed when Wills had his drums placed front and center onstage at the last minute.
In 1945, Wills' dances were drawing larger crowds than dances put on by Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. That year, he lived in both Santa Monica and Fresno, California. In 1947, he opened the Wills Point nightclub in Sacramento, California, and continued touring the Southwest and Pacific Northwest from Texas to Washington State. In Sacramento, he broadcast shows over KFBK, a station whose reach encompassed much of the American West. Wills was in such high demand that venues would book him even on weeknights, because they knew the show would still be a draw.
During the postwar period, KGO radio in San Francisco syndicated a Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys show recorded at the Fairmont Hotel. Many of these recordings survive today as the Tiffany Transcriptions and are available on CD. They show off the band's strengths significantly, in part because the group was not confined to the three-minute limits of 78 RPM discs. On April 3, 1948, Wills and the Texas Playboys appeared for the inaugural broadcast of the Louisiana Hayride on KWKH, broadcasting from the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Wills and the Texas Playboys played dances throughout the West to more than 10,000 people every week. They held dance attendance records at Jantzen Beach in Portland, Oregon; Santa Monica, California; Klamath Falls, Oregon; and at California's Oakland Auditorium, where they drew 19,000 people over two nights. Wills recalled the early days of what became known as Western swing music in a 1949 interview: "Here's the way I figure it. We sure not tryin' to take credit for swingin' it."
Still a binge drinker, Wills became increasingly unreliable in the late 1940s, causing a rift with Tommy Duncan (who bore the brunt of audience anger when Wills's binges prevented him from appearing). It ended when he fired Duncan in the fall of 1948.
Later years
Having lived a lavish lifestyle in California, Wills moved back to Oklahoma City in 1949, then went back on the road to maintain his payroll and Wills Point. He opened a second club, the Bob Wills Ranch House in Dallas, Texas. Turning the club over to managers, later revealed to be dishonest, left Wills in desperate financial straits with heavy debts to the IRS for back taxes. This caused him to sell many assets, including the rights to "New San Antonio Rose". It wrecked him financially.
In 1950, Wills had two top 10 hits, "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love". After 1950, radio stations began to increasingly specialize in one form or another of commercially popular music. Although usually labelled "country and western", Wills did not fit into the style played on popular country and western stations, which typically played music in the Nashville sound. Neither did he fit into the conventional sound of pop stations, although he played a good deal of pop music.
Wills continued to appear at the Bostonia Ballroom in San Diego throughout the 1950s. He continued to tour and record through the 1950s into the early 1960s despite the fact that Western Swing's popularity, even in the Southwest, had greatly diminished. Charles R. Townsend described his drop in popularity: Bob could draw "a thousand people on Monday night between 1950 and 1952, but he could not do that by 1956. Entertainment habits had changed."
On Wills' return to Tulsa late in 1957, Jim Downing of the Tulsa Tribune wrote an article headlined "Wills Brothers Together Again: Bob Back with Heavy Beat". The article quotes Wills as saying "Rock and roll? Why, man, that's the same kind of music we've been playin' since 1928! ... We didn't call it rock and roll back when we introduced it as our style back in 1928, and we don't call it rock and roll the way we play it now. But it's just basic rhythm and has gone by a lot of different names in my time. It's the same, whether you just follow a drum beat like in Africa or surround it with a lot of instruments. The rhythm's what's important." The use of amplified guitars accentuates Wills's claim; some Bob Wills recordings from the 1930s and 1940s sound similar to rock and roll records of the 1950s.
Even a 1958 return to KVOO, where his younger brother Johnnie Lee Wills had maintained the family's presence, did not produce the success he hoped. He appeared twice on ABC-TV's Jubilee USA and kept the band on the road into the 1960s. After two heart attacks, in 1965 he dissolved the Texas Playboys (who briefly continued as an independent unit) to perform solo with house bands. While he did well in Las Vegas and other areas, and made records for the Kapp Records label, he was largely a forgotten figure—even though inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968. A 1969 stroke left his right side paralyzed, ending his active career. He did, however, recover sufficiently to appear in a wheelchair at various Wills tributes held in the early 1970s. A revival of interest in his music, spurred by Merle Haggard's 1970 album A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World, led to a 1973 reunion album, teaming Wills, who spoke with difficulty, with key members of the early band, as well as Haggard.
Wills died in Fort Worth of pneumonia on May 13, 1975.
Personal life
Bob Wills was married six times and divorced five times. He was twice married to, and twice divorced from, Mary Helen Brown, the widow of Wills' ex-band member Milton Brown.
Edna Posey, married 1926, divorced 1935 (one daughter, Robbie Joe Wills)
Ruth McMaster, married 1936, divorced 1936
Mary Helen Brown, married 1938, divorced 1938, remarried 1938, divorced 1939
Mary Louise Parker, married 1939, divorced 1939 (one daughter, Rosetta Wills)
Betty Anderson, married 1942 (four children, James Robert II, Carolyn, Diane, and Cindy Wills)
Legacy
Wills' style influenced performers Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and The Strangers and helped to spawn a style of music now known as the Bakersfield Sound. (Bakersfield, California, was one of Wills' regular stops in his heyday). A 1970 tribute album by Haggard, A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (or, My Salute to Bob Wills) directed a wider audience to Wills's music, as did the appearance of younger "revival" bands like Asleep at the Wheel and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen plus the growing popularity of longtime Wills disciple and fan Willie Nelson. By 1971, Wills recovered sufficiently to travel occasionally and appear at tribute concerts. In 1973, he participated in a final reunion session with members of some of the Texas Playboys from the 1930s to the 1960s. Merle Haggard was invited to play at this reunion. The session, scheduled for two days, took place in December 1973, with the album to be titled For the Last Time. Wills, speaking or attempting to holler, appeared on a couple tracks from the first day's session but suffered a stroke overnight. He had a more severe one a few days later. The musicians completed the album without him. Wills by then was comatose. He lingered until his death on May 13, 1975.
Reviewing For the Last Time in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "This double-LP doesn't represent the band at its peak. But though earlier recordings of most of these classic tunes are at least marginally sharper, it certainly captures the relaxed, playful, eclectic Western swing groove that Wills invited in the '30s."
In addition to being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968, Wills was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category along with the Texas Playboys in 1999, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
From 1974 until his 2002 death, Waylon Jennings performed a song he had written called "Bob Wills Is Still the King". Released as the B-side of a single that was a double-sided hit, it went to number one on the country charts. The song has become a staple of classic country radio station formats. In addition, The Rolling Stones performed this song live in Austin, Texas, at Zilker Park on their A Bigger Bang Tour, a shout-out to Wills. This performance was included on their subsequent DVD The Biggest Bang. In a 1968 issue of Guitar Player, rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix said of Wills and the Playboys: "I dig them. The Grand Ole Opry used to come on, and I used to watch that. They used to have some pretty heavy cats, some heavy guitar players." In fact, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys only performed on the Opry twice: in 1944 and 1948. Hendrix almost surely referred to Nashville guitarists.
Wills ranked #27 in CMT's 40 Greatest Men in Country Music in 2003.
Wills' upbeat 1938 song Ida Red was Chuck Berry's primary inspiration for creating his first rock-and-roll hit "Maybellene".
Fats Domino once remarked that he patterned his 1960 rhythm section after that of Bob Wills.
During the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007, Carrie Underwood performed his song "San Antonio Rose". Today, George Strait performs Wills' music on concert tours and records songs influenced by Wills and his Texas-style swing.
The Austin-based Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel have honored Wills' music since the band's inception, mostly notably with their continuing performances of the musical drama A Ride with Bob, which debuted in Austin in March 2005 to coincide with celebrations of Wills' 100th birthday.
The Bob Wills Birthday Celebration is held every year in March at the Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a Western swing concert and dance.
In 2004, a documentary film about his life and music, titled Fiddlin' Man: The Life and Music of Bob Wills, was released by VIEW Inc.
In 2011, Proper Records released an album by Hot Club of Cowtown titled What Makes Bob Holler: A Tribute to Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and the Texas Legislature adopted a resolution designating western swing as the official State Music of Texas.
The Greenville Chamber of Commerce hosts an annual Bob Wills Fiddle Festival and Contest in downtown Greenville, Texas, in November.
Bob Wills was honored in Episode 2 of Ken Burn's 2019 series on PBS called Country Music.
In 2021, Wills was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Select discography
Albums
Singles
See also
Aragon Ballroom (Ocean Park)
References
Bibliography
Townsend, Charles R. (1998). "Bob Wills". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kinsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 594–95.
West, Elliot. "Trails and Footprints: The Past of the Future Southern Plains". The Future of the Southern Plains (pp. 17–37) edited by Sherry L. Smith. University of Oklahoma Press, 2005.
Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits. Billboard Books, 2006.
Wolff, Kurt; Orla Duane. Country Music: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides, 2000.
External links
Official Web site and virtual museum
Texas Playboys Web site
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
The Bob Wills Tiffany Transcriptions
Famous Texans
1905 births
1975 deaths
People from Kosse, Texas
Musicians from Dallas
Musicians from Fort Worth, Texas
American bandleaders
American male singer-songwriters
American country singer-songwriters
Musicians from Waco, Texas
Country musicians from Texas
Country musicians from Oklahoma
Musicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma
Country Music Hall of Fame inductees
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Blackface minstrel performers
Western swing fiddlers
Charly Records artists
Liberty Records artists
Longhorn Records artists
Vocalion Records artists
20th-century American violinists
20th-century American singer-songwriters
Deaths from pneumonia in Texas
Singer-songwriters from Texas
Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma
20th-century American male singers |
4845 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood%20alcohol%20content | Blood alcohol content | Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes; it is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume of blood. For example, a BAC of 0.10 (0.10% or one tenth of one percent) means that there is 0.10 g of alcohol for every 100 of blood, which is the same as 21.7 . A BAC of 0.0 is sober; in different countries the maximum permitted BAC when driving ranges from about 0.02% to 0.08%; BAC levels over 0.08% are considered impaired; above 0.40% is potentially fatal.
Effects by alcohol level
As BAC increases, the short-term effects of alcohol become more perceptible. At low levels of impairment (BAC 0.01–0.05%), people may experience mild relaxation and reduced social inhibition, along with impaired judgment and coordination. At moderate levels of impairment (BAC 0.06–0.20%), effects can include emotional swings, impaired vision, hearing, speech, and motor skills. Beginning at a BAC greater than 0.2%, people may experience urinary incontinence, vomiting, and symptoms of alcohol intoxication. At a BAC greater than 0.3%, people may experience total loss of consciousness and show signs of severe alcohol intoxication. A BAC of 0.4% or higher is potentially fatal and can result in a coma or respiratory failure.
Estimation
Direct measurement
Blood samples for BAC analysis are typically obtained by taking a venous blood sample from the arm. A variety of methods exist for determining blood-alcohol concentration in a blood sample. Forensic laboratories typically use headspace-gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry or flame ionization detection, as this method is accurate and efficient. Hospitals typically use enzyme multiplied immunoassay, which measures the co-enzyme NADH. This method is more subject to error but may be performed rapidly in parallel with other blood sample measurements.
By breathalyzer
The amount of alcohol on the breath can be measured, without requiring drawing blood, by blowing into a breathalyzer, resulting in a breath alcohol content (BrAC). The BrAC specifically correlates with the concentration of alcohol in arterial blood, satisfying the equation . Its correlation with the standard BAC found by drawing venous blood is less strong. Jurisdictions vary in the statutory conversion factor from BrAC to BAC, from 2000 to 2400. Many factors may affect the accuracy of a breathalyzer test, but they are the most common method for measuring alcohol concentrations in most jurisdictions.
By intake
Blood alcohol content can be estimated by a model developed by Swedish professor in the 1920s. The model corresponds to a pharmacokinetic single-compartment model with instantaneous absorption and zero-order kinetics for elimination. The model is most accurate when used to estimate BAC a few hours after drinking a single dose of alcohol in a fasted state, and can be within 20% CV of the true value. It is less accurate for BAC levels below 0.2 g/L (alcohol is not eliminated as quickly as predicted) and consumption with food (overestimating the peak BAC and time to return to zero). The equation varies depending on the units and approximations used, but in its simplest form is given by:
where:
is the estimated blood alcohol concentration (in g/L)
is the mass of alcohol consumed (g).
is the amount time during which alcohol was present in the blood (usually time since consumption began), in hours.
is the rate at which alcohol is eliminated (g/L/hr); typically 0.15
is the volume of distribution (L); typically body weight (kg) multiplied by 0.71 L/kg for men and 0.58 L/kg for women
Examples:
A 80 kg man drinks 2 US standard drinks (3 oz) of 40% ABV vodka, containing 14 grams of ethanol each (28 g total). After two hours:
A 70 kg woman drinks 63 g of 40% ABV vodka, containing 21 grams of ethanol. After two hours:
The volume of distribution contributes about 15% of the uncertainty to Widmark's equation and has been the subject of much research. It corresponds to the volume of the blood in the body. In his research, Widmark used units of mass (g/kg) for EBAC, thus he calculated the apparent of distribution or mass of blood in kilograms. He fitted an equation of the body weight in kg, finding an average rho-factor of 0.68 for men and 0.55 for women. This has units of dose per body weight (g/kg) divided by concentration (g/kg) and is therefore dimensionless. However, modern calculations use weight/volume concentrations (g/L) for EBAC, so Widmark's rho-factors must be adjusted for the density of blood, 1.055 g/mL. This has units of dose per body weight (g/kg) divided by concentration (g/L blood) - calculation gives values of 0.64 L/kg for men and 0.52 L/kg for women, lower than the original. Newer studies have updated these values to population-average of 0.71 L/kg for men and 0.58 L/kg for women. But individual values may vary significantly - the 95% range for is 0.58-0.83 L/kg for males and 0.43-0.73 L/kg for females. A more accurate method for calculating is to use total body water (TBW) - experiments have confirmed that alcohol distributes almost exactly in proportion to TBW. TBW may be calculated using body composition analysis or estimated using anthropometric formulas based on age, height, and weight. is then given by , where is the water content of blood, approximately 0.825 w/v for men and 0.838 w/v for women.
The elimination rate from the blood, , is perhaps the more important parameter, contributing 60% of the uncertainty to Widmark's equation. Similarly to , its value depends on the units used for blood. varies 58% by occasion and 42% between subjects; it is thus difficult determine precisely, and more practical to use a mean and a range of values. The mean values for 164 men and 156 women were 0.148 g/L/h and 0.156 g/L/h respectively. Although statistically significant, the difference between sexes is small compared to the overall uncertainty, so Jones recommends using the value 0.15 for the mean and the range 0.10 - 0.25 g/L/h for forensic purposes, for all subjects. Explanations for the gender difference are quite varied and include liver size, secondary effects of the volume of distribution, and sex-specific hormones. Elaborating on the secondary effects, zero-order kinetics are not an adequate model for ethanol elimination; the elimination rate is better described by Michaelis–Menten kinetics. M-M kinetics are approximately zero-order above a BAC of 0.15-0.20 g/L, but below this value alcohol is eliminated more slowly and the elimination rate more closely follows first-order kinetics. This change in behavior was not noticed by Widmark because he could not analyze low BAC levels. A 2023 study using a more complex two-compartment model with M-M elimination kinetics, with data from 60 men and 12 women, found statistically small effects of gender on maximal elimination rate and excluded them from the final model. Eating food in proximity to drinking increases elimination rate significantly.
In terms of fluid ounces of alcohol consumed and weight in pounds, Widmark's formula can be simply approximated as
for a man or
for a woman, where EBAC and factors are given as g/dL (% BAC), such as a factor of 0.0015% BAC per hour.
By standard drinks
The examples above define a standard drink as 0.6 fluid ounces (14 g or 17.7 mL) of ethanol, whereas other definitions exist, for example 10 grams of ethanol.
By training
If individuals are asked to estimate their BAC, then given accurate feedback via a breathalyzer, and this procedure is repeated a number of times during a drinking session, studies show that these individuals can learn to discriminate their BAC, to within a mean error of 9 mg/100 mL (0.009% BAC). The ability is robust to different types of alcohol, different drink quantities, and drinks with unknown levels of alcohol. Trained individuals can even drink alcoholic drinks so as to adjust or maintain their BAC at a desired level. Training the ability does not appear to require any information or procedure besides breathalyzer feedback, although most studies have provided information such as intoxication symptoms at different BAC levels. Subjects continue to retain the ability one month after training.
Other methods
Vitreous (eye) fluid provides an accurate account of blood alcohol concentration in cadavers.
Binge drinking
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) define the term "binge drinking" as a pattern of drinking that brings a person's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume five or more drinks, and when women consume four or more drinks, in about two hours.
Units of measurement
BAC is generally defined as a fraction of weight of alcohol per volume of blood. All countries are based on units of grams per liter, but differ in how this number is expressed as a decimal or percentage. The usual units are listed below. For example, the U.S. uses a concentration unit of 1% w/v (percent mass/volume, equivalent to 10 g/L or 1 g per 100 mL).
It is also possible to use other definitions, such as grams of alcohol per 100 grams of blood, or grams of alcohol per kilogram of body weight, but these have become uncommon. 1 mL of blood has a mass of approximately 1.06 grams.
Legal limits
For purposes of law enforcement, blood alcohol content is used to define intoxication and provides a rough measure of impairment. Although the degree of impairment may vary among individuals with the same blood alcohol content, it can be measured objectively and is therefore legally useful and difficult to contest in court. Most countries forbid operation of motor vehicles and heavy machinery above prescribed levels of blood alcohol content. Operation of boats and aircraft is also regulated. Some jurisdictions also regulate bicycling under the influence. The alcohol level at which a person is considered legally impaired to drive varies by country.
Test assumptions
After fatal accidents, it is common to check the blood alcohol levels of involved persons. However, soon after death, the body begins to putrefy, a biological process which produces ethanol. This can make it difficult to conclusively determine the blood alcohol content in autopsies, particularly in bodies recovered from water. For instance, following the Moorgate tube crash, the driver had a blood alcohol concentration of 80 mg/100 mL, but it could not be established how much of this could be attributed to natural decomposition.
Extrapolation
Retrograde extrapolation is the mathematical process by which someone's blood alcohol concentration at the time of driving is estimated by projecting backwards from a later chemical test. This involves estimating the absorption and elimination of alcohol in the interim between driving and testing. The rate of elimination in the average person is commonly estimated at 0.015 to 0.020 grams per deciliter per hour (g/dL/h), although again this can vary from person to person and in a given person from one moment to another. Metabolism can be affected by numerous factors, including such things as body temperature, the type of alcoholic beverage consumed, and the amount and type of food consumed.
In an increasing number of states, laws have been enacted to facilitate this speculative task: the blood alcohol content at the time of driving is legally presumed to be the same as when later tested. There are usually time limits put on this presumption, commonly two or three hours, and the defendant is permitted to offer evidence to rebut this presumption.
Forward extrapolation can also be attempted. If the amount of alcohol consumed is known, along with such variables as the weight and sex of the subject and period and rate of consumption, the blood alcohol level can be estimated by extrapolating forward. Although subject to the same infirmities as retrograde extrapolation—guessing based upon averages and unknown variables—this can be relevant in estimating BAC when driving and/or corroborating or contradicting the results of a later chemical test.
Metabolism
Alcohol is absorbed throughout the gastrointestinal tract, but more slowly in the stomach than in the small or large intestine. For this reason, alcohol consumed with food is absorbed more slowly, because it spends a longer time in the stomach. Furthermore, alcohol dehydrogenase is present in the stomach lining. After absorption, the alcohol passes to the liver through the hepatic portal vein, where it undergoes a first pass of metabolism before entering the general bloodstream.
Alcohol is removed from the bloodstream by a combination of metabolism, excretion, and evaporation. Alcohol is metabolized mainly by the group of six enzymes collectively called alcohol dehydrogenase. These convert the ethanol into acetaldehyde (an intermediate more toxic than ethanol). The enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase then converts the acetaldehyde into non-toxic acetic acid.
Many physiologically active materials are removed from the bloodstream (whether by metabolism or excretion) at a rate proportional to the current concentration, so that they exhibit exponential decay with a characteristic half-life (see pharmacokinetics). This is not true for alcohol, however. Typical doses of alcohol actually saturate the enzymes' capacity, so that alcohol is removed from the bloodstream at an approximately constant rate. This rate varies considerably between individuals. Another sex-based difference is in the elimination of alcohol. People under 25, women, or people with liver disease may process alcohol more slowly. Falsely high BAC readings may be seen in patients with kidney or liver disease or failure.
Such persons also have impaired acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, which causes acetaldehyde levels to peak higher, producing more severe hangovers and other effects such as flushing and tachycardia. Conversely, members of certain ethnicities that traditionally did not use alcoholic beverages have lower levels of alcohol dehydrogenases and thus "sober up" very slowly but reach lower aldehyde concentrations and have milder hangovers. The rate of detoxification of alcohol can also be slowed by certain drugs which interfere with the action of alcohol dehydrogenases, notably aspirin, furfural (which may be found in fusel alcohol), fumes of certain solvents, many heavy metals, and some pyrazole compounds. Also suspected of having this effect are cimetidine, ranitidine, and acetaminophen (paracetamol).
Currently, the only known substance that can increase the rate of alcohol metabolism is fructose. The effect can vary significantly from person to person, but a 100 g dose of fructose has been shown to increase alcohol metabolism by an average of 80%. Fructose also increases false positives of high BAC readings in anyone with proteinuria and hematuria, due to kidney-liver metabolism.
The peak of blood alcohol level (or concentration of alcohol) is reduced after a large meal.
Highest levels
There have been reported cases of blood alcohol content higher than 1%:
In 1982, a 24-year-old woman was admitted to the UCLA emergency room with a serum alcohol content of 1.51%, corresponding to a blood alcohol content of 1.33%. She was alert and oriented to person and place and survived. Serum alcohol concentration is not equal to nor calculated in the same way as blood alcohol content.
In 1984, a 30-year-old man survived a blood alcohol concentration of 1.5% after vigorous medical intervention that included dialysis and intravenous therapy with fructose.
In 1995, a man from Wrocław, Poland, caused a car accident near his hometown. He had a blood alcohol content of 1.48%; he was tested five times, with each test returning the same reading. He died a few days later of injuries from the accident.
In 2004, an unidentified Taiwanese woman died of alcohol intoxication after immersion for twelve hours in a bathtub filled with 40% ethanol. Her blood alcohol content was 1.35%. It was believed that she had immersed herself as a response to the SARS epidemic.
In South Africa, a man driving a Mercedes-Benz Vito light van containing 15 sheep allegedly stolen from nearby farms was arrested on December 22, 2010, near Queenstown in Eastern Cape. His blood had an alcohol content of 1.6%. Also in the vehicle were five boys and a woman, who were also arrested.
On 26 October 2012, a man from Gmina Olszewo-Borki, Poland, who died in a car accident, recorded a blood alcohol content of 2.23%; however, the blood sample was collected from a wound and thus possibly contaminated.
On 26 July 2013 a 40-year-old man from Alfredówka, Poland, was found by Municipal Police Patrol from Nowa Dęba lying in the ditch along the road in Tarnowska Wola. At the hospital, it was recorded that the man had a blood alcohol content of 1.374%. The man survived.
References
Citations
General and cited references
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Science and Technology Department. The Handy Science Answer Book. Pittsburgh: The Carnegie Library, 1997. .
Taylor, L., and S. Oberman. Drunk Driving Defense, 6th edition. New York: Aspen Law and Business, 2006. .
External links
Estimated alcohol
Alcohol law
Alcohol policy
Concentration indicators
Driving under the influence
Metabolism |
4848 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrister | Barrister | A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the law and giving legal opinions.
Barristers are distinguished from solicitors and other types of lawyers (e.g. chartered legal executives) who have more direct access to clients, and may do transactional legal work. In some legal systems, including those of South Africa, Scandinavia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, the word barrister is also regarded as an honorific title.
In a few jurisdictions, barristers are usually forbidden from "conducting" litigation, and can only act on the instructions of another lawyer, who perform tasks such as corresponding with parties and the court, and drafting court documents. In England and Wales, barristers may seek authorisation from the Bar Standards Board to conduct litigation, allowing a barrister to practise in a dual capacity.
In some common law jurisdictions, such as New Zealand, Canada and some Australian states and territories, lawyers are entitled to practise both as barristers and solicitors, but it remains a separate system of qualification to practise exclusively as a barrister. In others, such as the United States, the distinction between barristers and other types of lawyers does not exist at all.
Differences between barristers and other lawyers
A barrister is a lawyer who represents a litigant as an advocate before a court. A barrister speaks in court and presents the case before a judge, with or without a jury. In some jurisdictions, a barrister receives additional training in evidence law, ethics, and court practice and procedure. In contrast, other legal professionals (such as solicitors) generally meet with clients, perform preparatory and administrative work, and provides legal advice. Barristers often have little or no direct contact with their clients. All correspondence, inquiries, invoices, and so on, will be addressed to the legal adviser, who is also primarily responsible for the barrister's fees.
In England and Wales, solicitors and chartered legal executives can support barristers when in court, through the managing of large volumes of documents in the case or negotiating a settlement outside the courtroom.
A barrister will usually have rights of audience in the higher courts, whereas other legal professionals will often have more limited access, or will need to acquire additional qualifications to have such access. As in common law countries in which there is a split between the roles of barrister and solicitor, the barrister in civil law jurisdictions is responsible for appearing in trials or pleading cases before the courts.
Barristers usually have particular knowledge of case law, precedent, and the skills to build a case. When another legal professional is confronted with an unusual point of law, they may seek the opinion of a barrister on the issue.
In most countries, barristers operate as sole practitioners and are prohibited from forming partnerships or from working as a barrister as part of a corporation. In 2009, the Clemens Report recommended the abolition of this restriction in England and Wales. However, barristers normally band together into barristers' chambers to share clerks (administrators) and operating expenses. Some chambers grow to be large and sophisticated. In some jurisdictions, barristers may be employed by firms and companies as in-house legal advisers.
In court, barristers may be visibly distinguished from solicitors, chartered legal executives, and other legal practitioners by their apparel. For example, in criminal courts in Ireland, England, and Wales, a barrister usually wears a horsehair wig, stiff collar, bands, and a gown. Since January 2008, solicitor advocates have also been entitled to wear wigs, but wear different gowns.
In many countries the traditional divisions between barristers and other legal representatives are gradually decreasing. Barristers once enjoyed a monopoly on appearances before the higher courts, but particularly within the United Kingdom this is no longer true. Solicitor-advocates and qualified chartered legal executives can generally appear on behalf of clients at trial. Increasingly, law firms are keeping even the most advanced advisory and litigation work in-house for economic and client relationship reasons. Similarly, the prohibition on barristers taking instructions directly from the public has also been widely abolished. But, in practice, direct instruction is still a rarity in most jurisdictions, partly because barristers with narrow specialisations, or who are only really trained for advocacy, are not prepared to provide general advice to members of the public.
Historically, barristers have had a major role in trial preparation, including drafting pleadings and reviewing evidence. In some areas of law, that is still the case. In other areas, it is relatively common for the barrister to receive the brief from the instructing solicitor to represent a client at trial only a day or two before the proceeding. Part of the reason for this is cost. A barrister is entitled to a "brief fee" when a brief is delivered, and this represents the bulk of his or her fee in relation to any trial. They are then usually entitled to a "refresher" for each day of the trial after the first, but if a case is settled before trial, the barrister is not needed and the brief fee would be wasted. Some solicitors avoid this by delaying delivery of the brief until it is certain the case will go to trial.
Justification for a split profession
Some benefits of maintaining the split include:
Having an independent barrister reviewing a course of action gives the client a fresh and independent opinion from an expert in the field distinct from solicitors who may maintain ongoing and long-term relationships with the client.
In many jurisdictions, judges are appointed from the bar (members of the profession of barrister within a given jurisdiction). Since barristers do not have long-term client relationships and are further removed from clients than solicitors, judicial appointees are more independent.
Having recourse to all of the specialist barristers at the bar can enable smaller firms, who could not maintain large specialist departments, to compete with larger firms.
A barrister acts as a check on the solicitor conducting the trial; if it becomes apparent that the claim or defence has not been properly conducted by the solicitor prior to trial, the barrister can (and usually has a duty to) advise the client of a separate possible claim against the solicitor.
Expertise in conducting trials, owing to the fact that barristers are specialist advocates.
In many jurisdictions, barristers must follow the cab-rank rule, which obliges them to accept a brief if it is in their area of expertise and if they are available, facilitating access to justice for the unpopular.
Some disadvantages of the split include:
A multiplicity of legal advisers can lead to less efficiency and higher costs.
Because they are further removed from the client, barristers can be less familiar with the client's needs.
Regulation
Barristers are regulated by the Bar for the jurisdiction where they practise, and in some countries, by the Inn of Court to which they belong. In some countries, there is external regulation.
Inns of Court, where they exist, regulate admission to the profession. Inns of Court are independent societies that are responsible for the training, admission, and discipline of barristers. Where they exist, a person may only be called to the bar by an Inn, of which they must be a member. Historically, call to and success at the bar, to a large degree, depended upon social connections made early in life.
A bar collectively describes all members of the profession of barrister within a given jurisdiction. While as a minimum the bar is an association embracing all its members, it is usually the case, either de facto or de jure, that the bar is invested with regulatory powers over the manner in which barristers practise.
Barristers around the world
In the common law tradition, the respective roles of a lawyer, as legal adviser and advocate, were formally split into two separate, regulated sub-professions. Historically, the distinction was absolute, but in the modern age, some countries that had a split legal profession now have a fused profession. In practice, the distinction in split jurisdictions may be minor, or marked. In some jurisdictions, such as Australia, Scotland and Ireland, there is little overlap.
Australia
In the Australian states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, there is a split profession. Nevertheless, subject to conditions, barristers can accept direct access work from clients. Each state Bar Association regulates the profession and essentially has the functions of the English Inns of Court. In the states of South Australia and Western Australia, as well as the Australian Capital Territory, the professions of barrister and solicitor are fused, but an independent bar nonetheless exists, regulated by the Legal Practice Board of the state or territory. In Tasmania and the Northern Territory, the profession is fused, although a very small number of practitioners operate as an independent bar.
Generally, counsel dress in the traditional English manner (wig, gown, bar jacket and jabot) before superior courts, although this is not usually done for interlocutory applications. Wigs and robes are still worn in the Supreme Court and the District Court in civil matters and are dependent on the judicial officer's attire. Robes and wigs are worn in all criminal cases. In Western Australia, wigs are no longer worn in any court.
Each year, the Bar Association appoints certain barristers of seniority and eminence to the rank of "Senior Counsel" (in most States and Territories) or "King's Counsel" (in the Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia). Such barristers carry the title "SC" or "KC" after their name. The appointments are made after a process of consultation with members of the profession and the judiciary. Senior Counsel appear in particularly complex or difficult cases. They make up about 14 per cent of the bar in New South Wales.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, the law relating to barristers is the Bangladesh Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Order as administered and enforced by the Bangladesh Bar Council. The Bar Council is the supreme statutory body that regulates the legal professions in Bangladesh and ensures educational standards and regulatory compliance of advocates. Newly enrolled advocates are permitted to start practice in the district courts after admission. After two years of practice, advocates may apply to practice in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh by passing the Bar Council Examination. Only advocates who are barristers in the United Kingdom may use the title of barrister.
Canada
In Canada (except Quebec), the professions of barrister and solicitor are fused, and many lawyers refer to themselves with both names, even if they do not practise in both areas. In colloquial parlance within the Canadian legal profession, lawyers often term themselves as "litigators" (or "barristers"), or as "solicitors", depending on the nature of their law practice though some may in effect practise as both litigators and solicitors. However, "litigators" would generally perform all litigation functions traditionally performed by barristers and solicitors; in contrast, those terming themselves "solicitors" would generally limit themselves to legal work not involving practice before the courts (not even in a preparatory manner as performed by solicitors in England), though some might practise before chambers judges. As is the practice in many other Commonwealth jurisdictions such as Australia, Canadian litigators are gowned, but without a wig, when appearing before courts of superior jurisdiction. All law graduates from Canadian law schools, and certified internationally-qualified lawyers, can apply to the relevant provincial law society for admission. A year of articling as a student supervised by a qualified lawyer and the passing of provincial bar exams are also required for an individual to be called to bar as a barrister and solicitor.
The situation is somewhat different in Quebec as a result of its civil law tradition. The profession of solicitor, or avoué, never took hold in colonial Quebec, so attorneys (avocats) have traditionally been a fused profession, arguing and preparing cases in contentious matters, whereas Quebec's other type of lawyer, civil-law notaries (notaires), handle out-of-court non-contentious matters. However, a number of areas of non-contentious private law are not monopolised by notaries so that attorneys often specialise in handling either trials, cases, advising, or non-trial matters. The only disadvantage is that attorneys cannot draw up public instruments that have the same force of law as notarial acts. Most large law firms in Quebec offer the full range of legal services of law firms in common-law provinces. Intending Quebec attorneys must earn a bachelor's degree in civil law, pass the provincial bar examination, and successfully complete a legal internship to be admitted to practice. Attorneys are regulated by the Quebec Law Society (Barreau du Québec).
France
In France, avocats, or attorneys, were, until the 20th century, the equivalent of barristers. The profession included several grades ranked by seniority: avocat-stagiaire (trainee, who was already qualified but needed to complete two years (or more, depending on the period) of training alongside seasoned lawyers), avocat, and avocat honoraire (emeritus barrister). Since the 14th century and during the course of the 19th and 20th in particular, French barristers competed in territorial battles over respective areas of legal practice against the conseil juridique (legal advisor, transactional solicitor) and avoué (procedural solicitor), and expanded to become the generalist legal practitioner, with the notable exception of notaires (notaries), who are ministry appointed lawyers (with a separate qualification) and who retain exclusivity over conveyancing and probate. After the 1971 and 1990 legal reforms, the avocat was fused with the avoué and the conseil juridique, making the avocat (or, if female, avocate) an all-purpose lawyer for matters of contentious jurisdiction, analogous to an American attorney. French attorneys usually do not (although it they are entitled to) act both as litigators (trial lawyers) and legal consultants (advising lawyers), known respectively as avocat plaidant and avocat-conseil. This distinction is however purely informal and does not correspond to any difference in qualification or admission to the roll. All intending attorneys must pass an examination to be able to enrol in one of the Centre régional de formation à la profession d'avocat (CRFPA) (Regional centre for the training of lawyers). The CRFPA course has a duration of two years and is a mix between classroom teachings and internships. Its culmination is the stage final (final training), where the intending attorney spends six months in a law firm (generally in their favoured field of practice and in a firm in which they hope to be recruited afterwards). The intending attorney then needs to pass the Certificat d'Aptitude à la Profession d'Avocat (CAPA), which is the last professional examination allowing them to join a court's bar (barreau). It is generally recognised that the first examination is much more difficult than the CAPA and is dreaded by most law students. Each bar is regulated by a Bar Council (Ordre du barreau).
A separate body of barristers exists called the avocats au Conseil d'Etat et à la Cour de Cassation. Although their legal background, training and status is the same as the all-purpose avocats, these have a monopoly over litigation taken to the supreme courts, in civil, criminal or administrative matters.
Germany
In Germany, no distinction between barristers and solicitors is made. Lawyers may plead at all courts except the civil branch of the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof), to which fewer than fifty lawyers are admitted. Those lawyers, who deal almost exclusively with litigation, may not plead at other courts and are usually instructed by a lawyer who represented the client in the lower courts. However, these restrictions do not apply to criminal cases, nor to pleadings at courts of the other court systems, including labour, administrative, taxation, and social courts and the European Union court system.
Hong Kong
The legal profession in Hong Kong is also divided into two branches: barristers and solicitors.
In the High Court (including both the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal) and the Court of Final Appeal, as a general rule, only barristers and solicitor-advocates are allowed to speak on behalf of any party in open court. This means that solicitors are restricted from doing so. In these two courts, save for hearings in chambers, barristers dress in the traditional English manner, as do the judges and other lawyers.
In Hong Kong, the rank of King's Counsel was granted prior to the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China in 1997. After the handover, the rank has been replaced by Senior Counsel post-nominal letters: SC. Senior Counsel may still, however, style themselves as silks, like their British counterparts.
India
In India, the law relating to barristers is the Advocates Act, 1961, which is administered and enforced by the Bar Council of India. Under the act, the Council is the supreme regulatory body for the legal profession in India, ensuring the compliance of the laws and maintenance of professional standards by the legal profession in the country. The Council is authorised to pass regulations and make orders in individual cases.
Each state has a bar council whose function is to enrol barristers practising predominantly within that state. Each barrister must be enrolled with a single state bar council to practise in India. However, this does not restrict a barrister from appearing before any court in India.
For all practical and legal purposes, the Bar Council of India retains with it, the final power to take decisions in any and all matters related to the legal profession on the whole or with respect to any
There are two requirements to practise in India. First, the applicant must be a holder of a law degree from a recognised institution in India (or from one of the four recognised universities in the United Kingdom). Second, they must pass the enrolment qualifications of the bar council of the state they seek to be enrolled in. Through regulation, the Bar Council of India also ensures the standard of education required for practising in India is met with.
A barrister is required to maintain certain standards of conduct and professional demeanour at all times. The Bar Council of India prescribes rules of conduct to be observed by the Barristers in the courts, while interacting with clients and in non-professional settings.
Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland, admission to the Bar by the Chief Justice of Ireland is restricted to those on whom a Barrister-at-Law degree (BL) has first been conferred. The Honorable Society of King's Inns is the only educational establishment which runs vocational courses for barristers in the Republic and degrees of Barrister-at-Law can only be conferred by King's Inns. King's Inns are also the only body with the capacity to call individuals to the bar and to disbar them.
Most Irish barristers choose to be governed thereafter by the Bar of Ireland, a quasi-private entity. Senior members of the profession may be selected for elevation to the Inner Bar, when they may describe themselves as Senior Counsel ("SC"). All barristers who have not been called to the Inner Bar are known as Junior Counsel (and are identified by the postnominal initials "BL"), regardless of age or experience. Admission to the Inner Bar is made by declaration before the Supreme Court, patents of precedence having been granted by the Government. Irish barristers are sole practitioners and may not form chambers or partnerships if they wish to remain members of the Bar of Ireland's Law Library.
To practise under the Bar of Ireland's rules, a newly-qualified barrister is apprenticed to an experienced barrister of at least seven years' experience. This apprenticeship is known as pupillage or devilling. Devilling is compulsory for those barristers who wish to be members of the Law Library and lasts for one legal year. It is common to devil for a second year in a less formal arrangement but this is not compulsory. Devils are not generally paid for their work in their devilling year.
Israel
In Israel, there is no distinction between barristers and solicitors.
Japan
Japan adopts a unified system. However, there are certain classes of qualified professionals who are allowed to practise in certain limited areas of law, such as scriveners (shiho shoshi, qualified to handle title registration, deposit, and certain petite court proceedings with additional certification), tax accountants (zeirishi, qualified to prepare tax returns, provide advice on tax computation and represent a client in administrative tax appeals) and patent agents ("benrishi", qualified to practise patent registration and represent a client in administrative patent appeals). Only the lawyers (bengoshi) can appear before the court and are qualified to practise in any areas of law, including, but not limited to, areas that those qualified law-related professionals above are allowed to practise. Most attorneys still focus primarily on court practice and still a very small number of attorneys give sophisticated and expert legal advice on a day-to-day basis to large corporations.
Netherlands
The Netherlands used to have a semi-separated legal profession comprising the lawyer and the procureur, the latter resembling, to some extent, the profession of barrister. Under that system, lawyers were entitled to represent their clients in law, but were only able to file cases before the court at which they were registered. Cases falling under the jurisdiction of another court had to be filed by a procureur registered at that court, in practice often another lawyer exercising both functions. Questions were raised on the necessity of the separation, given the fact that its main purpose – the preservation of the quality of the legal profession and observance of local court rules and customs – had become obsolete. For that reason, the procureur as a separate profession was abolished and its functions merged with the legal profession in 2008. Currently, lawyers can file cases before any court, regardless of where they are registered. The only notable exception concerns civil cases brought before the Supreme Court, which have to be handled by lawyers registered at the Supreme Court, thus gaining from it the title "lawyer at the Supreme Court".
New Zealand
In New Zealand, the professions are not formally fused but practitioners are enrolled in the High Court as "Barristers and Solicitors". They may choose, however, to practise as barristers sole. About 15% practise solely as barristers, mainly in the larger cities and usually in "chambers" (following the British terminology). They receive "instructions" from other practitioners, at least nominally. They usually conduct the proceedings in their entirety.
Any lawyer may apply to become a King's Counsel (KC) to recognise the long-standing contribution to the legal profession but this status is only conferred on those practising as solicitors in exceptional circumstances. This step referred to as "being called to the inner bar" or "taking silk", is considered highly prestigious and has been a step in the career of many New Zealand judges.
Unlike other jurisdictions, the term "junior barrister" is popularly used to refer to a lawyer who holds a practising certificate as a barrister, but is employed by another, more senior barrister. Generally, junior barristers are within their first five years of practise and are not yet qualified to practise as barristers sole. Barristers sole (i.e. barristers who are not employed by another barrister) who are not King's Counsel are never referred to as junior barristers.
Nigeria
In Nigeria, there is no formal distinction between barristers and solicitors. All students who pass the bar examinations – offered exclusively by the Nigerian Law School – are called to the Nigerian bar, by the Body of Benchers. Lawyers may argue in any Federal trial or appellate court as well as any of the courts in Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The Legal Practitioner's Act refers to Nigerian lawyers as Legal Practitioners, and following their call to the Bar, Nigerian lawyers enter their names in the register or Roll of Legal Practitioners kept at the Supreme Court. Perhaps, for this reason, a Nigerian lawyer is also often referred to as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and many Nigerian lawyers term themselves Barrister-at-Law complete with the postnominal initials "B.L.".
The vast majority of Nigerian lawyers combine contentious and non-contentious work, although there is a growing tendency for practitioners in the bigger practices to specialise in one or the other. In colloquial parlance within the Nigerian legal profession, lawyers may, for this reason, be referred to as "litigators" or as "solicitors".
Consistent with the practice in England and elsewhere in the Commonwealth, senior members of the profession may be selected for elevation to the Inner Bar by the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Pakistan
The profession in Pakistan is fused; an advocate works both as a barrister and a solicitor, with higher rights of audience being provided. To practice as a barrister in Pakistan, a law graduate must complete three steps: pass the Bar Practice and Training Course (BPTC), be called to the Bar by Provincial Bar Council, and attain a licence to practice as an advocate in the [courts of Pakistan from the relevant Bar Council, provincial or federal.
Poland
In Poland, there are two main types of legal professions: advocate and legal counsel. Both are regulated and these professions are restricted only for people who graduated five-year law studies, have at least three years of experience and passed five difficult national exams (civil law, criminal law, company law, administrative law and ethic) or have a doctor of law degree. Before 2015, the only difference was that advocates have a right to represent clients before the court in all cases and the legal advisors could not represent clients before the court in criminal cases. Presently, the legal advisors can also represent clients in criminal cases so currently, the differences between this professions are only historical significance.
South Africa
In South Africa the employment and practise of advocates (as barristers are known in South Africa) is consistent with the rest of the Commonwealth. Advocates carry the rank of Junior or Senior Counsel (SC), and are mostly briefed and paid by solicitors (known as attorneys). They are usually employed in the higher courts, particularly in the Appeal Courts where they often appear as specialist counsel. South African solicitors (attorneys) follow a practice of referring cases to Counsel for an opinion before proceeding with a case, when Counsel in question practises as a specialist in the case law at stake. Aspiring advocates currently spend one year in pupillage (formerly only six months) before being admitted to the bar in their respective provincial or judicial jurisdictions. The term "Advocate" is sometimes used in South Africa as a title, e. g. "Advocate John Doe, SC" (Advokaat in Afrikaans) in the same fashion as "Dr. John Doe" for a medical doctor.
South Korea
In South Korea, there is no distinction between the judiciary and lawyers. Previously, a person who has passed the national bar exam after two years of national education is able to become a judge, prosecutor, or "lawyer" in accordance to their grades upon graduation. As a result of changes from implementing an accommodated law school system, there are two standard means of becoming a lawyer. Under the current legal system, to be a judge or a prosecutor, lawyers need to practise their legal knowledge. A "lawyer" does not have any limitation of practice.
Spain
Spain has a division but it does not correspond to the division in Britain between barristers/advocates and solicitors. Procuradores represent the litigant procedurally in court, generally under the authority of a power of attorney executed by a civil law notary, while abogados represent the substantive claims of the litigant through trial advocacy. Abogados perform both transactional work and advise in connection with court proceedings, and they have full right of audience in front of the court. The court proceeding is carried out with abogados, not with procuradores. In a nutshell, procuradores are court agents that operate under the instructions of an abogado. Their practice is confined to the locality of the court to which they are admitted.
United Kingdom
Under EU law, barristers, along with advocates, chartered legal executives and solicitors, are recognised as lawyers.
England and Wales
Although with somewhat different laws, England and Wales are considered within the United Kingdom a single united and unified legal jurisdiction for the purposes of both civil and criminal law, alongside Scotland and Northern Ireland, the other two legal jurisdictions within the United Kingdom. England and Wales are covered by a common bar and a single law society.
The profession of barrister in England and Wales is a separate profession from that of solicitor. It is, however, possible to hold the qualification of both barrister and solicitor, and/or chartered legal executive at the same time. It is not necessary to leave the bar to qualify as a solicitor.
Barristers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board, a division of the General Council of the Bar. A barrister must be a member of one of the Inns of Court, which traditionally educated and regulated barristers. There are four Inns of Court: The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, and The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. All are situated in central London, near the Royal Courts of Justice. They perform scholastic and social roles, and in all cases, provide financial aid to student barristers (subject to merit) through scholarships. It is the Inns that actually call the student to the bar at a ceremony similar to a graduation. Social functions include dining with other members and guests and hosting other events.
Law graduates wishing to work and be known as barristers must take a course of professional training (known as the "vocational component") at one of the institutions approved by the Bar Council. Until late 2020 this course was exclusively the Bar Professional Training Course, but since then the approved training offer was broadened to would-be barristers via a number of different courses, such as the new Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court College of Advocacy. On successful completion of the vocational component, student barristers are called to the bar by their respective inns and are elevated to the degree of barrister. However, before they can practise independently they must first undertake 12 months of pupillage. The first six months (the "non-practising period") are spent shadowing more senior practitioners, after which pupil barristers may begin to undertake some court work of their own (the "practising period"). Following successful completion of this stage, most barristers then join a set of Chambers, a group of counsel who share the costs of premises and support staff whilst remaining individually self-employed.
There are approximately 17,000 barristers, of whom about ten per cent are King's Counsel and about 4,000 are "young barristers"" (i.e., under seven years' Call). In April 2023, there were 13,800 barristers in self-employed practice. In 2022, there were about 3,100 employed barristers working in companies as in-house counsel, or in local or national government, academic institutions, or the armed forces.
Certain barristers in England and Wales are now instructed directly by members of the public. Members of the public may engage the services of the barrister directly within the framework of the Public Access Scheme; a solicitor is not involved at any stage. Barristers undertaking public access work can provide legal advice and representation in court in almost all areas of law and are entitled to represent clients in any court or tribunal in England and Wales. Once instructions from a client are accepted, it is the barrister who advises and guides the client through the relevant legal procedure or litigation.
Before a barrister can undertake Public Access work, they must have completed a special course. At present, about one in 20 barristers has so qualified. There is also a separate scheme called "Licensed Access", available to certain nominated classes of professional client. It is not open to the general public. Public access work is experiencing a huge surge at the bar, with barristers taking advantage of the new opportunity for the bar to make profit in the face of legal aid cuts elsewhere in the profession.
The ability of barristers to accept such instructions is a recent development; it results from a change in the rules set down by the General Council of the Bar in July 2004. The Public Access Scheme has been introduced as part of the drive to open up the legal system to the public and to make it easier and cheaper to obtain access to legal advice. It further reduces the distinction between solicitors and barristers. The distinction remains however because there are certain aspects of a solicitor's role that a barrister is not able to undertake.
Historically a barrister might use the honorific, Esquire. Even though the term barrister-at-law is sometimes seen, and was once very common, it has never been formally correct in England and Wales. Barrister is the only correct nomenclature.
Barristers are expected to maintain very high standards of professional conduct. The objective of the barristers code of conduct is to avoid dominance by either the barrister or the client and the client being enabled to make informed decisions in a supportive atmosphere and, in turn, the client expects (implicitly and/or explicitly) the barrister to uphold their duties, namely by acting in the client's best interests (CD2), acting with honesty and integrity (CD3), keeping the client's affairs confidential (CD6) and working to a competent standard (CD7). These core duties (CDs) are a few, among others, that are enshrined in the BSB Handbook.
Northern Ireland
In April 2003 there were 554 barristers in independent practice in Northern Ireland. 66 were King's Counsel (KCs), barristers who have earned a high reputation and are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor as senior advocates and advisers.
Those barristers who are not KCs are called Junior Counsel and are styled "BL" or "Barrister-at-Law". The term junior is often misleading since many members of the Junior Bar are experienced barristers with considerable expertise.
Benchers are, and have been for centuries, the governing bodies of the four Inns of Court in London and King's Inns, Dublin. The Benchers of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland governed the Inn until the enactment of the Constitution of the Inn in 1983, which provides that the government of the Inn is shared between the Benchers, the Executive Council of the Inn and members of the Inn assembled in General Meeting.
The Executive Council (through its Education Committee) is responsible for considering Memorials submitted by applicants for admission as students of the Inn and by Bar students of the Inn for admission to the degree of Barrister-at-Law and making recommendations to the Benchers. The final decisions on these Memorials are taken by the Benchers. The Benchers also have the exclusive power of expelling or suspending a Bar student and of disbarring a barrister or suspending a barrister from practice.
The Executive Council is also involved with: education; fees of students; calling counsel to the Bar, although call to the Bar is performed by the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland on the invitation of the Benchers; administration of the Bar Library (to which all practising members of the Bar belong); and liaising with corresponding bodies in other countries.
Scotland
In Scotland, an advocate is, in all respects except name, a barrister, but there are significant differences in professional practice. Admission to and the conduct of the profession is regulated by the Faculty of Advocates (as opposed to an Inn).
Crown dependencies and UK Overseas Territories
Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey
In the Bailiwick of Jersey, there are solicitors (called ecrivains) and advocates (French avocat). In the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey and on the Isle of Man, Advocates perform the combined functions of both solicitors and barristers.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory boasting a legal profession based on the common law. The legal profession includes both barristers and solicitors with most barristers also acting as solicitors. Admission and disciplinary matters in Gibraltar are dealt with by the Bar Council of Gibraltar and the Supreme Court of Gibraltar. In order for barristers or solicitors to be admitted as practising lawyers in Gibraltar they must comply with the Supreme Court Act 1930 as amended by the Supreme Court Amendment Act 2015 which requires, amongst other things, for all newly admitted lawyers as of 1 July 2015 to undertake a year's course in Gibraltar law at the University of Gibraltar. Solicitors also have right of audience in Gibraltar's courts.
United States
The United States does not distinguish between lawyers as barristers and solicitors. Any American lawyer who has passed a bar examination and has been admitted to practice law in a particular U.S. jurisdiction may prosecute or defend. The barrister–solicitor distinction existed historically in some U.S. states, which had a separate label for barristers (called "counselors", hence the expression "attorney and counselor at law"). But both professions have long since been fused.
Additionally, some state appellate courts require attorneys to obtain a separate certificate of admission to plead and practice in the appellate court. Federal courts require specific admission to that court's bar to practice before it. At the state appellate level and in federal courts, there is generally no separate examination process, although some U.S. district courts require an examination on practices and procedures in their specific courts. Unless an examination is required, admission is usually granted as a matter of course to any licensed attorney in the state where the court is located. Some federal courts will grant admission to any attorney licensed in any U.S. jurisdiction.
Popular culture
Rumpole of the Bailey (UK) – classic courtroom series
Kavanagh Q.C. (1995–2001) (UK)
North Square (2000) (UK) – Channel 4 court drama series contains interactions between barristers and solicitors
Bridget Jones's Diary (1996 book and 2001 film) – A major character, Mark Darcy, is described as a "top barrister"
A Fish Called Wanda (1988) – John Cleese's character, Archie Leach, is a barrister who, in defending a hapless jewel thief, becomes entangled in the crime
Silk (2011–2014) (UK) – BBC court drama series
Rake (2010–2016) – Australian TV series based on the story of a colourful barrister
Sydney Carton – central character, a barrister, in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Witness for the Prosecution, in which the central character is the barrister Sir Wilfred Robards, QC
Arnold Timsh – Target in The Knife of Dunwall, an expansion on the video game Dishonored
Barrister Babu (2020) – Indian social drama TV series on Colors TV
The Munchkin Barrister (1987) – A character with a featured role in the Wizard of Oz Musical (RSC)
See also
Bar (law)
Barristers' Ball
Legal professions in England and Wales
Revising Barrister
Serjeant-at-law
Special Pleader
References
Further reading
Abel, Richard L. The Making of the English Legal Profession: 1800-1988 (1998), 576pp
Lemmings, David. Gentlemen and Barristers: The Inns of Court and the English Bar, 1680-1730 (Oxford 1990)
Levack, Brian. The civil lawyers (Oxford 1973)
Prest, Wilfrid. The Inns of Court (1972)
Prest, Wilfrid. The Rise of the Barristers (1986)
External links
Hong Kong Bar Association (barristers in Hong Kong)
Canadian Bar Association
Australia
Australian Bar Association (barristers in the Commonwealth of Australia)
New South Wales Bar Association
The Victorian Bar (Australia)
Queensland Bar Association (Australia)
South Australian Bar Association (Australia)
Western Australian Bar Association (Australia)
The Northern Territory Bar Association (Australia)
UK and Ireland
The Barrister magazine
The Inner Temple
Bar Council (barristers in England and Wales)
Bar Library of Northern Ireland
Faculty of Advocates in Scotland
The Bar of Ireland
The difference between barristers and solicitors
Advice on structure and training for the Bar
Common law
Law of the United Kingdom
Legal professions |
4849 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle%20of%20Gettysburg | Battle of Gettysburg | The Battle of Gettysburg () was a battle in the American Civil War fought by Union and Confederate forces between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
In the Battle of Gettysburg, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, halting Lee's invasion of the North and forcing his retreat. The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war's turning point, due to the Union's decisive victory and its almost simultaneous concurrence with the victorious conclusion of the Siege of Vicksburg.
After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863, Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley to begin his second invasion of the North—the Gettysburg Campaign. With his army in high spirits, Lee intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war-ravaged northern Virginia and hoped to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war by penetrating as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even Philadelphia. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Major General Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved of command just three days before the battle and replaced by Meade.
Elements of the two armies initially collided at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there, his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it. Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brigadier General John Buford, and soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry. However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of the town to the hills just to the south. On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard. On the Union right, Confederate demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. All across the battlefield, despite significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines.
On the third day of battle, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by around 12,000 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge. The charge was repelled by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great loss to the Confederate army. Lee led his army on the torturous Retreat from Gettysburg to Virginia. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle, the most costly in US history. On November 19, President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor the fallen Union soldiers and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.
Background
Military situation
Shortly after the Army of Northern Virginia won a major victory over the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30 – May 6, 1863), General Robert E. Lee decided upon a second invasion of the North (the first was the unsuccessful Maryland campaign of September 1862, which ended in the bloody Battle of Antietam). Such a move would upset the Union's plans for the summer campaigning season and possibly reduce the pressure on the besieged Confederate garrison at Vicksburg. The invasion would allow the Confederates to live off the bounty of the rich Northern farms while giving war-ravaged Virginia a much-needed rest. In addition, Lee's 72,000-man army could threaten Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and possibly strengthen the growing peace movement in the North.
Initial movements to battle
Thus, on June 3, Lee's army began to shift northward from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Following the death of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Lee reorganized his two large corps into three new corps, commanded by Lieutenant General James Longstreet (First Corps), Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell (Second), and Lieutenant General A.P. Hill (Third); both Ewell and Hill, who had formerly reported to Jackson as division commanders, were new to this level of responsibility. The cavalry division remained under the command of Major General J.E.B. Stuart.
The Union Army of the Potomac under Major General Joseph Hooker consisted of seven infantry corps, a cavalry corps, and an artillery reserve, for a combined strength of more than 100,000 men.
The first major action of the campaign took place on June 9 between cavalry forces at Brandy Station, near Culpeper, Virginia. The 9,500 Confederate cavalrymen under Stuart were surprised by Major General Alfred Pleasonton's combined arms force of two cavalry divisions (8,000 troopers) and 3,000 infantry, but Stuart eventually repelled the Union attack. The inconclusive battle, the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the war, proved for the first time that the Union horse soldier was equal to his Southern counterpart.
By mid-June, the Army of Northern Virginia was poised to cross the Potomac River and enter Maryland. After defeating the Union garrisons at Winchester and Martinsburg, Ewell's Second Corps began crossing the river on June 15. Hill's and Longstreet's corps followed on June 24 and 25. Hooker's army pursued, keeping between Washington, D.C., and Lee's army. The Union army crossed the Potomac from June 25 to 27.
Lee gave strict orders for his army to minimize any negative effects on the civilian population. Food, horses, and other supplies were generally not seized outright unless a citizen concealed property, although quartermasters reimbursing Northern farmers and merchants with Confederate money which was virtually worthless or with equally worthless promissory notes were not well received. Various towns, most notably York, Pennsylvania, were required to pay indemnities in lieu of supplies, under threat of destruction. During the invasion, the Confederates seized between 40 and nearly 60 northern African Americans. A few of them were escaped fugitive slaves, but many were freemen; all were sent south into slavery under guard.
On June 26, elements of Major General Jubal Early's division of Ewell's corps occupied the town of Gettysburg after chasing off newly raised Pennsylvania militia in a series of minor skirmishes. Early laid the borough under tribute, but did not collect any significant supplies. Soldiers burned several railroad cars and a covered bridge, and destroyed nearby rails and telegraph lines. The following morning, Early departed for adjacent York County.
Meanwhile, in a controversial move, Lee allowed Stuart to take a portion of the army's cavalry and ride around the east flank of the Union army. Lee's orders gave Stuart much latitude, and both generals share the blame for the long absence of Stuart's cavalry, as well as for the failure to assign a more active role to the cavalry left with the army. Stuart and his three best brigades were absent from the army during the crucial phase of the approach to Gettysburg and the first two days of battle. By June 29, Lee's army was strung out in an arc from Chambersburg ( northwest of Gettysburg) to Carlisle ( north of Gettysburg) to near Harrisburg and Wrightsville on the Susquehanna River.
In a dispute over the use of the forces defending the Harpers Ferry garrison, Hooker offered his resignation, and Abraham Lincoln and General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck, who were looking for an excuse to rid themselves of him, immediately accepted. They replaced Hooker early on the morning of June 28 with Major General George Gordon Meade, then commander of the V Corps.
On June 29, when Lee learned that the Army of the Potomac had crossed the Potomac River, he ordered a concentration of his forces around Cashtown, located at the eastern base of South Mountain and west of Gettysburg. On June 30, while part of Hill's corps was in Cashtown, one of Hill's brigades (North Carolinians under Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew) ventured toward Gettysburg. In his memoirs, Major General Henry Heth, Pettigrew's division commander, claimed that he sent Pettigrew to search for supplies in town—especially shoes.
When Pettigrew's troops approached Gettysburg on June 30, they noticed Union cavalry under Major General John Buford arriving south of town, and Pettigrew returned to Cashtown without engaging them. When Pettigrew told Hill and Heth what he had seen, neither general believed that there was a substantial Union force in or near the town, suspecting that it had been only Pennsylvania militia. Despite Lee's order to avoid a general engagement until his entire army was concentrated, Hill decided to mount a significant reconnaissance in force the following morning to determine the size and strength of the enemy force in his front. Around 5a.m. on Wednesday, July 1, two brigades of Heth's division advanced to Gettysburg.
Opposing forces
Union
The Army of the Potomac, initially under Hooker (Meade replaced Hooker in command on June 28), consisted of more than 100,000 men in the following organization:
I Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gen. James S. Wadsworth, Brig. Gen. John C. Robinson, and Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday.
II Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gens. John C. Caldwell, John Gibbon, and Alexander Hays.
III Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles, with divisions commanded by Maj. Gen. David B. Birney and Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys.
V Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Sykes (George G. Meade until June 28), with divisions commanded by Brig. Gens. James Barnes, Romeyn B. Ayres, and Samuel W. Crawford.
VI Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, Brig. Gen. Albion P. Howe, and Maj. Gen. John Newton.
XI Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gen. Francis C. Barlow, Brig. Gen. Adolph von Steinwehr, and Maj. Gen. Carl Schurz.
XII Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gens. Alpheus S. Williams and John W. Geary.
Cavalry Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, with divisions commanded by Brig. Gens. John Buford, David McM. Gregg, and H. Judson Kilpatrick.
Artillery Reserve, commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert O. Tyler. (The preeminent artillery officer at Gettysburg was Brig. Gen. Henry Jackson Hunt, chief of artillery on Meade's staff.)
During the advance on Gettysburg, Reynolds was in operational command of the left, or advanced, wing of the Army, consisting of the I, III, and XI Corps. Many other Union units (not part of the Army of the Potomac) were actively involved in the Gettysburg Campaign, but not directly involved in the Battle of Gettysburg. These included portions of the Union IV Corps, the militia and state troops of the Department of the Susquehanna, and various garrisons, including that at Harpers Ferry.
Confederate
In reaction to the death of Jackson after Chancellorsville, Lee reorganized his Army of Northern Virginia (75,000 men) from two infantry corps into three.
First Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, with divisions commanded by Maj. Gens. Lafayette McLaws, George Pickett, and John Bell Hood.
Second Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, with divisions commanded by Maj. Gens. Jubal A. Early, Edward "Allegheny" Johnson, and Robert E. Rodes.
Third Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill, with divisions commanded by Maj. Gens. Richard H. Anderson, Henry Heth, and W. Dorsey Pender.
Cavalry division, commanded by Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, with brigades commanded by Brig. Gens. Wade Hampton, Fitzhugh Lee, Beverly H. Robertson, Albert G. Jenkins, William E. "Grumble" Jones, and John D. Imboden, and Col. John R. Chambliss.
First day of battle
Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge
Anticipating that the Confederates would march on Gettysburg from the west on the morning of July 1, Buford laid out his defenses on three ridges west of the town: Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge. These were appropriate terrain for a delaying action by his small cavalry division against superior Confederate infantry forces, meant to buy time awaiting the arrival of Union infantrymen who could occupy the strong defensive positions south of town at Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and Culp's Hill. Buford understood that if the Confederates could gain control of these heights, Meade's army would have difficulty dislodging them.
Heth's division advanced with two brigades forward, commanded by brigadier generals James J. Archer and Joseph R. Davis. They proceeded easterly in columns along the Chambersburg Pike. west of town, about 7:30 a.m. on July 1, the two brigades met light resistance from vedettes of Union cavalry, and deployed into line. According to lore, the Union soldier to fire the first shot of the battle was Lt. Marcellus Jones. Eventually Heth's men encountered dismounted troopers of Col. William Gamble's cavalry brigade. The dismounted troopers resisted stoutly, delaying the Confederate advance with most firing their breech-loading Sharp's carbines from behind fences and trees. (A small number of troopers had other carbine models. A small minority of historians have written that some troopers had Spencer repeating carbines or Spencer repeating rifles but most sources disagree.) Still, by 10:20 a.m., the Confederates had pushed the Union cavalrymen east to McPherson Ridge, when the vanguard of the I Corps (Major General John F. Reynolds) finally arrived.
North of the pike, Davis gained a temporary success against Brigadier General Lysander Cutler's brigade but was repelled with heavy losses in an action around an unfinished railroad bed cut in the ridge. South of the pike, Archer's brigade assaulted through Herbst (also known as McPherson's) Woods. The Union Iron Brigade under Brigadier General Solomon Meredith enjoyed initial success against Archer, capturing several hundred men, including Archer himself.
General Reynolds was shot and killed early in the fighting while directing troop and artillery placements just to the east of the woods. Shelby Foote wrote that the Union cause lost a man considered by many to be "the best general in the army". Major General Abner Doubleday assumed command. Fighting in the Chambersburg Pike area lasted until about 12:30 p.m. It resumed around 2:30 p.m., when Heth's entire division engaged, adding the brigades of Pettigrew and Col. John M. Brockenbrough.
As Pettigrew's North Carolina Brigade came on line, they flanked the 19th Indiana and drove the Iron Brigade back. The 26th North Carolina (the largest regiment in the army with 839 men) lost heavily, leaving the first day's fight with around 212 men. By the end of the three-day battle, they had about 152 men standing, the highest casualty percentage for one battle of any regiment, North or South. Slowly the Iron Brigade was pushed out of the woods toward Seminary Ridge. Hill added Major General William Dorsey Pender's division to the assault, and the I Corps was driven back through the grounds of the Lutheran Seminary and Gettysburg streets.
As the fighting to the west proceeded, two divisions of Ewell's Second Corps, marching west toward Cashtown in accordance with Lee's order for the army to concentrate in that vicinity, turned south on the Carlisle and Harrisburg roads toward Gettysburg, while the Union XI Corps (Major General Oliver O. Howard) raced north on the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road. By early afternoon, the Union line ran in a semicircle west, north, and northeast of Gettysburg.
However, the Union did not have enough troops; Cutler, whose brigade was deployed north of the Chambersburg Pike, had his right flank in the air. The leftmost division of the XI Corps was unable to deploy in time to strengthen the line, so Doubleday was forced to throw in reserve brigades to salvage his line.
Around 2:00p.m., the Confederate Second Corps divisions of Maj. Gens. Robert E. Rodes and Jubal Early assaulted and out-flanked the Union I and XI Corps positions north and northwest of town. The Confederate brigades of Colonel Edward A. O'Neal and Brigadier General Alfred Iverson suffered severe losses assaulting the I Corps division of Brigadier General John C. Robinson south of Oak Hill. Early's division profited from a blunder by Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow, when he advanced his XI Corps division to Blocher's Knoll (directly north of town and now known as Barlow's Knoll); this represented a salient in the corps line, susceptible to attack from multiple sides, and Early's troops overran Barlow's division, which constituted the right flank of the Union Army's position. Barlow was wounded and captured in the attack.
As Union positions collapsed both north and west of town, Howard ordered a retreat to the high ground south of town at Cemetery Hill, where he had left the division of Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr in reserve. Major General Winfield S. Hancock assumed command of the battlefield, sent by Meade when he heard that Reynolds had been killed. Hancock, commander of the II Corps and Meade's most trusted subordinate, was ordered to take command of the field and to determine whether Gettysburg was an appropriate place for a major battle. Hancock told Howard, "I think this the strongest position by nature upon which to fight a battle that I ever saw." When Howard agreed, Hancock concluded the discussion: "Very well, sir, I select this as the battle-field." Hancock's determination had a morale-boosting effect on the retreating Union soldiers, but he played no direct tactical role on the first day.
General Lee understood the defensive potential to the Union if they held this high ground. He sent orders to Ewell that Cemetery Hill be taken "if practicable". Ewell, who had previously served under Stonewall Jackson, a general well known for issuing peremptory orders, determined such an assault was not practicable and, thus, did not attempt it; this decision is considered by historians to be a great missed opportunity.
The first day at Gettysburg, more significant than simply a prelude to the bloody second and third days, ranks as the 23rd biggest battle of the war by number of troops engaged. About one quarter of Meade's army (22,000 men) and one third of Lee's army (27,000) were engaged.
Second day of battle
Plans and movement to battle
Throughout the evening of July 1 and morning of July 2, most of the remaining infantry of both armies arrived on the field, including the Union II, III, V, VI, and XII Corps. Two of Longstreet's divisions were on the road: Brigadier General George Pickett, had begun the march from Chambersburg, while Brigadier General Evander M. Law had begun the march from Guilford. Both arrived late in the morning. Law completed his march in eleven hours.
The Union line ran from Culp's Hill southeast of the town, northwest to Cemetery Hill just south of town, then south for nearly along Cemetery Ridge, terminating just north of Little Round Top. Most of the XII Corps was on Culp's Hill; the remnants of I and XI Corps defended Cemetery Hill; II Corps covered most of the northern half of Cemetery Ridge; and III Corps was ordered to take up a position to its flank. The shape of the Union line is popularly described as a "fishhook" formation.
The Confederate line paralleled the Union line about to the west on Seminary Ridge, ran east through the town, then curved southeast to a point opposite Culp's Hill. Thus, the Union army had interior lines, while the Confederate line was nearly long.
Lee's battle plan for July 2 called for a general assault of Meade's positions. On the right, Longstreet's First Corps was to position itself to attack the Union left flank, facing northeast astraddle the Emmitsburg Road, and to roll up the Union line. The attack sequence was to begin with Maj. Gens. John Bell Hood's and Lafayette McLaws's divisions, followed by Major General Richard H. Anderson's division of Hill's Third Corps.
On the left, Lee instructed Ewell to position his Second Corps to attack Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill when he heard the gunfire from Longstreet's assault, preventing Meade from shifting troops to bolster his left. Though it does not appear in either his or Lee's Official Report, Ewell claimed years later that Lee had changed the order to simultaneously attack, calling for only a "diversion", to be turned into a full-scale attack if a favorable opportunity presented itself.
Lee's plan, however, was based on faulty intelligence, exacerbated by Stuart's continued absence from the battlefield. Though Lee personally reconnoitered his left during the morning, he did not visit Longstreet's position on the Confederate right. Even so, Lee rejected suggestions that Longstreet move beyond Meade's left and attack the Union flank, capturing the supply trains and effectively blocking Meade's escape route.
Lee did not issue orders for the attack until 11:00 a.m. About noon, General Anderson's advancing troops were discovered by General Sickles's outpost guard and the Third Corps—upon which Longstreet's First Corps was to form—did not get into position until 1:00 p.m.
Hood and McLaws, after their long march, were not yet in position and did not launch their attacks until just after 4p.m. and 5p.m., respectively.
Attacks on the Union left flank
As Longstreet's left division, under Major General Lafayette McLaws, advanced, they unexpectedly found Major General Daniel Sickles's III Corps directly in their path. Sickles had been dissatisfied with the position assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge. Seeing ground better suited for artillery positions to the west—centered at the Sherfy farm's Peach Orchard—he violated orders and advanced his corp to the slightly higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road, moving away from Cemetery Ridge. The new line ran from Devil's Den, northwest to the Peach Orchard, then northeast along the Emmitsburg Road to south of the Codori farm. This created an untenable salient at the Peach Orchard; Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys's division (in position along the Emmitsburg Road) and Major General David B. Birney's division (to the south) were subject to attacks from two sides and were spread out over a longer front than their small corps could defend effectively. The Confederate artillery was ordered to open fire at 3:00 p.m. After failing to attend a meeting at this time of Meade's corps commanders, Meade rode to Sickles's position and demanded an explanation of the situation. Knowing a Confederate attack was imminent and a retreat would be endangered, Meade refused Sickles' offer to withdraw.
Meade was forced to send 20,000 reinforcements: the entire V Corps, Brigadier General John C. Caldwell's division of the II Corps, most of the XII Corps, and portions of the newly arrived VI Corps. Hood's division moved more to the east than intended, losing its alignment with the Emmitsburg Road, attacking Devil's Den and Little Round Top. McLaws, coming in on Hood's left, drove multiple attacks into the thinly stretched III Corps in the Wheatfield and overwhelmed them in Sherfy's Peach Orchard. McLaws's attack eventually reached Plum Run Valley (the "Valley of Death") before being beaten back by the Pennsylvania Reserves division of the V Corps, moving down from Little Round Top. The III Corps was virtually destroyed as a combat unit in this battle, and Sickles's leg was amputated after it was shattered by a cannonball. Caldwell's division was destroyed piecemeal in the Wheatfield. Anderson's division, coming from McLaws's left and starting forward around 6p.m., reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge, but could not hold the position in the face of counterattacks from the II Corps, including an almost suicidal bayonet charge by the 1st Minnesota regiment against a Confederate brigade, ordered in desperation by Hancock to buy time for reinforcements to arrive.
As fighting raged in the Wheatfield and Devil's Den, Colonel Strong Vincent of V Corps had a precarious hold on Little Round Top, an important hill at the extreme left of the Union line. His brigade of four relatively small regiments was able to resist repeated assaults by Law's brigade of Hood's division. Meade's chief engineer, Brigadier General Gouverneur K. Warren, had realized the importance of this position, and dispatched Vincent's brigade, an artillery battery, and the 140th New York to occupy Little Round Top mere minutes before Hood's troops arrived. The defense of Little Round Top with a bayonet charge by the 20th Maine, ordered by Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain and possibly led down the slope by Lieutenant Holman S. Melcher, was one of the most fabled episodes in the Civil War and propelled Chamberlain into prominence after the war.
Attacks on the Union right flank
Ewell interpreted his orders as calling only for a cannonade. His 32 guns, along with A. P. Hill's 55 guns, engaged in a two-hour artillery barrage at extreme range that had little effect. Finally, about six o'clock, Ewell sent orders to each of his division commanders to attack the Union lines in his front.
Major General Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's Division had contemplated an assault on Culp's Hill, but they were still a mile away and had Rock Creek to cross. The few possible crossings would make significant delays. Because of this, only three of Johnson's four brigades moved to the attack. Most of the hill's defenders, the Union XII Corps, had been sent to the left to defend against Longstreet's attacks, leaving only a brigade of New Yorkers under Brigadier General George S. Greene behind strong, newly constructed defensive works. With reinforcements from the I and XI Corps, Greene's men held off the Confederate attackers, though giving up some of the lower earthworks on the lower part of Culp's Hill.
Early was similarly unprepared when he ordered Harry T. Hays's and Isaac E. Avery's brigades to attack the Union XI Corps positions on East Cemetery Hill. Once started, fighting was fierce: Colonel Andrew L. Harris of the Union 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, XI Corps came under a withering attack, losing half his men. Avery was wounded early on, but the Confederates reached the crest of the hill and entered the Union breastworks, capturing one or two batteries. Seeing he was not supported on his right, Hays withdrew. His right was to be supported by Robert E. Rodes's Division, but Rodes—like Early and Johnson—had not been ordered up in preparation for the attack. He had twice as far to travel as Early; by the time he came in contact with the Union skirmish line, Early's troops had already begun to withdraw.
Jeb Stuart and his three cavalry brigades arrived in Gettysburg around noon but had no role in the second day's battle. Brigadier General Wade Hampton's brigade fought a minor engagement with newly promoted 23-year-old Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer's Michigan cavalry near Hunterstown to the northeast of Gettysburg.
Third day of battle
Lee's plan
Lee wished to renew the attack on Friday, July 3, using the same basic plan as the previous day: Longstreet would attack the Union left, while Ewell attacked Culp's Hill. However, before Longstreet was ready, Union XII Corps troops started a dawn artillery bombardment against the Confederates on Culp's Hill in an effort to regain a portion of their lost works. The Confederates attacked, and the second fight for Culp's Hill ended around 11a.m. Harry Pfanz judged that, after some seven hours of bitter combat, "the Union line was intact and held more strongly than before".
Lee was forced to change his plans. Longstreet would command Pickett's Virginia division of his own First Corps, plus six brigades from Hill's Corps, in an attack on the Union II Corps position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Prior to the attack, all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the Union positions would bombard and weaken the enemy's line.
Much has been made over the years of General Longstreet's objections to General Lee's plan. In his memoirs, Longstreet states that he told Lee that there were not enough men to assault the strong left center of the Union line by McLaws's and Hood's divisions reinforced by Pickett's brigades. Longstreet thought the attack would be repulsed and a counterattack would put Union forces between the Confederates and the Potomac River. Longstreet wrote that he said it would take a minimum of thirty thousand men to attack successfully as well as close coordination with other Confederate forces. He noted that only about thirteen thousand men were left in the selected divisions after the first two days of fighting. They would have to walk a mile under heavy artillery and long-range musketry fire. Longstreet states that he further asked Lee: "the strength of the column. He [Lee] stated fifteen thousand. Opinion was then expressed [by Longstreet] that the fifteen thousand men who could make successful assault over that field had never been arrayed for battle; but he was impatient of listening, and tired of talking, and nothing was left but to proceed."
Largest artillery bombardment of the war
Around 1p.m., from 150 to 170 Confederate guns began an artillery bombardment that was probably the largest of the war. In order to save valuable ammunition for the infantry attack that they knew would follow, the Army of the Potomac's artillery, under the command of Brigadier General Henry Jackson Hunt, at first did not return the enemy's fire. After waiting about 15 minutes, about 80 Union cannons opened fire. The Army of Northern Virginia was critically low on artillery ammunition, and the cannonade did not significantly affect the Union position.
Pickett's Charge
Around 3p.m., the cannon fire subsided, and between 10,500 and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the three-quarters of a mile (1,200 m) to Cemetery Ridge. A more accurate name for the charge would be the "Pickett–Pettigrew–Trimble Charge" after the commanders of the three divisions taking part in the charge, but the role of Pickett's division has led to the attack generally being known as "Pickett's Charge". As the Confederates approached, there was fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and the Little Round Top area, and musket and canister fire from Hancock's II Corps. In the Union center, the commander of artillery had held fire during the Confederate bombardment (in order to save it for the infantry assault, which Meade had correctly predicted the day before), leading Southern commanders to believe the Northern cannon batteries had been knocked out. However, they opened fire on the Confederate infantry during their approach with devastating results.
Although the Union line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the "Angle" in a low stone fence, just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees, reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was repelled. The farthest advance, by Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead's brigade of Pickett's division at the Angle, is referred to as the "high-water mark of the Confederacy". Union and Confederate soldiers locked in hand-to-hand combat, attacking with their rifles, bayonets, rocks and even their bare hands. Armistead ordered his Confederates to turn two captured cannons against Union troops, but discovered that there was no ammunition left, the last double canister shots having been used against the charging Confederates. Armistead was mortally wounded shortly afterward. Nearly one half of the Confederate attackers did not return to their own lines. Pickett's division lost about two thirds of its men, and all three brigadiers were killed or wounded.
Cavalry battles
There were two significant cavalry engagements on July 3. The first one was coordinated with Pickett's Charge, and the standoff may have prevented a disaster for Union infantry. The site of this engagement is now known as the East Cavalry Field. The second engagement was a loss for Union cavalry attacking Confederate infantry. It has been labeled as a "fiasco", and featured faulty cavalry tactics. The site of this engagement is now known as the South Cavalry Field.
Northeast of Gettysburg
Stuart's cavalry division (three brigades), with the assistance of Jenkins' brigade, was sent to guard the Confederate left flank. Stuart was also in position to exploit any success the Confederate infantry (Pickett's Charge) might achieve on Cemetery Hill by flanking the Union right and getting behind Union infantry facing the Confederate attack. The cavalry fight took place about northeast of Gettysburg at about 3:00pm—around the end of the Confederate artillery barrage that preceded Pickett's charge. Stuart's forces collided with Union cavalry: Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg's division and Custer's brigade from Kilpatrick's division. The fight evolved into "a wild melee of swinging sabers and blazing pistols and carbines". One of Custer's regiments, the 5th Michigan Cavalry Regiment, was armed with Spencer repeating rifles, and at least two companies from an additional regiment were also armed with repeaters. The fight ended in a standoff, as neither side changed positions. However, Gregg and Custer prevented Stuart from gaining the rear of Union infantry facing Pickett.
Southwest of Gettysburg
After hearing news of the Union's success against Pickett's charge, Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick launched a cavalry attack against the infantry positions of Longstreet's Corps southwest of Big Round Top. The terrain was difficult for a mounted attack because it was rough, heavily wooded, and contained huge boulders—and Longstreet's men were entrenched with artillery support. Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth protested against the futility of such a move, but obeyed orders. Farnsworth was killed in the fourth of five unsuccessful attacks, and his brigade suffered significant losses. Although Kilpatrick was described by at least one Union leader as "brave, enterprising, and energetic", incidents such as Farnsworth's charge earned him the nickname of "Kill Cavalry".
Aftermath
Casualties
The two armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties. Union casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing), while Confederate casualties are more difficult to estimate. Many authors have referred to as many as 28,000 Confederate casualties, and Busey and Martin's more recent 2005 work, Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, documents 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing). Nearly a third of Lee's general officers were killed, wounded, or captured. The casualties for both sides for the 6-week campaign, according to Sears, were 57,225.
In addition to being the deadliest battle of the war, Gettysburg also had the most generals killed in action. Several generals also were wounded. The Confederacy lost generals Paul Jones Semmes, William Barksdale, William Dorsey Pender, Richard Garnett, and Lewis Armistead, as well as J. Johnston Pettigrew during the retreat after the battle. Confederate generals who were wounded included Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood who lost the use of his left arm and Maj. Gen. Henry Heth who received a shot to the head on the first day of battle (though incapacitated for the rest of the battle, he remarkably survived without long-term injuries, credited in part due to his hat stuffed full of paper dispatches). Confederate generals James L. Kemper and Isaac R. Trimble were severely wounded during Pickett's charge and captured during the Confederate retreat. Confederate Brig. Gen. James J. Archer, in command of a brigade that most likely was responsible for killing Reynolds, was taken prisoner shortly after Reynolds' death. In the Confederate 1st Corps, eight of Longstreet's fourteen division and brigade commanders were killed or wounded, including Brig. Gen. George T. Anderson and Brig. Gen. Jerome B. Robertson, who were wounded. In Ewell's 2nd Corps, Brig. Gen. Isaac E. Avery was mortally wounded and Brig. Gen. John M. Jones was wounded. In Hill's 3rd Corps, in addition to Pender and Pettigrew being killed, Maj. Gen. Henry Heth and Col. Birkett D. Fry (later brigadier general), in temporary brigade command were wounded. In Hill's 3rd Corp, Brig. Gen. Alfred M. Scales and Col. William L. J. Lowrance, in temporary brigade command, were wounded. In the Confederate Cavalry Division, Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton and Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins were wounded.
Union generals killed were John Reynolds, Samuel K. Zook, and Stephen H. Weed, as well as Elon J. Farnsworth, assigned as brigadier general by Maj. Gen. Pleasanton based on his nomination although his promotion was confirmed posthumously, and Strong Vincent, who after being mortally wounded was given a deathbed promotion to brigadier general. Additional senior officer casualties included the wounding of Union Generals Dan Sickles (lost a leg), Francis C. Barlow, Daniel Butterfield, and Winfield Scott Hancock. Five of seven brigade commanders in Reynolds's First Corps were wounded. In addition to Hancock and Brig. Gen. John Gibbon being wounded in the Second Corps, three of ten brigade commanders were killed and three were wounded.
The following tables summarize casualties by corps for the Union and Confederate forces during the three-day battle, according to Busey and Martin.
Bruce Catton wrote, "The town of Gettysburg looked as if some universal moving day had been interrupted by catastrophe." But there was only one documented civilian death during the battle: Ginnie Wade (also widely known as Jennie), 20 years old, was hit by a stray bullet that passed through her kitchen in town while she was making bread. Another notable civilian casualty was John L. Burns, a 69-year old veteran of the War of 1812 who walked to the front lines on the first day of battle and participated in heavy combat as a volunteer, receiving numerous wounds in the process. Though aged and injured, Burns survived the battle and lived until 1872. Nearly 8,000 had been killed outright; these bodies, lying in the hot summer sun, needed to be buried quickly. More than 3,000 horse carcasses were burned in a series of piles south of town; townsfolk became violently ill from the stench. Meanwhile, the town of Gettysburg, with its population of just 2,400, found itself tasked with taking care of 14,000 wounded Union troops and an additional 8,000 Confederate prisoners.
Confederates lost over 31–55 battle flags, with the Union possibly having lost slightly less than 40.
Confederate retreat
On the morning of July 4, with Lee's army still present, Meade ordered his cavalry to get to the rear of Lee's army. In a heavy rain, the armies stared at one another across the bloody fields, on the same day that, some away, the Vicksburg garrison surrendered to Major General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee had reformed his lines into a defensive position on Seminary Ridge the night of July3, evacuating the town of Gettysburg. The Confederates remained on the battlefield's west side, hoping that Meade would attack, but the cautious Union commander decided against the risk, a decision for which he would later be criticized. Both armies began to collect their remaining wounded and bury some of the dead. A proposal by Lee for a prisoner exchange was rejected by Meade.
Late in the rainy afternoon, Lee started moving the non-fighting portion of his army back to Virginia. Cavalry under Brigadier General John D. Imboden was entrusted to escort the seventeen-mile long wagon train of supplies and wounded men, using a long route through Cashtown and Greencastle to Williamsport, Maryland. After sunset, the fighting portion of Lee's army began its retreat to Virginia using a more direct (but more mountainous) route that began on the road to Fairfield. Although Lee knew exactly what he needed to do, Meade's situation was different. Meade needed to remain at Gettysburg until he was certain Lee was gone. If Meade left first, he could possibly leave an opening for Lee to get to Washington or Baltimore. In addition, the army that left the battlefield first was often considered the defeated army.
Union cavalry had some minor successes pursuing Lee's army. The first major encounter took place in the mountains at Monterey Pass on July4, where Kilpatrick's cavalry division captured 150 to 300 wagons and took 1,300 to 1,500 prisoners. Beginning July 6, additional cavalry fighting took place closer to the Potomac River in Maryland's Williamsport-Hagerstown area. Lee's army was trapped and delayed from crossing the Potomac River because rainy weather had caused the river to swell, and the pontoon bridge at Falling Waters had been destroyed. Meade's infantry did not fully pursue Lee until July7, and despite repeated pleas from Lincoln and Halleck, was not aggressive enough to destroy Lee's army. A new pontoon bridge was constructed at Falling Waters, and lower water levels allowed the Confederates to begin crossing after dark on July13. Although Meade's infantry had reached the area on July 12, it was his cavalry that attacked the Confederate rear guard on the morning of July14. Union cavalry took 500 prisoners, and Confederate Brigadier General Pettigrew was mortally wounded, but Lee's army completed its Potomac crossing. The campaign continued south of the Potomac until the Battle of Manassas Gap on July23, when Lee escaped and Meade abandoned the pursuit.
Union reaction to the news of the victory
The news of the Union victory electrified the North. A headline in The Philadelphia Inquirer proclaimed "VICTORY! WATERLOO ECLIPSED!" New York diarist George Templeton Strong wrote:
However, the Union enthusiasm soon dissipated as the public realized that Lee's army had escaped destruction and the war would continue. Lincoln complained to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that "Our army held the war in the hollow of their hand and they would not close it!" Brigadier General Alexander S. Webb wrote to his father on July 17, stating that such Washington politicians as "Chase, Seward and others," disgusted with Meade, "write to me that Lee really won that Battle!"
Effect on the Confederacy
In fact, the Confederates had lost militarily and also politically. During the final hours of the battle, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens was approaching the Union lines at Norfolk, Virginia, under a flag of truce. Although his formal instructions from Confederate President Jefferson Davis had limited his powers to negotiate on prisoner exchanges and other procedural matters, historian James M. McPherson speculates that he had informal goals of presenting peace overtures. Davis had hoped that Stephens would reach Washington from the south while Lee's victorious army was marching toward it from the north. President Lincoln, upon hearing of the Gettysburg results, refused Stephens's request to pass through the lines. Furthermore, when the news reached London, any lingering hopes of European recognition of the Confederacy were finally abandoned. Henry Adams, whose father was serving as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom at the time, wrote, "The disasters of the rebels are unredeemed by even any hope of success. It is now conceded that all idea of intervention is at an end."
Compounding the effects of the defeat was the end of the Siege of Vicksburg, which surrendered to Grant's Federal armies in the West on July 4, the day after the Gettysburg battle, costing the Confederacy an additional 30,000 men, along with all their arms and stores.
The immediate reaction of the Southern military and public sectors was that Gettysburg was a setback, not a disaster. The sentiment was that Lee had been successful on July 1 and had fought a valiant battle on July 2–3, but could not dislodge the Union Army from the strong defensive position to which it fled. The Confederates successfully stood their ground on July 4 and withdrew only after they realized Meade would not attack them. The withdrawal to the Potomac that could have been a disaster was handled masterfully. Furthermore, the Army of the Potomac had been kept away from Virginia farmlands for the summer and all predicted that Meade would be too timid to threaten them for the rest of the year. Lee himself had a positive view of the campaign, writing to his wife that the army had returned "rather sooner than I had originally contemplated, but having accomplished what I proposed on leaving the Rappahannock, viz., relieving the Valley of the presence of the enemy and drawing his Army north of the Potomac". He was quoted as saying to Maj. John Seddon, brother of the Confederate secretary of war, "Sir, we did whip them at Gettysburg, and it will be seen for the next six months that that army will be as quiet as a sucking dove." Some Southern publications, such as the Charleston Mercury, were critical of Lee's actions. On August 8, Lee offered his resignation to President Davis, who quickly rejected it.
Gettysburg Address
The ravages of war were still evident in Gettysburg more than four months later when, on November 19, the Soldiers' National Cemetery was dedicated. During this ceremony, President Lincoln honored the fallen and redefined the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.
Medal of Honor
There were 72 Medals of Honor awarded for the Gettysburg Campaign, 64 of which were for actions taken during the battle itself. The first recipient was awarded in December 1864, while the most recent was posthumously awarded to Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing in 2014.
Historical assessment
Decisive victory controversies
The nature of the result of the Battle of Gettysburg has been the subject of controversy. Although not seen as overwhelmingly significant at the time, particularly since the war continued for almost two years, in retrospect it has often been cited as the "turning point", usually in combination with the fall of Vicksburg the following day. This is based on the observation that, after Gettysburg, Lee's army conducted no more strategic offensives—his army merely reacted to the initiative of Ulysses S. Grant in 1864 and 1865—and by the speculative viewpoint of the Lost Cause writers that a Confederate victory at Gettysburg might have resulted in the end of the war.
It is currently a widely held view that Gettysburg was a decisive victory for the Union, but the term is considered imprecise. It is inarguable that Lee's offensive on July 3 was turned back decisively and his campaign in Pennsylvania was terminated prematurely (although the Confederates at the time argued that this was a temporary setback and that the goals of the campaign were largely met). However, when the more common definition of "decisive victory" is intended—an indisputable military victory of a battle that determines or significantly influences the ultimate result of a conflict—historians are divided. For example, David J. Eicher called Gettysburg a "strategic loss for the Confederacy" and James M. McPherson wrote that "Lee and his men would go on to earn further laurels. But they never again possessed the power and reputation they carried into Pennsylvania those palmy summer days of 1863."
However, Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones wrote that the "strategic impact of the Battle of Gettysburg was ... fairly limited." Steven E. Woodworth wrote that "Gettysburg proved only the near impossibility of decisive action in the Eastern theater." Edwin Coddington pointed out the heavy toll on the Army of the Potomac and that "after the battle Meade no longer possessed a truly effective instrument for the accomplishments of his task. The army needed a thorough reorganization with new commanders and fresh troops, but these changes were not made until Grant appeared on the scene in March 1864." Joseph T. Glatthaar wrote that "Lost opportunities and near successes plagued the Army of Northern Virginia during its Northern invasion," yet after Gettysburg, "without the distractions of duty as an invading force, without the breakdown of discipline, the Army of Northern Virginia [remained] an extremely formidable force." Ed Bearss wrote, "Lee's invasion of the North had been a costly failure. Nevertheless, at best the Army of the Potomac had simply preserved the strategic stalemate in the Eastern Theater ..." Historian Alan Guelzo notes that Gettysburg and Vicksburg did not end the war and that the war would go on for two more years. He also noted that a little more than a year later Federal armies appeared hopelessly mired in sieges at Petersburg and Atlanta.
Peter Carmichael refers to the military context for the armies, the "horrendous losses at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, which effectively destroyed Lee's offensive capacity," implying that these cumulative losses were not the result of a single battle. Thomas Goss, writing in the U.S. Army's Military Review journal on the definition of "decisive" and the application of that description to Gettysburg, concludes: "For all that was decided and accomplished, the Battle of Gettysburg fails to earn the label 'decisive battle'." The military historian John Keegan agrees. Gettysburg was a landmark battle, the largest of the war and it would not be surpassed. The Union had restored to it the belief in certain victory, and the loss dispirited the Confederacy. If "not exactly a decisive battle", Gettysburg was the end of Confederate use of Northern Virginia as a military buffer zone, the setting for Grant's Overland Campaign.
Lee vs. Meade
Prior to Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee had established a reputation as an almost invincible general, achieving stunning victories against superior numbers—although usually at the cost of high casualties to his army—during the Seven Days, the Northern Virginia Campaign (including the Second Battle of Bull Run), Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Only the Maryland Campaign, with its tactically inconclusive Battle of Antietam, had been less than successful. Therefore, historians such as Fuller, Glatthaar, and Sears have attempted to explain how Lee's winning streak was interrupted so dramatically at Gettysburg. Although the issue is tainted by attempts to portray history and Lee's reputation in a manner supporting different partisan goals, the major factors in Lee's loss arguably can be attributed to: (1) his overconfidence in the invincibility of his men; (2) the performance of his subordinates, and his management thereof; (3) his failing health; and, (4) the performance of his opponent, George G. Meade, and the Army of the Potomac.
Throughout the campaign, Lee was influenced by the belief that his men were invincible; most of Lee's experiences with the Army of Northern Virginia had convinced him of this, including the great victory at Chancellorsville in early May and the rout of the Union troops at Gettysburg on July 1. Since morale plays an important role in military victory when other factors are equal, Lee did not want to dampen his army's desire to fight and resisted suggestions, principally by Longstreet, to withdraw from the recently captured Gettysburg to select a ground more favorable to his army. War correspondent Peter W. Alexander wrote that Lee "acted, probably, under the impression that his troops were able to carry any position however formidable. If such was the case, he committed an error, such however as the ablest commanders will sometimes fall into." Lee himself concurred with this judgment, writing to President Davis, "No blame can be attached to the army for its failure to accomplish what was projected by me, nor should it be censured for the unreasonable expectations of the public—I am alone to blame, in perhaps expecting too much of its prowess and valor."
The most controversial assessments of the battle involve the performance of Lee's subordinates. The dominant theme of the Lost Cause writers and many other historians is that Lee's senior generals failed him in crucial ways, directly causing the loss of the battle; the alternative viewpoint is that Lee did not manage his subordinates adequately, and did not thereby compensate for their shortcomings. Two of his corps commanders—Richard S. Ewell and A.P. Hill—had only recently been promoted and were not fully accustomed to Lee's style of command, in which he provided only general objectives and guidance to their former commander, Stonewall Jackson; Jackson translated these into detailed, specific orders to his division commanders. All four of Lee's principal commanders received criticism during the campaign and battle:
James Longstreet suffered most severely from the wrath of the Lost Cause authors, not the least because he directly criticized Lee in postbellum writings and became a Republican after the war. His critics accuse him of attacking much later than Lee intended on July 2, squandering a chance to hit the Union Army before its defensive positions had firmed up. They also question his lack of motivation to attack strongly on July 2 and 3 because he had argued that the army should have maneuvered to a place where it would force Meade to attack them. The alternative view is that Lee was in close contact with Longstreet during the battle, agreed to delays on the morning of July 2, and never criticized Longstreet's performance. (There is also considerable speculation about what an attack might have looked like before Dan Sickles moved the III Corps toward the Peach Orchard.)
J.E.B. Stuart deprived Lee of cavalry intelligence during a good part of the campaign by taking his three best brigades on a path away from the army's. This arguably led to Lee's surprise at Hooker's vigorous pursuit; the engagement on July 1 that escalated into the full battle prematurely; and it also prevented Lee from understanding the full disposition of the enemy on July 2. The disagreements regarding Stuart's culpability for the situation originate in the relatively vague orders issued by Lee, but most modern historians agree that both generals were responsible to some extent for the failure of the cavalry's mission early in the campaign.
Richard S. Ewell has been universally criticized for failing to seize the high ground on the afternoon of July 1. Once again the disagreement centers on Lee's orders, which provided general guidance for Ewell to act "if practicable". Many historians speculate that Stonewall Jackson, if he had survived Chancellorsville, would have aggressively seized Culp's Hill, rendering Cemetery Hill indefensible, and changing the entire complexion of the battle. A differently worded order from Lee might have made the difference with this subordinate.
A.P. Hill has received some criticism for his ineffective performance. His actions caused the battle to begin and then escalate on July 1, despite Lee's orders not to bring on a general engagement (although historians point out that Hill kept Lee well informed of his actions during the day). However, Hill's illness minimized his personal involvement in the remainder of the battle, and Lee took the explicit step of temporarily removing troops from Hill's corps and giving them to Longstreet for Pickett's Charge.
In addition to Hill's illness, Lee's performance was affected by heart troubles, which would eventually lead to his death in 1870; he had been diagnosed with pericarditis by his staff physicians in March 1863, though modern doctors believe he had in fact suffered a heart attack. As a final factor, Lee faced a new and formidable opponent in George G. Meade, and the Army of the Potomac fought well on its home territory. Although new to his army command, Meade deployed his forces relatively effectively; relied on strong subordinates such as Winfield S. Hancock to make decisions where and when they were needed; took great advantage of defensive positions; nimbly shifted defensive resources on interior lines to parry strong threats; and, unlike some of his predecessors, stood his ground throughout the battle in the face of fierce Confederate attacks.
Lee was quoted before the battle as saying Meade "would commit no blunders on my front and if I make one ... will make haste to take advantage of it." That prediction proved to be correct at Gettysburg. Stephen Sears wrote, "The fact of the matter is that George G. Meade, unexpectedly and against all odds, thoroughly outgeneraled Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg." Edwin B. Coddington wrote that the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac received a "sense of triumph which grew into an imperishable faith in [themselves]. The men knew what they could do under an extremely competent general; one of lesser ability and courage could well have lost the battle."
Meade had his own detractors as well. Similar to the situation with Lee, Meade suffered partisan attacks about his performance at Gettysburg, but he had the misfortune of experiencing them in person. Supporters of his predecessor, Hooker, lambasted Meade before the U.S. Congress's Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, where Radical Republicans suspected that Meade was a Copperhead and tried in vain to relieve him from command. Daniel E. Sickles and Daniel Butterfield accused Meade of planning to retreat from Gettysburg during the battle. Most politicians, including Lincoln, criticized Meade for what they considered to be his half-hearted pursuit of Lee after the battle. A number of Meade's most competent subordinates—Winfield S. Hancock, John Gibbon, Gouverneur K. Warren, and Henry J. Hunt, all heroes of the battle—defended Meade in print, but Meade was embittered by the overall experience.
Battlefield preservation
Gettysburg National Cemetery and Gettysburg National Military Park are maintained by the U.S. National Park Service as two of the nation's most revered historical landmarks. Although Gettysburg is one of the best known of all Civil War battlefields, it too faces threats to its preservation and interpretation. Many historically significant locations on the battlefield lie outside the boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park and are vulnerable to residential or commercial development.
Some preservation successes have emerged in recent years. Two proposals to open a casino at Gettysburg were defeated in 2006 and most recently in 2011, when public pressure forced the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to reject the proposed gambling hub at the intersection of Routes 15 and 30, near East Cavalry Field. The American Battlefield Trust, formerly the Civil War Trust, also successfully purchased and transferred at the former site of the Gettysburg Country Club to the control of the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2011.
Less than half of the over 11,500 acres on the old Gettysburg Battlefield have been preserved for posterity thus far. The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved of the battlefield in more than 40 separate transactions from 1997 to mid-2023. Some of these acres are now among the of the Gettysburg National Military Park. In 2015, the Trust made one of its most important and expensive acquisitions, paying $6 million for a parcel that included the stone house that Confederate General Robert E. Lee used as his headquarters during the battle. The Trust razed a motel, restaurant and other buildings within the parcel to restore Lee's headquarters and the site to their wartime appearance, adding interpretive signs. It opened the site to the public in October 2016.
In popular culture
At the 50th anniversary Gettysburg reunion (1913), 50,000 veterans attended according to a 1938 Army Medical report. Historian Carol Reardon writes that attendance included at least 35,000 Union veterans and though estimates of attendees ran as high as 56,000, only a few more than 7,000 Confederate veterans, most from Virginia and North Carolina, attended. Some veterans re-enacted Pickett's Charge in a spirit of reconciliation, a meeting that carried great emotional force for both sides. There was a ceremonial mass hand-shake across a stone wall on Cemetery Ridge.
At the 75th anniversary Gettysburg reunion (1938), 1,333 Union veterans and 479 Confederate veterans attended.
Film records survive of two Gettysburg reunions, held on the battlefield, in 1913. and 1938.
The children's novel Window of Time (1991), by Karen Weinberg, tells the story of a boy transported by time travel from the 1980s to the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Battle of Gettysburg was depicted in the 1993 film Gettysburg, based on Michael Shaara's 1974 novel The Killer Angels. The film and novel focused primarily on the actions of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, John Buford, Robert E. Lee, and James Longstreet during the battle. The first day focused on Buford's cavalry defense, the second day on Chamberlain's defense at Little Round Top, and the third day on Pickett's Charge.
See also
Gettysburg Cyclorama, a painting by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux depicting Pickett's Charge
List of costliest American Civil War land battles
Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1863
Notes
Citations
References
Bearss, Edwin C. Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2006. .
Bearss, Edwin C. Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg: The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2010. .
Busey, John W., and David G. Martin. Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, 4th ed. Hightstown, NJ: Longstreet House, 2005. .
Carmichael, Peter S., ed. Audacity Personified: The Generalship of Robert E. Lee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. .
Catton, Bruce. Glory Road. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1952. .
Clark, Champ, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. Gettysburg: The Confederate High Tide. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1985. .
Coddington, Edwin B. The Gettysburg Campaign; a study in command. New York: Scribner's, 1968. .
Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. .
Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. .
Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. . The collection of maps (without explanatory text) is available online at the West Point website.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol. 2, Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1958. .
Fuller, Major General J. F. C. Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1957. .
Gallagher, Gary W. Lee and His Army in Confederate History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. .
Gallagher, Gary W. Lee and His Generals in War and Memory. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998. .
Gallagher, Gary W., ed. Three Days at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1999. .
Glatthaar, Joseph T. General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse. New York: Free Press, 2008. .
Guelzo, Allen C. Gettysburg: The Last Invasion. New York: Vintage Books, 2013. . First published in 2013 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Gottfried, Bradley M. Brigades of Gettysburg: The Union and Confederate Brigades at the Battle of Gettysburg. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002.
Harman, Troy D. Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003. .
Hattaway, Herman, and Archer Jones. How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. .
Hoptak, John David. Confrontation at Gettysburg: A Nation Saved, a Cause Lost. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2012. .
Keegan, John. The American Civil War: A Military History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. .
Longacre, Edward G. The Cavalry at Gettysburg. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986. .
Longacre, Edward G. General John Buford: A Military Biography. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Publishing, 1995. .
McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. .
Martin, David G. Gettysburg July 1. rev. ed. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Publishing, 1996. .
Murray, Williamson and Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh. "A Savage War:A Military History of the Civil War". Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. .
Nye, Wilbur S. Here Come the Rebels! Dayton, OH: Morningside House, 1984. . First published in 1965 by Louisiana State University Press.
Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg – The First Day. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. .
Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg – The Second Day. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987. .
Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. .
Sauers, Richard A. "Battle of Gettysburg." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. .
Sears, Stephen W. Gettysburg. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. .
Starr, Stephen Z. The Union Cavalry in the Civil War: From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 1861–1863. Volume 1. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. Originally Published in 1979. .
Stewart, George R. Pickett's Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1959. Revised in 1963. .
Symonds, Craig L. American Heritage History of the Battle of Gettysburg. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. .
Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. .
Trudeau, Noah Andre. Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. .
Tucker, Glenn. High Tide at Gettysburg. Dayton, OH: Morningside House, 1983. . First published 1958 by Bobbs-Merrill Co.
Walsh, George. Damage Them All You Can: Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2003. .
Wert, Jeffry D. Gettysburg: Day Three. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. .
White, Ronald C., Jr. The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words. New York: Random House, 2005. .
Wittenberg, Eric J. The Devil's to Pay: John Buford at Gettysburg: A History and Walking Tour. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2014, 2015, 2018. .
Wittenberg, Eric J., J. David Petruzzi, and Michael F. Nugent. One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, July 4–14, 1863. New York: Savas Beatie, 2008. .
Woodworth, Steven E. Beneath a Northern Sky: A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign. Wilmington, DE: SR Books (scholarly Resources, Inc.), 2003. .
Wynstra, Robert J. At the Forefront of Lee's Invasion: Retribution, Plunder and Clashing Cultures on Richard S. Ewell's Road to Gettysburg. Kent. OH: The Kent State University Press, 2018. .
Memoirs and primary sources
Paris, Louis-Philippe-Albert d'Orléans. The Battle of Gettysburg: A History of the Civil War in America. Digital Scanning, Inc., 1999. . First published 1869 by Germer Baillière.
New York (State), William F. Fox, and Daniel Edgar Sickles. New York at Gettysburg: Final Report on the Battlefield of Gettysburg. Albany, NY: J.B. Lyon Company, Printers, 1900. .
U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
Further reading
Adkin, Mark. The Gettysburg Companion: The Complete Guide to America's Most Famous Battle. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008. .
Bachelder, John B. The Bachelder Papers: Gettysburg in Their Own Words. Edited by David L. Ladd and Audrey J. Ladd. 3 vols. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1994. .
Bachelder, John B. Gettysburg: What to See, and How to See It: Embodying Full Information for Visiting the Field. Boston: Bachelder, 1873. .
Ballard, Ted, and Billy Arthur. Gettysburg Staff Ride Briefing Book . Carlisle, PA: United States Army Center of Military History, 1999. .
Boritt, Gabor S., ed. The Gettysburg Nobody Knows. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. .
Desjardin, Thomas A. These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. .
Frassanito, William A. Early Photography at Gettysburg. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1995. .
Lyon Fremantle, Arthur J. The Fremantle Diary: A Journal of the Confederacy. Edited by Walter Lord. Short Hills, NJ: Burford Books, 2002. . First published 1954 by Capricorn Books.
Gottfried, Bradley M. The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3–13, 1863. New York: Savas Beatie, 2007. .
Grimsley, Mark, and Brooks D. Simpson. Gettysburg: A Battlefield Guide. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. .
Hall, Jeffrey C. The Stand of the U.S. Army at Gettysburg. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. .
Haskell, Frank Aretas. The Battle of Gettysburg. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2006. .
Hawthorne, Frederick W. Gettysburg: Stories of Men and Monuments. Gettysburg, PA: Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides, 1988. .
Huntington, Tom. Pennsylvania Civil War Trails: The Guide to Battle Sites, Monuments, Museums and Towns. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2007. .
Laino, Philip, Gettysburg Campaign Atlas, 2nd ed. Dayton, OH: Gatehouse Press 2009. .
McMurry, Richard M. "The Pennsylvania Gambit and the Gettysburg Splash". In The Gettysburg Nobody Knows, edited by Gabor Boritt. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. .
McPherson, James M. Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg. New York: Crown Publishers, 2003. .
Petruzzi, J. David, and Steven Stanley. The Complete Gettysburg Guide. New York: Savas Beatie, 2009. .
Rhodes, James Ford. "The Battle of Gettysburg." American Historical Review 4#4 1899, pp. 665–677. online
Stackpole, General Edward J. They Met at Gettysburg. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1956, .
External links
Battle of Gettysburg: Battle Maps, histories, photos, and preservation news (American Battlefield Trust)
Animated map of the Battle of Gettysburg (American Battlefield Trust)
Gettysburg National Military Park (National Park Service)
Papers of the Gettysburg National Military Park seminars
U.S. Army's Interactive Battle of Gettysburg with Narratives
Military History Online: The Battle of Gettysburg
Official Records: The Battle of Gettysburg
The Brothers War: The Battle of Gettysburg
Gettysburg Discussion Group archives
List of 53 Confederate generals at Gettysburg
Encyclopædia Britannica: Battle of Gettysburg
National Park Service battle description
Battle of Gettysburg
Battles of the American Civil War in Pennsylvania
Battles of the Gettysburg campaign
Conflicts in 1863
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Union victories of the American Civil War |
4854 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda%20Triangle | Bermuda Triangle | The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The idea of the area as uniquely prone to disappearances arose in the mid-20th century, but most reputable sources dismiss the idea that there is any mystery.
Origins
The earliest suggestion of unusual disappearances in the Bermuda area appeared in a September 17, 1950, article published in The Miami Herald (Associated Press) by Edward Van Winkle Jones. Two years later, Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door", a short article by George Sand covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five US Navy Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place, as well as the first to suggest a supernatural element to the Flight 19 incident. Flight 19 alone would be covered again in the April 1962 issue of American Legion magazine. In it, author Allan W. Eckert wrote that the flight leader had been heard saying, "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." He also wrote that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes "flew off to Mars."
In February 1964, Vincent Gaddis wrote an article called "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" in Argosy saying Flight 19 and other disappearances were part of a pattern of strange events in the region. The next year, Gaddis expanded this article into a book, Invisible Horizons.
Other writers elaborated on Gaddis' ideas: John Wallace Spencer (Limbo of the Lost, 1969, repr. 1973); Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974); Richard Winer (The Devil's Triangle, 1974), and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.
Triangle area
The Gaddis Argosy article delineated the boundaries of the triangle, giving its vertices as Miami; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Bermuda. Subsequent writers did not necessarily follow this definition. Some writers gave different boundaries and vertices to the triangle, with the total area varying from . "Indeed, some writers even stretch it as far as the Irish coast." Consequently, the determination of which accidents occurred inside the triangle depends on which writer reported them.
Criticism of the concept
Larry Kusche
Larry Kusche, author of The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved (1975), argued that many claims of Gaddis and subsequent writers were exaggerated, dubious or unverifiable. Kusche's research revealed a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies between Berlitz's accounts and statements from eyewitnesses, participants, and others involved in the initial incidents. Kusche noted cases where pertinent information went unreported, such as the disappearance of round-the-world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst, which Berlitz had presented as a mystery, despite clear evidence to the contrary. Another example was the ore-carrier recounted by Berlitz as lost without trace three days out of an Atlantic port when it had been lost three days out of a port with the same name in the Pacific Ocean. Kusche also argued that a large percentage of the incidents that sparked allegations of the Triangle's mysterious influence actually occurred well outside it. Often his research was simple: he would review period newspapers of the dates of reported incidents and find reports on possibly relevant events like unusual weather, that were never mentioned in the disappearance stories.
Kusche concluded that:
The number of ships and aircraft reported missing in the area was not significantly greater, proportionally speaking, than in any other part of the ocean.
In an area frequented by tropical cyclones, the number of disappearances that did occur were, for the most part, neither disproportionate, unlikely, nor mysterious.
Furthermore, Berlitz and other writers would often fail to mention such storms or even represent the disappearance as having happened in calm conditions when meteorological records clearly contradict this.
The numbers themselves had been exaggerated by sloppy research. A boat's disappearance, for example, would be reported, but its eventual (if belated) return to port may not have been.
Some disappearances had, in fact, never happened. One plane crash was said to have taken place in 1937, off Daytona Beach, Florida, in front of hundreds of witnesses.
The legend of the Bermuda Triangle is a manufactured mystery, perpetuated by writers who either purposely or unknowingly made use of misconceptions, faulty reasoning, and sensationalism.
In a 2013 study, the World Wide Fund for Nature identified the world's 10 most dangerous waters for shipping, but the Bermuda Triangle was not among them.
Further responses
When the UK Channel 4 television program The Bermuda Triangle (1992) was being produced by John Simmons of Geofilms for the Equinox series, the marine insurance market Lloyd's of London was asked if an unusually large number of ships had sunk in the Bermuda Triangle area. Lloyd's determined that large numbers of ships had not sunk there. Lloyd's does not charge higher rates for passing through this area. United States Coast Guard records confirm their conclusion. In fact, the number of supposed disappearances is relatively insignificant considering the number of ships and aircraft that pass through on a regular basis.
The Coast Guard is also officially skeptical of the Triangle, noting that they collect and publish, through their inquiries, much documentation contradicting many of the incidents written about by the Triangle authors. In one such incident involving the 1972 explosion and sinking of the tanker , the Coast Guard photographed the wreck and recovered several bodies, in contrast with one Triangle author's claim that all the bodies had vanished, with the exception of the captain, who was found sitting in his cabin at his desk, clutching a coffee cup. In addition, V. A. Fogg sank off the coast of Texas, nowhere near the commonly accepted boundaries of the Triangle.
The Nova/Horizon episode The Case of the Bermuda Triangle, aired on June 27, 1976, was highly critical, stating that "When we've gone back to the original sources or the people involved, the mystery evaporates. Science does not have to answer questions about the Triangle because those questions are not valid in the first place ... Ships and planes behave in the Triangle the same way they behave everywhere else in the world."
Skeptical researchers, such as Ernest Taves and Barry Singer, have noted how mysteries and the paranormal are very popular and profitable. This has led to the production of vast amounts of material on topics such as the Bermuda Triangle. They were able to show that some of the pro-paranormal material is often misleading or inaccurate, but its producers continue to market it. Accordingly, they have claimed that the market is biased in favor of books, TV specials, and other media that support the Triangle mystery, and against well-researched material if it espouses a skeptical viewpoint.
Benjamin Radford, an author and scientific paranormal investigator, noted in an interview on the Bermuda Triangle that it could be very difficult locating an aircraft lost at sea due to the vast search area, and although the disappearance might be mysterious, that did not make it paranormal or unexplainable. Radford further noted the importance of double-checking information as the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle had been created by people who had neglected to do so.
Hypothetical explanation attempts
Persons accepting the Bermuda Triangle as a real phenomenon have offered a number of explanatory approaches.
Paranormal explanations
Triangle writers have used a number of supernatural concepts to explain the events. One explanation pins the blame on leftover technology from the mythical lost continent of Atlantis. Sometimes connected to the Atlantis story is the submerged rock formation known as the Bimini Road off the island of Bimini in the Bahamas, which is in the Triangle by some definitions. Followers of the purported psychic Edgar Cayce take his prediction that evidence of Atlantis would be found in 1968, as referring to the discovery of the Bimini Road. Believers describe the formation as a road, wall, or other structure, but the Bimini Road is of natural origin.
Some hypothesize that a parallel universe exists in the Bermuda Triangle region, causing a time/space warp that sucks the objects around it into a parallel universe. Others attribute the events to UFOs. Charles Berlitz, author of various books on anomalous phenomena, lists several theories attributing the losses in the Triangle to anomalous or unexplained forces.
Natural explanations
Compass variations
Compass problems are one of the cited phrases in many Triangle incidents. While some have theorized that unusual local magnetic anomalies may exist in the area, such anomalies have not been found. Compasses have natural magnetic variations in relation to the magnetic poles, a fact which navigators have known for centuries. Magnetic (compass) north and geographic (true) north are exactly the same only for a small number of places – for example, , in the United States, only those places on a line running from Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico. But the public may not be as informed, and think there is something mysterious about a compass "changing" across an area as large as the Triangle, which it naturally will.
Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream (Florida Current) is a major surface current, primarily driven by thermohaline circulation that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and then flows through the Straits of Florida into the North Atlantic. In essence, it is a river within an ocean, and, like a river, it can and does carry floating objects. It has a maximum surface velocity of about . A small plane making a water landing or a boat having engine trouble can be carried away from its reported position by the current.
Human error
One of the most cited explanations in official inquiries as to the loss of any aircraft or vessel is human error. Human stubbornness may have caused businessman Harvey Conover to lose his sailing yacht, Revonoc, as he sailed into the teeth of a storm south of Florida on January 1, 1958.
Violent weather
Hurricanes are powerful storms that form in tropical waters and have historically cost thousands of lives and caused billions of dollars in damage. The sinking of Francisco de Bobadilla's Spanish fleet in 1502 was the first recorded instance of a destructive hurricane. These storms have in the past caused a number of incidents related to the Triangle. Many Atlantic hurricanes pass through the Triangle as they recurve off the Eastern Seaboard, and, before the advent of weather satellite, ships often had little to no warning of a hurricane's approach.
A powerful downdraft of cold air was suspected to be a cause in the sinking of Pride of Baltimore on May 14, 1986. The crew of the sunken vessel noted the wind suddenly shifted and increased velocity from to . A National Hurricane Center satellite specialist, James Lushine, stated "during very unstable weather conditions the downburst of cold air from aloft can hit the surface like a bomb, exploding outward like a giant squall line of wind and water."
Methane hydrates
An explanation for some of the disappearances has focused on the presence of large fields of methane hydrates (a form of natural gas) on the continental shelves. Laboratory experiments carried out in Australia have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water, and any wreckage would be deposited on the ocean floor or rapidly dispersed by the Gulf Stream. It has been hypothesized that periodic methane eruptions (sometimes called "mud volcanoes") may produce regions of frothy water that are no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink very rapidly and without warning.
Publications by the USGS describe large stores of undersea hydrates worldwide, including the Blake Ridge area, off the coast of the southeastern United States. However, according to the USGS, no large releases of gas hydrates are believed to have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 15,000 years.
Notable incidents
HMS Atalanta
The sail training ship HMS Atalanta (originally named HMS Juno) disappeared with her entire crew after setting sail from the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda for Falmouth, England on 31 January 1880. It was presumed that she sank in a powerful storm which crossed her route a couple of weeks after she sailed, and that her crew being composed primarily of inexperienced trainees may have been a contributing factor. The search for evidence of her fate attracted worldwide attention at the time (connection is also often made to the 1878 loss of the training ship HMS Eurydice, which foundered after departing the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda for Portsmouth on 6 March), and she was alleged decades later to have been a victim of the mysterious triangle, an allegation resoundingly refuted by the research of author David Francis Raine in 1997.
USS Cyclops
The incident resulting in the single largest loss of life in the history of the US Navy not related to combat occurred when the collier Cyclops, carrying a full load of manganese ore and with one engine out of action, went missing without a trace with a crew of 309 sometime after March 4, 1918, after departing the island of Barbados. Although there is no strong evidence for any single theory, many independent theories exist, some blaming storms, some capsizing, and some suggesting that wartime enemy activity was to blame for the loss. In addition, two of Cyclopss sister ships, and , were subsequently lost in the North Atlantic during World War II. Both ships were transporting heavy loads of metallic ore similar to that which was loaded on Cyclops during her fatal voyage. In all three cases structural failure due to overloading with a much denser cargo than designed is considered the most likely cause of sinking.
Carroll A. Deering
Carroll A. Deering, a five-masted schooner built in 1919, was found hard aground and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on January 31, 1921. FBI investigation into the Deering scrutinized, then ruled out, multiple theories as to why and how the ship was abandoned, including piracy, domestic Communist sabotage and the involvement of rum-runners.
Flight 19
Flight 19 was a training flight of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5, 1945, while over the Atlantic. The squadron's flight plan was scheduled to take them due east from Fort Lauderdale for , north for , and then back over a final leg to complete the exercise. The flight never returned to base. The disappearance was attributed by Navy investigators to navigational error leading to the aircraft running out of fuel.
One of the search and rescue aircraft deployed to look for them, a PBM Mariner with a 13-man crew, also disappeared. A tanker off the coast of Florida reported seeing an explosion and observing a widespread oil slick when fruitlessly searching for survivors. The weather was becoming stormy by the end of the incident. According to contemporaneous sources the Mariner had a history of explosions due to vapor leaks when heavily loaded with fuel, as it might have been for a potentially long search-and-rescue operation.
Star Tiger and Star Ariel
G-AHNP Star Tiger disappeared on January 30, 1948, on a flight from the Azores to Bermuda; G-AGRE Star Ariel disappeared on January 17, 1949, on a flight from Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica. Both were Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft operated by British South American Airways. Both planes were operating at the very limits of their range and the slightest error or fault in the equipment could keep them from reaching the small island.
Douglas DC-3
On December 28, 1948, a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, number NC16002, disappeared while on a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami. No trace of the aircraft, or the 32 people on board, was ever found. A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation found there was insufficient information available on which to determine probable cause of the disappearance.
Connemara IV
A pleasure yacht was found adrift in the Atlantic south of Bermuda on September 26, 1955; it is usually stated in the stories (Berlitz, Winer) that the crew vanished while the yacht survived being at sea during three hurricanes. The 1955 Atlantic hurricane season shows Hurricane Ione passing nearby between 14 and 18 September, with Bermuda being affected by winds of almost gale force. In his second book on the Bermuda Triangle, Winer quoted from a letter he had received from Mr J.E. Challenor of Barbados:
KC-135 Stratotankers
On August 28, 1963, a pair of US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft collided and crashed into the Atlantic west of Bermuda. Some writers say that while the two aircraft did collide there were two distinct crash sites, separated by over of water. However, Kusche's research showed that the unclassified version of the Air Force investigation report revealed that the debris field defining the second "crash site" was examined by a search and rescue ship, and found to be a mass of seaweed and driftwood tangled in an old buoy.
See also
List of Bermuda Triangle incidents
List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
Nevada Triangle
Devil's Sea (or Dragon's Triangle)
Sargasso Sea
SS Cotopaxi
Vile vortex
Hurricane Alley
Golosov Ravine
References
Citations
Bibliography
The incidents cited above, apart from the official documentation, come from the following works. Some incidents mentioned as having taken place within the Triangle are found only in these sources:
Reprinted in paperback in 2005; .
Further reading
Newspaper articles
ProQuest has newspaper source material for many incidents, archived in Portable Document Format (PDF). The newspapers include The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlanta Constitution. To access this website, registration is required, usually through a library connected to a college or university.
Flight 19
"Great Hunt On For 27 Navy Fliers Missing In Five Planes Off Florida", The New York Times, December 7, 1945.
"Wide Hunt For 27 Men In Six Navy Planes", The Washington Post, December 7, 1945.
"Fire Signals Seen In Area Of Lost Men", The Washington Post, December 9, 1945.
SS Cotopaxi
"Lloyd's posts Cotopaxi As 'Missing'", The New York Times, January 7, 1926.
"Efforts To Locate Missing Ship Fail", The Washington Post, December 6, 1925.
"Lighthouse Keepers Seek Missing Ship", The Washington Post, December 7, 1925.
"53 On Missing Craft Are Reported Saved", The Washington Post, December 13, 1925.
USS Cyclops (AC-4)
"Cold High Winds Do $25,000 Damage", The Washington Post, March 11, 1918.
"Collier Overdue A Month", The New York Times, April 15, 1918.
"More Ships Hunt For Missing Cyclops", The New York Times, April 16, 1918.
"Haven't Given Up Hope For Cyclops", The New York Times, April 17, 1918.
"Collier Cyclops Is Lost; 293 Persons On Board; Enemy Blow Suspected", The Washington Post, April 15, 1918.
"U.S. Consul Gottschalk Coming To Enter The War", The Washington Post, April 15, 1918.
"Cyclops Skipper Teuton, 'Tis Said", The Washington Post, April 16, 1918.
"Fate Of Ship Baffles", The Washington Post, April 16, 1918.
"Steamer Met Gale On Cyclops' Course", The Washington Post, April 19, 1918.
Carroll A. Deering
"Piracy Suspected In Disappearance Of 3 American Ships", The New York Times, June 21, 1921.
"Bath Owners Skeptical", The New York Times, June 22, 1921. piera antonella
"Deering Skipper's Wife Caused Investigation", The New York Times, June 22, 1921.
"More Ships Added To Mystery List", The New York Times, June 22, 1921.
"Hunt On For Pirates", The Washington Post, June 21, 1921
"Comb Seas For Ships", The Washington Post, June 22, 1921.
"Port Of Missing Ships Claims 3000 Yearly", The Washington Post, July 10, 1921.
Wreckers
"'Wreckreation' Was The Name Of The Game That Flourished 100 Years Ago", The New York Times, March 30, 1969.
S.S. Suduffco
"To Search For Missing Freighter", The New York Times, April 11, 1926.
"Abandon Hope For Ship", The New York Times, April 28, 1926.
Star Tiger and Star Ariel
"Hope Wanes in Sea Search For 28 Aboard Lost Airliner", The New York Times, January 31, 1948.
"72 Planes Search Sea For Airliner", The New York Times, January 19, 1949.
DC-3 Airliner NC16002 disappearance
"30-Passenger Airliner Disappears In Flight From San Juan To Miami", The New York Times, December 29, 1948.
"Check Cuba Report Of Missing Airliner", The New York Times, December 30, 1948.
"Airliner Hunt Extended", The New York Times, December 31, 1948.
Harvey Conover and Revonoc
"Search Continuing For Conover Yawl", The New York Times, January 8, 1958.
"Yacht Search Goes On", The New York Times, January 9, 1958.
"Yacht Search Pressed", The New York Times, January 10, 1958.
"Conover Search Called Off", The New York Times, January 15, 1958.
KC-135 Stratotankers
"Second Area Of Debris Found In Hunt For Jets", The New York Times, August 31, 1963.
"Hunt For Tanker Jets Halted", The New York Times, September 3, 1963.
"Planes Debris Found In Jet Tanker Hunt", The Washington Post, August 30, 1963.
B-52 Bomber (Pogo 22)
"U.S.-Canada Test Of Air Defence A Success", The New York Times, October 16, 1961.
"Hunt For Lost B-52 Bomber Pushed In New Area", The New York Times, October 17, 1961.
"Bomber Hunt Pressed", The New York Times, October 18, 1961.
"Bomber Search Continuing", The New York Times, October 19, 1961.
"Hunt For Bomber Ends", The New York Times, October 20, 1961.
Charter vessel Sno'Boy
"Plane Hunting Boat Sights Body In Sea", The New York Times, July 7, 1963.
"Search Abandoned For 40 On Vessel Lost In Caribbean", The New York Times, July 11, 1963.
"Search Continues For Vessel With 55 Aboard In Caribbean", The Washington Post, July 6, 1963.
"Body Found In Search For Fishing Boat", The Washington Post, July 7, 1963.
SS Marine Sulphur Queen
"Tanker Lost In Atlantic; 39 Aboard", The Washington Post, February 9, 1963.
"Debris Sighted In Plane Search For Tanker Missing Off Florida", The New York Times, February 11, 1963.
"2.5 Million Is Asked In Sea Disaster", The Washington Post, February 19, 1963.
"Vanishing Of Ship Ruled A Mystery", The New York Times, April 14, 1964.
"Families Of 39 Lost At Sea Begin $20-Million Suit Here", The New York Times, June 4, 1969.
"10-Year Rift Over Lost Ship Near End", The New York Times, February 4, 1973.
SS Sylvia L. Ossa
"Ship And 37 Vanish In Bermuda Triangle On Voyage To U.S.", The New York Times, October 18, 1976.
"Ship Missing In Bermuda Triangle Now Presumed To Be Lost At Sea", The New York Times, October 19, 1976.
"Distress Signal Heard From American Sailor Missing For 17 Days", The New York Times, October 31, 1976.
Website links
The following websites have either online material that supports the popular version of the Bermuda Triangle, or documents published from official sources as part of hearings or inquiries, such as those conducted by the United States Navy or United States Coast Guard. Copies of some inquiries are not online and may have to be ordered; for example, the losses of Flight 19 or USS Cyclops can be ordered direct from the United States Naval Historical Center.
Text of Feb, 1964 Argosy Magazine article by Vincent Gaddis
United States Coast Guard database of selected reports and inquiries
U.S. Navy Historical Center Bermuda Triangle FAQ
U.S. Navy Historical C/ The Bermuda Triangle: Startling New Secrets, Sci Fi Channel documentary (November 2005)
Navy Historical Center: The Loss Of Flight 19
on losses of heavy ships at sea
Bermuda Shipwrecks
Association of Underwater Explorers shipwreck listings page
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Books
Most of the works listed here are largely out of print. Copies may be obtained at your local library, or purchased used at bookstores, or through eBay or Amazon.com. These books are often the only source material for some of the incidents that have taken place within the Triangle.
Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery by Gian J. Quasar, International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press (2003) ; contains list of missing craft as researched in official records. (Reprinted in paperback (2005) ).
The Bermuda Triangle, Charles Berlitz (): Out of print.
The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved (1975). Lawrence David Kusche ()
Limbo Of The Lost, John Wallace Spencer ()
The Evidence for the Bermuda Triangle (1984), David Group ()
The Final Flight (2006), Tony Blackman (). This book is a work of fiction.
Bermuda Shipwrecks (2000), Daniel Berg()
The Devil's Triangle (1974), Richard Winer (); this book sold well over a million copies by the end of its first year; to date there have been at least 17 printings.
The Devil's Triangle 2 (1975), Richard Winer ()
From the Devil's Triangle to the Devil's Jaw (1977), Richard Winer ()
Ghost Ships: True Stories of Nautical Nightmares, Hauntings, and Disasters (2000), Richard Winer ()
The Bermuda Triangle (1975) by Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey ()
External links
Geography of Miami
Paranormal triangles
Supernatural legends
Urban legends |
4856 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borough | Borough | A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ages, boroughs were settlements in England that were granted some self-government; burghs were the Scottish equivalent. In medieval England, boroughs were also entitled to elect members of parliament. The use of the word borough probably derives from the burghal system of Alfred the Great. Alfred set up a system of defensive strong points (Burhs); in order to maintain these particular settlements, he granted them a degree of autonomy. After the Norman Conquest, when certain towns were granted self-governance, the concept of the burh/borough seems to have been reused to mean a self-governing settlement.
The concept of the borough has been used repeatedly (and often differently) throughout the world. Often, a borough is a single town with its own local government. However, in some cities it is a subdivision of the city (for example, New York City, London, and Montreal). In such cases, the borough will normally have either limited powers delegated to it by the city's local government, or no powers at all. In other places, such as the U.S. state of Alaska, borough designates a whole region; Alaska's largest borough, the North Slope Borough, is comparable in area to the entire United Kingdom, although its population is less than that of Swanage on England's south coast with around 9,600 inhabitants. In Australia, a borough was once a self-governing small town, but this designation has all but vanished, except for the only remaining borough in the country, which is the Borough of Queenscliffe.
Boroughs as administrative units are to be found in Ireland and the United Kingdom, more specifically in England and Northern Ireland. Boroughs also exist in the Canadian province of Quebec and formerly in Ontario, in some states of the United States, in Israel, formerly in New Zealand and only one left in Australia.
Etymology
The word borough derives from the Old English word burg, burh, meaning a fortified settlement; the word appears as modern English bury, -brough, Scots burgh, borg in Scandinavian languages, Burg in German.
A number of other European languages have cognate words that were borrowed from the Germanic languages during the Middle Ages, including brog in Irish, bwr or bwrc, meaning "wall, rampart" in Welsh, bourg in French, burg in Catalan (in Catalonia there is a town named Burg), borgo in Italian, burgo in Portuguese, Galician and Castilian (hence the castilian place-name Burgos, galician place-names O Burgo and Malburgo), the -bork of Lębork and Malbork in Polish and the -bor of Maribor in Slovenian.
The 'burg' element, which means "castle" or "fortress", is often confused with 'berg' meaning "hill" or "mountain" (c.f. iceberg, inselberg). Hence the 'berg' element in Bergen or Heidelberg relates to a hill, rather than a fort. In some cases, the 'berg' element in place names has converged towards burg/borough; for instance Farnborough, from fernaberga (fern-hill).
Pronunciation
In many parts of England, "borough" is pronounced as an independent word, and as when a suffix of a place-name. As a suffix, it is sometimes spelled "-brough".
In the United States, "borough" is pronounced . When appearing as the suffix "-burg(h)" in place-names, it is pronounced .
Definitions
Australia
In Australia, the term "borough" is an occasionally used term for a local government area. Currently there is only one borough in Australia, the Borough of Queenscliffe in Victoria, although there have been more in the past. However, in some cases it can be integrated into the council's name instead of used as an official title, such as the Municipality of Kingborough in Tasmania.
Canada
In Quebec, the term borough is generally used as the English translation of , referring to an administrative division of a municipality, or a district. Eight municipalities are divided into boroughs: See List of boroughs in Quebec.
In Ontario, it was previously used to denote suburban municipalities in Metropolitan Toronto, including Scarborough, York, North York and Etobicoke prior to their conversions to cities. The Borough of East York was the last Toronto municipality to hold this status, relinquishing it upon becoming part of the City of Toronto government on January 1, 1998.
Colombia
The Colombian Municipalities are subdivided into boroughs (English translation of the Spanish term ) with a local executive and an administrative board for local government. These boroughs are divided in neighborhoods.
Also, the principal cities had with the same features as the European or American cities, including Soacha in Bogotá, Bello, La Estrella, Sabaneta, Envigado and Itagüí on Medellín.
Ireland
There are four borough districts designated by the Local Government Reform Act 2014: Clonmel, Drogheda, Sligo, and Wexford. A local boundary review reporting in 2018 proposed granting borough status to any district containing a census town with a population over 30,000; this would have included the towns of Dundalk, Bray, and Navan. This would have required an amendment to the 2014 Act, promised for 2019 by minister John Paul Phelan.
Historically, there were 117 parliamentary boroughs in the Irish House of Commons, of which 80 were disfranchised by the Acts of Union 1800. All but 11 municipal boroughs were abolished under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. Under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, six of these became county boroughs: Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Derry, Limerick and Waterford. From 1921, Belfast and Derry were part of Northern Ireland and stayed within the United Kingdom on the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.
Galway was a borough from 1937 until upgraded to a county borough in 1985. The county boroughs in the Republic of Ireland were redesignated as "cities" under the Local Government Act 2001.
Dún Laoghaire was a borough from 1930 until merged into Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county in 1994.
There were five borough councils in place at the time of the Local Government Reform Act 2014 which abolished all second-tier local government units of borough and town councils. Each local government authority outside of Dublin, Cork City and Galway City was divided into areas termed municipal districts. In four of the areas which had previously been contained borough councils, as listed above, these were instead termed Borough Districts. Kilkenny had previously had a borough council, but its district was to be called the Municipal District of Kilkenny City, in recognition of its historic city status.
Israel
Under Israeli law, inherited from British Mandate municipal law, the possibility of creating a municipal borough exists. However, no borough was actually created under law until 2005–2006, when Neve Monosson and Maccabim-Re'ut, both communal settlements (Heb: yishuv kehilati) founded in 1953 and 1984, respectively, were declared to be autonomous municipal boroughs (Heb: vaad rova ironi), within their mergers with the towns of Yehud and Modi'in. Similar structures have been created under different types of legal status over the years in Israel, notably Kiryat Haim in Haifa, Jaffa in Tel Aviv-Yafo and Ramot and Gilo in Jerusalem. However, Neve Monosson is the first example of a full municipal borough actually declared under law by the Minister of the Interior, under a model subsequently adopted in Maccabim-Re'ut as well.
It is the declared intention of the Interior Ministry to use the borough mechanism in order to facilitate municipal mergers in Israel, after a 2003 wide-reaching merger plan, which, in general, ignored the sensitivities of the communal settlements, and largely failed.
Mexico
In Mexico as translations from English to Spanish applied to Mexico City, the word borough has resulted in a delegación (delegation), referring to the 16 administrative areas within the Mexico City, now called Alcaldías.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the municipalities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam were divided into administrative boroughs, or deelgemeenten, which had their own borough council and a borough mayor. Other large cities are usually divided into districts, or stadsdelen, for census purposes. The deelgemeenten were abolished in 2014.
New Zealand
New Zealand formerly used the term borough to designate self-governing towns of more than 1,000 people, although 19th century census records show many boroughs with populations as low as 200. A borough of more than 20,000 people could become a city by proclamation. Boroughs and cities were collectively known as municipalities, and were enclaves separate from their surrounding counties. Boroughs proliferated in the suburban areas of the larger cities: By the 1980s there were 19 boroughs and three cities in the area that is now the City of Auckland.
In the 1980s, some boroughs and cities began to be merged with their surrounding counties to form districts with a mixed urban and rural population. A nationwide reform of local government in 1989 completed the process. Counties and boroughs were abolished and all boundaries were redrawn. Under the new system, most territorial authorities cover both urban and rural land. The more populated councils are classified as cities, and the more rural councils are classified as districts. Only Kawerau District, an enclave within Whakatāne District, continues to follow the tradition of a small town council that does not include surrounding rural area.
Trinidad and Tobago
In Trinidad and Tobago, a Borough is a unit of Local Government. There are 5 boroughs in The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago:
Chaguanas
Arima
Point Fortin
Diego Martin
Siparia
United Kingdom
England and Wales
Ancient and municipal boroughs
During the medieval period many towns were granted self-governance by the Crown, at which point they became referred to as boroughs. The formal status of borough came to be conferred by Royal Charter. These boroughs were generally governed by a self-selecting corporation (i.e., when a member died or resigned his replacement would be by co-option). Sometimes boroughs were governed by bailiffs.
Debates on the Reform Bill (eventually the Reform Act 1832) lamented the diversity of polity of such town corporations, and a Royal Commission was set up to investigate this. This resulted in a regularisation of municipal government by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. 178 of the ancient boroughs were re-formed as municipal boroughs, with all municipal corporations to be elected according to a standard franchise based on property ownership. The unreformed boroughs lapsed in borough status, or were reformed (or abolished) later. Several new municipal boroughs were formed in the new industrial cities after the bill enacted, per its provisions.
As part of a large-scale reform of local government in England and Wales in 1974, municipal boroughs were finally abolished (having become increasingly irrelevant). However, the civic traditions of many were continued by the grant of a charter to their successor district councils. As to smallest boroughs, a town council was formed for an alike zone, while charter trustees were formed for a few others. A successor body is allowed to use the regalia of the old corporation, and appoint ceremonial office holders such as sword and mace bearers as provided in their original charters. The council, or trustees, may apply for an Order in Council or Royal Licence to use the coat of arms.
Parliamentary boroughs
From 1265, two burgesses from each borough were summoned to the Parliament of England, alongside two knights from each county. Thus parliamentary constituencies were derived from the ancient boroughs. Representation in the House of Commons was decided by the House itself, which resulted in boroughs being established in some small settlements for the purposes of parliamentary representation, despite their possessing no actual corporation.
After the 1832 Reform Act, which disenfranchised many of the rotten boroughs (boroughs that had declined in importance, had only a small population, and had only a handful of eligible voters), parliamentary constituencies began to diverge from the ancient boroughs. While many ancient boroughs remained as municipal boroughs, they were disenfranchised by the Reform Act.
County boroughs
The Local Government Act 1888 established a new sort of borough – the county borough. These were designed to be 'counties-to-themselves'; administrative divisions to sit alongside the new administrative counties. They allowed urban areas to be administered separately from the more rural areas. They, therefore, often contained pre-existing municipal boroughs, which thereafter became part of the second tier of local government, below the administrative counties and county boroughs.
The county boroughs were, like the municipal boroughs, abolished in 1974, being reabsorbed into their parent counties for administrative purposes.
Metropolitan boroughs
In 1899, as part of a reform of local government in the County of London, the various parishes in London were reorganised as new entities, the 'metropolitan boroughs'. These were reorganised further when Greater London was formed out of Middlesex, parts of Surrey, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire and the County of London in 1965. These council areas are now referred to as "London boroughs" rather than "metropolitan boroughs".
When the new metropolitan counties (Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands, and West Yorkshire) were created in 1974, their sub-divisions also became metropolitan boroughs in many, but not all, cases; in many cases these metropolitan boroughs recapitulated abolished county boroughs (for example, Stockport). The metropolitan boroughs possessed slightly more autonomy from the metropolitan county councils than the shire county districts did from their county councils.
With the abolition of the metropolitan county councils in 1986, these metropolitan boroughs became independent, and continue to be so at present.
Other current uses
Elsewhere in England a number of districts and unitary authority areas are called "borough". Until 1974, this was a status that denoted towns with a certain type of local government (a municipal corporation, or a self-governing body). Since 1974, it has been a purely ceremonial style granted by royal charter to districts which may consist of a single town or may include a number of towns or rural areas. Borough status entitles the council chairman to bear the title of mayor. Districts may apply to the British Crown for the grant of borough status upon advice of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, local government was reorganised in 1973. Under the legislation that created the 26 districts of Northern Ireland, a district council whose area included an existing municipal borough could resolve to adopt the charter of the old municipality and thus continue to enjoy borough status. Districts that do not contain a former borough can apply for a charter in a similar manner to English districts.
Scotland
United States
In the United States, a borough is a unit of local government or other administrative division below the level of the state. The term is currently used in seven states.
The following states use, or have used, the word with the following meanings:
Alaska, as a county-equivalent — List of boroughs and census areas in Alaska
Connecticut, as an incorporated municipality within, or consolidated with, a town — see Borough (Connecticut)
Michigan, formerly applied to a village in the midst of forming a city. Also in Michigan is Mackinac Island, which was a borough from 1817 to 1847, when it became a village; it has been a city since 1899.
New Jersey, as a type of independent incorporated municipality — see Borough (New Jersey)
New York, as one of the five divisions of New York City, each coextensive with a county — see Boroughs of New York City
Pennsylvania, as a type of municipality comparable to a town — see Borough (Pennsylvania) — though two of the state's largest cities, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, have retained their names despite clearly being cities, as well as smaller communities that are officially cities in the Commonwealth such as Gettysburg
Virginia, as a division of a city under certain circumstances — see
Wisconsin in the 19th century occasionally used the term "borough" for the type of civil township normally known as a town.
See also
History of local government in England
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Boroughs incorporated in England and Wales 1835–1882 and 1882–1974
Burgh and List of burghs in Scotland
County borough
Ancient borough
Metropolitan borough
Municipal borough
Boroughs in New York City
Borough-English, a form of inheritance associated with the English boroughs
References
Citations
Sources
External links
Local government in Canada
Types of subdivision in the United Kingdom
Types of populated places
Types of administrative division
English words |
4858 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodmin | Bodmin | Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor.
The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered to the east by Cardinham parish, to the southeast by Lanhydrock parish, to the southwest and west by Lanivet parish, and to the north by Helland parish.
Bodmin had a population of 14,736 as of the 2011 Census. It was formerly the county town of Cornwall until the Crown Courts moved to Truro which is also the administrative centre (before 1835 the county town was Launceston). Bodmin was in the administrative North Cornwall District until local government reorganisation in 2009 abolished the District (see also Cornwall Council). The town is part of the North Cornwall parliamentary constituency, which is represented by Scott Mann MP.
Bodmin Town Council is made up of sixteen councillors who are elected to serve a term of four years. Each year, the Council elects one of its number as Mayor to serve as the town's civic leader and to chair council meetings.
Situation and origin of the name
The name of the town probably derives from the Cornish "Bod-meneghy", meaning "dwelling of or by the sanctuary of monks". Variant spellings recorded include Botmenei in 1100, Bodmen in 1253, Bodman in 1377 and Bodmyn in 1522. The Bodman spelling also appears in sources and maps from the 16th and 17th centuries, most notably in the celebrated map of Cornwall produced by John Speed but actually engraved by the Dutch cartographer Jodocus Hondius the Elder (1563–1612) in Amsterdam in 1610 (published in London by Sudbury and Humble in 1626).
The hamlets of Cooksland, Dunmere and Turfdown are in the parish.
History
St. Petroc founded a monastery in Bodmin in the 6th century and gave the town its alternative name of Petrockstow. The monastery was deprived of some of its lands at the Norman conquest but at the time of Domesday still held eighteen manors, including Bodmin, Padstow and Rialton. Bodmin is one of the oldest towns in Cornwall, and the only large Cornish settlement recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. In the 15th century the Norman church of St Petroc was largely rebuilt and stands as one of the largest churches in Cornwall (the largest after the cathedral at Truro). Also built at that time was an abbey of canons regular, now mostly ruined. For most of Bodmin's history, the tin industry was a mainstay of the economy.
An inscription on a stone built into the wall of a summer house in Lancarffe furnishes proof of a settlement in Bodmin in the early Middle Ages. It is a memorial to one "Duno[.]atus son of Me[.]cagnus" and has been dated from the 6th to 8th centuries.
Arthur Langdon (1896) records three Cornish crosses at Bodmin; one was near the Berry Tower, one was outside Bodmin Gaol and another was in a field near Castle Street Hill. There is also Carminow Cross at a road junction southeast of the town.
The Black Death killed half of Bodmin's population in the mid 14th century (1,500 people).
Rebellions
Bodmin was the centre of three Cornish uprisings. The first was the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 when a Cornish army, led by Michael An Gof, a blacksmith from St. Keverne and Thomas Flamank, a lawyer from Bodmin, marched to Blackheath in London where they were eventually defeated by 10,000 men of the King's army under Baron Daubeny. Then, in the autumn of 1497, Perkin Warbeck tried to usurp the throne from Henry VII. Warbeck was proclaimed King Richard IV in Bodmin but Henry had little difficulty crushing the uprising. In 1549, Cornishmen, allied with other rebels in neighbouring Devon, rose once again in rebellion when the staunchly Protestant Edward VI tried to impose a new Prayer Book. The lower classes of Cornwall and Devon were still strongly attached to the Roman Catholic religion and again a Cornish army was formed in Bodmin which marched across the border into Devon to lay siege to Exeter. This became known as the Prayer Book Rebellion. Proposals to translate the Prayer Book into Cornish were suppressed and in total 4,000 people were killed in the rebellion.
Bodmin Borough Police
The Borough of Bodmin was one of the 178 municipal boroughs which under the auspices of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 was mandated to create an electable council and a Police Watch Committee responsible for overseeing a police force in the town. The new system directly replaced the Parish Constables that had policed the borough since time immemorial and brought paid, uniformed and accountable law enforcement for the first time. Bodmin Borough Police was the municipal police force for the Borough of Bodmin from 1836 to 1866. The creation of the Cornwall Constabulary in 1857 put pressure on smaller municipal police forces to merge with the county. The two-man force of Bodmin came under threat almost immediately, but it would take until 1866 for the Mayor of Bodmin and the Chairman of the Police Watch Committee to agree on the terms of amalgamation. After a public enquiry, the force was disbanded in January 1866 and policing of the borough was deferred to the county from thereon.
"Bodmin Town"
The song "Bodmin Town" was collected from the Cornishman William Nichols at Whitchurch, Devon, in 1891 by Sabine Baring-Gould who published a version in his A Garland of Country Song (1924).
Churches
Parish church of St Petroc
The existing church building is dated 1469–72 and was until the building of Truro Cathedral the largest church in Cornwall. The tower which remains from the original Norman church and stands on the north side of the church (the upper part is 15th-century) was, until the loss of its spire in 1699, 150 ft high. The building underwent two Victorian restorations and another in 1930. It is now listed Grade I. There are a number of interesting monuments, most notably the black Delabole slate memorial to Richard Durant, his wives and twenty children, carved in low relief, and that of Prior Vivian which was formerly in the Priory Church (Thomas Vivian's effigy lying on a chest, all in black Catacleuse stone). There is also a twelfth-century ivory casket which is thought to have once contained relics of St Petroc. The font of a type common in Cornwall is of the 12th century: large and finely carved in elvan.
Other churches
The Chapel of St Thomas Becket is a ruin of a 14th-century building in Bodmin churchyard. The holy well of St Guron is a small stone building at the churchyard gate. The Berry Tower is all that remains of the former church of the Holy Rood and there are even fewer remains from the substantial Franciscan Friary established ca. 1240: a gateway in Fore Street and two pillars elsewhere in the town. The Roman Catholic Abbey of St Mary and St Petroc, formerly belonging to the Canons Regular of the Lateran was built in 1965 next to the already existing seminary. The Roman Catholic parish of Bodmin includes a large area of North Cornwall and there are churches also at Wadebridge, Padstow and Tintagel. In 1881 the Roman Catholic mass was celebrated in Bodmin for the first time since 1539. A church was planned in the 1930s but delayed by the Second World War: the Church of St Mary and St Petroc was eventually consecrated in 1965: it was built next to the already existing seminary. There are also five other churches in Bodmin, including a Methodist church.
Archdeaconry of Bodmin
Sites of interest
Bodmin Jail
Bodmin Jail, operational for over 150 years but now a semi-ruin, was built in the late 18th century, and was the first British prison to hold prisoners in separate cells (though often up to ten at a time) rather than communally. Over fifty prisoners condemned at the Bodmin Assize Court were hanged at the prison. It was also used for temporarily holding prisoners sentenced to transportation, awaiting transfer to the prison hulks lying in the highest navigable reaches of the River Fowey. Also, during 1918-19 in the First World War the prison held some material from Britain's Public Record Office, including the Domesday Book, but not the Crown Jewels as is commonly claimed: in World War II these were stored in Windsor Castle.
Institutions
Other buildings of interest include the former Shire Hall, now a tourist information centre, and Victoria Barracks, formerly depot of the now defunct Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and now the site of the regimental museum. It includes the history of the regiment from 1702, plus a military library. The original barracks house the regimental museum which was founded in 1925. There is a fine collection of small arms and machine guns, plus maps, uniforms and paintings on display. The Honey Street drill hall was the mobilisation point for reservists being deployed to serve on the Western Front.
Bodmin County Lunatic Asylum, later known as St Lawrence's Hospital, was designed by John Foulston. The humorist, William Robert Hicks, was domestic superintendent in the mid-19th century.
Walker Lines, named after Harold Bridgwood Walker, was a Second World War camp built as an extension to the DCLI Barracks. It was used to harbour men evacuated from Dunkirk and later to house troops for the D-Day landings. In the 1950s it was the site of the JSSL. The site is now an industrial estate but still known as 'Walker Lines'.
Bosvenna House, an Edwardian manor house, was formerly Bosvenna Hotel, and the home of the Royal British Legion Club, but has since become a private residence.
There is a sizable single storey Masonic Hall in St Nicholas Street, which is home to no less than eight Masonic bodies.
Other sites
Bodmin Beacon Local Nature Reserve is the hill overlooking the town. The reserve has of public land and at its highest point it reaches with the distinctive landmark at the summit. The tall granite monument to Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert was built in 1857 by the townspeople of Bodmin to honour the soldier's life and work in India.
In 1966, the "Finn VC Estate" was named in honour of Victoria Cross winner James Henry Finn who once lived in the town. An ornate granite drinking bowl which serves the needs of thirsty dogs at the entrance to Bodmin's Priory car park was donated by Prince Chula Chakrabongse of Thailand who lived at Tredethy.
Education
There are no independent schools in the area.
Primary schools
Beacon ACE Academy opened as a primary school for pupils aged between 3–11 in September 2017 following the merger of Beacon Infant and Nursery School and Robartes Junior School. Beacon ACE Academy is part of Kernow Learning Multi Academy Trust and is rated Good by Ofsted. The school offers places for 420 pupils as well as 30 places within its Nursery and 10 places within its Area Resource Base for pupils with Special Educational Needs.
St Petroc's Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary School, Athelstan Park, Bodmin, was given this title in September 1990 after the amalgamation of St. Petroc's Infant School and St. Petroc's Junior School. St. Petroc's is a large school with some 440 pupils between the ages of four and 11. Eight of its fourteen governors are nominated by the Diocese of Truro or the Parochial Church Council of St. Petroc's, Bodmin. It is currently rated as “Requires Improvement” by Ofsted.
There are a further two primary schools within Bodmin; Berrycoombe School in the northwest corner of the town, and St. Mary's Catholic Primary School.
Bodmin College
Bodmin College is a large state comprehensive school for ages 11–18 on the outskirts of the town. Its principal is Ms Seward-Adams. The college is home to the nationally acclaimed "Bodmin College Jazz Orchestra", founded and run by the previous Director of Music, Adrian Evans, until 2007 and more recently, by the current Director, Ben Vincent. In 1997, Systems & Control students at Bodmin College constructed Roadblock, a robot which entered and won the first series of Robot Wars and was succeeded by "The Beast of Bodmin". The school also has one of the largest sixth forms in the county.
Callywith College
Callywith College is a new Further Education college in Bodmin, Cornwall, that opened in September 2017. A new-build college on a site close to the Bodmin Asda supermarket, it will eventually cater for 1,280 students, with 197 staff employed. A total of 660 places were available in its first year. It is being created with the assistance of the Ofsted Outstanding Truro and Penwith College to serve students aged 16–19 from Bodmin, North Cornwall and East Cornwall. It received the go-ahead in February 2016, funded as a Free School. Its aim is to "provide the outstanding Truro and Penwith College experience for up to 1280 young people in Bodmin and North and East Cornwall."
Army School of Education
Aspiring National Service Sergeant Instructors of the Royal Army Education Corps underwent training at the Army School of Education, situated at the end of the Second World War at Buchanan Castle, Drymen in Scotland, and later, from 1948, at the Walker Lines, Bodmin, until it moved to Wilton Park, Beaconsfield.
Transport
Bodmin Parkway railway station – once known as Bodmin Road – is a principal calling point on the Cornish Main Line about 3½ miles (5½ km) south-east of the town centre. Buses to central Bodmin, Wadebridge, Padstow, Rock, Polzeath, Port Isaac and Camelford depart from outside the station entrance. It is connected to Bodmin town by a branch line that is home to the local steam railway, Bodmin and Wenford Railway.
Bodmin is just off the A30 providing a connection to the M5 motorway at Exeter 62 miles (99 km) northeast.
Bus and coach services connect Bodmin with some other districts of Cornwall and Devon.
Sport and leisure
Bodmin has a non-league football club Bodmin Town playing in the South West Peninsula League; a level 10 league in the English football league system. Their home ground is at Priory Park. Bodmin Rugby Club play rugby union at Clifden Parc and compete in the Tribute Cornwall/Devon league; a level 8 league in the English rugby union system.
The Royal Cornwall Golf Club (now defunct) was located on Bodmin Moor. It was founded in 1889 and became "Royal" in 1891. The club disbanded in the 1950s.
There is an active running club, Bodmin RoadRunners.
Bodmin was a stage finish in 2021 cycling Tour of Britain (Stage 1, 5th September).
Cornish wrestling
Bodmin has been a great centre for Cornish wrestling over the centuries. The Bodmin Wrestling Association was instrumental in the setting up of the Cornish Wrestling Association in 1923. At the base of the monument on The Beacon are the remains of the wrestling ring which many believe was a Plen-an-gwary. More recently Cornish wrestling tournaments are held as part of the revival of Bodmin Riding.
Other places in Bodmin where Cornish wrestling tournaments and matches were held include:
Coldharbour near the Barracks
Field at Barn Lane, opposite the Asylum Reservoir
Field which adjoins St Nicholas opposite the Great Western Railway Station
The Gymnasium at the DCLI Barracks
Bodmin town's ground at Westheath
The Football Ground, Priory Park
Bodmin priory grounds, including the 1951 inter-celtic tournament
William George Fish, known as, "Billy the Fish", from Bodmin, was the featherweight champion in 1927 and 1928 and the lightweight champion in 1933 and 1934.
Media
Newspapers
Cornish Guardian is a weekly newspaper published every Wednesday in seven separate editions, including the Bodmin edition.
In October 2020, the Bodmin Voice, sister paper to the Newquay Voice, was launched. It is published every Wednesday and focuses centrally on Bodmin.
Radio
Bodmin is the home of NCB Radio, an Internet radio station which aims to bring a dedicated station to North Cornwall. The town is also served by county-wide radio stations, BBC Radio Cornwall, Heart West and Greatest Hits Radio South West.
Television
Local TV coverage is provided by BBC South West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Caradon Hill and the local relay transmitters.
Notable people
See also :Category:People from Bodmin
John Arnold (1736–1799), watchmaker, of London
John Thomas Blight, artist
Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Egyptologist and Assyriologist
Chula Chakrabongse, philanthropist, Prince of Siam
James Henry Finn, soldier who was awarded the Victoria Cross
Thomas Flamank, lawyer, co-leader of the Cornish Rebellion, 1497
John Gale, Australian journalist
Francis Hamley, British Army officer who administered the South Australian government from 1868 to 1869
Joseph Osbertus Hamley, British Army officer who administered the New Zealand station of the British Army Military Store Department during the New Zealand Wars
William Hamley, founder of Hamleys toyshop
Alice Hext, garden developer
William Robert Hicks, superintendent of the Asylum
Al Hodge former guitarist with the Cornish band The Onyx
Herman Cyril McNeile, "Sapper", novelist
Peter D. Mitchell FRS, Nobel prizewinner, spent the latter part of his career in Bodmin
Ben Oliver, Cornwall County record holder for the 100m and 400m Wheelchair racing and ranked best in the world at 800 metres, having set a new European record.
Sir Arthur Olver, expert in animal husbandry
Saint Petroc
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, poet, novelist and critic
Andy Reed, rugby player
Dan Rogerson, MP
Henry Southwell, vicar of Bodmin, afterwards Bishop of Lewes
Thomas Vivian or Vyvyan, Prior of Bodmin, titular Bishop of Megara
Town twinning
Bodmin is twinned with Bederkesa in Germany; Grass Valley, in California, United States; and Le Relecq-Kerhuon (Ar Releg-Kerhuon in Brittany), France.
Official heraldry
W. H. Pascoe's 1979 A Cornish Armory gives the arms of the priory and the monastery and the seal of the borough.
Seal – a king enthroned; legend: Sigill comune burgensium bodmine
Priory – Azure three salmon naiant in pale Argent
Monastery – Or on a chevron Azure between three lion's heads Purpure three annulets Or
Official events
On Halgavor Moor (Goats' Moor) near Bodmin there was once an annual carnival in July which was on one occasion attended by King Charles II. Halgavor extends into the parish of Lanhydrock.
Bodmin Riding, a horseback procession through the town, is a traditional annual ceremony.
'Beating the bounds' and 'hurling'
In 1865–66 William Robert Hicks was mayor of Bodmin, when he revived the custom of Beating the bounds of the town. He was – according to the Dictionary of National Biography – a very good man of business. This still takes place more or less every five years and concludes with a game of Cornish hurling. Hurling survives as a traditional part of beating the bounds at Bodmin, commencing at the close of the 'Beat'. The game is organised by the Rotary club of Bodmin and was last played in 2015. The game is started by the Mayor of Bodmin by throwing a silver ball into a body of water known as the "Salting Pool". There are no teams and the hurl follows a set route. The aim is to carry the ball from the "Salting Pool" via the old A30, along Callywith Road, then through Castle Street, Church Square and Honey Street to finish at the Turret Clock in Fore Street. The participant carrying the ball when it reaches the turret clock will receive a £10 reward from the mayor.
In 2015, beating of the bounds and Cornish hurling took place at Bodmin 8 April organised by the Rotary club of Bodmin.
See also
List of topics related to Cornwall
List of Bodmin MPs
Bodmin Hospital
Bodmin manumissions
Beast of Bodmin
2023 Bodmin mass stabbing
References
Further reading
Henderson, Charles (1935) "Some Notes on Bodmin Priory", in: Essays in Cornish History. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 219–28
Maclean, Sir John (1870) Parochial and Family History of the Parish and Borough of Bodmin, in the County of Cornwall. (Parochial and Family History of the Deanery of Trigg Minor; pt. 2.) London: Nichols & Sons
External links
Bodmin Council
Towns in Cornwall
Cornish capitals
Civil parishes in Cornwall
Cornish Killas
Manors in Cornwall
Former county towns in England
Coinage Towns |
4860 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley%2C%20California | Berkeley, California | Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills. The 2020 census recorded a population of 124,321.
Berkeley is home to the oldest campus in the University of California, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is managed and operated by the university. It also has the Graduate Theological Union, one of the largest religious studies institutions in the world. Berkeley is considered one of the most socially progressive cities in the United States.
History
Indigenous history
The site of today's City of Berkeley was the territory of the Chochenyo/Huchiun Ohlone people when the first Europeans arrived. Evidence of their existence in the area include pits in rock formations, which they used to grind acorns, and a shellmound, now mostly leveled and covered up, along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the mouth of Strawberry Creek. Human remains and skeletons from Native American burials have been unearthed in West Berkeley and on campus alongside Strawberry Creek. Other artifacts were discovered in the 1950s in the downtown area during remodeling of a commercial building, near the upper course of the creek.
Spanish and Mexican eras
The first people of European descent (most of whom were of mixed race and born in America) arrived with the De Anza Expedition in 1776. The De Anza Expedition led to establishment of the Spanish Presidio of San Francisco at the entrance to San Francisco Bay (the Golden Gate). Luis Peralta was among the soldiers at the Presidio. For his services to the King of Spain, he was granted a vast stretch of land on the east shore of San Francisco Bay (the contra costa, "opposite shore") for a ranch, including that portion that now comprises the City of Berkeley.
Luis Peralta named his holding "Rancho San Antonio". The primary activity of the ranch was raising cattle for meat and hides, but hunting and farming were also pursued. Eventually, Peralta gave portions of the ranch to each of his four sons. What is now Berkeley lies mostly in the portion that went to Peralta's son Domingo, with a little in the portion that went to another son, Vicente. No artifact survives of the Domingo or Vicente ranches, but their names survive in Berkeley street names (Vicente, Domingo, and Peralta). However, legal title to all land in the City of Berkeley remains based on the original Peralta land grant.
The Peraltas' Rancho San Antonio continued after Alta California passed from Spanish to Mexican sovereignty after the Mexican War of Independence. However, the advent of U.S. sovereignty after the Mexican–American War, and especially, the Gold Rush, saw the Peraltas' lands quickly encroached on by squatters and diminished by dubious legal proceedings. The lands of the brothers Domingo and Vicente were quickly reduced to reservations close to their respective ranch homes. The rest of the land was surveyed and parceled out to various American claimants (See Kellersberger's Map).
Politically, the area that became Berkeley was initially part of a vast Contra Costa County. On March 25, 1853, Alameda County was created from a division of Contra Costa County, as well as from a small portion of Santa Clara County. The area that became Berkeley was then the northern part of the "Oakland Township" subdivision of Alameda County. During this period, "Berkeley" was mostly a mix of open land, farms, and ranches, with a small, though busy, wharf by the bay.
Late 19th century
In 1866, Oakland's private College of California looked for a new site. It settled on a location north of Oakland along the foot of the Contra Costa Range (later called the Berkeley Hills) astride Strawberry Creek, at an elevation of about above the bay, commanding a view of the Bay Area and the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate.
According to the Centennial Record of the University of California, "In 1866, at Founders' Rock, a group of College of California men watched two ships standing out to sea through the Golden Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings, thought of the lines of the Anglo-Irish Anglican Bishop George Berkeley, 'westward the course of empire takes its way,' and suggested that the town and college site be named for the eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish philosopher." The philosopher's name is pronounced BARK-lee, but the city's name, to accommodate American English, is pronounced BERK-lee.
The College of California's College Homestead Association planned to raise funds for the new campus by selling off adjacent parcels of land. To this end, they laid out a plat and street grid that became the basis of Berkeley's modern street plan. Their plans fell far short of their desires, and they began a collaboration with the State of California that culminated in 1868 with the creation of the public University of California.
As construction began on the new site, more residences were constructed in the vicinity of the new campus. At the same time, a settlement of residences, saloons, and various industries grew around the wharf area called Ocean View. A horsecar ran from Temescal in Oakland to the university campus along what is now Telegraph Avenue. The first post office opened in 1872.
By the 1870s, the Transcontinental Railroad reached its terminus in Oakland. In 1876, a branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad, the Berkeley Branch Railroad, was laid from a junction with the mainline called Shellmound (now a part of Emeryville) into what is now downtown Berkeley. That same year, the mainline of the transcontinental railroad into Oakland was re-routed, putting the right-of-way along the bay shore through Ocean View.
There was a strong prohibition movement in Berkeley at this time. In 1876, the state enacted the "mile limit law", which forbade sale or public consumption of alcohol within of the new University of California. Then, in 1899, Berkeley residents voted to make their city an alcohol-free zone. Scientists, scholars and religious leaders spoke vehemently of the dangers of alcohol.
On April 1, 1878, the people of Ocean View and the area around the university campus, together with local farmers, were granted incorporation by the State of California as the Town of Berkeley. The first elected trustees of the town were the slate of Denis Kearney's anti-Chinese Workingman's Party, who were particularly favored in the working-class area of the former Ocean View, now called West Berkeley. During the 1880s Berkeley had segregated housing and anti-Chinese laws. The area near the university became known for a time as East Berkeley.
Due to the influence of the university, the modern age came quickly to Berkeley. Electric lights and the telephone were in use by 1888. Electric streetcars soon replaced the horsecar. A silent film of one of these early streetcars in Berkeley can be seen at the Library of Congress website.
Early 20th century
Berkeley's slow growth ended abruptly with the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The town and other parts of the East Bay escaped serious damage, and thousands of refugees flowed across the Bay. Among them were most of San Francisco's painters and sculptors, who between 1907 and 1911 created one of the largest art colonies west of Chicago. Artist and critic Jennie V. Cannon described the founding of the Berkeley Art Association and the rivalries of competing studios and art clubs.
In 1904, the first hospitals in Berkeley were created: the Alta Bates Sanatorium for women and children, founded by nurse Alta Bates on Walnut Street, and the Roosevelt (later, Herrick) Hospital, founded by LeRoy Francis Herrick, on the corner of Dwight Way and Milvia Street.
In 1908, a statewide referendum that proposed moving the California state capital to Berkeley was defeated by a margin of about 33,000 votes. The city named streets around the proposed capitol grounds for California counties. They bear those names today, a legacy of the failed referendum.
On March 4, 1909, following public referendums, the citizens of Berkeley were granted a new charter by the State of California, and the Town of Berkeley became the City of Berkeley. Rapid growth continued up to the Crash of 1929. The Great Depression hit Berkeley hard, but not as hard as many other places in the U.S., thanks in part to the university.
In 1916, Berkeley implemented single-family zoning as an effort to keep minorities out of white neighborhoods. This has been described as the first implementation of single-family zoning in the United States By 2021, nearly half of Berkeley's residential neighborhoods were still exclusively zoned for single-family homes.
On September 17, 1923, a major fire swept down the hills toward the university campus and the downtown section. Around 640 structures burned before a late-afternoon sea breeze stopped its progress, allowing firefighters to put it out.
The next big growth occurred with the advent of World War II, when large numbers of people moved to the Bay Area to work in the many war industries, such as the immense Kaiser Shipyards in nearby Richmond. One who moved out, but played a big role in the outcome of the war, was U.C. professor and Berkeley resident J. Robert Oppenheimer. During the war, an Army base, Camp Ashby, was temporarily sited in Berkeley.
The element berkelium was synthesized utilizing the cyclotron at UC Berkeley, and named in 1949, in recognition of the university, thus placing the city's name in the list of elements.
1940–60s
During the 1940s, many African Americans migrated to Berkeley. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported Berkeley's population as 11.7% black and 84.6% white.
The postwar years brought moderate growth to the city, as events on the U.C. campus began to build up to the recognizable activism of the sixties. In the 1950s, McCarthyism induced the university to demand a loyalty oath from its professors, many of whom refused to sign the oath on the principle of freedom of thought. In 1960, a U.S. House committee (HUAC) came to San Francisco to investigate the influence of communists in the Bay Area. Their presence was met by protesters, including many from the university. Meanwhile, a number of U.C. students became active in the civil rights movement. Finally, in 1964, the university provoked a massive student protest by banning distribution of political literature on campus. This protest became the Free Speech Movement. As the Vietnam War rapidly escalated in the ensuing years, so did student activism at the university, particularly that organized by the Vietnam Day Committee.
Berkeley is strongly identified with the rapid social changes, civic unrest, and political upheaval that characterized the late 1960s. In that period, Berkeley—especially Telegraph Avenue—became a focal point for the hippie movement, which spilled over the Bay from San Francisco. Many hippies were apolitical drop-outs, rather than students, but in the heady atmosphere of Berkeley in 1967–1969 there was considerable overlap between the hippie movement and the radical left. An iconic event in the Berkeley Sixties scene was a conflict over a parcel of university property south of the contiguous campus site that came to be called "People's Park".
The battle over the disposition of People's Park resulted in a month-long occupation of Berkeley by the National Guard on orders of then-Governor Ronald Reagan. In the end, the park remained undeveloped, and remains so today. A spin-off, People's Park Annex, was established at the same time by activist citizens of Berkeley on a strip of land above the Bay Area Rapid Transit subway construction along Hearst Avenue northwest of the U.C. campus. The land had also been intended for development, but was turned over to the city by BART and is now Ohlone Park.
The era of large public protest in Berkeley waned considerably with the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. While the 1960s were the heyday of liberal activism in Berkeley, it remains one of the most overwhelmingly Democratic cities in the United States.
1970s and 1980s
Housing and zoning changes
After the 1960s, Berkeley banned most new housing construction, in particular apartments.
Increasing enrollment at the university led to replacement of older buildings by large apartment buildings, especially in older parts of the city near the university and downtown. Increasing enrollment also led the university to wanting to redevelop certain places of Berkeley, especially Southside, but more specifically People's Park. Preservationists passed the Neighborhood Protection Ordinance in 1973 by ballot measure and the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance in 1974 by City Council. Together, these ordinances brought most new construction to a halt. Facing rising housing costs, residents voted to enact rent control and vacancy control in 1980. Though more far-reaching in their effect than those of some of the other jurisdictions in California that chose to use rent-control where they could, these policies were limited by the Costa-Hawkins Act, a statewide ban on rent control that came into effect in 1995 and limited rent control to multi-family units that were built (or technically buildings that were issued their original certificate of occupation) before the state law came into effect in 1995. For cities such as Berkeley, where rent-control was already in place, the law limited the use of rent-control to units built before the local rent-control law was enacted, i.e. 1980.
Political movements
During the 1970s and 1980s, activists increased their power in local government. This era also saw major developments in Berkeley's environmental and food culture. Berkeley's last Republican mayor, Wallace J. S. Johnson, left office in 1971. Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971. The first curbside recycling program in the U.S. was started by the Ecology Center in 1973. Styrofoam was banned in 1988.
As the city leaned more and more Democratic, local politics became divided between "Progressives" and "Moderates". 1984 saw the Progressives take the majority for the first time. Nancy Skinner became the first UC Berkeley student elected to City Council. In 1986, in reaction to the 1984 election, a ballot measure switched Berkeley from at-large to district-based elections for city council.
In 1983, Berkeley's Domestic Partner Task Force was established, which in 1984 made policy recommendation to the school board, which passed domestic partner legislation. The legislation became a model for similar measures nationwide.
1990s and 2000s
In 1995, California's Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act ended vacancy control, allowing rents to increase when a tenant moved out. Despite a slow down in 2005–2007, median home prices and rents remain dramatically higher than the rest of the nation, fueled by spillover from the San Francisco housing shortage and population growth.
South and West Berkeley underwent gentrification, with some historically Black neighborhoods such as the Adeline Corridor seeing a 50% decline in Black / African American population from 1990 to 2010. In the 1990s, Public Television's Frontline documentary series featured race relations at Berkeley's only public high school, Berkeley High School.
With an economy dominated by the University of California and a high-demand housing market, Berkeley was relatively unaffected by the Great Recession. State budget cuts caused the university to increase the number of out-of-state and international students, with international enrollment, mostly from Asia, rising from 2,785 in 2007 to 5,951 in 2016. Since then, more international restaurants have opened downtown and on Telegraph Avenue, including East Asian chains such as Ippudo and Daiso.
A wave of downtown apartment construction began in 1998.
In 2006, the Berkeley Oak Grove Protest began protesting construction of a new sports center annex to Memorial Stadium at the expense of a grove of oak trees on the UC campus. The protest ended in September 2008 after a lengthy court process.
In 2007–2008, Berkeley received media attention due to demonstrations against a Marine Corps recruiting office in downtown Berkeley and a series of controversial motions by Berkeley's city council regarding opposition to Marine recruiting. (See Berkeley Marine Corps Recruiting Center controversy.)
2010s and 2020s
During the fall of 2010, the Berkeley Student Food Collective opened after many protests on the UC Berkeley campus due to the proposed opening of the fast food chain Panda Express. Students and community members worked together to open a collectively run grocery store right off of the UC Berkeley campus, where the community can buy local, seasonal, humane, and organic foods. The Berkeley Student Food Collective still operates at 2440 Bancroft Way.
On September 18, 2012, Berkeley became what may be the first city in the U.S. to officially proclaim a day recognizing bisexuals September 23, which is known as Celebrate Bisexuality Day.
On September 2, 2014, the city council approved a measure to provide free medical marijuana to low-income patients.
The Measure D soda tax was approved by Berkeley voters on November 4, 2014, the first such tax in the United States.
Protests
In the Fall of 2011, the nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement came to two Berkeley locations: on the campus of the University of California and as an encampment in Civic Center Park.
During a Black Lives Matter protest on December 6, 2014, police use of tear gas and batons to clear protesters from Telegraph Avenue led to a riot and five consecutive days and nights of protests, marches, and freeway occupations in Berkeley and Oakland. Afterwards, changes were implemented by the Police Department to avoid escalation of violence and to protect bystanders during protests.
During a protest against bigotry and U.S. President Donald Trump in August 2017, anti-fascist protesters grew violent against Trump supporters in attendance. Police intervened, arresting 14 people. Sometimes called "antifa", these anti-fascist activists were clad in all black, while some carried shields and others had masks or bandanas hiding their faces. These protests spanned February to September 2017 (See more at 2017 Berkeley Protests).
In 2019, protesters took up residence in People's Park against tree-chopping and were arrested by police in riot gear. Many activists saw this as the university preparing to develop the park.
Homelessness
The city of Berkeley has historically been a central location for homeless communities in the Bay Area. Since the 1930s, the city of Berkeley has fostered a tradition of political activism. The city has been perceived as a hub for liberal thought and action and it has passed ordinances to oust homeless individuals from Berkeley on multiple occasions. Despite efforts to remove unhoused individuals from the streets and projects to improve social service provision for this demographic, homelessness has continued to be a significant problem in Berkeley.
1960s
A culture of anti-establishment and sociopolitical activism marked the 1960s. The San Francisco Bay Area became a hotspot for hippie counterculture, and Berkeley became a haven for nonconformists and anarchists from all over the United States. Most public discourse around homelessness in Berkeley at this time was centered around the idea of street-living as an expression of counterculture.
During the Free Speech Movement in the Fall of 1964, Berkeley became a hub of civil unrest, with demonstrators and UC Berkeley students sympathizing with the statewide protests for free speech and assembly, as well as revolting against university restrictions against student political activities and organizations established by UC President Clark Kerr in 1959. Many non-student youth and adolescents sought alternative lifestyles and opted for voluntary homelessness during this time.
In 1969, People's Park was created and eventually became a haven for "small-time drug dealers, street people, and the homeless". Although the City of Berkeley has moved unhoused individuals from its streets, sometimes even relocating them to an unused landfill, People's Park has remained a safe space for them since its inception. The park has become one of the few relatively safe spaces for homeless individuals to congregate in Berkeley and the greater Bay Area.
1970s
Stereotypes of homeless people as deviant individuals who chose to live vagrant lifestyles continued to color the discourse around street-dwellers in American cities. However, this time period was also characterized by a subtle shift in the perception of unhoused individuals. The public began to realize that homelessness affected not only single men, but also women, children, and entire families. This recognition set the stage for the City of Berkeley's attitude towards homelessness in the next decade.
1980s
Organizations such as Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS) were established in 1971 in response to the needs of individuals with mental illness being released to the streets by state hospital closures.
1990s
In the 1990s, the City of Berkeley faced a substantial increase in the need for emergency housing shelters and saw a rise in the average amount of time individuals spent without stable housing. As housing became a more widespread problem, the general public, Berkeley City Council, and the University of California became increasingly anti-homeless in their opinions. In 1994, Berkeley City Council considered the implementation of a set of anti-homeless laws that the San Francisco Chronicle described as being "among the strictest in the country". These laws prohibited sitting, sleeping and begging in public spaces, and outlawed panhandling from people in a variety of contexts, such as sitting on public benches, buying a newspaper from a rack, or waiting in line for a movie. In February 1995, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the city for infringing free speech rights through its proposed anti-panhandling law. In May of that same year, a federal judge ruled that the anti-panhandling law did violate the First Amendment, but left the anti-sitting and sleeping laws untouched.
Following the implementation of these anti-sitting and sleeping ordinances in 1998, Berkeley increased its policing of homeless adults and youth, particularly in the shopping district surrounding Telegraph Avenue. The mayor at that time, Shirley Dean, proposed a plan to increase both social support services for homeless youth and enforcement of anti-encampment laws. Unhoused youth countered this plan with a request for the establishment of the city's first youth shelter, more trash cans, and more frequent cleaning of public bathrooms.
21st century
The City of Berkeley's 2017 annual homeless report and point-in-time count (PIT) estimate that on a given night, 972 people are homeless. Sixty-eight percent (664 people) of these individuals are also unsheltered, living in places not considered suitable for human habitation, such as cars or streets. Long-term homelessness in Berkeley is double the national average, with 27% of the city's homeless population facing chronic homelessness. Chronic homelessness has been on the rise since 2015, and has been largely a consequence of the constrained local housing market. In 2015, rent in Alameda County increased by 25%, while the average household income only grew by 5%. The City of Berkeley's 2017 report also estimated the number of unaccompanied youth in Berkeley at 189 individuals, 19% of the total homeless population in the city. Homeless youth display greater risk of mental health issues, behavioral problems, and substance abuse, than any other homeless age group. Furthermore, homeless youth identifying as LGBTQ+ are exposed to greater rates of physical and sexual abuse, and higher risk for sexually-transmitted diseases, predominantly HIV.
The City of Berkeley has seen a consistent rise in the number of chronically homeless individuals over the past 30 years, and has implemented a number of different projects to reduce the number of people living on the streets. In 2008, the City focused its efforts on addressing chronic homelessness. This led to a 48% decline in the number of chronically homeless individuals reported in the 2009 Berkeley PIT. However, the number of "hidden homeless" individuals (those coping with housing insecurity by staying at a friend or relative's residence), increased significantly, likely in response to rising housing costs and costs of living. In 2012, the City considered measures that banned sitting in commercial areas throughout Berkeley. The measure was met with strong public opposition and did not pass. However, the City saw a strong need for it to implement rules addressing encampments and public usage of space as well as assessing the resources needed to assist the unhoused population. In response to these needs the City of Berkeley established the Homeless Task Force, headed by then-Councilmember Jesse Arreguín. Since its formation, the Task Force has proposed a number of different recommendations, from expanding the City Homeless Outreach and Mobile Crisis Teams, to building a short-term transitional shelter for unhoused individuals.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city's area includes of land and (40.83%) water, most of it part of San Francisco Bay.
Berkeley borders the cities of Albany, Oakland, and Emeryville and Contra Costa County, including unincorporated Kensington, as well as San Francisco Bay.
Berkeley lies within telephone area code 510 (until September 2, 1991, Berkeley was part of the 415 telephone code that now covers only San Francisco and Marin counties), and the postal ZIP codes are 94701 through 94710, 94712, and 94720 for the University of California campus.
Geology
Most of Berkeley lies on a rolling sedimentary plain that rises gently from sea level to the base of the Berkeley Hills. East of the Hayward Fault along the base of the hills, elevation increases more rapidly. The highest peak along the ridge line above Berkeley is Grizzly Peak, at an elevation of . A number of small creeks run from the hills to the Bay through Berkeley: Cerrito, Codornices, Schoolhouse, and Strawberry Creeks are the principal streams. Most of these are largely culverted once they reach the plain west of the hills.
The Berkeley Hills are part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, and run in a northwest–southeast alignment. Exposed in the Berkeley Hills are cherts and shales of the Claremont Formation (equivalent to the Monterey Formation), conglomerate and sandstone of the Orinda Formation and lava flows of the Moraga Volcanics. Of similar age to the Moraga Volcanics (extinct), within the Northbrae neighborhood of Berkeley, are outcroppings of erosion resistant rhyolite. These rhyolite formations can be seen in several city parks and in the yards of a number of private residences. Indian Rock Park in the northeastern part of Berkeley near the Arlington/Marin Circle features a large example.
Earthquakes
Berkeley is traversed by the Hayward Fault Zone, a major branch of the San Andreas Fault to the west. No large earthquake has occurred on the Hayward Fault near Berkeley in historic times (except possibly in 1836), but seismologists warn about the geologic record of large temblors several times in the deeper past. The current assessment is that a Bay Area earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater within the next 30 years is likely, with the Hayward Fault having the highest likelihood among faults in the Bay Area of being the epicenter. Moreover, like much of the Bay Area, Berkeley has many areas of some risk to soil liquefaction, with the flat areas closer to the shore at low to high susceptibility.
The 1868 Hayward earthquake did occur on the southern segment of the Hayward Fault in the vicinity of today's city of Hayward. This quake destroyed the county seat of Alameda County then located in San Leandro and it subsequently moved to Oakland. It was strongly felt in San Francisco, causing major damage. It was regarded as the "Great San Francisco earthquake" prior to 1906. It produced a furrow in the ground along the fault line in Berkeley, across the grounds of the new State Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind then under construction, which was noted by one early University of California professor. Although no significant damage was reported to most of the few Berkeley buildings of the time, the 1868 quake did destroy the vulnerable adobe home of Domingo Peralta in north Berkeley.
Today, evidence of the Hayward Fault's "creeping" is visible at various locations in Berkeley. Cracked roadways, sharp jogs in streams, and springs mark the fault's path. However, since it cuts across the base of the hills, the creep is often concealed by or confused with slide activity. Some of the slide activity itself, however, results from movement on the Hayward Fault.
A notorious segment of the Hayward Fault runs lengthwise down the middle of Memorial Stadium at the mouth of Strawberry Canyon on the University of California campus. Photos and measurements show the movement of the fault through the stadium.
Climate
Berkeley has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb in the Köppen climate classification), with warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Berkeley's location directly opposite the Golden Gate ensures that typical eastward fog flow blankets the city more often than its neighbors. The summers are cooler than a typical Mediterranean climate thanks to upwelling ocean currents along the California coast. These help produce cool and foggy nights and mornings.
Winter is punctuated with rainstorms of varying ferocity and duration, but also produces stretches of bright sunny days and clear cold nights. It does not normally snow, though occasionally the hilltops get a dusting. Spring and fall are transitional and intermediate, with some rainfall and variable temperature. Summer typically brings night and morning low clouds or fog, followed by sunny, warm days. The warmest and driest months are typically June through September, with the highest temperatures occurring in September. Mid-summer (July–August) is often a bit cooler due to the sea breezes and fog common then.
In a year, there are an average of 2.9 days with highs of or higher, and an average of 0.8 days with lows of or lower. The highest recorded temperature was on June 15, 2000, and July 16, 1993, and the lowest recorded temperature was on December 22, 1990.
February is normally the wettest month, averaging of precipitation. Average annual precipitation is , falling on an average of 63.7 days each year. The most rainfall in one month was in February 1998. The most rainfall in 24 hours was on January 4, 1982. As in most of California, the heaviest rainfall years are usually associated with warm water El Niño episodes in the Pacific (e.g., 1982–83; 1997–98), which bring in drenching "pineapple express" storms. In contrast, dry years are often associated with cold Pacific La Niña episodes. Light snow has fallen on rare occasions. Snow has generally fallen every several years on the higher peaks of the Berkeley Hills.
In the late spring and early fall, strong offshore winds of sinking air typically develop, bringing heat and dryness to the area. In the spring, this is not usually a problem as vegetation is still moist from winter rains, but extreme dryness prevails by the fall, creating a danger of wildfires. In September 1923 a major fire swept through the neighborhoods north of the university campus, stopping just short of downtown. (See 1923 Berkeley fire). On October 20, 1991, gusty, hot winds fanned a conflagration along the Berkeley–Oakland border, killing 25 people and injuring 150, as well as destroying 2,449 single-family dwellings and 437 apartment and condominium units. (See 1991 Oakland firestorm)
Demographics
2020 census
Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race
The 2020 United States Census reported that Berkeley had a population of 124,321. The population density was 11,874 people per square mile of land area (4,584/km2). The racial makeup of Berkeley was 62,450 (50.2%) White, 9,495 (7.6%) Black or African American, 24,701 (19.9%) Asian, 253 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 226 (0.2%) from Native American, 1,109 (0.9%) from other races, and 9,069 (7.2%) multiracial (two or more races). There were 17,018 (13.7%) of Hispanic or Latino ancestry, of any race.
Earlier census data
From the 2010 United States Census, the racial makeup of Berkeley was 66,996 (59.5%) White, 11,241 (10.0%) Black or African American, 479 (0.4%) Native American, 21,690 (19.3%) Asian (8.4% Chinese, 2.4% Indian, 2.1% Korean, 1.6% Japanese, 1.5% Filipino, 1.0% Vietnamese), 186 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 4,994 (4.4%) from other races, and 6,994 (6.2%) from two or more races. There were 12,209 people (10.8%) of Hispanic or Latino ancestry, of any race. 6.8% of the city's population was of Mexican ancestry.
The Census reported that 99,731 people (88.6% of the population) lived in households, 12,430 (11.0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 419 (0.4%) were institutionalized.
There were 46,029 households, out of which 8,467 (18.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,569 (29.5%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,855 (8.4%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,368 (3.0%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,931 (6.4%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 961 (2.1%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 16,904 households (36.7%) were made up of individuals, and 4,578 (9.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.17. There were 18,792 families (40.8% of all households); the average family size was 2.81. There were 49,454 housing units at an average density of , of which 46,029 were occupied, of which 18,846 (40.9%) were owner-occupied, and 27,183 (59.1%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.5%. 45,096 people (40.1% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 54,635 people (48.5%) lived in rental housing units.
In the city, 13,872 people (12.3%) were under the age of 18, 30,295 people (26.9%) were aged 18 to 24, 30,231 people (26.9%) aged 25 to 44, 25,006 people (22.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 13,176 people (11.7%) were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.2 males.
According to the 2011 American Community Survey 5-Year estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $60,908, and the median income for a family was $102,976. Males had a median income of $67,476 versus $57,319 for females. The per capita income for the city was $38,896. About 7.2% of families and 18.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.2% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over.
Berkeley has a higher-than-average crime rate, particularly property crime, though the crime rate has fallen significantly since 2000.
Transportation
Berkeley is served by Amtrak (Capitol Corridor), AC Transit, BART (Ashby, Downtown Berkeley Station and North Berkeley) and bus shuttles operated by major employers including UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Eastshore Freeway (Interstate 80 and Interstate 580) runs along the bay shoreline. Each day there is an influx of thousands of cars into the city by commuting UC faculty, staff and students, making parking for more than a few hours an expensive proposition.
Berkeley has one of the highest rates of bicycle and pedestrian commuting in the nation. Berkeley is the safest city of its size in California for pedestrians and cyclists, considering the number of injuries per pedestrian and cyclist, rather than per capita.
Berkeley has modified its original grid roadway structure through use of diverters and barriers, moving most traffic out of neighborhoods and onto arterial streets (visitors often find this confusing, because the diverters are not shown on all maps). Berkeley maintains a separate grid of arterial streets for bicycles, called Bicycle Boulevards, with bike lanes and lower amounts of car traffic than the major streets they often parallel. Attempts to improve the biking infrastructure in Berkeley have been met with controversy. In 2023, the Berkeley city council fired the city's top transportation official for a plan to remove dozens of parking spots on a street to build a protected bike lane.
Berkeley hosts car sharing networks including Uhaul Car Share, Gig Car Share, and Zipcar. Rather than owning (and parking) their own cars, members share a group of cars parked nearby. Web- and telephone-based reservation systems keep track of hours and charges. Several "pods" (points of departure where cars are kept) exist throughout the city, in several downtown locations, at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations, and at various other locations in Berkeley (and other cities in the region). Using alternative transportation is encouraged.
Berkeley has had recurring problems with parking meter vandalism. In 1999, over 2,400 Berkeley meters were jammed, smashed, or sawed apart. Starting in 2005 and continuing into 2006, Berkeley began to phase out mechanical meters in favor of more centralized electronic meters.
Transportation history
The first commuter service to San Francisco was provided by the Central Pacific's Berkeley Branch Railroad, a standard gauge steam railroad, which terminated in downtown Berkeley, and connected in Emeryville (at a locale then known as "Shellmound") with trains to the Oakland ferry pier as well as with the Central Pacific main line starting in 1876. The Berkeley Branch line was extended from Shattuck and University to Vine Street ("Berryman's Station") in 1878. Starting in 1882, Berkeley trains ran directly to the Oakland Pier. In the 1880s, Southern Pacific assumed operations of the Berkeley Branch under a lease from its own paper affiliate, the Northern Railway. In 1911, Southern Pacific electrified this line and the several others it constructed in Berkeley, creating its East Bay Electric Lines division. The huge and heavy cars specially built for these lines were called the "Red Trains" or the "Big Red Cars". The Shattuck line was extended and connected with two other Berkeley lines (the Ninth Street Line and the California Street line) at Solano and Colusa (the "Colusa Wye"). At this time, the Northbrae Tunnel and Rose Street Undercrossing were constructed, both of which still exist. (The Rose Street Undercrossing is not accessible to the public, being situated between what is now two backyards.) The fourth Berkeley line was the Ellsworth St. line to the university campus. The last Red Trains ran in July 1941.
The first electric rail service in Berkeley was provided by several small streetcar companies starting in 1891. Most of these were eventually bought up by the Key System of Francis "Borax" Smith who added lines and improved equipment. The Key System's streetcars were operated by its East Bay Street Railways division. Principal lines in Berkeley ran on Euclid, The Arlington, , Telegraph, Shattuck, San Pablo, , and Grove (today's Martin Luther King Jr. Way). The last streetcars ran in 1948, replaced by buses.
The first electric commuter interurban-type trains to San Francisco from Berkeley were put in operation by the Key System in 1903, several years before the Southern Pacific electrified its steam commuter lines. Like the SP, Key trains ran to a pier serviced by the Key's own fleet of ferryboats, which also docked at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. After the Bay Bridge was built, the Key trains ran to the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, sharing tracks on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge with the SP's red trains and the Sacramento Northern Railroad. It was at this time that the Key trains acquired their letter designations, which were later preserved by Key's public successor, AC Transit. Today's F bus is the successor of the F train. Likewise, the E, G and the H. Before the Bridge, these lines were simply the Shattuck Avenue Line, the Claremont Line, the Westbrae Line, and the Sacramento Street Line, respectively.
After the Southern Pacific abandoned transbay service in 1941, the Key System acquired the rights to use its tracks and catenary on Shattuck north of Dwight Way and through the Northbrae Tunnel to The Alameda for the F-train. The SP tracks along Monterey Avenue as far as Colusa had been acquired by the Key System in 1933 for the H-train, but were abandoned in 1941. The Key System trains stopped running in April 1958. On December 15, 1962, the Northbrae Tunnel was opened to auto traffic.
Economy
Top employers
According to the city's 2021 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:
Businesses
Berkeley is the location of a number of nationally prominent businesses, many of which have been pioneers in their areas of operation. Notable businesses include Chez Panisse, birthplace of California cuisine, Peet's Coffee's original store, the Claremont Resort, punk rock haven 924 Gilman, Saul Zaentz's Fantasy Studios, and Caffe Strada. Notable former businesses include pioneer bookseller Cody's Books, The Nature Company, The North Face, Clif Bar energy foods, the Berkeley Co-op, and Caffe Mediterraneum.
Berkeley has relatively few chain stores for a city of its size, due to policies and zoning that promote small businesses and impose limits on the size of certain types of stores.
Places
Major streets
Shattuck Avenue passes through several neighborhoods from north to south, including the downtown business district in Berkeley. It is named for Francis K. Shattuck, one of Berkeley's earliest influential citizens and the most prominent civic leader in the early history of Berkeley. He played an important role in the creation and government of Alameda County as well.
University Avenue runs from Berkeley's bayshore and marina in the west to the University of California campus in the east.
College Avenue, running from the University of California from the north to Broadway in Oakland in the south close to the foothill, is a relatively quiet street compared with other major streets in Berkeley. It supports many restaurants and small shops.
Ashby Avenue (Highway 13), which also runs from Berkeley's bayshore to the hills, connects with the Warren Freeway and Highway 24 leading to the Caldecott Tunnel, named for a former Berkeley mayor.
San Pablo Avenue (Highway 123) runs north–south through West Berkeley, connecting Oakland and Emeryville to the south and Albany to the north.
Telegraph Avenue, which runs north–south from the university campus to Oakland, historically the site of much of the hippie culture of Berkeley.
Martin Luther King Jr. Way, which until 1984 was called Grove Street, runs north–south a few blocks west of Shattuck Avenue, connecting Oakland and the freeways to the south with the neighborhoods and other communities to the north.
Sacramento Street is one of the four streets with a median in Berkeley, running from Hopkins Street from the north to Alcatraz Ave in the south.
Solano Avenue, a major street for shopping and restaurants, runs east–west near the north end of Berkeley, continuing into Albany. Since 1974, Solano Avenue has hosted the annual Solano Avenue Stroll and Parade of the twin-cities of Albany and Berkeley, the East Bay's largest street festival.
Freeways
The Eastshore Freeway (I-80 and I-580) runs along Berkeley's bayshore with exits at Ashby Avenue, University Avenue and Gilman Street.
Bicycle and pedestrian paths
Ohlone Greenway
San Francisco Bay Trail
Berkeley I-80 bridge – opened in 2002, an arch-suspension bridge spanning Interstate 80, for bicycles and pedestrians only, giving access from the city at the foot of Addison Street to the San Francisco Bay Trail, the Eastshore State Park and the Berkeley Marina.
Berkeley's Network of Historic Pathways – Berkeley has a network of historic pathways that link the winding neighborhoods found in the hills and offer panoramic lookouts over the East Bay. A complete guide to the pathways may be found at Berkeley Path Wanderers Association website.
Neighborhoods
Berkeley has a number of distinct neighborhoods. Surrounding the University of California campus are the most densely populated parts of the city. West of the campus is Downtown Berkeley, the city's traditional commercial core; home of the civic center, the city's only public high school, the busiest BART station in Berkeley, as well as a major transfer point for AC Transit buses. South of the campus is Southside, mainly a student ghetto, where much of the university's student housing is located. The busiest stretch of Telegraph Avenue is in this neighborhood. North of the campus is the quieter Northside neighborhood, the location of the Graduate Theological Union.
Farther from the university campus, the influence of the university quickly becomes less visible. Most of Berkeley's neighborhoods are primarily made up of detached houses, often with separate in-law units in the rear, although larger apartment buildings are also common in many neighborhoods. Commercial activities are concentrated along the major avenues and at important intersections and frequently define the neighborhood within which they reside.
In the southeastern corner of the city is the Claremont District, home to the Claremont Hotel. Also in the southeast is the Elmwood District known for its commercial area on College Avenue. West of Elmwood is South Berkeley, known for its weekend flea market at the Ashby Station.
West of (and including) San Pablo Avenue, itself a major commercial and transport corridor, is West Berkeley, the historic commercial center of the city. This neighborhood and area includes the former unincorporated town of Ocean View. West Berkeley contains the remnants of Berkeley's industrial area, much of which has been replaced by retail and office uses, as well as residential live/work loft space, paralleling the decline of manufacturing in the United States. This area abuts the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay and is home to the Berkeley Marina. Also nearby is Berkeley's Aquatic Park, featuring an artificial linear lagoon of San Francisco Bay.
North of downtown is North Berkeley which has its main commercial area nicknamed the "Gourmet Ghetto" because of the concentration of well-known restaurants and other food-related businesses. West of North Berkeley (roughly west of Sacramento and north of Cedar) is Westbrae, a small neighborhood centered on a small commercial area on Gilman Street and through which part of the Ohlone Greenway runs. Meanwhile, further north of North Berkeley are Northbrae, a master-planned subdivision from the early 20th century, and Thousand Oaks. Above these last three neighborhoods, on the western slopes of the Berkeley Hills are the neighborhoods of Cragmont and La Loma Park, notable for their dramatic views, winding streets, and numerous public stairways and paths.
Points of interest
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley Free Clinic, a free clinic operating since 1969.
Berkeley High School
Berkeley Historical Society and Museum (1931 Center St.)
Berkeley Marina
Berkeley Public Library (Shattuck Avenue at Kittredge Street)
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Berkeley Rose Garden
Cloyne Court Hotel, a member of the Berkeley Student Cooperative
The Edible Schoolyard is a one-acre garden at Martin Luther King Middle School (Berkeley)
Hearst Greek Theatre (home of the annual Berkeley Jazz Festival)
Indian Rock Park
Judah L. Magnes Museum
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Hall of Science
Regional Parks Botanic Garden
Telegraph Avenue and People's Park, both known as centers of the counterculture of the 1960s
Tilden Regional Park
University of California, Berkeley
The Campanile (Sather Tower) in the University of California, Berkeley campus.
University of California Botanical Garden
Parks and recreation
The city has many parks, and promotes greenery and the environment. The city has planted trees for years and is a leader in the nationwide effort to re-tree urban areas. Tilden Regional Park, lies east of the city, occupying the upper extent of Wildcat Canyon between the Berkeley Hills and the San Pablo Ridge. The city is also heavily involved in creek restoration and wetlands restoration, including a planned daylighting of Strawberry Creek along Center Street. The Berkeley Marina and East Shore State Park flank its shoreline at San Francisco Bay and organizations like the Urban Creeks Council and Friends of the Five Creeks the former of which is headquartered in Berkeley support the riparian areas in the town and coastlines as well. César Chávez Park, near the Berkeley Marina, was built at the former site of the city dump.
Landmarks and historic districts
165 buildings in Berkeley are designated as local landmarks or local structures of merit. Of these, 49 are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, including:
Berkeley High School (the city's only public high school) and the Berkeley Community Theatre, which is on its campus.
Berkeley Women's City Club, now Berkeley City Club – Julia Morgan (1929–30)
First Church of Christ, Scientist – Bernard Maybeck (1910)
St. John's Presbyterian Church – Julia Morgan (1910), now the Berkeley Playhouse
Studio Building – architect not recorded, built for Frederick H. Dakin (1905)
Thorsen House (Sigma Phi Society of the Thorsen House) – Charles Sumner Greene & Henry Mather Greene (1908–10)
Historic districts listed in the National Register of Historic Places:
George C. Edwards Stadium – Located at intersection of Bancroft Way and Fulton Street on University of California, Berkeley campus (, 3 buildings, 4 structures, 3 objects; added 1993).
Site of the Clark Kerr Campus, UC Berkeley – until 1980, this location housed the State Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, also known as The California Schools for the Deaf and Blind – Bounded by Dwight Way, the city line, Derby Street, and Warring Street (, 20 buildings; added 1982). The school was closed in 1980 and the Clark Kerr Campus was opened in 1986.
Arts and culture
Berkeley is home to the Chilean-American community's La Peña Cultural Center, the largest cultural center for this community in the United States. The Freight and Salvage is the oldest established full-time folk and traditional music venue west of the Mississippi River.
Additionally, Berkeley is home to the off-broadway theater Berkeley Repertory Theater, commonly known as "Berkeley Rep". The Berkeley Repertory Theater consists of two stages, a school, and has received a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. The historic Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is operated by UC Berkeley, and was moved to downtown Berkeley in January 2016. It offers many exhibitions and screenings of historic films, as well as outreach programs within the community.
Annual events
Jewish Music Festival – March
Cal Day, University of California, Berkeley Open House – April
Berkeley Arts Festival – April and May
Himalayan Fair – May
The Berkeley Juneteenth Festival – Adeline/Alcatraz Corridor – June
Berkeley Kite Festival – July
Berkeley Juggling and Unicycling Festival – July or August
The Solano Avenue Stroll – Solano Avenue, Berkeley and Albany – September
The Bay Area Book Festival – Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park and throughout Downtown Berkeley – May
Education
Colleges and universities
University of California, Berkeley's main campus is in the city limits.
The Graduate Theological Union, a consortium of eight independent theological schools, is located a block north of the University of California Berkeley's main campus. The Graduate Theological Union has the largest number of students and faculty of any religious studies doctoral program in the United States. In addition to more theological schools, Zaytuna College, a newly established Muslim liberal arts college, has taken 'Holy Hill' as its new home. The Institute of Buddhist Studies has been located in Berkeley since 1966. Wright Institute, a psychology graduate school, is located in Berkeley. Berkeley City College is a community college in the Peralta Community College District.
Primary and secondary schools
The Berkeley Unified School District operates public schools.
The first public school in Berkeley was the Ocean View School, now the site of the Berkeley Adult School located at Virginia Street and San Pablo Avenue. The public schools today are administered by the Berkeley Unified School District. In the 1960s, Berkeley was one of the earliest US cities to voluntarily desegregate, utilizing a system of buses, still in use. The district has eleven elementary schools and one public high school, Berkeley High School (BHS). Established in 1880, BHS currently has over 3,000 students. The Berkeley High campus was designated a historic district by the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2008. Saint Mary's College High School, a Catholic school, also has its street address in Berkeley, although most of the grounds and buildings are actually in neighboring Albany. Berkeley has 11 public elementary schools and three middle schools.
The East Bay campus of the German International School of Silicon Valley (GISSV) formerly occupied the Hillside Campus, Berkeley, California; it opened there in 2012. In December 2016, the GISSV closed the building, due to unmet seismic retrofit needs.
There is also the Bay Area Technology School, the only school in the whole Bay Area to offer a technology- and science-based curriculum, with connections to leading universities.
Berkeley also houses Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim, liberal-arts college in the United States.
Public libraries
Berkeley Public Library serves as the municipal library. University of California, Berkeley Libraries operates the University of California Berkeley libraries.
Government
Berkeley has a council–manager government. The mayor is elected at-large for a four-year term and is the ceremonial head of the city and the chair of the city council. The Berkeley City Council is composed of the mayor and eight council members elected by district who each serve four-year terms. Districts 2, 3, 5 and 6 hold their elections in years divisible by four while Districts 1, 4, 7 and 8 hold theirs in even-numbered years not divisible by four. The city council appoints a city manager, who is the chief executive of the city. Additionally, the city voters directly elect an independent city auditor, school board, and rent stabilization board. Most city officials, including council members, are elected using instant-runoff voting since November 2010. The current council members and auditor are Jesse Arreguín (Mayor), Rashi Kesarwani (district 1), Terry Taplin (district 2), Ben Bartlett (district 3), Kate Harrison (district 4), Sophie Hahn (district 5), Susan Wengraf (district 6), Rigel Robinson (district 7), Mark Humbert (district 8), and Jenny Wong (city auditor)
Kriss Worthington, elected in 1996 to represent District 7, was the first openly LGBT man elected to the Berkeley City Council. Lori Droste, elected in 2014 to represent District 8, is the first openly LGBT woman elected to the Berkeley City Council. Jenny Wong, elected in 2018, is the first Asian American City Auditor in Berkeley.
Nancy Skinner remains the only student to have served on the City Council, elected in 1984 as a graduate student. Today, most of the university housing is located in District 7 (although Foothill and Clark Kerr are in Districts 6 and 8, respectively). Districts 4 and 7 are majority-student. The City of Berkeley in 2014 passed a redistricting measure to create the nation's first student supermajority district in District 7, which in 2018 elected Rigel Robinson, a 22-year-old UC Berkeley graduate and the youngest Councilmember in the city's history.
The city's Public Health Division is one of four municipally-operated public health agencies in California (the other three being Long Beach, Pasadena, and Vernon). Though it is part of the city government, it qualifies for the same state funds as a county public health department.
Berkeley is also part of Alameda County, for which the Government of Alameda County is defined and authorized under the California Constitution, California law, and the Charter of the County of Alameda. The county government provides countywide services, such as elections and voter registration, law enforcement, jails, vital records, property records, tax collection, and social services. The county's health department does not cover the city. The county government is primarily composed of the elected five-member Board of Supervisors, other elected offices including the Sheriff/Coroner, the District Attorney, Assessor, Auditor-Controller/County Clerk/Recorder, and Treasurer/Tax Collector, and numerous county departments and entities under the supervision of the County Administrator.
In addition to the Berkeley Unified School District (which is coterminous with the city), Berkeley is also part of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), the East Bay Regional Park District, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, and the Peralta Community College District.
Politics
Berkeley has been a Democratic stronghold in presidential elections since 1960, becoming one of the most Democratic cities in the country. The last Republican presidential candidate to receive at least one-quarter of the vote in Berkeley was Richard Nixon in 1968. Consistent with Berkeley's reputation as a strongly liberal and/or progressive city, in the 2016 presidential election more votes were won by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein than by Republican candidate Donald Trump. In the 2020 Presidential election, Joe Biden received 93.8% of the vote while Donald Trump received 4.0% of the vote.
However, at the local level, Republicans dominated Berkeley city politics into the 1970s, with Republicans holding the mayor's office for all but eight years from 1919 to 1971, with Wallace J.S. Johnson being the last Republican mayor. (See also: List of mayors of Berkeley, California)
According to the California Secretary of State, as of August 30, 2021, Berkeley has 75,390 registered voters. Of those, 56,740 (75.26%) are registered Democrats, 1,910 (2.53%) are registered Republicans, 14,106 (18.71%) have declined to state a political party affiliation, and 2,634 (3.49%) are registered with a third party.
Berkeley became the first city in the United States to pass a sanctuary resolution on November 8, 1971.
Media
The city had a daily newspaper, the Berkeley Gazette, which was founded and folded in 1984. The Berkeley Barb published counter-culture news from 1965 to 1980. Current media include The Daily Californian, the student newspaper of UC Berkeley, the Berkeley Times, and local online-only publications Berkeleyside, the Berkeley Daily Planet, and The Berkeley Scanner.
Notable people
Notable individuals who were born in and/or have lived in Berkeley include Steve Wozniak, scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Ernest Lawrence, actors Ben Affleck and Andy Samberg, Major League Baseball broadcaster Matt Vasgersian, Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day, Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, rapper Lil B, authors Ursula K. Le Guin and Michael Chabon, entertainment and real estate mogul Herbie Herbert, and EDM producer KSHMR, and university presidents Blake R. Van Leer and Darryll Pines.
Sister cities
Berkeley has 17 sister cities:
References
Further reading
Exactly Opposite the Golden Gate, edited by Phil McCardle. Berkeley Historical Society, 1983
Berkeley: The Life and Spirit of a Remarkable Town, Ellen Weis, photographs by Kiran Singh. Berkeley: Frog, Ltd. 2004
Berkeley Inside/Out, Don Pitcher, history sections by Malcolm Margolin. Berkeley: Heyday Books. 1989
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers.
External links
Official website
Berkeley Daily Gazette, Google news archive.
Finding Aid to City of Berkeley Records, The Bancroft Library
1878 establishments in California
Cities in Alameda County, California
Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area
Incorporated cities and towns in California
Populated places established in the 1850s
Populated places established in 1878
Populated coastal places in California |
4862 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal | Bengal | Bengal ( ; , ) is a historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Bengal proper is divided between modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. The Indian states of Assam and Tripura have a sizeable Bengali population. A large Bengali diaspora exists across the world. Bengali is the sixth-most spoken language in the world.
Various Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austric and other peoples inhabited the region since antiquity. The ancient Vanga Kingdom is widely regarded as the namesake of the Bengal region. The Bengali calendar dates back to the reign of Shashanka in the 7th century. The Pala Empire was founded in Bengal during the 8th century. The Sena dynasty and Deva dynasty ruled between the 11th and 13th centuries. By the 14th century, Bengal was absorbed by Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent. An independent Bengal Sultanate was formed and became the eastern frontier of the Islamic world. During this period, Bengal's rule and influence spread to Assam, Arakan, Tripura, Bihar, and Orissa. Bengal Subah later emerged as a prosperous part of the Mughal Empire.
The last independent Nawab of Bengal was defeated in 1757 at the Battle of Plassey by the East India Company. The company's Bengal Presidency grew into the largest administrative unit of British India with Calcutta as the capital of both Bengal and India until 1911. As a result of the first partition of Bengal, a short-lived province called Eastern Bengal and Assam existed between 1905 and 1911 with its capital in the former Mughal capital Dhaka. Following the Sylhet referendum and votes by the Bengal Legislative Council and Bengal Legislative Assembly, the region was again divided along religious lines in 1947.
Bengali culture, particularly its literature, music, art and cinema, are well known in South Asia and beyond. The region is also notable for its economic and social scientists, which includes several Nobel laureates. Once home to the city with the highest per capita income level in British India, the region is today a leader in South Asia in terms of gender parity, the gender pay gap and other indices of human development.
Etymology
The name of Bengal is derived from the ancient kingdom of Vanga (pronounced Bôngô), the earliest records of which date back to the Mahabharata epic in the first millennium BCE. The reference to 'Vangalam' is present in an inscription in the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, which is one of the oldest references to Bengal. The term Vangaladesa is used to describe the region in 11th-century South Indian records. The modern term Bangla is prominent from the 14th century, which saw the establishment of the Sultanate of Bengal, whose first ruler Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah was known as the Shah of Bangala. The Portuguese referred to the region as Bengala in the Age of Discovery.
History
Antiquity
Neolithic sites have been found in several parts of the region. In the second millennium BCE, rice-cultivating communities dotted the region. By the eleventh century BCE, people in Bengal lived in systematically aligned homes, produced copper objects, and crafted black and red pottery. Remnants of Copper Age settlements are located in the region. At the advent of the Iron Age, people in Bengal adopted iron-based weapons, tools and irrigation equipment. From 600 BCE, the second wave of urbanisation engulfed the north Indian subcontinent as part of the Northern Black Polished Ware culture. Cities in Mahasthangarh, Chandraketugarh and Wari-Bateshwar emerged. The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers were natural arteries for communication and transportation. Estuaries on the Bay of Bengal allowed for maritime trade with distand lands in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
The ancient geopolitical divisions of Bengal included Varendra, Suhma, Anga, Vanga, Samatata and Harikela. These regions were often independent or under the rule of larger empires. The Mahasthan Brahmi Inscription indicates that Bengal was ruled by the Mauryan Empire in the 3rd century BCE. The inscription was an administrative order instructing relief for a distressed segment of the population. Punch-marked coins found in the region indicate that coins were used as currency during the Iron Age. The namesake of Bengal is the ancient Vanga Kingdom which was reputed as a naval power with overseas colonies. A prince from Bengal named Vijaya founded the first kingdom in Sri Lanka. The two most prominent pan-Indian empires of this period included the Mauryans and the Gupta Empire. The region was a centre of artistic, political, social, spiritual and scientific thinking, including the invention of chess, Indian numerals, and the concept of zero.
The region was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Gangaridai. The Greek ambassador Megasthenes chronicled its military strength and dominance of the Ganges delta. The invasion army of Alexander the Great was deterred by the accounts of Gangaridai's power in 325 BCE, including a cavalry of war elephants. Later Roman accounts noted maritime trade routes with Bengal. 1st century Roman coins with images of Hercules were found in the region and point to trade links with Roman Egypt through the Red Sea. The Wari-Bateshwar ruins are believed to be the emporium (trading centre) of Sounagoura mentioned by Roman geographer Claudius Ptolemy. A Roman amphora was found in Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal which was made in Aelana (present-day Aqaba, Jordan) between the 4th and 7th centuries AD.
The first unified Bengali polity can be traced to the reign of Shashanka. The origins of the Bengali calendar can be traced to his reign. Shashanka founded the Gauda Kingdom. After Shashanka's death, Bengal experienced a period of civil war known as Matsyanyayam. The ancient city of Gauda later gave birth to the Pala Empire. The first Pala emperor Gopala I was chosen by an assembly of chieftains in Gauda. The Pala kingdom grew into one of the largest empires in the Indian subcontinent. The Pala period saw advances in linguistics, sculpture, painting, and education. The empire achieved its greatest territorial extent under Dharmapala and Devapala. The Palas vied for control of Kannauj with the rival Gurjara-Pratihara and Rashtrakuta dynasties. Pala influence also extended to Tibet and Sumatra due to the travels and preachings of Atisa. The university of Nalanda was established by the Palas. They also built the Somapura Mahavihara, which was the largest monastic institution in the subcontinent. The rule of the Palas eventually disintegrated. The Chandra dynasty ruled southeastern Bengal and Arakan. The Varman dynasty ruled parts of northeastern Bengal and Assam. The Sena dynasty emerged as the main successor of the Palas by the 11th century. The Senas were a resurgent Hindu dynasty which ruled much of Bengal. The smaller Deva dynasty also ruled parts of the region. Ancient Chinese visitors like Xuanzang provided elaborate accounts of Bengal's cities and monastic institutions.
Muslim trade with Bengal flourished after the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the Arab takeover of Persian trade routes. Much of this trade occurred with southeastern Bengal in areas east of the Meghna River. Bengal was probably used as a transit route to China by the earliest Muslims. Abbasid coins have been discovered in the archaeological ruins of Paharpur and Mainamati. A collection of Sasanian, Umayyad and Abbasid coins are preserved in the Bangladesh National Museum.
Sultanate period
In 1204, the Ghurid general Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji began the Islamic conquest of Bengal. The fall of Lakhnauti was recounted by historians circa 1243. Lakhnauti was the capital of the Sena dynasty. According to historical accounts, Ghurid cavalry swept across the Gangetic plains towards Bengal. They entered the Bengali capital disguised as horse traders. Once inside the royal compound, Bakhtiyar and his horsemen swiftly overpowered the guards of the Sena king who had just sat down to eat a meal. The king then hastily fled to the forest with his followers. The overthrow of the Sena king has been described as a coup d’état, which "inaugurated an era, lasting over five centuries, during which most of Bengal was dominated by rulers professing the Islamic faith. In itself this was not exceptional, since from about this time until the eighteenth century, Muslim sovereigns ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent. What was exceptional, however, was that among India’s interior provinces only in Bengal—a region approximately the size of England and Scotland combined—did a majority of the indigenous population adopt the religion of the ruling class, Islam". Bengal became a province of the Delhi Sultanate. A coin featuring a horseman was issued to celebrate the Muslim conquest of Lakhnauti with inscriptions in Sanskrit and Arabic. An abortive Islamic invasion of Tibet was also mounted by Bakhtiyar. Bengal was under the formal rule of the Delhi Sultanate for approximately 150 years. Delhi struggled to consolidate control over Bengal. Rebel governors often sought to assert autonomy or independence. Sultan Iltutmish re-established control over Bengal in 1225 after suppressing the rebels. Due to the considerable overland distance, Delhi's authority in Bengal was relatively weak. It was left to local governors to expand territory and bring new areas under Muslim rule, such as through the Conquest of Sylhet in 1303.
In 1338, new rebellions sprung up in Bengal's three main towns. Governors in Lakhnauti, Satgaon and Sonargaon declared independence from Delhi. This allowed the ruler of Sonargaon, Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah, to annex Chittagong to the Islamic administration. By 1352, the ruler of Satgaon, Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, unified the region into an independent state. Ilyas Shah established his capital in Pandua. The new breakaway state emerged as the Bengal Sultanate, which developed into a territorial, mercantile and maritime empire. At the time, the Islamic world stretched from Muslim Spain in the west to Bengal in the east.
The initial raids of Ilyas Shah saw the first Muslim army enter Nepal and stretched from Varanasi in the west to Orissa in the south to Assam in the east. The Delhi army continued to fend off the new Bengali army. The Bengal-Delhi War ended in 1359 when Delhi recognized the independence of Bengal. Ilyas Shah's son Sikandar Shah defeated Delhi Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq during the Siege of Ekdala Fort. A subsequent peace treaty recognized Bengal's independence and Sikandar Shah was gifted a golden crown by the Sultan of Delhi. The ruler of Arakan sought refuge in Bengal during the reign of Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah. Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah later helped the Arakanese king to regain control of his throne in exchange for becoming a tributary state of the Bengal Sultanate. Bengali influence in Arakan persisted for 300 years. Bengal also helped the king of Tripura to regain control of his throne in exchange for becoming a tributary state. The ruler of the Jaunpur Sultanate also sought refuge in Bengal. The vassal states of Bengal included Arakan, Tripura, Chandradwip and Pratapgarh. At its peak, the Bengal Sultanate's territory included parts of Arakan, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, and Tripura. The Bengal Sultanate experienced its greatest military success under Alauddin Hussain Shah, who was proclaimed as the conqueror of Assam after his forces led by Shah Ismail Ghazi overthrew the Khen dynasty and annexed large parts of Assam. In maritime trade, the Bengal Sultanate benefited from Indian Ocean trade networks and emerged as a hub of re-exports. A giraffe was brought by African envoys from Malindi to Bengal's court and was later gifted to Imperial China. Ship-owing merchants acted as envoys of the Sultan while travelling to different regions in Asia and Africa. Many rich Bengali merchants lived in Malacca. Bengali ships transported embassies from Brunei, Aceh and Malacca to China. Bengal and the Maldives had a vast trade in shell currency. The Sultan of Bengal donated funds to build schools in the Hejaz region of Arabia.
The five dynastic periods of the Bengal Sultanate spanned from the Ilyas Shahi dynasty, to a period of rule by Bengali converts, to the Hussain Shahi dynasty, to a period of rule by Abyssinian usurpers; an interruption by the Suri dynasty; and ended with the Karrani dynasty. The Battle of Raj Mahal and the capture of Daud Khan Karrani marked the end of the Bengal Sultanate during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar. In the late 16th-century, a confederation called the Baro-Bhuyan resisted Mughal invasions in eastern Bengal. The Baro-Bhuyan included twelve Muslim and Hindu leaders of the Zamindars of Bengal. They were led by Isa Khan, a former prime minister of the Bengal Sultanate. By the 17th century, the Mughals were able to fully absorb the region to their empire.
Mughal period
Mughal Bengal had the richest elite and was the wealthiest region in the subcontinent. Bengal's trade and wealth impressed the Mughals so much that it was described as the Paradise of the Nations by the Mughal Emperors. A new provincial capital was built in Dhaka. Members of the imperial family were appointed to positions in Mughal Bengal, including the position of governor (subedar). Dhaka became a centre of palace intrigue and politics. Some of the most prominent governors included Rajput general Man Singh I, Emperor Shah Jahan's son Prince Shah Shuja, Emperor Aurangzeb's son and later Mughal emperor Azam Shah, and the influential aristocrat Shaista Khan. During the tenure of Shaista Khan, the Portuguese and Arakanese were expelled from the port of Chittagong in 1666. Bengal became the eastern frontier of the Mughal administration. By the 18th century, Bengal became home to a semi-independent aristocracy led by the Nawabs of Bengal. Bengal premier Murshid Quli Khan managed to curtail the influence of the governor due to his rivalry with Prince Azam Shah. Khan controlled Bengal's finances since he was in charge of the treasury. He shifted the provincial capital from Dhaka to Murshidabad.
In 1717, the Mughal court in Delhi recognized the hereditary monarchy of the Nawab of Bengal. The ruler was officially titled as the "Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa", as the Nawab ruled over the three regions in the eastern subcontinent. The Nawabs began issuing their own coins but continued to pledge nominal allegiance to the Mughal emperor. The wealth of Bengal was vital for the Mughal court because Delhi received its biggest share of revenue from the Nawab's court. The Nawabs presided over a period of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity, including an era of growing organization in textiles, banking, a military-industrial complex, the production of fine quality handicrafts, and other trades. A process of proto-industrialisation was underway. Under the Nawabs, the streets of Bengali cities were filled with brokers, workers, peons, naibs, wakils, and ordinary traders. The Nawab's state was a major exporter of Bengal muslin, silk, gunpowder and saltpetre. The Nawabs also permitted European trading companies to operate in Bengal, including the British East India Company, the French East India Company, the Danish East India Company, the Austrian East India Company, the Ostend Company, and the Dutch East India Company. The Nawabs were also suspicious of the growing influence of these companies.
Under Mughal rule, Bengal was a centre of the worldwide muslin and silk trades. During the Mughal era, the most important centre of cotton production was Bengal, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka, leading to muslin being called "daka" in distant markets such as Central Asia. Domestically, much of India depended on Bengali products such as rice, silks and cotton textiles. Overseas, Europeans depended on Bengali products such as cotton textiles, silks and opium; Bengal accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia, for example, including more than 50% of textiles and around 80% of silks. From Bengal, saltpetre was also shipped to Europe, opium was sold in Indonesia, raw silk was exported to Japan and the Netherlands, cotton and silk textiles were exported to Europe, Indonesia, and Japan, cotton cloth was exported to the Americas and the Indian Ocean. Bengal also had a large shipbuilding industry. In terms of shipbuilding tonnage during the 16th–18th centuries, economic historian Indrajit Ray estimates the annual output of Bengal at 223,250 tons, compared with 23,061 tons produced in nineteen colonies in North America from 1769 to 1771.
Since the 16th century, European traders traversed the sea routes to Bengal, following the Portuguese conquests of Malacca and Goa. The Portuguese established a settlement in Chittagong with permission from the Bengal Sultanate in 1528, but were later expelled by the Mughals in 1666. In the 18th-century, the Mughal Court rapidly disintegrated due to Nader Shah's invasion and internal rebellions, allowing European colonial powers to set up trading posts across the territory. The British East India Company eventually emerged as the foremost military power in the region; and defeated the last independent Nawab of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in 1757.
Colonial era (1757–1947)
In Bengal effective political and military power was transferred from the old regime to the British East India Company around 1757–65.
Company rule in India began under the Bengal Presidency. Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The presidency was run by a military-civil administration, including the Bengal Army, and had the world's sixth earliest railway network. The Governor of Bengal was concurrently the Viceroy of India for many years. Great Bengal famines struck several times during colonial rule (notably the Great Bengal famine of 1770 and Bengal famine of 1943). Under British rule, Bengal experienced the deindustrialisation of its pre-colonial economy.
Company policies led to the deindustrialisation of Bengal's textile industry. The capital amassed by the East India Company in Bengal was invested in the emerging Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, in industries such as textile manufacturing. Economic mismanagement, alongside drought and a smallpox epidemic, directly led to the Great Bengal famine of 1770, which is estimated to have caused the deaths of between 1 million and 10 million people.
In 1862, the Bengal Legislative Council was set up as the first modern legislature in India. Elected representation was gradually introduced during the early 20th century, including with the Morley-Minto reforms and the system of dyarchy. In 1937, the council became the upper chamber of the Bengali legislature while the Bengal Legislative Assembly was created. Between 1937 and 1947, the chief executive of the government was the Prime Minister of Bengal.
The Bengal Presidency was the largest administrative unit in the British Empire. At its height, it covered large parts of present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, and Singapore. In 1830, the British Straits Settlements on the coast of the Malacca Straits was made a residency of Bengal. The area included the erstwhile Prince of Wales Island, Province Wellesley, Malacca and Singapore. In 1867, Penang, Singapore and Malacca were separated from Bengal into the Straits Settlements. British Burma became a province of India and a later a Crown colony in itself. Western areas, including the Ceded and Conquered Provinces and The Punjab, were further reorganized. Northeastern areas became Colonial Assam.
In 1876, about 200,000 people were killed in Bengal by the Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 in the Barisal region. About 50 million were killed in Bengal due to massive plague outbreaks and famines which happened in 1895 to 1920, mostly in western Bengal.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was initiated on the outskirts of Calcutta, and spread to Dhaka, Chittagong, Jalpaiguri, Sylhet and Agartala, in solidarity with revolts in North India. The failure of the rebellion led to the abolition of the Company Rule in India and establishment of direct rule over India by the British, commonly referred to as the British Raj. The late 19th and early 20th century Bengal Renaissance had a great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal and started a great advance in the literature and science of Bengal. Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attempt was made to divide the province of Bengal into two: Bengal proper and the short-lived province of Eastern Bengal and Assam where the All India Muslim League was founded. In 1911, the Bengali poet and polymath Rabindranath Tagore became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups were dominant. Armed attempts to overthrow the British Raj began with the rebellion of Titumir, and reached a climax when Subhas Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army against the British. Bengal was also central in the rising political awareness of the Muslim population—the All-India Muslim League was established in Dhaka in 1906. The Muslim homeland movement pushed for a sovereign state in eastern India with the Lahore Resolution in 1943. Hindu nationalism was also strong in Bengal, which was home to groups like the Hindu Mahasabha. In spite of a last-ditch effort by politicians Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Sarat Chandra Bose to form a United Bengal, when India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines. The western joined India (and was named West Bengal) while the eastern part joined Pakistan as a province called East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan, giving rise to Bangladesh in 1971). The circumstances of partition were bloody, with widespread religious riots in Bengal.
Partition of Bengal (1947)
On 27 April 1947, the last Prime Minister of Bengal Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy held a press conference in New Delhi where he outlined his vision for an independent Bengal. Suhrawardy said "Let us pause for a moment to consider what Bengal can be if it remains united. It will be a great country, indeed the richest and the most prosperous in India capable of giving to its people a high standard of living, where a great people will be able to rise to the fullest height of their stature, a land that will truly be plentiful. It will be rich in agriculture, rich in industry and commerce and in course of time it will be one of the powerful and progressive states of the world. If Bengal remains united this will be no dream, no fantasy". On 2 June 1947, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee told the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom that there was a "distinct possibility Bengal might decide against partition and against joining either Hindustan or Pakistan".
On 3 June 1947, the Mountbatten Plan outlined the partition of British India. On 20 June, the Bengal Legislative Assembly met to decide on the partition of Bengal. At the preliminary joint meeting, it was decided (120 votes to 90) that if the province remained united, it should join the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. At a separate meeting of legislators from West Bengal, it was decided (58 votes to 21) that the province should be partitioned and West Bengal should join the Constituent Assembly of India. At another meeting of legislators from East Bengal, it was decided (106 votes to 35) that the province should not be partitioned and (107 votes to 34) that East Bengal should join the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan if Bengal was partitioned. On 6 July, the Sylhet district of Assam voted in a referendum to join East Bengal.
The English barrister Cyril Radcliffe was instructed to draw the borders of Pakistan and India. The Radcliffe Line created the boundary between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, which later became the Bangladesh-India border. The Radcliffe Line awarded two-thirds of Bengal as the eastern wing of Pakistan, although the historic Bengali capitals of Gaur, Pandua, Murshidabad and Calcutta fell on the Indian side close to the border with Pakistan. Dhaka's status as a capital was also restored.
Geography
Most of the Bengal region lies in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, but there are highlands in its north, northeast and southeast. The Ganges Delta arises from the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers and their respective tributaries. The total area of Bengal is 232,752 km2—West Bengal is and Bangladesh .
The flat and fertile Bangladesh Plain dominates the geography of Bangladesh. The Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet region are home to most of the mountains in Bangladesh. Most parts of Bangladesh are within above the sea level, and it is believed that about 10% of the land would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by . Because of this low elevation, much of this region is exceptionally vulnerable to seasonal flooding due to monsoons.
The highest point in Bangladesh is in Mowdok range at . A major part of the coastline comprises a marshy jungle, the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world and home to diverse flora and fauna, including the royal Bengal tiger. In 1997, this region was declared endangered.
West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. The state has a total area of . The Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in the northern extreme of the state belongs to the eastern Himalaya. This region contains Sandakfu ()—the highest peak of the state. The narrow Terai region separates this region from the plains, which in turn transitions into the Ganges delta towards the south. The Rarh region intervenes between the Ganges delta in the east and the western plateau and high lands. A small coastal region is on the extreme south, while the Sundarbans mangrove forests form a remarkable geographical landmark at the Ganges delta.
At least nine districts in West Bengal and 42 districts in Bangladesh have arsenic levels in groundwater above the World Health Organization maximum permissible limit of 50 µg/L or 50 parts per billion and the untreated water is unfit for human consumption. The water causes arsenicosis, skin cancer and various other complications in the body.
Historical, political and cultural geography
Geographic distinctions
North Bengal
North Bengal is a term used for the north-western part of Bangladesh and northern part of West Bengal. The Bangladeshi part comprises Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. Generally, it is the area lying west of Jamuna River and north of Padma River, and includes the Barind Tract. Politically, West Bengal's part comprises Jalpaiguri Division (Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda) together and Bihar's parts include Kishanganj district. Darjeeling Hills are also part of North Bengal. Although only people of Jaipaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar identifies themselves as North Bengali. North Bengal is divided into Terai and Dooars regions. North Bengal is also noted for its rich cultural heritage, including two UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Aside from the Bengali majority, North Bengal is home to many other communities including Nepalis, Santhal people, Lepchas and Rajbongshis.
Northeast Bengal
Northeast Bengal refers to the Sylhet region, comprising Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and the Karimganj district in the Indian state of Assam. The region is noted for its distinctive fertile highland terrain, extensive tea plantations, rainforests and wetlands. The Surma and Barak river are the geographic markers of the area. The city of Sylhet is its largest urban centre, and the region is known for its unique regional language known as Sylheti. The ancient name of the region is Srihatta. The region was ruled by the Kamarupa and Harikela kingdoms as well as the Bengal Sultanate. It later became a district of the Mughal Empire. Alongside the predominant Bengali population resides a small Bishnupriya Manipuri, Khasia and other tribal minorities.
The region is the crossroads of Bengal and northeast India.
Central Bengal
Central Bengal refers to the Dhaka Division of Bangladesh. It includes the elevated Madhupur tract with a large Sal tree forest. The Padma River cuts through the southern part of the region, separating the greater Faridpur region. In the north lies the greater Mymensingh and Tangail regions.
South Bengal
South Bengal covers the southwestern Bangladesh and the southern part of the Indian state of West Bengal.The Bangladeshi part includes Khulna Division, Barisal Division and the proposed Faridpur Division The Indian part of South Bengal includes 12 districts: Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan, East Midnapur, West Midnapur, Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum, Nadia, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas.
The Sundarbans, a major biodiversity hotspot, is located in South Bengal. Bangladesh hosts 60% of the forest, with the remainder in India.
Southeast Bengal
Southeast Bengal refers to the hilly and coastal Bengali-speaking areas of Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh. Southeast Bengal is noted for its thalassocratic and seafaring heritage. The area was dominated by the Bengali Harikela and Samatata kingdoms in antiquity. It was known to Arab traders as Harkand in the 9th century. During the medieval period, the region was ruled by the Sultanate of Bengal, the Kingdom of Tripura, the Kingdom of Mrauk U, the Portuguese Empire and the Mughal Empire, prior to the advent of British rule. The Chittagonian language, a sister of Bengali is prevalent in coastal areas of southeast Bengal. Along with its Bengali population, it is also home to Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups, including the Chakma, Marma, Tanchangya and Bawm peoples.
Southeast Bengal is considered a bridge to Southeast Asia and the northern parts of Arakan are also historically considered to be a part of it.
Places of interest
There are four World Heritage Sites in the region, including the Sundarbans, the Somapura Mahavihara, the Mosque City of Bagerhat and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Other prominent places include the Bishnupur, Bankura temple city, the Adina Mosque, the Caravanserai Mosque, numerous zamindar palaces (like Ahsan Manzil and Cooch Behar Palace), the Lalbagh Fort, the Great Caravanserai ruins, the Shaista Khan Caravanserai ruins, the Kolkata Victoria Memorial, the Dhaka Parliament Building, archaeologically excavated ancient fort cities in Mahasthangarh, Mainamati, Chandraketugarh and Wari-Bateshwar, the Jaldapara National Park, the Lawachara National Park, the Teknaf Game Reserve and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh is home to the longest natural sea beach in the world with an unbroken length of 120 km (75 mi). It is also a growing surfing destination. St. Martin's Island, off the coast of Chittagong Division, is home to the sole coral reef in Bengal.
Other regions
Bengal was a regional power of the Indian subcontinent. The administrative jurisdiction of Bengal historically extended beyond the territory of Bengal proper. In the 9th century, the Pala Empire of Bengal ruled large parts of northern India. The Bengal Sultanate controlled Bengal, Assam, Arakan, Bihar and Orissa at different periods in history. In Mughal Bengal, the Nawab of Bengal had a jurisdiction covering Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Bengal's administrative jurisdiction reached its greatest extent under the British Empire, when the Bengal Presidency extended from the Straits of Malacca in the east to the Khyber Pass in the west. In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, administrative reorganization drastically reduced the territory of Bengal.
Several regions bordering Bengal proper continue to have high levels of Bengali influence. The Indian state of Tripura has a Bengali majority population. Bengali influence is also prevalent in the Indian regions of Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; as well as in Myanmar's Rakhine State.
Arakan
Arakan (now Rakhine State, Myanmar) has historically been under strong Bengali influence. Since antiquity, Bengal has influenced the culture of Arakan. The ancient Bengali script was used in Arakan. An Arakanese inscription recorded the reign of the Bengali Candra dynasty. Paul Wheatley described the "Indianization" of Arakan. The early population of Arakan was a mix of Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman peoples.
According to Pamela Gutman, "Arakan was ruled by kings who adopted Indian titles and traditions to suit their own environment. Indian Brahmins conducted royal ceremonies, Buddhist monks spread their teachings, traders came and went and artists and architects used Indian models for inspiration. In the later period, there was also influence from the Islamic courts of Bengal and Delhi". Arakan emerged as a vassal state of the Bengal Sultanate. It later became an independent kingdom. The royal court and culture of the Kingdom of Mrauk U was heavily influenced by Bengal. Bengali Muslims served in the royal court as ministers and military commanders. Bengali Hindus and Bengali Buddhists served as priests. Some of the most important poets of medieval Bengali literature lived in Arakan, including Alaol and Daulat Qazi. In 1660, Prince Shah Shuja, the governor of Mughal Bengal and a pretender of the Peacock Throne of India, was forced to seek asylum in Arakan. Bengali influence in the Arakanese royal court persisted until Burmese annexation in the 18th-century.
The modern-day Rohingya population is a legacy of Bengal's influence on Arakan. The Rohingya genocide resulted in the displacement of over a million people between 2016 and 2017, with many being uprooted from their homes in Rakhine State.
Assam
The Indian state of Assam shares many cultural similarities with Bengal. The Assamese language uses the same script as the Bengali language. The Barak Valley has a Bengali-speaking majority population. During the Partition of India, Assam was also partitioned along with Bengal. The Sylhet Division joined East Bengal in Pakistan, with the exception of Karimganj which joined Indian Assam. Previously, East Bengal and Assam were part of a single province called Eastern Bengal and Assam between 1905 and 1912 under the British Raj.
Assam and Bengal were often part of the same kingdoms, including Kamarupa, Gauda and Kamata. Large parts of Assam were annexed by Alauddin Hussain Shah during the Bengal Sultanate. Assam was one of the few regions in the subcontinent to successfully resist Mughal expansion and never fell completely under Mughal rule.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Bengali is the most spoken language among the population of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a strategically important archipelago which is controlled by India as a federal territory. The islands were once used as a British penal colony. During World War II, the islands were seized by the Japanese and controlled by the Provisional Government of Free India. Anti-British leader Subhash Chandra Bose visited and renamed the islands. Between 1949 and 1971, the Indian government resettled many Bengali Hindus in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Bihar
In antiquity, Bihar and Bengal were often part of the same kingdoms. The ancient region of Magadha covered both Bihar and Bengal. Magadha was the birthplace or bastion of several pan-Indian empires, including the Mauryan Empire, the Gupta Empire and the Pala Empire. Bengal, Bihar and Orissa together formed a single province under the Mughal Empire. The Nawab of Bengal was styled as the Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
Chittagong Hill Tracts
The Chittagong Hill Tracts is the southeastern frontier of Bangladesh. Its indigenous population includes Tibeto-Burman ethnicities, including the Chakma people, Bawm people and Mro people among others. The region was historically ruled by tribal chieftains of the Chakma Circle and Bohmong Circle. In 1713, the Chakma Raja signed a treaty with Mughal Bengal after obtaining permission from Emperor Farrukhsiyar for trade with the plains of Chittagong. Like the kings of Arakan, the Chakma Circle began to fashion themselves using Mughal nomenclatures and titles. They initially resisted the Permanent Settlement and the activities of the East India Company. The tribal royal families of the region came under heavy Bengali influence. The Chakma queen Benita Roy was a friend of Rabindranath Tagore. The region was governed by the Chittagong Hill Tracts manual under colonial rule. The manual was significantly amended after the end of British rule; and the region became fully integrated with Bangladesh.
Malay Archipelago
Through trade, settlements and the exchange of ideas; parts of Maritime Southeast Asia became linked with Bengal. Language, literature, art, governing systems, religions and philosophies in ancient Sumatra and Java were influenced by Bengal. Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms in Southeast Asia depended on the Bay of Bengal for trade and ideas. Islam in Southeast Asia also spread through the Bay of Bengal, which was a bridge between the Malay Archipelago and Indo-Islamic states of the Indian subcontinent. A large number of wealthy merchants from Bengal were based in Malacca. Bengali ships were the largest ships in the waters of the Malay Archipelago during the 15th century.
Between 1830 and 1867, the ports of Singapore and Malacca, the island of Penang, and a portion of the Malay Peninsula were ruled under the jurisdiction of the Bengal Presidency of the British Empire. These areas were known as the Straits Settlements, which was separated from the Bengal Presidency and converted into a Crown colony in 1867.
Meghalaya
The Indian state of Meghalaya historically came under the influence of Shah Jalal, a Muslim missionary and conqueror from Sylhet. During British rule, the city of Shillong was the summer capital of Eastern Bengal and Assam (modern Bangladesh and Northeast India). Shillong boasted the highest per capita income in British India. The city continues to have a sizeable Bengali population; while visitors from Bangladesh frequent the state often.
North India
The ancient Mauryan, Gupta and Pala empires of the Magadha region (Bihar and Bengal) extended into northern India. The westernmost border of the Bengal Sultanate extended towards Varanasi and Jaunpur. In the 19th century, Punjab and the Ceded and Conquered Provinces formed the western extent of the Bengal Presidency. According to the British historian Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, "The Bengal Presidency, an administrative jurisdiction introduced by the East India Company, would later include not only the whole of northern India up to the Khyber Pass on the north-west frontier with Afghanistan, but would spread eastwards to Burma and Singapore as well".
Odisha
Odisha, previously known as Orissa, has a significant Bengali minority. Historically, the region has faced invasions from Bengal, including an invasion by Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah. Parts of the region were ruled by the Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal. The Nawab of Bengal was styled as the "Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa" because the Nawab was granted jurisdiction over Orissa by the Mughal Emperor.
Tibet
During the Pala dynasty, Tibet received missionaries from Bengal who influenced the emergence of Tibetan Buddhism. One of the most notable missionaries was Atisa. During the 13th century, Tibet experienced an Islamic invasion by the forces of Bakhtiyar Khalji, the Muslim conqueror of Bengal. In the 16th century, the Tibetan tangka became the currency of Tibet due to the historical taka's use on the Silk Road.
Tripura
The princely state of Tripura was ruled by the Manikya dynasty until the 1949 Tripura Merger Agreement. Tripura was historically a vassal state of Bengal. After assuming the throne with military support from the Bengal Sultanate in 1464, Ratna Manikya I introduced administrative reforms inspired by the government of Bengal. The Tripura kings requested Sultan Barbak Shah to provide manpower for developing the administration of Tripura. As a result, Bengali Hindu bureaucrats, cultivators and artisans began settling in Tripura. Today, the Indian state of Tripura has a Bengali-majority population. Modern Tripura is a gateway for trade and transport links between Bangladesh and Northeast India. In Bengali culture, the celebrated singer S. D. Burman was a member of the Tripura royal family.
Flora and fauna
The flat Bengal Plain, which covers most of Bangladesh and West Bengal, is one of the most fertile areas on Earth, with lush vegetation and farmland dominating its landscape. Bengali villages are buried among groves of mango, jackfruit, betel nut and date palm. Rice, jute, mustard and sugarcane plantations are a common sight. Water bodies and wetlands provide a habitat for many aquatic plants in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. The northern part of the region features Himalayan foothills (Dooars) with densely wooded Sal and other tropical evergreen trees. Above an elevation of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), the forest becomes predominantly subtropical, with a predominance of temperate-forest trees such as oaks, conifers and rhododendrons. Sal woodland is also found across central Bangladesh, particularly in the Bhawal National Park. The Lawachara National Park is a rainforest in northeastern Bangladesh. The Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh is noted for its high degree of biodiversity.
The littoral Sundarbans in the southwestern part of Bengal is the largest mangrove forest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The region has over 89 species of mammals, 628 species of birds and numerous species of fish. For Bangladesh, the water lily, the oriental magpie-robin, the hilsa and mango tree are national symbols. For West Bengal, the white-throated kingfisher, the chatim tree and the night-flowering jasmine are state symbols. The Bengal tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh and India. The fishing cat is the state animal of West Bengal.
Politics
Today, the region of Bengal proper is divided between the sovereign state of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. The Bengali-speaking Barak Valley forms part of the Indian state of Assam. The Indian state of Tripura has a Bengali-speaking majority and was formerly the princely state of Hill Tipperah. In the Bay of Bengal, St. Martin's Island is governed by Bangladesh; while the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has a plurality of Bengali speakers and is governed by India's federal government as a union territory.
Bangladeshi Republic
The state of Bangladesh is a parliamentary republic based on the Westminster system, with a written constitution and a President elected by parliament for mostly ceremonial purposes. The government is headed by a Prime Minister, who is appointed by the President from among the popularly elected 300 Members of Parliament in the Jatiyo Sangshad, the national parliament. The Prime Minister is traditionally the leader of the single largest party in the Jatiyo Sangshad. Under the constitution, while recognising Islam as the country's established religion, the constitution grants freedom of religion to non-Muslims.
Between 1975 and 1990, Bangladesh had a presidential system of government. Since the 1990s, it was administered by non-political technocratic caretaker governments on four occasions, the last being under military-backed emergency rule in 2007 and 2008. The Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are the two largest political parties in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is a member of the UN, WTO, IMF, the World Bank, ADB, OIC, IDB, SAARC, BIMSTEC and the IMCTC. Bangladesh has achieved significant strides in human development compared to its neighbours.
Indian Bengal
West Bengal is a constituent state of the Republic of India, with local executives and assemblies- features shared with other states in the Indian federal system. The president of India appoints a governor as the ceremonial representative of the union government. The governor appoints the chief minister on the nomination of the legislative assembly. The chief minister is the traditionally the leader of the party or coalition with most seats in the assembly. President's rule is often imposed in Indian states as a direct intervention of the union government led by the prime minister of India.
Each state has popularly elected members in the Indian lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha. Each state nominates members to the Indian upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha.
The state legislative assemblies also play a key role in electing the ceremonial president of India. The former president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, was a native of West Bengal and a leader of the Indian National Congress.
The two major political forces in the Bengali-speaking zone of India are the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress being minor players.
Crossborder relations
India and Bangladesh are the world's first and eighth most populous countries respectively. Bangladesh-India relations began on a high note in 1971 when India played a major role in the liberation of Bangladesh, with the Indian Bengali populace and media providing overwhelming support to the independence movement in the former East Pakistan. The two countries had a twenty five-year friendship treaty between 1972 and 1996. However, differences over river sharing, border security and access to trade have long plagued the relationship. In more recent years, a consensus has evolved in both countries on the importance of developing good relations, as well as a strategic partnership in South Asia and beyond. Commercial, cultural and defence co-operation have expanded since 2010, when Prime Ministers Sheikh Hasina and Manmohan Singh pledged to reinvigorate ties.
The Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi operates a Deputy High Commission in Kolkata and a consular office in Agartala. India has a High Commission in Dhaka with consulates in Chittagong and Rajshahi. Frequent international air, bus and rail services connect major cities in Bangladesh and Indian Bengal, particularly the three largest cities- Dhaka, Kolkata and Chittagong. Undocumented immigration of Bangladeshi workers is a controversial issue championed by right-wing nationalist parties in India but finds little sympathy in West Bengal. India has since fenced the border which has been criticised by Bangladesh.
Economy
The Ganges Delta provided advantages of fertile soil, ample water, and an abundance of fish, wildlife, and fruit. Living standards for Bengal's elite were relatively better than other parts of the Indian subcontinent. Between 400 and 1200, Bengal had a well-developed economy in terms of land ownership, agriculture, livestock, shipping, trade, commerce, taxation, and banking. The apparent vibrancy of the Bengal economy in the beginning of the 15th century is attributed to the end of tribute payments to the Delhi Sultanate, which ceased after the creation of the Bengal Sultanate and stopped the outflow of wealth. Ma Huan's travelogue recorded a booming shipbuilding industry and significant international trade in Bengal.
In 1338, Ibn Battuta noticed that the silver taka was the most popular currency in the region instead of the Islamic dinar. In 1415, members of Admiral Zheng He's entourage also noticed the dominance of the taka. The currency was the most important symbol of sovereignty for the Sultan of Bengal. The Sultanate of Bengal established an estimated 27 mints in provincial capitals across the kingdom. These provincial capitals were known as Mint Towns. These Mint Towns formed an integral aspect of governance and administration in Bengal.
The taka continued to be issued in Mughal Bengal, which inherited the sultanate's legacy. As Bengal became more prosperous and integrated into the world economy under Mughal rule, the taka replaced shell currency in rural areas and became the standardized legal tender. It was also used in commerce with the Dutch East India Company, the French East India Company, the Danish East India Company and the British East India Company. Under Mughal rule, Bengal was the centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The muslin trade in Bengal was patronized by the Mughal imperial court. Muslin from Bengal was worn by aristocratic ladies in courts as far away as Europe, Persia and Central Asia. The treasury of the Nawab of Bengal was the biggest source of revenue for the imperial Mughal court in Delhi. Bengal had a large shipbuilding industry. The shipbuilding output of Bengal during the 16th and 17th centuries stood at 223,250tons annually, which was higher than the volume of shipbuilding in the nineteen colonies of North America between 1769 and 1771.
Historically, Bengal has been the industrial leader of the subcontinent. Mughal Bengal saw the emergence of a proto-industrial economy backed up by textiles and gunpowder. The organized early modern economy flourished till the beginning of British rule in the mid 18th-century, when the region underwent radical and revolutionary changes in government, trade, and regulation. The British displaced the indigenous ruling class and transferred much of the region's wealth back to the colonial metropole in Britain. In the 19th century, the British began investing in railways and limited industrialization. However, the Bengali economy was dominated by trade in raw materials during much of the colonial period, particularly the jute trade.
The partition of India changed the economic geography of the region. Calcutta in West Bengal inherited a thriving industrial base from the colonial period, particularly in terms of jute processing. East Pakistan soon developed its industrial base, including the world's largest jute mill. In 1972, the newly independent government of Bangladesh nationalized 580 industrial plants. These industries were later privatized in the late 1970s as Bangladesh moved towards a market-oriented economy. Liberal reforms in 1991 paved the way for a major expansion of Bangladesh's private sector industry, including in telecoms, natural gas, textiles, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, steel and shipbuilding. In 2022, Bangladesh was the second largest economy in South Asia after India.
The region is one of the largest rice producing areas in the world, with West Bengal being India's largest rice producer and Bangladesh being the world's fourth largest rice producer. Three Bengali economists have been Nobel laureates, including Amartya Sen and Abhijit Banerjee who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and Muhammad Yunus who won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Stock markets
Dhaka Stock Exchange
Chittagong Stock Exchange
Calcutta Stock Exchange
Ports and harbours
Port of Chittagong
Port of Kolkata
Port of Mongla
Haldia Port
Port of Payra
Port of Pangaon
Port of Narayanganj
Port of Ashuganj
Port of Barisal
Matarbari Port
Land port of Benapole-Petrapole
Chambers of commerce
Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI)
Chittagong Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI)
Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI)
Intra-Bengal trade
Bangladesh and India are the largest trading partners in South Asia, with two-way trade valued at an estimated US$16 billion. Most of this trade relationship is centred on some of the world's busiest land ports on the Bangladesh-India border. The Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal Initiative seeks to boost trade through a Regional Motor Vehicles Agreement.
Demographics
The Bengal region is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. With a population of 300 million, Bengalis are the third largest ethnic group in the world after the Han Chinese and Arabs.
According to provisional results of 2011 Bangladesh census, the population of Bangladesh was 149,772,364; however, CIA's The World Factbook gives 163,654,860 as its population in a July 2013 estimate. According to the provisional results of the 2011 Indian national census, West Bengal has a population of 91,347,736. "So, the Bengal region, , has at least 241.1 million people. This figures give a population density of 1003.9/km2; making it among the most densely populated areas in the world.
Bengali is the main language spoken in Bengal. Many phonological, lexical, and structural differences from the standard variety occur in peripheral varieties of Bengali across the region. Other regional languages closely related to Bengali include Sylheti, Chittagonian, Chakma, Rangpuri/Rajbangshi, Hajong, Rohingya, and Tangchangya.
English is often used for official work alongside Bangladesh and Indian West Bengal. Other major Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Assamese, and Nepali are also familiar to Bengalis in India.
In addition, several minority ethnolinguistic groups are native to the region. These include speakers of other Indo-Aryan languages (e.g., Bishnupriya Manipuri, Oraon Sadri, various Bihari languages), Tibeto-Burman languages (e.g., A'Tong, Chak, Koch, Garo, Megam, Meitei (officially called "Manipuri"), Mizo, Mru, Pangkhua, Rakhine/Marma, Kok Borok, Riang, Tippera, Usoi, various Chin languages), Austroasiatic languages (e.g., Khasi, Koda, Mundari, Pnar, Santali, War), and Dravidian languages (e.g., Kurukh, Sauria Paharia).
Life expectancy is around 72.49 years for Bangladesh and 70.2 for West Bengal. In terms of literacy, West Bengal leads with 77% literacy rate, in Bangladesh the rate is approximately 72.9%. The level of poverty in West Bengal is at 19.98%, while in Bangladesh it stands at 12.9%
West Bengal has one of the lowest total fertility rates in India. West Bengal's TFR of 1.6 roughly equals that of Canada.
Major cities
Culture
Language
The Bengali language developed between the 7th and 10th centuries from Apabhraṃśa and Magadhi Prakrit. It is written using the indigenous Bengali alphabet, a descendant of the ancient Brahmi script. Bengali is the 5th most spoken language in the world. It is an eastern Indo-Aryan language and one of the easternmost branches of the Indo-European language family. It is part of the Bengali-Assamese languages. Bengali has greatly influenced other languages in the region, including Odia, Assamese, Chakma, Nepali and Rohingya. It is the sole state language of Bangladesh and the second most spoken language in India. It is also the seventh most spoken language by total number of speakers in the world.
Bengali binds together a culturally diverse region and is an important contributor to regional identity. The 1952 Bengali Language Movement in East Pakistan is commemorated by UNESCO as International Mother Language Day, as part of global efforts to preserve linguistic identity.
Currency
In both Bangladesh and West Bengal, currency is commonly denominated as taka. The Bangladesh taka is an official standard bearer of this tradition, while the Indian rupee is also written as taka in Bengali script on all of its banknotes. The history of the taka dates back centuries. Bengal was home one of the world's earliest coin currencies in the first millennium BCE. Under the Delhi Sultanate, the taka was introduced by Muhammad bin Tughluq in 1329. Bengal became the stronghold of the taka. The silver currency was the most important symbol of sovereignty of the Sultanate of Bengal. It was traded on the Silk Road and replicated in Nepal and China's Tibetan protectorate. The Pakistani rupee was scripted in Bengali as taka on its banknotes until Bangladesh's creation in 1971.
Literature
Bengali literature has a rich heritage. It has a history stretching back to the 3rd century BCE, when the main language was Sanskrit written in the brahmi script. The Bengali language and script evolved from Magadhi Prakrit. Bengal has a long tradition in folk literature, evidenced by the Chôrjapôdô, Mangalkavya, Shreekrishna Kirtana, Maimansingha Gitika or Thakurmar Jhuli. Bengali literature in the medieval age was often either religious (e.g. Chandidas), or adaptations from other languages (e.g. Alaol). During the Bengal Renaissance of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Bengali literature was modernised through the works of authors such as Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Satyendranath Dutta and Jibanananda Das. In the 20th century, prominent modern Bengali writers included Syed Mujtaba Ali, Jasimuddin, Manik Bandopadhyay, Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Buddhadeb Bose, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Humayun Ahmed.
Prominent contemporary Bengali writers in English include Amitav Ghosh, Tahmima Anam, Jhumpa Lahiri and Zia Haider Rahman among others.
Personification
The Bangamata is a female personification of Bengal which was created during the Bengali Renaissance and later adopted by the Bengali nationalists. Hindu nationalists adopted a modified Bharat Mata as a national personification of India. The Mother Bengal represents not only biological motherness but its attributed characteristics as well – protection, never ending love, consolation, care, the beginning and the end of life. In Amar Sonar Bangla, the national anthem of Bangladesh, Rabindranath Tagore has used the word "Maa" (Mother) numerous times to refer to the motherland i.e. Bengal.
Art
The Pala-Sena School of Art developed in Bengal between the 8th and 12th centuries and is considered a high point of classical Asian art. It included sculptures and paintings.
Islamic Bengal was noted for its production of the finest cotton fabrics and saris, notably the Jamdani, which received warrants from the Mughal court. The Bengal School of painting flourished in Kolkata and Shantiniketan in the British Raj during the early 20th century. Its practitioners were among the harbingers of modern painting in India. Zainul Abedin was the pioneer of modern Bangladeshi art. The country has a thriving and internationally acclaimed contemporary art scene.
Architecture
Classical Bengali architecture features terracotta buildings. Ancient Bengali kingdoms laid the foundations of the region's architectural heritage through the construction of monasteries and temples (for example, the Somapura Mahavihara). During the sultanate period, a distinct and glorious Islamic style of architecture developed the region. Most Islamic buildings were small and highly artistic terracotta mosques with multiple domes and no minarets. Bengal was also home to the largest mosque in South Asia at Adina. Bengali vernacular architecture is credited for inspiring the popularity of the bungalow.
The Bengal region also has a rich heritage of Indo-Saracenic architecture, including numerous zamindar palaces and mansions. The most prominent example of this style is the Victoria Memorial, Kolkata.
In the 1950s, Muzharul Islam pioneered the modernist terracotta style of architecture in South Asia. This was followed by the design of the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban by the renowned American architect Louis Kahn in the 1960s, which was based on the aesthetic heritage of Bengali architecture and geography.
Sciences
The Gupta dynasty, which is believed to have originated in North Bengal, pioneered the invention of chess, the concept of zero, the theory of Earth orbiting the Sun, the study of solar and lunar eclipses and the flourishing of Sanskrit literature and drama. Bengal was the leader of scientific endeavours in the subcontinent during the British Raj. The educational reforms during this period gave birth to many distinguished scientists in the region. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent. IEEE named him one of the fathers of radio science. He was the first person from the Indian subcontinent to receive a US patent, in 1904. In 1924–25, while researching at the University of Dhaka, Satyendra Nath Bose well known for his works in quantum mechanics, provided the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. Meghnad Saha was the first scientist to relate a star's spectrum to its temperature, developing thermal ionization equations (notably the Saha ionization equation) that have been foundational in the fields of astrophysics and astrochemistry. Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri was a physicist, known for his research in general relativity and cosmology. His most significant contribution is the eponymous Raychaudhuri equation, which demonstrates that singularities arise inevitably in general relativity and is a key ingredient in the proofs of the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems. In the United States, the Bangladeshi-American engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan emerged as the "father of tubular designs" in skyscraper construction. Ashoke Sen is an Indian theoretical physicist whose main area of work is string theory. He was among the first recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize "for opening the path to the realisation that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory".
Music
The Baul tradition is a unique heritage of Bengali folk music. The 19th century mystic poet Lalon Shah is the most celebrated practitioner of the tradition. Other folk music forms include Gombhira, Bhatiali and Bhawaiya. Hason Raja is a renowned folk poet of the Sylhet region. Folk music in Bengal is often accompanied by the ektara, a one-stringed instrument. Other instruments include the dotara, dhol, flute, and tabla. The region also has a rich heritage in North Indian classical music.
Cuisine
Bengali cuisine is the only traditionally developed multi-course tradition from the Indian subcontinent. Rice and fish are traditional favourite foods, leading to a saying that "fish and rice make a Bengali". Bengal's vast repertoire of fish-based dishes includes Hilsa preparations, a favourite among Bengalis. Bengalis make distinctive sweetmeats from milk products, including Rôshogolla, Chômchôm, and several kinds of Pithe. The old city of Dhaka is noted for its distinct Indo-Islamic cuisine, including biryani, bakarkhani and kebab dishes.
Boats
There are 150 types of Bengali country boats plying the 700 rivers of the Bengal delta, the vast floodplain and many oxbow lakes. They vary in design and size. The boats include the dinghy and sampan among others. Country boats are a central element of Bengali culture and have inspired generations of artists and poets, including the ivory artisans of the Mughal era. The country has a long shipbuilding tradition, dating back many centuries. Wooden boats are made of timber such as Jarul (dipterocarpus turbinatus), sal (shorea robusta), sundari (heritiera fomes), and Burma teak (tectons grandis). Medieval Bengal was shipbuilding hub for the Mughal and Ottoman navies. The British Royal Navy later utilised Bengali shipyards in the 19th century, including for the Battle of Trafalgar.
Attire
Bengali women commonly wear the shaŗi and the salwar kameez, often distinctly designed according to local cultural customs. In urban areas, many women and men wear Western-style attire. Among men, European dressing has greater acceptance. Men also wear traditional costumes such as the panjabi with dhoti or pyjama, often on religious occasions. The lungi, a kind of long skirt, is widely worn by Bangladeshi men.
Festivals
For Bengali Muslims, the major religious festivals are Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Mawlid, Muharram, and Shab-e-Barat. These festivals are celebrated with great pomp. For Bengali Hindus, the major religious festivals include Durga Puja, Janmashtami and Rath Yatra. In honour of Bengali Buddhists and Bengali Christians, both Buddha's Birthday and Christmas are public holidays in the region. The Bengali New Year is the main secular festival of Bengali culture celebrated by people regardless of religious and social backgrounds. Other Bengali festivals include the first day of spring and the Nabanna harvest festival in autumn.
Media
Bangladesh has a diverse, outspoken and privately owned press, with the largest circulated Bengali language newspapers in the world. English-language titles are popular in the urban readership. West Bengal had 559 published newspapers in 2005, of which 430 were in Bengali. Bengali cinema is divided between the media hubs of Dhaka and Kolkata.
Sports
Cricket and football are popular sports in the Bengal region. Local games include sports such as Kho Kho and Kabaddi, the latter being the national sport of Bangladesh. An Indo-Bangladesh Bengali Games has been organised among the athletes of the Bengali speaking areas of the two countries.
See also
Bengali Renaissance
Bengalis
Greater Bangladesh
Bangladeshi diaspora
List of Bengalis
Bangladesh
Notes
References
External links
Regions of Asia
Geography of South Asia
Geography of Bangladesh
Geography of India
B
Regions of India
Historical Indian regions
Subdivisions of British India
Historical regions |
4865 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman%20Breviary | Roman Breviary | The Roman Breviary (Latin: Breviarium Romanum) is a breviary of the Roman Rite in the Catholic Church. A liturgical book, it contains public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office (i.e., at the canonical hours, the Christians' daily prayer).
The volume containing the daily hours of Catholic prayer was published as the Breviarium Romanum (Roman Breviary) from its editio princeps in 1568 under Pope Pius V until the reforms of Paul VI (1974), when it was largely supplanted by the Liturgy of the Hours.
In the course of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, Pope Pius V (r. 1566–1572) imposed the use of the Roman Breviary, mainly based on the Breviarium secundum usum Romanae Curiae, on the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. Exceptions are the Benedictines and Dominicans, who have breviaries of their own, and
two surviving local use breviaries:
the Mozarabic Breviary, once in use throughout all Spain, but now confined to a single foundation at Toledo; it is remarkable for the number and length of its hymns, and for the fact that the majority of its collects are addressed to God the Son;
the Ambrosian Breviary, now confined to Milan, where it owes its retention to the attachment of the clergy and people to their traditionary usages, which they derive from St Ambrose.
Origin of name
The Latin word breviarium generally signifies "abridgement, compendium". This wider sense has often been used by Christian authors, e.g. Breviarium fidei, Breviarium in psalmos, Breviarium canonum, Breviarium regularum.
In liturgical language specifically, "breviary" (breviarium) has a special meaning, indicating a book furnishing the regulations for the celebration of Mass or the canonical Office, and may be met with under the titles Breviarium Ecclesiastici Ordinis, or Breviarium Ecclesiæ Romanæ. In the 9th century, Alcuin uses the word to designate an office abridged or simplified for the use of the laity. Prudentius of Troyes, about the same period, composed a Breviarium Psalterii. In an ancient inventory occurs Breviarium Antiphonarii, meaning "Extracts from the Antiphonary". In the Vita Aldrici occurs sicut in plenariis et breviariis Ecclesiæ ejusdem continentur. Again, in the inventories in the catalogues, such notes as these may be met with: Sunt et duo cursinarii et tres benedictionales Libri; ex his unus habet obsequium mortuorum et unus Breviarius, or, Præter Breviarium quoddam quod usque ad festivitatem S. Joannis Baptistæ retinebunt, etc. Monte Cassino in c. 1100 obtained a book titled Incipit Breviarium sive Ordo Officiorum per totam anni decursionem.
From such references, and from others of a like nature, Quesnel gathers that by the word Breviarium was at first designated a book furnishing the rubrics, a sort of Ordo. The usage of "breviary" to mean a book containing the entire canonical office appears to date from the 11th century.
Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073–1085) having abridged the order of prayers, and having simplified the Liturgy as performed at the Roman Court, this abridgment received the name of Breviary, which was suitable, since, according to the etymology of the word, it was an abridgment. The name has been extended to books which contain in one volume, or at least in one work, liturgical books of different kinds, such as the Psalter, the Antiphonary, the Responsoriary, the Lectionary, etc. In this connection it may be pointed out that in this sense the word, as it is used nowadays, is illogical; it should be named a Plenarium rather than a Breviarium, since, liturgically speaking, the word Plenarium exactly designates such books as contain several different compilations united under one cover.
History
Early history
The canonical hours of the Breviary owe their remote origin to the Old Covenant when God commanded the Aaronic priests to offer morning and evening sacrifices. Other inspiration may have come from David's words in the Psalms "Seven times a day I praise you" (Ps. 119:164), as well as, "the just man meditates on the law day and night" (Ps. 1:2). Regarding Daniel "Three times daily he was kneeling and offering prayers and thanks to his God" (Dan. 6:10).
In the early days of Christian worship the Sacred Scriptures furnished all that was thought necessary, containing as it did the books from which the lessons were read and the psalms that were recited. The first step in the evolution of the Breviary was the separation of the Psalter into a choir-book. At first the president of the local church (bishop) or the leader of the choir chose a particular psalm as he thought appropriate. From about the 4th century certain psalms began to be grouped together, a process that was furthered by the monastic practice of daily reciting the 150 psalms. This took so much time that the monks began to spread it over a week, dividing each day into hours, and allotting to each hour its portion of the Psalter. St Benedict in the 6th century drew up such an arrangement, probably, though not certainly, on the basis of an older Roman division which, though not so skilful, is the one in general use. Gradually there were added to these psalter choir-books additions in the form of antiphons, responses, collects or short prayers, for the use of those not skilful at improvisation and metrical compositions. Jean Beleth, a 12th-century liturgical author, gives the following list of books necessary for the right conduct of the canonical office: the Antiphonarium, the Old and New Testaments, the Passionarius (liber) and the Legendarius (dealing respectively with martyrs and saints), the Homiliarius (homilies on the Gospels), the Sermologus (collection of sermons) and the works of the Fathers, besides the Psalterium and the Collectarium. To overcome the inconvenience of using such a library the Breviary came into existence and use. Already in the 9th century Prudentius, bishop of Troyes, had in a Breviarium Psalterii made an abridgment of the Psalter for the laity, giving a few psalms for each day, and Alcuin had rendered a similar service by including a prayer for each day and some other prayers, but no lessons or homilies.
Medieval breviaries
The Breviary, rightly so called, only dates from the 11th century; the earliest MS. containing the whole canonical office, is of the year 1099 and is in the Mazarin library. Gregory VII (pope 1073–1085), too, simplified the liturgy as performed at the Roman court, and gave his abridgment the name of Breviary, which thus came to denote a work which from another point of view might be called a Plenary, involving as it did the collection of several works into one. There are several extant specimens of 12th-century Breviaries, all Benedictine, but under Innocent III (pope 1198–1216) their use was extended, especially by the newly founded and active Franciscan order. These preaching friars, with the authorization of Gregory IX, adopted (with some modifications, e.g. the substitution of the "Gallican" for the "Roman" version of the Psalter) the Breviary hitherto used exclusively by the Roman court, and with it gradually swept out of Europe all the earlier partial books (Legendaries, Responsories), etc., and to some extent the local Breviaries, like that of Sarum. Finally, Nicholas III (pope 1277–1280) adopted this version both for the curia and for the basilicas of Rome, and thus made its position secure.
Before the rise of the mendicant orders (wandering friars) in the 13th century, the daily services were usually contained in a number of large volumes. The first occurrence of a single manuscript of the daily office was written by the Benedictine order at Monte Cassino in Italy in 1099. The Benedictines were not a mendicant order, but a stable, monastery-based order, and single-volume breviaries are rare from this early period.
The arrangement of the Psalms in the Rule of St. Benedict had a profound impact upon the breviaries used by secular and monastic clergy alike, until 1911 when Pope Pius X introduced his reform of the Roman Breviary. In many places, every diocese, order or ecclesiastical province maintained its own edition of the breviary.
However, mendicant friars travelled frequently and needed a shortened, or abbreviated, daily office contained in one portable book, and single-volume breviaries flourished from the thirteenth century onwards. These abbreviated volumes soon became very popular and eventually supplanted the Catholic Church's Curia office, previously said by non-monastic clergy.
Early printed editions
Before the advent of printing, breviaries were written by hand and were often richly decorated with initials and miniature illustrations telling stories in the lives of Christ or the saints, or stories from the Bible. Later printed breviaries usually have woodcut illustrations, interesting in their own right but with poor relation to the beautifully illuminated breviaries.
The beauty and value of many of the Latin Breviaries were brought to the notice of English churchmen by one of the numbers of the Oxford Tracts for the Times, since which time they have been much more studied, both for their own sake and for the light they throw upon the English Prayer-Book.
From a bibliographical point of view some of the early printed Breviaries are among the rarest of literary curiosities, being merely local. The copies were not spread far, and were soon worn out by the daily use made of them. Doubtless many editions have perished without leaving a trace of their existence, while others are known by unique copies. In Scotland the only one which has survived the convulsions of the 16th century is Aberdeen Breviary, a Scottish form of the Sarum Office (the Sarum Rite was much favoured in Scotland as a kind of protest against the jurisdiction claimed by the diocese of York), revised by William Elphinstone (bishop 1483–1514), and printed at Edinburgh by Walter Chapman and Androw Myllar in 1509–1510. Four copies have been preserved of it, of which only one is complete; but it was reprinted in facsimile in 1854 for the Bannatyne Club by the munificence of the Duke of Buccleuch. It is particularly valuable for the trustworthy notices of the early history of Scotland which are embedded in the lives of the national saints. Though enjoined by royal mandate in 1501 for general use within the realm of Scotland, it was probably never widely adopted. The new Scottish Proprium sanctioned for the Catholic province of St Andrews in 1903 contains many of the old Aberdeen collects and antiphons.
The Sarum or Salisbury Breviary itself was very widely used. The first edition was printed at Venice in 1483 by Raynald de Novimagio in folio; the latest at Paris, 1556, 1557. While modern Breviaries are nearly always printed in four volumes, one for each season of the year, the editions of the Sarum never exceeded two parts.
Early modern reforms
Until the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, every bishop had full power to regulate the Breviary of his own diocese; and this was acted upon almost everywhere. Each monastic community, also, had one of its own. Pope Pius V (r. 1566–1572), however, while sanctioning those which could show at least 200 years of existence, made the Roman obligatory in all other places. But the influence of the Roman rite has gradually gone much beyond this, and has superseded almost all the local uses. The Roman has thus become nearly universal, with the allowance only of additional offices for saints specially venerated in each particular diocese. The Roman Breviary has undergone several revisions: The most remarkable of these is that by Francis Quignonez, cardinal of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (1536), which, though not accepted by Rome (it was approved by Clement VII and Paul III, and permitted as a substitute for the unrevised Breviary, until Pius V in 1568 excluded it as too short and too modern, and issued a reformed edition of the old Breviary, the Breviarium Pianum or "Pian Breviary"), formed the model for the still more thorough reform made in 1549 by the Church of England, whose daily morning and evening services are but a condensation and simplification of the Breviary offices. Some parts of the prefaces at the beginning of the English Prayer-Book are free translations of those of Quignonez. The Pian Breviary was again altered by Sixtus V in 1588, who introduced the revised Vulgate, in 1602 by Clement VIII (through Baronius and Bellarmine), especially as concerns the rubrics, and by Urban VIII (1623–1644), a purist who altered the text of certain hymns.
In the 17th and 18th centuries a movement of revision took place in France, and succeeded in modifying about half the Breviaries of that country. Historically, this proceeded from the labours of Jean de Launoy (1603–1678), "le dénicheur des saints", and Louis Sébastien le Nain de Tillemont, who had shown the falsity of numerous lives of the saints; theologically it was produced by the Port Royal school, which led men to dwell more on communion with God as contrasted with the invocation of the saints. This was mainly carried out by the adoption of a rule that all antiphons and responses should be in the exact words of Scripture, which cut out the whole class of appeals to created beings. The services were at the same time simplified and shortened, and the use of the whole Psalter every week (which had become a mere theory in the Roman Breviary, owing to its frequent supersession by saints' day services) was made a reality. These reformed French Breviaries—e.g. the Paris Breviary of 1680 by Archbishop François de Harlay (1625–1695) and that of 1736 by Archbishop Charles-Gaspard-Guillaume de Vintimille du Luc (1655–1746)—show a deep knowledge of Holy Scripture, and much careful adaptation of different texts.
Later modern reforms
During the pontificate of Pius IX a strong Ultramontane movement arose against the French Breviaries of 1680 and 1736. This was inaugurated by Montalembert, but its literary advocates were chiefly Dom Gueranger, a learned Benedictine monk, abbot of Solesmes, and Louis Veuillot (1813–1883) of the Univers; and it succeeded in suppressing them everywhere, the last diocese to surrender being Orleans in 1875. The Jansenist and Gallican influence was also strongly felt in Italy and in Germany, where Breviaries based on the French models were published at Cologne, Münster, Mainz and other towns. Meanwhile, under the direction of Benedict XIV (pope 1740–1758), a special congregation collected much material for an official revision, but nothing was published. In 1902, under Leo XIII, a commission under the presidency of Monsignor Louis Duchesne was appointed to consider the Breviary, the Missal, the Pontifical and the Ritual.
Significant changes came in 1910 with the reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X. This revision modified the traditional psalm scheme so that, while all 150 psalms were used in the course of the week, these were said without repetition. Those assigned to the Sunday office underwent the least revision, although noticeably fewer psalms are recited at Matins, and both Lauds and Compline are slightly shorter due to psalms (or in the case of Compline the first few verses of a psalm) being removed. Pius X was probably influenced by earlier attempts to eliminate repetition in the psalter, most notably the liturgy of the Benedictine congregation of St. Maur. However, since Cardinal Quignonez's attempt to reform the Breviary employed this principle—albeit with no regard to the traditional scheme—such notions had floated around in the western Church, and can particularly be seen in the Paris Breviary.
Pope Pius XII introduced optional use of a new translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew to a more classical Latin. Most breviaries published in the late 1950s and early 1960s used this "Pian Psalter".
Pope John XXIII also revised the Breviary in 1960, introducing changes drawn up by his predecessor Pope Pius XII. The most notable alteration is the shortening of most feasts from nine to three lessons at Matins, keeping only the Scripture readings (the former lesson i, then lessons ii and iii together), followed by either the first part of the patristic reading (lesson vii) or, for most feasts, a condensed version of the former second Nocturn, which was formerly used when a feast was reduced in rank and commemorated.
Contents of the Roman Breviary
At the beginning stands the usual introductory matter, such as the tables for determining the date of Easter, the calendar, and the general rubrics. The Breviary itself is divided into four seasonal parts—winter, spring, summer, autumn—and comprises under each part:
the Psalter;
Proprium de Tempore (the special office of the season);
Proprium Sanctorum (special offices of saints);
Commune Sanctorum (general offices for saints);
Extra Services.
These parts are often published separately.
The Psalter
This psalm book is the very backbone of the Breviary, the groundwork of the Catholic prayer-book; out of it have grown the antiphons, responsories and versicles. Until the 1911 reform, the psalms were arranged according to a disposition dating from the 8th century, as follows: Psalms 1-108, with some omissions, were recited at Matins, twelve each day from Monday to Saturday, and eighteen on Sunday. The omissions were said at Lauds, Prime and Compline. Psalms 109-147 (except 117, 118, and 142) were said at Vespers, five each day. Psalms 148-150 were always used at Lauds, and give that hour its name. The text of this Psalter is that commonly known as the Gallican. The name is misleading, for it is simply the second revision (A.D. 392) made by Jerome of the old Itala version originally used in Rome. Jerome's first revision of the Itala (A.D. 383), known as the Roman, is still used at St Peter's in Rome, but the "Gallican", thanks especially to St Gregory of Tours, who introduced it into Gaul in the 6th century, has ousted it everywhere else. The Antiphonary of Bangor proves that Ireland accepted the Gallican version in the 7th century, and the English Church did so in the 10th.
Following the 1911 reform, Matins was reduced to nine Psalms every day, with the other psalms redistributed throughout Prime, Terce, Sext, and Compline. For Sundays and special feasts Lauds and Vespers largely remained the same, Psalm 118 remained distributed at the Little Hours and Psalms 4, 90, and 130 were kept at Compline.
The Proprium de Tempore
This contains the office of the seasons of the Christian year (Advent to Trinity), a conception that only gradually grew up. There is here given the whole service for every Sunday and weekday, the proper antiphons, responsories, hymns, and especially the course of daily Scripture reading, averaging about twenty verses a day, and (roughly) arranged thus:
Advent: Isaiah
Epiphany to Septuagesima: Pauline Epistles
Lent: patristic homilies (Genesis on Sundays)
Passiontide: Jeremiah
Easter to Pentecost: Acts, Catholic epistles and Revelation
Pentecost to August: Samuel and Kings
August to Advent: Wisdom books, Maccabees, Prophets
The Proprium Sanctorum
This contains the lessons, psalms and liturgical formularies for saints' festivals, and depends on the days of the secular month. The readings of the second Nocturn are mainly hagiological biography, with homilies or papal documents for certain major feasts, particularly those of Jesus and Mary. Some of this material has been revised by Leo XIII, in view of archaeological and other discoveries. The third Nocturn consists of a homily on the Gospel which is read at that day's Mass. Covering a great stretch of time and space, they do for the worshipper in the field of church history what the Scripture readings do in that of biblical history.
The Commune Sanctorum
This comprises psalms, antiphons, lessons, &c., for feasts of various groups or classes (twelve in all); e.g. apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. These offices are of very ancient date, and many of them were probably in origin proper to individual saints. They contain passages of great literary beauty. The lessons read at the third nocturn are patristic homilies on the Gospels, and together form a rough summary of theological instruction.
Extra services
Here are found the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Office for the Dead (obligatory on All Souls' Day), and offices peculiar to each diocese.
Elements of the Hours
It has already been indicated, by reference to Matins, Lauds, &c., that not only each day, but each part of the day, has its own office, the day being divided into liturgical "hours." A detailed account of these will be found in the article Canonical Hours. Each of the hours of the office is composed of the same elements, and something must be said now of the nature of these constituent parts, of which mention has here and there been already made. They are: psalms (including canticles), antiphons, responsories, hymns, lessons, little chapters, versicles and collects.
Psalms
Before the 1911 reform, the multiplication of saints' festivals, with practically the same festal psalms, tended to repeat the about one-third of the Psalter, with a correspondingly rare recital of the remaining two-thirds. Following this reform, the entire Psalter is again generally recited each week, with the festal psalms restricted to only the highest-ranking feasts. As in the Greek usage and in the Benedictine, certain canticles like the Song of Moses (Exodus xv.), the Song of Hannah (1 Sam. ii.), the prayer of Habakkuk (iii.), the prayer of Hezekiah (Isaiah xxxviii.) and other similar Old Testament passages, and, from the New Testament, the Magnificat, the Benedictus and the Nunc dimittis, are admitted as psalms.
Antiphons
The antiphons are short liturgical forms, sometimes of biblical, sometimes of patristic origin, used to introduce a psalm. The term originally signified a chant by alternate choirs, but has quite lost this meaning in the Breviary.
Responsories
The responsories are similar in form to the antiphons, but come at the end of the psalm, being originally the reply of the choir or congregation to the precentor who recited the psalm.
Hymns
The hymns are short poems going back in part to the days of Prudentius, Synesius, Gregory of Nazianzus and Ambrose (4th and 5th centuries), but mainly the work of medieval authors.
Lessons
The lessons, as has been seen, are drawn variously from the Bible, the Acts of the Saints and the Fathers of the Church. In the primitive church, books afterwards excluded from the canon were often read, e.g. the letters of Clement of Rome and the Shepherd of Hermas. In later days the churches of Africa, having rich memorials of martyrdom, used them to supplement the reading of Scripture. Monastic influence accounts for the practice of adding to the reading of a biblical passage some patristic commentary or exposition. Books of homilies were compiled from the writings of SS. Augustine, Hilary, Athanasius, Isidore, Gregory the Great and others, and formed part of the library of which the Breviary was the ultimate compendium. In the lessons, as in the psalms, the order for special days breaks in upon the normal order of ferial offices and dislocates the scheme for consecutive reading. The lessons are read at Matins (which is subdivided into three nocturns).
Little chapters
The little chapters are very short lessons read at the other "hours."
Versicles
The versicles are short responsories used after the little chapters in the minor hours. They appear after the hymns in Lauds and Vespers.
Collects
The collects come at the close of the office and are short prayers summing up the supplications of the congregation. They arise out of a primitive practice on the part of the bishop (local president), examples of which are found in the Didachē (Teaching of the Apostles) and in the letters of Clement of Rome and Cyprian. With the crystallization of church order, improvisation in prayer largely gave place to set forms, and collections of prayers were made which later developed into Sacramentaries and Orationals. The collects of the Breviary are largely drawn from the Gelasian and other Sacramentaries, and they are used to sum up the dominant idea of the festival in connection with which they happen to be used.
Celebration
Before 1910, the difficulty of harmonizing the Proprium de Tempore and the Proprium Sanctorum, to which reference has been made, was only partly met in the thirty-seven chapters of general rubrics. Additional help was given by a kind of Catholic Churchman's Almanack, called the Ordo Recitandi Divini Officii, published in different countries and dioceses, and giving, under every day, minute directions for proper reading. In 1960, John XXIII simplified the rubrics governing the Breviary in order to make it easier to use.
Every cleric in Holy Orders, and many other members of religious orders, must publicly join in or privately read aloud (i.e. using the lips as well as the eyes—it takes about two hours in this way) the whole of the Breviary services allotted for each day. In large churches where they were celebrated the services were usually grouped; e.g. Matins and Lauds (about 7.30 A.M.); Prime, Terce (High Mass), Sext, and None (about 10 A.M.); Vespers and Compline (4 P.M.); and from four to eight hours (depending on the amount of music and the number of high masses) are thus spent in choir.
Lay use of the Breviary has varied throughout the Church's history. In some periods laymen did not use the Breviary as a manual of devotion to any great extent. The late Medieval period saw the recitation of certain hours of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, which was based on the Breviary in form and content, becoming popular among those who could read, and Bishop Challoner did much to popularise the hours of Sunday Vespers and Compline (albeit in English translation) in his Garden of the Soul in the eighteenth century. The Liturgical Movement in the twentieth century saw renewed interest in the Offices of the Breviary and several popular editions were produced, containing the vernacular as well as the Latin.
The complete pre-Pius X Roman Breviary was translated into English (by the Marquess of Bute in 1879; new ed. with a trans, of the Martyrology, 1908), French and German. Bute's version is noteworthy for its inclusion of the skilful renderings of the ancient hymns by J.H. Newman, J.M. Neale and others. Several editions of the Pius X Breviary were produced during the twentieth century, including a notable edition prepared with the assistance of the sisters of Stanbrook Abbey in the 1950s. Two editions in English and Latin were produced in the following decade, which conformed to the rubrics of 1960, published by Liturgical Press and Benziger in the United States. These used the Pius XII psalter. Baronius Press's revised edition of the Liturgical Press edition uses the older Gallican psalter of St. Jerome. This edition was published and released in 2012 for pre-orders only. In 2013, the publication has resumed printing and is available on Baronius' website.
Under Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, Catholic bishops, priests, and deacons are again permitted to use the 1961 edition of the Roman Breviary, promulgated by Pope John XXIII to satisfy their obligation to recite the Divine Office every day.
Online resources
In 2008, a website containing the Divine Office (both Ordinary and Extraordinary) in various languages, i-breviary, was launched, which combines the modern and ancient breviaries with the latest computer technology.
Editions
1482. Breviarium Romanum. Albi, Johann Neumeister.
1494. Breviarium Romanum, Lyon, Perrinus Lathomi, Bonifacius Johannis & Johannes de Villa Veteri.
1502, Breviarium secundum comunem usus Romanum, Paris, Thielman Kerver.
1508. Breviarium secundum consuetudinem Romanam. Paris, Jean Philippe Jean Botcholdic, Gherard Berneuelt.
1509. Brevarium secundum ritum sacronsancte Romane ecclesie, Lyon, Ettienne Baland, Martin Boillon
1534. Breviarium Romanum, Paris, Yolande Bonhomme.
1535. Quignonius Breviary
1535. Breviarium Romanum Ex Decreto Sancrosancti Concilii Tridentini Restitutum ... editum et recognitum iuxta editionem venetiis
1536. Breviarium Romanum, nuper reformatum, in quo sacræ Scripturæ libri, probatæque Sanctorum historiæ eleganter beneque dispositæ leguntur; studio & labore Francisci Quignonii, Card. de licentia & facultate Pauli III. Pont. Max., Paris: Galliot du Pré, Jean Kerbriant, Jean Petit
1537. Breviarium Romanum nuper reformatum, Paris, Yolande Bonhomme.
The second recension of the Quignon breviary (ed. 1908)
1570. Pian Breviary (Pius V, Council of Trent)
1570. Breviarium Romanum, ex decreto sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum, Pii V pontificis maximi jussu editum Rome, Paulus Manutius; Antwerp, Christophe Plantin.
1629. Urban VIII
1698. Breviarium Romanum, ex decreto sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum, et Clementis VIII et Urbani VIII auctoritate recognitum, cum officiis sanctorum, novissime per Summos Pontifices usque ad hanc diem concessis; in quatuor Anni Tempora divisum.
pars Autumnalis (1697)(1698)
pars Autumnalis (1719).
1740.Breviarium Romanum cum Psalterium, proprio,& Officiis Sanctorum ad usum cleri Basilicae Vaticanae
pars Autumnalis (1740)
pars Aestiva (1740)
1757. Breviarium Romanum, ex decreto sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum, et Clementis VIII et Urbani VIII auctoritate recognitum, novis Officiis ex Indulto Apostolico huc usque concessis auctum
pars Aestivus (1757)
1799. Breviarium Romanum, ex decreto sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum, et Clementis VIII et Urbani VIII auctoritate recognitum, com officiis sanctorum, novissime per Summos Pontifices usque ad hanc diem concessis, in quatuor Anni Tempora divisum
pars Verna
pars Autumnalis
pars Hiemalis
1828.
pars Autumnalis (1828)
pars Aestiva (1828)
1861.
pars Autumnalis (1861)
1888.
pars Verna (1888)
1908: Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X
The 1908 Roman Breviary in English (Pre-Pius X Psalter), Winter (part 1)
The 1908 Roman Breviary in English (Pre-Pius X Psalter), Spring (part 2)
The 1908 Roman Breviary in English (Pre-Pius X Psalter), Summer (part 3)
The 1908 Roman Breviary in English (Pre-Pius X Psalter), Autumn/Fall (part 4)
Canonical Hours according to the 1911 Breviarium Romanum without the festal propers of Common of the Saints (traditio.com)
1960 (Vatican II).
The Roman Breviary in English and Latin: A Bilingual Edition of the Breviarium Romanum with Rubrics in English Only, Baronius Press (2011), 3 vols.
divinumofficinum.com
1974:
Universalis Online Breviary
See also
Book of Hours
Canonical Hours
Horologion
Latin psalters
Little Office of Our Lady
Liturgical books of the Roman Rite
Liturgy of the Hours
References
External links
Psalter Schemas (Catholic), from 1900-Present
14th century breviary made in Paris for Marie de Saint Pol, Countess of Pembroke, Cambridge University Library
14th century breviary written in Gothic Textualis script, Center for Digital Initiatives, University of Vermont Libraries
Catholic breviaries
Roman Rite liturgical books |
4868 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.%20F.%20Skinner | B. F. Skinner | Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. Considered the father of Behaviorism, he was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
Considering free will to be an illusion, Skinner saw human action as dependent on consequences of previous actions, a theory he would articulate as the principle of reinforcement: If the consequences to an action are bad, there is a high chance the action will not be repeated; if the consequences are good, the probability of the action being repeated becomes stronger.
Skinner developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism, and founded the experimental analysis of behavior, a school of experimental research psychology. He also used operant conditioning to strengthen behavior, considering the rate of response to be the most effective measure of response strength. To study operant conditioning, he invented the operant conditioning chamber (aka the Skinner box), and to measure rate he invented the cumulative recorder. Using these tools, he and Charles Ferster produced Skinner's most influential experimental work, outlined in their 1957 book Schedules of Reinforcement.
Skinner was a prolific author, publishing 21 books and 180 articles. He imagined the application of his ideas to the design of a human community in his 1948 utopian novel, Walden Two, while his analysis of human behavior culminated in his 1958 work, Verbal Behavior.
Skinner, John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov, are considered to be the pioneers of modern behaviorism. Accordingly, a June 2002 survey listed Skinner as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.
Biography
Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, to Grace and William Skinner, the latter of whom was a lawyer. Skinner became an atheist after a Christian teacher tried to assuage his fear of the hell that his grandmother described. His brother Edward, two and a half years younger, died at age 16 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Skinner's closest friend as a young boy was Raphael Miller, whom he called Doc because his father was a doctor. Doc and Skinner became friends due to their parents' religiousness and both had an interest in contraptions and gadgets. They had set up a telegraph line between their houses to send messages to each other, although they had to call each other on the telephone due to the confusing messages sent back and forth. During one summer, Doc and Skinner started an elderberry business to gather berries and sell them door to door. They found that when they picked the ripe berries, the unripe ones came off the branches too, so they built a device that was able to separate them. The device was a bent piece of metal to form a trough. They would pour water down the trough into a bucket, and the ripe berries would sink into the bucket and the unripe ones would be pushed over the edge to be thrown away.
Education
Skinner attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, with the intention of becoming a writer. He found himself at a social disadvantage at the college because of his intellectual attitude. He was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
He wrote for the school paper, but, as an atheist, he was critical of the traditional mores of his college. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in English literature in 1926, he attended Harvard University, where he would later research and teach. While attending Harvard, a fellow student, Fred S. Keller, convinced Skinner that he could make an experimental science of the study of behavior. This led Skinner to invent a prototype for the Skinner box and to join Keller in the creation of other tools for small experiments.
After graduation, Skinner unsuccessfully tried to write a novel while he lived with his parents, a period that he later called the "Dark Years". He became disillusioned with his literary skills despite encouragement from the renowned poet Robert Frost, concluding that he had little world experience and no strong personal perspective from which to write. His encounter with John B. Watson's behaviorism led him into graduate study in psychology and to the development of his own version of behaviorism.
Later life
Skinner received a PhD from Harvard in 1931, and remained there as a researcher for some years. In 1936, he went to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to teach. In 1945, he moved to Indiana University, where he was chair of the psychology department from 1946 to 1947, before returning to Harvard as a tenured professor in 1948. He remained at Harvard for the rest of his life. In 1973, Skinner was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto II.
In 1936, Skinner married Yvonne "Eve" Blue. The couple had two daughters, Julie (later Vargas) and Deborah (later Buzan; married Barry Buzan). Yvonne died in 1997, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Skinner's public exposure had increased in the 1970s, he remained active even after his retirement in 1974, until his death. In 1989, Skinner was diagnosed with leukemia and died on August 18, 1990, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ten days before his death, he was given the lifetime achievement award by the American Psychological Association and gave a talk concerning his work.
Contributions to psychology
Behaviorism
Skinner referred to his approach to the study of behavior as radical behaviorism, which originated in the early 1900s as a reaction to depth psychology and other traditional forms of psychology, which often had difficulty making predictions that could be tested experimentally. This philosophy of behavioral science assumes that behavior is a consequence of environmental histories of reinforcement (see applied behavior analysis). In his words:
Foundations of Skinner's behaviorism
Skinner's ideas about behaviorism were largely set forth in his first book, The Behavior of Organisms (1938). Here, he gives a systematic description of the manner in which environmental variables control behavior. He distinguished two sorts of behavior which are controlled in different ways:
Respondent behaviors are elicited by stimuli, and may be modified through respondent conditioning, often called classical (or pavlovian) conditioning, in which a neutral stimulus is paired with an eliciting stimulus. Such behaviors may be measured by their latency or strength.
Operant behaviors are 'emitted', meaning that initially they are not induced by any particular stimulus. They are strengthened through operant conditioning (aka instrumental conditioning), in which the occurrence of a response yields a reinforcer. Such behaviors may be measured by their rate.
Both of these sorts of behavior had already been studied experimentally, most notably: respondents, by Ivan Pavlov; and operants, by Edward Thorndike. Skinner's account differed in some ways from earlier ones, and was one of the first accounts to bring them under one roof.
The idea that behavior is strengthened or weakened by its consequences raises several questions. Among the most commonly asked are these:
Operant responses are strengthened by reinforcement, but where do they come from in the first place?
Once it is in the organism's repertoire, how is a response directed or controlled?
How can very complex and seemingly novel behaviors be explained?
1. Origin of operant behavior
Skinner's answer to the first question was very much like Darwin's answer to the question of the origin of a 'new' bodily structure, namely, variation and selection. Similarly, the behavior of an individual varies from moment to moment; a variation that is followed by reinforcement is strengthened and becomes prominent in that individual's behavioral repertoire. Shaping was Skinner's term for the gradual modification of behavior by the reinforcement of desired variations. Skinner believed that 'superstitious' behavior can arise when a response happens to be followed by reinforcement to which it is actually unrelated.
2. Control of operant behavior
The second question, "how is operant behavior controlled?" arises because, to begin with, the behavior is "emitted" without reference to any particular stimulus. Skinner answered this question by saying that a stimulus comes to control an operant if it is present when the response is reinforced and absent when it is not. For example, if lever-pressing only brings food when a light is on, a rat, or a child, will learn to press the lever only when the light is on. Skinner summarized this relationship by saying that a discriminative stimulus (e.g. light or sound) sets the occasion for the reinforcement (food) of the operant (lever-press). This three-term contingency (stimulus-response-reinforcer) is one of Skinner's most important concepts, and sets his theory apart from theories that use only pair-wise associations.
3. Explaining complex behavior
Most behavior of humans cannot easily be described in terms of individual responses reinforced one by one, and Skinner devoted a great deal of effort to the problem of behavioral complexity. Some complex behavior can be seen as a sequence of relatively simple responses, and here Skinner invoked the idea of "chaining". Chaining is based on the fact, experimentally demonstrated, that a discriminative stimulus not only sets the occasion for subsequent behavior, but it can also reinforce a behavior that precedes it. That is, a discriminative stimulus is also a "conditioned reinforcer". For example, the light that sets the occasion for lever pressing may also be used to reinforce "turning around" in the presence of a noise. This results in the sequence "noise – turn-around – light – press lever – food." Much longer chains can be built by adding more stimuli and responses.
However, Skinner recognized that a great deal of behavior, especially human behavior, cannot be accounted for by gradual shaping or the construction of response sequences. Complex behavior often appears suddenly in its final form, as when a person first finds his way to the elevator by following instructions given at the front desk. To account for such behavior, Skinner introduced the concept of rule-governed behavior. First, relatively simple behaviors come under the control of verbal stimuli: the child learns to "jump," "open the book," and so on. After a large number of responses come under such verbal control, a sequence of verbal stimuli can evoke an almost unlimited variety of complex responses.
Reinforcement
Reinforcement, a key concept of behaviorism, is the primary process that shapes and controls behavior, and occurs in two ways: positive and negative. In The Behavior of Organisms (1938), Skinner defines negative reinforcement to be synonymous with punishment, i.e. the presentation of an aversive stimulus. This definition would subsequently be re-defined in Science and Human Behavior (1953).
In what has now become the standard set of definitions, positive reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the occurrence of some event (e.g., praise after some behavior is performed), whereas negative reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the removal or avoidance of some aversive event (e.g., opening and raising an umbrella over your head on a rainy day is reinforced by the cessation of rain falling on you).
Both types of reinforcement strengthen behavior, or increase the probability of a behavior reoccurring; the difference being in whether the reinforcing event is something applied (positive reinforcement) or something removed or avoided (negative reinforcement). Punishment can be the application of an aversive stimulus/event (positive punishment or punishment by contingent stimulation) or the removal of a desirable stimulus (negative punishment or punishment by contingent withdrawal). Though punishment is often used to suppress behavior, Skinner argued that this suppression is temporary and has a number of other, often unwanted, consequences. Extinction is the absence of a rewarding stimulus, which weakens behavior.
Writing in 1981, Skinner pointed out that Darwinian natural selection is, like reinforced behavior, "selection by consequences." Though, as he said, natural selection has now "made its case," he regretted that essentially the same process, "reinforcement", was less widely accepted as underlying human behavior.
Schedules of reinforcement
Skinner recognized that behavior is typically reinforced more than once, and, together with Charles Ferster, he did an extensive analysis of the various ways in which reinforcements could be arranged over time, calling it the schedules of reinforcement.
The most notable schedules of reinforcement studied by Skinner were continuous, interval (fixed or variable), and ratio (fixed or variable). All are methods used in operant conditioning.
Continuous reinforcement (CRF): each time a specific action is performed the subject receives a reinforcement. This method is effective when teaching a new behavior because it quickly establishes an association between the target behavior and the reinforcer.
Interval schedule: based on the time intervals between reinforcements.
Fixed interval schedule (FI): A procedure in which reinforcements are presented at fixed time periods, provided that the appropriate response is made. This schedule yields a response rate that is low just after reinforcement and becomes rapid just before the next reinforcement is scheduled.
Variable interval schedule (VI): A procedure in which behavior is reinforced after scheduled but unpredictable time durations following the previous reinforcement. This schedule yields the most stable rate of responding, with the average frequency of reinforcement determining the frequency of response.
Ratio schedules: based on the ratio of responses to reinforcements.
Fixed ratio schedule (FR): A procedure in which reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made.
Variable ratio schedule (VR): A procedure in which reinforcement comes after a number of responses that is randomized from one reinforcement to the next (e.g. slot machines). The lower the number of responses required, the higher the response rate tends to be. Variable ratio schedules tend to produce very rapid and steady responding rates in contrast with fixed ratio schedules where the frequency of response usually drops after the reinforcement occurs.
Token economy
"Skinnerian" principles have been used to create token economies in a number of institutions, such as psychiatric hospitals. When participants behave in desirable ways, their behavior is reinforced with tokens that can be changed for such items as candy, cigarettes, coffee, or the exclusive use of a radio or television set.
Verbal Behavior
Challenged by Alfred North Whitehead during a casual discussion while at Harvard to provide an account of a randomly provided piece of verbal behavior, Skinner set about attempting to extend his then-new functional, inductive approach to the complexity of human verbal behavior. Developed over two decades, his work appeared in the book Verbal Behavior. Although Noam Chomsky was highly critical of Verbal Behavior, he conceded that Skinner's "S-R psychology" was worth a review. (behavior analysts reject the "S-R" characterization: operant conditioning involves the emission of a response which then becomes more or less likely depending upon its consequence.)
Verbal Behavior had an uncharacteristically cool reception, partly as a result of Chomsky's review, partly because of Skinner's failure to address or rebut any of Chomsky's criticisms. Skinner's peers may have been slow to adopt the ideas presented in Verbal Behavior because of the absence of experimental evidence—unlike the empirical density that marked Skinner's experimental work.
Scientific inventions
Operant conditioning chamber
An operant conditioning chamber (also known as a "Skinner box") is a laboratory apparatus used in the experimental analysis of animal behavior. It was invented by Skinner while he was a graduate student at Harvard University. As used by Skinner, the box had a lever (for rats), or a disk in one wall (for pigeons). A press on this "manipulandum" could deliver food to the animal through an opening in the wall, and responses reinforced in this way increased in frequency. By controlling this reinforcement together with discriminative stimuli such as lights and tones, or punishments such as electric shocks, experimenters have used the operant box to study a wide variety of topics, including schedules of reinforcement, discriminative control, delayed response ("memory"), punishment, and so on. By channeling research in these directions, the operant conditioning chamber has had a huge influence on course of research in animal learning and its applications. It enabled great progress on problems that could be studied by measuring the rate, probability, or force of a simple, repeatable response. However, it discouraged the study of behavioral processes not easily conceptualized in such terms—spatial learning, in particular, which is now studied in quite different ways, for example, by the use of the water maze.
Cumulative recorder
The cumulative recorder makes a pen-and-ink record of simple repeated responses. Skinner designed it for use with the operant chamber as a convenient way to record and view the rate of responses such as a lever press or a key peck. In this device, a sheet of paper gradually unrolls over a cylinder. Each response steps a small pen across the paper, starting at one edge; when the pen reaches the other edge, it quickly resets to the initial side. The slope of the resulting ink line graphically displays the rate of the response; for example, rapid responses yield a steeply sloping line on the paper, slow responding yields a line of low slope. The cumulative recorder was a key tool used by Skinner in his analysis of behavior, and it was very widely adopted by other experimenters, gradually falling out of use with the advent of the laboratory computer and use of line graphs. Skinner's major experimental exploration of response rates, presented in his book with Charles Ferster, Schedules of Reinforcement, is full of cumulative records produced by this device.
Air crib
The air crib is an easily cleaned, temperature- and humidity-controlled box-bed intended to replace the standard infant crib. After raising one baby, Skinner felt that he could simplify the process for parents and improve the experience for children. He primarily thought of the idea to help his wife cope with the day-to-day tasks of child rearing. Skinner had some specific concerns about raising a baby in the rough environment where he lived in Minnesota. Keeping the child warm was a central priority (Faye, 2010). Though this was the main goal, it also was designed to reduce laundry, diaper rash, and cradle cap, while still allowing the baby to be more mobile and comfortable, and less prone to cry. Reportedly it had some success in these goals and was used with an estimate of 300 children who were raised in the air crib. The notorious crib was advertised commercially. Psychology Today tracked down 50 children and ran a short piece on the effects of the air crib. The reports came back positive and that these children and parents enjoyed using the crib (Epstein, 2005). One of these air cribs resides in the gallery at the Center for the History of Psychology in Akron, Ohio (Faye, 2010).
The air crib was designed with three solid walls and a safety-glass panel at the front which could be lowered to move the baby in and out of the crib. The floor was stretched canvas. Sheets were intended to be used over the canvas and were easily rolled off when soiled. Addressing Skinners' concern for temperature, a control box on top of the crib regulated temperature and humidity. Filtered air flowed through the crib from below. This crib was higher than most standard cribs, allowing easier access to the child without the need to bend over (Faye, 2010).
The air crib was a controversial invention. It was popularly characterized as a cruel pen, and it was often compared to Skinner's operant conditioning chamber (or "Skinner box"). An article, titled "Baby in a Box," caught the eye of many and contributed to skepticism about the device (Bjork, 1997). A picture published with the article showed the Skinners' daughter, Deborah, peering out of the crib with her hands and face pressed upon the glass. Skinner also used the term "experiment" when describing the crib, and this association with laboratory animal experimentation discouraged the crib's commercial success, although several companies attempted to produce and sell it.
In 2004, therapist Lauren Slater repeated a claim that Skinner may have used his baby daughter in some of his experiments. His outraged daughter publicly accused Slater of not making a good-faith effort to check her facts before publishing. Debora was quoted by the Guardian saying "According to Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century, my father, who was a psychologist based at Harvard from the 1950s to the 90s, "used his infant daughter, Deborah, to prove his theories by putting her for a few hours a day in a laboratory box . . . in which all her needs were controlled and shaped". But it's not true. My father did nothing of the sort."
Teaching machine
The teaching machine was a mechanical device whose purpose was to administer a curriculum of programmed learning. The machine embodies key elements of Skinner's theory of learning and had important implications for education in general and classroom instruction in particular.
In one incarnation, the machine was a box that housed a list of questions that could be viewed one at a time through a small window. (see picture.) There was also a mechanism through which the learner could respond to each question. Upon delivering a correct answer, the learner would be rewarded.
Skinner advocated the use of teaching machines for a broad range of students (e.g., preschool aged to adult) and instructional purposes (e.g., reading and music). For example, one machine that he envisioned could teach rhythm. He wrote:The instructional potential of the teaching machine stemmed from several factors: it provided automatic, immediate and regular reinforcement without the use of aversive control; the material presented was coherent, yet varied and novel; the pace of learning could be adjusted to suit the individual. As a result, students were interested, attentive, and learned efficiently by producing the desired behavior, "learning by doing."
Teaching machines, though perhaps rudimentary, were not rigid instruments of instruction. They could be adjusted and improved based upon the students' performance. For example, if a student made many incorrect responses, the machine could be reprogrammed to provide less advanced prompts or questions—the idea being that students acquire behaviors most efficiently if they make few errors. Multiple-choice formats were not well-suited for teaching machines because they tended to increase student mistakes, and the contingencies of reinforcement were relatively uncontrolled.
Not only useful in teaching explicit skills, machines could also promote the development of a repertoire of behaviors that Skinner called self-management. Effective self-management means attending to stimuli appropriate to a task, avoiding distractions, reducing the opportunity of reward for competing behaviors, and so on. For example, machines encourage students to pay attention before receiving a reward. Skinner contrasted this with the common classroom practice of initially capturing students' attention (e.g., with a lively video) and delivering a reward (e.g., entertainment) before the students have actually performed any relevant behavior. This practice fails to reinforce correct behavior and actually counters the development of self-management.
Skinner pioneered the use of teaching machines in the classroom, especially at the primary level. Today computers run software that performs similar teaching tasks, and there has been a resurgence of interest in the topic related to the development of adaptive learning systems.
Pigeon-guided missile
During World War II, the US Navy required a weapon effective against surface ships, such as the German Bismarck class battleships. Although missile and TV technology existed, the size of the primitive guidance systems available rendered automatic guidance impractical. To solve this problem, Skinner initiated Project Pigeon, which was intended to provide a simple and effective guidance system. Skinner trained pigeons through operant conditioning to peck a camera obscura screen showing incoming targets on individual screens (Schultz-Figueroa, 2019). This system divided the nose cone of a missile into three compartments, with a pigeon placed in each. Within the ship, the three lenses projected an image of distant objects onto a screen in front of each bird. Thus, when the missile was launched from an aircraft within sight of an enemy ship, an image of the ship would appear on the screen. The screen was hinged, which connected the screens to the bomb's guidance system. This was done through four small rubber pneumatic tubes that were attached to each side of the frame, which directed a constant airflow to a pneumatic pickup system that controlled the thrusters of the bomb. Resulting in the missile being guided towards the targeted ship, through just the peck coming from the pigeon (Schultz-Figueroa, 2019).
Despite an effective demonstration, the project was abandoned, and eventually more conventional solutions, such as those based on radar, became available. Skinner complained that "our problem was no one would take us seriously." Before the project was completely abandoned it was tested extensively in the laboratory. After the United States Army ultimately denied it the United States Naval Research Laboratory picked up Skinner's Research and renamed it Project ORCON, which was a contraction of "organic" and "control". Skinner worked closely with the US Naval Research Laboratory continuously testing the pigeon's tracking capacity for guiding missiles to their intended targets. In the end, the pigeons' performance and accuracy relied on so many uncontrollable factors that Project ORCON, like Project Pigeon before it, was again discontinued. It was never used in the field.
Verbal summator
Early in his career Skinner became interested in "latent speech" and experimented with a device he called the verbal summator. This device can be thought of as an auditory version of the Rorschach inkblots. When using the device, human participants listened to incomprehensible auditory "garbage" but often read meaning into what they heard. Thus, as with the Rorschach blots, the device was intended to yield overt behavior that projected subconscious thoughts. Skinner's interest in projective testing was brief, but he later used observations with the summator in creating his theory of verbal behavior. The device also led other researchers to invent new tests such as the tautophone test, the auditory apperception test, and the Azzageddi test.
Influence on teaching
Along with psychology, education has also been influenced by Skinner's views, which are extensively presented in his book The Technology of Teaching, as well as reflected in Fred S. Keller's Personalized System of Instruction and Ogden R. Lindsley's Precision Teaching.
Skinner argued that education has two major purposes:
to teach repertoires of both verbal and nonverbal behavior; and
to interest students in learning.
He recommended bringing students' behavior under appropriate control by providing reinforcement only in the presence of stimuli relevant to the learning task. Because he believed that human behavior can be affected by small consequences, something as simple as "the opportunity to move forward after completing one stage of an activity" can be an effective reinforcer. Skinner was convinced that, to learn, a student must engage in behavior, and not just passively receive information.
Skinner believed that effective teaching must be based on positive reinforcement which is, he argued, more effective at changing and establishing behavior than punishment. He suggested that the main thing people learn from being punished is how to avoid punishment. For example, if a child is forced to practice playing an instrument, the child comes to associate practicing with punishment and thus develops feelings of dreadfulness and wishes to avoid practicing the instrument. This view had obvious implications for the then widespread practice of rote learning and punitive discipline in education. The use of educational activities as punishment may induce rebellious behavior such as vandalism or absence.
Because teachers are primarily responsible for modifying student behavior, Skinner argued that teachers must learn effective ways of teaching. In The Technology of Teaching (1968), Skinner has a chapter on why teachers fail: He says that teachers have not been given an in-depth understanding of teaching and learning. Without knowing the science underpinning teaching, teachers fall back on procedures that work poorly or not at all, such as:
using aversive techniques (which produce escape and avoidance and undesirable emotional effects);
relying on telling and explaining ("Unfortunately, a student does not learn simply when he is shown or told.");
failing to adapt learning tasks to the student's current level; and
failing to provide positive reinforcement frequently enough.
Skinner suggests that any age-appropriate skill can be taught. The steps are
Clearly specify the action or performance the student is to learn.
Break down the task into small achievable steps, going from simple to complex.
Let the student perform each step, reinforcing correct actions.
Adjust so that the student is always successful until finally the goal is reached.
Shift to intermittent reinforcement to maintain the student's performance.
Contributions to social theory
Skinner is popularly known mainly for his books Walden Two (1948) and Beyond Freedom and Dignity, (for which he made the cover of Time magazine). The former describes a fictional "experimental community" in 1940s United States. The productivity and happiness of citizens in this community is far greater than in the outside world because the residents practice scientific social planning and use operant conditioning in raising their children.
Walden Two, like Thoreau's Walden, champions a lifestyle that does not support war, or foster competition and social strife. It encourages a lifestyle of minimal consumption, rich social relationships, personal happiness, satisfying work, and leisure. In 1967, Kat Kinkade and others founded the Twin Oaks Community, using Walden Two as a blueprint. The community still exists and continues to use the Planner-Manager system and other aspects of the community described in Skinner's book, though behavior modification is not a community practice.
In Beyond Freedom and Dignity, Skinner suggests that a technology of behavior could help to make a better society. We would, however, have to accept that an autonomous agent is not the driving force of our actions. Skinner offers alternatives to punishment, and challenges his readers to use science and modern technology to construct a better society.
Political views
Skinner's political writings emphasized his hopes that an effective and human science of behavioral control – a technology of human behavior – could help with problems as yet unsolved and often aggravated by advances in technology such as the atomic bomb. Indeed, one of Skinner's goals was to prevent humanity from destroying itself. He saw political activity as the use of aversive or non-aversive means to control a population. Skinner favored the use of positive reinforcement as a means of control, citing Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel Emile: or, On Education as an example of literature that "did not fear the power of positive reinforcement."
Skinner's book, Walden Two, presents a vision of a decentralized, localized society, which applies a practical, scientific approach and behavioral expertise to deal peacefully with social problems. (For example, his views led him to oppose corporal punishment in schools, and he wrote a letter to the California Senate that helped lead it to a ban on spanking.) Skinner's utopia is both a thought experiment and a rhetorical piece. In Walden Two, Skinner answers the problem that exists in many utopian novels – "What is the Good Life?" The book's answer is a life of friendship, health, art, a healthy balance between work and leisure, a minimum of unpleasantness, and a feeling that one has made worthwhile contributions to a society in which resources are ensured, in part, by minimizing consumption.
Skinner described his novel as "my New Atlantis", in reference to Bacon's utopia.
Superstition' in the Pigeon" experiment
One of Skinner's experiments examined the formation of superstition in one of his favorite experimental animals, the pigeon. Skinner placed a series of hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic mechanism that delivered food to the pigeon "at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird's behavior." He discovered that the pigeons associated the delivery of the food with whatever chance actions they had been performing as it was delivered, and that they subsequently continued to perform these same actions.Skinner suggested that the pigeons behaved as if they were influencing the automatic mechanism with their "rituals", and that this experiment shed light on human behavior:Modern behavioral psychologists have disputed Skinner's "superstition" explanation for the behaviors he recorded. Subsequent research (e.g. Staddon and Simmelhag, 1971), while finding similar behavior, failed to find support for Skinner's "adventitious reinforcement" explanation for it. By looking at the timing of different behaviors within the interval, Staddon and Simmelhag were able to distinguish two classes of behavior: the terminal response, which occurred in anticipation of food, and interim responses, that occurred earlier in the interfood interval and were rarely contiguous with food. Terminal responses seem to reflect classical (as opposed to operant) conditioning, rather than adventitious reinforcement, guided by a process like that observed in 1968 by Brown and Jenkins in their "autoshaping" procedures. The causation of interim activities (such as the schedule-induced polydipsia seen in a similar situation with rats) also cannot be traced to adventitious reinforcement and its details are still obscure (Staddon, 1977).
Criticism
Noam Chomsky
American linguist Noam Chomsky published a review of Skinner's Verbal Behavior in the linguistics journal Language in 1959. Chomsky argued that Skinner's attempt to use behaviorism to explain human language amounted to little more than word games. Conditioned responses could not account for a child's ability to create or understand an infinite variety of novel sentences. Chomsky's review has been credited with launching the cognitive revolution in psychology and other disciplines. Skinner, who rarely responded directly to critics, never formally replied to Chomsky's critique, but endorsed Kenneth MacCorquodale's 1972 reply.
Many academics in the 1960s believed that Skinner's silence on the question meant Chomsky's criticism had been justified. But MacCorquodale points out that Chomsky's criticism did not focus on Skinner's Verbal Behavior, but rather attacked a confusion of ideas from behavioral psychology. MacCorquodale also regretted Chomsky's aggressive tone. Furthermore, Chomsky had aimed at delivering a definitive refutation of Skinner by citing dozens of animal instinct and animal learning studies. On the one hand, he argued that the studies on animal instinct proved that animal behavior is innate, and therefore Skinner was mistaken. On the other, Chomsky's opinion of the studies on learning was that one cannot draw an analogy from animal studies to human behavior—or, that research on animal instinct refutes research on animal learning.
Chomsky also reviewed Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity, using the same basic motives as his Verbal Behavior review. Among Chomsky's criticisms were that Skinner's laboratory work could not be extended to humans, that when it was extended to humans it represented "scientistic" behavior attempting to emulate science but which was not scientific, that Skinner was not a scientist because he rejected the hypothetico-deductive model of theory testing, and that Skinner had no science of behavior.
Psychodynamic psychology
Skinner has been repeatedly criticized for his supposed animosity towards Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis, and psychodynamic psychology. Some have argued, however, that Skinner shared several of Freud's assumptions, and that he was influenced by Freudian points of view in more than one field, among them the analysis of defense mechanisms, such as repression. To study such phenomena, Skinner even designed his own projective test, the "verbal summator" described above.
J. E. R. Staddon
As understood by Skinner, ascribing dignity to individuals involves giving them credit for their actions. To say "Skinner is brilliant" means that Skinner is an originating force. If Skinner's determinist theory is right, he is merely the focus of his environment. He is not an originating force and he had no choice in saying the things he said or doing the things he did. Skinner's environment and genetics both allowed and compelled him to write his book. Similarly, the environment and genetic potentials of the advocates of freedom and dignity cause them to resist the reality that their own activities are deterministically grounded. J. E. R. Staddon has argued the compatibilist position; Skinner's determinism is not in any way contradictory to traditional notions of reward and punishment, as he believed.
Professional career
Roles
1936-1937 Instructor, University of Minnesota
1937−1939 Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota
1939−1945 Associate Professor, University of Minnesota
1945−1948 Professor and chair, Indiana University
1947−1948 William James Lecturer, Harvard University
1948−1958 Professor, Harvard University
1958−1974 Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
1949−1950 President, Midwestern Psychological Association
1954−1955 President, Eastern Psychological Association
1966−1967 President, Pavlovian Society of North America
1974−1990 Professor of Psychology and Social Relations Emeritus, Harvard University
Awards
1926 AB, Hamilton College
1930 MA, Harvard University
1930−1931 Thayer Fellowship
1931 PhD, Harvard University
1931−1932 Walker Fellowship
1931−1933 National Research Council Fellowship
1933−1936 Junior Fellowship, Harvard Society of Fellows
1942 Guggenheim Fellowship (postponed until 1944–1945)
1942 Howard Crosby Warren Medal, Society of Experimental Psychologists
1958 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association
1958−1974 Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
1964−1974 Career Award, National Institute of Mental Health
1966 Edward Lee Thorndike Award, American Psychological Association
1968 National Medal of Science, National Science Foundation
1969 Overseas Fellow in Churchill College, Cambridge
1971 Gold Medal Award, American Psychological Foundation
1971 Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Foundation for Mental Retardation International award
1972 Humanist of the Year, American Humanist Association
1972 Creative Leadership in Education Award, New York University
1972 Career Contribution Award, Massachusetts Psychological Association
1978 Distinguished Contributions to Educational Research Award and Development, American Educational Research Association
1978 National Association for Retarded Citizens Award
1985 Award for Excellence in Psychiatry, Albert Einstein School of Medicine
1985 President's Award, New York Academy of Science
1990 William James Fellow Award, American Psychological Society
1990 Lifetime Achievement Award, American Psychological Association
1991 Outstanding Member and Distinguished Professional Achievement Award, Society for Performance Improvement
1997 Scholar Hall of Fame Award, Academy of Resource and Development
2011 Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Pantheon of Skeptics—Inducted
Honorary degrees
Skinner received honorary degrees from:
Alfred University
Ball State University
Dickinson College
Hamilton College
Harvard University
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Johns Hopkins University
Keio University
Long Island University C. W. Post Campus
McGill University
North Carolina State University
Ohio Wesleyan University
Ripon College
Rockford College
Tufts University
University of Chicago
University of Exeter
University of Missouri
University of North Texas
Western Michigan University
University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Honorary societies
Skinner was inducted to the following honorary societies:
PSI CHI International Honor Society in Psychology
American Philosophical Society
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
Bibliography
1938. The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis, 1938. , .
1948. Walden Two. (revised 1976 ed.).
1953. Science and Human Behavior. .
1957. Schedules of Reinforcement, with C. B. Ferster. .
1957. Verbal Behavior. .
1961. The Analysis of Behavior: A Program for Self Instruction, with James G. Holland. .
1968.The Technology of Teaching. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. .
1969. Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis. .
1971. Beyond Freedom and Dignity. .
1974. About Behaviorism. .
1976. Particulars of My Life: Part One of an Autobiography. .
1978. Reflections on Behaviorism and Society. .
1979. The Shaping of a Behaviorist: Part Two of an Autobiography. .
1980. Notebooks, edited by Robert Epstein. .
1982. Skinner for the Classroom, edited by R. Epstein. .
1983. Enjoy Old Age: A Program of Self-Management, with M. E. Vaughan. .
1983. A Matter of Consequences: Part Three of an Autobiography. , .
1987. Upon Further Reflection. .
1989. Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior. .
Cumulative Record: A Selection of Papers, 1959, 1961, 1972 and 1999 as Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition. (paperback)
Includes reprint: Skinner, B. F. 1945. "Baby in a Box." Ladies' Home Journal. — Skinner's original, personal account of the much-misrepresented "Baby in a box" device.
See also
Applied behavior analysis
Back to Freedom and Dignity
References
Notes
Citations
Further reading
Chiesa, M. (2004). Radical Behaviorism: The Philosophy and the Science.
Epstein, Robert (1997). "Skinner as self-manager." Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 30:545–69. Retrieved 2 June 2005 – via ENVMED.rochester.edu
Sundberg, M. L. (2008) The VB-MAPP: The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program
Basil-Curzon, L. (2004) Teaching in Further Education: A outline of Principles and Practice
Hardin, C.J. (2004) Effective Classroom Management
Kaufhold, J. A. (2002) The Psychology of Learning and the Art of Teaching
Bjork, D. W. (1993) B. F. Skinner: A Life
Dews, P. B., ed. (1970) Festschrift For B. F. Skinner.New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Evans, R. I. (1968) B. F. Skinner: the man and his ideas
Nye, Robert D. (1979) What Is B. F. Skinner Really Saying? Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Rutherford, A. (2009) Beyond the box: B. F. Skinner's technology of behavior from laboratory to life, 1950s-1970s.. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Sagal, P. T. (1981) Skinner's Philosophy. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
Smith, D. L. (2002). On Prediction and Control. B. F. Skinner and the Technological Ideal of Science. In W. E. Pickren & D. A. Dewsbury, (Eds.), Evolving Perspectives on the History of Psychology, Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Swirski, Peter (2011) "How I Stopped Worrying and Loved Engineering or Communal Life, Adaptations, and B.F. Skinner's Walden Two". American Utopia and Social Engineering in Literature, Social Thought, and Political History. New York, Routledge.
Wiener, D. N. (1996) B. F. Skinner: benign anarchist
Wolfgang, C.H. and Glickman, Carl D. (1986) Solving Discipline Problems Allyn and Bacon, Inc
External links
B. F. Skinner Foundation homepage
National Academy of Sciences biography
I was not a lab rat, response by Skinner's daughter about the "baby box"
Audio Recordings Society for Experimental Analysis of Behavior
Reprint of "the Minotaur of the Behaviorist Maze: Surviving Stanford's Learning House in the 1970s: Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 51, Number 3, July 2011. 266–272.
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4871 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%20Knight | Bob Knight | Robert Montgomery Knight (born October 25, 1940) is an American former basketball coach. Nicknamed "the General", Knight won 902 NCAA Division I men's college basketball games, a record at the time of his retirement, and currently fifth all-time. Knight is best known as the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers from 1971 to 2000. He also coached at Texas Tech (2001–2008) and at Army (1965–1971).
While at Army, Knight led the Black Knights to four post-season tournament appearances in six seasons, winning two-thirds of his games along the way. After taking the job at Indiana, Knight led his teams to three NCAA championships, one National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship, and 11 Big Ten Conference championships. His 1975–76 team went undefeated during the regular season and won the 1976 NCAA tournament. Knight received National Coach of the Year honors four times and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors eight times. In 1984, he coached the USA men's Olympic team to a gold medal, becoming one of only three basketball coaches to win an NCAA title, NIT title, and an Olympic gold medal. Knight was one of college basketball's most successful and innovative coaches, having popularized the motion offense.
Knight sparked controversy with his outspoken nature and his volatility. He once threw a chair across the court during a game and was ejected, was once arrested following a physical confrontation with a police officer, and was accused of engaging in verbal conflicts with members of the press. After Knight was accused of choking an Indiana player during practice in an incident that was recorded on video, the university instituted a "zero tolerance" policy specifically for Knight. Following a subsequent run-in with a student, Knight was fired in the fall of 2000. He went on to coach at Texas Tech, mostly without incident, from 2001 to 2008. In the seven full seasons Knight coached the Red Raiders, his teams qualified for a post-season tournament five times. He retired partway through the 2007–2008 season and was replaced by his son Pat Knight at Texas Tech. Knight remains "the object of near fanatical devotion" from many of his former players and Indiana fans.
In 2008, Knight joined ESPN as a men's college basketball studio analyst during Championship Week and for coverage of the NCAA Tournament. He continued covering college basketball for ESPN through the 2014–15 season.
Early life
Knight was born in 1940 in the town of Massillon, Ohio, and grew up in Orrville, Ohio. He began playing organized basketball at Orrville High School.
College career
Knight continued at Ohio State in 1958 when he played for Basketball Hall of Fame coach Fred Taylor. Despite being a star player in high school, he played a reserve role as a forward on the 1960 Ohio State Buckeyes team that won the NCAA Championship and featured future Hall of Fame players John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas. The Buckeyes lost to the Cincinnati Bearcats in each of the next two NCAA Championship games, of which Knight was also a part.
Due in part to the star power of those Ohio State teams, Knight usually received scant playing time, but that did not prevent him from making an impact. In the 1961 NCAA Championship game, Knight came off the bench with 1:41 on the clock and Cincinnati leading Ohio State, 61–59. In the words of then-Ohio State assistant coach Frank Truitt,
Knight got the ball in the left front court and faked a drive into the middle. Then [he] crossed over like he worked on it all his life and drove right in and laid it up. That tied the game for us, and Knight ran clear across the floor like a 100-yard dash sprinter and ran right at me and said, 'See there, coach, I should have been in that game a long time ago!'
To which Truitt replied, "Sit down, you hot dog. You're lucky you're even on the floor."
In addition to lettering in basketball at Ohio State, it has been claimed that Knight also lettered in football and baseball; however, the official list of Ohio State football letter earners does not include Knight. Knight graduated with a degree in history and government in 1962.
Coaching career
Army
After graduating from Ohio State University in 1962, he coached junior varsity basketball at Cuyahoga Falls High School in Ohio for one year. Knight then enlisted in the United States Army and served on active duty from June 1963 to June 1965 and in the army reserves from June 1965 to May 1969. He conducted initial training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and was transferred to West Point, New York in September 1963. He became a private first class.
While in the army, he accepted an assistant coaching position with the Army Black Knights in 1963, where, two years later, he was named head coach at the relatively young age of 24. In six seasons at West Point, Knight won 102 games, with his first as a head coach coming against Worcester Polytechnic Institute. One of his players was Mike Krzyzewski, who later served as his assistant before becoming a Hall of Fame head coach at Duke. Mike Silliman was another of Knight's players at Army, and Knight was quoted as saying, "Mike Silliman is the best player I have ever coached."
During his tenure at Army, Knight gained a reputation for having an explosive temper. For example, after Army's 66–60 loss to BYU and Hall of Fame coach Stan Watts in the semifinals of the 1966 NIT, Knight completely lost control, kicking lockers and verbally blasting the officials. Embarrassed, he later went to Watts' hotel room and apologized. Watts forgave him, and is quoted as saying, "I want you to know that you're going to be one of the bright young coaches in the country, and it's just a matter of time before you win a national championship."
Knight was one of seven candidates vying to fill the Wisconsin men's basketball head coaching vacancy after John Erickson resigned to become the Milwaukee Bucks' first-ever general manager on April 3, 1968. He was offered the position but requested more time to think it over. By the time he returned to West Point, news that he was to become the Badgers' new coach was prematurely leaked to the local media. After consulting with Bo Schembechler who the previous year also had a negative experience as a Wisconsin football coaching candidate, Knight withdrew his candidacy and continued to coach at Army for three more seasons. Erickson's assistant coach John Powless was promoted instead.
Indiana
In 1971, Indiana University hired Knight as head coach. During his 29 years at the school, the Hoosiers won 662 games, including 22 seasons of 20 or more wins, while losing 239, a .735 winning percentage. In 24 NCAA tournament appearances at Indiana, Hoosier teams under Knight won 42 of 63 games (.667), winning titles in 1976, 1981, and 1987, while losing in the semi-finals in 1973 and 1992.
1970s
In 1972–73, Knight's second year as coach, Indiana won the Big Ten championship and reached the Final Four, but lost to UCLA, which was on its way to its seventh consecutive national title. The following season, 1973–74, Indiana once again captured a Big Ten title. In the two following seasons, 1974–75 and 1975–76, the Hoosiers were undefeated in the regular season and won 37 consecutive Big Ten games, including two more Big Ten championships. The 1974–75 Hoosiers swept the entire Big Ten by an average of 22.8 points per game. However, in an 83–82 win against Purdue they lost consensus All-American forward Scott May to a broken left arm. With May's injury keeping him to 7 minutes of play, the No. 1 Hoosiers lost to Kentucky 92–90 in the Mideast Regional. The Hoosiers were so dominant that four starters – Scott May, Steve Green, Kent Benson and Quinn Buckner – would make the five-man All-Big Ten team. The following season, 1975–76, the Hoosiers went the entire season and 1976 NCAA tournament without a single loss, beating Michigan 86–68 in the title game. Immediately after the game, Knight lamented that "it should have been two." The 1976 Hoosiers remain the last undefeated NCAA Division I men's basketball team. Through these two seasons, Knight's teams were undefeated in the regular season, including a perfect 37–0 record in Big Ten games on their way to their third and fourth conference titles in a row. Behind the play of Mike Woodson, Indiana won the 1979 NIT championship.
1980s
The 1979–80 Hoosiers, led by Mike Woodson and Isiah Thomas, won the Big Ten championship and advanced to the 1980 Sweet Sixteen. The following season, in 1980–81, Thomas and the Hoosiers once again won a conference title and won the 1981 NCAA tournament, Knight's second national title. In 1982–1983, with the strong play of Uwe Blab and All-Americans Ted Kitchel and Randy Wittman, the No. 1 ranked Hoosiers were favorites to win another national championship. However, with an injury to All-American Ted Kitchel mid-season, the Hoosiers' prospects were grim. Knight asked for fan support to rally around the team and, when the team ultimately won the Big Ten title, he ordered that a banner be hung for the team in Assembly Hall as a tribute to the fans, whom he credited with inspiring the team to win its final three home games. Nevertheless, in the tournament Kitchel's absence was felt and the team lost to Kentucky in the 1983 Sweet Sixteen.
The 1985–86 Hoosiers were profiled in a best-selling book A Season on the Brink. To write it Knight granted author John Feinstein almost unprecedented access to the Indiana basketball program, as well as insights into Knight's private life. The following season, in 1986–87, the Hoosiers were led by All-American Steve Alford and captured a share of the Big Ten title. The team won Knight's third national championship (the school's fifth) against Syracuse in the 1987 NCAA tournament with a game-winning jump shot by Keith Smart with five seconds of play remaining in the championship game. In the 1988–1989 season the Hoosiers were led by All-American Jay Edwards and won a Big Ten championship.
1990s
From 1990–91 through 1992–93, the Hoosiers posted 87 victories, the most by any Big Ten team in a three-year span, breaking the mark of 86 set by Knight's Indiana teams of 1974–76. Teams from these three seasons spent all but two of the 53 poll weeks in the top 10, and 38 of them in the top 5. They captured two Big Ten crowns in 1990–91 and 1992–93, and during the 1991–92 season reached the Final Four. During the 1992–93 season, the 31–4 Hoosiers finished the season at the top of the AP Poll, but were defeated by Kansas in the Elite Eight. Teams from this era included Greg Graham, Pat Knight, All-Americans Damon Bailey and Alan Henderson, Brian Evans, and National Player of the Year Calbert Cheaney.
Throughout the mid and late 1990s Knight continued to experience success with continual NCAA tournament appearances and a minimum of 19 wins each season. However, 1993 would be Knight's last conference championship and 1994 would be his last trip to the Sweet Sixteen.
Dismissal from Indiana
On March 14, 2000 (just before Indiana was to begin play in the NCAA tournament), the CNN Sports Illustrated network ran a piece on Robert Abbott's investigation of Knight in which former player Neil Reed claimed he had been choked by Knight during a practice in 1997. Knight denied the claims in the story. However, less than a month later, the network aired a tape of an Indiana practice from 1997 that appeared to show Knight placing his hand on the neck of Reed.
In response, Indiana University president Myles Brand announced that he had adopted a "zero tolerance" policy with regard to Knight's behavior. Later in the year, in September 2000, Indiana freshman Kent Harvey (not a basketball player) reportedly said, "Hey, Knight, what's up?" to Knight. According to Harvey, Knight then grabbed him by the arm and lectured him for not showing him respect, insisting that Harvey address him as either "Mr. Knight" or "Coach Knight" instead of simply "Knight." Brand stated that this incident was only one of numerous complaints that occurred after the zero-tolerance policy had been put into place. Brand asked Knight to resign on September 10, and when Knight refused, Brand relieved him of his coaching duties effective immediately. Knight's dismissal was met with outrage from students. That night, thousands of Indiana students marched from Indiana University's Assembly Hall to Brand's home, burning Brand in effigy.
Harvey was supported by some and vilified by many who claim he had intentionally set up Knight. Kent Harvey's stepfather, Mark Shaw, was a former Bloomington-area radio talk show host and Knight critic. On September 13, Knight said goodbye to a crowd of some 6,000 supporters in Dunn Meadow at Indiana University. He asked that they not hold a grudge against Harvey and that they continue to support the basketball team. Knight's firing made national headlines, including the cover of Sports Illustrated and around-the-clock coverage on ESPN.
In a March 2017 interview on The Dan Patrick Show, Knight stated that he had no interest in ever returning to Indiana. When host Dan Patrick commented that most of the administration that had fired Knight seventeen years earlier were no longer there, Knight said, "I hope they’re all dead." Knight returned to Assembly Hall at halftime of Indiana's game against Purdue on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020 and received a rousing standing ovation.
Texas Tech
Following his dismissal from Indiana, Knight took a season off and was on the lookout for coaching vacancies. He accepted the head coaching position at Texas Tech, although his hiring was opposed by a faculty group that was led by Walter Schaller. When he was introduced at the press conference, Knight quipped, "This is without question the most comfortable red sweater I've had on in six years."
Knight quickly improved the program, which had not been to an NCAA tournament since 1996. He led the team to postseason appearances in each of his first four years at the school (three NCAA Championship tournaments and one NIT). After a rough 2006 season, the team improved in 2007, finishing 21–13 and again making it to the NCAA tournament, where it lost to Boston College in the first round. The best performance by the Red Raiders under Knight came in 2005 when they advanced as far as the Sweet Sixteen. In both 2006 and 2007 under Knight, Texas Tech defeated two Top 10-ranked teams in consecutive weeks. During Knight's first six years at Texas Tech, the Red Raiders won 126 games, an average of 21 wins per season.
Retirement
On February 4, 2008, Knight announced his retirement. His son Pat Knight, the head coach designate since 2005, was immediately named as his successor at Texas Tech. The younger Knight had said that after many years of coaching, his father was exhausted and ready to retire. Just after achieving his 900th win, Knight handed the job over to Pat in the mid-season in part to allow him to get acquainted with coaching the team earlier, instead of having him wait until October, the start of the next season. Knight continued to live in Lubbock after he retired.
International coaching
In 1979, Knight guided the United States Pan American team to a gold medal in Puerto Rico. In 1984 Knight led the U.S. national team to a gold medal in the Olympic Games as coach of the 1984 basketball team (coaches do not receive medals in the Olympics). Players on the team included Michael Jordan and Knight's Indiana player and protégé Steve Alford.
Life after coaching
In 2008, ESPN hired Knight as a studio analyst and occasional color commentator. In November 2012, he called an Indiana men's basketball game for the first time, something he had previously refused to do. Former Indiana men's basketball coach Tom Crean reached out to Knight in an attempt to get him to visit the school again.
On April 2, 2015, ESPN announced that it would not renew its contract with Knight.
On February 27, 2019, Don Fischer, an IU radio announcer since 1974, said during an interview that Knight was in ill health. He continued by saying Knight's health “has declined” but did not offer any specifics.
On April 4, 2019, Knight made his first public appearance since Fischer made his comments. He appeared with longtime friend and journalist Bob Hammel and spoke about different aspects of his career. During the presentation, Knight seemed to struggle with his memory: he re-introduced his wife to the audience after doing so only 10 minutes earlier, he mistakenly said that former IU basketball player Landon Turner had died, and, after telling a story about Michael Jordan, he later told the same story, replacing Jordan with former IU basketball player Damon Bailey.
Knight and his wife resided in Lubbock, Texas, even after his retirement. On July 10, 2019, the Indiana Daily Student, IU's campus newspaper, reported that Knight and his wife had purchased a home in Bloomington for $572,500, suggesting that Knight had decided to return to Bloomington to live.
On February 8, 2020, Knight was honored at an Indiana basketball game. It was the first Indiana game attended by Knight since his dismissal by the school 20 years prior.
Coaching philosophy
Knight was an innovator of the motion offense, which he perfected and popularized. The system emphasizes post players setting screens and perimeter players passing the ball until a teammate becomes open for an uncontested jump shot or lay-up. This required players to be unselfish, disciplined, and effective in setting and using screens to get open.
Knight's motion offense did not take shape until he began coaching at Indiana. Prior to that, at Army, he ran a "reverse action" that involved reversing the ball from one side of the floor to the other and screening along with it. According to Knight, it was a "West Coast offense" that Pete Newell used exclusively during his coaching career. After being exposed to the Princeton offense, Knight instilled more cutting with the offense he employed, which evolved into the motion offense that he ran for most of his career. Knight continued to develop the offense, instituting different cuts over the years and putting his players in different scenarios.
Knight was well known for the extreme preparation he put into each game and practice. He was often quoted as saying, "Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win." Often during practice, Knight would instruct his players to a certain spot on the floor and give them options of what to do based on how the defense might react. In contrast to set plays, Knight's offense was designed to react according to the defense.
The 3-point shot was adopted by the NCAA in 1986, which was midway through Knight's coaching career. Although he opposed the rule change throughout his life, it did complement his offense well by improving the spacing on the floor. He sardonically said at the time that he supported institution of the three-point shot because if a team's offense was functioning efficiently enough to get a layup, the team should be rewarded with three points for that basket. Knight's offense also emphasized a two-count. Players in the post are expected to try to post in the paint for two seconds and if they do not receive the ball they go set a screen. Players with the ball are expected to hold the ball for two seconds to see where they are going to take it. Screens are supposed to be held for two seconds, as well.
On defense Knight was known for emphasizing tenacious "man-to-man" defense where defenders contest every pass and every shot, and help teammates when needed. However, Knight also incorporated a zone defense periodically after eschewing it for the first two decades of his coaching career.
Knight's coaching also included a firm emphasis on academics. All but four of his four-year players completed their degrees, or nearly 98 percent. Nearly 80 percent of his players graduated; this figure was much higher than the national average of 42 percent for Division 1 schools.
Legacy
Accomplishments
Knight's all time coaching record is 902–371. His 902 wins in NCAA Division I men's college basketball games is fourth all-time to Knight's former player Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, and North Carolina head Coach Roy Williams. Knight achieved his 880th career win on January 1, 2007 and passed retired North Carolina coach Dean Smith for most career victories, a title he held until his win total was surpassed by Krzyzewski on November 15, 2011. It was later surpassed by Jim Boeheim, on December 30, 2012, and by Roy Williams on March 11, 2021. Knight is the youngest coach to reach 200 (age 35), 300 (age 40) and 400 (age 44) wins. He was also among the youngest to reach other milestones of 500 (age 48) and 600 (age 52) wins.
Texas Tech's participation in the 2007 NCAA tournament gave Knight more NCAA tournament appearances than any other coach. He is the only coach to win the NCAA, the NIT, an Olympic Gold medal, and a Pan American Games Gold medal. Knight is also one of only three people, along with Dean Smith and Joe B. Hall, who have both played on and coached an NCAA Tournament championship basketball team.
Recognition
Knight received a number of personal honors during and after his coaching career. He was named the National Coach of the Year four times (1975, 1976, 1987, 1989) and Big Ten Coach of the Year eight times (1973, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1989, 1992, 1993). In 1975 he was a unanimous selection as National Coach of the Year, an honor he was accorded again in 1976 by the Associated Press, United Press International, and Basketball Weekly. In 1987 he was the first person to be honored with the Naismith Coach of the Year Award. In 1989 he garnered National Coach of the Year honors by the AP, UPI, and the United States Basketball Writers Association. Knight was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.
On November 17, 2006, Knight was recognized for his impact on college basketball as a member of the founding class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. The following year, he was the recipient of the Naismith Award for Men's Outstanding Contribution to Basketball. Knight was also inducted into the Army Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2008) and the Indiana Hoosiers athletics Hall of Fame (Class of 2009). In August 2003, he was honored as the first inductee in The Vince Lombardi Titletown Legends.
Coaching tree
A number of Knight's assistant coaches, players, and managers have gone on to be coaches. Among them are Hall of Fame Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, former UCLA coach Steve Alford, Murry Bartow, and former coach Dan Dakich,and NBA coaches Randy Wittman, Mike Woodson, Keith Smart, Isiah Thomas, former Evansville and current Eastern Illinois Coach Marty Simmons, former Saint Louis Coach Jim Crews, Lawrence Frank, and former Texas Tech and Ole Miss coach Chris Beard.
In the media
Books about Knight
In 1986, author John Feinstein published A Season on the Brink, which detailed the 1985–86 season of the Indiana Hoosiers. Granted almost unprecedented access to the Indiana basketball program, as well as insights into Knight's private life, the book quickly became a major best-seller and spawned a new genre, as a legion of imitators wrote works covering a single year of a sports franchise. In the book Feinstein depicts a coach who is quick with a violent temper, but also one who never cheats and strictly follows all of the NCAA's rules.
Two years later, author Joan Mellen penned the book Bob Knight: His Own Man (), in part to rebut Feinstein's A Season on the Brink. Mellen deals with seemingly all the causes celebres in Knight's career and presents the view that he is more sinned against than sinning.
In 1990, Robert P. Sulek wrote Hoosier Honor: Bob Knight and Academic Success at Indiana University which discusses the academic side of the basketball program. The book details all of the players that have played for Knight and what degree they earned.
A number of close associates and friends of Knight have also written books about him. Former player and current Nevada Wolf Pack head basketball coach Steve Alford wrote Playing for Knight: My Six Seasons with Bobby Knight, published in 1990. Former player Kirk Haston wrote Days of Knight: How the General Changed My Life, published in 2016.
Knight's autobiography, written with longtime friend and sports journalist Bob Hammel, was titled Knight: My Story and published in 2003. Three years later Steve Delsohn and Mark Heisler wrote Bob Knight: An Unauthorized Biography.
In 2013, Knight and Bob Hammel published The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results. Knight discusses his approach to preparing for a game by anticipating all of the things that could go wrong and trying to prevent it or having a plan to deal with it. In the book Knight also shares one of his favorite sayings, "Victory favors the team making the fewest mistakes."
In 2017, sports reporter Terry Hutchens published Following the General: Why Three Coaches Have Been Unable to Return Indiana Basketball to Greatness which discussed Knight's coaching legacy with Indiana and how none of the coaches following him have been able to reach his level of success.
Film and television
Knight has appeared or been featured in numerous films and television productions. In 1994 a feature film titled Blue Chips featured a character named Pete Bell, a volatile but honest college basketball coach under pressure to win who decides to blatantly violate NCAA rules to field a competitive team after a sub-par season. It starred Nick Nolte as Bell and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal as Neon Bodeaux, a once-in-a-lifetime player that boosters woo to his school with gifts and other perks. The coach's temper and wardrobe were modeled after Knight's, though at no time had Knight been known to illegally recruit. Knight himself appears in the movie and coaches against Nolte in the film's climactic game.
ESPN's first feature-length film was A Season on the Brink, a 2002 TV adaptation from John Feinstein's book. In the movie Knight is played by Brian Dennehy. ESPN also featured Knight in a reality show titled Knight School, which followed a handful of Texas Tech students as they competed for the right to join the basketball team as a non-scholarship player.
Knight made a cameo appearance as himself in the 2003 film Anger Management. In 2008, Knight appeared in a commercial as part of Volkswagen's Das Auto series where Max, a 1964 black Beetle, interviews famous people. When Knight talked about Volkswagen winning the best resale value award in 2008, Max replied, "At least one of us is winning a title this year." This prompted Knight to throw his chair off the stage and walk out saying, "I may not be retired."
Knight also made an appearance in a TV commercial for Guitar Hero: Metallica with fellow coaches Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, and Roy Williams, in a parody of Tom Cruise in Risky Business.
In 2009, Knight produced three instructional coaching DVD libraries—on motion offense, man-to-man defense, and instilling mental toughness—with Championship Productions.
Personal life and charitable donations
Knight married the former Nancy Falk on April 17, 1963. They had two sons, Tim and Pat, but the couple divorced in 1985. Pat played at Indiana from 1991 to 1995 and was head coach at Lamar from the time of his father's retirement until he was dismissed in 2014. Pat Knight coached Texas Tech after his father's retirement before he moved to Lamar. In 1988, Knight married his second wife, Karen Vieth Edgar, a former Oklahoma high school basketball coach.
Knight has a high regard for education and has made generous donations to the schools he has been a part of, particularly libraries. At Indiana University Knight endowed two chairs, one in history and one in law. He also raised nearly $5 million for the Indiana University library system by championing a library fund to support the library's activities. The fund was ultimately named in his honor.
When Knight came to Texas Tech in 2001, he gave $10,000 to the library, the first gift to the Coach Knight Library Fund which has now collected over $300,000. On November 29, 2007, the Texas Tech library honored this with A Legacy of Giving: The Bob Knight Exhibit.
Knight supported Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and later made an appearance at his rally in Indianapolis for the 2018 midterms. At the rally, Knight called Trump "a great defender of the United States of America".
Criticism and controversy
1970s
It was reported years after the incident that Knight choked and punched IU's longtime sports information director, Kit Klingelhoffer, in the 1970s, over a news release that upset the coach.
On December 7, 1974, Indiana and Kentucky met in the regular season in Bloomington with a 98–74 Indiana win. Near the end of the game, Knight went to the Kentucky bench where the official was standing to complain about a call. Before he left, Knight hit Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall in the back of the head. Kentucky assistant coach Lynn Nance, a former FBI agent who was about 6 feet 5 inches tall, had to be restrained by Hall from hitting Knight. Hall later said, "It publicly humiliated me." Knight said the slap to the head was something he has done, "affectionately" to his own players for years. "But maybe someone would not like that," he said. "If Joe didn't like it, I offer an apology. I don't apologize for the intent. Hall and I have been friends for a long time. If he wants to dissolve the friendship, that's up to him." Knight blamed the furor on Hall, stating, "If it was meant to be malicious, I'd have blasted the fucker into the seats."
During the 1979 Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Knight was accused of assaulting a police officer while coaching the US Basketball team before a practice session. He was later convicted in absentia and given a six-month jail sentence, but extradition efforts by the Puerto Rican government were not successful.
1960 Olympic gold medalist Douglas Blubaugh was head wrestling coach at IU from 1973 to 1984. Early in his tenure while he jogged in the practice facility during basketball practice, Knight yelled at him to leave, using more than one expletive. Blubaugh pinned Knight to a wall, and told him never to repeat the performance. He never did.
1980s
In a game at Bloomington on January 31, 1981 between Indiana and Purdue, Hoosier star Isiah Thomas allegedly hit Purdue guard Roosevelt Barnes in what some critics described as a "sucker punch". Video replay shown by Knight later showed Barnes had thrown the first punch, and that Thomas was merely reacting to this. When the two schools played their second game of the season at Purdue on February 7, 1981, Knight claimed a number of derisive chants were directed at him, his wife, and Indiana University. In response, Knight invited Purdue athletic director George King on his weekly television show to discuss the matter, but King declined. Therefore, in place of King, Knight brought onto the show a "jackass" (male donkey) wearing a Purdue hat as a representative of Purdue. The 1980–81 Hoosiers would go on to win the 1981 NCAA National Championship, the school's fourth national title.
On Saturday, February 23, 1985 during a game at Bloomington between Purdue and Indiana, five minutes into the game a scramble for a loose ball resulted in a foul call on Indiana's Marty Simmons. Immediately after the resumption of play, a foul was called on Indiana's Daryl Thomas. Knight, irate, insisted the first of the two calls should have been for a jump ball and ultimately received a technical foul. Purdue's Steve Reid stepped to the free throw line to shoot the resulting free throws, but before he could, Knight grabbed a red plastic chair from Indiana's bench and threw it across the floor toward the basket in front of Reid. Knight was charged with a second and third technical foul and was ejected from the game. He apologized for his actions the next day and was given a one-game suspension and two years' probation from the Big Ten. Since the incident, Knight has occasionally joked about throwing the chair by saying that he saw an old lady standing on the opposite sideline and threw her the chair so she could sit down.
Women's groups nationwide were outraged by Knight's comments during an April 1988 interview with Connie Chung in which he said, "I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it." Knight's comment was in reference to an Indiana basketball game in which he felt the referees were making poor calls against the Hoosiers. The same comment had already gotten weatherman Tex Antoine fired from WABC-TV in New York twelve years earlier and would ultimately derail the Texas gubernatorial bid of Clayton Williams two years later.
1990s
At a practice leading up to an Indiana–Purdue game in West Lafayette in 1991, Knight unleashed a torrent of expletives and threats designed to motivate his Indiana team. In one portion he exclaimed he was "fucking tired of losing to Purdue." Unknown to most, someone was secretly taping the speech. The speech has since gone viral and has over 1.84 million views on YouTube alone. Although it is still not known who taped the speech, many former players suspect it was team manager Lawrence Frank. Players who were present were unable to remember the specific speech because such expletive-filled outbursts by Knight were so frequent.
In March 1992 prior to the NCAA regional finals, controversy erupted after Knight playfully mock whipped Indiana players Calbert Cheaney and Pat Graham during practice. The bullwhip had been given to Knight as a gift from his team. Several black leaders complained at the racial connotations of the act, given that Cheaney was a black student.
In January 1993, Knight mentioned the recruiting of Ivan Renko, a fictitious Yugoslavian player he had created. Knight created Renko in an attempt to expose disreputable basketball recruiting experts. Even though Renko was completely fictitious, several recruiting services started listing him as a prospect with in-depth descriptions of his potential and game style. Some of the more reputable recruiting gurus claimed to have never heard of Renko, whereas some other "experts" even claimed to possess or to see film of him actually playing basketball.
Knight was recorded berating an NCAA volunteer at a March 1995 post-game press conference following a 65–60 loss to Missouri in the first round of the NCAA tournament held in Boise, Idaho. The volunteer informed the press that Knight would not be attending the press conference, when in reality, Knight was running a few minutes late and had planned on attending per NCAA rules. Knight was shown saying: "You've only got two people that are going to tell you I'm not going to be here. One is our SID, and the other is me. Who the hell told you I wasn't going to be here? I'd like to know. Do you have any idea who it was? ... Who? ... They were from Indiana, right? ... No, they weren't from Indiana, and you didn't get it from anybody from Indiana, did you?...No, I—I'll handle this the way I want to handle it now that I'm here. You (EXPLETIVE) it up to begin with. Now just sit there or leave. I don't give (EXPLETIVE) what you do. Now back to the game."
Former Indiana player Neil Reed alleged that Knight had grabbed him by the neck in a choking manner during a 1997 practice. A videotape of the incident was shown on CNN.
Reed and former Indiana player Richard Mandeville alleged in a CNN interview that Knight once showed players his own feces. According to Mandeville, Knight said, "'This is how you guys are playing.'"
2000s
On February 19, 2000, Clarence Doninger, Knight's boss, alleged that he was physically threatened by Knight during a confrontation after a game.
An Indiana investigation inquired about an allegation in which Knight berated and physically intimidated a university secretary, once throwing a potted plant in anger, showering her with glass and debris. The university later asked Knight to issue an apology to the secretary.
It was alleged that Knight attacked assistant coach Ron Felling, throwing him out of a chair after overhearing him criticizing the basketball program in a phone conversation.
On September 8, 2000, Indiana freshman Kent Harvey, whose stepfather was once a local radio host and also a fierce critic of Knight, told campus police Knight grabbed him roughly by the arm and berated him for speaking to Knight disrespectfully. Knight admitted putting his hand on the student's arm and lecturing him on civility, but denied that he was rough or raised his voice. Knight was fired from the university two days later.
Two days after Knight was fired from Indiana University, Jeremy Schaap of ESPN interviewed him and discussed his time at Indiana. Towards the end of the interview, Knight talked about his son, Pat, who had also been dismissed by the university, wanting an opportunity to be a head coach. Schaap, thinking that Knight was finished, attempted to move on to another subject, but Knight insisted on continuing about his son. Schaap repeatedly tried to ask another question when Knight shifted the conversation to Schaap's style of interviewing, notably chastising him about interruptions. Knight then commented (referring to Schaap's father, Dick Schaap), "You've got a long way to go to be as good as your dad."
In March 2006, a student's heckling at Baylor University resulted in Knight having to be restrained by a police officer. The incident was not severe enough to warrant any action from the Big 12 Conference.
On November 13, 2006, Knight was shown allegedly hitting player Michael Prince under the chin to get him to make eye contact. Although Knight did not comment on the incident afterwards, Prince, his parents, and Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers insisted that Knight did nothing wrong and that he merely lifted Prince's chin and told him, "Hold your head up and don't worry about mistakes. Just play the game." Prince commented, "He was trying to teach me and I had my head down so he raised my chin up. He was telling me to go out there and don't be afraid to make mistakes. He said I was being too hard on myself." ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla defended Knight by saying "That's coaching!"
On October 21, 2007, James Simpson of Lubbock, Texas, accused Knight of firing a shotgun in his direction after he yelled at Knight and another man for hunting too close to his home. Knight denied the allegations. An argument between the two men was recorded via camera phone and aired later on television.
2010s
On April 18, 2011, video surfaced showing Knight responding to a question concerning John Calipari and Kentucky's men's basketball team by stating that in the previous season, Kentucky made an Elite Eight appearance with "five players who had not attended a single class that semester." These claims were later disproven by the university and the players in question, including Patrick Patterson, who graduated in three years, and John Wall, who finished the semester with a 3.5 GPA. Knight later apologized for his comments stating, "My overall point is that 'one-and-dones' are not healthy for college basketball. I should not have made it personal to Kentucky and its players and I apologize."
Former Indiana basketball player Todd Jadlow has written a book alleging that from 1985 to 1989, Knight punched him in the face, broke a clipboard over the top of his head, and squeezed his testicles and the testicles of other Hoosiers, among other abuses.
Career playing statistics
College
Source
Head coaching record
(*) Indicates record/standing at timeof resignation from Texas Tech
See also
List of college men's basketball coaches with 600 wins
List of NCAA Division I Men's Final Four appearances by coach
References
External links
Texas Tech profile
Indiana profile
BobKnight.com
1940 births
Living people
American men's basketball players
Olympic coaches for the United States
Army Black Knights men's basketball coaches
Basketball coaches from Ohio
Basketball players from Ohio
College basketball announcers in the United States
College basketball controversies in the United States
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Forwards (basketball)
High school basketball coaches in Ohio
Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball coaches
Indiana Republicans
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball players
People from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
People from Orrville, Ohio
Sportspeople from Massillon, Ohio
Texas Tech Red Raiders basketball coaches
United States Army soldiers
United States men's national basketball team coaches |
4874 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%20metal | Black metal | Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms.
During the 1980s, several thrash metal and death metal bands formed a prototype for black metal. This "first wave" included bands such as Venom, Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. A second wave arose in the early 1990s, spearheaded by Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth. The early Norwegian black metal scene developed the style of their forebears into a distinct genre. Norwegian-inspired black metal scenes emerged throughout Europe and North America, although some other scenes developed their own styles independently. Some prominent Swedish bands spawned during this second wave, the second generation in Sweden being led by Dissection, Abruptum, Marduk, and Nifelheim.
Initially a synonym for "Satanic metal", black metal has often sparked controversy, due to the actions and ideologies associated with the genre. Some artists express misanthropic views, and others advocate various forms of extreme anti-Christian sentiment, Satanism, or ethnic paganism. In the 1990s, members of the scene were responsible for a spate of church burnings and murders. There is also a small neo-Nazi movement within black metal, although it has been shunned by many prominent artists. Generally, black metal strives to remain an underground phenomenon.
Characteristics
Although contemporary black metal typically refers to the Norwegian style with shrieking vocals and raw production, the term has traditionally been applied to bands with widely differing sounds, such as Death SS, Mercyful Fate, Mayhem, Blasphemy, and the Greek and Finnish bands that emerged around the same time as the Norwegian scene.
Instrumentation and song structure
Norwegian-inspired black metal guitarists usually favor high-pitched or trebly guitar tones and heavy distortion. The guitar is usually played with fast, un-muted tremolo picking and power chords. Guitarists often use dissonance—along with specific scales, intervals and chord progressions—to create a sense of dread. The tritone, or flat-fifth, is often used. Guitar solos and low guitar tunings are rare in black metal. The bass guitar is seldom used to play stand-alone melodies. It is common for the bass to be muted against the guitar, or for it to homophonically follow the low-pitched riffs of the guitar. While electronic keyboards are not a standard instrument, some bands, like Dimmu Borgir, use keyboards "in the background" or as "proper instruments" for creating atmosphere. Some newer black metal bands began raising their production quality and introducing additional instruments such as synthesizers and even orchestras.
The drumming is usually fast and relies on double-bass and blast beats to maintain tempos that can sometimes approach 300 beats per minute. These fast tempos require great skill and physical stamina, typified by black metal drummers Frost (Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad) and Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg). Even still, authenticity is still prioritized over technique. "This professionalism has to go," insists well-respected drummer and metal historian Fenriz (Gylve Fenris Nagell) of Darkthrone. "I want to de-learn playing drums, I want to play primitive and simple, I don't want to play like a drum solo all the time and make these complicated riffs".
Black metal songs often stray from conventional song structure and often lack clear verse-chorus sections. Instead, many black metal songs contain lengthy and repetitive instrumental sections. The Greek style—established by Rotting Christ, Necromantia and Varathron—has more traditional heavy metal and death metal traits than Norwegian black metal.
Vocals and lyrics
Traditional black metal bands tend to favor raspy, high-pitched vocals which include techniques such as shrieking, screaming, and snarling, a vocal style influenced by Quorthon of Bathory. Death growls, common in the death metal genre, are sometimes used, but less frequently than the characteristic black metal shriek.
Black metal lyrics typically attack Christianity and the other institutional religions, often using apocalyptic language and evoking anti-authoritarianism and anti-establishment messages against religious governments and societies. Satanic lyrics are common, and many see them as essential to black metal. For Satanist black metal artists, "Black metal songs are meant to be like Calvinist sermons; deadly serious attempts to unite the true believers". Misanthropy, global catastrophe, war, death, destruction and rebirth are also common themes. Another topic often found in black metal lyrics is that of the wild and extreme aspects and phenomena of the natural world, particularly the wilderness, forests, mountains, winter, storms, and blizzards. Black metal also has a fascination with the distant past. Many bands write about the mythology and folklore of their homelands and promote a revival of pre-Christian, pagan traditions. A significant number of bands write lyrics only in their native language and a few (e.g. Arckanum and early Ulver) have lyrics in archaic languages. Some doom metal-influenced artists' lyrics focus on depression, nihilism, introspection, self-harm and suicide.
Imagery and performances
Many bands choose not to play live. Many of those who do play live maintain that their performances "are not for entertainment or spectacle. Sincerity, authenticity and extremity are valued above all else". Some bands consider their concerts to be rituals and often make use of stage props and theatrics. Bands such as Mayhem, Gorgoroth, and Watain are noted for their controversial shows, which have featured impaled animal heads, mock crucifixions, medieval weaponry and band members doused in animal blood. A few vocalists, such as Dead, Maniac and Kvarforth, are known for cutting themselves while singing onstage.
Black metal artists often appear dressed in black with combat boots, bullet belts, spiked wristbands and inverted crosses and inverted pentagrams to reinforce their anti-Christian or anti-religious stance. However, the most stand-out trait is their use of corpse paint—black and white face paint sometimes mixed with real or fake blood, which is used to create a corpse-like or demonic appearance.
The imagery of black metal reflects its lyrics and ideology. In the early 1990s, most pioneering black metal artists had minimalist album covers featuring xeroxed black-and-white pictures and/or writing. This was partly a reaction against death metal bands, who at that time had begun to use brightly colored album artwork. Many purist black metal artists have continued this style. Black metal album covers are typically dark and tend to be atmospheric or provocative; some feature natural or fantasy landscapes (for example Burzum's Filosofem and Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse) while others are violent, sexually transgressive, sacrilegious, or iconoclastic (for example Marduk's Fuck Me Jesus and Dimmu Borgir's In Sorte Diaboli).
Production
The earliest black metal artists had very limited resources, which meant that recordings were often made in homes or basements, giving their recordings a distinctive "lo-fi" quality. However, even when success allowed access to professional studios, many artists instead chose to continue making lo-fi recordings. Artists believed that by doing so, they would both stay true to the genre's underground roots as well as make the music sound more "raw" or "cold". A well-known example of this approach is on the album Transilvanian Hunger by Darkthrone, a band who Johnathan Selzer of Terrorizer magazine says "represent the DIY aspect of black metal." In addition, lo-fi production was used to keep black metal inaccessible or unappealing to mainstream music fans and those who are not committed. Many have claimed that black metal was originally intended only for those who were part of the scene and not for a wider audience. Vocalist Gaahl said that during its early years, "Black metal was never meant to reach an audience, it was purely for our own satisfaction".
History
The conventional history of black metal is that pioneers like Venom, Bathory, and Hellhammer were part of a "first wave", and that a "second wave" was begun by the early Norwegian scene, especially by Mayhem vocalist Dead; Mayhem's leader, Euronymous, who founded the Norwegian scene after Dead's suicide; and Darkthrone's album A Blaze in the Northern Sky. There are also some who argue that albums like Sarcófago's I.N.R.I. or Samael's Worship Him began the second wave.
Roots
Occult and Satanic lyrical themes were present in the music of heavy metal and rock bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s such as Black Sabbath and Coven.
In the late 1970s, the form of rough and aggressive heavy metal played by the British band Motörhead gained popularity. Many first wave black metal bands cited Motörhead as an influence. Also popular in the late 1970s, punk rock came to influence the birth of black metal. Tom G. Warrior of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost credited English punk group Discharge as "a revolution, much like Venom", saying, "When I heard the first two Discharge records, I was blown away. I was just starting to play an instrument and I had no idea you could go so far."
The use of corpse paint in the black metal imagery was mainly influenced by the American 1970s rock band Kiss.
First wave
The first wave of black metal refers to bands during the 1980s who influenced the black metal sound and formed a prototype for the genre. By today's musical standards, their sound is closer to speed metal or thrash metal.
The term "black metal" was coined by the English band Venom with their second album Black Metal (1982). Although generally deemed speed metal or thrash metal rather than black metal, the album's lyrics and imagery focused more on anti-Christian and Satanic themes than any before it. Their music was fast, unpolished in production and with raspy or grunted vocals. Venom's members also adopted pseudonyms, a practice that became widespread among black metal musicians.
Another major influence on black metal was the Swedish band Bathory. The band, led by Thomas Forsberg (a.k.a. Quorthon), created "the blueprint for Scandinavian black metal". Not only was Bathory's music dark, fast, heavily distorted, lo-fi and with anti-Christian themes, Quorthon was also the first to use the shrieked vocals that later became a common trait. The band played in this style on their first four albums: Bathory (1984), The Return…… (1985), Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987) and Blood Fire Death (1988). With Blood Fire Death and the two following albums, Bathory pioneered the style that became known as Viking metal.
Hellhammer, from Switzerland, "made truly raw and brutal music" with Satanic lyrics, and became an important influence on later black metal; "Their simple yet effective riffs and fast guitar sound were groundbreaking, anticipating the later trademark sound of early Swedish death metal". In 1984, members of Hellhammer formed Celtic Frost, whose music "explored more orchestral and experimental territories. The lyrics also became more personal, with topics about inner feelings and majestic stories. But for a couple of years, Celtic Frost was one of the world's most extreme and original metal bands, with a huge impact on the mid-1990s black metal scene".
The Danish band Mercyful Fate influenced the Norwegian scene with their imagery and lyrics. Frontman King Diamond, who wore ghoulish black-and-white facepaint on stage, may be one of the inspirators of what became known as 'corpse paint'. Other acts which adopted a similar appearance on stage were the horror punk band Misfits, Celtic Frost and the Brazilian extreme metal band Sarcófago. Other artists usually considered part of this movement include Kreator, Sodom and Destruction (from Germany), Bulldozer and Death SS (from Italy), whose vocalist Steve Sylvester was a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis.
In 1987, in the fifth issue of his Slayer fanzine, Jon 'Metalion' Kristiansen wrote that "the latest fad of black/Satanic bands seems to be over", the tradition being continued by a few bands like Incubus and Morbid Angel (from the United States), Sabbat (from Great Britain), Tormentor (from Hungary), Sarcófago (from Brazil), Grotesque, Treblinka and early Tiamat (from Sweden). Other early black metal bands include Sabbat (formed 1983 in Japan), Parabellum (formed 1983 in Colombia), Salem (formed 1985 in Israel) and Mortuary Drape (formed 1986 in Italy). Japanese band Sigh formed in 1990 and was in regular contact with key members of the Norwegian scene. Their debut album, Scorn Defeat, became "a cult classic in the black metal world". In the years before the Norwegian black metal scene arose, important recordings were released by Root and Master's Hammer (from Czechoslovakia), Von (from the United States), Rotting Christ (from Greece), Samael (from Switzerland) and Blasphemy (from Canada), whose debut album Fallen Angel of Doom (1990) is considered one of the most influential records for the war metal style. Fenriz of the Norwegian band Darkthrone called Master's Hammer's debut album Ritual "the first Norwegian black metal album, even though they are from Czechoslovakia".
In 1990 and 1991, Northern European metal acts began to release music influenced by these bands or the older ones from the first wave. In Sweden, this included Marduk, Dissection, Nifelheim and Abruptum. In Finland, there emerged a scene that mixed the first wave black metal style with elements of death metal and grindcore; this included Beherit, Archgoat and Impaled Nazarene, whose debut album Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz Rock Hard journalist Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann considers a part of war metal's roots. Bands such as Demoncy and Profanatica emerged during this time in the United States, when death metal was more popular among extreme metal fans. The Norwegian band Mayhem's concert in Leipzig with Eminenz and Manos in 1990, later released as Live in Leipzig, was said to have had a strong influence on the East German scene and is even called the unofficial beginning of German black metal.
Second wave
The second wave of black metal began in the early 1990s and was spearheaded by the Norwegian black metal scene. During , a number of Norwegian artists began performing and releasing a new kind of black metal music; this included Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon, Enslaved, Thorns, and Gorgoroth. They developed the style of their 1980s forebears into a distinct genre. This was partly thanks to a new kind of guitar playing developed by Snorre 'Blackthorn' Ruch and Øystein 'Euronymous' Aarseth. Fenriz of Darkthrone described it as being "derived from Bathory" and noted that "those kinds of riffs became the new order for a lot of bands in the '90s".
The wearing of corpse paint became standard, and was a way for many black metal artists to distinguish themselves from other metal bands of the era. The scene also had an ideology and ethos. Artists were bitterly opposed to Christianity and presented themselves as misanthropic Devil worshippers who wanted to spread terror, hatred and evil. They professed to be serious in their views and vowed to act on them. Ihsahn of Emperor said that they sought to "create fear among people" and "be in opposition to society". The scene was exclusive and created boundaries around itself, incorporating only those who were "true" and attempting to expel all "poseurs". Some members of the scene were responsible for a spate of church burnings and murder, which eventually drew attention to it and led to a number of artists being imprisoned.
Dead's suicide
On 8 April 1991, Mayhem vocalist Per "Dead" Ohlin committed suicide while left alone in a house shared by the band. Fellow musicians described Dead as odd, introverted and depressed. Mayhem's drummer, Hellhammer, said that Dead was the first to wear the distinctive corpse paint that became widespread in the scene. He was found with slit wrists and a shotgun wound to the head. Dead's suicide note began with "Excuse all the blood", and apologized for firing the weapon indoors. Before calling the police, Euronymous got a disposable camera and photographed the body, after re-arranging some items. One of these photographs was later used as the cover of a bootleg live album, Dawn of the Black Hearts.
Euronymous made necklaces with bits of Dead's skull and gave some to musicians he deemed worthy. Rumors also spread that he had made a stew with bits of his brain. Euronymous used Dead's suicide to foster Mayhem's evil image and claimed Dead had killed himself because extreme metal had become trendy and commercialized. Mayhem bassist Jørn 'Necrobutcher' Stubberud noted that "people became more aware of the black metal scene after Dead had shot himself ... I think it was Dead's suicide that really changed the scene".
Two other members of the early Norwegian scene later committed suicide: Erik 'Grim' Brødreskift (of Immortal, Borknagar, Gorgoroth) in 1999 and Espen 'Storm' Andersen (of Strid) in 2001.
Helvete and Deathlike Silence
During May–June 1991, Euronymous of Mayhem opened an independent record shop named "Helvete" (Norwegian for "Hell") at Schweigaards gate 56 in Oslo. It quickly became the focal point of Norway's emerging black metal scene and a meeting place for many of its musicians; especially the members of Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor and Thorns. Jon 'Metalion' Kristiansen, writer of the fanzine Slayer, said that the opening of Helvete was "the creation of the whole Norwegian black metal scene". In its basement, Euronymous founded an independent record label named Deathlike Silence Productions. With the rising popularity of his band and others like it, the underground success of Euronymous's label is often credited for encouraging other record labels, who had previously shunned black metal acts, to then reconsider and release their material.
Church burnings
In 1992, members of the Norwegian black metal scene began a wave of arson attacks on Christian churches. By 1996, there had been at least 50 such attacks in Norway. Some of the buildings were hundreds of years old and seen as important historical landmarks. The first to be burnt down was Norway's Fantoft Stave Church. Police believe Varg Vikernes of Burzum was responsible. The cover of Burzum's EP Aske ("ashes") is a photograph of the destroyed church. In May 1994, Vikernes was found guilty for burning down the Holmenkollen Chapel, Skjold Church, and Åsane Church. In addition, he was found guilty for an attempted arson of a fourth church, and for the theft and storage of 150 kg of explosives. To coincide with the release of Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Vikernes and Euronymous had also allegedly plotted to bomb the Nidaros Cathedral, which appears on the album cover. The musicians Faust, Samoth, (both of Emperor), and Jørn Inge Tunsberg (of Hades Almighty) were also convicted for church arsons. Members of the Swedish black metal scene started to burn churches as well in 1993.
Those convicted for church burnings showed no remorse and described their actions as a symbolic "retaliation" against Christianity in Norway. Mayhem drummer Hellhammer said he had called for attacks on mosques and Hindu temples, on the basis that they were more foreign. Today, opinions on the church burnings differ within the black metal community. Many musicians, singers, and songwriters in the early Norwegian black metal scene, such as Infernus and Gaahl of Gorgoroth, continue to praise the church burnings, with the latter saying "there should have been more of them, and there will be more of them". Others, such as Necrobutcher and Kjetil Manheim of Mayhem and Abbath of Immortal, see the church burnings as having been futile. Manheim claimed that many arsons were "just people trying to gain acceptance" within the black metal scene. Watain vocalist Erik Danielsson respected the attacks, but said of those responsible: "the only Christianity they defeated was the last piece of Christianity within themselves. Which is a very good beginning, of course".
Murder of Euronymous
In early 1993, animosity arose between Euronymous and Vikernes. On the night of 10 August 1993, Varg Vikernes (of Burzum) and Snorre 'Blackthorn' Ruch (of Thorns) drove from Bergen to Euronymous's apartment in Oslo. When they arrived a confrontation began and Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death. His body was found outside the apartment with 23 cut wounds—two to the head, five to the neck, and sixteen to the back.
It has been speculated that the murder was the result of either a power struggle, a financial dispute over Burzum records or an attempt at outdoing a stabbing in Lillehammer the year before by Faust. Vikernes denies all of these, claiming that he attacked Euronymous in self-defense. He says that Euronymous had plotted to stun him with an electroshock weapon, tie him up and torture him to death while videotaping the event. He said Euronymous planned to use a meeting about an unsigned contract to ambush him. Vikernes claims he intended to hand Euronymous the signed contract that night and "tell him to fuck off", but that Euronymous panicked and attacked him first. He also claims that most of the cuts were from broken glass Euronymous had fallen on during the struggle. The self-defense story is doubted by Faust, while Necrobutcher confirmed that Vikernes killed Euronymous in self-defense due to the death threats he received from him.
Vikernes was arrested on 19 August 1993, in Bergen. Many other members of the scene were taken in for questioning around the same time. Some of them confessed to their crimes and implicated others. In May 1994, Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison (Norway's maximum penalty) for the murder of Euronymous, the arson of four churches, and for possession of 150 kg of explosives. However, he only confessed to the latter. Two churches were burnt the day he was sentenced, "presumably as a statement of symbolic support". Vikernes smiled when his verdict was read and the picture was widely reprinted in the news media. Blackthorn was sentenced to eight years in prison for being an accomplice to the murder. That month saw the release of Mayhem's album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, which featured Euronymous on guitar and Vikernes on bass guitar. Euronymous's family had asked Mayhem's drummer, Hellhammer, to remove the bass tracks recorded by Vikernes, but Hellhammer said: "I thought it was appropriate that the murderer and victim were on the same record. I put word out that I was re-recording the bass parts. But I never did". In 2003, Vikernes failed to return to Tønsberg prison after being given a short leave. He was re-arrested shortly after while driving a stolen car with various weapons. Vikernes was released on parole in 2009.
Outside Norway
Black metal scenes also emerged on the European mainland during the early 1990s, inspired by the Norwegian scene or the older bands, or both. In Poland, a scene was spearheaded by Graveland and Behemoth. In France, a close-knit group of musicians known as Les Légions Noires emerged; this included artists such as Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes, Belketre and Torgeist. In Belgium, there were acts such as Ancient Rites and Enthroned. Bands such as Black Funeral, Grand Belial's Key and Judas Iscariot emerged during this time in the United States. Black Funeral, from Houston, formed in 1993, was associated with black magic and Satanism.
A notable black metal group in England was Cradle of Filth, who released three demos in a black/death metal style with symphonic flourishes, followed by the album The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, which featured a then-unusual hybrid style of black and gothic metal. The band then abandoned black metal for gothic metal, becoming one of the most successful extreme metal bands to date. John Serba of AllMusic commented that their first album "made waves in the early black metal scene, putting Cradle of Filth on the tips of metalheads' tongues, whether in praise of the band's brazen attempts to break the black metal mold or in derision for its 'commercialization' of an underground phenomenon that was proud of its grimy heritage". Some black metal fans did not consider Cradle of Filth to be black metal. When asked if he considers Cradle of Filth a black metal band, vocalist Dani Filth said he considers them black metal in terms of philosophy and atmosphere, but not in other ways. Another English band called Necropolis never released any music, but "began a desecratory assault against churches and cemeteries in their area" and "almost caused Black Metal to be banned in Britain as a result". Dayal Patterson says successful acts like Cradle of Filth "provoked an even greater extremity [of negative opinion] from the underground" scene due to concerns about "selling out".
The controversy surrounding the Thuringian band Absurd drew attention to the German black metal scene. In 1993, the members murdered a boy from their school, Sandro Beyer. A photo of Beyer's gravestone is on the cover of one of their demos, Thuringian Pagan Madness, along with pro-Nazi statements. It was recorded in prison and released in Poland by Graveland drummer Capricornus. The band's early music was more influenced by Oi! and Rock Against Communism (RAC) than by black metal, and described as being "more akin to '60s garage punk than some of the […] Black Metal of their contemporaries". Alexander von Meilenwald from German band Nagelfar considers Ungod's 1993 debut Circle of the Seven Infernal Pacts, Desaster's 1994 demo Lost in the Ages, Tha-Norr's 1995 album Wolfenzeitalter, Lunar Aurora's 1996 debut Weltengänger and Katharsis's 2000 debut 666 to be the most important recordings for the German scene. He said they were "not necessarily the best German releases, but they all kicked off something".
After the second wave
In the beginning of the second wave, the different scenes developed their own styles; as Alan 'Nemtheanga' Averill says, "you had the Greek sound and the Finnish sound, and the Norwegian sound, and there was German bands and Swiss bands and that kind of thing." By the mid-1990s, the style of the Norwegian scene was being adopted by bands worldwide, and in 1998, Kerrang! journalist Malcolm Dome said that "black metal as we know it in 1998 owes more to Norway and to Scandinavia than any other particular country". Newer black metal bands also began raising their production quality and introducing additional instruments such as synthesizers and even full-symphony orchestras. By the late 1990s, the underground concluded that several of the Norwegian pioneers—like Emperor, Immortal, Dimmu Borgir, Ancient, Covenant/The Kovenant, and Satyricon—had commercialized or sold out to the mainstream and "big bastard labels." Dayal Patterson states that successful acts like Dimmu Borgir "provoked and even greater extremity [of negative opinion] from the underground" regarding the view that these bands had "sold out."
After Euronymous's death, "some bands went more towards the Viking metal and epic style, while some bands went deeper into the abyss." Since 1993, the Swedish scene had carried out church burnings, grave desecration, and other violent acts. In 1995, Jon Nödtveidt of Dissection joined the Misanthropic Luciferian Order (MLO). In 1997, he and another MLO member were arrested and charged with shooting dead a 37-year-old man. It was said he was killed "out of anger" because he had "harassed" the two men. Nödtveidt received a 10-year sentence. As the victim was a homosexual immigrant, Dissection was accused of being a Nazi band, but Nödtveidt denied this and dismissed racism and nationalism.
The Swedish band Shining, founded in 1996, began writing music almost exclusively about depression and suicide, musically inspired by Strid and by Burzum's albums Hvis lyset tar oss and Filosofem. Vocalist Niklas Kvarforth wanted to "force-feed" his listeners "with self-destructive and suicidal imagery and lyrics." In the beginning, he used the term "suicidal black metal" for his music. However, he stopped using the term in 2001 because it had begun to be used by a slew of other bands, whom he felt had misinterpreted his vision and were using the music as a kind of therapy rather than a weapon against the listener as Kvarforth intended. He said that he "wouldn't call Shining a black metal band" and called the "suicidal black metal" term a "foolish idea."
According to Erik Danielsson, when his band Watain formed in 1998, there were very few bands who took black metal as seriously as the early Norwegian scene had. A newer generation of Swedish Satanic bands like Watain and Ondskapt, inspired by Ofermod, the new band of Nefandus member Belfagor, put this scene "into a new light." Kvarforth said, "It seems like people actually [got] afraid again." "The current Swedish black metal scene has a particularly ambitious and articulate understanding of mysticism and its validity to black metal. Many Swedish black metal bands, most notably Watain and Dissection, are [or were] affiliated with the Temple of the Black Light, or Misanthropic Luciferian Order […] a Theistic, Gnostic, Satanic organization based in Sweden". Upon his release in 2004, Jon Nödtveidt restarted Dissection with new members whom he felt were able to "stand behind and live up to the demands of Dissection's Satanic concept." He started calling Dissection "the sonic propaganda unit of the MLO" and released a third full-length album, Reinkaos. The lyrics contain magical formulae from the Liber Azerate and are based on the organization's teachings. After the album's release and a few concerts, Nödtveidt said that he had "reached the limitations of music as a tool for expressing what I want to express, for myself and the handful of others that I care about" and disbanded Dissection before dying by suicide.
A part of the underground scene adopted a Jungian interpretation of the church burnings and other acts of the early scene as the re-emergence of ancient archetypes, which Kadmon of Allerseelen and the authors of Lords of Chaos had implied in their writings. They mixed this interpretation with Paganism and Nationalism. Varg Vikernes was seen as "an ideological messiah" by some, although Vikernes had disassociated himself from black metal and his neo-Nazism had nothing to do with that subculture. This led to the rise of National Socialist black metal (NSBM), which Hendrik Möbus of Absurd calls "the logical conclusion" of the Norwegian black metal "movement". Other parts of the scene oppose NSBM as it is "indelibly linked with Asá Trŭ and opposed to Satanism", or look upon Nazism "with vague skepticism and indifference". Members of the NSBM scene, among others, see the Norwegian bands as poseurs whose "ideology is cheap", although they still respect Vikernes and Burzum, whom Grand Belial's Key vocalist Richard Mills called "the only Norwegian band that remains unapologetic and literally convicted of his beliefs."
In France, besides Les Légions Noires (The Black Legions), an NSBM scene arose. Members of French band Funeral desecrated a grave in Toulon in June 1996, and a 19-year-old black metal fan stabbed a priest to death in Mulhouse on Christmas Eve 1996. According to MkM of Antaeus and Aosoth, the early French scene "was quite easy to divide: either you were NSBM, and you had the support from zine and the audience, or you were part of the black legions, and you had that 'cult' aura", whereas his band Antaeus, not belonging to either of these sub-scenes, "did not fit anywhere." Many French bands, like Deathspell Omega and Aosoth, have an avantgarde approach and a disharmonic sound that is representative of that scene.
The early American black metal bands remained underground. Some of them—like Grand Belial's Key and Judas Iscariot—joined an international NSBM organization called the Pagan Front, although Judas Iscariot's sole member Akhenaten left the organization. Other bands like Averse Sefira never had any link with Nazism. The US bands have no common style. Many were musically inspired by Burzum but did not necessarily adopt Vikernes's ideas. Profanatica's music is close to death metal, while Demoncy were accused of ripping off Gorgoroth riffs. There also emerged bands like Xasthur and Leviathan (whose music is inspired by Burzum and whose lyrics focus on topics such as depression and suicide), Nachtmystium, Krallice, Wolves in the Throne Room (a band linked to the crust punk scene and the environmental movement), and Liturgy (the style of whom frontwoman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix describes as 'transcendental black metal'). These bands eschew black metal's traditional lyrical content for "something more Whitman-esque" and have been rejected by some traditional black-metallers for their ideologies and the post-rock and shoegazing influences some of them have adopted. Also, some bands like Agalloch started to incorporate "doom and folk elements into the traditional blast-beat and tremolo-picking of the Scandinavian incarnation", a style that later became known as Cascadian black metal, in reference to the region where it emerged.
In Australia, a scene led by bands like Deströyer 666, Vomitor, Hobbs' Angel of Death, Nocturnal Graves and Gospel of the Horns arose. This scene's typical style is a mixture of old school black metal and raw thrash metal influenced by old Celtic Frost, Bathory, Venom, and Sodom but also with its own elements.
Melechesh was formed in Jerusalem in 1993, "the first overtly anti-Christian band to exist in one of the holiest cities in the world". Melechesh began as a straightforward black metal act with their first foray into folk metal occurring on their 1996 EP The Siege of Lachish. Their subsequent albums straddled black, death, and thrash metal. Another band, Arallu, was formed in the late 1990s and has relationships with Melechesh and Salem. Melechesh and Arallu perform a style they call "Mesopotamian Black Metal", a blend of black metal and Mesopotamian folk music.
Since the 2000s, a number of anti-Islamic and anti-religious black metal bands—whose members come from Muslim backgrounds—have emerged in the Middle East. Janaza, believed to be Iraq's first female black metal artist, released the demo Burning Quran Ceremony in 2010. Its frontwoman, Anahita, claimed her parents and brother were killed by a suicide bomb during the Iraq War. Another Iraqi band, Seeds of Iblis, also fronted by Anahita, released their debut EP Jihad Against Islam in 2011 through French label Legion of Death. Metal news website Metalluminati suggests that their claims of being based in Iraq are a hoax. These bands, along with Tadnees (from Saudi Arabia), Halla (from Iran), False Allah (from Bahrain), and Mosque of Satan (from Lebanon), style themselves as the "Arabic Anti-Islamic Legion." Another Lebanese band, Ayat, drew much attention with their debut album Six Years of Dormant Hatred, released through North American label Moribund Records in 2008. Some European bands have also begun expressing anti-Islamic views, most notably the Norwegian band Taake.
Stylistic divisions
Regarding the sound of black metal, there are two conflicting groups within the genre: "those that stay true to the genre's roots, and those that introduce progressive elements". The former believe that the music should always be minimalist—performed only with the standard guitar-bass-drums setup and recorded in a low fidelity style. One supporter of this train of thought is Blake Judd of Nachtmystium, who has rejected labeling his band black metal for its departure from the genre's typical sound. Snorre Ruch of Thorns, on the other hand, has said that modern black metal is "too narrow" and believes that this was "not the idea at the beginning".
Since the 1990s, different styles of black metal have emerged and some have melded Norwegian-style black metal with other genres:
Ambient black metal
Ambient black metal is a style of black metal that relies on heavy incorporation of atmospheric, sometimes dreamy textures, and is therefore less aggressive. It often features synthesizers or classical instrumentation, typically for melody or ethereal "shimmering" over the wall of sound provided by the guitars. The music is usually slow to mid paced with rare blast beat usage, without any abrupt changes and generally features slowly developing, sometimes repetitive melodies and riffs, which separate it from other black metal styles. Subject matter usually concerns nature, folklore, mythology, and personal introspection. Artists include Summoning, Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room.
Black-doom
Black-doom, also known as blackened doom, is a style that combines the slowness and thicker, bassier sound of doom metal with the shrieking vocals and heavily distorted guitar sound of black metal. Black-doom bands maintain the Satanic ideology associated with black metal, while melding it with moodier themes more related to doom metal, like depression, nihilism and nature. They also use the slower pace of doom metal in order to emphasize the harsh atmosphere present in black metal. Examples of black-doom bands include Barathrum, Forgotten Tomb, Woods of Ypres, Deinonychus, Shining, Nortt, Bethlehem, early Katatonia, Tiamat, Dolorian, and October Tide.
Depressive suicidal black metal
Pioneered by black-doom bands like Ophthalamia, Katatonia, Bethlehem, Forgotten Tomb and Shining, depressive suicidal black metal, also known as suicidal black metal, depressive black metal or DSBM, is a style that melds the second wave-style of black metal with doom metal, with lyrics revolving around themes such as depression, self-harm, misanthropy, suicide and death. DSBM bands draws the lo-fi recording and highly distorted guitars of black metal, while employing the usage of acoustic instruments and non-distorted electric guitar's timbres present in doom metal, interchanging the slower, doom-like, sections with faster tremolo picking. Vocals are usually high-pitched like in black metal, but lacking of energy, simulating feelings like hopelessness, desperation and plea. The presence of one-man bands is more prominent in this genre compared to others. Examples of bands include Xasthur, Leviathan, Strid, Silencer, Make a Change… Kill Yourself, Lifelover and I Shalt Become.
Black 'n' roll
Black 'n' roll is a style of black metal that incorporates elements from 1970s hard rock and rock and roll music. Examples of black 'n' roll bands include Midnight, Kvelertak, Vreid, and Khold. Bands such as Satyricon, Darkthrone, Nachtmystium, Nidingr, Craft, and Sarke also experimented with the genre.
Blackened crust
Crust punk groups, such as Antisect, Sacrilege and Anti System took some influence from early black metal bands like Venom, Hellhammer, and Celtic Frost, while Amebix's lead vocalist and guitarist sent his band's early demo tape to Cronos of Venom, who replied by saying "We'll rip you off." Similarly, Bathory was initially inspired by crust punk as well as heavy metal. Crust punk was affected by a second wave of black metal in the 1990s, with some bands emphasizing these black metal elements. Iskra are probably the most obvious example of second wave black metal-influenced crust punk; Iskra coined their own phrase "blackened crust" to describe their new style. The Japanese group Gallhammer also fused crust punk with black metal while the English band Fukpig has been said to have elements of crust punk, black metal, and grindcore. North Carolina's Young and in the Way have been playing blackened crust since their formation in 2009. In addition, Norwegian band Darkthrone have incorporated crust punk traits in their more recent material. As Daniel Ekeroth wrote in 2008,
Red and anarchist black metal
Red and anarchist black metal, also known as RABM, is a subgenre that melds black metal with anarchist crust punk, promoting ideologies such as anarchism, environmentalism, or Marxism. RABM was launched by supporters of these and related movements in response to National socialist black metal. Artists labelled RABM include Iskra, Panopticon, Skagos, Storm of Sedition, Not A Cost, and Black Kronstadt.
Blackened death-doom
Blackened death-doom is a genre that combines the slow tempos and monolithic drumming of doom metal, the complex and loud riffage of death metal and the shrieking vocals of black metal. Examples of blackened death-doom bands include Morast, Faustcoven, The Ruins of Beverast, Bölzer, Necros Christos, Harvest Gulgaltha, Dragged into Sunlight, Hands of Thieves, and Soulburn.
Blackened death metal
Blackened death metal is commonly death metal that incorporates musical, lyrical or ideological elements of black metal, such as an increased use of tremolo picking, anti-Christian or Satanic lyrical themes and chord progressions similar to those used in black metal. Blackened death metal bands are also more likely to wear corpse paint and suits of armour, than bands from other styles of death metal. Lower range guitar tunings, death growls and abrupt tempo changes are common in the genre. Examples of blackened death metal bands are Belphegor, Behemoth, Akercocke, and Sacramentum.
Melodic black-death
Melodic black-death (also known as blackened melodic death metal or melodic blackened death metal) is a genre of extreme metal that describes the style created when melodic death metal bands began being inspired by black metal and European romanticism. However, unlike most other black metal, this take on the genre incorporated an increased sense of melody and narrative. Some bands who have played this style include Dissection, Sacramentum, Naglfar, God Dethroned, Dawn, Unanimated, Thulcandra, Skeletonwitch and Cardinal Sin.
War metal
War metal (also known as war black metal or bestial black metal) is an aggressive, cacophonous, and chaotic subgenre of blackened death metal, described by Rock Hard journalist Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann as "rabid" and "hammering". Important influences include early black and death metal bands, such as Sodom, Possessed, Autopsy, Sarcófago, and the first two Sepultura releases, as well as seminal grindcore acts like Repulsion. War metal bands include Blasphemy, Archgoat, Impiety, and Bestial Warlust.
Blackened grindcore
Blackened grindcore is a fusion genre that combines elements of black metal and grindcore. Notable bands include Anaal Nathrakh and early Rotting Christ.
Blackened thrash metal
Blackened thrash metal, also known as black-thrash, is a fusion genre that combines elements of black metal and thrash metal. Being considered one of the first fusions of extreme metal, it was inspired by bands such as Venom, Sodom, and Sarcófago. Notable bands include Aura Noir, Witchery, Black Fast, Sathanas, and Deströyer 666.
Folk black metal, pagan metal, and Viking metal
Folk black metal, pagan metal and Viking metal are styles that incorporates elements of folk music, with pagan metal bands focusing on pagan lyrics and imagery, and Viking metal bands giving thematic focus on Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age, more influenced by Nordic folk music. While not focused on Satanism, the bands' use of ancient folklore and mythologies still express anti-Christian views, with folk black metal doing it as part of a "rebellion to the status quo", that developed concurrently along with the rise of folk metal in Europe in the 1990s, Notable artist include Negură Bunget, Windir, Primordial, In the Woods..., Cruachan, and Bathory, to whose albums Blood Fire Death (1988) and Hammerheart (1990) the origin of Viking metal can be traced.
Industrial black metal
Industrial black metal is a style of black metal that incorporates elements of industrial music. Mysticum, formed in 1991, was the first of these groups. DHG (Dødheimsgard), Thorns from Norway and Blut Aus Nord, N.K.V.D. and Blacklodge from France, have been acclaimed for their incorporation of industrial elements. Other industrial black metal musicians include Samael, The Axis of Perdition, Aborym, and ...And Oceans. In addition, The Kovenant, Mortiis and Ulver emerged from the Norwegian black metal scene, but later chose to experiment with industrial music.
Post-black metal
Post-black metal is an umbrella term for genres that experiment beyond black metal's conventions and broaden their sounds, evolving past the genre's limits. Notable bands include Myrkur, Alcest, Bosse-de-Nage, and Wildernessking.
Blackgaze
Blackgaze incorporates common black metal and post-black metal elements such as blast beat drumming and high-pitched screamed vocals with the melodic and heavily distorted guitar styles typically associated with shoegazing. It is associated with bands such as Deafheaven, Alcest, Vaura, Amesoeurs, Bosse-de-Nage, Oathbreaker, and Fen.
National Socialist black metal
National Socialist black metal (also known as NSBM) is a subgenre that promotes neo-Nazi or similar beliefs through its lyrics and imagery. Artists typically meld neo-Nazi ideology with ethnic European paganism, but a few meld these beliefs with Satanism or occultism. Some commentators see this ideology as a natural development of the black metal worldview. Members of the early Norwegian scene flirted with Nazi themes, but this was largely an attempt to provoke. Varg Vikernes—who now refers to his ideology as 'Odalism'—is credited with popularizing such views within the scene. NSBM emerged in the mid-1990s and was spearheaded by artists such as Absurd (from Germany), Graveland, Infernum, and Veles (from Poland), and Grand Belial's Key (from the US). It is particularly strong in the former Eastern Bloc.
Psychedelic black metal
Psychedelic black metal is a subgenre of black metal which employs the usage of psychedelic elements. Notable acts include Oranssi Pazuzu, Nachtmystium, Deafheaven, Woe, Amesoeurs, and In the Woods....
Raw black metal
Raw black metal is a subgenre that seeks to amplify the primitive qualities of the second wave of black metal, by giving priority to its lo-fi production values. To achieve this, bands under this style usually emphasize the usage of higher-pitches in their guitar sound and vocals, while employing techniques such as tremolo picking and blast beats more often. Its imagery is often associated with dystopic and minimalistic tendencies. Notable bands include Gorgoroth and Darkthrone.
Symphonic black metal
Symphonic black metal is a style of black metal that incorporates symphonic and orchestral elements. This may include the usage of instruments found in symphony orchestras (piano, violin, cello, flute and keyboards), "clean" or operatic vocals and guitars with less distortion.
Unblack metal
Unblack metal (or Christian black metal) is a subgenre that promotes Christianity through its lyrics and imagery. The first unblack metal record, Hellig Usvart (1994) by Australian artist Horde, was a provocative parody of Norwegian black metal. It sparked controversy, and death threats were issued against Horde. Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor was originally formed as a death/doom band bearing a different name, Crush Evil.
Ideology
Unlike other metal genres, black metal is associated with an ideology and ethos. It is fiercely opposed to Christianity and the other main institutional religions, Islam and Judaism. Many black metal bands are Satanists and see Satanism as a key part of black metal. Others advocate ethnic Paganism, "often coupled with nationalism", although the early Pagan bands did not call themselves 'black metal'.
Black metal tends to be misanthropic and hostile to modern society. It is "a reaction against the mundanity, insincerity and emotional emptiness that participants feel is intrinsic to modern secular culture". The black metal scene tends to oppose political correctness, humanitarianism, consumerism, globalization and homogeneity. Aaron Weaver from Wolves in the Throne Room said: "I think that black metal is an artistic movement that is critiquing modernity on a fundamental level, saying that the modern world view is missing something". As part of this, some parts of the scene glorify nature and have a fascination with the distant past. Black metal has been likened to Romanticism and there is an undercurrent of romantic nationalism in the genre. Sam Dunn noted that "unlike any other heavy metal scene, the culture and the place is incorporated into the music and imagery". Individualism is also an important part of black metal, with Fenriz of Darkthrone describing black metal as "individualism above all". Unlike other kinds of metal, black metal has numerous one-man bands. However, it is argued that followers of Euronymous were anti-individualistic, and that "Black Metal is characterized by a conflict between radical individualism and group identity and by an attempt to accept both polarities simultaneously".
In his master's thesis, Benjamin Hedge Olson wrote that some artists can be seen as transcendentalists. Dissatisfied with a "world that they feel is devoid of spiritual and cultural significance", they try to leave or "transcend" their "mundane physical forms" and become one with the divine. This is done through their concerts, which he describes as "musical rituals" that involve self-mortification and taking on an alternative, "spiritual persona" (for example by the wearing of costume and face paint).
Satanism
Black metal was originally a term for extreme metal bands with Satanic lyrics and imagery. However, most of the 'first wave' bands (including Venom, who coined the term 'black metal') were not Satanists and rather used Satanic themes to provoke controversy or gain attention. One of the few exceptions was Mercyful Fate singer and Church of Satan member King Diamond, whom Michael Moynihan calls "one of the only performers of the '80s Satanic metal who was more than just a poseur using a devilish image for shock value".
In the early 1990s, many Norwegian black-metallers presented themselves as genuine Devil worshippers. Mayhem's Euronymous was the key figure behind this. They attacked the Church of Satan for its "freedom and life-loving" views; the theistic Satanism they espoused was an inversion of Christianity. Benjamin Hedge Olson wrote that they "transform[ed] Venom's quasi-Satanic stage theatrics into a form of cultural expression unique from other forms of metal or Satanism" and "abandoned the mundane identities and ambitions of other forms of metal in favor of religious and ideological fanaticism". Some prominent scene members—such as Euronymous and Faust—stated that only bands who are Satanists can be called 'black metal'. Bands with a Norwegian style, but without Satanic lyrics, tended to use other names for their music. This view is still held by many artists—such as Infernus, Arioch, Nornagest and Erik Danielsson. Some bands, like the reformed Dissection and Watain, insist that all members must be of the same Satanic belief, whereas Michael Ford of Black Funeral and MkM of Antaeus believe black metal must be Satanic but not all band members need to be Satanists. Others—such as Jan Axel Blomberg, Sigurd Wongraven and Eric Horner—believe that black metal does not need to be Satanic. An article in Metalion's Slayer fanzine attacked musicians that "care more about their guitars than the actual essence onto which the whole concept was and is based upon", and insisted that "the music itself doesn't come as the first priority". Bands with a similar style but with Pagan lyrics tend to be referred to as 'Pagan Metal' by many 'purist' black-metallers.
Others shun Satanism, seeing it as Christian or "Judeo-Christian" in origin, and regard Satanists as perpetuating the "Judeo-Christian" worldview. Quorthon of Bathory said he used 'Satan' to provoke and attack Christianity. However, with his third and fourth albums, Under the Sign of the Black Mark and Blood Fire Death, he began "attacking Christianity from a different angle", realizing that Satanism is a "Christian product". Nevertheless, some artists use Satan as a symbol or metaphor for their beliefs, such as LaVeyan Satanists (who are atheist). Vocalist Gaahl, who considers himself a Norse Shaman, said: "We use the word 'Satanist' because it is Christian world and we have to speak their language ... When I use the word 'Satan', it means the natural order, the will of a man, the will to grow, the will to become the superman". Varg Vikernes called himself a Satanist in early interviews but "now downplays his former interest in Satanism", saying he was using Satan as a symbol for Odin as the 'adversary' of the Christian God. He saw Satanism as "an introduction to more indigenous heathen beliefs". Some bands such as Carach Angren, Immortal and Enslaved do not have Satanic lyrics.
Christianity
Many black-metallers see "Christian black metal" as an oxymoron and believe black metal cannot be Christian. In fact, the early unblack metal groups Horde and Antestor refused to call their music "black metal" because they did not share its ethos. Horde called its music "holy unblack metal" and Antestor called theirs "sorrow metal". Horde's Jayson Sherlock later said "I will never understand why Christians think they can play Black Metal. I really don't think they understand what true Black Metal is". However, current unblack metal bands such as Crimson Moonlight feel that black metal has changed from an ideological movement to a purely musical genre, and thus call their music 'black metal'.
Environmentalism
Black metal has a long tradition of environmentalism. Groups such as Botanist and Wolves in the Throne Room have been described as exemplifying radical environmentalism.
Politics
A wide range of political views are found in the black metal scene. The vast majority of black metal bands are apolitical.
Albeit a small minority within the genre, Neo-Nazi artists have gained some notoriety throughout the years. While some black metal fans boycott Neo-Nazi artists, many are indifferent or appreciate the music without supporting the musicians, but overall Neo-Nazism has been criticized by some prominent and influential black metal artists—including Jon Nödtveidt, Gorgoroth, Dark Funeral, Richard Lederer, Michael Ford, and Arkhon Infaustus. Some liken Nazism to Christianity by arguing that both are authoritarian, collectivist, and a "herd mentality". Olson writes that the shunning of Nazism by some black-metallers "has nothing to do with notions of a 'universal humanity' or a rejection of hate" but that Nazism is shunned "because its hatred is too specific and exclusive".
Some time later, a movement promoting Marxist and anarchist ideas was born in the genre, mostly as a reaction to neo-Nazi movements. Others with similar outlook, such as Wolves in the Throne Room, are not overtly political and do not endorse the label.
Media
Documentaries on black metal
666 – At Calling Death (1993) was a documentary released by Nuclear Blast, which provides an abundance of interviews and perspectives on the meaning of both death and black metal genres from musicians who perform these styles, in light of the Norwegian scene church burnings and murders, which had been occurring around that time. The latter half of the documentary focuses on black metal.
Det svarte alvor (1994)
Satan Rides the Media (1998)
Black Metal (1998), a Belgian documentary by Marilyn Watelet.
Norsk Black Metal (2003) was aired on Norwegian TV by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).
Metal: A Headbanger's Journey (2005) touches on black metal in the early 1990s, and includes an extensive 25-minute feature on the DVD release.
True Norwegian Black Metal (2007) is a five-part feature from VICE. It explores some of the aspects of the lifestyle, beliefs and controversies surrounding former Gorgoroth vocalist Gaahl.
Black Metal: A Documentary (2007), produced by Bill Zebub, explores the world of black metal from the point of view of the artists. There is no narrator and no one outside of black metal takes part in any interview or storytelling.
Pure Fucking Mayhem (2009) tells the story of the black metal band Mayhem and the tragedies surrounding them.
Murder Music: A History of Black Metal (2007)
The Misanthrope (2007) written and directed by Ted "Nocturno Culto" Skjellum from extreme metal duo Darkthrone.
Once Upon a Time in Norway (2008)
Black Metal Satanica (2008)
Until the Light Takes Us (2009) explores black metal's origins and subculture, featuring exclusive interviews and including rare footage from the Black Circle's early days.
Loputon Gehennan Liekki (Eternal Flame of Gehenna)(2011) Finnish black metal documentary
Out of the Black – A Black Metal Documentary (2012), an examination of the musical and social origins of black metal while exploring the full spectrum of the religious ideology within the scene. Also examines black metal in America and the multiple differences between the American and the Scandinavian scene.
One Man Metal (2012) explores the lifestyle and thoughts of the members of the three one-man bands Xasthur, Leviathan and Striborg.
Attention! Black Metal (2012)
Helvete: Historien om norsk black metal (2020). The history of Norwegian black metal from the early eighties through musical innovation, image building, murder, suicide and church burnings, and international recognition. With more focus on the history of the music and people involved, rather than just the scandals.
References in media
A black metal mockumentary Legalize Murder was released in 2006.
The cartoon show Metalocalypse is about an extreme metal band called Dethklok, with many references to leading black metal artists on the names of various businesses, such as Fintroll's convenience store, Dimmu Burger, Gorgoroth's electric wheelchair store, Carpathian Forest High School, Marduk's Putt & Stuff, Burzum's hot-dogs and Behemoth studios (the man who owns Behemoth studios is also named Mr. Grishnackh). In the episode "Dethdad", Dethklok travels to Norway to both visit Toki's dying father and the original black metal record store, much to the dismay of the band members when they find out the store does not sell any of their music, described by the owner as being "too digital".
A Norwegian commercial for a laundry detergent once depicted black metal musicians as part of the advertisement.
Black metal bands such as 1349, Emperor, Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Enslaved and Satyricon have had their videos make appearances on MTV's Headbangers Ball.
Comedian Brian Posehn made a visual reference to Norwegian black metal bands in the music video for his comedy song "Metal by Numbers".
A KFC commercial screened in Canada (2008) and Australia (2010) featuring a fictional black metal band called Hellvetica. Onstage, the band's singer does a fire-eating trick. Once backstage, he takes a bite of the spicy KFC chicken and declares, "Oh man, that is hot".
The twenty-first episode of the fourth season of Bones, "Mayhem on a Cross", featured the discovery of a human skeleton at a black metal concert in Norway.
There are many references to black/extreme metal bands (Bathory, Marduk, Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir) in Åke Edwardson's 1999 crime novel Sun and Shadow (Sol och skugga). The plot involves the music of a fictional Canadian black metal band called Sacrament. As part of the inquiry, Inspector Winter tries to distinguish between black and death metal artists.
In the UK show The Inbetweeners during some scenes in the sixth form common room, a Mayhem poster for the album Ordo ad Chao can be seen.
A recurring theme in The IT Crowd (seasons 1 and 2) is the conversion of a character (Richmond) from executive to pariah through his exposure to Cradle of Filth.
A black metal act is used to advertise "ZYX Sitruuna", a Finnish remedy for throat pain.
Jonas Åkerlund's 2018 horror-thriller film, Lords of Chaos, based on the 1998 non-fiction book of the same name, centres around a series of crimes that occurred in Oslo, Norway in the early 1990s surrounding the black metal bands Mayhem and Burzum.
See also
List of black metal bands
Shrieking
References
Sources
Further reading
European culture
20th-century music genres
1980s in music
1990s in music
2000s in music
2010s in music
21st-century music genres
Heavy metal genres
Extreme metal
Obscenity controversies in music
Norwegian styles of music
British rock music genres |
4876 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard%20Entertainment | Blizzard Entertainment | Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded in February 1991 as Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduates of the University of California, Los Angeles: Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham. The company originally concentrated on the creation of game ports for other studios' games before beginning development of their own software in 1993, with games like Rock n' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings. In 1993, the company became Chaos Studios, Inc., and then Blizzard Entertainment soon after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates early in the following year. Shortly after, Blizzard released Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.
Since then, Blizzard Entertainment has created several Warcraft sequels, including highly influential massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft in 2004, as well as three other multi-million selling video game franchises: Diablo, StarCraft and Overwatch. Their most recent projects include the online collectible card game Hearthstone; the multiplayer online battle arena Heroes of the Storm; the remaster of the original StarCraft and its expansion Brood War, StarCraft: Remastered; the replacement and sequel to the multiplayer first-person hero shooter Overwatch, Overwatch 2; the ninth expansion for World of Warcraft, Dragonflight; and the sequel to Diablo III, Diablo IV. The games operate through Blizzard's online gaming service Battle.net.
On July 9, 2008, Activision merged with Vivendi Games, culminating in the inclusion of the Blizzard brand name in the title of the resulting holding company. On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from the majority owner Vivendi, which resulted in Activision Blizzard becoming a completely independent company. Since 2018, the company's reputation has suffered from a series of poorly received games, controversies involving players and staff, and allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct against leading Blizzard employees. Activision Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft in 2023.
Blizzard Entertainment hosts annual gaming conventions for fans to meet and to promote their games: the first BlizzCon was held in October 2005 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, which is where all of their conventions have been held since. BlizzCon features game-related announcements, previews of upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games and content, Q&A sessions and panels, costume contests, and playable demos of various Blizzard games. Blizzard WorldWide Invitationals were events similar to BlizzCon held in South Korea and France between 2004 and 2008.
History
Founding (1991–1994)
Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse in February 1991, after all three had earned their bachelor's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, the year prior. The name "Silicon & Synapse" was a high concept from the three founders, with "silicon" representing the building block of a computer, while "synapse" the building block of the brain. The initial logo was created by Stu Rose. To fund the company, each of them contributed about $10,000, Morhaime borrowing the sum interest-free from his grandmother. During the first two years, the company focused on creating game ports for other studios. Ports include titles such as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I and Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess. In 1993, the company developed games such as Rock n' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings (published by Interplay Productions).
Around 1993, co-founder Adham told the other executives that he did not like the name "Silicon & Synapse" anymore, as people outside the company were confusing the meaning of silicon the chemical element used in microchips with silicone the materials used in breast implants. By the end of 1993, Adham changed the name to "Chaos Studios", reflecting on the haphazardness of their development processes.
In early 1994, they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for $6.75 million ($ million today). Shortly after this point, they were contacted by a Florida company, Chaos Technologies, who wanted the company to pay () to keep the name. Not wanting to pay that sum, the executives decided to change the studio's name to "Ogre Studios" by April 1994. However, Davidson & Associates did not like this name, and forced the company to change it. According to Morhaime, Adham began running through a dictionary from the start, writing down any word that seemed interesting and passing it to the legal department to see if it had any complications. One of the first words they found to be interesting and cleared the legal check was "blizzard", leading them to change their name to "Blizzard Entertainment" by May 1994.
Shortly thereafter, Blizzard Entertainment shipped their breakthrough hit Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, a real-time strategy (RTS) game in a high-fantasy setting.
Acquisition by Vivendi and World of Warcraft (1995–2007)
Blizzard Entertainment has changed hands several times since then. Davidson was acquired along with Sierra On-Line by a company called CUC International in 1996. CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger. Cendant's stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On-line (which included Blizzard) to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard, at this point numbering about 200 employees, became part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi.
In 1996, Blizzard Entertainment acquired Condor Games of San Mateo, California, which had been working on the action role-playing game (ARPG) Diablo for Blizzard at the time. Condor was renamed Blizzard North, with Blizzard's main headquarters in Irvine renamed to Blizzard South to distinguish the two. Diablo was released at the very start of 1997 alongside Battle.net, a matchmaking service for the game. Blizzard North developed the sequel Diablo II (2000), and its expansion pack Lord of Destruction (2001). Following these releases, a number of key staff from Blizzard North departed for other opportunities, such as Bill Roper. Blizzard's management mentioned made the decision August 2005 to consolidate Blizzard North into Blizzard South, relocating staff to the main Blizzard offices in Irvine, and subsequently dropping the "Blizzard South" name.
Following the success of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Blizzard began development on a science-fiction themed RTS StarCraft and released the title in March 1998. The title was the top-selling PC game for the year, and led to further growth of the Battle.net service and the use of the game for esports. Around 2000, Blizzard engaged with Nihilistic Software to work on a version of StarCraft for home consoles for Blizzard. Nihilisitic was co-founded by Robert Huebner, who had worked on StarCraft and other games while a Blizzard employee before leaving to found the studio. The game, StarCraft: Ghost, was a stealth-oriented game compared to the RTS features of StarCraft, and was a major feature of the 2002 Tokyo Game Show. However, over the next few years, the game entered development hell with conflicts between Nihilisitic and Blizzard on its direction. Blizzard ordered Nihilistic to stop work on StarCraft: Ghost in July 2004, and instead brought on Swingin' Ape Studios, a third-party studio that had just successfully released Metal Arms: Glitch in the System in 2003, to reboot the development of Ghost. Blizzard fully acquired Swingin' Ape Studios in May 2005 to continue on Ghost. However, while the game was scheduled to be released in 2005, it was targeted at the consoles of the sixth generation, such as the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, while the industry was transitioning to the seventh generation. Blizzard decided to cancel Ghost rather than extend its development period to work on the newer consoles.
Blizzard started to work on a sequel to the Warcraft II in early 1998, which was announced as a "role-playing strategy" game. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, the third title set in the Warcraft fictional universe, was released in July 2002. Warcraft III has inspired many future games, having the influence on real-time strategy and multiplayer online battle arena genre. Many of the characters, locations and concepts introduced in Warcraft III and its expansion went on to play major roles in numerous future Blizzard's titles.
In 2002, Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles, The Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing and Blackthorne, from Interplay Entertainment and re-release them for the Game Boy Advance handheld console.
In 2004, Blizzard opened European offices in the Paris suburb of Vélizy, Yvelines, France.
Blizzard Entertainment released World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the Warcraft franchise, on November 23, 2004, in North America, and on February 11, 2005, in Europe. By December 2004, the game was the fastest-selling PC game in the United States, and by March 2005, had reached 1.5 million subscribers worldwide. Blizzard partnered with Chinese publisher The9 to publish and distribute World of Warcraft in China, as foreign companies could not directly publish into the country themselves. World of Warcraft launched in China in June 2005. By the end of 2007, World of Warcraft was considered a global phenomenon, having reached over 9 million subscribers and exceeded in revenue since its release. In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market. Blizzard's staff quadrupled from around 400 employees in 2004 to 1600 by 2006 to provide more resources to the game and its various expansions, and Blizzard moved their headquarters to 16215 Alton Parkway in Irvine, California in 2007 to support the additional staff.
With the success of World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment organized the first BlizzCon fan convention in October 2005 held at the Anaheim Convention Center. The inaugural event drew about 6,000 people and became an annual event which Blizzard uses to announce new games, expansions, and content for its properties.
Vivendi merger with Activision and continued growth (2008–2017)
Up through 2006, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision, had been working to rebound the company from near-bankruptcy, and had established a number of new studios. However, Activision lacked anything in the MMO market. Kotick saw that World of Warcraft was bringing in over a year in subscription fees, and began approaching Vivendi's CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy about potential acquisition of their struggling Vivendi Games division, which included Blizzard Entertainment. Lévy was open to a merger, but would only allow it if he controlled the majority of the combined company, knowing the value of World of Warcraft to Kotick. Among those Kotick spoke to for advice included Blizzard's Morhaime, who told Kotick that they had begun establishing lucrative in-roads into the Chinese market. Kotick accepted Lévy's deal, with the deal approved by shareholders in December 2007. By July 2008, the merger was complete, with Vivendi Games effectively dissolved except for Blizzard Entertainment, and the new company was named Activision Blizzard.
Blizzard established a distribution agreement with the Chinese company NetEase in August 2008 to publish Blizzard's games in China. The deal focused on StarCraft II which was gaining popularity as an esport within southeast Asia, as well as for other Blizzard games with the exception of World of Warcraft, still being handled by The9. The two companies established the Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology for managing the games within China. Blizzard and The9 prepared to launch the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King, but the expansion came under scrutiny by China's content regulation board, the General Administration of Press and Publication, which rejected publication of it within China in March 2009, even with preliminary modifications made by The9 to clear it. Rumors of Blizzard's dissatisfaction with The9 from this and other previous complications with World of Warcraft came to a head when, in April 2009, Blizzard announced it was terminating its contract with The9, and transferred operation of World of Warcraft in China to NetEase.
They released an improved version of Battle.net (Battle.net 2.0) in March 2009 which included improved matchmaking, storefront features, and better support for all of Blizzard's existing titles particularly World of Warcraft.
Having peaked at 12 million monthly subscriptions in 2010, World of Warcraft subscriptions sunk to 6.8 million in 2014, the lowest number since the end of 2006, prior to The Burning Crusade expansion. However, World of Warcraft is still the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In 2008, Blizzard was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the creation of World of Warcraft. Mike Morhaime accepted the award.
Following the merger, Blizzard found it was relying on its well-established properties, but at the same time, the industry was experiencing a shift towards indie games. Blizzard established a few small teams within the company to work on developing new concepts based on the indie development approach that it could potentially use. One of these teams quickly came onto the idea of a collectible card game based on the Warcraft narrative universe, which ultimately became Hearthstone, released as a free-to-play title in March 2014. Hearthstone reached over 25 million players by the end of 2014, and exceeded 100 million players by 2018.
Another small internal team began work around 2008 on a new intellectual property known as Titan, a more contemporary or near-future MMORPG that would have co-existed alongside World of Warcraft. The project gained more visibility in 2010 as a result of some information leaks. Blizzard continued to speak on Titans development over the next few years, with over 100 people within Blizzard working on the project. However, Titans development was troubled, and, internally, in May 2013, Blizzard cancelled the project (publicly reporting this in 2014), and reassigned most of the staff but left about 40 people, led by Jeff Kaplan, to either come up with a fresh idea within a few weeks or have their team reassigned to Blizzard's other departments. The small team came upon the idea of a team-based multiplayer shooter game, reusing many of the assets from Titan but set in a new near-future narrative. The new project was greenlit by Blizzard and became known as Overwatch, which was released in May 2016. Overwatch became the fourth main intellectual property of Blizzard, following Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo.
In addition to Hearthstone and Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment continued to produce sequels and expansions to its established properties during this period, including StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010) and Diablo III (2012). Their major crossover title, Heroes of the Storm, was released as a MOBA game in 2015. The game featured various characters from Blizzard's franchises as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch universes. In the late 2010s, Blizzard released StarCraft: Remastered (2017) and Warcraft III: Reforged (2020), remastered versions of the original StarCraft and Warcraft III, respectively.
The May 2016 release of Overwatch was highly successful, and was the highest-selling game on PC for 2016. Several traditional esport events had been established within the year of Overwatch release, such as the Overwatch World Cup, but Blizzard continued to expand this and announced the first esports professional league, the Overwatch League at the 2016 BlizzCon event. The company purchased a studio at The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, that it converted into a dedicated esports venue, the Blizzard Arena, to be used for the Overwatch League and other events. The inaugural season of the Overwatch League launched on January 10, 2018, with 12 global teams playing. By the second season in 2019 it had expanded the League to 20 teams, and with its third season in 2020, it will have these teams traveling across the globe in a transitional home/away-style format.
In 2012, Blizzard Entertainment had 4,700 employees, with offices across 11 cities including Austin, Texas, and countries around the globe. , the company's headquarters in Irvine, California had 2,622 employees.
Change of leadership (2018–2022)
On October 3, 2018, Mike Morhaime announced his plans to step down as the company president and CEO while remaining an advisor to the company; he formally left on April 7, 2019. Morhaime was replaced by J. Allen Brack, the executive producer on World of Warcraft.
Frank Pearce announced he would be stepping down as Blizzard's Chief Development Officer on July 19, 2019, though will remain in an advisory role similar to Morhaime. Michael Chu, lead writer on many of Blizzard's franchises including Diablo, Warcraft, and Overwatch, announced he was leaving the company after 20 years in March 2020.
On January 22, 2021, Activision transferred Vicarious Visions over to Blizzard Entertainment, stating that the Vicarious Visions team had better opportunity for long-term support for Blizzard. Vicarious had been working with Blizzard for about two years prior to this announcement on the planned remaster of Diablo II, Diablo II: Resurrected, and according to Brack, it made sense to incorporate Vicarious into Blizzard for ongoing support of the game and for other Diablo games including Diablo IV. Vicarious was completely merged into Blizzard by April 12, 2022.
In celebration of the company's 30th anniversary, Blizzard Entertainment released a compilation called Blizzard Arcade Collection in February 2021, for various video game platforms. The collection includes their three classic video games: The Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing, and Blackthorne, each of which containing additional upgrades and numerous modern features.
Activision Blizzard was the subject of a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in July 2021, asserting that for several years the management within Blizzard as well as Activision promoted a "frat boy" atmosphere that allowed and encouraged sexual misconduct towards female employees and discrimination in hiring practices. The lawsuit drew a large response from employees and groups outside of Activision Blizzard. In the wake of these events, Brack, one of the few individuals directly named in the suit, announced he was leaving Blizzard to "pursue new opportunities", and will be replaced by co-leads Jen Oneal, the lead of Vicarious Visions and the first woman in a leadership role for the company, and Mike Ybarra, a Blizzard executive vice president. Oneal announced in November 2021 that she would be leaving the company by the end of 2021, leaving Ybarra as the sole leader of Blizzard.
As a result of the California lawsuit and of delays and release issues with their more recent games, Activision Blizzard's stock faced severe pressure. Subsequently, Microsoft seized the opportunity to become one of the largest video game companies in the world and announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard and its subsidiaries, including Blizzard, for in January 2022. This exchange marks the largest acquisition in tech history, surpassing the $67 billion Dell-EMC merger from 2016. The deal closed on October 13, 2023, and Activision Blizzard moved into the Microsoft Gaming division.
Blizzard acquired Proletariat, the developers of Spellbreak, in June 2022 as to help support World of Warcraft. The 100-employee studio remained in Boston but will shutter Spellbreak as they move onto Warcraft.
Challenges with NetEase (2023–present)
Ahead of their license renewal in January 2023, Blizzard (via Activision Blizzard) and NetEase stated in November 2022 that they had been unable to come to an agreement on the renewal terms for their license, and thus most Blizzard games will cease operations in January 2023 until the situation can be resolved. According to a report by The New York Times, several factors influenced Activision Blizzard's decision to terminate the agreement, which included stronger demands made by the Chinese government to know of Activision Blizzard's internal business matters, NetEase's desire to license the games directly rather than run the license through a joint venture, and Activision Blizzard's concerns that NetEase was trying to start their own ventures, including the payment towards Bungie in 2018. NetEase was further concerned about the impact of the pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. Activision Blizzard stated they were looking to other Chinese firms as replacements for NetEase as to restore their games in China.
Games
Blizzard Entertainment has developed 19 games since the inception of the company in 1991.
Main franchises
The majority of the games Blizzard published are in the Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft series. Since the release of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994), Diablo (1997), and StarCraft (1998), the focus has been almost exclusively on those three franchises. Overwatch (2016) became an exception years later, bringing the number of main franchises to four. Each franchise is supported by other media based around its intellectual property such as novels, collectible card games, comics and video shorts. Blizzard announced in 2006 that they would be producing a Warcraft live-action movie. The movie was directed by Duncan Jones, financed and produced by Legendary Pictures, Atlas Entertainment, and others, and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was released in June 2016. On October 4, 2022 Overwatch servers were officially shut off, Later Overwatch 2 (2022) servers went up.
Spin-offs
Blizzard has released two spin-offs to the main franchises: Hearthstone (2014), which is set in the existing Warcraft lore, and Heroes of the Storm (2015), which features playable characters from all four of Blizzard's franchises.
Remasters
In 2015, Blizzard Entertainment formed "Classic Games division", a team focused on updating and remastering some of their older titles, with an initially announced focus on StarCraft: Remastered (2017), Warcraft III: Reforged (2020), and Diablo II: Resurrected (2021).
Re-released games
In February 2021, Blizzard Entertainment released a compilation called Blizzard Arcade Collection for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. The collection includes five Blizzard's classic video games: The Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing, Blackthorne, The Lost Vikings 2 and RPM Racing, with the last two games added in April 2021. Some of the modern features include 16:9 resolution, 4-player split-screen, rewinding and saving of game progress, watching replays, and adding graphic filters to change the look of player's game. Additionally, it contains upgrades for each game such as enhanced local multiplayer for The Lost Vikings, new songs and artist performances for Rock n' Roll Racing, as well as a new level map for Blackthorne. A digital museum, which is included in the collection, features game art, unused content, and interviews.
Unreleased and future games
Notable unreleased titles include Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, which was canceled on May 22, 1998, Shattered Nations, and StarCraft: Ghost, which was "Postponed indefinitely" on March 24, 2006, after being in development hell for much of its lifespan. After seven years of development, Blizzard revealed the cancellation of an unannounced MMO codenamed Titan on September 23, 2014. The company also has a history of declining to set release dates, choosing to instead take as much time as needed, generally saying a given product is "done when it's done."
Pax Imperia II was originally announced as a title to be published by Blizzard. Blizzard eventually dropped Pax Imperia II, though, when it decided it might be in conflict with their other space strategy project, which became known as StarCraft. THQ eventually contracted with Heliotrope and released the game in 1997 as Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain.
The company announced in January 2022 that it was near release of another new intellectual property, a survival game that had been at work at the studio for nearly five years.
Ports
The company, known at the time as the Silicon & Synapse, initially concentrated on porting other studio's games to computer platforms, developing 8 ports between 1992 and 1993.
Company structure
As with most studios with multiple franchises, Blizzard Entertainment has organized different departments to oversee these franchises. Formally, since around the time of World of Warcraft in 2004, these have been denoted through simply numerical designations. The original three teams were:
Team 1 manages the StarCraft property. The team also oversaw the development of the StarCraft spin-off Heroes of the Storm. Team 1 also included the Classics Team to work on remastering Blizzard's earlier properties for modern computers, which have included StarCraft: Remastered and Warcraft III: Reforged. The Classic Games team was disbanded around August 2020, about eight months after Warcraft III: Reforged was released; according to Jason Schreier of Bloomberg News, this was due to Activision Blizzard driving Blizzard away from remastering its old properties, which figured into the launch issues with Warcraft III: Reforged.
Team 2 continues to manage and create content for World of Warcraft.
Team 3 oversees the Diablo franchise.
Since 2004, two new teams were created:
Team 4 was created around 2007 to work on Blizzard's first new IP since World of Warcraft, that being Titan. Titan had development difficulties near 2013, and most of Team 4 was reallocated to the other teams, but the remaining members, led by Jeff Kaplan, revised Titans concept into Overwatch, which remains in Team 4's hands since its release in 2016.
Team 5 was created in 2008 to explore smaller games that could fit into Blizzard's portfolio. This resulted in the creation of Hearthstone, a collectible card game based on the Warcraft property, which became Team 5's priority.
Technology
Battle.net 2.0
Blizzard Entertainment released its revamped Battle.net service in 2009. The platform provides online gaming, digital distribution, digital rights management, and social networking service. Battle.net allows people who have purchased Blizzard products to download digital copies of games they have purchased, without needing any physical media.
On November 11, 2009, Blizzard required all World of Warcraft accounts to switch over to Battle.net accounts. This transition means that all current Blizzard titles can be accessed, downloaded, and played with a singular Battle.net login.
Battle.net 2.0 is the platform for matchmaking service for Blizzard games, which offers players a host of additional features. Players are able to track their friend's achievements, view match history, avatars, etc. Players are able to unlock a wide range of achievements for Blizzard games.
The service provides the user with community features such as friends lists and groups, and allows players to chat simultaneously with players from other Blizzard games using VoIP and instant messaging. For example, players no longer need to create multiple user names or accounts for most Blizzard products. To enable cross-game communication, players need to become either Battletag or Real ID friends.
Warden client
Blizzard Entertainment has made use of a special form of software known as the 'Warden Client'. The Warden client is known to be used with Blizzard's online games such as Diablo and World of Warcraft, and the Terms of Service contain a clause consenting to the Warden software's RAM scans while a Blizzard game is running.
The Warden client scans a small portion of the code segment of running processes in order to determine whether any third-party programs are running. The goal of this is to detect and address players who may be attempting to run unsigned code or third party programs in the game. This determination of third party programs is made by hashing the scanned strings and comparing the hashed value to a list of hashes assumed to correspond to banned third party programs. The Warden's reliability in correctly discerning legitimate versus illegitimate actions was called into question when a large-scale incident happened. This incident banned many Linux users after an update to Warden caused it to incorrectly detect Cedega as a cheat program. Blizzard issued a statement claiming they had correctly identified and restored all accounts and credited them with 20 days' play. Warden scans all processes running on a computer, not just the game, and could possibly run across what would be considered private information and other personally identifiable information. It is because of these peripheral scans that Warden has been accused of being spyware and has run afoul of controversy among privacy advocates.
Controversies and legal disputes
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. v. Valve Corporation
Shortly after Valve filed its trademark for "Dota" to secure the franchising rights for Dota 2, DotA-Allstars, LLC, run by former contributors to the game's predecessor, Defense of the Ancients, filed an opposing trademark in August 2010. DotA All-Stars, LLC was sold to Blizzard Entertainment in 2011. After the opposition was over-ruled in Valve's favor, Blizzard filed an opposition against Valve in November 2011, citing their license agreement with developers, as well as their ownership of DotA-Allstars, LLC. Blizzard conceded their case in May 2012, however, giving Valve undisputed commercial rights to Dota name, while Blizzard would rename their StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm mod "Blizzard All-Stars", which would eventually become the stand-alone game, Heroes of the Storm.
California Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard
Following a two-year investigation, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard in July 2021 for gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment, principally within the Blizzard Entertainment workplace. The DFEH alleges that female employees were subjected to constant sexual harassment, unequal pay, retaliation, as well as discrimination based on pregnancy. The suit also described a "pervasive frat boy workplace culture" at Blizzard that included objectification of women's bodies and jokes about rape. Activision Blizzard's statement described the suit as meritless, contending that action had been taken in any instances of misconduct. The company also objected to the DFEH not approaching them prior to filing. The lawsuit prompted an employee walkout, as well as leading J Allen Brack, and head of human resources, Jesse Meschuk, to step down. Because of these allegations, Blizzard changed names that referenced employees in multiple of its franchises, including Overwatch and World of Warcraft.
Founder Electronics infringement lawsuit
On August 14, 2007, Beijing University Founder Electronics Co., Ltd. sued Blizzard Entertainment Limited for copyright infringement claiming 100 million yuan in damages. The lawsuit alleged the Chinese edition of World of Warcraft reproduced a number of Chinese typefaces made by Founder Electronics without permission.
FreeCraft
On June 20, 2003, Blizzard issued a cease and desist letter to the developers of an open-source clone of the Warcraft engine called FreeCraft, claiming trademark infringement. This hobby project had the same gameplay and characters as Warcraft II, but came with different graphics and music.
As well as a similar name, FreeCraft enabled players to use Warcraft II graphics, provided they had the Warcraft II CD. The programmers of the clone shut down their site without challenge. Soon after that the developers regrouped to continue the work by the name of Stratagus.
Hearthstone ban and Hong Kong protests
During an October 2019 Hearthstone Grandmasters streaming event in Taiwan, one player Ng Wai Chung, going by his online alias "Blitzchung" used an interview period to show support for the protestors in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. Shortly afterwards, on October 7, 2019, Blitzchung was disqualified from the current tournament and forfeited his winnings to date, and banned for a one-year period. The two shoutcasters engaged in the interview were also penalized with similar bans. Blizzard justified the ban as from its Grandmasters tournament rules that prevents players from anything that "brings [themselves] into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages [Blizzard's] image".
Blizzard's response led to several protests from current Hearthstone players, other video game players, and criticism from Blizzard's employees, fearing that Blizzard was giving into the censorship of the Chinese government. Protests were held, including through the 2019 BlizzCon in early November, to urge Blizzard to reverse their bans. The situation also drew the attention of several U.S. lawmakers, fearing that Blizzard, as a U.S. company, was letting China dictate how it handled speech and also urged the bans to be reversed.
Blizzard CEO J. Allen Brack wrote an open letter on October 11, 2019, apologizing for the way Blizzard handled the situation, and reduced the bans for both Blitzchung and the casters to six months. Brack reiterated that while they support free speech and their decision was in no way tied to the Chinese government, they want players and casters to avoid speaking beyond the tournament and the games in such interviews.
King's "Diversity Tool" controversy
On May 12, 2022, Blizzard Entertainment released a blog post about the Diversity Space Tool, developed by a team at King – a mobile business unit at Activision Blizzard – alongside the MIT Game Lab. Jacqueline Chomatas, King's globalization project manager, described the tool as a "measurement device" to analyze how diverse the characters are "when compared to the 'norm'". The post showed example images of the tool being used on Overwatch's cast, with graphs showing breakdowns of the character attributes, and stated that "The Overwatch 2 team at Blizzard has also had a chance to experiment with the tool, with equally enthusiastic first impressions." Blizzard shared the intent to release the tool during the summer and fall of 2022, with the goal of "making the tool available to the industry as a whole".
The tool received heavy backlash online. Many people asked why Blizzard would create the tool instead of hiring diverse teams, and raised questions regarding the tool's rating scale. The blog post originally suggested that the tool was used in an active development, mainly for Overwatch, which led some Blizzard employees working on the game to publicly deny the tool was used in Overwatch development and to criticize the tool further. On May 13, 2022, the blog post was edited to remove the example images of the tool and any mention of Overwatch. Later, the post was deleted altogether.
MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
On July 14, 2008, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona ruled on the case MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.. The Court found that MDY was liable for copyright infringement since users of its Glider bot program were breaking the End User License Agreement and Terms of Use for World of Warcraft. MDY Industries appealed the judgment of the district court, and a judgment was delivered by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on December 14, 2010, in which the summary judgment against MDY for contributory copyright infringement was reversed. Nevertheless, they ruled that the bot violated the DMCA and the case was sent back to the district court for review in light of this decision.
MDY v. Blizzards decision did affirm a prior Ninth Circuit ruling in Vernor v. Autodesk, Inc. that software licenses, such as the one used by Blizzard for WoW, were enforceable and enshrined the principle that video games could be sold as licenses to players rather than purchased. This ruling, though limited to the states of the Ninth Circuit, has been used by the industry to continue to sell games as licenses to users.
Privacy controversy and Real ID
On July 6, 2010, Blizzard Entertainment announced that they were changing the way their forums worked to require that users identify themselves with their real name. The reaction from the community was overwhelmingly negative with multiple game magazines calling the change "foolhardy" and an "epic fail". It resulted in a significant user response on the Blizzard forums, including one thread on the issue reaching over 11,000 replies. This included personal details of a Blizzard employee who gave his real name "to show it wasn't a big deal". Shortly after revealing his real name, forum users posted personal information including his phone number, picture, age, and home address.
Some technology media outlets suggested that displaying real names through Real ID is a good idea and would benefit both Battle.net and the Blizzard community. But others were worried that Blizzard was opening their fans up to real-life dangers such as stalking, harassment, and employment issues, since a simple Internet search by someone's employer can reveal their online activities.
Blizzard initially responded to some of the concerns by saying that the changes would not be retroactive to previous posts, that parents could set up the system so that minors cannot post, and that posting to the forums is optional. However, due to the significant negative response, Blizzard President Michael Morhaime issued a statement rescinding the plan to use real names on Blizzard's forums for the time being. The idea behind this plan was to allow players who had a relationship outside of the games to find each other more easily across all the Blizzard game titles.
StarCraft privacy and other lawsuits
In 1998, Donald P. Driscoll, an Albany, California, attorney filed a suit on behalf of Intervention, Inc., a California consumer group, against Blizzard Entertainment for "unlawful business practices" for the action of collecting data from a user's computer without their permission.
On May 19, 2014, Blizzard Entertainment filed a lawsuit in federal court in California, alleging that the unidentified programmers were involved in creation of software that hacks Starcraft II. Most of the alleged charges are related to copyright infringement.
Back in May 2010, MBCPlus Media, which operates the network MBCGame (Korean television stations that are broadcasting tournaments built around StarCraft), was revealed to be sued by Blizzard for broadcasting StarCraft tournaments without the company's consent, insisting that StarCraft is not a public domain offering, as Blizzard has invested significant money and resources to create the StarCraft game.
World of Warcraft private server complications
On December 5, 2008, Blizzard Entertainment issued a cease and desist letter to many administrators of high population World of Warcraft private servers (essentially slightly altered hosting servers of the actual World of Warcraft game, that players do not have to pay for). Blizzard used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to influence many private servers to fully shut down and cease to exist.
Related companies
Over the years, some former Blizzard Entertainment employees have moved on and established gaming companies of their own. Several of these occurred following the merger between Activision Holdings and Blizzard's parent company at the time, Vivendi Games in 2008, and more recently as Activision Blizzard has directed Blizzard away from properties like Warcraft and Starcraft that are not seen as financial boons to the larger company. These employees left to form their smaller studios to give themselves the creative freedom that they were lacking at Blizzard. Collectively these studios are known as "Blizzard 2.0".
ArenaNet, creators of the Guild Wars franchise.
Bonfire Studios, founded by Rob Pardo.
Carbine Studios, now defunct as of September 2018, after releasing a massively multiplayer title WildStar.
Castaway Entertainment, now defunct, after working on a game similar to the Diablo series, Djinn.
Dreamhaven, founded by Michael Morhaime.
Flagship Studios, now defunct, creators of Hellgate: London, also worked on Mythos.
Frost Giant Studios, founded by Tim Morten and Tim Campbell, currently developing real-time strategy game Stormgate.
Hyboreal Games, founded by Michio Okamura.
Ready at Dawn Studios, creators of The Order: 1886, Daxter, God of War: Chains of Olympus and an Ōkami port for the Wii.
Red 5 Studios, now defunct, creators of Firefall, a free to play game MMOG.
Runic Games, now defunct, founded by Travis Baldree, Erich Schaefer, and Max Schaefer; creators of Torchlight.
Second Dinner, founded by Ben Brode, creators of Marvel Snap.
Uncapped Games, founded by David Kim and Jason Hughes.
References
Further reading
External links
Companies based in Irvine, California
Former Vivendi subsidiaries
Video game companies established in 1991
Video game companies of the United States
Video game development companies
Video game publishers
Spike Video Game Award winners
Video game controversies |
4882 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Background%20radiation | Background radiation | Background radiation is a measure of the level of ionizing radiation present in the environment at a particular location which is not due to deliberate introduction of radiation sources.
Background radiation originates from a variety of sources, both natural and artificial. These include both cosmic radiation and environmental radioactivity from naturally occurring radioactive materials (such as radon and radium), as well as man-made medical X-rays, fallout from nuclear weapons testing and nuclear accidents.
Definition
Background radiation is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as "Dose or the dose rate (or an observed measure related to the dose or dose rate) attributable to all sources other than the one(s) specified. So a distinction is made between the dose which is already in a location, which is defined here as being "background", and the dose due to a deliberately introduced and specified source. This is important where radiation measurements are taken of a specified radiation source, where the existing background may affect this measurement. An example would be measurement of radioactive contamination in a gamma radiation background, which could increase the total reading above that expected from the contamination alone.
However, if no radiation source is specified as being of concern, then the total radiation dose measurement at a location is generally called the background radiation, and this is usually the case where an ambient dose rate is measured for environmental purposes.
Background dose rate examples
Background radiation varies with location and time, and the following table gives examples:
Natural background radiation
Radioactive material is found throughout nature. Detectable amounts occur naturally in soil, rocks, water, air, and vegetation, from which it is inhaled and ingested into the body. In addition to this internal exposure, humans also receive external exposure from radioactive materials that remain outside the body and from cosmic radiation from space. The worldwide average natural dose to humans is about per year. This is four times the worldwide average artificial radiation exposure, which in 2008 amounted to about per year. In some developed countries, like the US and Japan, artificial exposure is, on average, greater than the natural exposure, due to greater access to medical imaging. In Europe, average natural background exposure by country ranges from under annually in the United Kingdom to more than annually for some groups of people in Finland.
The International Atomic Energy Agency states:
"Exposure to radiation from natural sources is an inescapable feature of everyday life in both working and public environments. This exposure is in most cases of little or no concern to society, but in certain situations the introduction of health protection measures needs to be considered, for example when working with uranium and thorium ores and other Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM). These situations have become the focus of greater attention by the Agency in recent years."
Terrestrial sources
Terrestrial radiation, for the purpose of the table above, only includes sources that remain external to the body. The major radionuclides of concern are potassium, uranium and thorium and their decay products, some of which, like radium and radon are intensely radioactive but occur in low concentrations. Most of these sources have been decreasing, due to radioactive decay since the formation of the Earth, because there is no significant amount currently transported to the Earth. Thus, the present activity on Earth from uranium-238 is only half as much as it originally was because of its 4.5 billion year half-life, and potassium-40 (half-life 1.25 billion years) is only at about 8% of original activity. But during the time that humans have existed the amount of radiation has decreased very little.
Many shorter half-life (and thus more intensely radioactive) isotopes have not decayed out of the terrestrial environment because of their on-going natural production. Examples of these are radium-226 (decay product of thorium-230 in decay chain of uranium-238) and radon-222 (a decay product of radium-226 in said chain).
Thorium and uranium (and their daughters) primarily undergo alpha and beta decay, and aren't easily detectable. However, many of their daughter products are strong gamma emitters. Thorium-232 is detectable via a 239 keV peak from lead-212, 511, 583 and 2614 keV from thallium-208, and 911 and 969 keV from actinium-228. Uranium-238 manifests as 609, 1120, and 1764 keV peaks of bismuth-214 (cf. the same peak for atmospheric radon). Potassium-40 is detectable directly via its 1461 keV gamma peak.
The level over the sea and other large bodies of water tends to be about a tenth of the terrestrial background. Conversely, coastal areas (and areas by the side of fresh water) may have an additional contribution from dispersed sediment.
Airborne sources
The biggest source of natural background radiation is airborne radon, a radioactive gas that emanates from the ground. Radon and its isotopes, parent radionuclides, and decay products all contribute to an average inhaled dose of 1.26 mSv/a (millisievert per year). Radon is unevenly distributed and varies with weather, such that much higher doses apply to many areas of the world, where it represents a significant health hazard. Concentrations over 500 times the world average have been found inside buildings in Scandinavia, the United States, Iran, and the Czech Republic. Radon is a decay product of uranium, which is relatively common in the Earth's crust, but more concentrated in ore-bearing rocks scattered around the world. Radon seeps out of these ores into the atmosphere or into ground water or infiltrates into buildings. It can be inhaled into the lungs, along with its decay products, where they will reside for a period of time after exposure.
Although radon is naturally occurring, exposure can be enhanced or diminished by human activity, notably house construction. A poorly sealed dwelling floor, or poor basement ventilation, in an otherwise well insulated house can result in the accumulation of radon within the dwelling, exposing its residents to high concentrations. The widespread construction of well insulated and sealed homes in the northern industrialized world has led to radon becoming the primary source of background radiation in some localities in northern North America and Europe. Basement sealing and suction ventilation reduce exposure. Some building materials, for example lightweight concrete with alum shale, phosphogypsum and Italian tuff, may emanate radon if they contain radium and are porous to gas.
Radiation exposure from radon is indirect. Radon has a short half-life (4 days) and decays into other solid particulate radium-series radioactive nuclides. These radioactive particles are inhaled and remain lodged in the lungs, causing continued exposure. Radon is thus assumed to be the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking, and accounts for 15,000 to 22,000 cancer deaths per year in the US alone. However, the discussion about the opposite experimental results is still going on.
About 100,000 Bq/m3 of radon was found in Stanley Watras's basement in 1984. He and his neighbours in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, United States may hold the record for the most radioactive dwellings in the world. International radiation protection organizations estimate that a committed dose may be calculated by multiplying the equilibrium equivalent concentration (EEC) of radon by a factor of 8 to 9 and the EEC of thoron by a factor of 40 .
Most of the atmospheric background is caused by radon and its decay products. The gamma spectrum shows prominent peaks at 609, 1120, and 1764 keV, belonging to bismuth-214, a radon decay product. The atmospheric background varies greatly with wind direction and meteorological conditions. Radon also can be released from the ground in bursts and then form "radon clouds" capable of traveling tens of kilometers.
Cosmic radiation
The Earth and all living things on it are constantly bombarded by radiation from outer space. This radiation primarily consists of positively charged ions from protons to iron and larger nuclei derived from outside the Solar System. This radiation interacts with atoms in the atmosphere to create an air shower of secondary radiation, including X-rays, muons, protons, alpha particles, pions, electrons, and neutrons. The immediate dose from cosmic radiation is largely from muons, neutrons, and electrons, and this dose varies in different parts of the world based largely on the geomagnetic field and altitude. For example, the city of Denver in the United States (at 1650 meters elevation) receives a cosmic ray dose roughly twice that of a location at sea level. This radiation is much more intense in the upper troposphere, around 10 km altitude, and is thus of particular concern for airline crews and frequent passengers, who spend many hours per year in this environment. During their flights airline crews typically get an additional occupational dose between per year and 2.19 mSv/year, according to various studies.
Similarly, cosmic rays cause higher background exposure in astronauts than in humans on the surface of Earth. Astronauts in low orbits, such as in the International Space Station or the Space Shuttle, are partially shielded by the magnetic field of the Earth, but also suffer from the Van Allen radiation belt which accumulates cosmic rays and results from the Earth's magnetic field. Outside low Earth orbit, as experienced by the Apollo astronauts who traveled to the Moon, this background radiation is much more intense, and represents a considerable obstacle to potential future long term human exploration of the Moon or Mars.
Cosmic rays also cause elemental transmutation in the atmosphere, in which secondary radiation generated by the cosmic rays combines with atomic nuclei in the atmosphere to generate different nuclides. Many so-called cosmogenic nuclides can be produced, but probably the most notable is carbon-14, which is produced by interactions with nitrogen atoms. These cosmogenic nuclides eventually reach the Earth's surface and can be incorporated into living organisms. The production of these nuclides varies slightly with short-term variations in solar cosmic ray flux, but is considered practically constant over long scales of thousands to millions of years. The constant production, incorporation into organisms and relatively short half-life of carbon-14 are the principles used in radiocarbon dating of ancient biological materials, such as wooden artifacts or human remains.
The cosmic radiation at sea level usually manifests as 511 keV gamma rays from annihilation of positrons created by nuclear reactions of high energy particles and gamma rays. At higher altitudes there is also the contribution of continuous bremsstrahlung spectrum.
Food and water
Two of the essential elements that make up the human body, namely potassium and carbon, have radioactive isotopes that add significantly to our background radiation dose. An average human contains about 17 milligrams of potassium-40 (40K) and about 24 nanograms (10−9 g) of carbon-14 (14C), (half-life 5,730 years). Excluding internal contamination by external radioactive material, these two are the largest components of internal radiation exposure from biologically functional components of the human body. About 4,000 nuclei of 40K decay per second, and a similar number of 14C. The energy of beta particles produced by 40K is about 10 times that from the beta particles from 14C decay.
14C is present in the human body at a level of about 3700 Bq (0.1 μCi) with a biological half-life of 40 days. This means there are about 3700 beta particles per second produced by the decay of 14C. However, a 14C atom is in the genetic information of about half the cells, while potassium is not a component of DNA. The decay of a 14C atom inside DNA in one person happens about 50 times per second, changing a carbon atom to one of nitrogen.
The global average internal dose from radionuclides other than radon and its decay products is 0.29 mSv/a, of which 0.17 mSv/a comes from 40K, 0.12 mSv/a comes from the uranium and thorium series, and 12 μSv/a comes from 14C.
Areas with high natural background radiation
Some areas have greater dosage than the country-wide averages. In the world in general, exceptionally high natural background locales include Ramsar in Iran, Guarapari in Brazil, Karunagappalli in India, Arkaroola in Australia and Yangjiang in China.
The highest level of purely natural radiation ever recorded on the Earth's surface was 90 µGy/h on a Brazilian black beach (areia preta in Portuguese) composed of monazite. This rate would convert to 0.8 Gy/a for year-round continuous exposure, but in fact the levels vary seasonally and are much lower in the nearest residences. The record measurement has not been duplicated and is omitted from UNSCEAR's latest reports. Nearby tourist beaches in Guarapari and Cumuruxatiba were later evaluated at 14 and 15 µGy/h. Note that the values quoted here are in Grays. To convert to Sieverts (Sv) a radiation weighting factor is required; these weighting factors vary from 1 (beta & gamma) to 20 (alpha particles).
The highest background radiation in an inhabited area is found in Ramsar, primarily due to the use of local naturally radioactive limestone as a building material. The 1000 most exposed residents receive an average external effective radiation dose of per year, six times the ICRP recommended limit for exposure to the public from artificial sources. They additionally receive a substantial internal dose from radon. Record radiation levels were found in a house where the effective dose due to ambient radiation fields was per year, and the internal committed dose from radon was per year. This unique case is over 80 times higher than the world average natural human exposure to radiation.
Epidemiological studies are underway to identify health effects associated with the high radiation levels in Ramsar. It is much too early to draw unambiguous statistically significant conclusions. While so far support for beneficial effects of chronic radiation (like longer lifespan) has been observed in few places only, a protective and adaptive effect is suggested by at least one study whose authors nonetheless caution that data from Ramsar are not yet sufficiently strong to relax existing regulatory dose limits. However, the recent statistical analyses discussed that there is no correlation between the risk of negative health effects and elevated level of natural background radiation.
Photoelectric
Background radiation doses in the immediate vicinity of particles of high atomic number materials, within the human body, have a small enhancement due to the photoelectric effect.
Neutron background
Most of the natural neutron background is a product of cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere. The neutron energy peaks at around 1 MeV and rapidly drops above. At sea level, the production of neutrons is about 20 neutrons per second per kilogram of material interacting with the cosmic rays (or, about 100–300 neutrons per square meter per second). The flux is dependent on geomagnetic latitude, with a maximum near the magnetic poles. At solar minimums, due to lower solar magnetic field shielding, the flux is about twice as high vs the solar maximum. It also dramatically increases during solar flares. In the vicinity of larger heavier objects, e.g. buildings or ships, the neutron flux measures higher; this is known as "cosmic ray induced neutron signature", or "ship effect" as it was first detected with ships at sea.
Artificial background radiation
Atmospheric nuclear testing
Frequent above-ground nuclear explosions between the 1940s and 1960s scattered a substantial amount of radioactive contamination. Some of this contamination is local, rendering the immediate surroundings highly radioactive, while some of it is carried longer distances as nuclear fallout; some of this material is dispersed worldwide. The increase in background radiation due to these tests peaked in 1963 at about 0.15 mSv per year worldwide, or about 7% of average background dose from all sources. The Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 prohibited above-ground tests, thus by the year 2000 the worldwide dose from these tests has decreased to only 0.005 mSv per year.
Occupational exposure
The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends limiting occupational radiation exposure to 50 mSv (5 rem) per year, and 100 mSv (10 rem) in 5 years.
However, background radiation for occupational doses includes radiation that is not measured by radiation dose instruments in potential occupational exposure conditions. This includes both offsite "natural background radiation" and any medical radiation doses. This value is not typically measured or known from surveys, such that variations in the total dose to individual workers is not known. This can be a significant confounding factor in assessing radiation exposure effects in a population of workers who may have significantly different natural background and medical radiation doses. This is most significant when the occupational doses are very low.
At an IAEA conference in 2002, it was recommended that occupational doses below 1–2 mSv per year do not warrant regulatory scrutiny.
Nuclear accidents
Under normal circumstances, nuclear reactors release small amounts of radioactive gases, which cause small radiation exposures to the public. Events classified on the International Nuclear Event Scale as incidents typically do not release any additional radioactive substances into the environment. Large releases of radioactivity from nuclear reactors are extremely rare. To the present day, there were two major civilian accidents – the Chernobyl accident and the Fukushima I nuclear accidents – which caused substantial contamination. The Chernobyl accident was the only one to cause immediate deaths.
Total doses from the Chernobyl accident ranged from 10 to 50 mSv over 20 years for the inhabitants of the affected areas, with most of the dose received in the first years after the disaster, and over 100 mSv for liquidators. There were 28 deaths from acute radiation syndrome.
Total doses from the Fukushima I accidents were between 1 and 15 mSv for the inhabitants of the affected areas. Thyroid doses for children were below 50 mSv. 167 cleanup workers received doses above 100 mSv, with 6 of them receiving more than 250 mSv (the Japanese exposure limit for emergency response workers).
The average dose from the Three Mile Island accident was 0.01 mSv.
Non-civilian: In addition to the civilian accidents described above, several accidents at early nuclear weapons facilities – such as the Windscale fire, the contamination of the Techa River by the nuclear waste from the Mayak compound, and the Kyshtym disaster at the same compound – released substantial radioactivity into the environment. The Windscale fire resulted in thyroid doses of 5–20 mSv for adults and 10–60 mSv for children. The doses from the accidents at Mayak are unknown.
Nuclear fuel cycle
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and other U.S. and international agencies, require that licensees limit radiation exposure to individual members of the public to 1 mSv (100 mrem) per year.
Energy sources
Per UNECE life-cycle assessment, nearly all sources of energy result in some level of occupational and public exposure to radionuclides as result of their manufacturing or operations. The following table uses man·Sievert/GW-annum:
Coal burning
Coal plants emit radiation in the form of radioactive fly ash which is inhaled and ingested by neighbours, and incorporated into crops. A 1978 paper from Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimated that coal-fired power plants of that time may contribute a whole-body committed dose of 19 µSv/a to their immediate neighbours in a radius of 500 m. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation's 1988 report estimated the committed dose 1 km away to be 20 µSv/a for older plants or 1 µSv/a for newer plants with improved fly ash capture, but was unable to confirm these numbers by test. When coal is burned, uranium, thorium and all the uranium daughters accumulated by disintegration – radium, radon, polonium – are released. Radioactive materials previously buried underground in coal deposits are released as fly ash or, if fly ash is captured, may be incorporated into concrete manufactured with fly ash.
Other sources of dose uptake
Medical
The global average human exposure to artificial radiation is 0.6 mSv/a, primarily from medical imaging. This medical component can range much higher, with an average of 3 mSv per year across the USA population. Other human contributors include smoking, air travel, radioactive building materials, historical nuclear weapons testing, nuclear power accidents and nuclear industry operation.
A typical chest x-ray delivers 20 µSv (2 mrem) of effective dose. A dental x-ray delivers a dose of 5 to 10 µSv. A CT scan delivers an effective dose to the whole body ranging from 1 to 20 mSv (100 to 2000 mrem). The average American receives about 3 mSv of diagnostic medical dose per year; countries with the lowest levels of health care receive almost none. Radiation treatment for various diseases also accounts for some dose, both in individuals and in those around them.
Consumer items
Cigarettes contain polonium-210, originating from the decay products of radon, which stick to tobacco leaves. Heavy smoking results in a radiation dose of 160 mSv/year to localized spots at the bifurcations of segmental bronchi in the lungs from the decay of polonium-210. This dose is not readily comparable to the radiation protection limits, since the latter deal with whole body doses, while the dose from smoking is delivered to a very small portion of the body.
Radiation metrology
In a radiation metrology laboratory, background radiation refers to the measured value from any incidental sources that affect an instrument when a specific radiation source sample is being measured. This background contribution, which is established as a stable value by multiple measurements, usually before and after sample measurement, is subtracted from the rate measured when the sample is being measured.
This is in accordance with the International Atomic Energy Agency definition of background as being "Dose or dose rate (or an observed measure related to the dose or dose rate) attributable to all sources other than the one(s) specified.
The same issue occurs with radiation protection instruments, where a reading from an instrument may be affected by the background radiation. An example of this is a scintillation detector used for surface contamination monitoring. In an elevated gamma background the scintillator material will be affected by the background gamma, which will add to the reading obtained from any contamination which is being monitored. In extreme cases it will make the instrument unusable as the background swamps the lower level of radiation from the contamination. In such instruments the background can be continually monitored in the "Ready" state, and subtracted from any reading obtained when being used in "Measuring" mode.
Regular Radiation measurement is carried out at multiple levels. Government agencies compile radiation readings as part of environmental monitoring mandates, often making the readings available to the public and sometimes in near-real-time. Collaborative groups and private individuals may also make real-time readings available to the public. Instruments used for radiation measurement include the Geiger–Müller tube and the Scintillation detector. The former is usually more compact and affordable and reacts to several radiation types, while the latter is more complex and can detect specific radiation energies and types. Readings indicate radiation levels from all sources including background, and real-time readings are in general unvalidated, but correlation between independent detectors increases confidence in measured levels.
List of near-real-time government radiation measurement sites, employing multiple instrument types:
Europe and Canada: European Radiological Data Exchange Platform (EURDEP) Simple map of Gamma Dose Rates
USA: EPA Radnet near-real-time and laboratory data by state
List of international near-real-time collaborative/private measurement sites, employing primarily Geiger-Muller detectors:
GMC map: http://www.gmcmap.com/ (mix of old-data detector stations and some near-real-time ones)
Netc: http://www.netc.com/
Radmon: http://www.radmon.org/
Radiation Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/
Radioactive@Home: http://radioactiveathome.org/map/
Safecast: http://safecast.org/tilemap (the green circles are real-time detectors)
uRad Monitor: http://www.uradmonitor.com/
See also
Background radiation equivalent time (BRET)
Banana equivalent dose
Environmental radioactivity
Flight-time equivalent dose
Noise (electronics)
Low-background steel
References
External links
Background radiation description from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation
Environmental and Background Radiation FAQ from the Health Physics Society
Radiation Dose Chart from the American Nuclear Society
Radiation Dose Calculator from the United States Environmental Protection Agency
Cosmic rays
Ionizing radiation
Radioactivity |
4887 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British%20Army | British Army | The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. the British Army comprises 76,225 regular full-time personnel, 4,139 Gurkhas, 26,755 volunteer reserve personnel and 4,532 "other personnel", for a total of 111,651.
The modern British Army traces back to 1707, with antecedents in the English Army and Scots Army that were created during the Restoration in 1660. The term British Army was adopted in 1707 after the Acts of Union between England and Scotland. Members of the British Army swear allegiance to the monarch as their commander-in-chief, but the Bill of Rights of 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689 require parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army. Therefore, Parliament approves the army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years. The army is administered by the Ministry of Defence and commanded by the Chief of the General Staff.
The British Army, composed primarily of cavalry and infantry, was originally one of two Regular Forces within the British military (those parts of the British Armed Forces tasked with land warfare, as opposed to the naval forces), with the other having been the Ordnance Military Corps (made up of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and the Royal Sappers and Miners) of the Board of Ordnance, which along with the originally civilian Commissariat Department, stores and supply departments, as well as barracks and other departments were absorbed into the British Army when the Board of Ordnance was abolished in 1855. Various other civilian departments of the board were absorbed into the War Office.
The British Army has seen action in major wars between the world's great powers, including the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the First and Second World Wars. Britain's victories in most of these decisive wars allowed it to influence world events and establish itself as one of the world's leading military and economic powers. Since the end of the Cold War, the British Army has been deployed to a number of conflict zones, often as part of an expeditionary force, a coalition force or part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation.
History
Formation
Until the English Civil War, England never had a standing army with professional officers and careerist corporals and sergeants. It relied on militia organised by local officials or private forces mobilised by the nobility, or on hired mercenaries from Europe. From the later Middle Ages until the English Civil War, when a foreign expeditionary force was needed, such as the one that Henry V of England took to France and that fought at the Battle of Agincourt (1415), the army, a professional one, was raised for the duration of the expedition.
During the English Civil War, the members of the Long Parliament realised that the use of county militia organised into regional associations (such as the Eastern Association), often commanded by local members of Parliament (both from the House of Commons and the House of Lords), while more than able to hold their own in the regions which Parliamentarians controlled, were unlikely to win the war. So Parliament initiated two actions. The Self-denying Ordinance forbade members of Parliament (with the notable exception of Oliver Cromwell) from serving as officers in the Parliamentary armies. This created a distinction between the civilians in Parliament, who tended to be Presbyterian and conciliatory to the Royalists in nature, and a corps of professional officers, who tended to be Independent (Congregational) in theology, to whom they reported. The second action was legislation for the creation of a Parliamentary-funded army, commanded by Lord General Thomas Fairfax, which became known as the New Model Army (originally new-modelled Army).
While this proved to be a war-winning formula, the New Model Army, being organised and politically active, went on to dominate the politics of the Interregnum and by 1660 was widely disliked. The New Model Army was paid off and disbanded at the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. For many decades the alleged excesses of the New Model Army under the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell were used as propaganda (and still feature in Irish folklore) and the Whig element recoiled from allowing a standing army. The militia acts of 1661 and 1662 prevented local authorities from calling up militia and oppressing their own local opponents. Calling up the militia was possible only if the king and local elites agreed to do so.
Charles II and his Cavalier supporters favoured a new army under royal control, and immediately after the Restoration began working on its establishment. The first English Army regiments, including elements of the disbanded New Model Army, were formed between November 1660 and January 1661 and became a standing military force for England (financed by Parliament). The Royal Scots and Irish Armies were financed by the parliaments of Scotland and Ireland. Parliamentary control was established by the Bill of Rights 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689, although the monarch continued to influence aspects of army administration until at least the end of the nineteenth century.
After the Restoration Charles II pulled together four regiments of infantry and cavalry, calling them his guards, at a cost of £122,000 from his general budget. This became the foundation of the permanent English Army. By 1685 it had grown to 7,500 soldiers in marching regiments, and 1,400 men permanently stationed in garrisons. A rebellion in 1685 allowed James II to raise the forces to 20,000 men. There were 37,000 in 1678 when England played a role in the closing stage of the Franco-Dutch War. After William and Mary's accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring James II (Mary's father). In 1689, William III expanded the army to 74,000, and then to 94,000 in 1694. Parliament was very nervous and reduced the cadre to 7000 in 1697. Scotland and Ireland had theoretically separate military establishments, but they were unofficially merged with the English force.
By the time of the 1707 Acts of Union, many regiments of the English and Scottish armies were combined under one operational command and stationed in the Netherlands for the War of the Spanish Succession. Although all the regiments were now part of the new British military establishment, they remained under the old operational-command structure and retained much of the institutional ethos, customs and traditions of the standing armies created shortly after the restoration of the monarchy 47 years earlier. The order of seniority of the most-senior British Army line regiments is based on that of the English army. Although technically the Scots Royal Regiment of Foot was raised in 1633 and is the oldest Regiment of the Line, Scottish and Irish regiments were only allowed to take a rank in the English army on the date of their arrival in England (or the date when they were first placed on the English establishment). In 1694, a board of general officers was convened to decide the rank of English, Irish and Scots regiments serving in the Netherlands; the regiment which became known as the Scots Greys were designated the 4th Dragoons because there were three English regiments raised prior to 1688 when the Scots Greys were first placed in the English establishment. In 1713, when a new board of general officers was convened to decide the rank of several regiments, the seniority of the Scots Greys was reassessed and based on their June 1685 entry into England. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, and the Scots Greys eventually received the British Army rank of 2nd Dragoons.
British Empire (1700–1914)
After 1700, British continental policy was to contain expansion by competing powers such as France and Spain. Although Spain was the dominant global power during the previous two centuries and the chief threat to England's early transatlantic ambitions, its influence was now waning. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars.
Although the Royal Navy is widely regarded as vital to the rise of the British Empire, the British Army played an important role in the formation of colonies, protectorates and dominions in the Americas, Africa, Asia, India and Australasia. British soldiers captured strategically important territories, and the army was involved in wars to secure the empire's borders and support friendly governments. Among these actions were the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars, the First and Second Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, the New Zealand Wars, the Australian frontier wars, the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, the first and second Boer Wars, the Fenian raids, the Irish War of Independence, interventions in Afghanistan (intended to maintain a buffer state between India and the Russian Empire) and the Crimean War (to keep the Russian Empire at a safe distance by aiding Turkey). Like the English Army, the British Army fought the kingdoms of Spain, France (including the Empire of France) and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War and suppressed a Native American uprising in Pontiac's War. The British Army was defeated in the American Revolutionary War, losing the Thirteen Colonies but retaining The Canadas and The Maritimes as British North America, including Bermuda (originally part of Virginia, and which had been strongly sympathetic to the rebels early in the war).
Halifax, Nova Scotia and Bermuda were to become Imperial fortresses (although Bermuda, being safer from attack over water and impervious to attack overland, quickly became the most important in British North America), along with Malta and Gibraltar, providing bases for Royal Navy squadrons to control the oceans, and heavily garrisoned by the British Army both for defence of the bases and to provide military forces to work with the navy in amphibious operations throughout their regions.
The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars, participating in a number of campaigns in Europe (including continuous deployment in the Peninsular War), the Caribbean, North Africa and North America. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world; at its peak in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian armies under the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshal von Blücher finally defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.
The English were involved politically and militarily in Ireland. The campaign of English republican Protector Oliver Cromwell involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns (most notably Drogheda and Wexford) which supported the Royalists during the English Civil War. The English Army (and the subsequent British Army) remained in Ireland primarily to suppress Irish revolts or disorder. In addition to its conflict with Irish nationalists, it was faced with the prospect of battling Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots in Ireland who were angered by unfavourable taxation of Irish produce imported into Britain. With other Irish groups, they raised a volunteer army and threatened to emulate the American colonists if their conditions were not met. Learning from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution. The British Army fought Irish rebels—Protestant and Catholic—primarily in Ulster and Leinster (Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen) in the 1798 rebellion.
In addition to battling the armies of other European empires (and its former colonies, the United States, in the American War of 1812), the British Army fought the Chinese in the First and Second Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion, Māori tribes in the first of the New Zealand Wars, Nawab Shiraj-ud-Daula's forces and British East India Company mutineers in the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, the Boers in the first and second Boer Wars, Irish Fenians in Canada during the Fenian raids and Irish separatists in the Anglo-Irish War. The increasing demands of imperial expansion and the inadequacy and inefficiency of the underfunded British Army, Militia, Ordnance Military Corps, Yeomanry and Volunteer Force after the Napoleonic Wars led to series of reforms following the failures of the Crimean War.
Inspired by the successes of the Prussian Army (which relied on short-term conscription of all eligible young men to maintain a large reserve of recently discharged soldiers, ready to be recalled on the outbreak of war to immediately bring the small peacetime regular army up to strength), the Regular Reserve of the British Army was originally created in 1859 by Secretary of State for War Sidney Herbert, and re-organised under the Reserve Force Act, 1867. Prior to this, a soldier was generally enlisted into the British Army for a 21-year engagement, following which (should he survive so long) he was discharged as a Pensioner. Pensioners were sometimes still employed on garrison duties, as were younger soldiers no longer deemed fit for expeditionary service who were generally organised in invalid units or returned to the regimental depot for home service. The cost of paying pensioners, and the obligation the government was under to continue to employ invalids as well as soldiers deemed by their commanding officers as detriments to their units were motivations to change this system. The long period of engagement also discouraged many potential recruits. The long service enlistments were consequently replaced with short service enlistments, with undesirable soldiers not permitted to re-engage on the completion of their first engagement. The size of the army also fluctuated greatly, increasing in war time, and drastically shrinking with peace. Battalions posted on garrison duty overseas were allowed an increase on their normal peacetime establishment, which resulted in their having surplus men on their return to a Home station. Consequently, soldiers engaging on short term enlistments were enabled to serve several years with the colours and the remainder in the Regular Reserve, remaining liable for recall to the colours if required. Among the other benefits, this thereby enabled the British Army to have a ready pool of recently trained men to draw upon in an emergency. The name of the Regular Reserve (which for a time was divided into a First Class and a Second Class) has resulted in confusion with the Reserve Forces, which were the pre-existing part-time, local-service home-defence forces that were auxiliary to the British Army (or Regular Force), but not originally part of it: the Yeomanry, Militia (or Constitutional Force) and Volunteer Force. These were consequently also referred to as Auxiliary Forces or Local Forces.
The late-19th-century Cardwell and Childers Reforms gave the army its modern shape and redefined its regimental system. The 1907 Haldane Reforms created the Territorial Force as the army's volunteer reserve component, merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia and Yeomanry.
World Wars (1914–1945)
Great Britain was challenged by other powers, primarily the German Empire and Nazi Germany, during the 20th century. A century earlier it vied with Napoleonic France for global pre-eminence, and Hanoverian Britain's natural allies were the kingdoms and principalities of northern Germany. By the middle of the 19th century, Britain and France were allies in preventing Russia's appropriation of the Ottoman Empire, although the fear of French invasion led shortly afterwards to the creation of the Volunteer Force. By the first decade of the 20th century, the United Kingdom was allied with France (by the Entente Cordiale) and Russia (which had a secret agreement with France for mutual support in a war against the Prussian-led German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire).
When the First World War broke out in August 1914 the British Army sent the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), consisting mainly of regular army troops, to France and Belgium. The fighting bogged down into static trench warfare for the remainder of the war. In 1915 the army created the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force to invade the Ottoman Empire via Gallipoli, an unsuccessful attempt to capture Constantinople and secure a sea route to Russia.
The First World War was the most devastating in British military history, with nearly 800,000 men killed and over two million wounded. Early in the war, the BEF was virtually destroyed and was replaced first by volunteers and then by a conscript force. Major battles included those at the Somme and Passchendaele. Advances in technology saw the advent of the tank (and the creation of the Royal Tank Regiment) and advances in aircraft design (and the creation of the Royal Flying Corps) which would be decisive in future battles. Trench warfare dominated Western Front strategy for most of the war, and the use of chemical weapons (disabling and poison gases) added to the devastation.
The Second World War broke out in September 1939 with the Soviet and German Army's invasion of Poland. British assurances to the Poles led the British Empire to declare war on Germany. As in the First World War, a relatively small BEF was sent to France but then hastily evacuated from Dunkirk as the German forces swept through the Low Countries and across France in May 1940.
After the British Army recovered from its earlier defeats, it defeated the Germans and Italians at the Second Battle of El Alamein in North Africa in 1942–1943 and helped drive them from Africa. It then fought through Italy and, with the help of American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Indian and Free French forces, was the principal organiser and participant in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944; nearly half the Allied soldiers were British. In the Far East, the British Army rallied against the Japanese in the Burma Campaign and regained the British Far Eastern colonial possessions.
Postcolonial era (1945–2000)
After the Second World War the British Army was significantly reduced in size, although National Service continued until 1960. This period saw decolonisation begin with the partition and independence of India and Pakistan, followed by the independence of British colonies in Africa and Asia.
The Corps Warrant, which is the official list of which bodies of the British Military (not to be confused with naval) Forces were to be considered Corps of the British Army for the purposes of the Army Act, the Reserve Forces Act, 1882, and the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act, 1907, had not been updated since 1926 (Army Order 49 of 1926), although amendments had been made up to and including Army Order 67 of 1950. A new Corps Warrant was declared in 1951.
Although the British Army was a major participant in Korea in the early 1950s and Suez in 1956, during this period Britain's role in world events was reduced and the army was downsized. The British Army of the Rhine, consisting of I (BR) Corps, remained in Germany as a bulwark against Soviet invasion. The Cold War continued, with significant technological advances in warfare, and the army saw the introduction of new weapons systems. Despite the decline of the British Empire, the army was engaged in Aden, Indonesia, Cyprus, Kenya and Malaya. In 1982, the British Army and the Royal Marines helped liberate the Falkland Islands during the conflict with Argentina after that country's invasion of the British territory.
In the three decades following 1969, the army was heavily deployed in Northern Ireland's Operation Banner to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (later the Police Service of Northern Ireland) in their conflict with republican paramilitary groups. The locally recruited Ulster Defence Regiment was formed, becoming home-service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992 before it was disbanded in 2006. Over 700 soldiers were killed during the Troubles. Following the 1994–1996 IRA ceasefires and since 1997, demilitarisation has been part of the peace process and the military presence has been reduced. On 25 June 2007 the 2nd Battalion of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment left the army complex in Bessbrook, County Armagh, ending the longest operation in British Army history.
Persian Gulf War
The British Army contributed 50,000 troops to the coalition which fought Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, and British forces controlled Kuwait after its liberation. Forty-seven British military personnel died during the war.
Balkan conflicts
The army was deployed to former Yugoslavia in 1992. Initially part of the United Nations Protection Force, in 1995 its command was transferred to the Implementation Force (IFOR) and then to the Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR); the commitment rose to over 10,000 troops. In 1999, British forces under SFOR command were sent to Kosovo and the contingent increased to 19,000 troops. Between early 1993 and June 2010, 72 British military personnel died during operations in the former Yugoslavian countries of Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.
The Troubles
Although there have been permanent garrisons in Northern Ireland throughout its history, the British Army was deployed as a peacekeeping force from 1969 to 2007 in Operation Banner. Initially, this was (in the wake of unionist attacks on nationalist communities in Derry and Belfast) to prevent further loyalist attacks on Catholic communities; it developed into support of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and its successor, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) against the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, there was a gradual reduction in the number of soldiers deployed. In 2005, after the PIRA declared a ceasefire, the British Army dismantled posts, withdrew many troops and restored troop levels to those of a peacetime garrison.
Operation Banner ended at midnight on 31 July 2007 after about 38 years of continuous deployment, the longest in British Army history. According to an internal document released in 2007, the British Army had failed to defeat the IRA but made it impossible for them to win by violence. Operation Helvetic replaced Operation Banner in 2007, maintaining fewer service personnel in a more-benign environment. Of the 300,000 troops who served in Northern Ireland since 1969, there were 763 British military personnel killed and 306 killed by the British military, mostly civilians. An estimated 100 soldiers committed suicide during Operation Banner or soon afterwards and a similar number died in accidents. A total of 6,116 were wounded.
Sierra Leone
The British Army deployed to Sierra Leone for Operation Palliser in 1999, under United Nations resolutions, to aid the government in quelling violent uprisings by militiamen. British troops also provided support during the 2014 West African Ebola virus epidemic.
Recent history (2000–present)
War in Afghanistan
In November 2001, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom with the United States, the United Kingdom deployed forces in Afghanistan to topple the Taliban in Operation Herrick. The 3rd Division were sent to Kabul to assist in the liberation of the capital and defeat Taliban forces in the mountains. In 2006 the British Army began concentrating on fighting Taliban forces and bringing security to Helmand Province, with about 9,500 British troops (including marines, airmen and sailors) deployed at its peak—the second-largest force after that of the US. In December 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the combat mission would end in 2014, and troop numbers gradually fell as the Afghan National Army took over the brunt of the fighting. Between 2001 and 26 April 2014 a total of 453 British military personnel died in Afghan operations. Operation Herrick ended with the handover of Camp Bastion on 26 October 2014, but the British Army maintained a deployment in Afghanistan as part of Operation Toral.
Following an announcement by the US Government of the end of their operations in the Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence announced in April 2021 that British forces would withdraw from the country by 11 September 2021. It was later reported that all UK troops would be out by early July. Following the collapse of the Afghan Army, and the completion of the withdrawal of civilians, all British troops had left by the end of August 2021.
Iraq War
In 2003, the United Kingdom was a major contributor to the invasion of Iraq, sending a force of over 46,000 military personnel. The British Army controlled southern Iraq, and maintained a peace-keeping presence in Basra. All British troops were withdrawn from Iraq by 30 April 2009, after the Iraqi government refused to extend their mandate. One hundred and seventy-nine British military personnel died in Iraqi operations. The British Armed Forces returned to Iraq in 2014 as part of Operation Shader to counter the Islamic State (ISIL).
Recent military aid
The British Army maintains a standing liability to support the civil authorities in certain circumstances, usually in either niche capabilities (e.g. explosive ordnance removal) or in general support of the civil authorities when their capacity is exceeded. In recent years this has been seen as army personnel supporting the civil authorities in the face of the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak, the 2002 firefighters strike, widespread flooding in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2014, Operation Temperer following the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 and, most recently, Operation Rescript during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eastern Europe
Since 2016, the British Army has maintained a presence in Eastern Europe in support of the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence strategy which responded to the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. The British Army leads a multinational armoured battlegroup in Estonia under Operation Cabrit and contributes troops to another military battle group in Poland.
Between 2015 and 2022, the British Army deployed Short Term Training Teams (STTTs) to Ukraine under Operation Orbital to help train the Armed Forces of Ukraine against further Russian aggression. This operation was succeeded by Operation Interflex in July 2022.
Modern army
Personnel
The British Army has been a volunteer force since national service ended during the 1960s. Since the creation of the part-time, reserve Territorial Force in 1908 (renamed the Army Reserve in 2014), the full-time British Army has been known as the Regular Army. In July 2020 there were just over 78,800 Regulars, with a target strength of 82,000, and just over 30,000 Army Reservists, with a target strength of 30,000. All former Regular Army personnel may also be recalled to duty in exceptional circumstances during the 6-year period following completion of their Regular service, which creates an additional force known as the Regular Reserve.
The table below illustrates British Army personnel figures from 1710 to 2020.
Equipment
Infantry
The British Army's basic weapon is the 5.56 mm L85A2 or L85A3 assault rifle, with some specialist personnel using the L22A2 carbine variant (pilots and some tank crew). The weapon was traditionally equipped with either iron sights or an optical SUSAT, although other optical sights have been subsequently purchased to supplement these. The weapon can be enhanced further utilising the Picatinny rail with attachments such as the L17A2 under-barrel grenade launcher. In 2023, the Army Special Operations Brigade, which includes the Ranger Regiment, began using the L403A1, an AR-pattern rifle also used by the Royal Marines.
Some soldiers are equipped with the 7.62mm L129A1 sharpshooter rifle, which in 2018 formally replaced the L86A2 Light Support Weapon. Support fire is provided by the L7 general-purpose machine gun (GPMG), and indirect fire is provided by L16 81mm mortars. Sniper rifles include the L118A1 7.62 mm, L115A3 and the AW50F, all manufactured by Accuracy International. The British Army utilises the Glock 17 as its side arm.
Anti tank guided weapons include the Javelin, the medium range anti-tank guided weapon replacement for Milan, with overfly and direct attack modes of operation, and the NLAW. The Next-generation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW) is the first, non-expert, short-range, anti-tank missile that rapidly knocks out any main battle tank in just one shot by striking it from above.
Armour
The army's main battle tank is the Challenger 2, which is being upgraded to Challenger 3. It is supported by the Warrior tracked armoured vehicle as the primary infantry fighting vehicle, (which will soon be replaced by the Boxer 8x8 armoured fighting vehicle) and the Bulldog armoured personnel carrier. Light armoured units often utilise the Supacat "Jackal" MWMIK and Coyote tactical support vehicle for reconnaissance and fire support.
Artillery
The army has three main artillery systems: the Multi Launch Rocket System (MLRS), the AS-90 and the L118 light gun. The MLRS, first used in Operation Granby, has an range. The AS-90 is a 155 mm self-propelled armoured gun with a range. The L118 light gun is a 105 mm towed gun, which is typically towed by a Pinzgauer all terrain vehicle. To identify artillery targets, the army operates weapon locators such as the MAMBA Radar and utilises artillery sound ranging. For air defence it uses the new Sky Sabre system, which in 2021 replaced the Rapier. It also deploys the Very Short-Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) Starstreak HVM (high-velocity missile) launched by a single soldier or from a Stormer HVM vehicle-mounted launcher.
Protected mobility
Where armour is not required or mobility and speed are favoured the British Army utilises protected patrol vehicles, such as the Panther variant of the Iveco LMV, the Foxhound, and variants of the Cougar family (such as the Ridgeback, Husky and Mastiff). For day-to-day utility work the army commonly uses the Land Rover Wolf, which is based on the Land Rover Defender.
Engineers, utility and signals
Specialist engineering vehicles include bomb-disposal robots such as the T7 Multi-Mission Robotic System and the modern variants of the Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers, including the Titan bridge-layer, Trojan Armoured-engineer vehicle, Terrier Armoured Digger and Python Minefield Breaching System. Day-to-day utility work uses a series of support vehicles, including six-, nine- and fifteen-tonne MAN trucks, Oshkosh heavy-equipment transporters (HET), close-support tankers, quad bikes and ambulances. Tactical communication uses the Bowman radio system, and operational or strategic communication is controlled by the Royal Corps of Signals.
Aviation
The Army Air Corps (AAC) provides direct aviation support, with the Royal Air Force providing support helicopters. The primary attack helicopter is the Westland WAH-64 Apache, a licence-built, modified version of the US AH-64 Apache which replaced the Westland Lynx AH7 in the anti-tank role. Other helicopters include the Westland Gazelle (a light surveillance aircraft), the Bell 212 (in jungle "hot and high" environments) and the AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat, a dedicated intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) helicopter. The Eurocopter AS 365N Dauphin is used for special operations aviation. The army operates two unmanned aerial vehicles ('UAV's) in a surveillance role: the small Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk III and the larger Thales Watchkeeper WK450.
Current deployments
Low-intensity operations
Permanent overseas postings
Structure
Army Headquarters is located in Andover, Hampshire, and is responsible for providing forces at operational readiness for employment by the Permanent Joint Headquarters. The command structure is hierarchical, with overall command residing with the Chief of the General Staff (CGS), who is immediately subordinate to The Chief of Defence Staff, the head of the British Armed Services. The CGS is supported by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff. Army Headquarters is further organised into two subordinate commands, Field Army and Home Command, each commanded by a lieutenant general. These two Commands serve distinct purposes and are divided into a structure of divisions and brigades, which themselves consist of a complex mix of smaller units such as Battalions. British Army units are either full-time 'Regular' units, or part-time Army Reserve units.
Field Army
Led by Commander Field Army, the Field Army is responsible for generating and preparing forces for current and contingency operations. The Field Army comprises
1st (United Kingdom) Division
3rd (United Kingdom) Division which is the United Kingdom's strategic land warfare asset
6th (United Kingdom) Division
16 Air Assault Brigade is the British Army's Air Assault formation
Land Warfare Centre (United Kingdom) which is responsible for driving adaptation in order to deliver success on operations.
Home Command
Home Command is the British Army's supporting command; a generating, recruiting and training force that supports the Field Army and delivers UK resilience. It comprises
Army Personnel Centre, which deals with personnel issues and liaises with outside agencies.
Army Personnel Services Group, which supports personnel administration
HQ Army Recruiting and Initial Training Command, which is responsible for all recruiting and training of Officers and Soldiers.
London District Command, which is the main headquarters for all British Army units within the M25 corridor of London. It also provides for London's ceremonial events as well as supporting operational deployments overseas.
Regional Command, which enables the delivery of a secure home front that sustains the Army, notably helping to coordinate the British Army's support to the civil authorities, overseeing the British Army's Welfare Service, and delivering the British Army's civil engagement mission.
Standing Joint Command, which coordinates defence's contribution to UK resilience operations in support of other government departments.
Special Forces
The British Army contributes two of the three special forces formations to the United Kingdom Special Forces directorate: the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR). The SAS consists of one regular and two reserve regiments. The regular regiment, 22 SAS, has its headquarters at Stirling Lines, Credenhill, Herefordshire. It consists of 5 squadrons (A, B, D, G and Reserve) and a training wing. 22 SAS is supported by 2 reserve regiments, 21 SAS and 23 SAS, which collectively form the Special Air Service (Reserve) (SAS [R]), who in 2020 were transferred back under the command of Director of Special Forces after previously being under the command of the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade. The SRR, formed in 2005, performs close reconnaissance and special surveillance tasks. The Special Forces Support Group, under the operational control of the Director of Special Forces, provides operational manoeuvring support to the United Kingdom Special Forces.
Colonial units
The British Army historically included many units from what are now separate Commonwealth realms. When the English Empire was established in North America (including Bermuda), and the West Indies in the early 17th century there was no standing English Army, only the Militia, Yeomanry, and Royal bodyguards, of which the Militia, as the primary home-defence force, was immediately extended to the colonies. Colonial militias defended colonies single-handedly at first against indigenous peoples and European competitors. Once the standing English Army, later the British Army, came into existence and began to garrison the colonies, the colonial militias fought side by side with it in a number of wars, including the Seven Years' War. Some of the colonial militias rebelled during the American War of Independence. The militia fought alongside the regular British Army (and native allies) in defending British North America from their former countrymen during the War of 1812.
Locally raised units in strategically located Imperial fortress colonies (including: Nova Scotia before the Canadian Confederation; Bermuda – which was treated as part of The Maritimes under the Commander-in-Chief at Nova Scotia until Canadian Confederation; Gibraltar; and Malta) and the Channel Islands were generally maintained from army funds and more fully integrated into the British Army as evident from their appearances in British Army lists, unlike units such as the King's African Rifles.
The larger colonies (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, etc.) mostly achieved Commonwealth Dominion status before or after the First World War and were granted full legislative independence in 1931. While remaining within the British Empire, this placed their governments on a par with the British government, and hence their military units comprised separate armies (e.g. the Australian Army), although Canada retained the term "militia" for its military forces until the Second World War. From the 1940s, these dominions and many colonies chose full independence, usually becoming Commonwealth realms (as member states of the Commonwealth are known today).
Units raised in self-governing and Crown colonies (those without local elected Legislatures, as was the case with British Hong Kong) that are part of the British realm remain under British Government control. As the territorial governments are delegated responsibility only for internal government, the UK Government, as the government of the Sovereign state, retains responsibility for national security and the defence of the fourteen remaining British Overseas Territories, of which six have locally raised regiments:
Royal Bermuda Regiment
Royal Gibraltar Regiment
Falkland Islands Defence Force
Royal Montserrat Defence Force
Cayman Islands Regiment
Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment
Levels of Command
The structure of the British Army beneath the level of Divisions and Brigades is also hierarchical and command is based on rank. The table below details how many units within the British Army are structured, although there can be considerable variation between individual units:
Whilst many units are organised as Battalions or Regiments administratively, the most common fighting unit is the combined arms unit known as a Battlegroup. This is formed around a combat unit and supported by units (or sub-units) from other capabilities. An example of a battlegroup would be two companies of armoured infantry (e.g. from the 1st Battalion of the Mercian Regiment), one squadron of heavy armour (e.g. A Squadron of the Royal Tank Regiment), a company of engineers (e.g. B Company of the 22nd Engineer Regiment), a Battery of artillery (e.g. D Battery of the 1st Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery) and smaller attachments from medical, logistic and intelligence units. Typically organised and commanded by a battlegroup headquarters and named after the unit which provided the most combat units, in this example, it would be the 1 Mercian Battlegroup. This creates a self-sustaining mixed formation of armour, infantry, artillery, engineers and support units, commanded by a lieutenant colonel.
Recruitment
The British Army primarily recruits from within the United Kingdom, but accept applications from all British citizens. It also accepts applications from Irish citizens and Commonwealth citizens, with certain restrictions. Since 2018 the British Army has been an equal-opportunity employer (with some legal exceptions due to medical standards), and does not discriminate based on race, religion or sexual orientation. Applicants for the Regular Army must be a minimum age of 16, although soldiers under 18 may not serve in operations, and the maximum age is 36. Applicants for the Army Reserve must be a minimum of 17 years and 9 months, and a maximum age of 43. Different age limits apply for Officers and those in some specialist roles. Applicants must also meet several other requirements, notably regarding medical health, physical fitness, past-criminal convictions, education, and regarding any tattoos and piercings.
Soldiers and officers in the Regular Army now enlist for an initial period of 12 years, with options to extend if they meet certain requirements. Soldiers and officers are normally required to serve for a minimum of 4 years from date of enlistment and must give 12 months' notice before leaving; soldiers who joined before the age of 18 years old are normally required to serve for a minimum of 6 years.
Oath of allegiance
All soldiers and commissioned officers must take an oath of allegiance upon joining the Army, a process known as attestation. Those who wish to swear by God use the following words:
Others replace the words "swear by Almighty God" with "solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm".
Training
Candidates for the Army undergo common training, beginning with initial military training, to bring all personnel to a similar standard in basic military skills, which is known as Phase 1 training. They then undertake further specialist trade-training for their specific Regiment or Corps, known as Phase 2 training. After completing Phase 1 training a soldier is counted against the Army's trained strength, and upon completion of Phase 2 are counted against the Army's fully trained trade strength.
Soldiers under the age of 17 and 6 months will complete Phase 1 training at the Army Foundation College. Infantry Soldiers will complete combined Phase 1 & 2 training at the Infantry Training Centre, Catterick, whilst all other Soldiers will attend Phase 1 training at the Army Training Centre Pirbright or Army Training Regiment, Winchester, and then complete Phase 2 training at different locations depending on their specialism. Officers conduct their initial training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS), before also completing their Phase 2 training at multiple different locations.
Flags and ensigns
The British Army's official flag is the Union Jack. The Army also has a non-ceremonial flag that is often seen flying from military buildings and is used at recruiting and military events and exhibitions. Traditionally most British Army units had a set of flags, known as the colours—normally a Regimental Colour and a King's Colour (the Union Jack). Historically these were carried into battle as a rallying point for the soldiers and were closely guarded. In modern units the colours are often prominently displayed, decorated with battle honours, and act as a focal point for Regimental pride. A soldier re-joining a regiment (upon recall from the reserve) is described as re-called to the Colours.
Ranks and insignia
Most ranks across the British Army are known by the same name regardless of which Regiment they are in. However, the Household Cavalry call many ranks by different names, the Royal Artillery refer to Corporals as Bombardiers, the Rifles spell Sergeant as Serjeant, and Private soldiers are known by a wide variety of titles; notably trooper, gunner, guardsman, kingsman, sapper, signaller, fusilier, craftsman and rifleman dependant on the Regiment they belong to. These names do not affect a soldier's pay or role.
Reserve forces
The oldest of the Reserve Forces was the Militia Force (also referred to as the Constitutional Force), which (in the Kingdom of England, prior to 1707) was originally the main military defensive force (there otherwise were originally only Royal bodyguards, including the Yeomen Warders and the Yeomen of the Guard, with armies raised only temporarily for expeditions overseas), made up of civilians embodied for annual training or emergencies, which had used various schemes of compulsory service during different periods of its long existence. From the 1850s it recruited volunteers who engaged for terms of service. The Militia was originally an all-infantry force, though Militia coastal artillery, field artillery, and engineers units were introduced from the 1850s, organised at the city or county level, and members were not required to serve outside of their recruitment area, although the area within which militia units in Britain could be posted was increased to anywhere in the Britain during the Eighteenth Century.
Volunteer Force units were also frequently raised during wartime and disbanded upon peace. This was re-established as a permanent (i.e., in war and peace) part of the Reserve Forces in 1859. It differed from the Militia in a number of ways, most particularly in that volunteers did not commit to a term service, and were able to resign with fourteen days notice (except while embodied). As volunteer soldiers were originally expected to fund the cost of their own equipment, few tended to come from the labouring class among whom the Militia primarily recruited.
The Yeomanry Force was made up of mounted units, organised similarly to the Volunteer Force, first raised during the two decades of war with France that followed the French Revolution. As with the Volunteers, members of the Yeomanry were expected to foot much of the cost of their own equipment, including their horses, and the make-up of the units tended to be from more affluent classes.
Although Militia regiments were linked with British Army regiments during the course of the Napoleonic Wars to feed volunteers for service abroad into the regular army, and volunteers from the Reserve Forces served abroad either individually or in contingents, service companies, or battalions in a succession of conflicts from the Crimean War to the Second Boer War, personnel did not normally move between forces unless re-attested as a member of the new force, and units did not normally move from the Reserve Forces to become part of the Regular Forces, or vice versa. There were exceptions, however, as with the New Brunswick Regiment of Fencible Infantry, raised in 1803, which became the 104th (New Brunswick) Regiment of Foot when it was transferred to the British Army on 13 September 1810.
Another type of reserve force was created during the period between the French Revolution and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Called Fencibles, these were disbanded after the Napoleonic Wars and not raised again, although the Royal Malta Fencible Regiment, later the Royal Malta Fencible Artillery, existed from 1815 until the 1880s when it became the Royal Malta Artillery, and the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps was formed in 1846.
The Reserve Forces were raised locally (in Britain, under the control of Lords-Lieutenant of counties, and, in British colonies, under the colonial governors, and members originally were obliged to serve only within their locality (which, in the United Kingdom, originally meant within the county or other recruitment area, but was extended to anywhere in Britain, though not overseas). They have consequently also been referred to as Local Forces. As they were (and in some cases are) considered separate forces from the British Army, though still within the British military, they have also been known as Auxiliary Forces. The Militia and Volunteer units of a colony were generally considered to be separate forces from the Home Militia Force and Volunteer Force in the United Kingdom, and from the Militia Forces and Volunteer Forces of other colonies. Where a colony had more than one Militia or Volunteer unit, they would be grouped as a Militia or Volunteer Force for that colony, such as the Jamaica Volunteer Defence Force. Officers of the Reserve Forces could not sit on Courts Martial of regular forces personnel. The Mutiny Act did not apply to members of the Reserve Forces. The Reserve Forces within the British Isles were increasingly integrated with the British Army through a succession of reforms (beginning with the Cardwell Reforms) of the British military forces over the last two decades of the Nineteenth Century and the early years of the Twentieth Century, whereby the Reserve Forces units mostly lost their own identities and became numbered Militia or Volunteer battalions of regular British Army corps or regiments.
In 1908, the Yeomanry and Volunteer Force were merged to create the Territorial Force (changed to Territorial Army after the First World War), with terms of service similar to the army and Militia, and the Militia was renamed the Special Reserve, After the First World War the Special Reserve was renamed the Militia, again, but permanently suspended (although a handful of Militia units survived in the United Kingdom, its colonies, and the Crown Dependencies). Although the Territorial Force was nominally still a separate force from the British Army, by the end of the century, at the latest, any unit wholly or partly funded from Army Funds was considered part of the British Army. Outside the United Kingdom-proper, this was generally only the case for those units in the Channel Islands or the Imperial fortress colonies (Nova Scotia, before Canadian confederation; Bermuda; Gibraltar; and Malta).
The Bermuda Militia Artillery, Bermuda Militia Infantry, Bermuda Volunteer Engineers, and the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, by example were paid for by the War Office and considered part of the British Army, with their officers appearing in the Army List unlike those of many other colonial units deemed auxiliaries. Today, the British Army is the only Home British military force, including the various other forces it has absorbed, though British military units organised on Territorial Army lines remain in British Overseas Territories that are still not considered formally part of the British Army, with only the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and the Royal Bermuda Regiment (an amalgam of the old Bermuda Militia Artillery and Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps) appearing on the British Army order-of-precedence and in the Army List, as well as on the Corps Warrant (the official list of those British military forces that are considered corps of the British Army).
Uniforms
The British Army uniform has sixteen categories, ranging from ceremonial uniforms to combat dress to evening wear. No. 8 Dress, the day-to-day uniform, is known as "Personal Clothing System – Combat Uniform" (PCS-CU) and consists of a Multi-Terrain Pattern (MTP) windproof smock, a lightweight jacket and trousers with ancillary items such as thermals and waterproofs. The army has introduced tactical recognition flashes (TRFs); worn on the right arm of a combat uniform, the insignia denotes the wearer's regiment or corps. In addition to working dress, the army has a number of parade uniforms for ceremonial and non-ceremonial occasions. The most-commonly-seen uniforms are No.1 Dress (full ceremonial, seen at formal occasions such as at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace) and No.2 Dress (Service Dress), a brown khaki uniform worn for non-ceremonial parades.
Working headdress is typically a beret, whose colour indicates its wearer's type of regiment. Beret colours are:
Khaki—Foot Guards, Honourable Artillery Company, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, Royal Anglian Regiment, Royal Welsh, Royal Yorkshire Regiment
Light grey—Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
Brown—King's Royal Hussars, Royal Wessex Yeomanry
Black—Royal Tank Regiment
Dark (rifle) green—Royal Dragoon Guards, The Rifles, Royal Gurkha Rifles, Small Arms School Corps
Maroon—Parachute Regiment
Beige—Special Air Service
Sky blue—Army Air Corps
Cypress green—Intelligence Corps
Scarlet—Royal Military Police
Green—Adjutant General's Corps
Navy blue—All other units, such as the Household Cavalry, Light Dragoons, Queen's Dragoon Guards, Royal Yeomanry, and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
Emerald grey—Special Reconnaissance Regiment
Gun-metal grey—The Ranger Regiment
Racism cases
In February 2019, former soldier Inoke Momonakaya won £458,000 payout after a legal battle for the racial harassment and bullying he received while serving in the army. In August 2019, A Commons Defence Select Committee report revealed that several 'Female' and 'BAME' military staff have raised concerns regarding discrimination, bullying and harassment. In September 2019, two former British army soldiers Nkululeko Zulu and Hani Gue won a racial discrimination claim against the Ministry of Defence (MoD). In November 2019, mixed race soldier Mark De Kretser sued MoD for £100k claiming he was subjected to "grindingly repetitive" racist taunts from colleagues.
See also
Army Cadet Force (ACF)
British Army order of precedence
Corps Warrant
British Army uniform
British campaign medals
British military history
Army 2020 Refine
Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015
List of British Army installations
List of British Army regiments
Ministry of Defence
List of all weapons current and former of the United Kingdom
List of wars involving the United Kingdom
List of wars involving England
List of wars involving Scotland
Modern equipment of the British Army
Redcoat
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
"Rule, Britannia!"
Army Reserve (United Kingdom)
United Kingdom Special Forces
British military bands
Tommy Atkins
List of roles in the British Army
Notes
References
Bibliography
French, David. Army, Empire, and Cold War: The British Army and Military Policy, 1945–1971 (2012) DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199548231.001.0001
External links
1707 establishments in Great Britain
Army
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
Military of the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 1707
Wars involving the United Kingdom |
4892 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert%20Bell | Bert Bell | De Benneville "Bert" Bell (February 25, 1895 – October 11, 1959) was the National Football League (NFL) commissioner from 1946 until his death in 1959. As commissioner, he introduced competitive parity into the NFL to improve the league's commercial viability and promote its popularity.
Whereas Bell had become the chief executive in a sport that was largely seen as second-rate and heading a league still plagued by franchise instability, by his death the NFL was a financially sound sports enterprise and seriously challenging Major League Baseball for preeminence among sports attractions in the United States. Bell was posthumously inducted into the charter class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Bell played football at the University of Pennsylvania, where as quarterback, he led his team to an appearance in the 1917 Rose Bowl. After being drafted into the US Army during World War I, he returned to complete his collegiate career at Penn and went on to become an assistant football coach with the Quakers in the 1920s. During the Great Depression, he was an assistant coach for the Temple Owls and a co-founder and co-owner of the Philadelphia Eagles.
With the Eagles, Bell led the way in cooperating with the other NFL owners to establish the National Football League Draft in order to afford the weakest teams the first opportunity to sign the best available players. He subsequently became sole proprietor of the Eagles, but the franchise suffered financially. Eventually, he sold the team and bought a share in the Pittsburgh Steelers. During World War II, Bell argued against the league suspending operations until the war's conclusion.
After the war, he was elected NFL commissioner and sold his ownership in the Steelers. As commissioner, he implemented a proactive anti-gambling policy, negotiated a merger with the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), and unilaterally crafted the entire league schedule with an emphasis on enhancing the dramatic effect of late-season matches. During the Golden Age of Television, he tailored the game's rules to strengthen its appeal to mass media and enforced a policy of blacking out local broadcasts of home contests to safeguard ticket receipts. Amid criticism from franchise owners and under pressure from Congress, he unilaterally recognized the NFLPA and facilitated in the development of the first pension plan for the players. He survived to oversee the "Greatest Game Ever Played" and to envision what the league would become in the future.
As commissioner, Bell oversaw the integration of the NFL. Although Fritz Pollard was the first African American to play in the NFL, appearing with three teams from 1922 to 1926, a “gentleman’s agreement” among the owners kept the sport segregated for another 20 years. In 1946, four black players began playing in the NFL.
Early life (1895–1932)
Bell was born De Benneville Bell, on February 25, 1895, in Philadelphia to John C. Bell and Fleurette de Benneville Myers. His father was an attorney who served a term as the Pennsylvania Attorney General. His older brother, John C., Jr., was born in 1892. Bert's parents were very wealthy, and his mother's lineage predated the American Revolutionary War. His father, a Quaker of the University of Pennsylvania (class of 1884) during the early days of American football, accompanied him to his first football game when Bell was six years old. Thereafter, Bell regularly engaged in football games with childhood friends.
In 1904, Bell matriculated at the Episcopal Academy, the Delancey School from 1909 to 1911 and then the Haverford School until 1914. About this time, his father was installed as athletics director at Penn and helped form the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). At Haverford, Bell captained the school's football, basketball, and baseball teams, and "was awarded The Yale Cup [for being] 'The pupil who has done the most to promote athletics in the school.'" Although he excelled at baseball, his devotion was to football. His father, who was named a trustee at Penn in 1911, said of Bell's plans for college, "Bert will go to Penn or he will go to hell."
University of Pennsylvania (1914–1919)
Bell entered the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in the fall of 1914. He majored in English major and joined the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. In a rare accomplishment for a sophomore, he was named the starting quarterback by Penn coach George H. Brooke. He also was a defender, punter, and punt returner. After the team's 3–0 start, Bell temporarily shared possession of his quarterbacking duties until he subsequently reclaimed them later in the season, as Penn finished with a record of 3–5–2.
Prior to Penn's 1916 season, Bell's mother died while he was en route to her bedside. He started the first game for the Quakers under new coach Bob Folwell, but mixed results left him platooned for the rest of the season. Penn finished with a record of 7–2–1. However, the Quakers secured an invitation to the 1917 Rose Bowl against the Oregon Ducks. Bell had the best offensive gain for Penn during their 0–14 loss to Oregon, a 20-yard run, but was replaced late in the game at quarterback after throwing an interception. In the 1917 season, Bell led Penn to a 9–2 record.
Following the 1917 season, Bell registered with a Mobile Hospital Unit of the United States Army for World War I and was deployed to France in May 1918. As a result of his unit participating in hazardous duty, it received a congratulatory letter for bravery from General John J. Pershing, and Bell was promoted to first sergeant. After the war, Bell returned to the United States in March 1919. He returned to Penn as captain of the team in the fall and again performed erratically. The Quakers finished 1919 with a 6–2–1 record. Academically, his aversion to attending classes forced him to withdraw from Penn without a degree in early 1920. His collegiate days ended with his having been a borderline All-American, but this period of his life had proven that he "possessed the qualities of a leader."
Early career (1920–1932)
Bell assembled the Stanley Professionals in Chicago in 1920, but he disbanded it prior to playing any games because of negative publicity received by Chicago due to the Black Sox Scandal. He joined John Heisman's staff at Penn as an assistant coach in 1920, where he remained for several years. At Penn, he was well regarded as a football coach, and after its 1924 season, he drew offers for, but declined, head-coaching assignments at other universities. At least as early as 1926, his avocation was socializing and frequenting Saratoga Race Course, where he counted as friends Tim Mara, Art Rooney, and George Preston Marshall. In 1928, Bell tendered his resignation at Penn in protest over the emphasis on in-season scrimmages during practices by Lud Wray, a fellow assistant coach. Bell's resignation was accommodated prior to the start of the 1929 season.
Bell was then an employee of the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia. At one point, he tried his hand as a stock broker and lost $50,000 () during the Wall Street Crash of 1929. His father bailed him out of his deprivation, and he returned to working at the Ritz. From 1930 until 1932, he was a backfield coach for Temple in Philadelphia. In 1932, Marshall tried to coax Bell into buying the rights to an NFL franchise, but Bell disparaged the league and ridiculed the idea. When Pop Warner was hired to coach Temple for the 1933 season, Warner chose to hire his own assistants, and Bell was let go by Temple.
NFL career
Philadelphia Eagles (1933–1940)
By early 1933, Bell's opinion on the NFL had changed, and he wanted to become an owner of a team based in Philadelphia. After being advised by the NFL that a prerequisite to a franchise being rendered in Philadelphia was that the Pennsylvania Blue Laws would have to be mollified, he was the force majeure in lobbying to getting the laws deprecated. He borrowed funds from Frances Upton, partnered with Wray, and he procured the rights to a franchise in Philadelphia which he christened as the Philadelphia Eagles.
After the inaugural 1933 Philadelphia Eagles season, Bell married Upton at St. Madeleine Sophie Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia. Days later, his suggestion to bestow the winner of the NFL championship game with the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy was affirmed. In 1934, the Eagles finished with a 4–7 record, The Eagles' inability to seriously challenge other teams made it difficult to sell tickets, and his failure to sign a talented college prospect led him to adduce that the only way to bring stability to the league was to institute a draft to ensure the weakest teams had an advantage in signing the preeminent players. In 1935, his proposal for a draft was accepted, and in February 1936, the first draft kicked off, at which he acted as Master of Ceremonies. Later that month, his first child, Bert Jr., was born.
In the Eagles' first three years, the partners exhausted $85,000 (), and at a public auction, Bell became sole owner of the Eagles with a bid of $4,500 (). Austerity measures forced him to supplant Wray as head coach of the Eagles, wherein Bell led the Eagles to a 1–11 finish, their worst record ever. In December, an application for a franchise in Los Angeles was obstructed by Bell and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Rooney as they deemed it too far of a distance to travel for games. During the Eagles' 2–8–1 1937 season, his second child, John "Upton", was born. In the Eagles' first profitable season, 1938, they posted a 5–6 record. The Eagles finished 1–9–1 in 1939 and 1–10 in 1940.
Pittsburgh Steelers (1940–1945)
In December 1940, Bell conciliated the sale of Rooney's Steelers to Alexis Thompson, and then Rooney acquired half of Bell's interest in the Eagles. In a series of events known as the Pennsylvania Polka, Rooney and Bell exchanged their entire Eagles roster and their territorial rights in Philadelphia to Thompson for his entire Steelers roster and his rights in Pittsburgh. Ostensibly, Rooney had provided assistance to Bell by rewarding him with a 20% commission on the sale of the Steelers. Bell became the Steelers head coach and Rooney became the general manager.
During the training camp of Pittsburgh's inaugural season with the nickname Steelers, Bell was buoyant with optimism about the team's prospect, but he became crestfallen after Rooney denigrated the squad and flippantly remarked that they looked like the "[s]ame old Steelers" (SOS). After losing the first two games of the 1941 season, Rooney compelled Bell to resign as head coach. Bell's coaching career ended with a 10–46–2 record, his 0.179 winning percentage is second-lowest in NFL history to only Phil Handler's 0.105 for coaches with at least five seasons. And at 36 games under .500 he held the record for futility until John McKay passed him in 1983 and Marion Campbell passed him in 1988. His first daughter and last child, Jane Upton, was born several months after the season's conclusion.
By 1943, 40% of the NFL rosters had been drafted into the United States Armed Forces for World War II. The resulting difficulty in fielding a full-strength squad led some owners to recommend the league should shut down until the war ended. Bell auspiciously argued against this as he feared they might not be able to resume operations easily after the war, and since Major League Baseball was continuing unabated, then they should also.
Throughout Bell's affiliation with the Steelers, he suffered monetarily and Rooney bought an increasing allotment of the franchise from him. Compounding Bell's problems, Arch Ward organized the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1944 to displace the NFL's sovereignty in professional football. Ward's AAFC promptly began luring players to join the league, which resulted in salaries being driven up drastically. In Bill Dudley's contract proceedings with the Steelers, he attributed Bell's anxiety during the negotiations to the rivalry from the AAFC. Furthermore, by the end of 1945, the Steelers were in their most economically perilous situation in its history.
NFL commissioner (1946–1959)
Election, Hapes-Filchock, and the NFL schedule (1946–1948)
Elmer Layden was appointed the first NFL commissioner in 1941, but Ward appeared as dictating his hiring. Layden tendered his resignation for personal reasons January 1946. Bell, who was not well respected in Pittsburgh, was elected to replace him. He received a three-year contract at $20,000 per year (), and transacted a sale of his stake in the Steelers to Rooney, albeit for a price Bell did not construe was full-value. He was then immediately placed at the center of a controversy wherein the owners denied Dan Reeves permission to relocate the Cleveland Rams to Los Angeles. Bell moderated a settlement, and, as a result, the Los Angeles Rams were formed. As a precondition to the Rams leasing the Los Angeles Coliseum, they signed Kenny Washington, which marked the beginning of the end of racial segregation on the field, but also caused "'all hell to break loose'" amidst the owners.
The drawing up of a regular-season schedule had been a perennial source of contention among the NFL owners since the league's inception. The crux of the problem was the scheduling of games meant weighing the interest of owners who, early in the season, wanted their franchises to confront teams that drew the largest crowds, versus owners who wanted to play the weaker franchises to pad their team's win–loss record. The resultant impasse coerced the owners, in 1946, to confer upon Bell the sole discretion in developing the league's schedule. He utilized this responsibility to, early in the season, pit the weaker teams against other weak teams, and the strong teams against other strong teams. His goal was to augment game attendances by keeping the difference in team standings to a minimum as deep into the season as possible.
On the eve of the 1946 championship game, Bell was notified that Merle Hapes and Frank Filchock of the New York Giants had been implicated in a bribing scandal. Filchock was sanctioned by Bell to play in the game but Hapes was suspended. At the next NFL owners' meeting, Bell was worried the repercussions from this event would lead to his firing. However, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that his contract would be elevated to five years at $30,000 per year. Reinvigorated with renewed support, he persuaded the owners to allow him to put sudden-death overtime into the playoffs.
Subsequently, he wrote an anti-gambling resolution into the league constitution, which empowered him with the ability to permanently ban any NFL associated personnel for betting on a game or for withholding information on a game being possibly fixed. Furthermore, to obstruct gamblers from getting inside information, he secreted the names of officials he would assign to games, and he directed each team to promulgate a precursory injury report which listed anyone who might not participate in a game. Eventually, he lobbied to get every state in the US to criminalize the fixing of sporting events and put employees on the payroll of the NFL to investigate potential betting scams.
AAFC–NFL merger (1948–1950)
The NFL's struggle against the AAFC generated stress on wages, attendance, marketing, and by 1949, it had prevented the NFL for showing a profit for three consecutive years. Bell and representatives from both leagues met to attempt a merger, but their efforts were fruitless. In an unrelated matter, he apprised the owners that attendance records had shown televising games locally had a negative impact on the sale of home tickets. Nevertheless, he actualized the NFL's first television contract—the 1949 championship game. Simultaneously, he dealt with a lawsuit from Bill Radovich, who had been blacklisted for leaving the Lions and gaining employment with the AAFC. Bell and the owners were advised by John C. Jr. that this lawsuit was potentially not winnable, and the ramifications from the outcome of the case weighed heavily on Bell.
One of the primary impediments in an AAFC–NFL merger was the supposed violation of "territorial rights" claimed by Marshall. Eventually, Bell gathered enough support to effectuate a compromise with the AAFC. In late 1949, the leagues merged, as three AAFC teams (the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, and Baltimore Colts) joined the NFL; a fourth AAFC team (Los Angeles Dons) merged with the Los Angeles Rams, and the other AAFC teams disbanded. Bell stayed on as commissioner with his contract extended from five to ten years Seeking to capitalize on the publicity of the residual AAFC–NFL rivalry, he utilized "exquisite dramatic" and business sense and allocated the 1950 opening game to a contest between the 1949 champion Eagles versus the perennial AAFC champion Browns. Feeling financially secure after the merger, he purchased his first home for himself and his family in Narberth, Pennsylvania.
Marketing of the NFL (1950–1956)
In 1950, Bell originated a blackout rule into the NFL which forbid all teams to televise their home games within a 75-mile radius of their stadium – except for the Rams. Consequently, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) opened an investigation into a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Rams attendance for 1950 dropped off by 50%, and this signaled a potential financial disaster. In 1951, he licensed the DuMont Television Network to air the championship games for the next five years, and he stipulated that teams were free to develop their own television contracts independently.
However, preceding the 1951 season, he reimposed the blackout rule on all teams in the league. The DOJ filed suit over this and Bell publicly retorted, "You can't give fans a game for free on TV and also expect them to go to the ballpark"; nevertheless, the suit was ordered to trial for January 1952. After the 1951 season ended, he gained unilateral control over the setting of a television strategy for the NFL. He negotiated a deal with DuMont, which granted it the rights to nationally broadcast one regular-season game every week, and he directed that the income from this contract was to be shared equally between all the teams. In the DOJ's case, the judge ruled that the blackout policy was legal, but both Bell, and the franchises collectively, were enjoined from negotiating a TV contract; Bell was ecstatic. Later that year, Bell forced one of the owners of the Cleveland Browns to sell all of his shares in the team after Bell determined the owner had bet on Browns' football games. Although he hated to fly, at some indeterminate point, he visited the training camps of every team and lectured on the danger gamblers posed to the league.
Bell authorized a Pro Bowl to be held at the end of each season in order to showcase the talents of the best players. But in the early 1950s, on the field activities sometimes denigrated to borderline assault and battery with teams' star players being viciously targeted by opposing players. He answered charges the league was too savage by saying, "'I have never seen a maliciously dirty football player in my life and I don't believe there are any.'" Nevertheless, he ordered broadcasts to follow a strict rule of conduct whereby TV announcers would not be permitted to criticize the game, and neither fights, nor injuries, could be televised by virtue in his belief that announcers were "'salesman for professional football [and] we do not want kids believing that engaging in fights is the way to play football.'"
Bell was criticized for censoring TV broadcasts, a charge he dismissed as not pertinent because he believed he was not impeding the print media but only advertising a product. After CBS and NBC gained the rights to broadcast the games in 1956, he advised the franchises to avoid criticizing the games or the officials, and forewarned that TV would give "'us our greatest opportunity to sell the NFL and everyone must present to the public the greatest games ... combined with the finest sportsmanship.'" This relationship with television was the beginning of the NFL's rise to becoming America's most popular sport.
Compromise with the NFLPA (1956–1957)
In Radovich v. National Football League, the Supreme Court ruled in Radovich's favor and declared the NFL was subject to antitrust laws, and the implication was that the legality of the draft and reserve clause were dubious. Bell pressed a case in the media that the NFL should be exempted from antitrust regulations and proffered the league was a sport and not a business. He invited an investigation from Congress with respect to the court's ruling. The House Judiciary committee, chaired by Emanuel Celler—who believed the draft was illegal and should be abolished, convened in July 1957 to discuss the ramifications of the Radovich decision. Red Grange and Bell testified at the committee's solicitation and argued the draft was essential to the sport's success. Representatives of the NFLPA contradicted these statements and said the draft and the reserve clause were anti-labor, and it seemed as if Congress was going to accept their position. Faced with Congressional opposition, Bell formally recognized the NFLPA and declared he would negotiate with its representatives.
However, Bell was speaking only for himself and without the auspices of the owners. At the next owners' meeting, Rooney admonished they either had to recognize the NFLPA or remove Bell as commissioner. In order to do this, they had to agree in a vote that required a super-majority. Bell unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the owners to permit the NFLPA to act as a bargaining agent for the players. However, he did reach a compromise with the owners to get them to acquiesce to some of the NFLPA's requests for salary standards and health benefits.
Final days (1958–1959)
For the 1958 season, the duration of timeouts was extended from 60 to 90 seconds and Bell mandated officials call a few TV timeouts during each game — a change which triggered criticism from sportswriters. The 1958 championship game became the first NFL championship game decided in overtime, and it was considered to be the greatest football game ever played. The game further increased football's marketability to television advertising, and the drama associated with overtime was the catalyst. Years later, after witnessing Bell openly crying after the game, Raymond Berry attributed it to Bell's realization of the impact the game would have on the prevalence of the sport.
The death of Mara in February unsettled Bell and he experienced a heart attack later that month. He converted to Catholicism that summer because of the lifelong urging of his wife, Mara's death, and his enduring friendship with Rooney, a practicing Catholic. Bell was advised by his doctor to avoid going to football games, to which he quipped, "I'd rather die watching football than in my bed with my boots off." Bell and his children attended an Eagles game on October 11 at Franklin Field against the Steelers (both his old teams). The Eagles held complimentary box seats for him and guests to watch the game, but he preferred to buy his own tickets and sit with the other fans. Sitting towards the end of the field near the end zone during the fourth quarter of the game, he suffered a fatal heart attack and died later that day at the nearby university hospital. League Treasurer Austin Gunsel was named interim NFL commissioner for the rest of the season.
Afterwards, he was remembered as "a man of buoyant joviality, with a rough and ready wit, laughter and genuine humility and honesty, clearly innocent of pretense and [pretension]." His funeral was held at Narberth's St. Margaret Roman Catholic Church and Monsignor Cornelius P. Brennan delivered the eulogy, as close friends and admirers attended the mass. Dominic Olejniczak and all the extant owners of the NFL franchises were pallbearers. Bell was interred at Calvary Cemetery in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia.
Legacy and honors
Bell was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame, the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, and Haverford's Athletic Hall of Fame. The Maxwell Football Club, which he founded in 1937, has presented the best NFL player of the year with the Bert Bell Award since 1959. The Bert Bell Benefit Bowl was exhibited in his honor from 1960 through 1969.
Although he did not have the wherewithal to prevent the wholesale betting on games, he was proactive in ensuring games were not tampered with by gamblers, and he created the foundation of the contemporary NFL anti-gambling policy.
Bell was criticized as being too strict with his refusal to let sold-out games to be televised locally. Nevertheless, his balancing of television broadcasts against protecting game attendance made the NFL the "healthiest professional sport in America", and he was the "leading protagonist in pro football's evolution into America's major sport." He had understood that the league needed a cooperative television contract with revenue-sharing, but he failed to overcome the obstacles to achieve it. He was portrayed by sportswriters as ensuring the owners treated the players fairly, and his decision to recognize the NFLPA in the face of adversity from owners was a "master stroke" in thwarting Congressional intervention. After he initiated terms for a pension plan with the players in 1959, little progress was made with the NFLPA, however, the first players' pension plan – the Bert Bell National Football League Retirement Plan – was approved in 1962.
Bell's implementation of the draft did not show immediate results, but it was "the single greatest contributor to the [league]'s prosperity" in its first eighty-four years. His original version of the draft was later ruled unconstitutional, but his anchoring of the success of the league to competitive balance has been "hailed by contemporaries and sports historians".
Bell's belief in the efficacy of parity for the financial health of the league is best summarized by his most famous quotation, made to the press in November 1952 to explain an uptick in stadium attendance:
"The teams are so closely matched that on any given Sunday, any one team can beat any other team. Professional football has come down to the point where the psychological edge is the determining factor. Physically these teams are even, so it depends on the mental outlook of the squads to determine the winner. It's this factor that has made the game close and is bringing fans out to the ball parks."
Head coaching record
NFL
Published works
Bell, Bert, "The Money Game." Liberty Magazine, XIII (November 28, 1936), pp. 59–60.
Bell, Bert, "Offensive Football." Popular Football, (Winter 1941), p. 111.
Bell, Bert, "This is Commissioner Bell Speaking." Pro Football Illustrated, XII (1952), pp. 60–63.
Bell, Bert; with Martin, Paul, "Do the Gamblers Make a Sucker Out of You?." Saturday Evening Post, CCXXI (November 6, 1948), p. 28.
Bell, Bert; with Pollock, Ed, "Let's Throw Out the Extra Point." Sport, XV (October 1953), p. 24–25.
Bell, Bert (1957). The Story of Professional Football in Summary. Bala Cynwyd, PA: National Football League.
References
Bibliography
Primary materials
Lyons, Robert S. (2010). On Any Given Sunday, A Life of Bert Bell. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Secondary materials
When Pride Still Mattered, A Life of Vince Lombardi, by David Maraniss, 1999,
Organized Professional Team Sports: Part 1. United States House Committee on the Judiciary I, Subcommittee on Antitrust (1957).
Organized Professional Team Sports: Part 3. United States House Committee on the Judiciary III, Subcommittee on Antitrust (1957).
Algeo, Matthew (2006). Last Team Standing. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press.
Berry, Robert C.; with Gould, William B. and Staudohar, Paul D. (1986). Labor Relations in Professional Sports. Dover, MA: Auburn House Pub. Co.
Brown, Paul; with Clary, Jack (1979). PB, the Paul Brown Story. New York: Atheneum.
Carroll, Bob; with Gershman, Michael, Neft, David, and Thorn, John (1999). Total Football:The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. New York: HarperCollins.
Carroll, John M. (1999). Red Grange and the Rise of Modern Football. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Claassen, Harold (Spike) (1963). The History of Professional Football. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Coenen, Craig R. (2005). From Sandlots to the Super Bowl: The National Football League, 1920–1967. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press.
Daley, Arthur (1963). Pro Football's Hall of Fame. New York: Grosset and Dunlap.
Danzig, Allison (1956). The History of American Football: Its Great Teams, Players, and Coaches. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Davis, Jeff (2005). Papa Bear, The Life and Legacy of George Halas. New York: McGraw-Hill
DeVito, Carlo (2006). Wellington: the Maras, the Giants, and the City of New York. Chicago: Triumph Books.
Didinger, Ray; with Lyons, Robert S. (2005). The Eagles Encyclopedia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Gifford, Frank; with Richmond, Peter (2008). The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever. New York: Harper Collins.
Herskowitz, Mickey (1990). The Golden Age of Pro Football. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company.
Hession, Joseph (1987). The Rams: Five Decades of Football. San Francisco: Foghorn Press.
Hibner, John Charles (1993). The Rose Bowl, 1902–1929. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers.
King, Joe (1958). Inside Pro Football. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Layden, Elmer; with Snyder, Ed (1969). It Was a Different Game: The Elmer Layden Story. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall, Inc.
LaBlanc, Michael L.; with Ruby, Mary K. (1994). Professional Sports Team Histories: Football. Detroit: Gale Research Inc.
Levy, Alan H. (2003). Tackling Jim Crow, Racial Segregation in Professional Football. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., Inc.
Littlewood, Thomas B. (1990). Arch: A Promoter, not a Poet: The Story of Arch Ward. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.
MacCambridge, Michael (2005). America's Game. New York: Anchor Books.
MacCambridge, Michael (2009). ESPN College Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Game. New York: ESPN Books, Inc.
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Ratterman, George; with Deindorfer, Robert G. (1962). Confessions of a Gypsy Quarterback; Inside the Wacky World of Pro Football. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc.
Riger, Robert; with Maule, Tex (1960). The Pros. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Rooney, Dan; with Halaas, David F. and Masich, Andrew E. (2007). My 75 Years with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.
Rothe, Anna; with Prodrick, Elizabeth (1951). "Bert Bell" in Current Biography: Who's News and Why 1950. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company.
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Smith, Myron J. Jr. (1993). Professional Football: The Official Pro Football Hall of Fame Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Staudohar, Paul D. (1986). The Sports Industry and Collective Bargaining. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
Sullivan, George (1968). Pro Football's All Time Greats. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
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Umphlett, Wiley Lee (1992). Creating the Big Game: John W. Heisman and the Invention of American Football. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Westcott, Rich (2001). A Century of Philadelphia Sports. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Whittingham, Richard (2002). What a Game They Played: An Inside Look at the Golden Era of Pro Football. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, Inc.
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Further reading
Lower Merion Historical Society (2000). The first 300 : the amazing and rich history of Lower Merion. Ardmore, Pa. : The Society
External links
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4893 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%20Costas | Bob Costas | Robert Quinlan Costas (born March 22, 1952) is an American sportscaster who is known for his long tenure with NBC Sports, from 1980 through 2019. He has received 28 Emmy awards for his work and was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games from 1988 until 2016. He is currently employed by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, where he does play-by-play and studio work for the MLB on TBS and commentary on CNN. He is also employed by MLB Network, where he does play-by-play and once hosted an interview show called Studio 42 with Bob Costas.
Early life and education
Costas is the son of a Greek father, John George Costas, and an Irish mother, Jayne Costas (née Quinlan). He grew up in Commack, New York, and attended Commack High School South.
He attended the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, but dropped out in 1974. Costas got his first radio experience as a freshman at WAER, a student run radio station. In the mid-1980s, he established the Robert Costas Scholarship at the Newhouse School, of which the very first recipient was Mike Tirico in 1987.
Broadcasting career
Early career
While studying communications in college, Costas began his professional career in 1973, at WSYR-TV and radio in Syracuse. He called for the minor league Syracuse Blazers of the Eastern Hockey League.
After leaving school in 1974, he joined KMOX radio in St. Louis. Costas would call Missouri Tigers basketball and co-host KMOX's Open Line call-in program. He did play-by-play for Chicago Bulls broadcasts on WGN-TV during the 1979–1980 NBA season.
NBC Sports
In 1980, Costas was hired by NBC. Don Ohlmeyer, who at the time ran the network's sports division, told 28-year-old Costas he looked like a 14-year-old.
For many years, Costas hosted NBC's National Football League coverage and NBA coverage. He also did play-by-play for National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball coverage. With the introduction of the NBC Sports Network, Costas also became the host of the new monthly interview program Costas Tonight.
Boxing
On March 30, 2015, it was announced that Costas would join forces with Marv Albert (blow-by-blow) and Al Michaels (host) on the April 11, 2015, edition of NBC's primetime PBC on NBC boxing series. Costas was added to serve as a special contributor for the event from Barclays Center in Brooklyn. He would narrate and write a feature on the storied history of boxing in New York City.
Golf
Costas hosted NBC's coverage of the U.S. Open golf tournament from 2003 to 2014.
Major League Baseball
For baseball telecasts, Costas teamed with Sal Bando (1982), Tony Kubek (from 1983 to 1989), and Joe Morgan and Bob Uecker (from 1994 to 2000). One of his most memorable broadcasts occurred on June 23, 1984 (in what would go down in baseball lore as "The Sandberg Game"). Costas, along with Tony Kubek, was calling the Saturday baseball Game of the Week from Chicago's Wrigley Field. The game between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals in particular was cited for putting Ryne Sandberg (as well as the 1984 Cubs in general, who would go on to make their first postseason appearance since 1945) "on the map". In the ninth inning, the Cubs, trailing 9–8, faced the premier relief pitcher of the time, Bruce Sutter. Sandberg, then not known for his power, slugged a home run to left field against the Cardinals' ace closer. Despite this dramatic act, the Cardinals scored two runs in the top of the tenth. Sandberg came up again in the tenth inning, facing a determined Sutter with one man on base. Sandberg then shocked the national audience by hitting a second home run, even farther into the left field bleachers, to tie the game again. The Cubs went on to win in the 11th inning. When Sandberg hit that second home run, Costas said, "Do you believe it?!" The Cardinals' Willie McGee also hit for the cycle in the same game.
While hosting Game 4 of the 1988 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics on NBC, Costas angered many members of the Dodgers (especially the team's manager, Tommy Lasorda) by commenting before the start of the game that the Dodgers quite possibly were about to put up the weakest-hitting lineup in World Series history. That comment ironically fired up the Dodgers' competitive spirit, to the point where a chant of "Kill Costas!" began among the clubhouse, while the Dodgers eventually rolled to a 4–1 series victory.
Besides calling the 1989 American League Championship Series for NBC, Costas also filled in for a suddenly ill Vin Scully, who had come down with laryngitis, for Game2 of the 1989 National League Championship Series alongside Tom Seaver. Game2 of the NLCS took place on Thursday, October 5, which was an off day for the ALCS. NBC then decided to fly Costas from Toronto to Chicago to substitute for Scully on Thursday night. Afterward, Costas flew back to Toronto, where he resumed work on the ALCS the next night.
Costas anchored NBC's pre- and post-game shows for NFL broadcasts and the pre and post-game shows for numerous World Series and Major League Baseball All-Star Games during the 1980s (the first being for the 1982 World Series). Costas did not get a shot at doing play-by-play (as the games on NBC were previously called by Vin Scully) for an All-Star Game until 1994 and a World Series until 1995 (when NBC split the coverage with ABC under "The Baseball Network" umbrella), when NBC regained Major League Baseball rights after a four-year hiatus (when the broadcast network television contract moved over to CBS, exclusively). It was not until 1997 when Costas finally got to do play-by-play for a World Series from start to finish. Costas ended up winning a Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Personality, Play-by-Play.
In 1999, Costas teamed with his then-NBC colleague Joe Morgan to call two weekday night telecasts for ESPN. The first was on Wednesday, August 25 with Detroit Tigers playing against the Seattle Mariners.
On August 3, 2019, Costas alongside Paul O'Neill and David Cone called both games of a double-header between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox for the YES Network. Costas was filling in for Michael Kay, who was recovering from vocal cord surgery.
On August 20, 2021, reports emerged that TBS was nearing an agreement with Costas to host their coverage of that year's NLCS.
NASCAR
In November 2017, it was announced that Costas would co-anchor alongside Krista Voda on NBC's pre-race coverage leading into the NASCAR Cup Series finale from Homestead. In addition to hosting pre-race coverage, Costas would conduct a live interview with incoming NBC broadcaster Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was running his final race.
National Basketball Association
Costas served as NBC's lead play-by-play announcer for their National Basketball Association broadcasts from 1997-2000. In that time frame, Costas called three NBA Finals including the 1998 installment (which set an all-time ratings record for the NBA) between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz. Costas was paired with Isiah Thomas and Doug Collins on NBC's NBA telecast. Following the 2000 NBA Finals, he was replaced by Marv Albert as the lead play-by-play announcer, who incidentally, the man he directly replaced on the NBA on NBC in the first place.
Costas had previously presided as host of the network's pre-game show, NBA Showtime, while also providing play-by-play as a fill-in when necessary. Costas later co-anchored (with Hannah Storm) NBC's NBA Finals coverage in 2002, which was their last to-date (before the NBA's network television contract moved to ABC).
Professional football
NBC Sports allowed Costas to opt out from having to cover the XFL. He publicly denigrated the league throughout its existence and remains a vocal critic of the league and its premise.
In 2006, Costas returned to NFL studio hosting duties for NBC's new Sunday Night Football, hosting its pre-game show Football Night in America. Costas last hosted NFL telecasts for NBC in 1992 before being replaced in the studio by Jim Lampley and subsequently, Greg Gumbel. Before becoming the studio host for The NFL on NBC in 1984, Costas did play-by-play of NFL games with analyst Bob Trumpy.
Costas is nicknamed "Rapping Roberto" by New York City's Daily News sports media columnist Bob Raissman. Al Michaels also called him "Rapping Roberto" during the telecast between the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Giants on September 10, 2006, in response to Costas calling him "Alfalfa".
Olympics (1988–2016)
Costas has frontlined many Olympics broadcasts for NBC. They include Seoul in 1988, Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, Salt Lake City in 2002, Athens in 2004, Torino in 2006, Beijing in 2008, Vancouver in 2010, London in 2012, Sochi in 2014 and Rio in 2016. He discusses his work on the Olympic telecasts extensively in a book by Andrew Billings entitled Olympic Media: Inside the Biggest Show on Television. A personal influence on Costas has been legendary ABC Sports broadcaster Jim McKay, who hosted many Olympics for ABC from the 1960s to the 1980s.
During the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Opening Ceremonies, Costas's remarks on China's teams' possible drug use caused an uproar among the American Chinese and international communities. Thousands of dollars were raised to purchase ads in The Washington Post and Sunday The New York Times, featuring an image of the head of a statue of Apollo and reading: "Costas Poisoned Olympic Spirit, Public Protests NBC". However, Costas's comments were made subsequent to the suspension of Chinese coach Zhou Ming after seven of his swimmers were caught using steroids in 1994. Further evidence of Chinese athletes' drug use came in 1997 when Australian authorities confiscated 13 vials of Somatropin, a human growth hormone, from the bag of Chinese swimmer Yuan Yuan upon her arrival for the 1997 World Swimming Championships. At the World Championships, four Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned substance Triamterene, a diuretic used to dilute urine samples to mask the presence of anabolic steroids. Including these failed drug tests, 27 Chinese swimmers were caught using performance-enhancing drugs from 1990 through 1997; more than the rest of the world combined.
Along with co-host Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer, Costas's commentary of the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies came under fierce criticism, with Costas being described as making "a series of jingoistic remarks, including a joke about dictator Idi Amin when Uganda's team appeared" and the combined commentary as being "ignorant" and "banal".
Following the Olympics, Costas appeared on Conan O'Brien's talk show and jokingly criticized his employer for its decision to air a preview of the upcoming series Animal Practice over a performance by The Who during the London closing ceremonies. "So here is the balance NBC has to consider: The Who, 'Animal Practice'. Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend—monkey in a lab coat. I'm sure you'd be the first to attest, Conan, that when it comes to the tough calls, NBC usually gets 'em right," Costas said, alluding at the end to O'Brien's involvement in the 2010 Tonight Show conflict.
An eye infection Costas had at the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics forced him, on February 11, 2014, to cede his Olympic hosting duties to Matt Lauer (four nights) and Meredith Vieira (two nights), the first time Costas had not done so at all since the 1998 Winter Olympics (as the rights were not held by NBC).
Thoroughbred racing
From 2001 until 2018, Costas co-hosted the Kentucky Derby. In 2009, he hosted Bravo's coverage of the 2009 Kentucky Oaks. After Costas officially departed from NBC Sports, his role on NBC's thoroughbred racing coverage was essentially filled-in by Rebecca Lowe, beginning with the 2019 Kentucky Derby.
Departure from NBC Sports
On February 9, 2017, Costas announced during Today that he had begun the process of stepping down from his main on-air roles at NBC Sports, announcing in particular that he would cede his role as primetime host for NBC's Olympics coverage to Mike Tirico (who joined the network from ESPN in 2016), and that he would host Super Bowl LII as his final Super Bowl. However, Costas ultimately dropped out of the coverage entirely.
USA Today reported that he would similarly step down from Football Night in America in favor of Tirico. Costas explained that he was not outright retiring and expected to take on a role at NBC Sports similar to that of Tom Brokaw, being an occasional special correspondent to the division. He explained that his decision "opens up more time to do the things that I feel I'm most connected to; there will still be events, features, and interviews where I can make a significant contribution at NBC, but it will also leave more time for baseball (on MLB Network), and then, at some point down the road, I'll have a chance to do more of the long-form programming I enjoy." Costas told USA Today his gradual retirement was planned in advance, and that he did not want to announce it during the 2016 Summer Olympics or the NFL season because it would be too disruptive, and joked: "I'm glad that Sochi wasn't the last one. You wouldn't want your pink-eye Olympics to be your last Olympics."
Costas's final major on-air broadcast for NBC was hosting the 2018 Belmont Stakes, where Justify won the Triple Crown.
On January 15, 2019, it was announced that Costas had officially departed from NBC Sports after 40 years.
Talk show hosting
Costas hosted the syndicated radio program Costas Coast to Coast from 1986 to 1996, which was revived as Costas on the Radio. Costas on the Radio, which ended its three-year run on May 31, 2009, aired on 200 stations nationwide each weekend and syndicated by the Clear Channel–owned Premiere Radio Networks. During that period, Costas also served as the imaging voice of Clear Channel–owned KLOU in St. Louis, Missouri, during that station's period as "My 103.3". Like Later, Costas's radio shows have focused on a wide variety of topics and have not been limited to sports discussion.
Costas decided to leave Later after six seasons, having grown tired of the commute to New York City from his home in St. Louis and wishing to lighten his workload in order to spend more time with his family. He also turned down an offer from David Letterman, who moved to CBS in 1995, to follow him there and become the first host of The Late Late Show, which was being developed by Letterman's company to air at 12:30 after the Late Show with David Letterman.
In June 2005, Costas was named by CNN president Jonathan Klein as a regular substitute anchor for Larry King's Larry King Live for one year. Costas, as well as Klein, have said Costas was not trying out for King's position on a permanent basis. Nancy Grace was also named a regular substitute host for the show. On August 18, 2005, Costas refused to host a Larry King Live broadcast where the subject was missing teenager Natalee Holloway. Costas said that because there were no new developments in the story, he felt it had no news value, and he was uncomfortable with television's drift in the direction of tabloid-type stories.
Beginning in October 2011, Costas was a correspondent for Rock Center with Brian Williams. He gained acclaim for his November 2011 live interview of former Pennsylvania State University assistant coach Jerry Sandusky concerning charges of sexual abuse of minors, in which Sandusky called in to deny the charges.
Costas hosted a monthly talk show Costas Tonight on NBC Sports Network.
HBO Sports
In 2001, Costas was hired by HBO to host a 12-week series called On the Record with Bob Costas.
In 2002, Costas began a stint as co-host of HBO's long-running series Inside the NFL. Costas remained host of Inside the NFL through the end of the 2007 NFL season. He hosted the show with Cris Collinsworth and former NFL legends Dan Marino and Cris Carter. The program aired each week during the NFL season.
Costas left HBO to sign with MLB Network in February 2009.
On April 23, 2021, it was announced that Costas would be returning to HBO to host a quarter-yearly interview show called Back on the Record.
MLB Network
At the channel's launch on January 1, 2009, Costas hosted the premiere episode of All Time Games, a presentation of the recently discovered kinescope of Game5 of the 1956 World Series. During the episode, he held a forum with Don Larsen, who pitched MLB's only postseason perfect game during that game, and Yogi Berra, who caught the game.
Costas joined the network full-time on February 3, 2009. He hosted a regular interview show titled MLB Network Studio 42 with Bob Costas as well as special programming and provides play-by-play for select live baseball game telecasts. In 2017, Costas called Game1 of the American League Division Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros on MLB Network. The Astros went on to win 8–2. Costas and his color commentator Jim Kaat received criticism for their "bantering about minutia" and misidentification of plays. Costas also went on to become an internet meme after using the term the "sacks were juiced" to describe the bases being loaded.
NFL Network
As aforementioned, Costas hosted Thursday Night Football on NBC and NFL Network in 2016, having returned to broadcasting after a brief absence. He was replaced by Liam McHugh in 2017.
TBS
On August 20, 2021, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported that TBS was nearing an agreement with Costas which would have him hosting the network's National League Championship Series coverage. On October 7, 2021, WarnerMedia officially confirmed that Costas would be joining TBS for their postseason baseball coverage starting on October 16.
As of the 2022 MLB season, Costas currently provides play-by-play for TBS's Tuesday night baseball package during the regular season. He was the studio host for TBS's ALCS postseason coverage and also provided play-by-play for TBS's ALDS postseason coverage between the Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees. This marked the first time since the 2000 ALCS on NBC that Costas would provide play-by-play for a postseason baseball series in its entirety.
Other appearances
Costas provided significant contributions to the Ken Burns, PBS mini series Baseball as well as its follow-up The 10th Inning. He also appears in another PBS film, A Time for Champions, produced by St. Louis's Nine Network of Public Media.
In July 2020, it was announced that Costas would join CNN as a contributor. According to CNN, Costas would provide commentary "on a wide range of sports-related issues as the industry adapts to new challenges posed by the coronavirus and the frequent intersection of sports with larger societal issues." Costas, who would continue working on MLB Network, said of joining CNN: “CNN’s willingness to devote time and attention to sports related topics, makes it a good fit for me.”
Notable calls
June 23, 1984: Costas called NBC's Game of the Week with Tony Kubek, where Ryne Sandberg hit two separate home runs in the 9th and 10th innings against Bruce Sutter to tie the game. This game is known as "The Sandberg Game".
Costas's call of the first home run:
Into left center field, and deep. This is a tie ball game!
Costas's call of the second home run:
Costas: 1–1 pitch. [Sandberg swings]
Kubek: OHHH BOY!
Costas: [Over Kubek] And he hits it to deep left center! Look out! Do you believe it, it's gone! We will go to the 11th, tied at 11.
October 28, 1995: Costas called Game 6 of the 1995 World Series, where the Atlanta Braves finally won their first ever World Series championship since moving to Atlanta in 1966.
Left-center field, Grissom on the run. The team of the '90s has its World Championship!
October 26, 1997: Costas called Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, where Édgar Rentería hit a walk off single to give the Florida Marlins their first World Series championship. Costas's call:
The 0–1 pitch. A liner, off Nagy's glove, into center field! The Florida Marlins, have won the World Series!
June 14, 1998: Costas called Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson's final game with the Chicago Bulls where Jordan hit a 20-foot jumpshot to put the Bulls up 87–86 with 5.2 seconds remaining. The Bulls would win the game by that score, giving them their sixth championship and third consecutive. Costas's call:
Jordan with 43. Malone is doubled. They swat at him and steal it! Here comes Chicago. 17 seconds. 17 seconds, from Game 7, or from championship #6. Jordan, open, CHICAGO WITH THE LEAD! Timeout Utah, 5.2 seconds left. Michael Jordan, running on fumes, with 45 points.
June 4, 2000: Costas called Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals for NBC's NBA coverage. Kobe Bryant threw an alley oop pass to Shaquille O'Neal to give the Lakers a six-point lead with 41.3 seconds remaining. Costas's call of the play:
Portland has three timeouts left, the Lakers have two. Bryant... TO SHAQ!
September 25, 2014: Costas called Derek Jeter's final game at Yankee Stadium for MLB Network, where he hit an RBI single to win the game. Costas's call:
A base hit to right! Here comes Richardson, they're waving him home! The throw, it's close but he scores! On a walk off hit by Derek Jeter!
Interests
Love of baseball
Costas is a devoted baseball fan. He's been suggested as a potential commissioner and wrote Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball in 2000. For his 40th birthday, then Oakland Athletics manager Tony La Russa allowed Costas to manage the club during a spring training game. The first time Costas visited baseball legend Stan Musial's St. Louis eatery, he left a $3.31 tip on a ten dollar tab in homage to Musial's lifetime batting average (.331). Costas delivered the eulogy at Mickey Mantle's funeral. In eulogizing Mantle, Costas described the baseball legend as "a fragile hero to whom we had an emotional attachment so strong and lasting that it defied logic". Costas has even carried a 1958 Mickey Mantle baseball card in his wallet. Costas also delivered the eulogy for Musial after his death in early 2013.
Costas was outspoken about his disdain for Major League Baseball instituting a playoff wild card. Costas believed it diminishes the significance and drama of winning a divisional championship. He prefers a system in which winning the wild card puts a team at some sort of disadvantage, as opposed to an equal level with teams who outplayed them over a 162-game season. Or, as explained in his book Fair Ball, have only the three division winners in each league go to the postseason, with the team with the best record receiving a bye to the League Championship Series. Once, on the air on HBO's Inside the NFL, he mentioned that the NFL regular season counted for something, but baseball's was beginning to lose significance. With the advent of the second wild card, Costas has said he feels the format has improved, since there is now a greater premium placed on finishing first. He has suggested a further tweak: Make the wild card round a best two of three, instead of a single game, with all three games, if necessary, on the homefield of the wild card of the better record.
He also has disdained the Designated Hitter rule, saying baseball would be a better game without it.
Costas serves as a member of the advisory board of the Baseball Assistance Team, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to helping former Major League, Minor League, and Negro league players through financial and medical difficulties.
Political views
Costas considers himself left of center but has said that he has voted for Republican candidates at times as well. On May 26, 2007, Costas discussed the presidency of George W. Bush on his radio show, stating he liked Bush personally, and had been optimistic about his presidency, but said the course of the Iraq War, and other mis-steps have led him to conclude Bush's presidency had "tragically failed" and considered it "overwhelmingly evident, even if you're a conservative Republican, if you're honest about it, this is a failed administration." The following summer, Costas interviewed Bush during the president's appearance at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Controversies
Gun culture controversy
During a segment on the Sunday Night Football halftime show on December 2, 2012, Costas paraphrased Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock in regard to Jovan Belcher's murder-suicide the day prior, saying the United States' gun culture was causing more domestic disputes to result in death, and that it was likely Belcher and his girlfriend would not have died had he not possessed a gun.
Critics interpreted his remarks as support for gun control. Many (including former Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Herman Cain) felt Costas should not have used a program typically viewed as entertainment to publicize political views on sensitive topics, Lou Dobbs criticized his remarks for supporting the abolition of the Second Amendment by quoting a sports writer, while Andrew Levy remarked that he had been given a civics lecture by someone who had "gotten rich thanks in part to a sport that destroys men's bodies and brains". However, reporter Erik Wemple of The Washington Post praised Costas for speaking out for gun control on the broadcast, commenting that the incident's connection to the NFL provided him with an obligation to acknowledge the incident during the halftime show, stating that "the things that [NFL players] do affect the public beyond whether their teams cover the point spread. And few cases better exemplify that dynamic as powerfully as the Belcher incident."
During the following week, Costas defended his remarks in an appearance on MSNBC's program The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, where he said the remarks were related to the country's gun culture, and not about gun control as critics had inferred. Costas did suggest that more regulation be placed on America's gun culture:
Now, do I believe that we need more comprehensive and more sensible gun control legislation? Yes I do. That doesn't mean repeal the Second Amendment. That doesn't mean a prohibition on someone having a gun to protect their home and their family. It means sensible and more comprehensive gun control legislation. But even if you had that, you would still have the problem of what Jason Whitlock wrote about, and what I agree with. And that is a gun culture in this country.
2014 Winter Olympics
During his coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Costas was criticized by some conservative members of the media, including Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck, for allegedly praising Russian president Vladimir Putin's role in defusing tensions surrounding Syria and Iran. Other conservative media commentators, including Bill O'Reilly and Bernard Goldberg, defended Costas's remarks as factually correct and pointed out that Costas had also voiced considerable criticism of both Russia and Putin while broadcasting from Sochi. During an interview on Fox News, Goldberg said "...the idea that Costas somehow portrayed Vladimir Putin as a benign figure is ridiculous." Costas defended himself on O'Reilly's broadcast on March 3, reiterating that he criticized Putin immediately preceding, and following, the statements that were questioned. O'Reilly then aired a portion of an Olympic commentary in which Costas was pointedly critical of the Russian leader. Costas also indicated that Senator John McCain, who had been among those who had initially criticized Costas, had called Costas to apologize after hearing the full segment in context.
Football's future
While visiting the University of Maryland in November 2017 for a roundtable discussion on various sports topics, Costas said the sport of football was in a decline, with evidence mounting that the repetition of concussions "destroys people's brains" and he would not allow a son with athletic talent to play it. Costas had been scheduled to work Super Bowl LII, his eighth as a host (despite stepping down from Football Night in America in favor of his successor Mike Tirico, Costas was to return while Tirico prepped to lead NBC's coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics, set to begin a few days later). However, the network announced shortly before the game that Liam McHugh would instead join Dan Patrick as a co-host, leading to speculation that NBC removed Costas from the NFL's biggest game over his comments. Costas originally denied such, saying it made more sense for McHugh, who had been hosting Thursday night games on NBC, to serve in that capacity. However, he later admitted in an interview with ESPN's Outside the Lines that the comments were indeed the basis of his removal, ultimately resulting in his departure from the network after forty years.
Personal life
Costas was married from 1983 to 2001 to Carole "Randy" Randall Krummenacher. They had two children, son Keith (born 1986) and daughter Taylor (born 1989). Costas once jokingly promised Minnesota Twins center fielder Kirby Puckett that, if he was batting over .350 by the time his child was born, he would name the baby Kirby. Kirby was hitting better than .350, but Bob's son initially was not given a first (or second) name of Kirby. After Puckett reminded Costas of the agreement, the birth certificate was changed to "Keith Michael Kirby Costas".
On March 12, 2004, Costas married his second wife, Jill Sutton. Costas and his wife now reside primarily in New York. Although Costas was born and raised in the New York area, he has often said he thinks of St. Louis as his hometown.
Costas's children have also won Sports Emmys: Keith has won two as an associate producer on MLB Network's MLB Tonight, and Taylor as an associate producer on NBC's coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Awards and honors
29-time Emmy Award winner (the only person in television history to have won Emmys for sports, news and entertainment)
Eight-time NSMA National Sportscaster of the Year
Four-time American Sportscasters Association Sportscaster of the Year
Star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
1999 Curt Gowdy Media Award – Basketball Hall of Fame
2000 TV Guide Award for Favorite Sportscaster.
2001 George Arents Award from Syracuse University (Excellence in Sports Broadcasting)
2004 Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism
NSMA Hall of Fame inductee (class of 2012).
2012 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.
2013 S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Marty Glickman Award for Leadership in Sports Media.
2015 WAER Hall of Fame inductee
2017 Ford C. Frick Award – National Baseball Hall of Fame.
2018 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee
2019 Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame inductee
In popular culture
Films
In 1994, Costas appeared as the play-by-play announcer for the World Series (working alongside Tim McCarver) in the movie The Scout. In 1998, he appeared as himself along with his rival/counterpart Al Michaels from ABC in the movie BASEketball. Costas voiced an animated car version of himself, Bob Cutlass, in the movies Cars (2006) and Cars 3 (2017). He also appeared as himself in the 2001 movie Pootie Tang, where he remarks that he saw "the longest damn clip ever".
Costas's voice appeared in the 2011 documentary film Legendary: When Baseball Came to the Bluegrass, which detailed the humble beginnings of the Lexington Legends, a minor league baseball team located in Lexington, Kentucky.
In 2021, Costas played himself in Here Today directed by Billy Crystal.
Popular culture
Costas has been alluded to several times in popular music. The songs "Mafioso" by Mac Dre, "We Major" by Domo Genesis and "The Last Huzzah" by Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, all refer to Costas. He was also mentioned in a Ludacris song after Costas mentioned the rapper on the late night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly.
In June 2013, Costas provided the voice of God in the Monty Python musical Spamalot at The Muny Repertory in St. Louis.
Television guest roles
Apart from his normal sportscasting duties, Costas has also presented periodic sports blooper reels, and announced dogsled and elevator races, on Late Night with David Letterman.
In 1985, Costas appeared on The War to Settle the Score, a pre-WrestleMania program that the World Wrestling Federation aired on MTV.
In 1993, Costas hosted the "pregame" show for the final episode of Cheers. Costas once appeared on the television program NewsRadio as himself. He hosted an award show and later had some humorous encounters with the crew of WNYX. Costas also once appeared as a guest on the faux talk show cartoon Space Ghost Coast to Coast. He also had a recurring guest role as himself on the HBO series Arli$$.
Costas has been impersonated several times by Darrell Hammond on Saturday Night Live. Costas was "supposed" to appear in the fourth-season premiere of Celebrity Deathmatch (ironically titled "Where is Bob Costas?") as a guest-commentator, but about halfway through the episode it was revealed that John Tesh had killed him before the show to take his place.
In 1999, Costas appeared as a guest on Space Ghost Coast to Coast during its sixth season.
On June 13, 2008, Costas appeared on MSNBC's commercial-free special coverage of Remembering Tim Russert (1950–2008).
On January 30, 2009, Costas guest-starred as himself on the television series Monk in an episode titled "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs"'. He mentions to Captain Stottlemeyer about how Adrian Monk once helped him out of a problem several years ago with regards to a demented cat salesman. He apparently sold Costas a cat that allegedly tried to kill him with a squeeze toy. (In fact when he signs off he says, "The cat was definitely trying to kill me.")
Costas guest-voiced as himself in 2010 Simpsons episode, "Boy Meets Curl", when Homer and Marge make the U.S. Olympic curling team. Costas also guest-voiced as himself on the Family Guy episode "Turban Cowboy" in an interview with Peter after he wins the Boston Marathon by hitting everyone with his car.
On February 11, 2010, Stephen Colbert jokingly expressed his desire to stab Costas with an ice pick at the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver so Colbert could take over as host. Costas later made a cameo appearance on the February 25, 2010, edition of Colbert's show.
In January 2013, Costas appeared as himself in the Go On episode "Win at All Costas" with Matthew Perry, wherein Ryan King auditions with him for a TV show.
Real footage of Costas from NBC's pregame show before Game5 of the 1994 NBA Finals was used in the second episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
Costas appeared on the September 22, 2017, episode of Real Time with Bill Maher to discuss issues such as concussions and the role of political activism in professional sports (namely by Colin Kaepernick).
Video games
In 2002, Costas was the play-by-play announcer, alongside Harold Reynolds, for Triple Play 2002 during the ballgame for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Career timeline
1974–1976: Spirits of St. Louis Play-by-play, KMOX radio
1976–1981: Missouri Tigers men's basketball Play-by-play, KMOX radio
1976–1979: NFL on CBS Play-by-play
1979–1980: Chicago Bulls Play-by-play, WGN-TV
1980–2018: NBC Sports Play-by-play & studio host
1980–1983: NFL on NBC Play-by-play
1983–1989: MLB on NBC #2 play-by-play
1984–1992, 2006–2016: NFL on NBC Studio Host
1988–1994: Later Host
1990–1997, 2002: NBA on NBC Studio Host
1992–2016: Summer Olympics Primetime Host
1993: Notre Dame Football on NBC Alternate play-by-play
1994–2000: MLB on NBC Lead play-by-play
1997–2000: NBA on NBC Lead play-by-play
2001–2018: Thoroughbred Racing on NBC Lead host
2001–2009: On the Record with Bob Costas and Costas Now Host
2002–2014: Winter Olympics Primetime Host
2002–2008: Inside the NFL Host
2003–2014: U.S. Open host, NBC Sports
2008–2012: NHL Winter Classic Host
2009–present: MLB Network Studio 42 with Bob Costas Host (2009-2014), Thursday Night Baseball Play-by-play
2016: NBC/NFL Network Host, Thursday Night Football
2017–present: MLB Network play-by-play, MLB Postseason
2020–present: CNN Sports contributor
2021–present: TBS baseball studio host, 2021 NLCS
See also
New Yorkers in journalism
References
External links
Bob Costas Ford C. Frick Award biography at the National Baseball Hall of Fame
Costas on the ‘’Cuse Conversations’ Podcast
1952 births
Living people
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American journalists
20th-century American writers
21st-century American writers
Sportspeople from Queens, New York
Writers from Queens, New York
People from Commack, New York
Radio personalities from New York (state)
Sportswriters from New York (state)
American male journalists
American Basketball Association announcers
American horse racing announcers
American sports radio personalities
American talk radio hosts
American television sports anchors
American television talk show hosts
American writers of Greek descent
American people of Irish descent
Chicago Bulls announcers
College basketball announcers in the United States
College football announcers
Figure skating commentators
Golf writers and broadcasters
Late night television talk show hosts
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Missouri Tigers men's basketball announcers
MLB Network personalities
Motorsport announcers
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Football League announcers
National Hockey League broadcasters
NBC Sports
Olympic Games broadcasters
St. Louis Cardinals (football) announcers
Tennis commentators
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni
Spirits of St. Louis
Ford C. Frick Award recipients
Sports Emmy Award winners |
4896 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamberg | Bamberg | Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: Bambärch) is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in 2022. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby castle. Cited as one of Germany's most beautiful towns, with medieval streets and buildings, the old town of Bamberg has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.
From the 10th century onwards, Bamberg became a key link with the Slav peoples, notably those of Poland and Pomerania. It experienced a period of great prosperity from the 12th century onwards, during which time it was briefly the centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Henry II was buried in the old town, alongside his wife Kunigunde. The town's architecture from this period strongly influenced that in Northern Germany and Hungary. From the middle of the 13th century onwards, the bishops were princes of the Empire and ruled Bamberg, overseeing the construction of monumental buildings. This growth was complemented by the obtaining of large portions of the estates of the Counts of Meran in 1248 and 1260 by the sea, partly through purchase and partly through the appropriation of extinguished fiefs.
Bamberg lost its independence in 1802, following the secularization of church lands, becoming part of Bavaria in 1803. The town was first connected to the German rail system in 1844, which has been an important part of its infrastructure ever since. After a communist uprising took control over Bavaria in the years following World War I, the state government fled to Bamberg and stayed there for almost two years before the Bavarian capital of Munich was retaken by Freikorps units (see Bavarian Soviet Republic). The first republican constitution of Bavaria was passed in Bamberg, becoming known as the Bamberger Verfassung (Bamberg Constitution).
Following the Second World War, Bamberg was an important base for the Bavarian, German, and then American military stationed at Warner Barracks, until closing in 2014.
History
During the post-Roman centuries of Germanic migration and settlement, the region later included in the Diocese of Bamberg was inhabited for the most part by Slavs. The town, first mentioned in 902, grew up by the castle which gave its name to the Babenberg family. On their extinction, it passed to the Saxon house. The area was Christianized chiefly by the monks of the Benedictine Fulda Abbey, and the land was under the spiritual authority of the Diocese of Würzburg. In 1007, Holy Roman Emperor Henry II made Bamberg a family inheritance, the seat of a separate diocese. The Emperor's purpose in this was to make the Diocese of Würzburg less unwieldy in size and to give Christianity a firmer footing in the districts of Franconia, east of Bamberg.
In 1008, after long negotiations with the Bishops of Würzburg and Eichstätt, who were to cede portions of their dioceses, the boundaries of the new diocese were defined, and Pope John XVIII granted the papal confirmation in the same year. Henry II ordered the building of a new cathedral, which was consecrated on 6 May 1012. The church was enriched with gifts from the pope, and Henry had it dedicated in honor of him. In 1017, Henry founded Michaelsberg Abbey on the Michaelsberg ("Mount St Michael"), near Bamberg, a Benedictine abbey for the training of the clergy. The emperor and his wife, Kunigunde, gave large temporal possessions to the new diocese, and it received many privileges out of which grew the secular power of the bishop. Pope Benedict VIII visited Bamberg in 1020 to meet Henry II for discussions concerning the Holy Roman Empire. While he was there he placed the diocese in direct dependence on the Holy See. He also personally consecrated some of Bamberg's churches. For a short time Bamberg was the centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Henry and Kunigunde were both buried in the cathedral.
From the middle of the 13th century onwards, the bishops were princes of the Empire and ruled Bamberg, overseeing the construction of monumental buildings. In 1248 and 1260, the see obtained large portions of the estates of the Counts of Meran, partly through purchase and partly through the appropriation of extinguished fiefs.
The old Bishopric of Bamberg was composed of an unbroken territory extending from Schlüsselfeld in a northeasterly direction to the Franconian Forest, and possessed in addition estates in the Duchies of Carinthia and Salzburg, in the Nordgau (the present Upper Palatinate), in Thuringia, and on the Danube. By the changes resulting from the Reformation, the territory of this see was reduced by nearly one half in extent. Since 1279 the coat of arms of the city of Bamberg is known in the form of a seal.
The witch trials of the 17th century claimed about one thousand victims in Bamberg, reaching a climax between 1626 and 1631, under the rule of Prince-Bishop Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim. The famous Drudenhaus (witch prison), built in 1627, is no longer standing today; however, detailed accounts of some cases, such as that of Johannes Junius, remain.
In 1647, the University of Bamberg was founded as .
Bambrzy () are German Poles who are descended from settlers from the Bamberg area who settled in villages around Poznań in the years 1719–1753. In 1759, the possessions and jurisdictions of the diocese situated in Austria were sold to that state. When the secularization of church lands took place (1802) the diocese covered and had a population of 207,000. Bamberg thus lost its independence in 1802, becoming part of Bavaria in 1803. The free state of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany gave protections to Bamberg, though the city does handle its own managment of properties.
Bamberg was first connected to the German rail system in 1844, which has been an important part of its infrastructure ever since. After a communist uprising took control over Bavaria in the years following World War I, the state government fled to Bamberg and stayed there for almost two years before the Bavarian capital of Munich was retaken by Freikorps units (see Bavarian Soviet Republic). The first republican constitution of Bavaria was passed in Bamberg, becoming known as the Bamberger Verfassung (Bamberg Constitution).
In February 1926 Bamberg served as the venue for the Bamberg Conference, convened by Adolf Hitler in his attempt to foster unity and to stifle dissent within the then-young Nazi party. Bamberg was chosen for its location in Upper Franconia, reasonably close to the residences of the members of the dissident northern Nazi faction but still within Bavaria.
Historical population
Geography
Bamberg is located in Franconia, north of Nuremberg by railway and east of Würzburg, also by rail. It is situated on the Regnitz river, before it flows into the Main river.
Its geography is shaped by the Regnitz and by the foothills of the Steigerwald, part of the German uplands. From northeast to southwest, the town is divided into first the Regnitz plain, then one large and several small islands formed by two arms of the Regnitz (), and finally the part of town on the hills, the "Hill Town" ().
The seven hills of Bamberg
Bamberg extends over seven hills, each crowned by a church. This has led to Bamberg being called the "Franconian Rome" — although a running joke among Bamberg's tour guides is to refer to Rome instead as the "Italian Bamberg". The hills are Cathedral Hill, Michaelsberg, Kaulberg/Obere Pfarre, Stefansberg, Jakobsberg, Altenburger Hill and Abtsberg.
Climate
Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen climate classification subtype for this climate is "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate), with a certain continental influence as indicated by average winter nighttime temperatures well below zero.
Economy
In 2013 (latest data available) the GDP per inhabitant was €56,723. This places the district 10th out of 96 districts (rural and urban) in Bavaria (overall average: €39,691).
Attractions
The Town of Bamberg was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993 due to its medieval layout and its well preserved historic buildings. Since the Middle Ages, urban gardening has been practiced in Bamberg. The Market Gardeners’ District together with the City on the Hills and the Island District is an integral part of the World Heritage site. In 2005, the Municipality established a unit to coordinate the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in Bamberg. In 2019, a visitor and interpretation centre opened for the World Heritage site.
Some of the main sights are:
Bamberg Cathedral (1237), with the tombs of Emperor Henry II and Pope Clement II
, residence of the bishops in the 16th and 17th centuries
, residence of the bishops after the 17th century
Bamberg State Library in the New Residence
Old town hall (1386), built in the middle of the Regnitz river, accessible by two bridges
("Little Venice"), a colony of fishermen's houses from the 19th century along one bank of the river Regnitz
Michaelsberg Abbey, built in the 12th century on one of Bamberg's "Seven Hills." The former Benedictine abbey, which once housed a brewery, is now home to the Franconian Brewery Museum.
, castle, former residence of the bishops
Cathedral
Bamberg Cathedral is a late Romanesque building with four towers. It was founded in 1004 by Emperor Henry II, finished in 1012 and consecrated on 6 May 1012. It was later partially destroyed by fire in 1081. The new cathedral, built by Saint Otto of Bamberg, was consecrated in 1111 and in the 13th century received its present late-Romanesque form.
The cathedral is long, wide, high, and the four towers are each about high. It contains many historic works of art, such as the marble tomb of the founder and his wife, considered one of the greatest works of the sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider, and carved between 1499 and 1513. Another treasure of the cathedral is an equestrian statue known as the Bamberg Horseman (). This statue, possibly depicting the emperor Conrad III, most likely dates to the second quarter of the 13th century. The statue also serves as a symbol of the town of Bamberg.
The (New Residence) (1698–1704) was initially occupied by the prince-bishops, and from 1864 to 1867 by the deposed King Otto of Greece. Its (Rose Garden) overlooks the town. It has over 4500 roses.
The is located on the highest of Bamberg's seven hills. It was mentioned for the first time in 1109. Between 1251 and 1553 it was the residence of Bamberg's bishops. Destroyed in 1553 by Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, it was used after scant repairs only as a prison, and increasingly fell into decay.
In 1801, A. F. Marcus bought the castle and completely repaired it. His friend, the famous German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, who was very impressed by the building, lived there for a while. The next owner, Anton von Greifenstein, in 1818 founded an association to preserve the castle. This society still maintains the entire property today. The Altenburg today houses a restaurant.
Other sights
Other churches are the , an 11th-century Romanesque basilica; the ; the or (1320–1387), which has now been restored to its original pure Gothic style. The , 12th century Romanesque (restored), on the Michaelsberg, was formerly the church of the Benedictine Michaelsberg Abbey secularized in 1803 and now contains the , or almshouse, and the museum and municipal art collections.
Of the bridges connecting the sections of the lower town the was completed in 1455. Halfway across this, on an island, is the or town hall (rebuilt 1744–1756). The lyceum, formerly a Jesuit college, contains a natural history museum. The old palace () was built in 1591 on the site of an old residence of the counts of Babenberg. Monuments include the Maximilian fountain (1880), with statues of King Maximilian I of Bavaria, the emperor Henry II and his wife, Conrad III and Saint Otto, bishop of Bamberg.
There are also tunnels beneath the town. These were originally constructed as mines which supplied sandstone which could be used for construction or as an abrasive cleaner. Mining came to an end in 1920 but a tunnel network remained. The tunnels were used as an air raid shelter during World War II. A part of the network can be visited on a guided tour.
Beer
Bamberg is known for its smoked Rauchbier and is home to 11 breweries, including Brauerei Fässla, Brauerei Greifenklau, Brauerei Heller-Trum (Schlenkerla), Brauerei Kaiserdom, Keesmann Bräu, Klosterbräu, Mahrs Bräu, Brauerei Spezial, Gasthausbrauerei Ambräusianum, Kron Prinz, and Weyermann Röstmalzbierbrauerei. Weyermann Specialty Malting, founded in Bamberg in 1879, supplies breweries around the world. Every August there is a five-day , a kirmess celebrated with beers. The Franconia region surrounding Bamberg is home to more than 200 breweries. In October and early November many of the 70 breweries in and around Bamberg celebrate Bockbieranstiche with special releases of Bock beer.
Education
The University of Bamberg, named Otto-Friedrich University, offers higher education in the areas of social science, business studies and the humanities, and is attended by more than 12,000 students. The University of Applied Sciences Bamberg offers higher education in the areas of public health. Bamberg is also home to eight secondary schools (gymnasiums):
Clavius-Gymnasium
Dientzenhofer-Gymnasium
Eichendorff-Gymnasium
E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gymnasium
Franz-Ludwig-Gymnasium
Kaiser-Heinrich-Gymnasium
Maria-Ward-Gymnasium
Theresianum
There are also numerous other institutes for primary, secondary, technical, vocational and adult education.
Infrastructure
Transport
Railway
The InterCityExpress main line No. 28 (Munich – Nuremberg – Leipzig – Berlin / – Hamburg) and the main line No. 18 (Munich – Nuremberg – Halle – Berlin / – Hamburg) run on the Nuremberg–Bamberg and the Bamberg–Hof lines through the Bamberg station. It takes less than two hours to Munich on the train and with the Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway through the Thuringian mountains finished in 2017 less than three hours to Berlin. Two intercity trains of line no. 17 (Vienna – Warnemünde) and line no. 61 (Leipzig – Nuremberg – Karlsruhe) also run through Bamberg.
East-west connections are poorer. Bamberg is connected to other towns in eastern Upper Franconia such as Bayreuth, Coburg, and Kronach via the Bamberg–Hof line with trains usually running at least every hour. Connections on the Würzburg–Bamberg line to the west are hourly regional trains to Würzburg, which is fully connected to the ICE network. Tourists arriving at Frankfurt International Airport can take advantage of the new direct connection from Frankfurt's main station.
Motorways
Bamberg is not near any of the major (i.e. single-digit) autobahns. But it is nevertheless well connected to the network in all directions: the A70 from Schweinfurt (connecting to the A7 there) to Bayreuth (connecting to the A9) runs along the northern edge of the town. The A73 on the eastern side of town connects Bamberg to Nuremberg (connecting to the A9) and Thuringia, ending at Suhl.
Air transport
Bamberg is served by Bamberg-Breitenau Airfield. Mostly public aircraft operate there. It used to be a military airport. (IATA-Code: ZCD, ICAO-Code: EDQA) It is also possible to charter public flights to and from this airport.
Most international tourists who travel by plane arrive at Frankfurt International Airport or Munich Airport. The nearest major airport is Nuremberg Airport which can be reached within 45mins by car or one hour by train and subway.
Water transport
Both the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and its predecessor, the Ludwig Canal, begin near Bamberg. The Ludwig Canal was opened in 1846 but closed in 1950 after damage during the second world war. With the completion of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal in 1992, uninterrupted water transport was again made possible between the North Sea and the Black Sea.
Local public transport
Local public transport within Bamberg relies exclusively on buses. More than 20 routes connect the outlying quarters and some villages in the vicinity to the central bus station. In addition, there are several "Night Lines" (the last of these, though, tend to run around midnight) and some park-and-ride lines from parking lots on the periphery to the town centre.
A short-lived tram system existed in the 1920s.
Military bases
Bamberg was an important base for the Bavarian, German, and then American military stationed at Warner Barracks. Warner Barracks was closed in the fall of 2014, with the last battalion leaving being the 54th Engineer Battalion, and the grounds returned to the German government. In 2016, a large part of the facility was taken over by the German Federal Police for training purposes. Muna Kasserne was a small base occupied by the 504th Maintenance Company, 71st Maintenance Bn. It was part of Warner Barracks although located separately.
Governance
Bamberg is an urban district, or kreisfreie Stadt. Its town council (Stadtrat) and its mayor (Oberbürgermeister) are elected every six years, though not in the same year. Thus, the last municipal election for the town council was in 2014, for the mayor in 2012. As an exception to the six-year term, the term starting in 2012 will take eight years to synchronize the elections with those in the rest of Bavaria.
As of the elections of 16 March 2014, the 44 member strong town council comprises 12 CSU councillors, 10 SPD councillors, 8 Green councillors, 4 councillors of the Bamberger Bürger-Block and 4 of the Freie Wähler (Free Voters), both local political movements. These five parties achieved the number of councillors necessary to form a parliamentary group. In addition, there are 3 councillors of the Bamberger Unabhängige Bürger and the 1 councillor each of the Bamberger Realisten, the FDP and the Bamberger Linke Liste.
The previous council, elected on 2 March 2008, was composed of 15 CSU councillors, 10 SPD councillors, 7 Green councillors, 5 councillors of the Bamberger Bürger-Block and 3 of the Freie Wähler (Free Voters), both local political movements. These five parties achieved the number of councillors necessary to form a parliamentary group. In addition, there were 2 councillors of the Bamberger Realisten and one of the FDP and the Republikaner, making them ineligible for caucus status.
Mayors since 1945
Twin towns – sister cities
Bamberg is twinned with:
Bedford, England, United Kingdom
Esztergom, Hungary
Feldkirchen in Kärnten, Austria
Prague 1, Czech Republic
Rodez, France
Villach, Austria
Notable people
A-K
Annette von Aretin (1920–2006), first television announcer of the Bayerischer Rundfunk
Carl Adam Bader (1789 in Bamberg; † 1870 in Berlin), tenor
Lisa Badum
Dorothee Bär (born 1978), Member of Parliament (CSU), State Secretary of the Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure
Wilhelm Batz (1916–1988), Luftwaffe, ace
Louis-Alexandre Berthier (1753–1815), Chief of Staff to Napoleon Bonaparte
Joachim Camerarius (1500–1574), humanist, polymath and poet
Claudia Ciesla (born 1987), Polish-German actress
Pope Clement II (died 1047), bishop of Bamberg from 1040 to 1046
Christopher Clavius (1538–1612), mathematician, astronomer and Jesuit
Conrad III of Germany (1093–1152), king of Germany
Cunigunde of Luxembourg (c. 975–1040), empress consort, regent of the Holy Roman Empire and wife of Henry II
Stefan Dassler (born 1962), non-fiction author
Günther Denzler (born 1948), former district administrator of Bamberg (CSU)
Karlheinz Deschner (1924–2014), writer and critic of religion and the church
Gottfried Diener (1907–1987), philologist and Goethe researcher
Ignaz Dollinger (1770–1841), physician
Ignaz von Dollinger (1799–1890), important Catholic theologian and church historian
Curt Echtermeyer, also known as Curt Bruckner (1896–1971), painter
Erich Ebermayer (1900–1970), writer
Hans Ehard (1887–1980), lawyer and politician
Günter Faltin (born 1944), university teacher
Heinrich Finck (1444–1527), conductor and composer
Klaus-Dieter Fritsche (born 1953), jurist and politician (CSU),
Karl von Gareis (1844–1923), a lawyer and author, member of the Reichstag
Nora-Eugenie Gomringer (born 1980), poet and writer
Thomas Gottschalk (born 1950), moderator, TV presenter, actor
Lukas Görtler (born 1994), football player
Hans Grassmann (born 1960), physicist and author
Joseph Heller (1798–1849), collector, today Helleriana in Bamberg State Library
Karl Höller (1907–1987), composer
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), German philosopher
Henry II (973–1024), Holy Roman Emperor
E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822), German author and composer
Joachim Jung (born 1951), artist
Harry Koch (born 1969), football player
Lorenz Krapp (1882–1947), lawyer, poet and politician (BVP, CSU)
Dieter Kunzelmann (born 1939), communard and left-wing activist
Paul Lautensack (1478–1558), painter and organist
L-Z
Paul Maar (born 1937), German writer and illustrator
Emil Marschalk von Ostheim (1841–1903), historian and collector
Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria, actually Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria (1808–1888), promoter of Bavarian folk music in the 19th century
Willy Messerschmitt (1898–1978), German aircraft designer, Flugzeugbau Messerschmitt GmbH
Wolf-Dieter Montag (1924–2018), German physician, sports medicine specialist, mountain rescue doctor, and international sports administrator
Christina Morhaubt, convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death by burning in 1627 during the Bamberg witch trials
Martin Münz (1785–1848), anatomist and professor
Ida Noddack-Tacke, (1896–1978), chemist and physicist; she discovered element 75, rhenium
Christopher Park (born 1987), pianist
Bernd Redmann (born 1965), composer and musicologist
Mike Rose (1932–2006), painter, set designer and writer
Gerd Schaller (born 1965), conductor
Rainer Schaller (born 1969), entrepreneur and founder of McFit Fitness GmbH
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (1907–1944), German officer who attempted to assassinate German dictator Adolf Hitler in the July 20 Plot
Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (born 1934), former General of the Bundeswehr
Franz-Ludwig Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (born 1938), former Bavarian European parliament member
Ritter Josef von Schmitt (1838–1907), German noble, Court President for the Kingdom of Bavaria, advisor to Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, Privy councilor and an Honorary Citizen of the city of Bamberg.
Gottfried von Schmitt (1827–1908), German noble, member of Supreme court and member of Upper Council of Bavaria.
Josef Schmitt (1875–1944), German noble and Privy councillor.
Gottfried Schmitt (1865–1919), German politician
Josh Shipp (born 1986), professional basketball player for Brose Baskets Bamberg
Tom Schütz (born 1988), football player
Sven Schultze (born 1978), basketball player
Karsten Tadda (born 1988), basketball player
Karl Borromäus Thumann (1820–1874), German theologian
Oscar Wassermann (1869–1934), German banker
Andrew Wooten (born 1989), German-American soccer player
Karl Friedrich Gottlob Wetzel (1779–1819), writer and illustrator Fränkischer Merkur
Gallery
See also
Bamberg (potato) (named after the town)
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Rintfleisch-Pogrom
Franconia
References
"Bamberg" at the Jewish Encyclopedia
External links
Town of Bamberg: UNESCO Official Website
Bamberg World Heritage Office
Official tourist website
Schlenkerla Brewery website
Bamberg beer, official website
Bamberg Tourist Guide - Youtube video
Bamberg
World Heritage Sites in Germany |
4905 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House%20of%20Bonaparte | House of Bonaparte | The House of Bonaparte is a former imperial and royal European dynasty of Corsican origin. It was founded in 1804 by Napoleon I, the son of Corsican nobleman Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Buonaparte (née Ramolino). Napoleon was a French military leader who rose to power during the French Revolution and who, in 1804, transformed the First French Republic into the First French Empire, five years after his coup d'état of November 1799 (18 Brumaire). Napoleon and the Grande Armée had to fight against every major European power (except for the ones he was allied with, including Denmark-Norway) and dominated continental Europe through a series of military victories during the Napoleonic Wars. He installed members of his family on the thrones of client states, expanding the power of the dynasty.
The House of Bonaparte formed the Imperial House of France during the French Empire, together with some non-Bonaparte family members. In addition to holding the title of Emperor of the French, the Bonaparte dynasty held various other titles and territories during the Napoleonic Wars, including the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Kingdom of Holland, and the Kingdom of Naples. The dynasty held power for around a decade until the Napoleonic Wars began to take their toll. Making very powerful enemies, such as Austria, Britain, Russia, and Prussia, as well as royalist (particularly Bourbon) restorational movements in France, Spain, the Two Sicilies, and Sardinia, the dynasty eventually collapsed due to the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and the restoration of former dynasties by the Congress of Vienna.
During the reign of Napoleon I, the Imperial Family consisted of the Emperor's immediate relations – his wife, son, siblings, and some other close relatives, namely his brother-in-law Joachim Murat, his uncle Joseph Fesch, and his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais.
Between 1852 and 1870, there was a Second French Empire, when a member of the Bonaparte dynasty again ruled France: Napoleon III, the youngest son of Louis Bonaparte. However, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the dynasty was again ousted from the Imperial Throne. Since that time, there has been a series of pretenders. Supporters of the Bonaparte family's claim to the throne of France are known as Bonapartists. Current head Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon has a Bourbon mother.
Italian origins
The Bonaparte (originally ) family were patricians in the Italian towns of Sarzana, San Miniato, and Florence. The name derives from Italian: buona ("good") and parte ("part" or "side"). In Italian, the phrase "buona parte" is used to identify a fraction of considerable, but undefined, size in a .
Gianfaldo Buonaparte was the first known Buonaparte at Sarzana around 1200. His descendant Giovanni Buonaparte in 1397 married Isabella Calandrini, a cousin of later cardinal Filippo Calandrini. Giovanni became mayor of Sarzana and was named commissioner of the Lunigiana by Giovanni Maria Visconti in 1408. His daughter, Agnella Berni, was the great-grandmother of Italian poet Francesco Berni and their great-grandson Francesco Buonaparte was an equestrian mercenary at the service of the Genoese Bank of Saint George. In 1490, Francesco Buonaparte went to the island of Corsica, which was controlled by the bank. In 1493, he married the daughter of Guido da Castelletto, representative of the Bank of Saint George in Ajaccio, Corsica. Their son, Gabriele, married Maria Durazzo of the Durazzo family. Most of their descendants during subsequent generations were members of the Ajaccio town council. Napoleon's father, Carlo Buonaparte, received a patent of nobility from the King of France in 1771.
There also existed a Buonaparte family in Florence; however, its eventual relation with the Sarzana and San Miniato families is unknown. Jacopo Buonaparte of San Miniato was a friend and advisor to Medici Pope Clement VII. Jacopo was also a witness to and wrote an account of the sack of Rome, which is one of the most important historical documents recounting that event. Two of Jacopo's nephews, Pier Antonio Buonaparte and Giovanni Buonaparte, however, took part in the 1527 Medici rebellion, after which they were banished from Florence and later were restored by Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence. Jacopo's brother Benedetto Buonaparte maintained political neutrality. The San Miniato branch extinguished with Jacopo in 1550. The last member of the Florence family was a canon named Gregorio Bonaparte, who died in 1803, leaving Napoleon as heir.
A Buonaparte tomb lies in the Church of San Francesco in San Miniato. A second tomb, the Chapelle Impériale, was built by Napoleon III in Ajaccio 1857.
Imperial House of France
Napoleon I is the most prominent name associated with the Bonaparte family because he conquered much of Europe during the early 19th century. Due to his indisputable popularity in France both among the people and in the army, he staged the Coup of 18 Brumaire and overthrew the Directory with the help of his brother Lucien Bonaparte, president of the Council of Five Hundred. Napoleon then oversaw the creation of a new Constitution that made him the First Consul of France on 10 November 1799. On 2 December 1804, he crowned himself Emperor of the French and ruled from 1804 to 1814, and again in 1815 during the Hundred Days after his return from Elba.
Following his conquest of most of Western Europe, Napoleon I made his elder brother Joseph king first of Naples and then of Spain, his younger brother Louis King of Holland (subsequently forcing his abdication in 1810 after his failure to subordinate Dutch interests to those of France), and his youngest brother Jérôme as King of Westphalia, a short-lived realm created from several states of northwestern Germany.
Napoleon's son Napoléon François Charles Joseph was made King of Rome and was later styled as Napoléon II by loyalists of the dynasty, though he only ruled for two weeks after his father's abdication.
Louis-Napoléon, son of Louis, was President of France and then Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870, reigning as Napoleon III. His son, Napoléon, Prince Imperial, died fighting the Zulus in Natal, today the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. With his death, the family lost much of its remaining political appeal, though claimants continue to assert their right to the imperial title. A political movement for Corsican independence surfaced in the 1990s which included a Bonapartist restoration in its programme.
Crowns held by the family
Emperors of the French
Napoleon I (1804–1814, 1815), also King of Italy (1805–1814) and Emperor in Elba (1814–1815) and Co-Prince of Andorra (1804–1814, 1815)
Napoleon II (1815), styled as King of Rome from birth, but never reigned and also Duke of Reichstadt 1818–1832, but never visited the town
Napoleon III (1852–1870), also Co-Prince of Andorra (1852–1870)
Kings of Holland
Louis I (1806–1810)
Louis II (1810), also Grand Duke of Berg (1809–1813)
King of Naples
Joseph I (1806–1808)
King of Westphalia
Jérôme I (1807–1813)
King of Spain
Joseph I (1808–1813)
Grand Duchess of Tuscany
Elisa Bonaparte (1809–1814), also Princess of Lucca and Piombino (1805–1814)
Heads of the House of Bonaparte (since 1852)
Napoléon III (1852–1873)
Napoléon IV Eugène (1873–1879), son of Napoléon III
Napoléon V Victor (1879–1926), grandson of Napoléon I's youngest brother, Jérôme
Napoléon VI Louis (1926–1997), son of Napoléon V Victor
Disputed since 1997:
Napoléon VII Charles (1997–present), son of Napoléon VI Louis
Napoléon VII Jean-Christophe (1997–present), grandson of Napoléon VI Louis
Family tree
Family tree list
Note: Bold for common namesCarlo-Maria (Ajaccio, 1746–Montpellier, 1785) married Maria Letizia Ramolino (Ajaccio, 1750–Rome, 1836) in 1764. He was a minor official in the local courts. They had eight children:
Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte (Corte, 1768–Florence, 1844), King of Naples, then King of Spain, married Julie Clary
Julie Joséphine Bonaparte (1796–1796)
Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte (1801–1854)
Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (1802–1839)
Napoléon (I) Bonaparte (1769–1821) Emperor of the French: Married (i) Joséphine de Beauharnais; no issue. Adopted Eugène and Hortense de Beauharnais. Married (ii) Marie Louise of Austria;
Napoléon (II) François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (1811–1832), Prince Imperial, King of Rome, Prince of Parma, son of Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria (of the Habsburg dynasty), Empress consort, then Duchess of Parma
Lucien Bonaparte (1775–1840) Roman Prince of Canino and Musignano
3 daughters with first wife, Christine Boyer:
Charlotte Philistine Bonaparte (1795–1865), married Prince Mario Gabrielli
Victoire Gertrude Bonaparte (1797–1797)
Christine Charlotte Alexandrine Egypta Bonaparte (1798–1847), married Count Arvid Posse, then married Lord Dudley Stuart
10 children with second wife, Alexandrine de Bleschamp:
Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte (1803–1857), ornithologist and politician, married Princess Zénaïde Bonaparte (1801–1854)
Joseph Lucien Charles Napoléon Bonaparte (1824–1865)
Alexandrine Gertrude Zénaïde Bonaparte (1826–1828)
Lucien Louis Joseph Napoléon (Cardinal) Bonaparte (1828–1895)
Julie Charlotte Pauline Zénaïde Laetitia Désirée Bartholomée Bonaparte (1830–1900)
Charlotte Honorine Joséphine Pauline Bonaparte (1832–1901)
Léonie Stéphanie Elise Bonaparte (1833–1839)
Marie Désirée Eugénie Joséphine Philomène Bonaparte (1835–1890)
Augusta Amélie Maximilienne Jacqueline Bonaparte (1836–1900)
Napoléon Charles Grégoire Jacques Philippe Bonaparte (1839–1899)
Zénaïde Victoire Eugénie Bonaparte (1860–1862)
Marie Léonie Eugénie Mathilde Jeanne Julie Zénaïde Bonaparte (1870–1947)
Eugénie Laetitia Barbe Caroline Lucienne Marie Jeanne Bonaparte (1872–1949)
Bathilde Aloïse Léonie Bonaparte (1840–1861)
Albertine Marie Thérèse Bonaparte (1842–1842)
Charles Albert Edmond Bonaparte (1843–1847)
Laetitia Christine Bonaparte (1804–1871)
Joseph Lucien Bonaparte (1806–1807)
Jeanne Adélaïde Bonaparte (1807–1829)
Paul Marie Bonaparte (1808–1827)
Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813–1891)
Pierre Napoléon Bonaparte (1815–1881), married Éléonore-Justine Ruflin
Roland Bonaparte (1858–1924), married Marie-Félix Blanc
Princess Marie Bonaparte (1882–1962), married Prince George of Greece
Princess Jeanne Bonaparte (1861–1910)
Antoine Lucien Bonaparte (1816–1877)
Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte (1818–1874)
Constance Marie Bonaparte (1823–1876)
Maria-Anna Elisa Bonaparte (1777–1820), Grand-Duchess of Tuscany, married Felice Baciocchi, Prince of Lucca
Marie-Laetitia Bonaparte Baciocchi
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (1778–1846), King of Holland, married Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepdaughter
Napoléon Charles Bonaparte (1802–1807)
Napoléon Louis Bonaparte (1804–1831)
Charles Louis Napoléon (III) Bonaparte (1808–1873) Emperor of the French, married Maria Eugenia Ignacia Augustina Palafox de Guzmán Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick
Napoléon Eugène Louis John Joseph Bonaparte, Prince Imperial (1856–1879)
Maria Paola or Marie Pauline Bonaparte (1780–1825) Princess and Duchess of Guastalla, married in 1797 to French General Charles Leclerc and later married Camillo Borghese, 6th Prince of Sulmona.
Maria Annunziata Caroline Bonaparte (1782–1839) married Joachim Murat, Marshal of France, Grand Duke of Berg, then King of Naples
Prince Achille Murat (1801–1847), married Catherine Willis Gray (1803–1867), great-grandniece of George Washington
Prince Napoléon Lucien Charles Murat (1803–1878), married Caroline Georgina Fraser (1810–1879)
5 Children, including:
Joachim Joseph Napoléon Murat, 4th Prince Murat (1834–1901), Major-General of the French Army, married firstly Malcy Louise Caroline Berthier de Wagram (1832–1884) and had issue, and secondly Lydia Hervey, without issue
Prince Louis Napoléon Murat (1851–1912), married in Odessa, Eudoxia Mikhailovna Somova (1850–1924), had issue now extinct in male line
Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte (1784–1860), King of Westphalia
1 child from first marriage, to Betsy Patterson of Baltimore:
Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte (1805–1870), married Susan May Williams and had 2 sons :
Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II (1830–1893), married Caroline Le Roy Appleton Edgar
Louise-Eugénie Bonaparte (1873–1923), married in 1896 Count Adam Carl von Moltke-Huitfeld (1864–1944); numerous descendants
Jerome Napoléon Charles Bonaparte III (1878–1945), married Blanche Pierce Stenbeigh, no issue
Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851–1921), United States Secretary of the Navy and United States Attorney General, married Ellen Channing Day, no issue
3 children from second marriage, to Princess Catharina of Württemberg:
Jérôme Napoléon Charles Bonaparte I (1814–1847), unmarried and childless
Mathilde Laetitia Wilhelmine Bonaparte (1820–1904), married Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato: no issue
Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, Prince Napoléon (1822–1891), called Plon-Plon, married Princess Marie Clothilde of Savoy daughter of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte, Prince Napoléon (1862–1926), married Princess Clémentine of Belgium
Marie Clotilde Eugénie Alberte Laetitia Geneviève Bonaparte (1912–1996), married Count Serge de Witt
Louis Jérôme Victor Emmanuel Léopold Marie Bonaparte, Prince Napoléon (1914–1997), married Alix de Foresta
Charles Marie Jérôme Victor Bonaparte, Prince Napoléon (born 1950)
Two children from first marriage, to Princess Béatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies:
Caroline Marie Constance Bonaparte (Princess Caroline Napoléon) (born 1980)
Jean-Christophe Louis Ferdinand Albéric Bonaparte, Prince Napoléon (born 1986), married Countess Olympia von und zu Arco-Zinneberg
Louis Charles Riprand Victor Jérôme Marie Napoléon (born 2022)
1 child and 1 adopted child from second marriage, to Jeanne-Françoise Valliccioni:
Sophie Catherine Bonaparte (born 1992)
Anh Laëtitia Bonaparte (born 1998, adopted)
Catherine Elisabeth Albérique Marie Bonaparte (born 1950)
Laure Clémentine Geneviève Bonaparte (born 1952)
Jérôme Xavier Marie Joseph Victor Bonaparte (Prince Jérôme Napoléon) (born 1957), married in 2013 with Licia Innocenti
Napoléon Louis Joseph Jérôme Bonaparte (1864–1932) Russian General, unmarried and childless
Marie Laetitia Eugénie Catherine Adélaïde Bonaparte (1866–1926), married Prince Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta
Family tree of Bonaparte
Bonaparte coat of arms
The arms of the Bonaparte family were: Gules two bends sinister between two mullets or. In 1804, Napoleon I changed the arms to Azure an imperial eagle or. The change applied to all members of his family except for his brother Lucien and his nephew, the son from Jerome's first marriage.
DNA research
According to studies by G. Lucotte and his coauthors based on DNA research since 2011, Napoleon Bonaparte belonged to Y-DNA (direct male ancestry) haplogroup E1b1b1c1* (E-M34*). This 15000-year-old haplogroup has its highest concentration in Ethiopia and in the Near East (Jordan, Yemen). According to the authors of the study, "Probably Napoléon also knew his remote oriental patrilineal origins, because Francesco Buonaparte (the Giovanni son), who was a mercenary under the orders of the Genoa Republic in Ajaccio in 1490, was nicknamed The Maure of Sarzane." The latest study identifies the common Bonaparte DNA markers from Carlo (Charles) Bonaparte to 3 living descendants.
Lucotte et al. published in October 2013 the extended Y-STR of Napoleon I based on descendant testing, and the descendants were E-M34, just like the emperor's beard hair tested a year before. The persons tested were the patrilineal descendants of Jérome Bonaparte, one of Napoleon's brothers, and of Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, Napoleon's illegitimate son with Marie Walewska. These three tests all yielded the same Y-STR haplotype (109 markers) confirming with 100% certainty that the first Emperor of the French belonged to the M34 branch of haplogroup E1b1b.
STR strongly suggests that the Bonaparte belong to the Y58897 branch, which means that the ancestor 3000 years ago or a bit more lived in Anatolia, but all relatives in the database with a common ancestor with over a 1000 years are found in their own the Massa - La Spezia small area in Italy. There are at the moment no relatives in the database older than that, which means they are very rare in Europe.
Living members
Charles, Prince Napoléon (born 1950, great-great-grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte by his second marriage), and his son Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon (born 1986 and appointed heir in the will of his grandfather Louis, Prince Napoléon) currently dispute the headship of the Bonaparte family. The only other male members of the family are Charles's recently married (2013) brother, Prince Jérôme Napoléon (born 1957) and Jean-Christophe's son, Prince Louis Napoléon (born 2022). There are no other legitimate descendants in the male line from Napoleon I or from his brothers.
There are, however, numerous descendants of Napoleon's illegitimate, unacknowledged son, Count Alexandre Colonna-Walewski (1810–1868), born from Napoleon I's union with Marie, Countess Walewski. A descendant of Napoleon's sister Caroline Bonaparte was actor René Auberjonois. Recent DNA-matches with living descendants of Jérôme and Count Walewski have confirmed the existence of descendants of Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, namely the Clovis family.
See also
Bonapartism
Bonapartists (political party)
History of France
History of Italy
History of Spain
History of the Netherlands
Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist)
Napoleon (disambiguation)
Timeline of the Napoleonic era
Footnotes
References
External links
The coat of arms of the Tuscan branch of Bonaparte family in State Archives of Florence
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4911 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel | Basel | Basel ( , ), also known as Basle ( ), is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city (after Zürich and Geneva), with 177,595 inhabitants within the city municipality limits. The official language of Basel is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, and the main spoken language is the local Basel German dialect.
Basel is commonly considered to be the cultural capital of Switzerland and the city is famous for its many museums, including the Kunstmuseum, which is the first collection of art accessible to the public in the world (1661) and the largest museum of art in Switzerland, the Fondation Beyeler (located in Riehen), the Museum Tinguely and the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is the first public museum of contemporary art in Europe. Forty museums are spread throughout the city-canton, making Basel one of the largest cultural centres in relation to its size and population in Europe.
The University of Basel, Switzerland's oldest university (founded in 1460), and the city's centuries-long commitment to humanism, have made Basel a safe haven at times of political unrest in other parts of Europe for such notable people as Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Holbein family, Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and in the 20th century also Hermann Hesse and Karl Jaspers.
Basel was the seat of a Prince-Bishopric starting in the 11th century, and joined the Swiss Confederacy in 1501. The city has been a commercial hub and an important cultural centre since the Renaissance, and has emerged as a centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the 20th century. In 1897, Basel was chosen by Theodor Herzl as the location for the first World Zionist Congress, and altogether the congress was held there ten times over a time span of 50 years, more than in any other location. The city is also home to the world headquarters of the Bank for International Settlements. The name of the city is internationally known through institutions like the Basel Accords, Art Basel and FC Basel.
Basel is Switzerland's main centre for the pharmaceutical industry, hosting both Novartis and Roche.
In 2019 Basel was ranked the tenth most liveable city in the world by Mercer.
Name
The name of Basel is first recorded as Basilia in the 3rd century (237/8), at the time referring to the Roman castle. This name is mostly interpreted as deriving from the personal name Basilius, from a toponym villa Basilia ("estate of Basilius") or similar.
Another suggestion derives it from a name Basilia attested in northern France as a development of basilica, the term for a public or church building (as in Bazeilles), but all of these names reference early church buildings of the 4th or 5th century and cannot be adduced for the 3rd-century attestation of Basilia.
By popular etymology, or simple assonance, the basilisk becomes closely associated with the city, used as heraldic supporter from 1448, represented on coins minted by the city, and frequently found in ornaments.
The Middle French form Basle was adopted into English, but this form has fallen gradually out of use although it continues to be used in some sections of British English including the BBC. Currently, the spelling Basel is most often used, to match the official German spelling. In French Basle was still in use in the 18th century, but was gradually replaced by the modern French spelling Bâle. In Icelandic, the city is recorded as Buslaraborg in the 12th-century itinerary Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan.
History
Early history
There are traces of a settlement at the nearby Rhine knee from the early La Tène period (5th century BC). In the 2nd century BC, there was a village of the Raurici at the site of Basel-Gasfabrik (to the northwest of the Old City, and likely identical with the town of Arialbinnum that was mentioned on the Tabula Peutingeriana). The unfortified settlement was abandoned in the 1st century BC in favour of an oppidum on the site of Basel Minster, probably in reaction to the Roman invasion of Gaul.
In Roman Gaul, Augusta Raurica was established some from Basel as the regional administrative centre, while a castrum (fortified camp) was built on the site of the Celtic oppidum. In AD 83, the area was incorporated into the Roman province of Germania Superior. The Roman Senator Munatius Plancus is known as the traditional founder of Basel since the Renaissance. Roman control over the area deteriorated in the 3rd century, and Basel became an outpost of the Provincia Maxima Sequanorum formed by Diocletian. Basilia is first named by the Ammianus Marcellinus in his Res Gestae as part of the Roman military fortifications along the Rhine in the late 4th century.
The Germanic confederation of the Alemanni attempted to cross the Rhine several times in the 4th century, but were repelled; one such event was the Battle of Solicinium (368). However, in the great invasion of AD 406, the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine a final time, conquering and then settling what is today Alsace and a large part of the Swiss Plateau.
The Duchy of Alemannia fell under Frankish rule in the 6th century.
The Alemannic and Frankish settlement of Basel gradually grew around the old Roman castle in the 6th and 7th century. It appears that Basel surpassed the ancient regional capital of Augusta Raurica by the 7th century; based on the evidence of a gold tremissis (a small gold coin with the value of a third of a solidus) with the inscription Basilia fit, Basel seems to have minted its own coins in the 7th century.
Basel at this time was part of the Archdiocese of Besançon. A separate bishopric of Basel, replacing the ancient bishopric of Augusta Raurica, was established in the 8th century. Under bishop Haito (r. 806–823), the first cathedral was built on the site of the Roman castle (replaced by a Romanesque structure consecrated in 1019).
At the partition of the Carolingian Empire through the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Basel was first given to West Francia and became its German exclave. It passed to East Francia with the Treaty of Meerssen of 870. Basel was destroyed by the Magyars in 917. The rebuilt town became part of Upper Burgundy, and as such was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire in 1032.
Prince-Bishopric of Basel
From the donation by Rudolph III of Burgundy of the Moutier-Grandval Abbey and all its possessions to Bishop Adalbero II of Metz in 999 until the Reformation, Basel was ruled by Prince-Bishops.
In 1019, the construction of the cathedral of Basel (known locally as the Münster) began under Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor.
In the 11th to 12th century, Basel gradually acquired the characteristics of a medieval city.
The main market place is first mentioned in 1091. The first city walls were constructed around 1100 (with improvements made in the mid-13th and in the late 14th century). A city council of nobles and burghers is recorded for 1185, and the first mayor, Heinrich Steinlin of Murbach, for 1253. The first bridge across the Rhine was built in 1225 under bishop Heinrich von Thun (at the location of the modern Middle Bridge), and from this time the settlement of Kleinbasel gradually formed around the bridgehead on the far river bank. The bridge was largely funded by Basel's Jewish community who had settled there a century earlier. For many centuries to come Basel possessed the only permanent bridge over the river "between Lake Constance and the sea".
The first city guild were the furriers, established in 1226. A total of about fifteen guilds were established in the course of the 13th century, reflecting the increasing economic prosperity of the city. The Crusade of 1267 set out from Basel.
Political conflicts between the bishops and the burghers began in the mid-13th century and continued throughout the 14th century. By the late 14th century, the city was for all practical purposes independent although it continued to nominally pledge fealty to the bishops. The House of Habsburg attempted to gain control over the city. This was not successful, but it caused a political split among the burghers of Basel into a pro-Habsburg faction, known as Sterner, and an anti-Habsburg faction, the Psitticher.
The Black Death reached Basel in 1348. The Jews were blamed, and an estimated 50 to 70 Jews were executed by burning on 16 January 1349 in what has become known as the Basel massacre. The Basel earthquake of 1356 destroyed much of the city along with a number of castles in the vicinity.
A riot on 26 February 1376, known as Böse Fasnacht, led to the killing of a number of men of Leopold III, Duke of Austria. This was seen as a serious breach of the peace, and the city council blamed "foreign ruffians" for this and executed twelve alleged perpetrators. Leopold nevertheless had the city placed under imperial ban, and in a treaty of 9 July, Basel was given a heavy fine and was placed under Habsburg control.
To free itself from Habsburg hegemony, Basel joined the Swabian League of Cities in 1385, and many knights of the pro-Habsburg faction, along with duke Leopold himself, were killed in the Battle of Sempach the following year. A formal treaty with Habsburg was made in 1393.
Basel had gained its de facto independence from both the bishop and from the Habsburgs and was free to pursue its own policy of territorial expansion, beginning around 1400.
The unique representation of a bishops' crozier as the heraldic charge in the coat of arms of Basel first appears in the form of a gilded wooden staff in the 12th century. It is of unknown origin or significance (beyond its obvious status of bishop's crozier), but it is assumed to have represented a relic, possibly attributed to Saint Germanus of Granfelden. This staff (known as Baselstab) became a symbol representing the Basel diocese, depicted in bishops' seals of the late medieval period. It is represented in a heraldic context in the early 14th century, not yet as a heraldic charge but as a kind of heraldic achievement flanked by the heraldic shields of the bishop. The staff is also represented in the bishops's seals of the period. The use of the Baselstab in black as the coat of arms of the city was introduced in 1385. From this time, the Baselstab in red represented the bishop, and the same charge in black represented the city. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is In Silber ein schwarzer Baselstab (Argent, a staff of Basel sable). In 1400, Basel was able to purchase the towns of Liestal, Homburg and Waldenburg with its surrounding territory.
In 1412 (or earlier), the well-known Gasthof zum Goldenen Sternen was established. Basel became the focal point of western Christendom during the 15th century Council of Basel (1431–1449), including the 1439 election of antipope Felix V. In 1459, Pope Pius II endowed the University of Basel, where such notables as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Paracelsus later taught. At the same time the new craft of printing was introduced to Basel by apprentices of Johann Gutenberg. In 1461, the land around Farnsburg became a part of Basel.
The Schwabe publishing house was founded in 1488 by Johannes Petri and is the oldest publishing house still in business. Johann Froben also operated his printing house in Basel and was notable for publishing works by Erasmus. In 1495, Basel was incorporated into the Upper Rhenish Imperial Circle; the Bishop of Basel was added to the Bench of the Ecclesiastical Princes of the Imperial Diet. In 1500 the construction of the Basel Münster was finished. In 1521 so was the bishop. The council, under the supremacy of the guilds, explained that henceforth they would only give allegiance to the Swiss Confederation, to whom the bishop appealed but in vain.
As a member state in the Swiss Confederacy
The city had remained neutral through the Swabian War of 1499 despite being plundered by soldiers on both sides. The Treaty of Basel ended the war and granted the Swiss confederates exemptions from the emperor Maximillian's taxes and jurisdictions, separating Switzerland de facto from the Holy Roman Empire.
On 9 June 1501, Basel joined the Swiss Confederation as its eleventh canton. It was the only canton that was asked to join, not the other way round. Basel had a strategic location, good relations with Strasbourg and Mulhouse, and control of the corn imports from Alsace, whereas the Swiss lands were becoming overpopulated and had few resources. A provision of the Charter accepting Basel required that in conflicts among the other cantons it was to stay neutral and offer its services for mediation.
In 1503, the new bishop Christoph von Utenheim refused to give Basel a new constitution; whereupon, to show its power, the city began to build a new city hall.
In 1529, the city became Protestant under Oecolampadius and the bishop's seat was moved to Porrentruy. The bishop's crook was however retained as the city's coat of arms. For centuries to come, a handful of wealthy families collectively referred to as the "Daig" played a pivotal role in city affairs as they gradually established themselves as a de facto city aristocracy.
The first edition of Christianae religionis institutio (Institutes of the Christian Religion – John Calvin's great exposition of Calvinist doctrine) was published at Basel in March 1536.
In 1544, Johann von Brugge, a rich Dutch Protestant refugee, was given citizenship and lived respectably until his death in 1556, then buried with honors. His body was exhumed and burnt at the stake in 1559 after it was discovered that he was the Anabaptist David Joris.
In 1543, De humani corporis fabrica, the first book on human anatomy, was published and printed in Basel by Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564).
There are indications Joachim Meyer, author of the influential 16th-century martial arts text Kunst des Fechten ("The Art of Fencing"), came from Basel. In 1661 the Amerbaschsches Kabinett, a vast collection of exotic artifacts, coins, medals and books was purchased by Basel. It was to become to the first public museum of art. Its collection became the core of the later Basel Museum of Art.
The Bernoulli family, which included important 17th- and 18th-century mathematicians such as Jakob Bernoulli, Johann Bernoulli and Daniel Bernoulli, were from Basel. The 18th-century mathematician Leonhard Euler was born in Basel and studied under Johann Bernoulli.
Modern history
In 1792, the Republic of Rauracia, a revolutionary French client republic, was created. It lasted until 1793. After three years of political agitation and a short civil war in 1833 the disadvantaged countryside seceded from the Canton of Basel, forming the half canton of Basel-Landschaft. Between 1861 and 1878 the city walls were slighted.
On 3 July 1874, Switzerland's first zoo, the Zoo Basel, opened its doors in the south of the city towards Binningen.
In 1897 the first World Zionist Congress was held in Basel. Altogether the World Zionist Congress was held in Basel ten times, more than in any other city in the world.
On 16 November 1938, the psychedelic drug LSD was first synthesized by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel.
In 1967, the population of Basel voted in favor of buying three works of art by painter Pablo Picasso which were at risk of being sold and taken out of the local museum of art, due to a financial crisis on the part of the owner's family. Therefore, Basel became the first city in the world where the population of a political community democratically decided to acquire works of art for a public institution. Pablo Picasso was so moved by the gesture that he subsequently gifted the city with an additional three paintings.
Basel as a historical, international meeting place
Basel has often been the site of peace negotiations and other international meetings. The Treaty of Basel (1499) ended the Swabian War. Two years later Basel joined the Swiss Confederation. The Peace of Basel in 1795 between the French Republic and Prussia and Spain ended the First Coalition against France during the French Revolutionary Wars. In more recent times, the World Zionist Organization held its first congress in Basel from 29 August through 31 August 1897. Because of the Balkan Wars, the (Socialist) Second International held an extraordinary congress at Basel in 1912. In 1989, the Basel Convention was opened for signature with the aim of preventing the export of hazardous waste from wealthy to developing nations for disposal.
Geography and climate
Location
Basel is located in Northwestern Switzerland and is commonly considered to be the capital of that region. It is close to the point where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, and Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany. , the Swiss Basel agglomeration was the third-largest in Switzerland, with a population of 541,000 in 74 municipalities in Switzerland (municipal count as of 2018). The metropolitan area, called the Trinational Eurodistrict of Basel (TEB), consists of 62 suburban communes including municipalities in neighboring countries, and counted 829,000 inhabitants in 2007.
Topography
Basel has an area, , of . Of this area, or 4.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 3.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 86.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 6.1% is either rivers or lakes.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 10.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 40.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 24.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.7% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 8.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 2.5% is used for growing crops and 1.3% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
Climate
Under the Köppen system, Basel features an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), although with notable continental influences due to its relatively far inland position with cool to cold, overcast winters and warm to hot, humid summers.
The city averages 118.2 days of rain or snow annually and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is May during which time Basel receives an average of of rain. The month with the most days of precipitation is also May, with an average of 11.7 days. The driest month of the year is February with an average of of precipitation over 8.4 days.
Politics
The city of Basel functions as the capital of the Swiss half-canton of Basel-Stadt.
Canton
The canton Basel-Stadt consists of three municipalities: Riehen, Bettingen, and the city Basel itself. The political structure and agencies of the city and the canton are identical.
City
Quarters
The city itself has 19 quarters:
Grossbasel (Greater Basel):
1 Altstadt Grossbasel
2 Vorstädte
3 Am Ring
4 Breite
5 St. Alban
6 Gundeldingen
7 Bruderholz
8 Bachletten
9 Gotthelf
10 Iselin
11 St. Johann
Kleinbasel (Lesser Basel):
12 Altstadt Kleinbasel
13 Clara
14 Wettstein
15 Hirzbrunnen
16 Rosental
17 Matthäus
18 Klybeck
19 Kleinhüningen
Government
The city's and canton's executive, the Executive Council (Regierungsrat), consists of seven members for a mandate period of 4 years. They are elected by any inhabitant valid to vote on the same day as the parliament, but by means of a system of Majorz, and operates as a collegiate authority. The president () is elected as such by a public election, while the heads of the other departments are appointed by the collegiate. The current president is Beat Jans. The executive body holds its meetings in the red Town Hall () on the central Marktplatz. The building was built in 1504–14.
, Basel's Executive Council is made up of three representatives of the SP (Social Democratic Party) including the president, two LDP (Liberal-Demokratische Partei of Basel), and one member each of Green Liberals (glp), and CVP (Christian Democratic Party). The last election was held on 25 October and 29 November 2020 and four new members have been elected.
Barbara Schüpbach-Guggenbühlis is State Chronicler (Staatsschreiberin) since 2009, and Marco Greiner is Head of Communication (Regierungssprecher) and Vice State Chronicler (Vizestaatsschreiber) since 2007 for the Executive Council.
Parliament
The city's and canton's parliament, the Grand Council of Basel-Stadt (Grosser Rat), consists of 100 seats, with members (called in German: Grossrat/Grossrätin) elected every 4 years. The sessions of the Grand Council are public. Unlike the members of the Executive Council, the members of the Grand Council are not politicians by profession, but they are paid a fee based on their attendance. Any resident of Basel allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the parliament. The delegates are elected by means of a system of Proporz. The legislative body holds its meetings in the red Town Hall (Rathaus).
The last election was held on 25 October 2020 for the mandate period (Legislatur) of 2021–2025. , the Grand Council consist of 30 (−5) members of the Social Democratic Party (SP), 18 (+5) Grün-Alternatives Bündnis (GAB) (a collaboration of the Green Party (GPS), its junior party, and Basels starke Alternative (BastA!)), 14 (−1) Liberal-Demokratische Partei (LDP), 11 (−4) members of the Swiss People's Party (SVP), 8 (+5) Green Liberal Party (glp), 7 (−3) The Liberals (FDP), 7 (-) Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP), 3 (+2) Evangelical People's Party (EVP), and one each representative of the Aktive Bettingen (AB) and Volks-Aktion gegen zuviele Ausländer und Asylanten in unserer Heimat (VA).
The left parties missed an absolute majority by two seats.
Federal elections
National Council
In the 2019 federal election the most popular party was the Social Democratic Party (SP) which received two seats with 34% (−1) of the votes. The next five most popular parties were the Green Party (GPS) (19.4%, +7.3), the LPS (14.5%, +3.6) and the FDP (5.8, −3.5), which are chained together at 20.3%, (+0.1), the SVP (11.3%, -5.5), and the Green Liberal Party (GLP) (5%, +0.6), CVP (4.1%, -1.9). In the federal election, a total of 44,628 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.4%.
On 18 October 2015, in the federal election the most popular party was the Social Democratic Party (SP) which received two seats with 35% of the votes. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (20.2%), the SVP (16.8%), and the Green Party (GPS) (12.2%), each with one seat. In the federal election, a total of 57,304 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 50.4%.
Council of States
On 20 October 2019, in the federal election Eva Herzog, member of the Social Democratic Party (SP), was elected for the first time as a State Councillor () in the first round as single representative of the canton of Basel-Town and successor of Anita Fetz in the national Council of States () with an absolute majority of 37'210 votes.
On 18 October 2015, in the federal election State Councillor () Anita Fetz, member of the Social Democratic Party (SP), was re-elected in the first round as single representative of the canton of Basel-Town in the national Council of States () with an absolute majority of 35'842 votes. She has been a member of it since 2003.
International relations
Twin towns, sister cities and partner regions
Basel has two sister cities and a twinning among two states:
US state of Massachusetts, since 2002
Shanghai, China, since 2007
Toyama Prefecture, Japan, since 2009
Miami Beach, US, since 2011
Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since 2021
Seoul, South Korea, since 2022
Partner cities
Rotterdam, Netherlands, since 1945
Demographics
Population
The canton of Basel (slightly more than the city itself) has a population () of 201,971, of whom 36.9% are resident foreign nationals.
Over the 10 years of 1999–2009 the population has changed at a rate of −0.3%. It has changed at a rate of 3.2% due to migration and at a rate of −3% due to births and deaths.
Of the population in the municipality 58,560 or about 35.2% were born in Basel and lived there in 2000. There were 1,396 or 0.8% who were born in the same canton, while 44,874 or 26.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 53,774 or 32.3% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 898 live births to Swiss citizens and 621 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 1,732 deaths of Swiss citizens and 175 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 834 while the foreign population increased by 446. There were 207 Swiss men and 271 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 1756 non-Swiss men and 1655 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 278 and the non-Swiss population increased by 1138 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.9%.
, there were 70,502 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 70,517 married individuals, 12,435 widows or widowers, and 13,104 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.59 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.58 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 10.5% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 86,371 private households in the municipality, and an average of 1.8 persons per household. There were 44,469 households that consist of only one person and 2,842 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 88,646 households that answered this question, 50.2% were households made up of just one person and there were 451 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 20,472 married couples without children, 14,554 married couples with children There were 4,318 single parents with a child or children. There were 2,107 households that were made up of unrelated people and 2,275 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 5,747 single family homes (or 30.8% of the total) out of a total of 18,631 inhabited buildings. There were 7,642 multi-family buildings (41.0%), along with 4,093 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (22.0%) and 1,149 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (6.2%). Of the single family homes 1090 were built before 1919, while 65 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (3,474) were built between 1919 and 1945.
there were 96,640 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 35,958. There were 11,957 single room apartments and 9,702 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 84,675 apartments (87.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 7,916 apartments (8.2%) were seasonally occupied and 4,049 apartments (4.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.6 new units per 1000 residents.
the average price to rent an average apartment in Basel was 1118.60 Swiss francs (CHF) per month (US$890, £500, €720 approx. exchange rate from 2003). The average rate for a one-room apartment was 602.27 CHF (US$480, £270, €390), a two-room apartment was about 846.52 CHF (US$680, £380, €540), a three-room apartment was about 1054.14 CHF (US$840, £470, €670) and a six or more room apartment cost an average of 2185.24 CHF (US$1750, £980, €1400). The average apartment price in Basel was 100.2% of the national average of 1116 CHF. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.74%.
Historical population
Language
In 2000, most of the population spoke German (129,592 or 77.8%), with Italian being second most common (9,049 or 5.4%) and French being third (4,280 or 2.6%). There were 202 people who spoke Romansh.
Religion
From the , 41,916 or 25.2% were Roman Catholic, while 39,180 or 23.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 4,567 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.74% of the population), 459 individuals (or about 0.28% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church and 3,464 individuals (or about 2.08% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 12,368 individuals (or about 7.43% of the population) who were Muslim, 1,325 individuals (or about 0.80% of the population) who were Jewish, however only members of religious institutions are counted as such by the municipality, which makes the actual number of people of Jewish descent living in Basel considerably higher. There were 746 individuals who were Buddhist, 947 individuals who were Hindu and 485 individuals who belonged to another church. 52,321 (or about 31.41% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 8,780 individuals (or about 5.27% of the population) did not answer the question.
Infrastructure
Quarters
Basel is subdivided into 19 quarters (Quartiere). The municipalities of Riehen and Bettingen, outside the city limits of Basel, are included in the canton of Basel-Stadt as rural quarters (Landquartiere).
Transport
Basel's airport, EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg, is set up for airfreight; heavy goods reach the city and the heart of continental Europe from the North Sea by ship along the Rhine. The main European routes for the highway and railway transport of freight cross in Basel. The outstanding location benefits logistics corporations, which operate globally from Basel. Trading firms are traditionally well represented in the Basel Region.
Port
Basel has Switzerland's only cargo port, through which goods pass along the navigable stretches of the Rhine and connect to ocean-going ships at the port of Rotterdam.
Air transport
EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg is operated jointly by two countries, France and Switzerland, although the airport is located completely on French soil. The airport itself is split into two architecturally independent sectors, one half serving the French side and the other half serving the Swiss side; prior to Schengen there was an immigration inspection point at the middle of the airport so that people could "emigrate" to the other side of the airport.
Railways
Basel has long held an important place as a rail hub. Three railway stations—those of the German, French and Swiss networks—lie within the city (although the Swiss (Basel SBB) and French (Bâle SNCF) stations are actually in the same complex, separated by Customs and Immigration facilities). Basel Badischer Bahnhof is on the opposite side of the city. Basel's local rail services are supplied by the Basel Regional S-Bahn. The largest goods railway complex of the country is located just outside the city, spanning the municipalities of Muttenz and Pratteln. The new highspeed ICE railway line from Karlsruhe to Basel was completed in 2008 while phase I of the TGV Rhin-Rhône line, opened in December 2011, has reduced travel time from Basel to Paris to about 3 hours.
Roads
Basel is located on the A3 motorway.
Within the city limits, five bridges connect Greater and Lesser Basel (downstream):
Schwarzwaldbrücke (built 1972)
Wettsteinbrücke (current structure built 1998, original bridge built 1879)
Mittlere Rheinbrücke (current structure built 1905, original bridge built 1225 as the first bridge to cross the Rhine)
Johanniterbrücke (built 1967)
Dreirosenbrücke (built 2004, original bridge built 1935)
Ferries
A somewhat anachronistic yet still widely used system of reaction ferry boats links the two shores. There are four ferries, each situated approximately midway between two bridges. Each is attached by a cable to a block that rides along another cable spanning the river at a height of . To cross the river, the ferryman orients the boat around 45° from the current so that the current pushes the boat across the river. This form of transportation is therefore completely hydraulically driven, requiring no outside energy source.
Home/Aktuell – Fähri Verein Basel
Public transport
Basel has an extensive public transportation network serving the city and connecting to surrounding suburbs, including a large tram network. Today, Basel has the largest tramway in terms of kilometers of rail tracks in Switzerland. Historically, only Geneva had a larger one at some point.
The green-colored local trams and buses are operated by the Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVB). The yellow-colored buses and trams are operated by the Baselland Transport (BLT), and connect areas in the nearby half-canton of Baselland to central Basel. The BVB also shares commuter bus lines in cooperation with transit authorities in the neighboring Alsace region in France and Baden region in Germany. The Basel Regional S-Bahn, the commuter rail network connecting to suburbs surrounding the city, is jointly operated by SBB, SNCF and DB.
Border crossings
Basel is located at the meeting point of France, Germany, and Switzerland; because it sits on the Swiss national border and is beyond the Jura Mountains, many within the Swiss military reportedly believe that the city is indefensible during wartime. It has numerous road and rail crossings between Switzerland and the other two countries. With Switzerland joining the Schengen Area on 12 December 2008, immigration checks were no longer carried out at the crossings. However, Switzerland did not join the European Union Customs Union (though it did join the EU Single Market) and customs checks are still conducted at or near the crossings.
France-Switzerland (from east to west)
Road crossings (with French road name continuation)
Kohlenstrasse (Avenue de Bâle, Huningue). This crossing replaces the former crossing Hüningerstrasse further east.
Elsässerstrasse (Avenue de Bâle, Saint-Louis)
Autobahn A3 (A35 autoroute, Saint-Louis), crossing Mulhouse, Colmar and Strasbourg.
EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg – pedestrian walkway between the French and Swiss sections on Level 3 (departures) of airport.
Burgfelderstrasse (Rue du 1er Mars, Saint Louis)
Railway crossing
Basel SBB railway station
Germany-Switzerland (clockwise, from north to south)
Road crossings (with German road name continuation)
Hiltalingerstrasse (Zollstraße, Weil am Rhein). Tram 8 goes along this road to Weil am Rhein. The extension opened in 2014; it used to end before the border.
Autobahn A2 (Autobahn A5, Weil am Rhein)
Freiburgerstrasse (Baslerstraße, Weil am Rhein)
Weilstrasse, Riehen (Haupstraße, Weil am Rhein)
Lörracherstrasse, Riehen (Baslerstraße, Stetten, Lörrach)
Inzlingerstrasse, Riehen (Riehenstraße, Inzlingen)
Grenzacherstrasse (Hörnle, Grenzach-Wyhlen)
Railway crossing
Between Basel SBB and Basel Badischer Bahnhof – Basel Badischer Bahnhof, and all other railway property and stations on the right bank of the Rhine belong to DB and are classed as German customs territory. Immigration and customs checks are conducted at the platform exit tunnel for passengers leaving trains here.
Additionally there are many footpaths and cycle tracks crossing the border between Basel and Germany.
Health
As the biggest town in the Northwest of Switzerland numerous public and private health centres are located in Basel. Among others the Universitätsspital Basel and the Universitätskinderspital Basel. The anthroposophical health institute Klinik-Arlesheim (formerly known as Lukas-Klinik and Ita-Wegman-Klinik) are both located in the Basel area as well. Private health centres include the Bethesda Spital and the Merian Iselin Klinik. Additionally the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute is located in Basel too.
Energy
Basel is at the forefront of a national vision to more than halve energy use in Switzerland by 2050. To research, develop and commercialise the technologies and techniques required for the country to become a 2000 Watt society, a number of projects have been set up since 2001 in the Basel metropolitan area. These include demonstration buildings constructed to Minergie or Passivhaus standards, electricity generation from renewable energy sources, and vehicles using natural gas, hydrogen and biogas.
A building construction law was passed in 2002 also which stated that all new flat roofs must be greened leading to Basel becoming the world's leading green roof city. This was driven by an energy saving programme.
A hot dry rock geothermal energy project was cancelled in 2009 since it caused induced seismicity in Basel.
Economy
The city of Basel, located in the north west of Switzerland, is one of the most dynamic economic regions of Switzerland.
, Basel had an unemployment rate of 3.7%. , 19.3% of the working population was employed in the secondary sector and 80.6% was employed in the tertiary sector. There were 82,449 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which women made up 46.2% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 130,988. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 13, of which 10 were in agriculture and 4 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 33,171 of which 24,848 or (74.9%) were in manufacturing, 10 were in mining and 7,313 (22.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 97,804. In the tertiary sector; 12,880 or 13.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 11,959 or 12.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 6,120 or 6.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4,186 or 4.3% were in the information industry, 10,752 or 11.0% were the insurance or financial industry, 13,695 or 14.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 6,983 or 7.1% were in education and 16,060 or 16.4% were in health care.
, there were 121,842 workers who commuted into the municipality and 19,263 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 6.3 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 23.9% of the workforce coming into Basel are coming from outside Switzerland, while 1.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 49.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 18.7% used a private car.
The Roche Tower, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, is 41 floors and high, upon its opening in 2015 it has become the tallest building in Switzerland. Basel has also Switzerland's third tallest building (Basler Messeturm, ) and Switzerland's tallest tower (St. Chrischona TV tower, ).
Chemical industry
The Swiss chemical industry operates largely from Basel, and Basel also has a large pharmaceutical industry. Novartis, Syngenta, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Clariant, Hoffmann-La Roche, Basilea Pharmaceutica, and Actelion are headquartered there. Pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals have become the modern focus of the city's industrial production.
In addition, Basel is a major European hub for Biotech and Biopharmaceuticals. There are plenty of small and mid-sized start-ups. The vibrant VC scene also supports this.
Banking
Banking is important to Basel:
UBS AG maintains central offices in Basel.
The Bank for International Settlements is located within the city and is the central banker's bank. The bank is controlled by a board of directors, which is composed of the elite central bankers of 11 countries (US, UK, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden).
According to the BIS, "The choice of Switzerland for the seat of the BIS was a compromise by those countries that established the BIS: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. When consensus could not be reached on locating the Bank in London, Brussels or Amsterdam, the choice fell on Switzerland. An independent, neutral country, Switzerland offered the BIS less exposure to undue influence from any of the major powers. Within Switzerland, Basel was chosen largely because of its location, with excellent railway connections in all directions, especially important at a time when most international travel was by train."
Created in May 1930, the BIS is owned by its member central banks, which are private entities. No agent of the Swiss public authorities may enter the premises without the express consent of the bank. The bank exercises supervision and police power over its premises. The bank enjoys immunity from criminal and administrative jurisdiction, as well as setting recommendations which become standard for the world's commercial banking system.
Basel is also the location of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which is distinct from the BIS. It usually meets at the BIS premises in Basel. Responsible for the Basel Accords (Basel I, Basel II and Basel III), this organization fundamentally changed Risk management within its industry.
Basel also hosts the headquarters of the Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation, which is active in the field of sustainable infrastructure (financing).
Air
Swiss International Air Lines, the national airline of Switzerland, is headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel. Prior to the formation of Swiss International Air Lines, the regional airline Crossair was headquartered near Basel.
Media
Basler Zeitung ("BaZ") and bz Basel are the local newspapers. The local TV station is called Telebasel. The German-speaking Swiss Radio and Television SRF company, part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR, holds offices in Basel as well. The academic publishers Birkhäuser, Karger and MDPI are based in Basel.
Trade fairs
Important trade shows include Art Basel, the world's most important fair for modern and contemporary art, Baselworld (watches and jewelry), Swissbau (construction and real estate) and Igeho (hotels, catering, take-away, care). The Swiss Sample Fair ("Schweizer Mustermesse") was the largest and oldest consumer fair in Switzerland. It was held from 2007 to 2019 and took place in Kleinbasel on the right bank of the Rhine.
Education
Besides Humanism the city of Basel has also been well known for its achievements in the field of mathematics. Among others, the mathematician Leonhard Euler and the Bernoulli family have done research and been teaching at the local institutions for centuries. In 1910 the Swiss Mathematical Society was founded in the city and in the mid-twentieth century the Russian mathematician Alexander Ostrowski taught at the local university.
In 2000 about 57,864 or (34.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 27,603 or (16.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ). Of the 27,603 who completed tertiary schooling, 44.4% were Swiss men, 31.1% were Swiss women, 13.9% were non-Swiss men and 10.6% were non-Swiss women.
In 2010 11,912 students attended the University of Basel (55% female). 25% were foreign nationals, 16% were from canton of Basel-Stadt. In 2006, 6162 students studied at one of the nine academies of the FHNW (51% female).
, there were 5,820 students in Basel who came from another municipality, while 1,116 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Universities
Basel hosts Switzerland's oldest university, the University of Basel, dating from 1460. Erasmus, Paracelsus, Daniel Bernoulli, Leonhard Euler, Jacob Burckhardt, Friedrich Nietzsche, Tadeusz Reichstein, Karl Jaspers, Carl Gustav Jung, and Karl Barth worked there. The University of Basel is currently counted among the 90 best educational institutions worldwide.
In 2007, the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich) established the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) in Basel. The creation of the D-BSSE was driven by a Swiss-wide research initiative SystemsX, and was jointly supported by funding from the ETH Zürich, the Swiss Government, the Swiss University Conference (SUC) and private industry.
Basel also hosts several academies of the Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz|Fachhochschule NW (FHNW): the FHNW Academy of Art and Design, FHNW Academy of Music, and the FHNW School of Business.
Basel is renowned for various scientific societies, such as the Entomological Society of Basel (Entomologische Gesellschaft Basel, EGB), which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005.
Volksschule
In 2005 16,939 pupils and students attended the Volksschule (the obligatory school time, including Kindergarten (127), primary schools (Primarschule, 25), and lower secondary schools (Sekundarschule, 10), of which 94% visited public schools and 39.5% were foreign nationals. In 2010 already 51.1% of all pupils spoke another language than German as their first language. In 2009 3.1% of the pupils visited special classes for pupils with particular needs. The average amount of study in primary school in Basel is 816 teaching hours per year.
Upper secondary school
In 2010 65% of the youth finished their upper secondary education with a vocational training and education, 18% finished their upper secondary education with a Federal Matura at one of the five gymnasiums, 5% completed a Fachmaturität at the FMS, 5% completed a Berufsmaturität synchronously to their vocational training, and 7% other kind of upper secondary maturity. 14.1% of all students at public gymnasiums were foreign nationals. The Maturity quota in 2010 was on a record high at 28.8% (32.8 female, 24.9% male).
Basel has five public gymnasiums (, , , , ), each with its own profiles (different focus on major subjects, such as visual design, biology and chemistry, Italian, Spanish, or Latin languages, music, physics and applied mathematics, philosophy/education/psychology, and economics and law) that entitles students with a successful Matura graduation to attend universities. And one Fachmaturitätsschule, the FMS, with six different major subjects (health/natural sciences, education, social work, design/art, music/theatre/dance, and communication/media) that entitles students with a successful Fachmatura graduation to attend Fachhochschulen. Four different höhere Fachschulen (higher vocational schools such as Bildungszentrum Gesundheit Basel-Stadt (health), Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel (trade), Berufsfachschule Basel, Schule für Gestaltung Basel (design)) allows vocational students to improve their knowledge and know-how.
International schools
As a city with a percentage of foreigners of more than thirty-five per cent and as one of the most important centres in the chemical and pharmaceutical field in the world, Basel counts several international schools including: Academia International School, École Française de Bâle, Freies Gymnasium Basel (private), Gymnasium am Münsterplatz (public), Schweizerisch-italienische Primarschule Sandro Pertini, International School Basel, and SIS Swiss International School.
Libraries
Basel is home to at least 65 libraries. Some of the largest include; the Universitätsbibliothek Basel (main university library), the special libraries of the University of Basel, the Allgemein Bibliotheken der Gesellschaft für Gutes und Gemeinnütziges (GGG) Basel, the Library of the Pädagogische Hochschule, the Library of the Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit and the Library of the Hochschule für Wirtschaft. There was a combined total () of 8,443,643 books or other media in the libraries, and in the same year a total of 1,722,802 items were loaned out.
Culture
Main sights
The red sandstone Münster, one of the foremost late-Romanesque/early Gothic buildings in the Upper Rhine, was badly damaged in the great earthquake of 1356, rebuilt in the 14th and 15th century, extensively reconstructed in the mid-19th century and further restored in the late 20th century. A memorial to Erasmus lies inside the Münster. The City Hall from the 16th century is located on the Market Square and is decorated with fine murals on the outer walls and on the walls of the inner court.
Basel is also host to an array of buildings by internationally renowned architects. These include the Beyeler Foundation by Renzo Piano, or the Vitra complex in nearby Weil am Rhein, composed of buildings by architects such as Zaha Hadid (fire station), Frank Gehry (Design Museum), Álvaro Siza Vieira (factory building), and Tadao Ando (conference centre). Basel also features buildings by Mario Botta (Jean Tinguely Museum and Bank of International settlements) and Herzog & de Meuron (whose architectural practice is in Basel, and who are best known as the architects of Tate Modern in London and the Bird's Nest in Beijing, the Olympia stadium, which was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics). The city received the Wakker Prize in 1996.
Heritage sites
Basel features a great number of heritage sites of national significance.
These include the entire Old Town of Basel as well as the following buildings and collections:
Churches and monasteries Old Catholic Prediger Kirche (church), Bischofshof with Collegiate church at Rittergasse 1, Domhof at Münsterplatz 10–12, former Carthusian House of St Margarethental, Catholic Church of St Antonius, Lohnhof (former Augustinians Collegiate Church), Mission 21, Archive of the Evangelisches Missionswerk Basel, Münster of Basel (cathedral), Reformed Elisabethenkirche (church), Reformed Johanneskirche (church), Reformed Leonhardskirche (church, former Augustinians Abbey), Reformed Martinskirche (church), Reformed Pauluskirche (church), Reformed Peterskirche (church), Reformed St. Albankirche (church) with cloister and cemetery, Reformed Theodorskirche (church), Synagoge at Eulerstrasse 2
Secular buildings
Badischer Bahnhof (German Baden's railway station) with fountain, Bank for International Settlements, Blaues Haus (Reichensteinerhof) at Rheinsprung 16, Bruderholzschule (school house) at Fritz-Hauser-Strasse 20, Brunschwiler Haus at Hebelstrasse 15, Bahnhof Basel SBB (Swiss railway station), Bürgerspital (hospital), Café Spitz (Merianflügel), Coop Schweiz company's central archive, Depot of the Archäologischen Bodenforschung des Kanton Basel-Stadt, former Gallizian Paper Mill and Swiss Museum of Paper, former Klingental-Kaserne (casern) with Klingentaler Kirche (church), Fasnachtsbrunnen (fountain), Feuerschützenhaus (guild house of the riflemen) at Schützenmattstrasse 56, Fischmarktbrunnen (fountain), Geltenzunft at Marktplatz 13, Gymnasium am Kohlenberg (St Leonhard) (school), Hauptpost (main post office), Haus zum Raben at Aeschenvorstadt 15, Hohenfirstenhof at Rittergasse 19, Holsteinerhof at Hebelstrasse 30, Markgräflerhof a former palace of the margraves of Baden-Durlach, Mittlere Rhein Brücke (Central Rhine Bridge), Stadtcasino (music hall) at Steinenberg 14, Ramsteinerhof at Rittergasse 7 and 9, Rathaus (town hall), Rundhof building of the Schweizerischen Mustermesse, Safranzunft at Gerbergasse 11, Sandgrube at Riehenstrasse 154, Schlösschen (Manor house) Gundeldingen, Schönes Haus and Schöner Hof at Nadelberg 6, Wasgenring school house, Seidenhof with painting of Rudolf von Habsburg, Spalenhof at Spalenberg 12, Spiesshof at Heuberg 7, city walls, Townhouse (former post office) at Stadthausgasse 13 / Totengässlein 6, Weisses Haus at Martinsgasse 3, Wildt'sches Haus at Petersplatz 13, Haus zum Neuen Singer at Speiserstrasse 98, Wolfgottesacker at Münchensteinerstrasse 99, Zerkindenhof at Nadelberg 10.
Archaeological sites The Celtic Settlement at Gasfabrik, Münsterhügel and Altstadt (historical city, late La Tène and medieval settlement).
Museums, archives and collections Basel calls itself the Cultural Capital of Switzerland.
Among others, there is the Anatomical Museum of the University Basel, Berri-Villen and Museum of Ancient Art Basel and Ludwig Collection, Former Franciscan Barefoot Order Church and Basel Historical Museum, Company Archive of Novartis, Haus zum Kirschgarten which is part of the Basel Historical Museum, Historic Archive Roche and Industrial Complex Hoffmann-La Roche, Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Caricature & Cartoon Museum Basel, Karl Barth-Archive, Kleines Klingental (Lower Klingen Valley) with Museum Klingental, Art Museum of Basel, hosting the world's oldest art collection accessible to the public, Natural History Museum of Basel and the Museum of Cultures Basel, Museum of Modern Art Basel with the E. Hoffmann collection, Museum Jean Tinguely Basel, Music Museum, Pharmacy Historical Museum of the University of Basel, Poster Collection of the School for Design (Schule für Gestaltung), Swiss Business Archives, Sculpture Hall, Sports Museum of Switzerland, Archives of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, UBS AG Corporate Archives, University Library with manuscripts and music collection, Zoological Garden (Zoologischer Garten).
Theatre and music
Basel is the home of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, founded in 1933, a worldwide centre for research on and performance of music from the Medieval through the Baroque eras. Theater Basel, chosen in 1999 as the best stage for German-language performances and in 2009 and 2010 as "Opera house of the year" by German opera magazine Opernwelt, presents a busy schedule of plays in addition to being home to the city's opera and ballet companies. Basel is home to the largest orchestra in Switzerland, the Sinfonieorchester Basel. It is also the home of the Basel Sinfonietta and the Kammerorchester Basel, which recorded the complete symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven for the Sony label, led by its music director Giovanni Antonini. The Schola Cantorum and the Basler Kammerorchester were both founded by the conductor Paul Sacher, who went on to commission works by many leading composers. The Paul Sacher Foundation, opened in 1986, houses a major collection of manuscripts, including the entire Igor Stravinsky archive.
The baroque orchestras La Cetra and Capriccio Basel are also based in Basel.
In May 2004, the fifth European Festival of Youth Choirs (Europäisches Jugendchorfestival, or EJCF) opened; this Basel tradition started in 1992. Host of the festival is the local Basel Boys Choir.
In 1997, Basel contended to become the "European Capital of Culture", though the honor went to Thessaloniki.
Museums
The Basel museums cover a broad and diverse spectrum of collections with a marked concentration in the fine arts. They house numerous holdings of international significance. The over three dozen institutions yield an extraordinarily high density of museums compared to other cities of similar size and draw over one million visitors annually.
Constituting an essential component of Basel culture and cultural policy, the museums are the result of closely interwoven private and public collecting activities and promotion of arts and culture going back to the 16th century. The public museum collection was first created back in 1661 and represents the oldest public collection in continuous existence in Europa. Since the late 1980s, various private collections have been made accessible to the public in new purpose-built structures that have been recognized as acclaimed examples of avant-garde museum architecture.
Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig Ancient cultures of the Mediterranean museum
Augusta Raurica Roman open-air museum
Basel Paper Mill ()
Beyeler Foundation (Foundation Beyeler) Beyeler Museum (Fondation Beyeler)
Botanical Garden Basel One of the oldest botanical gardens in the world
Caricature & Cartoon Museum Basel ()
Dollhouse Museum () a museum housing the largest teddy bear collection in Europe.
Foundation Fernet Branca () in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin near Basel. Modern art collection.
Historical Museum Basel ()
Kunsthalle Basel Modern and contemporary art museum
Kunstmuseum Basel Upper Rhenish and Flemish paintings, drawings from 1400 to 1600 and 19th- to 21st-century art
Monteverdi Automuseum
Museum of Cultures Basel () Large collections on European and non-European cultural life
Museum of Contemporary Art Art from the 1960s up to the present
Music Museum () of the Basel Historic Museum
Natural History Museum of Basel ()
Pharmazie-Historisches Museum der Universität Basel
Schaulager Modern and contemporary art museum
Swiss Architecture Museum ()
Tinguely Museum Life and work of the major Swiss iron sculptor Jean Tinguely
Jewish Museum of Switzerland
Events
The city of Basel is a centre for numerous fairs and events all year round. One of the most important fairs for contemporary art worldwide is the Art Basel which was founded in 1970 by Ernst Beyeler and takes place in June each year. Baselworld, the watch and jewellery show (Uhren- und Schmuckmesse) one of the biggest fairs of its kind in Europe is held every year as well, and attracts a great number of tourists and dealers to the city. Live marketing company and fair organizer MCH Group has its head office in Basel.
The carnival of the city of Basel (Basler Fasnacht) is a major cultural event in the year. The carnival is the biggest in Switzerland and attracts large crowds every year, despite the fact that it starts at exactly four o'clock in the morning (Morgestraich) on a winter Monday. The Fasnacht asserts Basel's Protestant history by commencing the revelry five days after Ash Wednesday and continuing exactly 72 hours. Almost all study and work in the old city cease. Dozens of fife and drum clubs parade in medieval guild tradition with fantastical masks and illuminated lanterns.
Basel Tattoo, founded in 2006 by the local Top Secret Drum Corps, has grown to be the world's second largest military tattoo in terms of performers and budget after the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The Basel Tattoo annual parade, with an estimated 125,000 visitors, is considered the largest event in Basel. The event is now sponsored by the Swiss Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS), making it the official military tattoo of Switzerland.
Cuisine
There are a number of culinary specialties originating in Basel, including Basler Läckerli cookies and Mässmogge candies. Being located in the meeting place between Switzerland, France and Germany the culinary landscape as a whole is very varied and diverse, making it a city with a great number of restaurants of all sorts.
Zoo
Zoo Basel is, with over 1.7 million visitors per year, the most visited tourist attraction in Basel and the second most visited tourist attraction in Switzerland.
Established in 1874, Zoo Basel is the oldest zoo in Switzerland and, by number of animals, the largest. Through its history, Zoo Basel has had several breeding successes, such as the first worldwide Indian rhinoceros birth and Greater flamingo hatch in a zoo. These and other achievements led Forbes Travel to rank Zoo Basel as one of the fifteen best zoos in the world in 2008.
Despite its international fame, Basel's population remains attached to Zoo Basel, which is entirely surrounded by the city of Basel. Evidence of this is the millions of donations money each year, as well as Zoo Basel's unofficial name: locals lovingly call "their" zoo "Zolli" by which is it known throughout Basel and most of Switzerland.
Sport
Basel has a reputation in Switzerland as a successful sporting city. The football club FC Basel continues to be successful and in recognition of this the city was one of the Swiss venues for the 2008 European Championships, along with Geneva, Zürich and Bern. The championships were jointly hosted by Switzerland and Austria. BSC Old Boys and Concordia Basel are the other football teams in Basel.
Among the most popular sports in Switzerland is ice hockey. Basel is home to EHC Basel, who play in the MySports League, the third tier of the Swiss ice hockey league system. They play their home games in the 6,700-seater St. Jakob Arena. The team previously played in the National League and the Swiss League, but had to file for bankruptcy after the 2013–14 Swiss League season.
Amongst its major sports venues, Basel features a large football stadium that has been awarded four stars by UEFA, a modern ice hockey arena, and a sports hall.
A large indoor tennis event takes place in Basel every October. Some of the best ATP-professionals play every year at the Swiss Indoors, previously including Switzerland's biggest sporting hero Roger Federer, a Basel native who describes the city as "one of the most beautiful cities in the world".
The annual Basel Rhine Swim draws several thousand visitors to the city to swim in or float on the Rhine.
While football and ice hockey are by far the most popular sports, basketball has a very small but faithful fan base. The top division, called the SBL, is a semi-professional league and has one team from the Basel region, the "Birstal Starwings".
Two players from Switzerland are currently active in the NBA, Thabo Sefolosha and Clint Capela. As in most European countries, but unlike the U.S., Switzerland has a club-based rather than a school-based competition system. The Starwings Basel are the only first division basketball team in German-speaking Switzerland.
The headquarters of the IHF (International Handball Federation) is located in Basel.
Basel Dragons AFC have been playing Australian Football in the AFL Switzerland league since 2019.
In July 2022, the women's water polo players of the WSV Basel secured their 11th national championship title.
Notable people
Notable people who were born or grew up in Basel:
Gaspard Bauhin (1560–1624), botanist and anatomist
Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593–1650), engraver
Johannes Buxtorf II (1599–1664), Protestant Christian Hebraist
Jacob Bernoulli (1654–1705), mathematician
Johann Bernoulli (1667–1748), mathematician
Johann Jakob Wettstein (1693–1754), theologian and New Testament critic
Maximilian Ulysses Browne (1705–1757), Austrian field marshal
Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), mathematician, physicist and astronomer
Johann Peter Hebel (1760–1826), German short story writer, poet and Lutheran theologian
Johann Jakob Herzog (1805–1882), Swiss-German Protestant theologian
Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897), historian of art and culture
Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901), symbolist painter
Friedrich Miescher (1844–1895), physician and biologist, the first scientist to isolate nucleic acid
Karl Barth (1886–1968), Swiss Reformed theologian, best known for his involvement with the Confessing Church and Christian resistance to Hitler
Rudy Burckhardt (1914–1999), American filmmaker and photographer
Christina Surer (born 1974), racing driver
Martina Gmür (born 1979), Swiss visual artist
Peter Zumthor (born 1943), architect
Heidi Köpfer (born 1954), choreographer, dancer and video artist
Antoine Konrad (born 1975), DJ and record producer, known as DJ Antoine
Roger Federer (born 1981), professional tennis player
Granit Xhaka (born 1992), professional footballer with 100 caps with Switzerland
Picture gallery
Notes and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Official tourism site
Overview of museums in Basel or basel museums (archived 5 May 2008)
Cultural property of national significance in Basel-Stadt
Municipalities of Basel-Stadt
Cantonal capitals of Switzerland
Cities in Switzerland
Populated places on the Rhine
Port cities and towns in Switzerland
Free imperial cities
Germany–Switzerland border crossings
France–Switzerland border crossings
Border tripoints
Turkish communities outside Turkey |
4917 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben%20Nevis | Ben Nevis | Ben Nevis ( ; , ) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom and the British Isles. The summit is above sea level and is the highest land in any direction for . Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William.
The mountain is a popular destination, attracting an estimated 130,000 ascents a year, around three-quarters of which use the Mountain Track from Glen Nevis.
The cliffs of the north face are among the highest in Scotland, providing classic scrambles and rock climbs of all difficulties for climbers and mountaineers. They are also the principal locations in Scotland for ice climbing.
The summit, which is the collapsed dome of an ancient volcano, features the ruins of an observatory which was continuously staffed between 1883 and 1904. The meteorological data collected during this period is still important for understanding Scottish mountain weather. C. T. R. Wilson was inspired to invent the cloud chamber after a period spent working at the observatory.
Etymology
Ben Nevis is the Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name . Whilst is the common Scottish Gaelic word for 'mountain' the origin of is unclear.
may preserve an earlier Pictish form, or , involving the Celtic root , meaning 'clouds' (compare: Welsh )., thus 'Cloudy Mountain'.
may also have an origin with the words meaning 'heaven' (which is related to the modern Scottish Gaelic word meaning 'bright, shining') and meaning 'the top of a man's head'. Thus, could derive from , "the mountain with its head in the clouds", or 'mountain of heaven'.
The Scottish Gaelic word can be translated as 'malice', 'poison' or 'venom' giving 'venomous mountain', possibly describing the storms that envelop the summit.
can also be the genitive form of a male name. This could refer to the god Lugh whose place of worship was often on mountain tops throughout the Celtic world, thus giving 'god's mountain'.
As is common for many Scottish mountains, it is known both to locals and visitors as simply the Ben.
Geography
Ben Nevis forms a massif with its neighbours to the northeast, , to which it is linked by the Arête, and . All four are Munros and among the eleven mountains in Scotland over (of which nine are currently listed as Munros).
The western and southern flanks of Ben Nevis rise in about above the River Nevis flowing down Glen Nevis – the longest and steepest hill slope in Britain – with the result that the mountain presents an aspect of massive bulk on this side. To the north, by contrast, cliffs drop some to ().
A descent of 200 metres from this corrie leads to the Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut (known as the CIC Hut), a private mountain hut above sea level, owned by the Scottish Mountaineering Club and used as a base for the many climbing routes on the mountain's north face. The hut is just above the confluence of and .
In addition to the main summit, Ben Nevis has two subsidiary "tops" listed in Munro's Tables, both of which are called ("red hill"). The higher of these, at , is to the northwest, and is often mistaken for Ben Nevis itself in views from the Fort William area. The other () juts out into Glen Nevis on the mountain's southwestern side. A lower hill, (), is further west, forming a saddle with Ben Nevis which contains a small loch, . The popular tourist path from Glen Nevis skirts the side of this hill before ascending Ben Nevis's broad western flank.
Geology
Ben Nevis is all that remains of a Devonian volcano that met a cataclysmic end in the Carboniferous period around 350 million years ago. Evidence near the summit shows light-coloured granite (which had cooled in subterranean chambers several kilometres beneath the surface) lies among dark basaltic lavas (that form only on the surface). The two lying side by side is evidence the huge volcano collapsed in on itself creating an explosion comparable to Thera (2nd millennium BC) or Krakatoa (1883).
The mountain is now all that remains of the imploded inner dome of the volcano.
Its form has been extensively shaped by glaciation.
Research has shown igneous rock from the Devonian period (around 400 million years ago) intrudes into the surrounding metamorphic schists; the intrusions take the form of a series of concentric ring dikes. The innermost of these, known as the Inner Granite, constitutes the southern bulk of the mountain above , and also the neighbouring ridge of ; forms part of the Outer Granite, which is redder in colour. The summit dome itself, together with the steep northern cliffs, is composed of andesite and basaltic lavas.
Climate
Ben Nevis has a highland tundra climate (ET in the Köppen classification). Ben Nevis's elevation, maritime location and topography frequently lead to cool and cloudy weather conditions, which can pose a danger to ill-equipped walkers. According to the observations carried out at the summit observatory from 1883 to 1904, fog was present on the summit for almost 80% of the time between November and January, and 55% of the time in May and June. The average winter temperature was around , and the mean monthly temperature for the year was . In an average year the summit sees 261 gales, and receives of rainfall, compared to only in nearby Fort William, in Inverness and in London. Rainfall on Ben Nevis is about twice as high in the winter as it is in the spring and summer. Snow can be found on the mountain almost all year round, particularly in the gullies of the north face – with the higher reaches of Observatory Gully holding snow until September most years and sometimes until the new snows of the following season.
History
The first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis was made on 17 August 1771 by James Robertson, an Edinburgh botanist, who was in the region to collect botanical specimens. Another early ascent was in 1774 by John Williams, who provided the first account of the mountain's geological structure. John Keats climbed the mountain in 1818, comparing the ascent to "mounting ten St. Pauls without the convenience of a staircase". The following year William MacGillivray, who was later to become a distinguished naturalist, reached the summit only to find "fragments of earthen and glass ware, chicken bones, corks, and bits of paper". It was not until 1847 that Ben Nevis was confirmed by the Ordnance Survey as the highest mountain in Britain and Ireland, ahead of its rival Ben Macdui.
The summit observatory was built in the summer of 1883, and would remain in operation for 21 years. The first path to the summit was built at the same time as the observatory and was designed to allow ponies to carry up supplies, with a maximum gradient of one in five. The opening of the path and the observatory made the ascent of the mountain increasingly popular, all the more so after the arrival of the West Highland Railway in Fort William in 1894. Around this time the first of several proposals was made for a rack railway to the summit, none of which came to fruition.
In 1911, an enterprising Ford dealer named Henry Alexander ascended the mountain in a Model T as a publicity stunt. The ascent was captured on film, and can be seen in the archives of the British Film Institute. A statue of Alexander and the car was unveiled in Fort William in 2018.
In 2000, the Ben Nevis Estate, comprising all of the south side of the mountain including the summit, was bought by the Scottish conservation charity the John Muir Trust.
In 2016, the height of Ben Nevis was officially remeasured to be 1344.527m by Ordnance Survey. The height of Ben Nevis will therefore be shown on new Ordnance Survey maps as instead of the now obsolete value of .
Ascent routes
The 1883 Pony Track to the summit (also known as the Ben Path, the Mountain Path or the Tourist Route) remains the simplest and most popular route of ascent. It begins at Achintee on the east side of Glen Nevis about from Fort William town centre, at around 20 metres above sea level. Bridges from the Visitor Centre and the youth hostel now allow access from the west side of Glen Nevis. The path climbs steeply to the saddle by Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe (colloquially known as the 'Halfway Lochan') at 570 m, then ascends the remaining 700 metres up the stony west flank of Ben Nevis in a series of zig-zags. The path is regularly maintained but running water, uneven rocks and loose scree make it hazardous and slippery in places. Thanks to the zig-zags, the path is not unusually steep apart from in the initial stages, but inexperienced walkers should be aware that the descent is relatively arduous and wearing on the knees.
A route popular with experienced hillwalkers starts at Torlundy, a few miles north-east of Fort William on the A82 road, and follows the path alongside the . It can also be reached from Glen Nevis by following the Pony Track as far as , then descending slightly to the CIC Hut. The route then ascends and continues along the Arête ("CMD Arête") before climbing steeply to the summit of Ben Nevis. This route involves a total of 1,500 metres of ascent and requires modest scrambling ability and a head for heights. In common with other approaches on this side of the mountain, it has the advantage of giving an extensive view of the cliffs of the north face, which are hidden from the Pony Track.
It is also possible to climb Ben Nevis from the Nevis Gorge car park at Steall at the head of the road up Glen Nevis, either by the south-east ridge or via the summit of (south-west). These routes require mild scrambling, are shorter and steeper than the Pony Track, and tend only to be used by experienced hill walkers.
Summit
The summit of Ben Nevis comprises a large stony plateau of about . The highest point is marked with a large, solidly built cairn atop which sits an Ordnance Survey trig point. The summit is the highest ground in any direction for before the Scandinavian Mountains in western Norway are reached.
The ruined walls of the observatory are a prominent feature on the summit. An emergency shelter has been built on top of the observatory tower for the benefit of those caught out by bad weather. Although the base of the tower is slightly lower than the true summit of the mountain, the roof of the shelter overtops the trig point by several feet, making it the highest man-made structure in the UK. A war memorial to the dead of World War II is located next to the observatory.
On 17 May 2006, a piano that had been buried under one of the cairns on the peak was uncovered by the John Muir Trust, which owns much of the mountain. The piano is believed to have been carried up for charity by removal men from Dundee over 20 years earlier.
The view from the UK's highest point is extensive. Under ideal conditions, it can extend to over , including such mountains as the Torridon Hills, Morven in Caithness, Lochnagar, Ben Lomond, Barra Head and to Knocklayd in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Observatory
A meteorological observatory on the summit was first proposed by the Scottish Meteorological Society (SMS) in the late-1870s, at a time when similar observatories were being built around the world to study the weather at high altitude. In the summer of 1881, Clement Lindley Wragge climbed the mountain daily to make observations (earning him the nickname "Inclement Rag"), leading to the opening on 17 October 1883 of a permanent observatory run by the SMS. The building was staffed full-time until 1904, when it was closed due to inadequate funding. The twenty years worth of readings still provide the most comprehensive set of data on mountain weather in Great Britain.
In September 1894, C. T. R. Wilson was employed at the observatory for a couple of weeks as temporary relief for one of the permanent staff. During this period, he witnessed a Brocken spectre and glory, caused by the sun casting a shadow on a cloud below the observer. He subsequently tried to reproduce these phenomena in the laboratory, resulting in his invention of the cloud chamber, used to detect ionising radiation.
Navigation and safety
Ben Nevis's popularity, climate and complex topography contribute to a high number of mountain rescue incidents. In 1999 there were 41 rescues and four fatalities on the mountain. It has also been estimated that there are several deaths annually on Ben Nevis.
Avalanches
In two avalanches that occurred on Ben Nevis in 2009 and 2016 two people died on both occasions. In two avalanches that occurred in 1970 and 2019 three people died on both occasions. A climber died in an avalanche on the north face in 2022.
Navigation
Some accidents arise over difficulties in navigating to or from the summit, especially in poor visibility. The problem stems from the fact that the summit plateau is roughly kidney-shaped and surrounded by cliffs on three sides; the danger is particularly accentuated when the main path is obscured by snow. Two precise compass bearings taken in succession are necessary to navigate from the summit cairn to the west flank, from where a descent can be made on the Pony Track in relative safety.
In the late 1990s, Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team erected two posts on the summit plateau to assist walkers attempting the descent in foggy conditions. These posts were subsequently cut down by climbers, sparking controversy in mountaineering circles on the ethics of such additions. Critics argued that cairns and posts are an unnecessary man-made intrusion into the natural landscape, which create a false sense of security and could lessen mountaineers' sense of responsibility for their own safety.
Supporters of navigational aids pointed to the high number of accidents that occurred on the mountain. Between 1990 and 1995 alone there were 13 fatalities, although eight of these were due to falls while rock climbing rather than navigational error. Also there is a long tradition of placing such aids on the summit, and the potentially life-saving role they could play.
In 2016, the John Muir Trust cleared a number of smaller informal cairns which had recently been erected by visitors, many near the top of gullies, which were seen as dangerous as they could confuse walkers using them for navigation. As of 2019, a series of solidly-constructed cairns, each several feet high, marks the upper reaches of the Pony Track and the path across the summit plateau.
Climbing on Ben Nevis
The north face of Ben Nevis is riven with buttresses, ridges, towers and pinnacles, and contains many classic scrambles and rock climbs. It is of major importance for British winter climbing, with many of its routes holding snow often until late April. It was one of the first places in Scotland to receive the attention of serious mountaineers; a partial ascent and, the following day, a complete descent of Tower Ridge in early September 1892 is the earliest documented climbing expedition on Ben Nevis. (It was not climbed from bottom to top in entirety for another two years). The Scottish Mountaineering Club's Charles Inglis Clark hut was built below the north face in Coire Leis in 1929. Because of its remote location, it is said to be the only genuine alpine hut in Britain. It remains popular with climbers, especially in winter.
Tower Ridge is the longest of the north face's four main ridges, with around 600 metres of ascent. It is not technically demanding (its grade is Difficult), and most pitches can be tackled unroped by competent climbers, but it is committing and very exposed. Castle Ridge (Moderate), the northernmost of the main ridges, is an easier scramble, while Observatory Ridge (Very Difficult), the closest ridge to the summit, is "technically the hardest of the Nevis ridges in summer and winter". Between the Tower and Observatory Ridges are the Tower and Gardyloo Gullies; the latter takes its name from the cry of (French for "watch out for the water") formerly used in Scottish cities as a warning when householders threw their waste out of a tenement window into the street. The gully's top wall was the refuse pit for the now-disused summit observatory. The North-east Buttress (Very Difficult) is the southernmost and bulkiest of the four ridges; it is as serious as Observatory Ridge but not as technically demanding, mainly because an "infamous" rock problem, the 'Man-trap', can be avoided on either side.
The north face contains dozens of graded rock climbs along its entire length, with particular concentrations on the Buttress (below the Munro top of NW) and around the North-east Buttress and Observatory Ridge. Classic rock routes include Rubicon Wall on Observatory Buttress (Severe) – whose second ascent in 1937, when it was considered the hardest route on the mountain, is described by W. H. Murray in Mountaineering in Scotland – and, on , Centurion and The Bullroar (both HVS), Torro (E2), and Titan's Wall (E3), these four described in the SMC's guide as among "the best climbs of their class in Scotland".
Many seminal lines were recorded before the First World War by pioneering Scottish climbers like J. N. Collie, Willie Naismith, Harold Raeburn, and William and Jane Inglis Clark. Other classic routes were put up by G. Graham Macphee, Dr James H. B. Bell and others between the Wars; these include Bell's 'Long Climb', at reputedly the longest sustained climb on the British mainland. In summer 1943 conscientious objector Brian Kellett made a phenomenal seventy-four repeat climbs and seventeen first ascents including fourteen solos, returning in 1944 to add fifteen more new lines, eleven solo, including his eponymous HVS on Gardyloo buttress. Much more recently, an extreme and as yet ungraded climb on Echo Wall was completed by Dave MacLeod in 2008 after two years of preparation.
The north face is also one of Scotland's foremost venues for winter mountaineering and ice climbing, and holds snow until quite late in the year; in a good year, routes may remain in winter condition until mid-spring. Most of the possible rock routes are also suitable as winter climbs, including the four main ridges; Tower Ridge, for example, is grade IV on the Scottish winter grade, having been upgraded in 2009 by the Scottish Mountaineering Club after requests by the local Mountain Rescue Team, there being numerous benightments and incidents every winter season. Probably the most popular ice climb on Ben Nevis is The Curtain (IV,5) on the left side of the Buttress. At the top end of the scale, Centurion in winter is a grade VIII,8 face climb.
In February 1960 James R. Marshall and Robin Clark Smith recorded six major new ice routes in only eight days including Orion Direct (V,5 400m); this winter version of Bell's Long Climb was "the climax of a magnificent week's climbing by Smith and Marshall, and the highpoint of the step-cutting era".
Ben Nevis Race
The history of hill running on Ben Nevis dates back to 1895. William Swan, a barber from Fort William, made the first recorded timed ascent up the mountain on or around 27 September of that year, when he ran from the old post office in Fort William to the summit and back in 2 hours 41 minutes.
The following years saw several improvements on Swan's record, but the first competitive race was held on 3 June 1898 under Scottish Amateur Athletic Association rules. Ten competitors ran the course, which started at the Lochiel Arms Hotel in Banavie and was thus longer than the route from Fort William; the winner was 21-year-old Hugh Kennedy, a gamekeeper at Tor Castle, who finished (coincidentally with Swan's original run) in 2 hours 41 minutes.
Regular races were organised until 1903, when two events were held; these were the last for 24 years, perhaps due to the closure of the summit observatory the following year. The first was from Achintee, at the foot of the Pony Track, and finished at the summit; It was won in just over an hour by Ewen MacKenzie, the observatory roadman. The second race ran from new Fort William post office, and MacKenzie lowered the record to 2 hours 10 minutes, a record he held for 34 years.
The Ben Nevis Race has been run in its current form since 1937. It now takes place on the first Saturday in September every year, with a maximum of 500 competitors taking part. It starts and finishes at the Claggan Park football ground on the outskirts of Fort William, and is long with of ascent. Due to the seriousness of the mountain environment, entry is restricted to those who have completed three hill races, and runners must carry waterproofs, a hat, gloves and a whistle; anyone who has not reached the summit after two hours is turned back. As of 2018, the record for the men's race has stood unbroken since 1984, when Kenny Stuart of Keswick Athletic Club won with a time of 1:25:34. The record for the women's race of 1:43:01 was set in 2018 by Victoria Wilkinson.
Extreme sports on Ben Nevis
Ben Nevis is becoming popular with ski mountaineers and boarders. The Red Burn () just to the North of the tourist path gives the easiest descent, but most if not all of the easier gullies on the North Face have been skied, as has the slope once adorned by the abseil poles into . No 4 gully is probably the most skied. Although Tower scoop makes it a no-fall zone, Tower Gully is becoming popular, especially in May and June when there is spring snow.
In 2018 Jöttnar pro team member Tim Howell BASE jumped off Ben Nevis which was covered by BBC Scotland.
On 6 May 2019, a team of highliners completed a crossing above the Gardyloo Gully, a new altitude record for the UK.
Also in May 2019, a team of 12, led by Dundee artist Douglas Roulston carried a tall statue of the DC Thomson character Oor Wullie to the top of the mountain. The statue, which had been painted by Roulston with a 360 degree scene of the view from the summit was later sold at the Oor Wullie Big Bucket Trail charity auction to raise money for a number of Scottish children's charities.
Environmental issues and Nevis Landscape Partnership
Ben Nevis's popularity and high-profile have led to concerns in recent decades over the impact of humans on the fragile mountain environment within the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area. These concerns contributed to the creation of The Nevis Landscape Partnership, a five-year programme which aimed to protect, enhance and future-proof Ben Nevis by delivering nineteen ambitious environmental projects between 2014 and 2019. The Nevis Landscape Partnership is supported by five partner organisations (John Muir Trust, Forestry Commission Scotland, The Highland Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and The Nevis Partnership) and was made possible by Heritage Lottery Funding.
With the 5-year programme now finished, there have been significant positive changes implemented by Nevis Landscape Partnership and their projects, most significantly the upgrades to the Ben Nevis Mountain Track. Work to upgrade the mountain track started in November 2015 after two contracts were awarded to McGowan Ltd. and Cairngorm Wilderness Contracts. Between 2015 and 2019, 3.5 km of path has been repaired through eight separate contracts and 3,323 hours of volunteer time.
Volunteers help to maintain the mountain track. Nevis Landscape Partnership and National Trust for Scotland have run Thistle Camp Working Holidays which have focused on maintenance on the first section of the Ben Nevis footpath.
Ben Nevis Distillery
The Ben Nevis Distillery is a single malt whisky distillery at the foot of the mountain, near Victoria Bridge to the north of Fort William. Founded in 1825 by John McDonald (known as "Long John"), it is one of the oldest licensed distilleries in Scotland, and is a popular visitor attraction in Fort William. The water used to make the whisky comes from the , the stream that flows from Ben Nevis's northern corrie. "Ben Nevis" 80/‒ organic ale is, by contrast, brewed in Bridge of Allan near Stirling.
Other uses
Ben Nevis was the name of a White Star Line packet ship which in 1854 carried the group of immigrants who were to become the Wends of Texas. At least another eight vessels have carried the name since then.
A mountain in Svalbard is also named Ben Nevis, after the Scottish peak. It is 922 metres high, and is south of the head of Raudfjorden, Albert I Land, in the northwestern part of the island of Spitsbergen.
A comic strip character, Wee Ben Nevis, about a Scottish Highlands boarding school student with superhuman strength and his antics were featured in the British comic The Beano from 1974 to 1977, named after the mountain.
Hung Fa Chai, a 489-metre hill in Northeast New Territories of Hong Kong was marked as Ben Nevis on historical colonial maps.
See also
Mountains and hills of Scotland
National Three Peaks Challenge
Northwest Spitsbergen National Park Norway - includes a mountain called Ben Nevis. Its height is 918 metres and it is located at Northwest Spitsbergen National Park
The Remarkables, New Zealand – mountain range containing a peak also called Ben Nevis
Scottish Highlands
Scafell Pike
Snowdon
Footnotes
References
Notes
Bibliography
External links
Ben Nevis Photo Tour – 57 images from the Car Park to the Summit and Back via the Tourist Trail
Nevis Partnership – Environmental and visitor management in the Nevis area
Computer generated digital panoramas from Ben Nevis: North South index
Ben Nevis Webcam
360munros.co.uk - Ben Nevis 360° Virtual Tours
Ben Nevis. Munros Table. Scottish Mountaineering Club.
Climbing areas of Scotland
Death in the United Kingdom
Devonian volcanism
Highest points of countries
Highest points of historic Scottish counties
Lochaber
Munros
Marilyns of Scotland
Mountains and hills of Highland (council area)
Mountaineering deaths
Mountaineering disasters
Mountains and hills of the Central Highlands
National scenic areas of Scotland
One-thousanders of Scotland
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in North Lochaber
Special Areas of Conservation in Scotland
Volcanism of Scotland |
4921 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacardi | Bacardi | Bacardi Limited ( , , ) is the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world. Originally known for its Bacardí brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 by Facundo Bacardí Massó, Bacardi Limited has been family-owned for seven generations, and employs more than 8,000 people with sales in approximately 170 countries. Bacardi Limited is the group of companies as a whole and includes Bacardi International Limited.
Bacardi Limited is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, and has a board of directors led by the original founder's great-great grandson, Facundo L. Bacardí, the chairman of the board.
History
Early history
Facundo Bacardí Massó, a Spanish wine merchant, was born in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain, on October 16, 1814, and immigrated to Santiago, Cuba, in 1830. At the time, rum was cheaply made and not considered a refined drink, and rarely sold in upmarket taverns or purchased by the growing emerging middle class on the island. Facundo began attempting to "tame" rum by isolating a proprietary strain of yeast harvested from local sugar cane still used in Bacardí production today. This yeast gives Bacardí rum its flavour profile. After experimenting with several techniques for close to ten years, Facundo pioneered charcoal rum filtration, which removed impurities from his rum. Facundo then created two separate distillates that he could blend together, balancing a variety of flavors: Aguardiente (a robust, flavorful distillate) and Redestillado (a refined, delicate distillate). Once Facundo achieved the perfect balance of flavors by marrying the two distillates together, he purposefully aged the rum in white oak barrels to develop subtle flavors and characteristics while mellowing out those that were unwanted. The final product was the first clear, light-bodied and mixable "white" rum in the world.
Moving from the experimental stage to a more commercial endeavour as local sales began to grow, Facundo and his brother José purchased a Santiago de Cuba distillery on October 16, 1862, which housed a still made of copper and cast iron. In the rafters of this building lived fruit bats – the inspiration for the Bacardi bat logo. It was the idea of Doña Amalia, Facundo's wife, to adopt the bat to the rum bottle when she recognized its symbolism of family unity, good health, and good fortune to her husband's homeland of Spain. This logo was pragmatic considering the high illiteracy rate in the 19th century, enabling customers to easily identify the product.
The 1880s and 1890s were turbulent times for Cuba and the company. Emilio Bacardí, Don Facundo's eldest son, known for his forward thinking in both his professional and personal life and a passionate advocate for Cuban Independence was imprisoned twice for having fought in the rebel army against Spain in the Cuban War of Independence.
Emilio's brothers, Facundo and José, and their brother-in-law Enrique 'Henri' Schueg, remained in Cuba with the difficult task of sustaining the company during a period of war. With Don Facundo's passing in 1886, Doña Amalia sought refuge by exile in Kingston, Jamaica. At the end of the Cuban War of Independence during the US occupation of Cuba, "The Original Cuba Libre" and the Daiquiri cocktails were both created, with the then Cuban based Bacardí rum. In 1899, Emilio Bacardí became the first democratically elected mayor of Santiago, appointed US General Leonard Wood.
During his time in public office, Emilio established schools and hospitals, completed municipal projects such as the famous Padre Pico Street and the Bacardi Dam, financed the creation of parks, and decorated the city of Santiago with monuments and sculptures. In 1912, Emilio and his wife travelled to Egypt, where he purchased a mummy (still on display) for the future Emilio Bacardi Moreau Municipal Museum in Santiago de Cuba. In Santiago, his brother Facundo M. Bacardí continued to manage the company along with Schueg, who began the company's international expansion by opening bottling plants in Barcelona (1910) and New York City (1916). The New York plant was soon shut down due to Prohibition, yet during this time Cuba became a hotspot for US tourists, kicking off a period of rapid growth for the Bacardi company and the onset of cocktail culture in America.
In 1922 the family completed the expansion and renovation of the original distillery in Santiago, increasing the sites rum production capacity. In 1930 Schueg oversaw the construction and opening of Edificio Bacardí in Havana, regarded as one of the finest Art Deco buildings in Latin America, as the third generation of the Bacardí family entered the business. In 1927, Bacardi ventured outside the realm of spirits for the first time, with the introduction of an authentic Cuban Malt beer: Hatuey beer.
Bacardi's success in transitioning into an international brand and company was due mostly to Schueg, who branded Cuba as "The home of rum", and Bacardí as "The king of rums and the rum of Kings". Expansion began overseas, first to Mexico in 1931 where it had architects Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and Felix Candela design office buildings and a bottling plant in Mexico City during the 1950s. The building complex was added to the tentative list of UNESCO's World Heritage Site list on 20 November 2001. In 1936, Bacardi began producing rum on U.S. territory in Puerto Rico after Prohibition which enabled the company to sell rum tariff-free in the United States. The company later expanded to the United States in 1944 with the opening of Bacardi Imports, Inc. in Manhattan, New York City.
During World War II, the company was led by Schueg's son-in-law, José "Pepin" Bosch. Pepin founded Bacardi Imports in New York City, and became Cuba's Minister of the Treasury in 1949.
Cuban Revolution
During the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the Bacardí family (and hence the company) supported and aided the rebels. However, after the triumph of the revolutionaries, and turn to Communism, the family maintained a fierce opposition to Fidel Castro's policies in Cuba in the 1960s. In his book, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba, Tom Gjelten describes how the Bacardí family and the company left Cuba in exile after the Cuban government confiscated the company's Cuban assets without compensation on 14 October 1960, particularly nationalizing and banning all private property on the island as well as all bank accounts. However, due to concerns over the previous Cuban leader, Fulgencio Batista, the company had started foreign branches a few years before the revolution; the company moved the ownership of its trademarks, assets and proprietary formulas out of the country to the Bahamas prior to the revolution and already produced Bacardí rum at other distillery sites in Puerto Rico and Mexico. This helped the company survive after the Cuban government confiscated all Bacardí assets in the country without any compensation.
In 1965, over 100 years after the company was established in Cuba, Bacardi established new roots and found a new home with global headquarters in Hamilton, Bermuda. In February 2019, Bacardi's CEO, Mahesh Madhavan, stated that Bacardí's global headquarters would remain in Bermuda for the next "500 years" and that "Bermuda is our home now."
In 1999, Otto Reich, a lobbyist in Washington on behalf of Bacardí, drafted section 211 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Appropriations Act, FY1999, a bill that became known as the Bacardi Act. Section 211 denied trademark protection to products of Cuban businesses expropriated after the Cuban revolution, a provision sought by Bacardí. The act was aimed primarily at the Havana Club brand in the United States. The brand was created by the José Arechabala S.A. and nationalised without compensation in the Cuban revolution, the Arechabala family left Cuba and stopped producing rum. They therefore allowed the US trademark registration for "Havana Club" to lapse in 1973. Taking advantage of the lapse, the Cuban government registered the mark in the United States in 1976. This new law was drafted to invalidate the trademark registration. Section 211 has been challenged unsuccessfully by the Cuban government and the European Union in US courts. It was ruled illegal by the WTO in 2001 and 2002. The US Congress has yet to re-examine the matter. The brand was assigned by the Cuban government to Pernod Ricard in 1993.
Bacardi rekindled the story of the Arechabala family and Havana Club in the United States when it launched the AMPARO Experience in 2018, an immersive play experience based in Miami, the city with the highest population of Cuban exiles. AMPARO “is the story of the family’s entire history being erased and their heritage ‘stolen’” according to playwright Vanessa Garcia.
Bacardi in the United States
In 1964, Bacardi opened new US offices in Miami, Florida. Exiled Cuban architect Enrique Gutierrez created a building that was hurricane-proof, using a system of steel cables and pulleys which allow the building to move slightly in the event of a strong shock. The steel cables are anchored into the bedrock and extend through marble-covered shafts up to the top floor, where they are led over large pulleys. Outside, on both sides of the eight-story building, more than 28,000 tiles painted and fired by Brazilian artist Francisco Brennand, depicting abstract blue flowers, were placed on the walls according to the artist's exact specifications.
In 1973, the company commissioned the square building in the plaza. Architect Ignacio Carrera-Justiz used cantilevered construction, a style invented by Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright observed how well trees with taproots withstood hurricane-force winds. The building, raised 47 feet off the ground around a central core, features four massive walls, made of sections of inch-thick hammered glass mural tapestries, designed and manufactured in France. The striking design of the annex, affectionately known as the 'Jewel Box' building, came from a painting by German artist Johannes M. Dietz.
In 2006, Bacardi USA leased a 15-story headquarters complex in Coral Gables, Florida. Bacardi had employees in seven buildings across Miami-Dade County at the time.
Bacardi vacated its former headquarters buildings on Biscayne Boulevard in Midtown Miami. The building currently serves as the headquarters of the National YoungArts Foundation. Miami citizens began a campaign to label the buildings as "historic". The Bacardi Buildings Complex has been a locally protected historic resource since Oct. 6, 2009, when it was designated by unanimous decision by the Historic and Environmental Preservation Board.
In 2007 Chad Oppenheim, the head of Oppenheim Architecture + Design, described the Bacardi buildings as "elegant, with a Modernist [look combined with] a local flavour". In April 2009, University of Miami professor of architecture Allan Schulman said "Miami's brand is its identity as a tropical city. The Bacardi buildings are exactly the sort that resonate with our consciousness of what Miami is about."
The American headquarters is in Coral Gables, Florida.
Bacardi and Cuba today
Bacardi drinks are not easily found in Cuba today. The main brand of rum in Cuba is Havana Club, produced by a company that was confiscated and nationalized by the government following the revolution. Bacardi later bought the brand from the original owners, the Arechabala family. The Cuban government, in partnership with the French company Pernod Ricard, sells its Havana Club products internationally, except in the United States and its territories. Bacardi created the Real Havana Club rum based on the original recipe from the Arechabala family, manufactures it in Puerto Rico, and sells it in the United States. Bacardi continues to fight in the courts, attempting to legalize their own Havana Club trademark outside the United States.
Brands
Bacardi Limited has made numerous acquisitions to diversify away from the eponymous Bacardí rum brand. In 1993, Bacardi merged with Martini & Rossi, the Italian producer of Martini vermouth and sparkling wines, creating the Bacardi-Martini group.
In 1998, the company acquired Dewar's scotch, including Royal Brackla and Bombay Sapphire gin from Diageo for $2 billion. Bacardi acquired the Cazadores tequila brand in 2002 and in 2004 purchased Grey Goose, a French-made vodka, from Sidney Frank for $2 billion. In 2006 Bacardi Limited purchased New Zealand vodka brand 42 Below. In 2018, Bacardi Limited purchased tequila manufacturer Patrón for $5.1 billion. In 2023, Bacardi acquired the renowned super-premium mezcal brand, Ilegal Mezcal.
Other associated brands include the Real Havana Club, Drambuie Scotch whisky liqueur, DiSaronno Amaretto, Eristoff vodka, Cazadores Tequila, B&B and Bénédictine liqueurs.
American Whiskey: Stillhouse
Bourbon: Angel's Envy, Stillhouse Black Bourbon
Cachaça: Leblon Cachaça
Cognac: Otard, D'ussé Cognac, Gaston De LaGrange
Gin: Bombay Sapphire, Bosford, Oxley
Liqueur: Bénédictine, St-Germain, Get 27, Get 31, Nassau Royale, Martini Spirito, Patrón liqueurs
Rum: Bacardí, Havana Club (USA only), Castillo, Banks, Pyrat XO Reserve, Oakheart Spice Rum
Scotch whisky: Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie, Deveron, Royal Brackla, Dewar's, William Lawson's
Sparkling wine: Martini Prosecco, Martini Asti, Martini rosé
Tequila: Patrón, Corzo, Cazadores, Camino Real
Vermouth: Martini & Rossi, Noilly Prat
Vodka: Grey Goose, Eristoff, Ultimat Vodka, Stillhouse Classic American Vodka, 42 Below, Plume & Petal
Main brand
Bacardi Superior
Bacardi 8
Bacardi Gran Reserva
Bacardi Dark Rum
Bacardi White Rum
Bacardi Spiced Rum
Bacardi Gold Rum
Bacardi 151
Bacardi Gold
Bacardi Mojito
Bacardi Breezers
Bacardi Apple
Bacardi Lemon
Bacardi Carta Blanca
Awards
Bacardí rums have been entered for a number of international spirit ratings awards. Several Bacardí spirits have performed notably well. In 2020, Bacardí Superior, Bacardí Gold, Bacardí Black, Bacardí Añejo Cuatro were each awarded a gold medal by the International Quality Institute Monde Selection. In addition, both Bacardí Reserva Ocho and Bacardí Gran Reserva Diez were awarded the top honor of Grand Gold quality award.
Hemingway connection
Ernest Hemingway lived in Cuba from 1939 until shortly after the Cuban Revolution. He lived at Finca Vigía, in the small town of San Francisco de Paula, located very close to Bacardi's Modelo Brewery for Hatuey Beer in Cotorro, Havana.
In 1954, Compañía Ron Bacardi S.A. threw Hemingway a party when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – soon after the publication of his novel The Old Man and the Sea (1952) – in which he honored the company by mentioning its Hatuey beer. Hemingway also mentioned Bacardí and Hatuey in his novels To Have and Have Not (1937) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Guillermo Cabrera Infante wrote an account of the festivities for the periodical Ciclón, titled "El Viejo y la Marca" ("The Old Man and the Brand", a play on "El Viejo y el Mar", the book's Spanish title). In his account he described how "on one side there was a wooden stage with two streamers – Hatuey beer and Bacardi rum – on each end and a Cuban flag in the middle. Next to the stage was a bar, at which people crowded, ordering daiquiris and beer, all free." A sign at the event read "Bacardi rum welcomes the author of The Old Man and the Sea".
In his article "The Old Man and the Daiquiri", Wayne Curtis writes about how Hemingway's "home bar also held a bottle of Bacardí rum". Hemingway wrote in Islands in the Stream, "...this frozen daiquirí, so well beaten as it is, looks like the sea where the wave falls away from the bow of a ship when she is doing thirty knots."
Controversies
Controversy over sponsoring Russia's war
In March 2022, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Bacardi announced that it would halt all exports to Russia and freeze investment and advertising programs. Instead of keeping this promise, the company increased its exports to Russia and tripled its profits. As of summer 2023, Bacardi went on increasing its business in Russia and looking for new employees for its Russian branch. When the broken promise of Bacardi gained international media attention, the pledge disappeared from their company website. On August 10, 2023, Ukrainian authorities added Bacardi to their list of International Sponsors of War.
See also
Lubee Bat Conservancy, an organization in Gainesville, Florida, founded by Facundo's great-grandson Luis
References
External links
Map of Distillery in Puerto Rico from Google Maps
Food and drink companies established in 1862
Food and drink companies of Bermuda
Distilleries
Privately held companies of Bermuda
Rums
1862 establishments in Cuba
Food and drink companies of Cuba |
4922 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%20and%20Tans | Black and Tans | The Black and Tans () were constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) as reinforcements during the Irish War of Independence. Recruitment began in Great Britain in January 1920 and about 10,000 men enlisted during the conflict. The vast majority were unemployed former British soldiers who had fought in the First World War. Some sources count a small number of Irishmen as 'Black and Tans'.
The British administration in Ireland promoted the idea of bolstering the RIC with British recruits. They were to help the overstretched RIC maintain control and suppress the Irish Republican Army (IRA), although they were less well trained in ordinary policing. The nickname "Black and Tans" arose from the colours of the improvised uniforms they initially wore, a mixture of dark green RIC (which appeared black) and khaki British Army. They served in all parts of Ireland, but most were sent to southern and western regions where fighting was heaviest. By 1921, Black and Tans made up almost half of the RIC in County Tipperary, for example.
The Black and Tans gained a reputation for brutality and became notorious for reprisal attacks on civilians and civilian property, including extrajudicial killings, arson and looting. Their actions further swayed Irish public opinion against British rule and drew condemnation in Britain.
The Black and Tans were sometimes confused with the Auxiliary Division, a counter-insurgency unit of the RIC, also recruited during the conflict and made up of former British officers. However, sometimes the term "Black and Tans" covers both groups. Another force, the Ulster Special Constabulary, was founded to reinforce the RIC in Northern Ireland.
Name
The nickname "Black and Tans" arose from the improvised uniforms they initially wore. Due to a shortage of RIC uniforms, the new recruits were issued with a mixture of dark RIC tunics and caps, and khaki army trousers. Christopher O'Sullivan wrote in the Limerick Echo on 25 March 1920 that, meeting a group of recruits on a train at Limerick Junction, the attire of one reminded him of the Scarteen Hunt, whose "Black and Tans" nickname derived from the colours of its Kerry Beagles. Ennis comedian Mike Nono elaborated the joke in Limerick's Theatre Royal, and the nickname soon took hold, persisting even after the men received full RIC uniforms.
Some sources say the Black and Tans were officially named the "RIC Special Reserve", but this is denied by other sources, which say they were not a separate force but "recruits to the regular RIC" and "enlisted as regular constabulary". Canadian historian D. M. Leeson has not found any historical documents that refer to the Black and Tans as the 'Royal Irish Constabulary Special Reserve'. He partly blames Wikipedia for promoting this and other misconceptions about the Black and Tans.
Foundation
The early 20th century in Ireland was dominated by Irish nationalists' pursuit of Home Rule from the United Kingdom. The issue of Home Rule was shelved with the outbreak of World War I, and in 1916 Irish republicans staged the Easter Rising against British rule in an attempt to establish an independent republic. Growing support amongst the Irish populace for the republican Sinn Féin party saw it win a majority of Irish seats in the 1918 general election. On 21 January 1919, Sinn Féin followed through on its manifesto and founded an independent Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann), which then declared an independent Irish Republic. The Dáil called on the public to boycott the RIC, while the Irish Republican Army (IRA) began attacking police barracks and ambushing police patrols. In September 1919 David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, outlawed the Dáil and augmented the British Army presence in Ireland.
After the First World War, there were many unemployed ex-servicemen in Britain. British Unionist leader Walter Long had suggested recruiting these men into the RIC in a May 1919 letter to John French, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The idea was promoted by French as well as by Frederick Shaw, Commander of the British Army in Ireland. The RIC's Inspector General, Joseph Byrne, was against it. He resisted the militarization of the police and believed ex-soldiers could not be controlled by police discipline. In December 1919, Byrne was replaced by his deputy T. J. Smith, an Orangeman. On 27 December, Smith issued an order authorizing recruitment in Britain. The advertisements appeared in major cities calling for men willing to "face a rough and dangerous task". The first British recruits joined the RIC six days later, on 2 January 1920. By June 1920 the RIC was considered to be under strength while being increasingly threatened. Many RIC members were older men who were forced into living in a state of constant vigilance. The newly appointed 'Police Adviser' to the Dublin Castle administration in Ireland Lieutenant-General Hugh Tudor called for the adding of 4,000 men to the RIC.
Recruits
About 10,000 were recruited between January 1920 and the end of the conflict. About 100 were recruited each month from January to June 1920. The recruitment rate rose from July, when the RIC was given a large pay raise. The RIC began losing men at a high rate in the summer of 1920, due to the IRA campaign. On an average week, about 100 men resigned or retired while only 76 recruits enlisted to replace them. More police were needed, but enough replacements could not be found in Ireland; on average, the RIC recruited only seven Irishmen per week. The intake of British recruits steadily rose and then surged from late September, following the widely publicized Sack of Balbriggan.
This sudden influx of men led to a shortage of RIC uniforms, and the new recruits were issued with a mixture of dark RIC tunics and caps, and khaki army trousers. These uniforms differentiated them from both the regular RIC and the British Army, and gave rise to their nickname: "Black and Tans".
The new recruits were trained at Gormanstown Camp near Dublin, most spending two or three weeks there before being sent to RIC barracks around the country. In general, the recruits were poorly trained for police duties and received much less training than the existing Irish RIC constables.
The vast majority of Black and Tans were unemployed First World War veterans in their twenties, most of whom joined for economic reasons. The RIC offered men good wages, a chance for promotion, and the prospect of a pension. According to historian David Leeson, "The typical Black and Tan was in his early twenties and relatively short in stature. He was an unmarried Protestant from London or the Home Counties who had fought in the British Army [...] He was a working-class man with few skills". The popular Irish claim made at the time that most Black and Tans had criminal records and had been recruited straight from British prisons is incorrect, as a criminal record would disqualify one from working as a policeman. While the name 'Black and Tans' generally refers to British RIC recruits, some sources count the small number of Irishmen who joined the RIC during the war as 'Black and Tans'. According to Jim Herlihy, author of The Royal Irish Constabulary – A Short History and Genealogical Guide, 10,936 Black and Tans were recruited, of whom 883 (8%) were born in Ireland. Based on RIC recruitment data stored in the British Public Record Office at Kew, William Lowe estimates that up to 20% of Black and Tans were Irish, with 55% of these giving their religion as Catholic.
The British government also founded a new Auxiliary Division of the RIC, which was also composed mostly of British recruits. While the Black and Tans were recruited into the RIC as regular constables, the Auxiliaries were an offensive "paramilitary force composed of ex British military and naval officers, dressed in distinctive uniforms and organised in military style companies...officially temporary cadets paid and ranked as RIC sergeants". At least some of the crimes attributed to the Black and Tans were actually the work of the Auxiliaries. However, sometimes the term "Black and Tans" covered both groups.
Deployment and conduct
Black and Tans served in all parts of Ireland, but most were sent to southern and western regions where the IRA was most active and fighting was heaviest. By 1921, Black and Tans made up nearly half of all RIC constables in County Tipperary, for example. Few were sent to what became Northern Ireland, however. The authorities there raised their own reserve force, the Ulster Special Constabulary. For the most part, the Black and Tans were "treated as ordinary constables, despite their strange uniforms, and they lived and worked in barracks alongside the Irish police". They spent most of their time manning police posts or on patrol—"walking, cycling, or riding on Crossley Tenders". They also undertook guard, escort and crowd control duties. While some Irish constables got along well with the Black and Tans, "it seems that many Irish police did not like their new British colleagues" and saw them as "rough".
Alexander Will, from Forfar in Scotland, was the first Black and Tan to die in the conflict. He was killed during an IRA attack on the RIC barracks in Rathmore, County Kerry, on 11 July 1920.
The Black and Tans soon gained a reputation for brutality. In the summer of 1920, Black and Tans began responding to IRA attacks by carrying out arbitrary reprisals against civilians, especially republicans. This usually involved the burning of homes, businesses, meeting halls and farms. Some buildings were also attacked with gunfire and grenades, and businesses were looted. Reprisals on property "were often accompanied by beatings and killings". Many villages suffered mass reprisals, including the Sack of Balbriggan (20 September), Kilkee (26 September), Trim (27 September), Tubbercurry (30 September) and Granard (31 October). Following the Rineen ambush (22 September) in which six RIC men were killed, police burned many houses in the surrounding villages of Milltown Malbay, Lahinch and Ennistymon, and killed five civilians. In early November, Black and Tans "besieged" Tralee in revenge for the IRA abduction and killing of two local RIC men. They closed all the businesses in the town, let no food in for a week and shot dead three local civilians. On 14 November, Black and Tans were suspected of abducting and murdering a Roman Catholic priest, Father Michael Griffin, in Galway. His body was found in a bog in Barna a week later. From October 1920 to July 1921, the Galway region was "remarkable in many ways", most notably the level of police brutality towards suspected IRA members, which was far above the norm in the rest of Ireland. The villages of Clifden and Knockcroghery suffered mass reprisals in March and June 1921.
Members of the British government, the British administration in Ireland, and senior officers in the RIC tacitly supported reprisals as a way of encouraging the police and scaring the population into rejecting the IRA. In December 1920, the government officially approved certain reprisals against property. There were an estimated 150 official reprisals over the next six months. Taken together with an increased emphasis on discipline in the RIC, this helped to curb the atrocities the Black and Tans committed for the remainder of the war, if only because reprisals were now directed from above rather than being the result of a spontaneous desire for revenge.
Many of the activities popularly attributed to the Black and Tans may have been committed by the Auxiliary Division or 'old' RIC constables. For instance, Tomás Mac Curtain, the Mayor of Cork, was killed in his home on the night of 19 March 1920, when few Black and Tans were stationed in the city. The coroner's inquest found that Mac Curtain had been murdered by unknown members of the RIC, and named District Inspector Oswald Swanzy as the responsible officer. The RIC transferred Swanzy from Cork to Lisburn, County Antrim for his own safety, but he was killed by the IRA on 22 August 1920. The Burning of Cork city on 11 December 1920 was carried out by K Company of the Auxiliary Division, in reprisal for an IRA ambush at Dillon's Cross. The shooting dead by Crown forces of 13 civilians at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday, in retaliation for the killing of British intelligence officers was carried out by a mixed force of military, Auxiliaries and RIC, though it is not clear who initiated the shooting. In the aftermath, "The army blamed the Auxiliaries and the Auxiliaries blamed the regular police". Most Republicans did not make a distinction, and "Black and Tans" was often used as a catch-all term for all police groups.
Reaction
The actions of the Black and Tans alienated public opinion in both Ireland and Great Britain. Their violent tactics encouraged the Irish public to increase their covert support of the IRA, while the British public pressed for a move towards a peaceful resolution.
In January 1921, the British Labour Commission produced a report on the situation in Ireland which was highly critical of the government's security policy. It said the government, in forming the Black and Tans, had "liberated forces which it is not at present able to dominate". Edward Wood MP, better known as the future Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax, rejected force and urged the British government to make an offer to the Irish "conceived on the most generous lines". Sir John Simon MP, another future Foreign Secretary, was also horrified at the tactics being used. Lionel Curtis, writing in the imperialist journal The Round Table, wrote: "If the British Commonwealth can only be preserved by such means, it would become a negation of the principle for which it has stood". The King, senior Anglican bishops, MPs from the Liberal and Labour parties, Oswald Mosley, Jan Smuts, the Trades Union Congress and parts of the press were increasingly critical of the actions of the Black and Tans. Mahatma Gandhi said of the British peace offer: "It is not fear of losing more lives that has compelled a reluctant offer from England but it is the shame of any further imposition of agony upon a people that loves liberty above everything else".
Disbandment
More than a third left the service before they were disbanded along with the rest of the RIC in 1922, an extremely high wastage rate, and well over half received government pensions. Over 500 members of the RIC died in the conflict and more than 600 were wounded. Some sources have stated that 525 police were killed in the conflict, including 152 Black and Tans and 44 Auxiliaries. This figure of total police killed would also include 72 members of the Ulster Special Constabulary killed between 1920 and 1922 and 12 members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police.
Many Black and Tans were left unemployed after the RIC was disbanded and about 3,000 were in need of financial assistance after their employment in Ireland was terminated. About 250 Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, among over 1,300 former RIC personnel, joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Another 700 joined the Palestine Police Force which was led by former British Chief of Police in Ireland, Henry Hugh Tudor. Others were resettled in Canada or elsewhere by the RIC Resettlement branch. Those who returned to civilian life sometimes had problems re-integrating. At least two former Black and Tans were hanged for murder in Britain and another (Scott Cullen) wanted for murder committed suicide before the police could arrest him.
Legacy
Due to the Tans' behaviour in Ireland, feelings continue to run high regarding their actions. The term can still stir bad reactions because of their remembered brutality, being perhaps "the most notorious police in the history of the British Isles". One of the best known Irish Republican songs is Dominic Behan's "Come out Ye Black and Tans". The Irish War of Independence is sometimes referred to as the "Tan War" or "Black-and-Tan War." This term was preferred by those who fought on the anti-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and is still used by Republicans today. The "Cogadh na Saoirse" ("War of Independence") medal, awarded since 1941 by the Irish government to IRA veterans of the War of Independence, bears a ribbon with two vertical stripes in black and tan.
In 2020, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan proposed a commemoration ceremony for those who had served in the Royal Irish Constabulary. This resulted in widespread criticism due to the Black and Tans being members of the RIC; many officials announced that they would not appear and refused to participate. Flanagan decided to cancel the ceremony due to the controversy.
References
External links
BBC News Northern Ireland 1917–20 The Road to Partition posted March 18, 1999
"The Black & Tans and Auxiliaries in Ireland, 1920–1921: Their Origins, Roles and Legacy", by John Ainsworth, 2001
D. M. Leeson: Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Account of the Burning of Abbeydorney, Co. Kerry
British Security Policy in Ireland, 1920–1921 Ainsworth, John S. (2001) Australian Journal of Irish Studies, 1. pp. 176–190
Black & Tans in Galway (first hand account and photos)
Sean Broderick and the Black & Tans (first hand account and photos from Galway)
Father Michael Griffin (first hand account and photos from Galway)
Irish War of Independence
Royal Irish Constabulary
Paramilitary organisations based in Ireland
Political repression in the United Kingdom
1919 establishments in Ireland
1919 establishments in the United Kingdom
1922 disestablishments in Ireland
1922 establishments in the United Kingdom |
4925 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%20whale | Blue whale | The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known ever to have existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can be of various shades of greyish-blue dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath. Four subspecies are recognized: B. m. musculus in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia in the Southern Ocean, B. m. brevicauda (the pygmy blue whale) in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, B. m. indica in the Northern Indian Ocean. There is also a population in the waters off Chile that may constitute a fifth subspecies.
In general, blue whale populations migrate between their summer feeding areas near the poles and their winter breeding grounds near the tropics. There is also evidence of year-round residencies, and partial or age/sex-based migration. Blue whales are filter feeders; their diet consists almost exclusively of krill. They are generally solitary or gather in small groups, and have no well-defined social structure other than mother-calf bonds. The fundamental frequency for blue whale vocalizations ranges from 8 to 25 Hz and the production of vocalizations may vary by region, season, behavior, and time of day. Orcas are their only natural predators.
The blue whale was once abundant in nearly all the Earth's oceans until the end of the 19th century. It was hunted almost to the point of extinction by whalers until the International Whaling Commission banned all blue whale hunting in 1966. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed blue whales as Endangered as of 2018. It continues to face numerous man-made threats such as ship strikes, pollution, ocean noise and climate change.
Taxonomy
Nomenclature
The genus name, Balaenoptera, means winged whale while the species name, musculus, could mean "muscle" or a diminutive form of "mouse", possibly a pun by Carl Linnaeus when he named the species in Systema Naturae. One of the first published descriptions of a blue whale comes from Robert Sibbald's Phalainologia Nova, after Sibbald found a stranded whale in the estuary of the Firth of Forth, Scotland, in 1692. The name "blue whale" was derived from the Norwegian "blåhval", coined by Svend Foyn shortly after he had perfected the harpoon gun. The Norwegian scientist G. O. Sars adopted it as the common name in 1874.
Blue whales were referred to as 'Sibbald's rorqual', after Robert Sibbald, who first described the species. Herman Melville called the blue whale "sulphur bottom" in his novel Moby Dick because of the accumulation of diatoms creating a yellowish appearance on their pale underside.
Evolution
Blue whales are rorquals in the family Balaenopteridae. A 2018 analysis estimates that the Balaenopteridae family diverged from other families in between 10.48 and 4.98 million years ago during the late Miocene.
The earliest discovered anatomically modern blue whale is a partial skull fossil found in southern Italy, dating to the Early Pleistocene, roughly 1.5–1.25 million years ago. The Australian pygmy blue whale diverged during the Last Glacial Maximum. Their more recent divergence has resulted in the subspecies having a relatively low genetic diversity, and New Zealand blue whales have an even lower genetic diversity.
Whole genome sequencing suggests that blue whales are most closely related to sei whales with gray whales as a sister group. This study also found significant gene flow between minke whales and the ancestors of the blue and sei whale. Blue whales also displayed high genetic diversity.
Hybridization
Blue whales are known to interbreed with fin whales. The earliest description of a possible hybrid between a blue and fin whale was a anomalous female whale with the features of both the blue and the fin whales taken in the North Pacific. A whale captured off northwestern Spain in 1984, was found to have been the product of a blue whale mother and a fin whale father.
Two live blue-fin whale hybrids have since been documented in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, (Canada), and in the Azores, (Portugal). DNA tests done in Iceland on a blue whale killed in July 2018 by the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf, found that the whale was the offspring of a male fin whale and female blue whale; however, the results are pending independent testing and verification of the samples. Because the International Whaling Commission classified blue whales as a "Protection Stock", trading their meat is illegal, and the kill is an infraction that must be reported. Blue-fin hybrids have been detected from genetic analysis of whale meat samples taken from Japanese markets. Blue-fin whale hybrids are capable of being fertile. Molecular tests on a pregnant female whale caught off Iceland in 1986 found that it had a blue whale mother and a fin whale father, while its fetus was sired by a blue whale.
There is reference to a humpback-blue whale hybrid in the South Pacific, attributed to marine biologist Michael Poole.
Subspecies and stocks
At least four subspecies of blue whale are recognized, some of which are divided into population stocks or "management units". They have a worldwide distribution, but are mostly absent from the Arctic Ocean and the Mediterranean, Okhotsk, and Bering Sea.
Northern subspecies (B. m. musculus)
North Atlantic population – This population is mainly documented from New England along eastern Canada to Greenland, particularly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, during summer though some individuals may remain there all year. They also aggregate near Iceland and have increased their presence in the Norwegian Sea. They are reported to migrate south to the West Indies, the Azores and northwest Africa.
Eastern North Pacific population – Whales in this region mostly feed off California from summer to fall and then Oregon, Washington State, the Alaska Gyre and Aleutian Islands later in the fall. During winter and spring, blue whales migrate south to the waters of Mexico, mostly the Gulf of California, and the Costa Rica Dome, where they both feed and breed.
Central/Western Pacific population – This stock is documented around the Kamchatka Peninsula during the summer; some individuals may remain there year-round. They have been recorded wintering in Hawaiian waters, though some can be found in the Gulf of Alaska during fall and early winter.
Northern Indian Ocean subspecies (B. m. indica) – This subspecies can be found year-round in the northwestern Indian Ocean, though some individuals have recorded travelling to the Crozet Islands during between summer and fall.
Pygmy blue whale (B. m. brevicauda)
Madagascar population – This population migrates between the Seychelles and Amirante Islands in the north and the Crozet Islands and Prince Edward Islands in the south were they feed, passing through the Mozambique Channel.
Australia/Indonesia population – Whales in this region appear to winter off Indonesia and migrate to their summer feeding grounds off the coast of Western Australia, with major concentrations at Perth Canyon and an area stretching from the Great Australian Bight and Bass Strait.
Eastern Australia/New Zealand population – This stock may reside in the Tasman Sea and the Lau Basin in winter and feed mostly in the South Taranaki Bight and off the coast of eastern North Island. Blue whales have been detected around New Zealand throughout the year.
Antarctic subspecies (B. m. intermedia) – This subspecies includes all populations found around the Antarctic. They have been recorded to travel as far north as eastern tropical Pacific, the central Indian Ocean, and the waters of southwestern Australia and northern New Zealand.
Blue whales off the Chilean coast may be a separate subspecies based on geographic separation, genetics, and unique song types. Chilean blue whales may overlap in the Eastern Tropical Pacific with Antarctica blue whales and Eastern North Pacific blue whales. Chilean blue whales are genetically differentiated from Antarctica blue whales and are unlikely to be interbreeding. However, the genetic distinction is less with the Eastern North Pacific blue whale and there may be gene flow between hemispheres.
Description
The blue whale is a slender-bodied cetacean with a broad U-shaped head; thin, elongated flippers; a small sickle-shaped dorsal fin located close to the tail and a large tail stock at the root of the wide and thin flukes. The upper jaw is lined with 70–395 black baleen plates. The throat region has 60–88 grooves which allows the skin to expand during feeding. It has two blowholes that can squirt up in the air. The skin has a mottled grayish-blue coloration, appearing blue underwater. The mottling patterns near the dorsal fin vary between individuals. The underbelly has lighter pigmentation and can appear yellowish due to diatoms in the water, which historically earned them the nickname "sulphur bottom". The male blue whale has the largest penis in the animal kingdom, at around long and wide.
Size
The blue whale is the largest animal known ever to have existed. Some studies have estimated that certain shastasaurid ichthyosaurs and the ancient whale Perucetus could have rivalled the blue whale in size, with Perucetus also being heavier than the blue whale with a mean weight of 180 tons; however, these estimates are based on fragmentary remains, as well as being subject to change as the latter was a very recently-described species. Likewise, other studies estimate that on land, large sauropods like Bruhathkayosaurus (mean weight: 110-170 tons) and Maraapunisaurus (mean weight: 80-120 tons) would have easily rivalled the blue whale, with the former even exceeding the blue whale based on its most liberal estimations (240 tons); however, these estimates are based on even more fragmentary specimens that had disintegrated by the time those estimates were made.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) whaling database reports 88 individuals longer than , including one of , but problems with how the measurements were taken suggest that any longer than are suspect. The Discovery Committee reported lengths up to ; however, the longest scientifically measured individual blue whale was from rostrum tip to tail notch. Female blue whales are larger than males. Hydrodynamic models suggest a blue whale could not exceed 108 ft (33 m) because of metabolic and energy constraints.
The average length of sexually mature female blue whales is for Eastern North Pacific blue whales, for central and western North Pacific blue whales, for North Atlantic blue whales, for Antarctic blue whales, for Chilean blue whales, and for pygmy blue whales.
In the Northern Hemisphere, males weigh an average and females . Eastern North Pacific blue whale males average and females . Antarctic males average and females . Pygmy blue whale males average to . The weight measured of the heart from a stranded North Atlantic blue whale was , the largest known in any animal.
The record-holder blue whale was recorded at , with estimates of up to .
Life span
Blue whales live around 80–90 years or more. Scientists look at a blue whale's earwax or ear plug to estimate its age. Each year, a light and dark layer of wax is laid corresponding with fasting during migration and feeding time. Each set is thus an indicator of age. The oldest blue whale determined using this method was 110 years old. The maximum age of a pygmy blue whale determined this way is 73 years. In addition, female blue whales develop scars or corpora albicantia on their ovaries every time they ovulate. In a female pygmy blue whale, one corpus albicans is formed on average every 2.6 years.
Behaviour and ecology
The blue whale is usually solitary, but can be found in pairs. When productivity is high enough, blue whales can be seen in gatherings of more than 50 individuals. Populations may go on long migrations, traveling to their summer feeding grounds towards the poles and then heading to their winter breeding grounds in more equatorial waters. The animals appear to use memory to locate the best feeding areas. There is evidence of alternative strategies, such as year-round residency, and partial (where only some individuals migrate) or age/sex-based migration. Some whales have been recorded feeding in breeding grounds. The traveling speed for blue whales ranges . Their massive size limits their ability to breach.
The greatest dive depth reported from tagged blue whales was . Their theoretical aerobic dive limit was estimated at 31.2 minutes, however, the longest dive measured was 15.2 minutes. The deepest confirmed dive from a pygmy blue whale was . A blue whale's heart rate can drop to 2 beats per minute (bpm) at deep depths, but upon surfacing, can rise to 37 bpm, which is close to its peak heart rate.
Diet and feeding
The blue whale's diet consists almost exclusively of krill. Blue whales capture krill through lunge feeding, they swim towards them at high speeds as they open their mouths up to 80° They may engulf of water at one time. They squeeze the water out through their baleen plates with pressure from the throat pouch and tongue, and swallow the remaining krill. Blue whales have been recorded making 180° rolls during lunge-feeding, possibly allowing them to search the prey field and find the densest patches.
While pursuing krill patches, blue whales maximize their calorie intake by increasing the number of lunges while selecting the thickest patches. This provides them enough energy for everyday activities while storing additional energy necessary for migration and reproduction. Blue whales have to engulf densities greater than 100 krill/m3 to maintain the cost of lunge feeding. They can consume from one mouthful of krill, which can provide up to 240 times more energy than used in a single lunge. It is estimated that an average-sized blue whale must consume of krill a day.
Blue whales appear to avoid directly competing with other baleen whales. Different whale species select different feeding spaces and times as well as different prey species. In the Southern Ocean, baleen whales appear to feed on Antarctic krill of different sizes, which may lessen competition between them.
Reproduction and birth
Blue whales generally reach sexual maturity at 8–10 years. In the Northern Hemisphere, the length at which they reach maturity is for females and for males. In the Southern Hemisphere, the length of maturity is and for females and males respectively. Male pygmy blue whales average at sexual maturity. Female pygmy blue whales are in length and roughly 10 years old at the age of sexual maturity. Little is known about mating behavior, or breeding and birthing areas. Blue whales appear to be polygynous, with males competing for females. A male blue whale typically trails a female and will fight off potential rivals. The species mates from fall to winter.
Pregnant females eat roughly four percent of their body weight daily, amounting to 60% of their overall body weight throughout summer foraging periods. Gestation may last 10–12 months with calves being long and weighing at birth. Estimates suggest that because calves require milk per kg of mass gain, blue whales likely produce of milk per day (ranging from of milk per day). The first video of a calf thought to be nursing was filmed in New Zealand in 2016. Calves may be weaned when they reach 6–8 months old at a length of . They gain roughly during the weaning period. Interbirth periods last two to three years, they average 2.6 years in pygmy blue whales.
Vocalizations
Blue whales produce some of the loudest and lowest frequency vocalizations in the animal kingdom, and their inner ears appear well adapted for detecting low-frequency sounds. The fundamental frequency for blue whale vocalizations ranges from 8 to 25 Hz. Blue whale songs vary between populations.
Vocalizations produced by the Eastern North Pacific population have been well studied. This population produces pulsed calls ("A") and tonal calls ("B"), upswept tones that precede type B calls ("C") and separate downswept tones ("D"). A and B calls are often produced in repeated co-occurring sequences and sung only by males, suggesting a reproductive function. D calls may have multiple functions. They are produced by both sexes during social interactions while feeding. and by males when competing for mates.
Blue whale calls recorded off Sri Lanka have a three‐unit phrase. The first unit is a 19.8 to 43.5 Hz pulsive call, and is normally 17.9 ± 5.2 seconds long. The second unit is a 55.9 to 72.4 Hz FM upsweep that is 13.8 ± 1.1 seconds long. The final unit is 28.5 ± 1.6 seconds long with a tone of 108 to 104.7 Hz. A blue whale call recorded off Madagascar, a two‐unit phrase, consists of 5–7 pulses with a center frequency of 35.1 ± 0.7 Hz lasting 4.4 ± 0.5 seconds proceeding a 35 ± 0 Hz tone that is 10.9 ± 1.1 seconds long. In the Southern Ocean, blue whales produce 18-second vocals which start with a 9-second-long, 27 Hz tone, and then a 1-second downsweep to 19 Hz, followed by a downsweep further to 18 Hz. Other vocalizations include 1–4 second long, frequency-modulated calls with a frequency of 80 and 38 Hz.
There is evidence that some blue whale songs have temporally declined in tonal frequency. The vocalization of blue whales in the Eastern North Pacific decreased in tonal frequency by 31% from the early 1960s to the early 21st century. The frequency of pygmy blue whales in the Antarctic has decreased by a few tenths of a hertz every year starting in 2002. It is possible that as blue whale populations recover from whaling, there is increasing sexual selection pressure (i.e., a lower frequency indicates a larger body size).
Predators and parasites
The only known natural predator to blue whales is the orca, although the rate of fatal attacks by orcas is unknown. Photograph-identification studies of blue whales have estimated that a high proportion of the individuals in the Gulf of California have rake-like scars, indicative of encounters with orcas. Off southeastern Australia, 3.7% of blue whales photographed had rake marks and 42.1% of photographed pygmy blue whales off Western Australia had rake marks. Documented predation by orcas has been rare. A blue whale mother and calf were first observed being chased at high speeds by orcas off southeastern Australia. The first documented attack occurred in 1977 off southwestern Baja California, Mexico, but the injured whale escaped after five hours. Four more blue whales were documented as being chased by a group of orcas between 1982 and 2003. The first documented predation event by orcas occurred in September 2003, when a group of orcas in the Eastern Tropical Pacific was encountered feeding on a recently killed blue whale calf. In March 2014, a commercial whale watch boat operator recorded an incident involving a group of orcas harassing a blue whale in Monterey Bay. The blue whale defended itself by slapping its tail. A similar incident was recorded by a drone in Monterey Bay in May 2017. The first direct observations of orca predation occurred off the south coast of Western Australia, two in 2019 and one more in 2021. The first victim was estimated to be .
In Antarctic waters, blue whales accumulate diatoms of the species Cocconeis ceticola and the genera Navicola, which are normally removed when the whales enter warmer waters. Other external parasites include barnacles such as Coronula diadema, Coronula reginae and Cryptolepas rhachianecti, which latch on their skin deep enough to leave behind a pit if removed. Whale lice species make their home in cracks of the skin and are relatively harmless. The copepod species Pennella balaenopterae digs in and attaches itself to the blubber to feed on. Intestinal parasites include the trematode genera Ogmogaster and Lecithodesmus, the tapeworm genera Priapocephalus, Phyllobotrium, Tetrabothrius, Diphyllobotrium and Diplogonoporus and the thorny-headed worm genus Bolbosoma. In the North Atlantic, blue whales also contain the protozoans Entamoeba, Giardia and Balantidium.
Conservation
The global blue whale population is estimated to be 5,000–15,000 mature individuals and 10,000–25,000 total as of 2018. By comparison, there were at least 140,000 mature whales in 1926. There are an estimated total of 1,000–3,000 whales in the North Atlantic, 3,000–5,000 in the North Pacific and 5,000–8,000 in the Antarctic. There are possibly 1,000–3,000 whales in the eastern South Pacific while the pygmy blue whale may number 2,000–5,000 individuals. Blue whales have been protected in areas of the Southern Hemisphere since 1939. In 1955 they were given complete protection in the North Atlantic under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling; this protection was extended to the Antarctic in 1965 and the North Pacific in 1966. The protected status of North Atlantic blue whales was not recognized by Iceland until 1960. In the US, the species is protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Blue whales are formally classified as endangered under both the US Endangered Species Act and the IUCN Red List. They are also listed on Appendix I under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Although for some populations there is not enough information on current abundance trends (e.g., pygmy blue whales), others are critically endangered (e.g., Antarctic blue whales).
Threats
Blue whales were initially difficult to hunt because of their size and speed. This began to change in the mid-19th century with the development of harpoons that can be shot as projectiles. Blue whale whaling peaked between 1930 and 1931 with 30,000 animals taken. Harvesting of the species was particularly high in the Antarctic, with 350,000–360,000 whales taken in the first half of the 20th century. In addition, 11,000 North Atlantic whales (mostly around Iceland) and 9,500 North Pacific whales were killed during the same period. The International Whaling Commission banned all hunting of blue whales in 1966 and gave them worldwide protection. However, the Soviet Union continued to illegally hunt blue whales and other species through to the 1970s.
Ship strikes are a significant mortality factor for blue whales, especially off the U.S. West Coast, A total of 17 blue whales were killed or suspected to have been killed by ships between 1998 and 2019 off the US West Coast. Five deaths in 2007 off California were considered an unusual mortality event, as defined under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Lethal ship strikes are also a problem in Sri Lankan waters, where their habitat intersects with one of the world's most active shipping routes. Here, strikes caused the deaths of eleven blue whales in 2010 and 2012, and at least two in 2014. Ship strike mortality claimed the lives of two blue whales off southern Chile in the 2010s. Possible measures for reducing future ship strikes include better predictive models of whale distribution, changes in shipping lanes, vessel speed reductions, and seasonal and dynamic management of shipping lanes. Few cases of blue whale entanglement in commercial fishing gear have been documented. The first report in the U.S. occurred off California in 2015, reportedly some type of deep-water trap/pot fishery. Three more entanglement cases were reported in 2016. In Sri Lanka, a blue whale was documented with a net wrapped through its mouth, along the sides of its body, and wound around its tail.
Increasing man-made underwater noise impacts blue whales. They may be exposed to noise from commercial shipping and seismic surveys as a part of oil and gas exploration. Blue whales in the Southern California Bight decreased calling in the presence of mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar. Exposure to simulated MFA sonar was found to interrupt blue whale deep-dive feeding but no changes in behavior were observed in individuals feeding at shallower depths. The responses also depended on the animal's behavioral state, its (horizontal) distance from the sound source and the availability of prey.
The potential impacts of pollutants on blue whales is unknown. However, because blue whales feed low on the food chain, there is a lesser chance for bioaccumulation of organic chemical contaminants. Analysis of the earwax of a male blue whale killed by a collision with a ship off the coast of California showed contaminants like pesticides, flame retardants, and mercury. Reconstructed persistent organic pollutant (POP) profiles suggested that a substantial maternal transfer occurred during gestation and/or lactation. Male blue whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada were found to have higher concentrations of PCBs, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), metabolites, and several other organochlorine compounds relative to females, reflecting maternal transfer of these persistent contaminants from females into young.
See also
Largest organisms
List of cetaceans
List of largest mammals
List of whale vocalizations
Note
References
Further reading
NOAA Fisheries, Office of Protected Resources Blue whale biology & status
External links
Blue whale vocalizations – Cornell Lab of Ornithology—Bioacoustics Research Program (archived 26 February 2015)
Blue whale video clips and news from the BBC – BBC Wildlife Finder
Voices in the Sea – Sounds of the Blue Whale
NOAA Stock Assessments
Life of a Hunter: Blue Whale – BBC America
Living With Predators – BBC America
Blue whales
Mammals described in 1758
Conservation-reliant species
Cosmopolitan mammals
Biological records
ESA endangered species
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus |
4927 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolsheviks | Bolsheviks | The Bolsheviks (, ; from большинство, , 'majority'), led by Vladimir Lenin, were a far-left faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the Second Party Congress in 1903. The Bolshevik party seized power in Russia in the October Revolution of 1917, and was later renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Their ideology and practices, based on Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist principles, are known as Bolshevism.
The origin of the split was Lenin's support for a smaller party of professional revolutionaries, as opposed to the Menshevik desire for a broad party membership. The influence of the two factions fluctuated in the years up to 1912, when the RSDLP formally split into Bolshevik and Menshevik parties. The Bolsheviks' political philosophy was based on the Leninist principles of vanguardism and democratic centralism. After the February Revolution of 1917 which overthrew the tsar, Lenin returned to Russia and issued his April Theses, which called for "no support for the Provisional Government" and "all power to the soviets". In the summer of 1917, especially after the July Days and Kornilov affair, large numbers of radicalized workers joined the Bolsheviks, which planned the October Revolution which overthrew the government. The party initially governed in coalition with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, but increasingly centralized power and suppressed opposition during the Russian Civil War, and after 1921 became the sole legal party in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union. Under Joseph Stalin's leadership, the party became linked to his policies of "socialism in one country", rapid industrialization, collectivized agriculture, and centralized state control.
History of the split
Vladimir Lenin's ideology in What Is to Be Done?
Lenin's political pamphlet What Is to Be Done?, written in 1901, helped to precipitate the Bolsheviks' split from the Mensheviks. In Germany, the book was published in 1902, but in Russia, strict censorship outlawed its publication and distribution. One of the main points of Lenin's writing was that a revolution can only be achieved by a strong, professional leadership with deep dedication to Marxist theoretical principles and an organization that spanned through the whole of Russia, abandoning what Lenin called "artisanal work" towards a more organized revolutionary work. After the proposed revolution had successfully overthrown the Russian autocracy, this strong leadership would relinquish power and allow a Socialist party to fully develop within the principles of democratic centralism. Lenin said that if professional revolutionaries did not maintain influence over the fight of the workers, then that fight would steer away from the party's objective and carry on under the influence of opposing beliefs or even away from revolution entirely.
The pamphlet also showed that Lenin's view of a socialist intelligentsia was in line with Marxist theory. For example, Lenin agreed with the Marxist ideal of social classes ceasing to be and for the eventual "withering away of the state". Most party members considered unequal treatment of workers immoral and were loyal to the idea of a completely classless society. This pamphlet also showed that Lenin opposed another group of reformers, known as "Economists", who were for economic reform while leaving the government relatively unchanged and who, in Lenin's view, failed to recognize the importance of uniting the working population behind the party's cause.
Second Party Congress
At the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, which was held in Brussels and then London during August 1903, Lenin and Julius Martov disagreed over the party membership rules. Lenin, who was supported by Georgy Plekhanov, wanted to limit membership to those who supported the party full-time and worked in complete obedience to the elected party leadership. Martov wanted to extend membership to anyone "who recognises the Party Programme and supports it by material means and by regular personal assistance under the direction of one of the party’s organisations." Lenin believed his plan would develop a core group of professional revolutionaries who would devote their full time and energy towards developing the party into an organization capable of leading a successful proletarian revolution against the Tsarist autocracy.
The base of active and experienced members would be the recruiting ground for this professional core. Sympathizers would be left outside and the party would be organised based on the concept of democratic centralism. Martov, until then a close friend of Lenin, agreed with him that the core of the party should consist of professional revolutionaries, but he argued that party membership should be open to sympathizers, revolutionary workers, and other fellow travellers. The two had disagreed on the issue as early as March–May 1903, but it was not until the Congress that their differences became irreconcilable and split the party. At first, the disagreement appeared to be minor and inspired by personal conflicts. For example, Lenin's insistence on dropping less active editorial board members from Iskra or Martov's support for the Organizing Committee of the Congress which Lenin opposed. The differences grew and the split became irreparable.
Internal unrest also arose over the political structure that was best suited for Soviet power. As discussed in What Is To Be Done?, Lenin firmly believed that a rigid political structure was needed to effectively initiate a formal revolution. This idea was met with opposition from once close allies, including Martov, Plekhanov, Vera Zasulich, Leon Trotsky, and Pavel Axelrod. Plekhanov and Lenin's major dispute arose addressing the topic of nationalizing land or leaving it for private use. Lenin wanted to nationalize to aid in collectivization, whereas Plekhanov thought worker motivation would remain higher if individuals were able to maintain their own property. Those who opposed Lenin and wanted to continue on the socialist mode of production path towards complete socialism and disagreed with his strict party membership guidelines became known as "softs" while Lenin supporters became known as "hards."
Some of the factionalism could be attributed to Lenin's steadfast belief in his own opinion and what was described by Plekhanov as Lenin's inability to "bear opinions which were contrary to his own" and loyalty to his own self-envisioned utopia. Lenin was seen even by fellow party members as being so narrow-minded and unable to accept criticism that he believed that anyone who did not follow him was his enemy. Trotsky, one of Lenin's fellow revolutionaries, compared Lenin in 1904 to the French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre.
Etymology of Bolshevik and Menshevik
The two factions of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) were originally known as hard (Lenin supporters) and soft (Martov supporters). In the 2nd Congress vote, Lenin's faction won votes on the majority of important issues, and soon came to be known as Bolsheviks, from the Russian bolshinstvo, 'majority'. Likewise, Martov's group came to be known as Mensheviks, from menshinstvo, 'minority'. However, Martov's supporters won the vote concerning the question of party membership, and neither Lenin nor Martov had a firm majority throughout the Congress as delegates left or switched sides. In the end, the Congress was evenly split between the two factions.
From 1907 onward, English-language articles sometimes used the term Maximalist for "Bolshevik" and Minimalist for "Menshevik," which proved to be confusing as there was also a "Maximalist" faction within the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1904–1906 (which, after 1906, formed a separate Union of Socialists-Revolutionaries Maximalists) and then again after 1917.
The Bolsheviks ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks, or Reds, came to power in Russia during the October Revolution phase of the 1917 Russian Revolution, and founded the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). With the Reds defeating the Whites and others during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, the RSFSR became the chief constituent of the Soviet Union (USSR) in December 1922.
Demographics of the two factions
The average party member was very young: in 1907, 22% of Bolsheviks were under 20 years of age; 37% were 20–24 years of age; and 16% were 25–29 years of age. By 1905, 62% of the members were industrial workers (3% of the population in 1897). Twenty-two percent of Bolsheviks were gentry (1.7% of the total population) and 38% were uprooted peasants; compared with 19% and 26% for the Mensheviks. In 1907, 78.3% of the Bolsheviks were Russian and 10% were Jewish; compared to 34% and 20% for the Mensheviks. Total Bolshevik membership was 8,400 in 1905, 13,000 in 1906, and 46,100 by 1907; compared to 8,400, 18,000 and 38,200 for the Mensheviks. By 1910, both factions together had fewer than 100,000 members.
Beginning of the 1905 Revolution (1903–05)
Between 1903 and 1904, the two factions were in a state of flux, with many members changing sides. Plekhanov, the founder of Russian Marxism, who at first allied himself with Lenin and the Bolsheviks, had parted ways with them by 1904. Trotsky at first supported the Mensheviks, but left them in September 1904 over their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to a reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. He remained a self-described "non-factional social democrat" until August 1917, when he joined Lenin and the Bolsheviks, as their positions resembled his and he came to believe that Lenin was correct on the issue of the party.
All but one member of the RSDLP Central Committee were arrested in Moscow in early 1905. The remaining member, with the power of appointing a new committee, was won over by the Bolsheviks. The lines between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks hardened in April 1905 when the Bolsheviks held a Bolsheviks-only meeting in London, which they called the 3rd Party Congress. The Mensheviks organised a rival conference and the split was thus finalized.
The Bolsheviks played a relatively minor role in the 1905 Revolution and were a minority in the Saint Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies led by Trotsky. However, the less significant Moscow Soviet was dominated by the Bolsheviks. These Soviets became the model for those formed in 1917.
Mensheviks (1906–07)
As the Russian Revolution of 1905 progressed, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and smaller non-Russian social democratic parties operating within the Russian Empire attempted to reunify at the 4th Congress of the RSDLP held in April 1906 at Folkets hus, Norra Bantorget, in Stockholm. When the Mensheviks made an alliance with the Jewish Bund, the Bolsheviks found themselves in a minority.
However, all factions retained their respective factional structure and the Bolsheviks formed the Bolshevik Centre, the de facto governing body of the Bolshevik faction within the RSDLP. At the 5th Congress held in London in May 1907, the Bolsheviks were in the majority, but the two factions continued functioning mostly independently of each other.
Split between Lenin and Bogdanov (1908–10)
Tensions had existed between Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov from as early as 1904. Lenin had fallen out with Nikolai Valentinov after Valentinov had introduced him to Ernst Mach's Empiriocriticism, a viewpoint that Bogdanov had been exploring and developing as Empiriomonism. Having worked as co-editor with Plekhanov, on Zarya, Lenin had come to agree with the Valentinov's rejection of Bogdanov's Empiriomonism.
With the defeat of the revolution in mid-1907 and the adoption of a new, highly restrictive election law, the Bolsheviks began debating whether to boycott the new parliament known as the Third Duma. Lenin, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, and others argued for participating in the Duma while Bogdanov, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky, and others argued that the social democratic faction in the Duma should be recalled. The latter became known as "recallists" (Russian: otzovists). A smaller group within the Bolshevik faction demanded that the RSDLP Central Committee should give its sometimes unruly Duma faction an ultimatum, demanding complete subordination to all party decisions. This group became known as "ultimatists" and was generally allied with the recallists.
With most Bolshevik leaders either supporting Bogdanov or undecided by mid-1908 when the differences became irreconcilable, Lenin concentrated on undermining Bogdanov's reputation as a philosopher. In 1909, he published a scathing book of criticism entitled Materialism and Empirio-criticism (1909), assaulting Bogdanov's position and accusing him of philosophical idealism. In June 1909, Bogdanov proposed the formation of Party Schools as Proletarian Universities at a Bolshevik mini-conference in Paris organised by the editorial board of the Bolshevik magazine Proletary. However, this proposal was not adopted and Lenin tried to expel Bogdanov from the Bolshevik faction. Bogdanov was then involved with setting up Vpered, which ran the Capri Party School from August to December 1909.
Final attempt at party unity (1910)
With both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks weakened by splits within their ranks and by Tsarist repression, the two factions were tempted to try to reunite the party. In January 1910, Leninists, recallists, and various Menshevik factions held a meeting of the party's Central Committee in Paris. Kamenev and Zinoviev were dubious about the idea; but under pressure from conciliatory Bolsheviks like Victor Nogin, they were willing to give it a try.
One of the underlying reasons that prevented any reunification of the party was the Russian police. The police were able to infiltrate both parties' inner circles by sending in spies who then reported on the opposing party's intentions and hostilities. This allowed the tensions to remain high between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks and helped prevent their uniting.
Lenin was firmly opposed to any reunification but was outvoted within the Bolshevik leadership. The meeting reached a tentative agreement, and one of its provisions was to make Trotsky's Vienna-based Pravda, a party-financed central organ. Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law who was with the Bolsheviks, was added to the editorial board; but the unification attempts failed in August 1910 when Kamenev resigned from the board amid mutual recriminations.
Forming a separate party (1912)
The factions permanently broke relations in January 1912 after the Bolsheviks organised a Bolsheviks-only Prague Party Conference and formally expelled Mensheviks and recallists from the party. As a result, they ceased to be a faction in the RSDLP and instead declared themselves an independent party, called Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) – or RSDLP(b). Unofficially, the party has been referred to as the Bolshevik Party. Throughout the 20th century, the party adopted a number of different names. In 1918, RSDLP(b) became All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and remained so until 1925. From 1925 to 1952, the name was All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and from 1952 to 1991, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
As the party split became permanent, further divisions became evident. One of the most notable differences was how each faction decided to fund its revolution. The Mensheviks decided to fund their revolution through membership dues while Lenin often resorted to more drastic measures since he required a higher budget. One of the common methods the Bolsheviks used was committing bank robberies, one of which, in 1907, resulted in the party getting over 250,000 roubles, which is the equivalent of about $125,000. Bolsheviks were in constant need of money because Lenin practised his beliefs, expressed in his writings, that revolutions must be led by individuals who devote their entire lives to the cause. As compensation, he rewarded them with salaries for their sacrifice and dedication. This measure was taken to help ensure that the revolutionaries stayed focused on their duties and motivated them to perform their jobs. Lenin also used the party money to print and copy pamphlets which were distributed in cities and at political rallies in an attempt to expand their operations. Both factions received funds through donations from wealthy supporters.
Further differences in party agendas became evident as the beginning of World War I loomed near. Joseph Stalin was especially eager for the start of the war, hoping that it would turn into a war between classes or essentially a Russian Civil War. This desire for war was fuelled by Lenin's vision that the workers and peasants would resist joining the war effort and therefore be more compelled to join the socialist movement. Through the increase in support, Russia would then be forced to withdraw from the Allied powers in order to resolve her internal conflict. Unfortunately for the Bolsheviks, Lenin's assumptions were incorrect. Despite his and the party's attempts to push for a civil war through involvement in two conferences in 1915 and 1916 in Switzerland, the Bolsheviks were in the minority in calling for a ceasefire by the Imperial Russian Army in World War I.
Although the Bolshevik leadership had decided to form a separate party, convincing pro-Bolshevik workers within Russia to follow suit proved difficult. When the first meeting of the Fourth Duma was convened in late 1912, only one out of six Bolshevik deputies, Matvei Muranov (another one, Roman Malinovsky, was later exposed as an Okhrana agent), voted on 15 December 1912 to break from the Menshevik faction within the Duma. The Bolshevik leadership eventually prevailed, and the Bolsheviks formed their own Duma faction in September 1913.
One final difference between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks was how ferocious and tenacious the Bolshevik party was in order to achieve its goals, although Lenin was open minded to retreating from political ideals if he saw the guarantee of long-term gains benefiting the party. This practice was seen in the party's trying to recruit peasants and uneducated workers by promising them how glorious life would be after the revolution and granting them temporary concessions.
In 1918, the party renamed itself the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) at Lenin's suggestion. In 1925, this was changed to All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). At the 19th Party Congress in 1952 the Party was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at Stalin's suggestion.
Non-Russian/Soviet political groups having used the name "Bolshevik"
Bangladesh: Maoist Bolshevik Reorganisation Movement of the Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party
Burkina Faso: Burkinabé Bolshevik Party
India: Bolshevik Party of India
India/Sri Lanka: Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma
India: Revolutionary Socialist Party (Bolshevik)
Mexico: Bolshevik Communist Party
Senegal: Bolshevik Nuclei
South Africa: Bolsheviks Party of South Africa
Sri Lanka: Bolshevik Samasamaja Party
Turkey: Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan – Turkey)
Derogatory usage of "Bolshevik"
Bolo was a derogatory expression for Bolsheviks used by British service personnel in the North Russian Expeditionary Force which intervened against the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and other Nazi leaders used it in reference to the worldwide political movement coordinated by the Comintern.
During the Cold War in the United Kingdom, trade union leaders and other leftists were sometimes derisively described as Bolshies. The usage is roughly equivalent to the term "commie," "Red," or "pinko" in the United States during the same period. The term Bolshie later became a slang term for anyone who was rebellious, aggressive, or truculent.
See also
Bolshevism
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks
Leninism
Marxism–Leninism
Old Bolshevik
Rabochaya Molva
Soviet Revolutionary Communists (Bolsheviks)
Trotskyism
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
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by Bertrand Russell, November 1920.
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Defunct communist parties in Russia
Political parties established in 1903
Political parties of the Russian Revolution
Political party factions in Russia |
4930 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney%20Bubbles | Barney Bubbles | Barney Bubbles (born Colin Fulcher; 30 July 1942 – 14 November 1983) was an English graphic artist whose work encompassed graphic design and music video direction. Bubbles, who also sketched and painted privately, is best known for his distinctive contribution to the design practices associated with the British independent music scene of the 1970s and 1980s. His record sleeves, laden with symbols and riddles, were his most recognisable output.
Early life
Fulcher was born in Tranmere Road, Whitton, Middlesex (now Greater London), in July 1942. He attended Isleworth Grammar School. In 1958 he embarked on a retail display course for a National Diploma in Design (NDD) at the art school of Twickenham College of Technology. During his five years at the college Fulcher received a multi-disciplinary education that included training in cardboard design, display and packaging, skills that would be utilised later in his record sleeve work.
Career
Michael Tucker + Associates
After leaving college in 1963 Fulcher worked as an assistant at the design company Michael Tucker + Associates in London. Its clients included Pirelli. In a rare interview in November 1981 in The Face, Bubbles described Tucker's discipline as "very Swiss; very hard; unjustified, very grey; and he taught me everything about typography." Tucker's studio produced the posters for Hugh Hudson's Pirelli-sponsored film The Tortoise & The Hare (1967), for which Fulcher designed the poster lettering on a freelance basis.
The Conran Group
In May 1965, Fulcher was recruited by The Conran Group as senior graphic designer alongside Stafford Cliff, Virginia Clive-Smith and John Muggeridge. He produced a variety of commercial commissions for Conran, including the Norman-style archer logo for Strongbow cider and items for Conran's new homewares chain Habitat. Fulcher also established an association with Justin de Blank, a director at Conran, which blossomed when de Blank left to launch his own upmarket provisions company and restaurant business in 1968.
A1 Good Guyz and other early activities
Between 1965 and 1966 Fulcher organised happenings, parties and other events under the name A1 Good Guyz with two graduates of Twickenham Art College, David Wills and Roy Burge.
In 1967 Fulcher became known as Barney Bubbles, though he did not change his name by deed poll for several more years. The name came about when Fulcher was operating a light show that created a bubble effect by mixing oils and water on projection slides. These lightshows were for groups including the Gun and Quintessence at underground venues including the Roundhouse, Jim Haynes's Drury Lane Arts Lab, the Electric Cinema and Middle Earth.
With Wills, Bubbles undertook freelance design commissions, including a redesign of Motor Racing magazine and a recipe book for the English Egg Marketing Board. With a team of contributors Bubbles and Wills art-directed Oz magazine issue 12, dubbed The Tax Dodge Special and published in May 1968.
Teenburger Designs
Early in 1969, Bubbles took the lease on a three-storey building at 307 Portobello Road in Notting Hill Gate, West London. He converted the ground-floor space into a graphic art studio, which he named Teenburger Designs. With a business association established with two entrepreneurs, Edward Molton and Stephen Warwick, and with John Muggeridge from Conran serving briefly as an assistant, he set about working primarily for the music industry. His first record sleeve design was for Quintessence's LP In Blissful Company (1969). The gatefold sleeve design uses illustrations by Gopala on the front and back, and contains a monochrome glued-in booklet inside.
Teenburger also provided record sleeve designs for the bands Brinsley Schwarz and Red Dirt, as well as Vertigo artists such as Cressida, Gracious! and Dr Z, whose LP Three Parts to My Soul is particularly noted for its complex and colourful fold-out sleeve.
Following the closure of Teenburger in 1970 as a result of the disappearance of Molton and Warwick, Bubbles worked as the designer of the underground newspaper Friends (later renamed Frendz).
Bubble's son, Aten Skinner, was born in 1972.
Hawkwind (and other 1970s rock)
While he was working at Friends, Bubbles formed an association with Hawkwind and became responsible for a run of their album sleeves, including In Search of Space, Doremi Fasol Latido and Space Ritual. Bubbles engaged in many aspects of the group's visual identity, titling releases and designing posters, adverts, stage decoration and performance plans, some of which were adorned with mystical and mock-Teutonic insignia. In 1972 Bubbles produced the triple LP package Glastonbury Fayre. This comprised a six-panel fold-out card sleeve, two poster inserts, a booklet and a cut-out and build miniature pyramid, housed in a clear vinyl bag (with two sleeve variations and three label variations).
From 1973 onwards, Bubbles increasingly avoided credits for his artwork, typically working anonymously or occasionally adopting alternative pseudonyms. During this period he designed album sleeves and additional material for such acts as the Sutherland Brothers, Kevin Coyne, Edgar Broughton Band, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, Quiver, the Kursaal Flyers and Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix.
In 1976 his design relationship with Hawkwind came to an end. It was rekindled once, in 1978, for the Hawklords spin-off, but otherwise continued only with design commissions for projects involving the band's saxophonist Nik Turner.
Stiff, Radar and F Beat (and other punk and new wave)
Barney Bubbles joined Stiff Records as designer and art director early in 1977. With the label's co-founder Jake Riviera he generated a body of creative work that helped to secure Stiff's reputation as an exciting new independent label. Bubbles created sleeves for bands including the Damned, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury and Wreckless Eric. Often these were accompanied by quirky logos such as the face logo for Blockhead, advertisements and promotional items. The marketing of Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True included advertisements in three UK music papers from which a poster of Costello could be constructed, and the first 1,000 pressings contained an insert headed Help Us Hype Elvis, which, if completed and returned to Stiff, ensured that a friend would receive a free copy.
When Riviera left Stiff in late 1977, Bubbles joined him at his new label Radar Records and later at Riviera's F-Beat Records. At these labels, Bubbles created more designs for Elvis Costello, as well as other artists such as Nick Lowe, Carlene Carter and Clive Langer & The Boxes.
Bubbles also maintained his freelance output, producing designs for Peter Jenner (Ian Dury and Billy Bragg's manager), and others. He created a prodigious output by working for such bands, musicians and performers as Peter Hammill, Vivian Stanshall, Generation X, Big Star, Johnny Moped, Whirlwind, Billy Bragg, Clover, the Sinceros, Roger Chapman, Phillip Goodhand-Tait, Dr. Feelgood, Inner City Unit and the Psychedelic Furs. As a result, his work appeared on releases by labels such as Aura, Chiswick, Utility, Go! Discs, Epic, Charisma, CBS, Line Records, United Artists and Riddle Records. His signature style emerged as one that was colourful, playful, loaded with geometry, art-history and music-history references, jokes, cryptograms and symbols. The overriding appetite was for going against the grain of accepted design standards. His work is simultaneously complex in meaning and simple in its delivery. Examples include:
Elvis Costello: This Year's Model, which was designed to have a deliberate miscropping so that the entire design was off-register and a sticker that read 'Free Album With This Single';
The Damned: Damned Damned Damned, a limited number of which were deliberately printed with a photo of Eddie and the Hot Rods on the back of the cover, rather than the Damned playing at the Roxy Club, and with an erratum sticker apologising for this "mistake", and on the front of the LP, on top of the original shrinkwrap, a red food-fight sticker saying 'Damned Damned', thus completing the LP's title when read underneath the band's name;
Elvis Costello: Armed Forces, with an extended back panel consisting of folding flaps, postcards carrying the instruction DON'T JOIN (advice against joining the armed forces), and a message that these postcards had been die-cut from the rest of the sleeve;
Nick Lowe: Labour of Lust, with its innovative "Hamer & sickle" logo, fashioning Lowe's Hamer-brand bass guitar into a playful version of the actual Hammer and sickle, the symbol of proletarian solidarity first adopted during the Russian Revolution (Bubbles's original mockup is shown on the gatefold sleeve of the 2011 Yep Roc reissue of the album);
Ian Dury and the Blockheads: Do It Yourself, which was released in at least 30 known sleeve variations, all of which were old designs supplied by Crown Wallpaper.
Music promo videos
Barney Bubbles directed several videos, including the Specials' "Ghost Town", Squeeze's "Is That Love" and "Tempted", Elvis Costello's "Clubland" and "New Lace Sleeves", and Fun Boy Three's "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)". Two promos for the punk act Johnny Moped, "Incendiary Device" and "Darling Let's Have Another Baby", were never commercially released to broadcasters.
"A good video can sell a record which might not do so well," Bubbles told Smash Hits magazine in 1982. "The record companies know that. I think Chrysalis would agree that The Specials' 'Ghost Town' video helped sales a good deal. This year I intend to make videos which are really inexpensive but really inventive. It can be done, you know."
NME
In 1979, riding on the reputation of his work for Stiff, Bubbles was engaged by the UK music newspaper New Musical Express to spearhead an overhaul of its decades-old brand. Bubbles' redesign incorporated elements of Pop art and 1920s Soviet poster art into a "sleek, forward-looking" graphic format. His restyling included a fresh logo with "clean, stencilled, military-style lettering", which heralded the title's change from New Musical Express to NME.
Other work
In 1979 Derek Boshier curated an exhibition entitled Lives at the Hayward Gallery, London, and he commissioned Bubbles to design the catalogue and poster. Together with the photographer Chris Gabrin, Bubbles also exhibited a video and mixed-media installation in the exhibition.
In the early 1980s Bubbles created furniture designs, some of which were featured in The Face, November 1981.
In 1982 Bubbles conceived the album Ersatz, working primarily with Nik Turner and other musicians from Inner City Unit. The LP was released under the name of The Imperial Pompadours.
Bubbles painted privately, increasingly in the early 1980s.
Death
Fulcher, who suffered from manic depression, committed suicide in London on 14 November 1983 by gassing himself, trapping the fumes in a plastic bag he placed over his head, at the age of 41. He had considerable personal and financial worries, and had fallen out of fashion in the early 1980s. His designs for record sleeves were being rejected by musicians and record companies, and he was being investigated by the Inland Revenue for unpaid taxes dating back several years. He was also displaying increasingly erratic behaviour, alarming close friends by lacerating his face with razor blades and making threats to kill himself.
Monograph/biography
Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life & Work of Barney Bubbles, a hybrid monograph/biography by Paul Gorman containing 400-plus images of artworks by Bubbles and contributions from British designers Peter Saville and Malcolm Garrett along with Billy Bragg was published in November 2008 by independent British imprint Adelita. The book was welcomed as a long-overdue recognition of Bubbles' achievements and selected by British music magazine Mojo as its Book Of The Year.
A revised and updated second edition of Reasons To Be Cheerful, with an additional contribution by US graphic artist Art Chantry, was published by Adelita in October 2010.
The third edition of the monograph, retitled The Wild World of Barney Bubbles: Graphic Design and the Art of Music, with a new cover and updated sections including previously unpublished designs and an essay by American graphic designer Clarita Hinojosa, was published by Thames & Hudson in June 2022 in the UK and in July 2022 in the US.
A companion limited edition box-set, A Box of Bubbles, containing the monograph with a different jacket and reproductions of the designer's artworks for Ian Dury, Hawkwind and the Glastonbury Fayre triple-LP package, is published by specialist imprint Volume in September 2022.
Influence and legacy
Barney Bubbles is widely acknowledged as a pioneer and exemplar of design for music. 'To say that Bubbles' work was influential would be an understatement. He took the world by storm with his momentous contribution,' wrote Creative Boom's Aya Angelos in 2022. According to Peter Saville, 'The work of Barney Bubbles expresses post-modern principles: that there is the past, the present and the possible; that culture and the history of culture are a fluid palette of semiotic expression and everything is available to articulate a point of view.'
The first exhibition dedicated to Bubbles' work was held at London gallery Artomatic in 2001, curated by the art-design team Rebecca And Mike.
Paul Gorman and Caz Facey curated an exhibition about Bubbles' practice entitled Process: The Working Practices of Barney Bubbles at London gallery Chelsea Space in October 2010.
In January 2012, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a documentary, In Search of Barney Bubbles, written, produced and presented by Mark Hodkinson.
In summer 2012 Gorman curated The Past The Present & The Possible, which presented 250 examples of Bubbles' finished artworks as part of the exhibition White Noise at the 23rd International Poster & Graphic Design Festival in Chaumont, France.
Under the heading Génération Bubbles!, the cover and a 10-page feature in the July 2012 issue of French design magazine Étapes were dedicated to the exhibition and Bubbles' influence over contemporary design practice.
In 2017 Gorman curated "Optics & Semantics", an exhibition which included furniture designed by Bubbles, at central London's Rob Tufnell Gallery as well as a show featuring finished artworks including record sleeves, posters and ephemera at casualwear brand Fred Perry's outlet in Covent Garden.
In 2020 an archive of Bubbles work was acquired for public collections under the UK's cultural gifts and acceptance in lieu (AiL) schemes and allocated to Liverpool John Moores University.
General and group exhibitions
Designs by Barney Bubbles have been prominently featured in many exhibitions, including Destroy: Punk Graphic Design in Britain, held at London's Southbank Centre in 1998, Communicate: British Independent Graphic Design since the Sixties, staged at the Barbican Centre in 2004, Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die: Punk Graphics 1976 - 1986 at Cranbrook Art Museum in Michigan in 2017 and the Museum of Art & Design in New York in 2019 and Torn Apart: Punk New Wave and the Graphic Aftermath 1976-86 at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles in 2022.
Bubbles works are in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and London's Victoria and Albert Museum, which gave prominence to a selection in its 2011 show Postmodernism: Style & Subversion 1970–1990 and the following year's British Design 1948–2012.
Barney Bubbles Estate
Representing family members, the Barney Bubbles Estate controls the intellectual copyrights in hundreds of original designs by Bubbles and has worked with others to ensure that the designer's legacy is protected.
Projects include a capsule collection of shirts bearing Bubbles designs with Fred Perry in 2017, Elvis Costello and Universal Music's 2020 box-set reissue of Costello's 1979 album Armed Forces, the 12-inch vinyl rerelease of "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" for Record Store Day 2021 with the Ian Dury Estate and music group BMG and a collaboration of four T-shirts with New York streetwear label Noah in 2022.
Examples of rare and hitherto unseen work from Bubbles' vast archive is posted regularly on the Estate's Instagram account, and the Estate also has an online shop marketing original designs on apparel and other media.
References
External links
http://www.barneybubbles.com The official Barney Bubbles website
Barney Bubbles: Artist and Designer. Career overview by graphic designer John Coulthart.
Brian Griffin on Barney Bubbles. Tribute by friend and photographer Brian Griffin.
David Wills Tells Tales. Anecdotal Barney Bubbles blog by friend and fellow student, designer David Wills.
In Search of Barney Bubbles, BBC Radio 4 Documentary by Mark Hodkinson.
Philm Freax: Barney Bubbles: In Memoriam. A memorial page by friend and photographer Phil Franks.
Philm Freax: Friends: Barney Bubbles Includes Phil Franks' photos and text extracts from "Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground 1961-'71" by Jonathon Green.
1942 births
1983 deaths
People from Whitton, London
English designers
English music video directors
Psychedelic artists
Hawkwind
Artists who died by suicide
Album-cover and concert-poster artists
20th-century English male musicians
People with bipolar disorder
1983 suicides
Suicides by gas
Suicides in Islington |
4940 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass%20instrument | Brass instrument | A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin and Greek elements meaning 'lip' and 'sound'.
There are several factors involved in producing different pitches on a brass instrument. Slides, valves, crooks (though they are rarely used today), or keys are used to change vibratory length of tubing, thus changing the available harmonic series, while the player's embouchure, lip tension and air flow serve to select the specific harmonic produced from the available series.
The view of most scholars (see organology) is that the term "brass instrument" should be defined by the way the sound is made, as above, and not by whether the instrument is actually made of brass. Thus one finds brass instruments made of wood, like the alphorn, the cornett, the serpent and the didgeridoo, while some woodwind instruments are made of brass, like the saxophone.
Families
Modern brass instruments generally come in one of two families:
Valved brass instruments use a set of valves (typically three or four but as many as seven or more in some cases) operated by the player's fingers that introduce additional tubing, or crooks, into the instrument, changing its overall length. This family includes all of the modern brass instruments except the trombone: the trumpet, horn (also called French horn), euphonium, and tuba, as well as the cornet, flugelhorn, tenor horn (alto horn), baritone horn, sousaphone, and the mellophone. As valved instruments are predominant among the brasses today, a more thorough discussion of their workings can be found below. The valves are usually piston valves, but can be rotary valves; the latter are the norm for the horn (except in France) and are also common on the tuba.
Slide brass instruments use a slide to change the length of tubing. The main instruments in this category are the trombone family, though valve trombones are occasionally used, especially in jazz. The trombone family's ancestor, the sackbut, and the folk instrument bazooka are also in the slide family.
There are two other families that have, in general, become functionally obsolete for practical purposes. Instruments of both types, however, are sometimes used for period-instrument performances of Baroque or Classical pieces. In more modern compositions, they are occasionally used for their intonation or tone color.
Natural brass instruments only play notes in the instrument's harmonic series. These include the bugle and older variants of the trumpet and horn. The trumpet was a natural brass instrument prior to about 1795, and the horn before about 1820. In the 18th century, makers developed interchangeable crooks of different lengths, which let players use a single instrument in more than one key. Natural instruments are still played for period performances and some ceremonial functions, and are occasionally found in more modern scores, such as those by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.
Keyed or Fingered brass instruments used holes along the body of the instrument, which were covered by fingers or by finger-operated pads (keys) in a similar way to a woodwind instrument. These included the cornett, serpent, ophicleide, keyed bugle and keyed trumpet. They are more difficult to play than valved instruments.
Bore taper and diameter
Brass instruments may also be characterised by two generalizations about geometry of the bore, that is, the tubing between the mouthpiece and the flaring of the tubing into the bell. Those two generalizations are with regard to
the degree of taper or conicity of the bore and
the diameter of the bore with respect to its length.
Cylindrical vs. conical bore
While all modern valved and slide brass instruments consist in part of conical and in part of cylindrical tubing, they are divided as follows:
Cylindrical bore brass instruments are those in which approximately constant diameter tubing predominates. Cylindrical bore brass instruments are generally perceived as having a brighter, more penetrating tone quality compared to conical bore brass instruments. The trumpet, and all trombones are cylindrical bore. In particular, the slide design of the trombone necessitates this.
Conical bore brass instruments are those in which tubing of constantly increasing diameter predominates. Conical bore instruments are generally perceived as having a more mellow tone quality than the cylindrical bore brass instruments. The "British brass band" group of instruments fall into this category. This includes the flugelhorn, cornet, tenor horn (alto horn), baritone horn, horn, euphonium and tuba. Some conical bore brass instruments are more conical than others. For example, the flugelhorn differs from the cornet by having a higher percentage of its tubing length conical than does the cornet, in addition to possessing a wider bore than the cornet. In the 1910s and 1920s, the E. A. Couturier company built brass band instruments utilizing a patent for a continuous conical bore without cylindrical portions even for the valves or tuning slide.
Whole-tube vs. half-tube
The resonances of a brass instrument resemble a harmonic series, with the exception of the lowest resonance, which is significantly lower than the fundamental frequency of the series that the other resonances are overtones of. Depending on the instrument and the skill of the player, the missing fundamental of the series can still be played as a pedal tone, which relies mainly on vibration at the overtone frequencies to produce the fundamental pitch. The bore diameter in relation to length determines whether the fundamental tone or the first overtone is the lowest partial practically available to the player in terms of playability and musicality, dividing brass instruments into whole-tube and half-tube instruments. These terms stem from a comparison to organ pipes, which produce the same pitch as the fundamental pedal tone of a brass instrument of equal length.
Whole-tube instruments have larger bores in relation to tubing length, and can play the fundamental tone with ease and precision. The tuba and euphonium are examples of whole-tube brass instruments.
Half-tube instruments have smaller bores in relation to tubing length and cannot easily or accurately play the fundamental tone. The second partial (first overtone) is the lowest note of each tubing length practical to play on half-tube instruments. The trumpet and horn are examples of half-tube brass instruments.
Other brass instruments
The instruments in this list fall for various reasons outside the scope of much of the discussion above regarding families of brass instruments.
Alphorn (wood)
Conch (shell)
Didgeridoo (wood, Australia)
Natural horn (no valves or slides—except tuning crooks in some cases)
Jazzophone
Keyed bugle (keyed brass)
Keyed trumpet (keyed brass)
Serpent (keyed brass)
Ophicleide (keyed brass)
Shofar (animal horn)
Vladimirskiy rozhok (wood, Russia)
Vuvuzela (simple short horn, origins disputed but achieved fame or notoriety through many plastic examples in the 2010 World Cup)
Lur
Valves
Valves are used to change the length of tubing of a brass instrument allowing the player to reach the notes of various harmonic series. Each valve pressed diverts the air stream through additional tubing, individually or in conjunction with other valves. This lengthens the vibrating air column thus lowering the fundamental tone and associated harmonic series produced by the instrument. Designs exist, although rare, in which this behaviour is reversed, i.e., pressing a valve removes a length of tubing rather than adding one. One modern example of such an ascending valve is the Yamaha YSL-350C trombone, in which the extra valve tubing is normally engaged to pitch the instrument in B, and pressing the thumb lever removes a whole step to pitch the instrument in C. Valves require regular lubrication.
A core standard valve layout based on the action of three valves had become almost universal by (at latest) 1864 as witnessed by Arban's method published in that year. The effect of a particular combination of valves may be seen in the table below. This table is correct for the core three-valve layout on almost any modern valved brass instrument. The most common four-valve layout is a superset of the well-established three-valve layout and is noted in the table, despite the exposition of four-valve and also five-valve systems (the latter used on the tuba) being incomplete in this article.
Tuning
Since valves lower the pitch, a valve that makes a pitch too low (flat) creates an interval wider than desired, while a valve that plays sharp creates an interval narrower than desired. Intonation deficiencies of brass instruments that are independent of the tuning or temperament system are inherent in the physics of the most popular valve design, which uses a small number of valves in combination to avoid redundant and heavy lengths of tubing (this is entirely separate from the slight deficiencies between Western music's dominant equal (even) temperament system and the just (not equal) temperament of the harmonic series itself). Since each lengthening of the tubing has an inversely proportional effect on pitch (Pitch of brass instruments), while pitch perception is logarithmic, there is no way for a simple, uncompensated addition of length to be correct in every combination when compared with the pitches of the open tubing and the other valves.
Absolute tube length
For example, given a length of tubing equaling 100 units of length when open, one may obtain the following tuning discrepancies:
Playing notes using valves (notably 1st + 3rd and 1st + 2nd + 3rd) requires compensation to adjust the tuning appropriately, either by the player's lip-and-breath control, via mechanical assistance of some sort, or, in the case of horns, by the position of the stopping hand in the bell. 'T' stands for trigger on a trombone.
Relative tube length
Traditionally the valves lower the pitch of the instrument by adding extra lengths of tubing based on a just tuning:
1st valve: of main tube, making an interval of 9:8, a pythagorean major second
2nd valve: of main tube, making an interval of 16:15, a just minor second
3rd valve: of main tube, making an interval of 6:5, a just minor third
Combining the valves and the harmonics of the instrument leads to the following ratios and comparisons to 12-tone equal tuning and to a common five-limit tuning in C:
Tuning compensation
The additional tubing for each valve usually features a short tuning slide of its own for fine adjustment of the valve's tuning, except when it is too short to make this practicable. For the first and third valves this is often designed to be adjusted as the instrument is played, to account for the deficiencies in the valve system.
In most trumpets and cornets, the compensation must be provided by extending the third valve slide with the third or fourth finger, and the first valve slide with the left hand thumb (see Trigger or throw below). This is used to lower the pitch of the 1–3 and 1–2–3 valve combinations. On the trumpet and cornet, these valve combinations correspond to low D, low C, low G, and low F, so chromatically, to stay in tune, one must use this method.
In instruments with a fourth valve, such as tubas, euphoniums, piccolo trumpets, etc. that valve lowers the pitch by a perfect fourth; this is used to compensate for the sharpness of the valve combinations 1–3 and 1–2–3 (4 replaces 1–3, 2–4 replaces 1–2–3). All three normal valves may be used in addition to the fourth to increase the instrument's range downwards by a perfect fourth, although with increasingly severe intonation problems.
When four-valved models without any kind of compensation play in the corresponding register, the sharpness becomes so severe that players must finger the note a half-step below the one they are trying to play. This eliminates the note a half-step above their open fundamental.
Manufacturers of low brass instruments may choose one or a combination of four basic approaches to compensate for the tuning difficulties, whose respective merits are subject to debate:
Compensation system
In the Compensation system, each of the first two (or three) valves has an additional set of tubing extending from the back of the valve. When the third (or fourth) valve is depressed in combination with another one, the air is routed through both the usual set of tubing plus the extra one, so that the pitch is lowered by an appropriate amount. This allows compensating instruments to play with accurate intonation in the octave below their open second partial, which is critical for tubas and euphoniums in much of their repertoire.
The compensating system was applied to horns to serve a different purpose. It was used to allow a double horn in F and B to ease playing difficulties in the high register. In contrast to the system in use in tubas and euphoniums, the default 'side' of the horn is the longer F horn, with secondary lengths of tubing coming into play when the first, second or third valves are pressed; pressing the thumb valve takes these secondary valve slides and the extra length of main tubing out of play to produce a shorter B horn. A later "full double" design has completely separate valve section tubing for the two sides, and is considered superior, although rather heavier in weight.
Additional valves
Initially, compensated instruments tended to sound stuffy and blow less freely due to the air being doubled back through the main valves. In early designs, this led to sharp bends in the tubing and other obstructions of the air-flow. Some manufacturers therefore preferred adding more 'straight' valves instead, which for example could be pitched a little lower than the 2nd and 1st valves and were intended to be used instead of these in the respective valve combinations. While no longer featured in euphoniums for decades, many professional tubas are still built like this, with five valves being common on CC- and BB-tubas and five or six valves on F-tubas.
Compensating double horns can also suffer from the stuffiness resulting from the air being passed through the valve section twice, but as this really only affects the longer F side, a compensating double can be very useful for a 1st or 3rd horn player, who uses the F side less.
Additional sets of slides on each valve
Another approach was the addition of two sets of slides for different parts of the range. Some euphoniums and tubas were built like this, but today, this approach has become highly exotic for all instruments except horns, where it is the norm, usually in a double, sometimes even triple configuration.
Trigger or throw
Some valved brass instruments provide triggers or throws that manually lengthen (or, less commonly, shorten) the main tuning slide, a valve slide, or the main tubing. These mechanisms alter the pitch of notes that are naturally sharp in a specific register of the instrument, or shift the instrument to another playing range. Triggers and throws permit speedy adjustment while playing.
Trigger is used in two senses:
A trigger can be a mechanical lever that lengthens a slide when pressed in a contrary direction. Triggers are sprung in such a way that they return the slide to its original position when released.
The term "trigger" also describes a device engaging a valve to lengthen the main tubing, e.g. lowering the key of certain trombones from B to F.
A throw is a simple metal grip for the player's finger or thumb, attached to a valve slide. The general term "throw" can describe a u-hook, a saddle (u-shaped grips), or a ring (ring-shape grip) in which a player's finger or thumb rests. A player extends a finger or thumb to lengthen a slide, and retracts the finger to return the slide to its original position.
Examples of instruments that use triggers or throws
Trumpet or cornet
Triggers or throws are sometimes found on the first valve slide. They are operated by the player's thumb and are used to adjust a large range of notes using the first valve, most notably the player's written top line F, the A above directly above that, and the B above that. Other notes that require the first valve slide, but are not as problematic without it include the first line E, the F above that, the A above that, and the third line B.
Triggers or throws are often found on the third valve slide. They are operated by the player's fourth finger, and are used to adjust the lower D and C. Trumpets typically use throws, whilst cornets may have a throw or trigger.
Trombone
Trombone triggers are primarily but not exclusively installed on the F-trigger, bass, and contrabass trombones to alter the length of tubing, thus making certain ranges and pitches more accessible.
Euphoniums
A euphonium occasionally has a trigger on valves other than 2 (especially 3), although many professional quality euphoniums, and indeed other brass band instruments, have a trigger for the main tuning slide.
Mechanism
The two major types of valve mechanisms are rotary valves and piston valves. The first piston valve instruments were developed just after the start of the 19th century. The Stölzel valve (invented by Heinrich Stölzel in 1814) was an early variety. In the mid 19th century the Vienna valve was an improved design. However many professional musicians preferred rotary valves for quicker, more reliable action, until better designs of piston valves were mass manufactured towards the end of the 19th century. Since the early decades of the 20th century, piston valves have been the most common on brass instruments except for the orchestral horn and the tuba. See also the article Brass Instrument Valves.
Sound production in brass instruments
Because the player of a brass instrument has direct control of the prime vibrator (the lips), brass instruments exploit the player's ability to select the harmonic at which the instrument's column of air vibrates. By making the instrument about twice as long as the equivalent woodwind instrument and starting with the second harmonic, players can get a good range of notes simply by varying the tension of their lips (see embouchure).
Most brass instruments are fitted with a removable mouthpiece. Different shapes, sizes and styles of mouthpiece may be used to suit different embouchures, or to more easily produce certain tonal characteristics. Trumpets, trombones, and tubas are characteristically fitted with a cupped mouthpiece, while horns are fitted with a conical mouthpiece.
One interesting difference between a woodwind instrument and a brass instrument is that woodwind instruments are non-directional. This means that the sound produced propagates in all directions with approximately equal volume. Brass instruments, on the other hand, are highly directional, with most of the sound produced traveling straight outward from the bell. This difference makes it significantly more difficult to record a brass instrument accurately. It also plays a major role in some performance situations, such as in marching bands.
Manufacture
Metal
Traditionally the instruments are normally made of brass, polished and then lacquered to prevent corrosion. Some higher quality and higher cost instruments use gold or silver plating to prevent corrosion.
Alternatives to brass include other alloys containing significant amounts of copper or silver. These alloys are biostatic due to the oligodynamic effect, and thus suppress growth of molds, fungi or bacteria. Brass instruments constructed from stainless steel or aluminium have good sound quality but are rapidly colonized by microorganisms and become unpleasant to play.
Most higher quality instruments are designed to prevent or reduce galvanic corrosion between any steel in the valves and springs, and the brass of the tubing. This may take the form of desiccant design, to keep the valves dry, sacrificial zincs, replaceable valve cores and springs, plastic insulating washers, or nonconductive or noble materials for the valve cores and springs. Some instruments use several such features.
The process of making the large open end (bell) of a brass instrument is called metal beating. In making the bell of, for example, a trumpet, a person lays out a pattern and shapes sheet metal into a bell-shape using templates, machine tools, handtools, and blueprints. The maker cuts out the bell blank, using hand or power shears. He hammers the blank over a bell-shaped mandrel, and butts the seam, using a notching tool. The seam is brazed, using a torch and smoothed using a hammer or file. A draw bench or arbor press equipped with expandable lead plug is used to shape and smooth the bell and bell neck over a mandrel. A lathe is used to spin the bell head and to form a bead at the edge of bell head. Previously shaped bell necks are annealed, using a hand torch to soften the metal for further bending. Scratches are removed from the bell using abrasive-coated cloth.
Other materials
A few specialty instruments are made from wood.
Instruments made mostly from plastic emerged in the 2010s as a cheaper and more robust alternative to brass. Plastic instruments could come in almost any colour. The sound plastic instruments produce is different from the one of brass, lacquer, gold or silver. While originally seen as a gimmick, these plastic models have found increasing popularity during the last decade and are now viewed as practice tools that make for more convenient travel as well as a cheaper option for beginning players.
Ensembles
Brass instruments are one of the major classical instrument families and are played across a range of musical ensembles.
Orchestras include a varying number of brass instruments depending on music style and era, typically:
two to three trumpets
two to four French horns
two tenor trombones
one bass trombone
one tuba
Baroque and classical period orchestras may include valveless trumpets or bugles, or have valved trumpets/cornets playing these parts, and they may include valveless horns, or have valved horns playing these parts.
Romantic, modern, and contemporary orchestras may include larger numbers of brass including more exotic instruments.
Concert bands generally have a larger brass section than an orchestra, typically:
four to six trumpets or cornets
four French horns
two to four tenor trombones
one to two bass trombones
two to three euphoniums or baritone horns
two to three tubas
British brass bands are made up entirely of brass, mostly conical bore instruments. Typical membership is:
one soprano cornet
nine cornets
one flugelhorn
three tenor (alto) horns
two baritone horns
two tenor trombones
one bass trombone
two euphoniums
two E tubas
two B tubas
Quintets are common small brass ensembles; a quintet typically contains:
two trumpets
one horn
one trombone
one tuba or bass trombone
Big bands and other jazz bands commonly contain cylindrical bore brass instruments.
A big band typically includes:
four trumpets
four tenor trombones
one bass trombone (in place of one of the tenor trombones)
Smaller jazz ensembles may include a single trumpet or trombone soloist.
Mexican bandas have:
three trumpets
three trombones
two alto horns, also called "charchetas" and "saxores"
one sousaphone, called "tuba"
Single brass instruments are also often used to accompany other instruments or ensembles such as an organ or a choir.
See also
Wind instruments
Drum and bugle corps (modern)
Pitch of brass instruments
Horn section
Brass instrument valve
List of brass instrument makers
References
External links
Brass Instruments Information on individual Brass Instruments
The traditional manufacture of brass instruments, a 1991 video (RealPlayer format) featuring maker Robert Barclay; from the web site of the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
The Orchestra: A User's Manual – Brass
Brassmusic.Ru – Russian Brass Community
Acoustics of Brass Instruments from Music Acoustics at the University of New South Wales
Early Valve designs, John Ericson
3-Valve and 4-Valve Compensating Systems, David Werden
Metallic objects |
4941 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood%20libel | Blood libel | Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canard which falsely accuses Jews of murdering Christian boys in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals. Echoing very old myths of secret cultic practices in many prehistoric societies, the claim, as it is leveled against Jews, was rarely attested to in antiquity. According to Tertullian, it originally emerged in late antiquity as an accusation made against members of the early Christian community of the Roman Empire. Once this accusation had been dismissed, it was revived a millennium later as a Christian slander against Jews in the medieval period. This libel, alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration, became a major theme of the persecution of Jews in Europe from that period down to modern times.
Blood libels often claim that Jews require human blood for the baking of matzos, an unleavened flatbread which is eaten during Passover. Earlier versions of the blood libel accused Jews of ritually re-enacting the crucifixion. The accusations often assert that the blood of Christian children is especially coveted, and historically, blood libel claims have been made in order to account for the otherwise unexplained deaths of children. In some cases, the alleged victims of human sacrifice have become venerated as Christian martyrs. Three of these William of Norwich, Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, and Simon of Trent became objects of local cults and veneration; and although he was never canonized, the veneration of Simon was added to the General Roman Calendar. One child who was allegedly murdered by Jews, Gabriel of Białystok, was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
In Jewish lore, blood libels served as the impetus for the creation of the Golem of Prague by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel in the 16th century. According to Walter Laqueur:
The term 'blood libel' has also been used in reference to any unpleasant or damaging false accusation, and as a result, it has acquired a broader metaphoric meaning. However, this wider usage of the term remains controversial, because Jewish groups object to it.
History
The earliest versions of the accusations involving Jews supposedly crucifying Christian children on Easter/Passover is said to be because of a prophecy. There is no reference to the use of blood in unleavened matzo bread at this time yet, which develops later as a major motivation for the crime.
Possible precursors
The earliest known antecedent is from a man named Democritus (not the philosopher) mentioned in the Suda, who alleged that "every seven years the Jews captured a stranger, brought him to the temple in Jerusalem, and sacrificed him, cutting his flesh into bits." The Greco-Egyptian author Apion claimed that the Jews sacrificed Greek victims in their temple. Here, the writer states that when Antiochus Epiphanes entered the temple in Jerusalem, he discovered a Greek captive, who told him that he was being fattened for sacrifice. Every year, Apion claimed, the Jews would sacrifice a Greek and consume his flesh, at the same time swearing eternal hatred towards the Greeks. Apion's claim likely reflects already circulating attitudes towards Jews as similar claims are made by Posidonius and Apollonius Molon in the 1st century BCE. This idea is exampled later in history, when Socrates Scholasticus ( 5th century) reported that in a drunken frolic, a group of Jews bound a Christian child to a cross in mockery of the death of Christ and scourged him until he died.
Israel Yuval proposed that the blood libel may have originated in the 12th century due to Christian views on Jewish behavior during the First Crusade. Some Jews committed suicide and killed their own children rather than exposing them to forced conversion to Christianity. Yuval wrote that Christians may have argued that if Jews could kill their own children, they could also kill Christian children.
Origins in England
In England in 1144, the Jews of Norwich were falsely accused of ritual murder after a boy, William of Norwich, was found dead in the woods with stab wounds. William's hagiographer, Thomas of Monmouth, falsely claimed that every year there is an international council of Jews at which they choose the country in which a child will be killed during Easter, because of a Jewish prophecy that states that the killing of a Christian child each year will ensure that the Jews will be restored to the Holy Land. According to Monmouth, England was chosen in 1144, and the leaders of the Jewish community delegated the Jews of Norwich to perform the killing, after which they abducted and crucified William. The legend was turned into a cult, with William acquiring the status of a martyr and pilgrims bringing offerings to the local church.
This was followed by similar accusations in Gloucester (1168), Bury St Edmunds (1181) and Bristol (1183). In 1189, the Jewish deputation attending the coronation of Richard the Lionheart was attacked by the crowd. Massacres of Jews at London and York soon followed. In 1190 on 16 March 150 Jews were attacked in York and then massacred when they took refuge in the royal castle, where Clifford's Tower now stands, with some committing suicide rather than being taken by the mob. The remains of 17 bodies thrown in a well in Norwich between the 12th and 13th century (five that were shown by DNA testing to likely be members of a single Jewish family) were very possibly killed as part of one of these pogroms.
After the death of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, there were trials and executions of Jews. The case is mentioned by Matthew Paris and Chaucer, and thus has become well-known. Its notoriety sprang from the intervention of the Crown, the first time an accusation of ritual killing had been given royal credibility.
The eight-year-old Hugh disappeared at Lincoln on 31 July 1255. His body was probably discovered on 29 August, in a well. A Jew named Copin or Koppin confessed to involvement. He confessed to John of Lexington, a servant of the crown, and relative of the Bishop of Lincoln. He confessed that the boy had been crucified by the Jews, who had assembled at Lincoln for that purpose. King Henry III, who had reached Lincoln at the beginning of October, had Copin executed and 91 of the Jews of Lincoln seized and sent up to London, where 18 of them were executed. The rest were pardoned at the intercession of the Franciscans or Dominicans. Within a few decades, Jews would be expelled from all of England in 1290 and not allowed to return until 1657.
Continental Europe
Much like the blood libel of England, the history of blood libel in continental Europe consists of unsubstantiated claims made about the corpses of Christian children. There were frequently associated supernatural events speculated about these discoveries and corpses, events which were often attributed by contemporaries to miracles. Also, just as in England, these accusations in continental Europe typically resulted in the execution of numerous Jews – sometimes even all, or close to all, the Jews in one town. These accusations and their effects also, in some cases, led to royal interference on behalf of the Jews.
Thomas of Monmouth's story of the annual Jewish meeting to decide which local community would kill a Christian child also quickly spread to the continent. An early version appears in Bonum Universale de Apibus ii. 29, § 23, by Thomas of Cantimpré (a monastery near Cambray). Thomas wrote, in around 1260, "It is quite certain that the Jews of every province annually decide by lot which congregation or city is to send Christian blood to the other congregations." Thomas of Cantimpré also believed that since the time when the Jews called out to Pontius Pilate, "His blood be on us, and on our children" (), they have been afflicted with hemorrhages, a condition equated with male menstruation:
A very learned Jew, who in our day has been converted to the (Christian) faith, informs us that one enjoying the reputation of a prophet among them, toward the close of his life, made the following prediction: 'Be assured that relief from this secret ailment, to which you are exposed, can only be obtained through Christian blood ("solo sanguine Christiano").' This suggestion was followed by the ever-blind and impious Jews, who instituted the custom of annually shedding Christian blood in every province, in order that they might recover from their malady.
Thomas added that the Jews had misunderstood the words of their prophet, who by his expression "solo sanguine Christiano" had meant not the blood of any Christian, but that of Jesus the only true remedy for all physical and spiritual suffering. Thomas did not mention the name of the "very learned" proselyte, but it may have been Nicholas Donin of La Rochelle, who, in 1240, had a disputation on the Talmud with Yechiel of Paris, and who in 1242 caused the burning of numerous Talmudic manuscripts in Paris. It is known that Thomas was personally acquainted with Nicholas. Nicholas Donin and another Jewish convert, Theobald of Cambridge, are greatly credited with the adoption and the belief of the blood libel myth in Europe.
The first known case outside England was in Blois, France, in 1171. This was the site of a blood libel accusation against the town's entire Jewish community that led to around 31–33 Jews (with 17 women making up this total) being burned to death. on 29 May of that year, or the 20th of Sivan of 4931. The blood libel revolved around R. Isaac, a Jew whom a Christian servant reported had deposited a murdered Christian in the Loire. The child's body was never found. The count had about 40 adult Blois Jews arrested and they were eventually to be burned. The surviving members of the Blois Jewish community, as well as surviving holy texts, were ransomed. As a result of this case, the Jews garnered new promises from the king. The burned bodies of the sentenced Jews were supposedly maintained unblemished through the burning, a claim which is a well-known miracle, martyr myth for both Jews and Christians. There is significant primary source material from this case including a letter revealing moves for Jewish protection with King Louis VII. Responding to the mass execution, the Twentieth of Sivan was declared a fast day by Rabbenu Tam. In this case in Blois, there was not yet the myth proclaimed that Jews needed the blood of Christians.
In 1235, after the dead bodies of five boys were found on Christmas day in Fulda, the inhabitants of the town claimed the Jews had killed them to consume their blood, and burned 34 Jews to death with the help of Crusaders assembled at the time. Even though emperor Frederick II cleared the Jews of any wrongdoing after an investigation, blood libel accusations persisted in Germany. At Pforzheim, Baden, in 1267, a woman supposedly sold a girl to Jews who, according to the myth, then cut her open and dumped her in the Enz River, where boatmen found her; the girl cried for vengeance, and then died. The body was said to have bled as the Jews were brought to it. The woman and the Jews allegedly confessed and were subsequently killed. That a judicial execution was summarily committed in consequence of the accusation is evident from the manner in which the Nuremberg "Memorbuch" and the synagogal poems refer to the incident.
In 1270, at Weissenburg, of Alsace, a supposed miracle alone decided the charge against the Jews. A child's body had shown up in the Lauter River; it was claimed that Jews had cut into the child to acquire his blood, and that the child continued bleeding for five days.
At Oberwesel, near Easter of 1287, alleged miracles again constituted the only evidence against the Jews. In this case, it was claimed that the corpse of the 16-year-old Werner of Oberwesel (also referred to as "Good Werner") landed at Bacharach and the body performed miracles, particularly medicinal miracles. Light was also said to have been emitted by the body. Reportedly, the child was hung upside down, forced to throw up the host and was cut open. In consequence, the Jews of Oberwesel and many other adjacent localities were severely persecuted during the years 1286-89. The Jews of Oberwesel were particularly targeted because there were no Jews remaining in Bacharach following a 1283 pogrom. Additionally, there were pogroms following this case as well at and around Oberwesel. Rudolph of Habsburg, to whom the Jews had appealed for protection, in order to manage the miracle story, had the archbishop of Mainz declare great wrong had been done to the Jew. This apparent declaration was very limited in effectiveness.
A statement was made, in the Chronicle of Konrad Justinger of 1423, that at Bern in 1293 or 1294 the Jews tortured and murdered a boy called Rudolph (sometimes also referred to as Rudolph, Ruff, or Ruof). The body was reportedly found by the house of Jöly, a Jew. The Jewish community was then implicated. The penalties imposed upon the Jews included torture, execution, expulsion, and steep financial fines. Justinger argued Jews were out to harm Christianity. The historical impossibility of this widely credited story was demonstrated by Jakob Stammler, pastor of Bern, in 1888.
There have been several explanations put forth as to why these blood libel accusations were made and perpetuated. For example, it has been argued Thomas of Monmouth's account and other similar false accusations, as well as their perpetuation, largely had to do with the economic and political interests of leaders who did, in fact, perpetuate these myths. Additionally, it was largely believed in Europe that Jews used Christian blood for medicinal and other purposes. Despite the unsubstantiated, mythical nature of these claims, as well as their sources, they evidently materially impacted the communities in which they occurred including both the Jewish and non-Jewish populations.
Renaissance and Baroque
Simon of Trent, aged two, disappeared in 1475, and his father alleged that he had been kidnapped and murdered by the local Jewish community. Fifteen local Jews were sentenced to death and burned. Simon was regarded locally as a saint, although he was never canonised by the church of Rome. He was removed from the Roman Martyrology in 1965 by Pope Paul VI.
Christopher of Toledo, also known as Christopher of La Guardia or "the Holy Child of La Guardia", was a four-year-old Christian boy supposedly murdered in 1490 by two Jews and three conversos (converts to Christianity). In total, eight men were executed. It is now believed that this case was constructed by the Spanish Inquisition to facilitate the expulsion of Jews from Spain.
In a case at Tyrnau (Nagyszombat, today Trnava, Slovakia), the absurdity, even the impossibility, of the statements forced by torture from women and children shows that the accused preferred death as a means of escape from the torture, and admitted everything that was asked of them. They even said that Jewish men menstruated and that the latter therefore practiced the drinking of Christian blood as a remedy.
At Bösing (Bazin, today Pezinok, Slovakia), it was charged that a nine-year-old boy had been bled to death, suffering cruel torture; thirty Jews confessed to the crime and were publicly burned. The true facts of the case were disclosed later when the child was found alive in Vienna. He had been taken there by the accuser, Count Wolf of Bazin, as a means of ridding himself of his Jewish creditors at Bazin.
In Rinn, near Innsbruck, a boy named Andreas Oxner (also known as Anderl von Rinn) was said to have been bought by Jewish merchants and cruelly murdered by them in a forest near the city, his blood being carefully collected in vessels. The accusation of drawing off the blood (without murder) was not made until the beginning of the 17th century when the cult was founded. The older inscription in the church of Rinn, dating from 1575, is distorted by fabulous embellishments for example, that the money paid for the boy to his godfather turned into leaves, and that a lily blossomed upon his grave. The cult continued until officially prohibited in 1994, by the Bishop of Innsbruck.
On 17 January 1670, Raphael Levy, a member of the Jewish community of Metz, was executed on charges of the ritual murder of a peasant child who had gone missing in the woods outside the village of Glatigny on 25 September 1669, the eve of Rosh Hashanah.
19th century
One of the child-saints in the Russian Orthodox Church is the six-year-old boy Gavriil Belostoksky from the village Zverki. According to the legend supported by the church, the boy was kidnapped from his home during the holiday of Passover while his parents were away. Shutko, who was a Jew from Białystok, was accused of bringing the boy to Białystok, piercing him with sharp objects and draining his blood for nine days, then bringing the body back to Zverki and dumping it at a local field. A cult developed, and the boy was canonized in 1820. His relics are still the object of pilgrimage. On All Saints Day, 27 July 1997, the Belarusian state TV showed a film alleging the story is true. The revival of the cult in Belarus was cited as a dangerous expression of antisemitism in international reports on human rights and religious freedoms which were passed to the UNHCR.
1823–35 Velizh blood libel: After a Christian child was found murdered outside of this small Russian town in 1823, accusations by a drunk prostitute led to the imprisonment of many local Jews. Some were not released until 1835.
1840 Damascus affair: In February, at Damascus, a Catholic monk named Father Thomas and his servant disappeared. The accusation of ritual murder was brought against members of the Jewish community of Damascus.
1840 Rhodes blood libel: The Jews of Rhodes, under the Ottoman Empire, were accused of murdering a Greek Christian boy. The libel was supported by the local governor and the European consuls posted to Rhodes. Several Jews were arrested and tortured, and the entire Jewish quarter was blockaded for twelve days. An investigation carried out by the central Ottoman government found the Jews to be innocent.
In 1844 David Paul Drach, the son of the Head Rabbi of Paris and a convert to Christianity, wrote in his book De L'harmonie Entre L'eglise et la Synagogue, that a Catholic priest in Damascus had been ritually killed and the murder covered up by powerful Jews in Europe; referring to the 1840 Damascus affair [See above]
In the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom in Badia, in the Province of Rovigo on June 25, 1855, a 21-year-old peasant woman from Masi, Giuditta Castilliero, returned after eight days missing and claimed she escaped from a ritual murder. She showed wounds on her arms as evidence of bloodletting, giving evidence to her story of blood libel. She testified that a fellow townsman, Caliman Ravenna, was one of the parties responsible. Ravenna was a wealthy merchant, entrepreneur, district tax collector, moneylender and member of the elite in Badia. He was taken into custody on a charge of public violence, and rumours concerning the matter spread throughout the region. The case was moved to the Court of Rovigo. There, the magistrate and other criminal authorities rapidly reviewed the case and immediately arrested the alleged perpetrator. On July 9, Giuditta Castilliero was arrested for a theft in Legnago that took place during the days she had been reportedly missing. This contradicted her testimony, and Caliman Ravenna was released on July 14 and welcomed back into his community. Castilliero was charged with slander, a more serious crime than theft, and was sentenced to six years of hard labour. It was believed she had been put up to make the accusation by a criminal network, personal enemies of Ravella.
In March 1879, ten Jewish men from a mountain village were brought to Kutaisi, Georgia to stand trial for the alleged kidnapping and murder of a Christian girl. The case attracted a great deal of attention in Russia (of which Georgia was then a part): "While periodicals as diverse in tendency as Herald of Europe and Saint Petersburg Notices expressed their amazement that medieval prejudice should have found a place in the modern judiciary of a civilized state, New Times hinted darkly of strange Jewish sects with unknown practices." The trial ended in acquittal, and the orientalist Daniel Chwolson published a refutation of the blood libel.
1882 Tiszaeszlár blood libel: The Jews of the village of Tiszaeszlár, Hungary were accused of the ritual murder of a fourteen-year-old Christian girl, Eszter Solymosi. The case was one of the main causes of the rise of antisemitism in the country. The accused persons were eventually acquitted.
In 1899 Hilsner Affair: Leopold Hilsner, a Czech Jewish vagabond, was accused of murdering a nineteen-year-old Christian woman, Anežka Hrůzová, with a slash to the throat. Despite the absurdity of the charge and the relatively progressive nature of society in Austria-Hungary, Hilsner was convicted and sentenced to death. He was later convicted of an additional unsolved murder, also involving a Christian woman. In 1901, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Tomáš Masaryk, a prominent Austro-Czech philosophy professor and future president of Czechoslovakia, spearheaded Hilsner's defense. He was later blamed by Czech media because of this. In March 1918, Hilsner was pardoned by Austrian emperor Charles I. He was never exonerated, and the true guilty parties were never found.
20th century and beyond
The 1903 Kishinev pogrom, an anti-Jewish revolt, started when an anti-Semitic newspaper wrote that a Christian Russian boy, Mikhail Rybachenko, was found murdered in the town of Dubossary, alleging that the Jews killed him in order to use the blood in preparation of matzo. Around 49 Jews were killed and hundreds were wounded, with over 700 houses being looted and destroyed.
In the 1910 Shiraz blood libel, the Jews of Shiraz, Iran, were falsely accused of murdering a Muslim girl. The entire Jewish quarter was pillaged; the pogrom left 12 Jews dead and about 50 injured.
In Kyiv, a Jewish factory manager, Menahem Mendel Beilis, was accused of murdering 13-year-old Andriy Yushchinskyi, a Christian child, and using his blood to make matzos. He was acquitted by an all-Christian jury after a sensational trial in 1913.
In 1928, the Jews of Massena, New York were falsely accused of kidnapping and killing a Christian girl in the Massena blood libel.
Jews were frequently accused of the ritual murder of Christians for their blood in Der Stürmer, an antisemitic newspaper which was published in Nazi Germany. The infamous May 1934 issue of the paper was later banned by the Nazi authorities, because it went so far as to compare alleged Jewish ritual murder with the Christian rite of communion.
In 1938 the British fascist politician and veterinarian Arnold Leese published an antisemitic booklet in defense of the Blood Libel which he titled My Irrelevant Defence: Meditations inside Gaol and Out on Jewish Ritual Murder.
The 1944–1946 Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, which according to some estimates killed as many as 1000–2000 Jews (237 documented cases), involved, among other elements, accusations of blood libel, especially in the case of the 1946 Kielce pogrom.
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia (r. 1964–1975) made accusations against Parisian Jews that took the form of a blood libel.
The Matzah of Zion was written by the Syrian Defense Minister, Mustafa Tlass in 1986. The book concentrates on two issues: renewed ritual murder accusations against the Jews in the Damascus affair of 1840, and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The book was cited at a United Nations conference in 1991 by a Syrian delegate. On 21 October 2002, the London-based Arabic paper Al-Hayat reported that the book The Matzah of Zion was undergoing its eighth reprinting and it was also being translated into English, French and Italian. Egyptian filmmaker Munir Radhi has announced plans to adapt the book into a film.
In 2003, a private Syrian film company created a 29-part television series Ash-Shatat ("The Diaspora"). This series originally aired in Lebanon in late 2003 and it was subsequently broadcast by Al-Manar, a satellite television network owned by Hezbollah. This TV series, based on the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, shows the Jewish people engaging in a conspiracy to rule the world, and it also presents Jews as people who murder the children of Christians, drain their blood and use it to bake matzah.
In early January 2005, some 20 members of the Russian State Duma publicly made a blood libel accusation against the Jewish people. They approached the Prosecutor General's Office and demanded that Russia "ban all Jewish organizations." They accused all Jewish groups of being extremist, "anti-Christian and inhumane, and even accused them of practices that include ritual murders." Alluding to previous antisemitic Russian court decrees that accused the Jews of ritual murder, they wrote that "Many facts of such religious extremism were proven in courts." The accusation included traditional antisemitic canards, such as the claim that "the whole democratic world today is under the financial and political control of international Jewry. And we do not want our Russia to be among such unfree countries". This demand was published as an open letter to the prosecutor general, in Rus Pravoslavnaya (, "Orthodox Russia"), a national-conservative newspaper. This group consisted of members of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democrats, the Communist faction, and the nationalist Motherland party, with some 500 supporters. The mentioned document is known as "The Letter of Five Hundred" ("Письмо пятисот"). Their supporters included editors of nationalist newspapers as well as journalists. By the end of the month, this group was strongly criticized, and it retracted its demand in response.
At the end of April 2005, five boys, ages 9 to 12, in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) disappeared. In May 2005, their burnt bodies were found in the city sewage. The crime was not disclosed, and in August 2007 the investigation was extended until 18 November 2007. Some Russian nationalist groups claimed that the children were murdered by a Jewish sect with a ritual purpose. Nationalist M. Nazarov, one of the authors of "The Letter of Five Hundred" alleges "the existence of a 'Hasidic sect', whose members kill children before Passover to collect their blood", using the Beilis case mentioned above as evidence. M.Nazarov also alleges that "the ritual murder requires throwing the body away rather than its concealing". "The Union of the Russian People" demanded officials thoroughly investigate the Jews, not stopping at the search in synagogues, Matzah bakeries and their offices.
During a speech in 2007, Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, referred to Jews in Europe having in the past used children's blood to bake holy bread. "We have never allowed ourselves to knead [the dough for] the bread that breaks the fast in the holy month of Ramadan with children's blood", he said. "Whoever wants a more thorough explanation, let him ask what used to happen to some children in Europe, whose blood was mixed in with the dough of the [Jewish] holy bread."
In the 2000s, a Polish team of anthropologists and sociologists investigated the currency of the blood libel myth in Sandomierz where a painting depicting the blood libel adorns the Cathedral and Orthodox faithful in villages near Bialystok, and they discovered that these beliefs persist among some Catholic and Orthodox Christians.
In an address that aired on Al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas run TV station in Gaza, on 31 March 2010, Salah Eldeen Sultan (Arabic: صلاح الدين سلطان), founder of the American Center for Islamic Research in Columbus, Ohio, the Islamic American University in Southfield, Michigan, and the Sultan Publishing Co. and described in 2005 as "one of America's most noted Muslim scholars", alleged that Jews kidnap Christians and others in order to slaughter them and use their blood for making matzos. Sultan, who is currently a lecturer on Muslim jurisprudence at Cairo University stated that: "The Zionists kidnap several non-Muslims Christians and others... this happened in a Jewish neighborhood in Damascus. They killed the French doctor, Toma, who used to treat the Jews and others for free, in order to spread Christianity. Even though he was their friend and they benefited from him the most, they took him on one of these holidays and slaughtered him, along with the nurse. Then they kneaded the matzos with the blood of Dr. Toma and his nurse. They do this every year. The world must know these facts about the Zionist entity and its terrible corrupt creed. The world should know this." (Translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute)
During an interview which aired on Rotana Khalijiya TV on 13 August 2012, Saudi Cleric Salman Al-Odeh stated (as translated by MEMRI) that "It is well known that the Jews celebrate several holidays, one of which is the Passover, or the Matzos Holiday. I read once about a doctor who was working in a laboratory. This doctor lived with a Jewish family. One day, they said to him: 'We want blood. Get us some human blood.' He was confused. He didn't know what this was all about. Of course, he couldn't betray his work ethics in such a way, but he began inquiring, and he found that they were making matzos with human blood." Al-Odeh also stated that "[Jews] eat it, believing that this brings them close to their false god, Yahweh" and that "They would lure a child in order to sacrifice him in the religious rite that they perform during that holiday."
In April 2013, the Palestinian non-profit organization MIFTAH, founded by Hanan Ashrawi apologized for publishing an article which criticized US President Barack Obama for holding a Passover Seder in the White House by saying "Does Obama, in fact, know the relationship, for example, between 'Passover' and 'Christian blood'...?! Or 'Passover' and 'Jewish blood rituals?!' Much of the chatter and gossip about historical Jewish blood rituals in Europe is real and not fake as they claim; the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover." MIFTAH's apology expressed its "sincerest regret".
In an interview which aired on Al-Hafez TV on 12 May 2013, Khaled Al-Zaafrani of the Egyptian Justice and Progress Party, stated (as translated by MEMRI): "It's well known that during the Passover, they [the Jews] make matzos called the 'Blood of Zion.' They take a Christian child, slit his throat and slaughter him. Then they take his blood and make their [matzos]. This is a very important rite for the Jews, which they never forgo... They slice it and fight over who gets to eat Christian blood." In the same interview, Al-Zaafrani stated that "The French kings and the Russian czars discovered this in the Jewish quarters. All the massacring of Jews that occurred in those countries were because they discovered that the Jews had kidnapped and slaughtered children, in order to make the Passover matzos."
In an interview which aired on the Al-Quds TV channel on 28 July 2014 (as translated by MEMRI), Osama Hamdan, the top representative of Hamas in Lebanon, stated that "we all remember how the Jews used to slaughter Christians, in order to mix their blood in their holy matzos. This is not a figment of imagination or something taken from a film. It is a fact, acknowledged by their own books and by historical evidence." In a subsequent interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Hamdan defended his comments, stating that he "has Jewish friends".
In a sermon broadcast on the official Jordanian TV channel on 22 August 2014, Sheik Bassam Ammoush, a former Minister of Administrative Development who was appointed to Jordan's House of Senate ("Majlis al-Aayan") in 2011, stated (as translated by MEMRI): "In [the Gaza Strip] we are dealing with the enemies of Allah, who believe that the matzos that they bake on their holidays must be kneaded with blood. When the Jews were in the diaspora, they would murder children in England, in Europe, and in America. They would slaughter them and use their blood to make their matzos... They believe that they are God's chosen people. They believe that the killing of any human being is a form of worship and a means to draw near their god."
In March 2020, Italian painter Giovanni Gasparro unveiled a painting of the martyrdom of Simon of Trent, titled "Martirio di San Simonino da Trento (Simone Unverdorben), per omicidio rituale ebraico (The Martyrdom of St. Simon of Trento in accordance with Jewish ritual murder)". The painting was condemned by the Italian Jewish community and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, among others.
The QAnon conspiracy theory has been accused of advancing blood libel tropes through its belief that Hollywood elites are harvesting adrenochrome from children through Satanic ritual abuse in order to become immortal. In February 2022, a sculpture of Simon of Trent depicting the blood libel was used to promote the adrenochrome-harvesting conspiracy theory.
Views of the Catholic Church
The attitude of the Catholic Church towards these accusations and the cults venerating children supposedly killed by Jews has varied over time. The Papacy generally opposed them, although it had problems in enforcing its opposition.
In 1911, the Dictionnaire apologétique de la foi catholique, an important French Catholic encyclopedia, published an analysis of the blood libel accusations. This may be taken as being broadly representative of educated Catholic opinion in continental Europe at that time. The article noted that the popes had generally refrained from endorsing the blood libel, and it concluded that the accusations were unproven in a general sense, but it left open the possibility that some Jews had committed ritual murders of Christians. Other contemporary Catholic sources (notably the Jesuit periodical La Civiltà Cattolica) promoted the blood libel as truth.
Today, the accusations are rarer in Catholic circles. While Simon of Trent's local status as a saint was removed in 1965, several towns in Spain still commemorate the blood libel.
Papal pronouncements
Pope Innocent IV took action against the blood libel: "5 July 1247 Mandate to the prelates of Germany and France to annul all measures adopted against the Jews on account of the ritual murder libel, and to prevent the accusation of Arabs on similar charges" (The Apostolic See and the Jews, Documents: 492–1404; Simonsohn, Shlomo, pp. 188–189, 193–195, 208). In 1247, he wrote also that "Certain of the clergy, and princes, nobles and great lords of your cities and dioceses have falsely devised certain godless plans against the Jews, unjustly depriving them by force of their property, and appropriating it themselves;... they falsely charge them with dividing up among themselves on the Passover the heart of a murdered boy...In their malice, they ascribe every murder, wherever it chance to occur, to the Jews. And on the ground of these and other fabrications, they are filled with rage against them, rob them of their possessions without any formal accusation, without confession, and without legal trial and conviction, contrary to the privileges granted to them by the Apostolic See... Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be disturbed,... we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner. Whenever any unjust attacks upon them come under your notice, redress their injuries, and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations."
Pope Gregory X (1271–1276) issued a letter which criticized the practice of blood libels and forbade arrests and persecution of Jews based on a blood libel, ... unless which we do not believe they be caught in the commission of the crime.
Pope Benedict XIV wrote the bull Beatus Andreas (22 February 1755) in response to an application for the formal canonization of the 15th-century Andreas Oxner, a folk saint alleged to have been murdered by Jews "out of hatred for the Christian faith". Benedict did not dispute the claim that Jews murdered Christian children, and in anticipating that further cases on this basis would be brought appears to have accepted it as accurate, but decreed that in such cases beatification or canonization would be inappropriate.
Blood libels in Muslim lands
In late 1553 or 1554, Suleiman the Magnificent, the reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, issued a firman (royal decree) which formally denounced blood libels against the Jews. In 1840, following the Western outrage arising from the Damascus affair, British politician and leader of the British Jewish community, Sir Moses Montefiore, backed by other influential westerners including Britain's Lord Palmerston and Damascus consul Charles Henry Churchill, the French lawyer Adolphe Crémieux, Austrian consul Giovanni Gasparo Merlato, Danish missionary John Nicolayson, and Solomon Munk, persuaded Sultan Abdulmejid I in Constantinople, to issue a firman on 6 November 1840 intended to halt the spread of blood libel accusations in the Ottoman Empire. The edict declared that blood libel accusations were a slander against Jews and they would be prohibited throughout the Ottoman Empire, and read in part:
... and for the love we bear to our subjects, we cannot permit the Jewish nation, whose innocence for the crime alleged against them is evident, to be worried and tormented as a consequence of accusations which have not the least foundation in truth...
In the remainder of the 19th century and into the 20th century, there were many instances of the blood libel in Ottoman lands, such as the 1881 Fornaraki affair. However the libel almost always came from the Christian community, sometimes with the connivance of Greek or French diplomats. The Jews could usually count on the goodwill of the Ottoman authorities and increasingly on the support of British, Prussian and Austrian representatives.
In the 1910 Shiraz blood libel, the Jews of Shiraz, Iran, were falsely accused of murdering a Muslim girl. The entire Jewish quarter was pillaged, with the pogrom leaving 12 Jews dead and about 50 injured.
In 1983, Mustafa Tlass, the Syrian Minister of Defense, wrote and published The Matzah of Zion, which is a treatment of the Damascus affair of 1840 that repeats the ancient "blood libel", that Jews use the blood of murdered non-Jews in religious rituals such as baking Matza bread. In this book, he argues that the true religious beliefs of Jews are "black hatred against all humans and religions", and no Arab country should ever sign a peace treaty with Israel. Tlass re-printed the book several times. Following the book's publication, Tlass told Der Spiegel, that this accusation against Jews was valid and he also claimed that his book is "an historical study ... based on documents from France, Vienna and the American University in Beirut."
In 2003, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published a series of articles by Osama El-Baz, a senior advisor to the then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Among other things, Osama El-Baz explained the origins of the blood libel against the Jews. He said that Arabs and Muslims have never been antisemitic, as a group, but he accepted the fact that a few Arab writers and media figures attack Jews "on the basis of the racist fallacies and myths that originated in Europe". He urged people not to succumb to "myths" such as the blood libel.
Nevertheless, on many occasions in modern times, blood libel stories have appeared in the state-sponsored media of a number of Arab and Muslim nations, as well as on their television shows and websites, and books which allege instances of Jewish blood libels are not uncommon there.
The blood libel was featured in a scene in the Syrian TV series Ash-Shatat, shown in 2003.
In 2007, Lebanese poet Marwan Chamoun, in an interview aired on Télé Liban, referred to the "... slaughter of the priest Tomaso de Camangiano ... in 1840... in the presence of two rabbis in the heart of Damascus, in the home of a close friend of this priest, Daud Al-Harari, the head of the Jewish community of Damascus. After he was slaughtered, his blood was collected, and the two rabbis took it." A novel, Death of a Monk, based on the Damascus affair, was published in 2004.
See also
Blood atonement
Blood curse
Blood ritual
Cake of Light
Conspiracy theory
Human cannibalism
Kiddush#History of using white wine
Moral panic
OpIndia#Bihar human sacrifice claims
QAnon#Child sex trafficking and satanic sacrifice
Salem witch trials
Satanic ritual abuse
Sefer HaRazim
References
Notes
Further reading
Hsia, R. Po-chia (1998) The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany. New Haven: Yale University Press.
O'Brien, Darren (2011) The Pinnacle of Hatred: The Blood Libel and the Jews. Jerusalem: Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University Magnes Press.
Rose, E. M. (2015) The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe. Oxford University Press
Yuval, Israel Jacob (2006) Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 135–204
External links
Antisemitic tropes |
4944 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naive%20set%20theory | Naive set theory | Naive set theory is any of several theories of sets used in the discussion of the foundations of mathematics.
Unlike axiomatic set theories, which are defined using formal logic, naive set theory is defined informally, in natural language. It describes the aspects of mathematical sets familiar in discrete mathematics (for example Venn diagrams and symbolic reasoning about their Boolean algebra), and suffices for the everyday use of set theory concepts in contemporary mathematics.
Sets are of great importance in mathematics; in modern formal treatments, most mathematical objects (numbers, relations, functions, etc.) are defined in terms of sets. Naive set theory suffices for many purposes, while also serving as a stepping stone towards more formal treatments.
Method
A naive theory in the sense of "naive set theory" is a non-formalized theory, that is, a theory that uses natural language to describe sets and operations on sets. The words and, or, if ... then, not, for some, for every are treated as in ordinary mathematics. As a matter of convenience, use of naive set theory and its formalism prevails even in higher mathematics – including in more formal settings of set theory itself.
The first development of set theory was a naive set theory. It was created at the end of the 19th century by Georg Cantor as part of his study of infinite sets and developed by Gottlob Frege in his Grundgesetze der Arithmetik.
Naive set theory may refer to several very distinct notions. It may refer to
Informal presentation of an axiomatic set theory, e.g. as in Naive Set Theory by Paul Halmos.
Early or later versions of Georg Cantor's theory and other informal systems.
Decidedly inconsistent theories (whether axiomatic or not), such as a theory of Gottlob Frege that yielded Russell's paradox, and theories of Giuseppe Peano and Richard Dedekind.
Paradoxes
The assumption that any property may be used to form a set, without restriction, leads to paradoxes. One common example is Russell's paradox: there is no set consisting of "all sets that do not contain themselves". Thus consistent systems of naive set theory must include some limitations on the principles which can be used to form sets.
Cantor's theory
Some believe that Georg Cantor's set theory was not actually implicated in the set-theoretic paradoxes (see Frápolli 1991). One difficulty in determining this with certainty is that Cantor did not provide an axiomatization of his system. By 1899, Cantor was aware of some of the paradoxes following from unrestricted interpretation of his theory, for instance Cantor's paradox and the Burali-Forti paradox, and did not believe that they discredited his theory. Cantor's paradox can actually be derived from the above (false) assumption—that any property may be used to form a set—using for " is a cardinal number". Frege explicitly axiomatized a theory in which a formalized version of naive set theory can be interpreted, and it is this formal theory which Bertrand Russell actually addressed when he presented his paradox, not necessarily a theory Cantorwho, as mentioned, was aware of several paradoxespresumably had in mind.
Axiomatic theories
Axiomatic set theory was developed in response to these early attempts to understand sets, with the goal of determining precisely what operations were allowed and when.
Consistency
A naive set theory is not necessarily inconsistent, if it correctly specifies the sets allowed to be considered. This can be done by the means of definitions, which are implicit axioms. It is possible to state all the axioms explicitly, as in the case of Halmos' Naive Set Theory, which is actually an informal presentation of the usual axiomatic Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. It is "naive" in that the language and notations are those of ordinary informal mathematics, and in that it does not deal with consistency or completeness of the axiom system.
Likewise, an axiomatic set theory is not necessarily consistent: not necessarily free of paradoxes. It follows from Gödel's incompleteness theorems that a sufficiently complicated first order logic system (which includes most common axiomatic set theories) cannot be proved consistent from within the theory itself – even if it actually is consistent. However, the common axiomatic systems are generally believed to be consistent; by their axioms they do exclude some paradoxes, like Russell's paradox. Based on Gödel's theorem, it is just not known – and never can be – if there are no paradoxes at all in these theories or in any first-order set theory.
The term naive set theory is still today also used in some literature to refer to the set theories studied by Frege and Cantor, rather than to the informal counterparts of modern axiomatic set theory.
Utility
The choice between an axiomatic approach and other approaches is largely a matter of convenience. In everyday mathematics the best choice may be informal use of axiomatic set theory. References to particular axioms typically then occur only when demanded by tradition, e.g. the axiom of choice is often mentioned when used. Likewise, formal proofs occur only when warranted by exceptional circumstances. This informal usage of axiomatic set theory can have (depending on notation) precisely the appearance of naive set theory as outlined below. It is considerably easier to read and write (in the formulation of most statements, proofs, and lines of discussion) and is less error-prone than a strictly formal approach.
Sets, membership and equality
In naive set theory, a set is described as a well-defined collection of objects. These objects are called the elements or members of the set. Objects can be anything: numbers, people, other sets, etc. For instance, 4 is a member of the set of all even integers. Clearly, the set of even numbers is infinitely large; there is no requirement that a set be finite.
The definition of sets goes back to Georg Cantor. He wrote in his 1915 article Beiträge zur Begründung der transfiniten Mengenlehre:
“Unter einer 'Menge' verstehen wir jede Zusammenfassung M von bestimmten wohlunterschiedenen Objekten unserer Anschauung oder unseres Denkens (welche die 'Elemente' von M genannt werden) zu einem Ganzen.” – Georg Cantor
“A set is a gathering together into a whole of definite, distinct objects of our perception or of our thought—which are called elements of the set.” – Georg Cantor
Note on consistency
It does not follow from this definition how sets can be formed, and what operations on sets again will produce a set. The term "well-defined" in "well-defined collection of objects" cannot, by itself, guarantee the consistency and unambiguity of what exactly constitutes and what does not constitute a set. Attempting to achieve this would be the realm of axiomatic set theory or of axiomatic class theory.
The problem, in this context, with informally formulated set theories, not derived from (and implying) any particular axiomatic theory, is that there may be several widely differing formalized versions, that have both different sets and different rules for how new sets may be formed, that all conform to the original informal definition. For example, Cantor's verbatim definition allows for considerable freedom in what constitutes a set. On the other hand, it is unlikely that Cantor was particularly interested in sets containing cats and dogs, but rather only in sets containing purely mathematical objects. An example of such a class of sets could be the von Neumann universe. But even when fixing the class of sets under consideration, it is not always clear which rules for set formation are allowed without introducing paradoxes.
For the purpose of fixing the discussion below, the term "well-defined" should instead be interpreted as an intention, with either implicit or explicit rules (axioms or definitions), to rule out inconsistencies. The purpose is to keep the often deep and difficult issues of consistency away from the, usually simpler, context at hand. An explicit ruling out of all conceivable inconsistencies (paradoxes) cannot be achieved for an axiomatic set theory anyway, due to Gödel's second incompleteness theorem, so this does not at all hamper the utility of naive set theory as compared to axiomatic set theory in the simple contexts considered below. It merely simplifies the discussion. Consistency is henceforth taken for granted unless explicitly mentioned.
Membership
If x is a member of a set A, then it is also said that x belongs to A, or that x is in A. This is denoted by x ∈ A. The symbol ∈ is a derivation from the lowercase Greek letter epsilon, "ε", introduced by Giuseppe Peano in 1889 and is the first letter of the word ἐστί (means "is"). The symbol ∉ is often used to write x ∉ A, meaning "x is not in A".
Equality
Two sets A and B are defined to be equal when they have precisely the same elements, that is, if every element of A is an element of B and every element of B is an element of A. (See axiom of extensionality.) Thus a set is completely determined by its elements; the description is immaterial. For example, the set with elements 2, 3, and 5 is equal to the set of all prime numbers less than 6.
If the sets A and B are equal, this is denoted symbolically as A = B (as usual).
Empty set
The empty set, denoted as and sometimes , is a set with no members at all. Because a set is determined completely by its elements, there can be only one empty set. (See axiom of empty set.) Although the empty set has no members, it can be a member of other sets. Thus , because the former has no members and the latter has one member. In mathematics, the only sets with which one needs to be concerned can be built up from the empty set alone.
Specifying sets
The simplest way to describe a set is to list its elements between curly braces (known as defining a set extensionally). Thus denotes the set whose only elements are and .
(See axiom of pairing.)
Note the following points:
The order of elements is immaterial; for example, .
Repetition (multiplicity) of elements is irrelevant; for example, .
(These are consequences of the definition of equality in the previous section.)
This notation can be informally abused by saying something like to indicate the set of all dogs, but this example would usually be read by mathematicians as "the set containing the single element dogs".
An extreme (but correct) example of this notation is , which denotes the empty set.
The notation , or sometimes , is used to denote the set containing all objects for which the condition holds (known as defining a set intensionally).
For example, denotes the set of real numbers, denotes the set of everything with blonde hair.
This notation is called set-builder notation (or "set comprehension", particularly in the context of Functional programming).
Some variants of set builder notation are:
denotes the set of all that are already members of such that the condition holds for . For example, if is the set of integers, then is the set of all even integers. (See axiom of specification.)
denotes the set of all objects obtained by putting members of the set into the formula . For example, is again the set of all even integers. (See axiom of replacement.)
is the most general form of set builder notation. For example, {{math|{{mset|xs owner | x is a dog}}}} is the set of all dog owners.
Subsets
Given two sets A and B, A is a subset of B if every element of A is also an element of B.
In particular, each set B is a subset of itself; a subset of B that is not equal to B is called a proper subset.
If A is a subset of B, then one can also say that B is a superset of A, that A is contained in B, or that B contains A. In symbols, means that A is a subset of B, and means that B is a superset of A.
Some authors use the symbols ⊂ and ⊃ for subsets, and others use these symbols only for proper subsets. For clarity, one can explicitly use the symbols ⊊ and ⊋ to indicate non-equality.
As an illustration, let R be the set of real numbers, let Z be the set of integers, let O be the set of odd integers, and let P be the set of current or former U.S. Presidents.
Then O is a subset of Z, Z is a subset of R, and (hence) O is a subset of R, where in all cases subset may even be read as proper subset.
Not all sets are comparable in this way. For example, it is not the case either that R is a subset of P nor that P is a subset of R.
It follows immediately from the definition of equality of sets above that, given two sets A and B, if and only if and . In fact this is often given as the definition of equality. Usually when trying to prove that two sets are equal, one aims to show these two inclusions. The empty set is a subset of every set (the statement that all elements of the empty set are also members of any set A is vacuously true).
The set of all subsets of a given set A is called the power set of A and is denoted by or ; the "" is sometimes in a script font: . If the set A has n elements, then will have elements.
Universal sets and absolute complements
In certain contexts, one may consider all sets under consideration as being subsets of some given universal set.
For instance, when investigating properties of the real numbers R (and subsets of R), R may be taken as the universal set. A true universal set is not included in standard set theory (see Paradoxes below), but is included in some non-standard set theories.
Given a universal set U and a subset A of U, the complement of A (in U''') is defined as
.
In other words, AC ("A-complement"; sometimes simply A, "A-prime" ) is the set of all members of U which are not members of A.
Thus with R, Z and O defined as in the section on subsets, if Z is the universal set, then OC is the set of even integers, while if R is the universal set, then OC is the set of all real numbers that are either even integers or not integers at all.
Unions, intersections, and relative complements
Given two sets A and B, their union is the set consisting of all objects which are elements of A or of B or of both (see axiom of union). It is denoted by .
The intersection of A and B is the set of all objects which are both in A and in B. It is denoted by .
Finally, the relative complement of B relative to A, also known as the set theoretic difference of A and B, is the set of all objects that belong to A but not to B. It is written as or .
Symbolically, these are respectively
;
;
.
The set B doesn't have to be a subset of A for to make sense; this is the difference between the relative complement and the absolute complement () from the previous section.
To illustrate these ideas, let A be the set of left-handed people, and let B be the set of people with blond hair. Then is the set of all left-handed blond-haired people, while is the set of all people who are left-handed or blond-haired or both. , on the other hand, is the set of all people that are left-handed but not blond-haired, while is the set of all people who have blond hair but aren't left-handed.
Now let E be the set of all human beings, and let F be the set of all living things over 1000 years old. What is in this case? No living human being is over 1000 years old, so must be the empty set {}.
For any set A, the power set is a Boolean algebra under the operations of union and intersection.
Ordered pairs and Cartesian products
Intuitively, an ordered pair is simply a collection of two objects such that one can be distinguished as the first element and the other as the second element, and having the fundamental property that, two ordered pairs are equal if and only if their first elements are equal and their second elements are equal.
Formally, an ordered pair with first coordinate a, and second coordinate b, usually denoted by (a, b), can be defined as the set
It follows that, two ordered pairs (a,b) and (c,d) are equal if and only if and .
Alternatively, an ordered pair can be formally thought of as a set {a,b} with a total order.
(The notation (a, b) is also used to denote an open interval on the real number line, but the context should make it clear which meaning is intended. Otherwise, the notation ]a, b[ may be used to denote the open interval whereas (a, b) is used for the ordered pair).
If A and B are sets, then the Cartesian product (or simply product) is defined to be:
That is, is the set of all ordered pairs whose first coordinate is an element of A and whose second coordinate is an element of B.
This definition may be extended to a set of ordered triples, and more generally to sets of ordered n-tuples for any positive integer n.
It is even possible to define infinite Cartesian products, but this requires a more recondite definition of the product.
Cartesian products were first developed by René Descartes in the context of analytic geometry. If R denotes the set of all real numbers, then represents the Euclidean plane and represents three-dimensional Euclidean space.
Some important sets
There are some ubiquitous sets for which the notation is almost universal. Some of these are listed below. In the list, a, b, and c refer to natural numbers, and r and s are real numbers.
Natural numbers are used for counting. A blackboard bold capital N () often represents this set.
Integers appear as solutions for x in equations like x + a = b. A blackboard bold capital Z () often represents this set (from the German Zahlen, meaning numbers).
Rational numbers appear as solutions to equations like a + bx = c. A blackboard bold capital Q () often represents this set (for quotient, because R is used for the set of real numbers).
Algebraic numbers appear as solutions to polynomial equations (with integer coefficients) and may involve radicals (including ) and certain other irrational numbers. A Q with an overline () often represents this set. The overline denotes the operation of algebraic closure.
Real numbers represent the "real line" and include all numbers that can be approximated by rationals. These numbers may be rational or algebraic but may also be transcendental numbers, which cannot appear as solutions to polynomial equations with rational coefficients. A blackboard bold capital R () often represents this set.
Complex numbers are sums of a real and an imaginary number: . Here either or (or both) can be zero; thus, the set of real numbers and the set of strictly imaginary numbers are subsets of the set of complex numbers, which form an algebraic closure for the set of real numbers, meaning that every polynomial with coefficients in has at least one root in this set. A blackboard bold capital C () often represents this set. Note that since a number can be identified with a point in the plane, is basically "the same" as the Cartesian product ("the same" meaning that any point in one determines a unique point in the other and for the result of calculations, it doesn't matter which one is used for the calculation, as long as multiplication rule is appropriate for ).
Paradoxes in early set theory
The unrestricted formation principle of sets referred to as the axiom schema of unrestricted comprehension,
is the source of several early appearing paradoxes:
led, in the year 1897, to the Burali-Forti paradox, the first published antinomy.
produced Cantor's paradox in 1897.
yielded Cantor's second antinomy in the year 1899. Here the property is true for all , whatever may be, so would be a universal set, containing everything.
, i.e. the set of all sets that do not contain themselves as elements, gave Russell's paradox in 1902.
If the axiom schema of unrestricted comprehension is weakened to the axiom schema of specification or axiom schema of separation',
then all the above paradoxes disappear. There is a corollary. With the axiom schema of separation as an axiom of the theory, it follows, as a theorem of the theory:
Or, more spectacularly (Halmos' phrasing): There is no universe. Proof: Suppose that it exists and call it . Now apply the axiom schema of separation with and for use . This leads to Russell's paradox again. Hence cannot exist in this theory.
Related to the above constructions is formation of the set
,
where the statement following the implication certainly is false. It follows, from the definition of , using the usual inference rules (and some afterthought when reading the proof in the linked article below) both that and holds, hence . This is Curry's paradox.
It is (perhaps surprisingly) not the possibility of that is problematic. It is again the axiom schema of unrestricted comprehension allowing for . With the axiom schema of specification instead of unrestricted comprehension, the conclusion does not hold and hence is not a logical consequence.
Nonetheless, the possibility of is often removed explicitly or, e.g. in ZFC, implicitly, by demanding the axiom of regularity to hold. One consequence of it is
or, in other words, no set is an element of itself.
The axiom schema of separation is simply too weak (while unrestricted comprehension is a very strong axiom—too strong for set theory) to develop set theory with its usual operations and constructions outlined above. The axiom of regularity is of a restrictive nature as well. Therefore, one is led to the formulation of other axioms to guarantee the existence of enough sets to form a set theory. Some of these have been described informally above and many others are possible. Not all conceivable axioms can be combined freely into consistent theories. For example, the axiom of choice of ZFC is incompatible with the conceivable "every set of reals is Lebesgue measurable". The former implies the latter is false.
See also
Algebra of sets
Axiomatic set theory
Internal set theory
List of set identities and relations
Set theory
Set (mathematics)
Partially ordered set
Notes
References
Bourbaki, N., Elements of the History of Mathematics, John Meldrum (trans.), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 1994.
Devlin, K.J., The Joy of Sets: Fundamentals of Contemporary Set Theory, 2nd edition, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, 1993.
María J. Frápolli|Frápolli, María J., 1991, "Is Cantorian set theory an iterative conception of set?". Modern Logic, v. 1 n. 4, 1991, 302–318.
Kelley, J.L., General Topology, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY, 1955.
van Heijenoort, J., From Frege to Gödel, A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879-1931'', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1967. Reprinted with corrections, 1977. .
External links
Beginnings of set theory page at St. Andrews
Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics (S)
Set theory
Systems of set theory |
4949 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%20Angels | Blue Angels | The Blue Angels, formally named the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, are a flight demonstration squadron of the United States Navy. Formed in 1946, the unit is the second oldest formal aerobatic team in the world, after the French formed in 1931. The team, composed of six Navy and one Marine Corps demonstration pilot, fly Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets.
The Blue Angels typically perform aerial displays in at least 60 shows annually at 30 locations throughout the United States and two shows at one location in Canada. The "Blues" still employ many of the same practices and techniques used in the inaugural 1946 season. An estimated 11 million spectators view the squadron during air shows from March through November each year. Members of the Blue Angels team also visit more than 50,000 people in schools, hospitals, and community functions at air show cities. Since 1946, the Blue Angels have flown for more than 505 million spectators.
, the Blue Angels received $37 million annually from the annual Department of Defense budget.
Mission
The mission of the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron is to showcase the pride and professionalism of the United States Navy and Marine Corps by inspiring a culture of excellence and service to the country through flight demonstrations and community outreach.
Air shows
The "Blues" perform at both military and non-military airfields, and often at major U.S. cities and capitals; also locations in Canada are often included in the air show schedule.
During their aerobatic demonstration, the six-member team flies F/A-18 Hornets, split into the diamond formation (Blue Angels 1through 4) and the Lead and Opposing Solos (Blue Angels 5and 6). Most of the show alternates between maneuvers performed by the Diamond Formation and those performed by the Solos. The Diamond, in tight formation and usually at lower speeds (400 mph), performs maneuvers such as formation loops, rolls, and transitions from one formation to another. The Solos showcase the high performance capabilities of their individual aircraft through the execution of high-speed passes, slow passes, fast rolls, slow rolls, and very tight turns. The highest speed flown during an air show is 700 mph (just under Mach 1) and the lowest speed, is 126 mph (110 knots) during Section High Alpha with the new Super Hornet (about 115 knots with the old "Legacy" Hornet). Some of the maneuvers include both solo aircraft performing at once, such as opposing passes (toward each other in what appears to be a collision course) and mirror formations (back-to-back, belly-to-belly, or wingtip-to-wingtip, with one jet flying inverted). The Solos join the Diamond Formation near the end of the show for a number of maneuvers in the Delta Formation.
The parameters of each show must be tailored in accordance with local weather conditions at showtime: in clear weather the high show is performed; in overcast conditions a low show is performed, and in limited visibility (weather permitting) the flat show is presented. The high show requires at least an ceiling and visibility of at least from the show's center point. The minimum ceilings allowed for low and flat shows are 4,500 feet, and 1,500 feet respectively.
Aircraft
The team flew the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet for 34 years from 1986 through 2020. The team currently flies the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet.
In August 2018, Boeing was awarded a contract to convert nine single-seat F/A-18E Super Hornets and two F/A-18F two-seaters for Blue Angels use. Modifications to each F/A-18E/F include removal of the weapons and replacement with a tank that contains smoke-oil used in demonstrations and outfitting the control stick with a spring system for more precise aircraft control input. Control sticks are tensioned with of force to allow the pilot minimal room for non-commanded movement of the aircraft. Each modified F/A-18 remains in the fleet and can be returned to combat duty aboard an aircraft carrier within 72 hours. As converted aircraft were delivered, they were used for testing maneuvers starting in mid 2020. The team's Super Hornets became operational by the beginning of 2021, their 75th anniversary year.
The show's narrator flies Blue Angels No. 7, a two-seat F/A-18F Hornet, to show sites. The Blues use these jets for backups, and to give demonstration rides to VIP (civilians). Usually, two back seats rides are available at each air show; one goes to a member of the press, and the other to the "Key Influencer". The No. 4 slot pilot often flies the No. 7 aircraft in Friday's "practice" so that pilots from the fleet and future team members can experience the show.
In 2020 the United States Marine Corps Blue Angels purchased a surplus Royal Air Force Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules, Registration ZH885, nicknamed "Fat Albert", for their logistics, carrying spare parts, equipment, and to carry support personnel between show re-registering as 170000.
Team members
, there have been 272 demonstration pilots in the Blue Angels since their inception.
All team members, both officer and enlisted, pilots and staff officers, come from the ranks of regular Navy and United States Marine Corps units. The demonstration pilots and narrator are made up of Navy and USMC Naval Aviators. Pilots serve two to three years, and position assignments are made according to team needs, pilot experience levels, and career considerations for members. Other officers in the squadron include a naval flight officer who serves as the events coordinator, three USMC C-130 pilots, an executive officer, a maintenance officer, a supply officer, a public affairs officer, an administrative officer, and a flight surgeon. Enlisted members range from E-4 to E-9 and perform all maintenance, administrative, and support functions. They serve three to four years in the squadron. After serving with the squadron, members return to fleet assignments.
The officer selection process requires pilots and support officers (flight surgeon, events coordinator, maintenance officer, supply officer, and public affairs officer) wishing to become Blue Angels to apply formally via their chain-of-command, with a personal statement, letters of recommendation, and flight records. Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18 demonstration pilots and naval flight officers are required to have a minimum of 1,250 tactical jet hours and be carrier-qualified. Marine Corps C-130 demonstration pilots are required to have 1,200 flight hours and be an aircraft commander.
Applicants "rush" the team at one or more airshows, paid out of their own finances, and sit in on team briefs, post-show activities, and social events. It is critical that new officers fit the existing culture and team dynamics. The application and evaluation process runs from March through early July, culminating with extensive finalist interviews and team deliberations. Team members vote in secret on the next year's officers. Selections must be unanimous. There have been female and minority staff officers as Blue Angel members, including minority Blue Angel pilot Lt. Andre Webb on the 2018 team. Flight surgeons serve a two-year term. The flight surgeon provides team medical services, evaluates demonstration maneuvers from the ground, and participates in each post-flight debrief. The first female Blue Angel flight surgeon was Lt. Tamara Schnurr, who was a member of the 2001 team.
The Flight Leader (No. 1) is the commanding officer and always holds the rank of commander, and may be promoted to captain mid-tour if approved by the selection board. Pilots of numbers 2–7 are Navy lieutenant commanders or lieutenants, or Marine Corps majors or captains. The No.7 pilot narrates for a year, and then typically flies Opposing and then Lead Solo the following two years, respectively. The No.3 pilot moves to the No.4 (slot) position for their second year. Blue Angel No.4 serves as the demonstration safety officer, due largely to the perspective they are afforded from the slot position within the formation, as well as their status as a second-year demonstration pilot. The first woman named to the Blue Angels as F/A-18 demonstration pilot was Lt. Amanda Lee, who is a member of the 2023 team.
Flight Leader/Commanding Officer
Commander Alexander P. Armatas is a native of Skaneateles, New York. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering. Alexander joined the Blue Angels in August 2022. He has accumulated more than 4,100 flight hours and 911 carrier-arrested landings. His decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, four Strike/Flight Air Medals, five Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, one Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and various personal, unit and service awards.
Training and weekly routine
Annual winter training takes place at NAF El Centro, California, where new and returning pilots hone skills learned in the fleet. During winter training, the pilots fly two practice sessions per day, six days a week, to fly the 120 training missions needed to perform the demonstration safely. The separation between the formation of aircraft and their maneuver altitude is gradually reduced over the course of about two months in January and February. The team then returns to their home base in Pensacola, Florida, in March, and continues to practice throughout the show season. Despite all their winter training, the Blue Angels team work effortlessly to make an impact in the communities they visit as well. A typical week during the season has practices at NAS Pensacola on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. The team then flies to its show venue for the upcoming weekend on Thursday, conducting "circle and arrival" orientation maneuvers upon arrival. The team flies a "practice" airshow at the show site on Friday. This show is attended by invited guests but is often open to the general public. The main airshows are conducted on Saturdays and Sundays, with the team returning home to NAS Pensacola on Sunday evenings after the show. Monday is an off day for the Blues' demonstration pilots and road crew. Extensive aircraft maintenance is performed on Sunday evening and Monday by maintenance team members.
Pilots maneuver the flight stick with their right hand and operate the throttle with their left. They do not wear G-suits because the air bladders inside repeatedly deflate and inflate, increasing the risk of unintentional movement. To compensate for the lack of G-suits, Blue Angel pilots have developed a method for tensing their muscles to prevent blood from pooling in their lower extremities, possibly rendering them unconscious.
History
Overview
The Blue Angels were originally formed in April 1946 as the Navy Flight Exhibition Team. They changed their name to the Blue Angels after seeing an advertisement for the New York nightclub The Blue Angel, also known as The Blue Angel Supper Club, in the New Yorker Magazine. The team was first introduced as the Blue Angels during an air show in July 1946.
The first Blue Angels demonstration aircraft wore navy blue (nearly black) with gold lettering. The current shades of blue and yellow were adopted when the first demonstration aircraft were transitioned from the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat to the Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat in August 1946; the aircraft wore an all-yellow scheme with blue markings during the 1949 show season.
The original Blue Angels insignia or crest was designed in 1949, by Lt. Commander Raleigh "Dusty" Rhodes, their third Flight Leader and first jet fighter leader. The aircraft silhouettes change as the team changes aircraft.
The Blue Angels transitioned from propeller-driven aircraft to blue and gold jet aircraft (Grumman F9F-2B Panther) in August 1949.
The Blue Angels demonstration teams began wearing leather jackets and special colored flight suits with the Blue Angels insignia, in 1952. In 1953, they began wearing gold colored flight suits for the first show of the season and or to commemorate milestones for the flight demonstration squadron.
The Navy Flight Exhibition Team was reorganized and commissioned the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron on 10 December 1973.
1946–1949
The Blue Angels were established as a Navy flight exhibition team on 24 April 1946 by order of Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Chester Nimitz to generate greater public support of naval aviation. To boost Navy morale, demonstrate naval air power, and maintain public interest in naval aviation, an underlying mission was to help the Navy generate public and political support for a larger allocation of the shrinking defense budget. Rear Admiral Ralph Davison personally selected Lieutenant Commander Roy Marlin "Butch" Voris, a World War II fighter ace, to assemble and train a flight demonstration team, naming him Officer-in-Charge and Flight Leader. Voris selected three fellow instructors to join him (Lt. Maurice "Wick" Wickendoll, Lt. Mel Cassidy, and Lt. Cmdr. Lloyd Barnard, veterans of the War in the Pacific), and they spent countless hours developing the show. The group perfected its initial maneuvers in secret over the Florida Everglades so that, in Voris' words, "if anything happened, just the alligators would know". The first four pilots and those after them, were and are some of the best and most experienced aviators in the Navy.
The team's first demonstration with Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat aircraft took place before Navy officials on 10 May 1946 and was met with enthusiastic approval. The United States Navy’s Blue Angels performed their first air show at what is now JaxEx (formerly Craig Municipal Airport, one of 6 airports in the Jacksonville, FL area developed for military training), on June 15, 1946. The exhibition team flew three Gruman F6F Hellcat Fighter planes. (a fourth F6F-5 was held in reserve). On 15 June, Voris led the three Hellcats (numbered 1–3), specially modified to reduce weight and painted sea blue with gold leaf trim, through their inaugural 15-minute-long performance. The team employed a North American SNJ Texan, painted and configured to simulate a Japanese Zero, to simulate aerial combat. This aircraft was later painted yellow and dubbed the "Beetle Bomb". This aircraft is said to have been inspired by one of the Spike Jones' Murdering the Classics series of musical satires, set to the tune (in part) of the William Tell Overture as a thoroughbred horse race scene, with "Beetle Bomb" being the "trailing horse" in the lyrics.
The team thrilled spectators with low-flying maneuvers performed in tight formations, and (according to Voris) by "keeping something in front of the crowds at all times. My objective was to beat the Army Air Corps. If we did that, we'd get all the other side issues. I felt that if we weren't the best, it would be my naval career." The Blue Angels' first public demonstration also netted the team its first trophy, which sits on display at the team's current home at NAS Pensacola. During an air show at Omaha, Nebraska on 19–21 July 1946, the Navy Flight Exhibition Team was introduced as the Blue Angels. The name had originated through a suggestion by Right Wing Pilot Lt. Maurice "Wick" Wickendoll, after he had read about the Blue Angel nightclub in The New Yorker magazine. After ten appearances with the Hellcats, the Hellcats were replaced by the lighter, faster, and more powerful F8F-1 Bearcats on 25 August. By the end of the year the team consisted of four Bearcats numbered 1–4 on the tail sections.
In May 1947, flight leader Lt. Cmdr. Bob Clarke replaced Butch Voris as the leader of the team. The team with an additional fifth pilot, relocated to Naval Air Station (NAS) Corpus Christi, Texas. On 7 June at Birmingham, Alabama, four F8F-1 Bearcats (numbered 1–4) flew in diamond formation for the first time which is now considered the Blue Angels' trademark. A fifth Bearcat was also added that year. A SNJ was used as a Japanese Zero for dogfights with the Bearcats in air shows.
In January 1948, Lt. Cmdr. Raleigh " Dusty" Rhodes took command of the Blue Angels team which was flying four Bearcats and a yellow painted SNJ with USN markings dubbed "Beetle Bomb"; the SNJ represented a Japanese Zero for the air show dogfights with the Bearcats. The name "Blue Angels" also was painted on the Bearcats.
In 1949, the team acquired a Douglas R4D Skytrain for logistics to and from show sites. The team's SNJ was also replaced by another Bearcat, painted yellow for the air combat routine, inheriting the "Beetle Bomb" nickname. In May, the team went to the west coast on temporary duty so the pilots and the rest of the team could become familiar with jet aircraft. On 13 July, the team acquired, and began flying the straight-wing Grumman F9F-2B Panther between demonstration shows. On 20 August, the team debuted the panther jets under Team Leader Lt. Commander Raleigh "Dusty" Rhodes during an air show at Beaumont, Texas and added a sixth pilot. The F8F-1 "Beetle Bomb" was relegated to solo aerobatics before the main show, until it crashed on takeoff at a training show in Pensacola on 24 April 1950, killing "Blues" pilot Lt. Robert Longworth. Team headquarters shifted from NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, to NAAS Whiting Field, Florida, on 10 September 1949, announced 14 July 1949.
1950–1959
The Blue Angels pilots continued to perform nationwide in 1950. On 25 June, the Korean War started, and all Blue Angels pilots volunteered for combat duty. The squadron (due to a shortage of pilots, and no available planes) and its members were ordered to "combat-ready status" after an exhibition at Naval Air Station, Dallas, Texas on 30 July. The Blue Angels were disbanded, and its pilots were reassigned to a carrier. Once aboard the aircraft carrier on 9 November, the group formed the core of Fighter Squadron 191 (VF-19), "Satan's Kittens", under the command of World War II fighter ace and 1950 Blue Angels Commander/Flight Leader, Lt. Commander John Magda; he was killed in action on 8 March 1951.
On 25 October 1951, the Blues were ordered to re-activate as a flight demonstration team, and reported to NAS Corpus Christi, Texas. Lt. Cdr. Voris was again tasked with assembling the team (he was the first of only two commanding officers to lead them twice). In May 1952, the Blue Angels began performing again with F9F-5 Panthers at an airshow in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1953, the team traded its Sky Train for a Curtiss R5C Commando. In August, "Blues" leader LCDR Ray Hawkins became the first naval aviator to survive an ejection at supersonic speeds when a new F9F-6 he was piloting became uncontrollable on a cross-country flight. After summer, the team began demonstrating with F9F-6 Cougar.
In 1954, the first Marine Corps pilot, Captain Chuck Hiett, joined the Navy flight demonstration team. The Blue Angels also received special colored flight suits. In May, the Blue Angels performed at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., with the Air Force Thunderbirds (activated 25 May 1953). The Blue Angels began relocating to their current home at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida that winter, and it was here they progressed to the swept-wing Grumman F9F-8 Cougar. In December, the team left its home base for its first winter training facility at Naval Air Facility El Centro, California
In September 1956, the team added a sixth aircraft to the flight demonstration in the Opposing Solo position, and gave its first performance outside the United States at the International Air Exposition in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It also upgraded its logistics aircraft to the Douglas R5D Skymaster.
In 1957, the Blue Angels transitioned from the F9F-8 Cougar to the supersonic Grumman F11F-1 Tiger. The first demonstration was flying the short-nosed version on 23 March, at Barin Field, Pensacola, and then the long-nosed versions. The demonstration team (with added Angel 6) wore gold flight suits during the first air show that season.
In 1958, the first Six-Plane Delta Maneuvers were added that season.
1960–1969
In July 1964, the Blue Angels participated in the Aeronaves de Mexico Anniversary Air Show over Mexico City, Mexico, before an estimated crowd of 1.5 million people.
In 1965, the Blue Angels conducted a Caribbean island tour, flying at five sites. Later that year, they embarked on a European tour to a dozen sites, including the Paris Air Show, where they were the only team to receive a standing ovation.
In 1967, the Blues toured Europe again, at six sites.
In 1968, the C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft was replaced with a Lockheed VC-121J Constellation. The Blues transitioned to the two-seat McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II in 1969, nearly always keeping the back seat empty for flight demonstrations. The Phantom was the only plane to be flown by both the "Blues" and the United States Air Force Thunderbirds (the "Birds"). That year they also upgraded to the Lockheed C-121 Super Constellation for logistics.
1970–1979
In 1970, the Blues received their first U.S. Marine Corps Lockheed KC-130F Hercules, manned by an all-Marine crew. That year, they went on their first South American tour.
In 1971, the team which wore the gold flight suits for the first show, conducted its first Far East Tour, performing at a dozen locations in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Guam, and the Philippines.
In 1972, the Blue Angels were awarded the Navy's Meritorious Unit Commendation for the two-year period from 1 March 1970 to 31 December 1971. Another European tour followed in 1973, including air shows in Iran, England, France, Spain, Turkey, Greece, and Italy.
On 10 December 1973, the Navy Flight Exhibition Team was reorganized and commissioned the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron. The Blues mission was more on Navy recruiting.
In 1974, the Blue Angels transitioned to the new Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II. Navy Commander Anthony Less became the squadron's first "commanding officer" and "flight leader". A permanent flight surgeon position and administration officer was added to the team. The squadron's mission was redefined by Less to further improve the recruiting effort.
Beginning in 1975, "Bert" was used for Jet Assisted Take Off (JATO) and short aerial demonstrations just prior to the main event at selected venues, but the JATO demonstration ended in 2009 due to dwindling supplies of rockets. "Fat Albert Airlines" flies with an all-Marine crew of three officers and five enlisted personnel.
1980–1989
In 1986, LCDR Donnie Cochran, joined the Blue Angels as the first African-American Naval Aviator to be selected. He served for two more years with the squadron flying the left wing-man position in the No.3 A-4F fighter, and returned to command the Blue Angels in 1995 and 1996.
On 8 November 1986, the Blue Angels completed their 40th anniversary year during ceremonies unveiling what would be their aircraft through their 75th anniversary year, the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The power and aerodynamics of the Hornet allows them to perform a slow, high angle of attack "tail sitting" maneuver, and to fly a "dirty" (landing gear down) formation loop.
1990–1999
In 1992, the Blue Angels deployed for a month-long European tour, their first in 19 years, conducting shows in Sweden, Finland, Russia (first foreign flight demonstration team to perform there), Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Spain.
In 1998, CDR Patrick Driscoll made the first "Blue Jet" landing on a "haze gray and underway" aircraft carrier, USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75).
On 8 October 1999, the Blue Angels lost two pilots. LCDR Kieron O'Connor and LT Kevin Colling were returning from a practice flight before an air show when their F/A-18B crashed in a wooded area of south Georgia.
2000–2009
In 2000, the Navy was conducting investigations in regard and connected to the loss of two Blue Angels pilots in October 1999. The pilots of the F/A-18 Hornet were not required to wear and do not wear g-suits.
In 2006, the Blue Angels marked their 60th year of performing. On 30 October 2008, a spokesman for the team announced that the team would complete its last three performances of the year with five jets instead of six. The change was because one pilot and another officer in the organization had been removed from duty for engaging in an "inappropriate relationship". The Navy said one of the individuals was a man and the other a woman, one a Marine and the other from the Navy, and that Rear Admiral Mark Guadagnini, chief of Naval air training, was reviewing the situation. At the next performance at Lackland Air Force Base following the announcement the No.4 or slot pilot, was absent from the formation. A spokesman for the team would not confirm the identity of the pilot removed from the team. On 6 November 2008, both officers were found guilty at an admiral's mast on unspecified charges but the resulting punishment was not disclosed. The names of the two members involved were later released on the Pensacola News Journal website/forum as pilot No.4 USMC Maj. Clint Harris and the administrative officer, Navy Lt. Gretchen Doane.
On 21 April 2007, pilot Kevin "Kojak" Davis was killed and eight people on the ground were injured when Davis lost control of the No.6 jet and crashed due to G-force-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC) during an air show at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, South Carolina.
The Fat Albert performed its final JATO demonstration at the 2009 Pensacola Homecoming show, expending their eight remaining JATO bottles. This demonstration not only was the last JATO performance of the squadron, but also the final JATO use of the U.S. Marine Corps.
In 2009, the Blue Angels were inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.
2010–2019
On 22 May 2011, the Blue Angels were performing at the Lynchburg Regional Airshow in Lynchburg, Virginia, when the Diamond formation flew the Barrel Roll Break maneuver at an altitude lower than the required minimum. The maneuver was aborted, the remainder of the demonstration canceled and all aircraft landed safely. The next day, the Blue Angels announced that they were initiating a safety stand-down, canceling their upcoming Naval Academy Airshow and returning to their home base in Pensacola, Florida, for additional training and airshow practice. On 26 May, the Blue Angels announced they would not be flying their traditional fly-over of the Naval Academy Graduation Ceremony and that they were canceling their 28–29 May 2011 performances at the Millville Wings and Wheels Airshow in Millville, New Jersey.
On 27 May 2011, the Blue Angels announced that Commander Dave Koss, the squadron's commanding officer, would be stepping down. He was replaced by Captain Greg McWherter, the team's previous commanding officer. The squadron canceled performances at the Rockford, Illinois Airfest 4–5 June and the Evansville, Indiana Freedom Festival Air Show 11–12 June to allow additional practice and demonstration training under McWherter's leadership.
On 29 July 2011, a new Blue Angels Mustang GT was auctioned off for $400,000 at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture Oshkosh (Oshkosh Air Show) annual summer gathering of aviation enthusiasts from 25 to 31 July in Oshkosh, Wisconsin which had an attendance of 541,000 persons and 2,522 show planes.
Between 2 and 4 September 2011 on Labor Day weekend, the Blue Angels flew for the first time with a fifty-fifty blend of conventional JP-5 jet fuel and a camelina-based biofuel at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. McWherter flew an F/A-18 test flight on 17 August and stated there were no noticeable differences in performance from inside the cockpit.
On 1 March 2013, the U.S. Navy announced that it was cancelling remaining 2013 performances after 1 April 2013 due to sequestration budget constraints. In October 2013, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, stating that "community and public outreach is a crucial Departmental activity", announced that the Blue Angels (along with the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds) would resume appearing at air shows starting in 2014, although the number of flyovers will continue to be severely reduced.
On 15 March 2014, the demonstration pilots numbered 1–7 wore gold flight suits to celebrate the team's "return to the skies" during their first air show of the season; there were only three air shows in 2013.
In July 2014, Marine Corps C-130 pilot Capt. Katie Higgins, 27, became the first female pilot to join the Blue Angels, flying the support aircraft Fat Albert for the 2015 and 2016 show seasons.
In July 2015, Cmdr. Bob Flynn became the Blue Angels' first executive officer.
On 2 June 2016, Capt. Jeff Kuss, an Opposing Solo, died just after takeoff while performing the Split-S maneuver in his Hornet during a practice run for The Great Tennessee Air Show in Smyrna, Tennessee. The Navy's investigation found that Capt. Kuss had performed the maneuver too low while failing to retard the throttle out of afterburner, causing him to fall too fast and recover too low above the ground. Capt. Kuss ejected, but his parachute was immediately engulfed in flames, causing him to fall to his death. Kuss' body was recovered just yards away from the crash site. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. The investigation also cited weather and pilot fatigue as additional causes of the crash. In a strange twist, Captain Kuss' fatal crash happened hours after the Blue Angels' fellow pilots in the United States Air Force Thunderbirds suffered a crash of their own, following the United States Air Force Academy graduation ceremony earlier that day. Capt. Jeff Kuss was replaced by Cmdr. Frank Weisser to finish out the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
In July 2016, Boeing was awarded a $12 million contract to begin an engineering proposal for converting the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet for Blue Angels use, with the proposal to be completed by September 2017.
The Fat Albert (BUNO 164763) was retired from service in May 2019 with 30,000 flight hours. The Blue Angels replaced it with an Ex-RAF C-130J (BUNO 170000).
2020–present
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the Blue Angels flew over multiple US cities as a tribute to healthcare and front line workers.
The Blues officially transitioned to Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets on 4 November 2020.
In July 2022, Lt. Amanda Lee was announced as the first woman to serve as a demonstration pilot in the Blue Angels.
Aircraft timeline
The "Blues" have flown ten different demonstration aircraft and six support aircraft models:
Demonstration aircraft
Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat: June – August 1946
Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat: August 1946 – 1949
Grumman F9F-2 Panther: 1949 – June 1950 (first jet); F9F-5 Panther: 1951 – Winter 1954/55
Grumman F9F-8 Cougar: Winter 1954/55 – mid-season 1957 (swept-wing)
Grumman F11F-1 (F-11) Tiger: mid-season 1957 – 1968 (first supersonic jet)
McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II: 1969 – December 1974
Douglas A-4F Skyhawk: December 1974 – November 1986
McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet (F/A-18B as #7): November 1986 – 2010
Boeing F/A-18A/C (B/D as #7) Hornet: 2010-2020
Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet (F/A-18F as #7): 2020–
Support aircraft
JRB Expeditor (Beech 18): 1949–?
Douglas R4D-6 Skytrain: 1949–1955
Curtiss R5C Commando: 1953
Douglas R5D Skymaster: 1956–1968
Lockheed C-121 Super Constellation: 1969–1973
Lockheed C-130 Hercules "Fat Albert": 1970–2019 (JATO usage was stopped in 2009)
Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules "Fat Albert": 2020–present
Miscellaneous aircraft
North American SNJ Texan "Beetle Bomb" (used to simulate a Japanese A6M Zero aircraft in demonstrations during the late 1940s)
Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (Used during the 1950s as a VIP transport aircraft for the team)
Vought F7U Cutlass (two of the unusual F7Us were received in late 1952 and flown as a side demonstration during the 1953 season but they were not a part of their regular formations which at the time used the F9F Panther. Pilots and ground crew found it unsatisfactory and a plan to use it as the team's primary aircraft was canceled).
Air show routine
The 2022 Blue Angels High Show Routine:
Fat Albert (C-130)high-performance takeoff (Low Transition)
Fat AlbertParade Pass (The plane banks around the front of the crowd.)
Fat AlbertFlat Pass
Fat AlbertHead on Pass
Fat AlbertShort-Field Assault Landing
FA-18 Engine Start-Up and Taxi Out
Diamond Takeoffeither a low transition with turn, a loop on takeoff, a Half Cuban Eight takeoff, or a Half Squirrel Cage
Solos Take OffNo. 5 Dirty Roll on Takeoff; No. 6 Low transition/Immelman
Diamond 360Aircraft 1–4 in their signature 18-inch wingtip-to-canopy diamond formation
Opposing Knife Edge Pass 5 and 6
Diamond Rollentire diamond formation rolls as a single entity
Opposing Inverted to Inverted Rolls 5 and 6
Diamond Aileron Rollall four diamond jets perform simultaneous aileron rolls
FortusSolos flying in carrier landing configuration with No.5 inverted, establishing a "mirror image" effect
Diamond Dirty Loopthe diamond flies a loop with all four jets in carrier landing configuration
Minimum Radius Turnhighest G maneuver (No. 5 flies a "horizontal loop" pulling seven Gs to maintain a tight radius.)
Double Farveldiamond formation flat pass with No.1 and No.4 inverted
Opposing Minimum Radius Turn
Echelon Parade
Opposing Horizontal Rolls
Changeover Rolla left Echelon barrel roll where the echelon formation changes over to diamond formation after 90° off bank.
Sneak Passthe fastest speed of the show, just under Mach 1 (about 700 mph at sea level)
Line-Abreast Loopthe most difficult formation maneuver to do well (No.5 joins the diamond as the five jets fly a loop in a straight line.)
Opposing Four Point Hesitation Roll
Vertical Break
Opposing Vertical Pitch
Barrel Roll Break
Tuck Over Roll
Low Break Cross
Section High-Alpha Pass: (tail sitting), the show's slowest maneuver
Diamond Burner 270
Delta Roll
Fleur de Lis
Solos Pass to Rejoin, Diamond flies a loop
Loop Break CrossDelta Break (After the break the aircraft separate in six different directions, perform half Cuban Eights then cross in the center of the performance area.)
Delta Breakout
Delta Pitch Up Carrier Break to Land
Commanding officers
Notable Commanding Officers include;
Roy Marlin Voris – 1946, 1952
John J. Magda – 1950, Killed in Action March 1951, Korean War
Arthur Ray Hawkins – 1952 to 1953
Richard Cormier – 1954 to 1956
Edward B. Holley – 1957 to 1958
Zebulon V. Knott – 1959 to 1961
Kenneth R. Wallace – 1962 to 1963
Robert F. Aumack – 1964 to 1966
William V. Wheat – 1967 to 1969
Harley H. Hall – 1970 to 1971
Don Bently – 1972
Marvin F. "Skip" Umstead – 1973
Anthony A. Less – Oct 1973 to Jan 1976
Keith S. Jones – 1976 to 1978
William E. Newman – 1978 to 1979
Hugh D. Wisely – Dec 1979 to 1982
David Carroll – 1982 to 1983
Larry Pearson – 1983 to 1985
Gilman E. Rud – Nov 1985 to Nov 1988
Gregory Wooldridge – 1990 to 1992, 1996
Robert E. Stumpf – 1993 to 1994
Donnie Cochran – Nov 1994 to May 1996
George B. Dom – Nov 1996 to Oct 1998
Patrick Driscoll – Oct 1998 to 2000
Robert Field – 2000 to Sept 2002
Russell J. Bartlett – Sept 2002 to Sept 2004
Stephen R. Foley – Sept 2004 to Nov 2006
Kevin Mannix – Nov 2006 to 2008
Gregory McWherter 2008 to 2010, 2011
David Koss – Fall 2010 to spring of 2011
Gregory McWherter – 2011 to 2012
Thomas Frosch – 2012 to 2015
Ryan Bernacchi – 2015 to 2017
Eric D. Doyle – 2017 to 2019
Brian C. Kesselring – 2019 to 2022
Alexander P. Armatas – 2022 to present
Notable members
Below are some of the more notable members of the Blue Angels squadron:
Capt Roy "Butch" Voris, World War II fighter ace and first Flight Leader
Charles "Chuck" Brady Jr., Astronaut and physician
Donnie Cochran, First African-American Blue Angels aviator and commander
Edward L. Feightner, World War II fighter ace and Lead Solo
Arthur Ray Hawkins, World War II flying ace
Bob Hoover, World War II fighter pilot and flight instructor, honorary Blue Angel member
Anthony A. Less, First Commanding Officer of Blue Angels squadron, numerous other commands including Naval Air Forces Atlantic Fleet
Robert L. Rasmussen, aviation artist
Raleigh Rhodes, World War II and Korean War fighter pilot and third Flight Leader of the Blue Angels
Patrick M. Walsh, Left Wingman and Slot Pilot who later commanded the U.S. Pacific Fleet and became Vice Chief of Naval Operations and a White House Fellow
Katie Higgins Cook First female Blue Angels pilot
Amanda Lee First female Blue Angels demonstration pilot
Team accidents and deaths
A total of 20 Blue Angels pilots and one crew member have died while assigned to the flight team. Four other pilots died in combat action after their service with the Blue Angels.
Deaths
Lt. Ross "Robby" Robinson29 September 1946: killed during a performance when a wingtip broke off his F8F-1 Bearcat, sending him into an unrecoverable spin.
Lt. Bud Wood7 July 1952: killed when his F9F-5 Panther collided with another Panther jet during a demonstration in Corpus Christi, Texas. The team resumed performances two weeks later.
Cmdr. Robert Nicholls Glasgow14 October 1958: died during an orientation flight just days after reporting for duty as the new Blue Angels leader.
Lt. Anton M. Campanella (#3 Left Wing)14 June 1960: killed flying a Grumman F-11A Tiger that crashed into the water near Fort Morgan, Alabama during a test flight.
Lt. George L. Neale15 March 1964: killed during an attempted emergency landing at Apalach Airport near Apalachicola, Florida. Lt. Neale's F-11A Tiger had experienced mechanical difficulties during a flight from West Palm Beach, to Naval Air Station Pensacola, causing him to attempt the emergency landing. Failing to reach the airport, he ejected from the aircraft on final approach, but his parachute did not have sufficient time to fully deploy.
Lt. Cmdr. Dick Oliver2 September 1966: crashed his F-11A Tiger and was killed at the Canadian International Air Show in Toronto.
Lt Frank Gallagher1 February 1967: killed when his F-11A Tiger stalled during a practice Half Cuban Eight maneuver and spun into the ground.
Capt. Ronald Thompson18 February 1967: killed when his F-11A Tiger struck the ground during a practice formation loop.
Lt. Bill Worley (Opposing Solo)14 January 1968: killed when his Tiger crashed during a practice double Immelmann.
Lt. Larry Watters14 February 1972: killed when his F-4J Phantom II struck the ground, upright, while practicing inverted flight, during winter training at NAF El Centro.
Lt. Cmdr. Skip Umstead (Team Leader), Capt. Mike Murphy, and ADJ1 Ron Thomas (Crew Chief)26 July 1973: all three were killed in a mid-air collision between two Phantoms over Lakehurst, New Jersey, during an arrival practice. The rest of the season was cancelled after this incident.
Lt. Nile Kraft (Opposing Solo)22 February 1977: killed when his Skyhawk struck the ground during practice.
Lt. Michael Curtin8 November 1978: one of the solo Skyhawks struck the ground after low roll during arrival maneuvers at Naval Air Station Miramar, and Curtin was killed.
Lt. Cmdr. Stu Powrie (Lead Solo)22 February 1982: killed when his Skyhawk struck the ground during winter training at Naval Air Facility El Centro, California, just after a dirty loop.
Lt. Cmdr. Mike Gershon (Opposing Solo #6)13 July 1985: his Skyhawk collided with Lt. Andy Caputi (Lead Solo #5) during a show at Niagara Falls, Gershon was killed and Caputi ejected and parachuted to safety.
Lt. Cmdr. Kieron O'Connor and Lt. Kevin Colling28 October 1999: flying in the back seat and front seat of a Hornet, both were killed after striking the ground during circle and arrival maneuvers in Valdosta, Georgia.
Lt. Cmdr. Kevin J. Davis21 April 2007: crashed his Hornet near the end of the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort airshow in Beaufort, South Carolina, and was killed.
Capt. Jeff Kuss (Opposing Solo, #6)2 June 2016: died just after takeoff while performing the Split-S maneuver in his F/A-18 Hornet during a practice run for The Great Tennessee Air Show in Smyrna, Tennessee.
Other incidents
Lt. John R. Dewenter2 August 1958: landed wheels up at Buffalo Niagara International Airport after experiencing engine troubles during a show in Clarence, New York. The Grumman F-11 Tiger landed on Runway 23, but exited airport property, coming to rest in the intersection of Genesee Street and Dick Road, nearly hitting a filling station. Lt. Dewenter was uninjured, but the plane was a total loss.
Lt. Ernie Christensen30 August 1970: belly-landed his F-4J Phantom at The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after he inadvertently left the landing gear in the up position. He ejected safely, while the aircraft slid off the runway.
Cmdr. Harley Hall4 June 1971: safely ejected after his F-4J Phantom jet caught fire during practice over NAS Quonset Point in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, and crashed in Narragansett Bay.
Capt. John Fogg, Lt. Marlin Wiita, and Lt. Cmdr. Don Bentley8 March 1973: all three survived a multi-aircraft mid-air collision during practice over Superstition Mountain, near El Centro, California.
Lt. Jim Ross (Lead Solo)April 1980: unhurt when his Skyhawk suffered a fuel line fire during a show at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, Puerto Rico. Lt. Ross stayed with the plane and landed, leaving the end of the runway and rolling into the woods after a total hydraulic failure upon landing.
Lt. Dave Anderson (Lead Solo)12 February 1987: ejected from his Hornet after a dual engine flame-out during practice near El Centro, California.
Marine Corps Maj. Charles Moseley and Cmdr. Pat Moneymaker23 January 1990: their Blue Angel Hornets suffered a mid-air collision during a practice at El Centro. Moseley ejected safely and Moneymaker was able to land his airplane, which then required a complete right wing replacement.
Lt. Ted Steelman1 December 2004: ejected from his F/A-18 approximately one mile off Perdido Key after his aircraft struck the water, suffering catastrophic engine and structural damage. He suffered minor injuries.
Combat casualties
Four former Blue Angels pilots have been killed in action or died after being captured, all having been downed by anti-aircraft fire.
Korean War
Commander John Magda – 8 March 1951: Blue Angels (1949, 1950; Commander/Flight Leader 1950): Magda was killed after his F9F-2B Panther was hit by anti aircraft fire while leading a low-level strike mission against North Korean and Chinese communist positions at Tanchon which earned him the Navy Cross during the Korean War. He also was a fighter ace in World War II.
Vietnam War
Commander Herbert P. Hunter – 19 July 1967: Blue Angels (1957–1959; Lead Solo pilot): Hunter was hit by anti-aircraft fire in North Vietnam and crashed in his F-8E Crusader during the Vietnam war. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously for actions on 16 July 1967. He also was a Korean War veteran.
Captain Clarence O. Tolbert – 6 November 1972: Blue Angels (1968): Tolbert was flying a Corsair II (A-7B) during a mission in North Vietnam and was hit by anti-aircraft fire, crashed, and died during his second tour in the Vietnam war. He was awarded the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.
Captain Harley H. Hall – 27 January 1973: Blue Angels (1970–1971; Commander/Team Leader 1971): Hall and his co-pilot were shot down by anti-aircraft fire in South Vietnam flying their F-4J Phantom II on the last day of the Vietnam War, and they both were officially listed as prisoners of war. In 1980, Hall was presumed to have died while captured. His remains were identified on 6 September 1994.
In the media
The Blue Angels was a dramatic television series, starring Dennis Cross and Don Gordon, inspired by the team's exploits and filmed with the cooperation of the Navy. It aired in syndication from 26 September 1960 to 3 July 1961.
Threshold: The Blue Angels Experience is a 1975 documentary film, written by Dune author Frank Herbert, featuring the team in practice and performance during their F-4J Phantom era; many of the aerial photography techniques pioneered in Threshold were later used in the film Top Gun.
To Fly!, a short IMAX film featured at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum since its 1976 opening features footage from a camera on a Blue Angels A4 Skyhawk tail as the pilot performs in a show.
In 2005, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary miniseries, Blue Angels: A Year in the Life, focusing on the intricate day-to-day details of that year's training and performance schedule.
In 2009, MythBusters enlisted the aid of Blue Angels to help test the myth that a sonic boom could shatter glass.
Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds is a four-disc SkyTrax DVD set 2012 TOPICS Entertainment, Inc. It features highlights from airshows performed in the United States shot from inside and outside the cockpit including interviews of squadron aviators, plus aerial combat footage taken during Desert Storm, histories of the two flying squadrons from 1947 through 2008 including on-screen notes on changes in Congressional budgeting and research program funding, photo gallery slideshow, and two "forward-looking" sequences Into the 21st Century detailing developments of the F/A-18 Hornet's C and E and F models (10 min.) and footage of the F-22 with commentary (20 min.).
See also
List of United States Navy aircraft squadrons
United States Air Force Thunderbirds
United States Marine Corps Aviation
References
Further reading
(2012). "My incredible flight aboard the Blue Angels" By Charles Atkeison
Blue Angels Timeline (1946–1980) accessed 10 November 2005.
"Grumman and the Blue Angels" article by William C. Barto at the Grumman Memorial Park official website, accessed 15 October 2005.
"First Blue: The story of World War II Ace Butch Voris and the Creation of the Blue Angels" by Robert K. Wilcox, Thomas Dunne Books/St.Martins Press, 2004, robertkwilcox.com
External links
Blue Angels, official U.S. Navy web site
Complete Blue Angels History
The Navy’s Blue Angels (1966), Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Blue Angels Sneak Pass video on Youtube.com
Aircraft squadrons of the United States Navy
American aerobatic teams
Ceremonial units of the United States military |
4950 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born%20again | Born again | To be born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelicalism, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is distinctly and separately caused by the operation of the Holy Spirit, and it is not caused by baptism in water. It is a core doctrine of the denominations of the Anabaptist, Moravian, Methodist, Baptist, Plymouth Brethren and Pentecostal Churches along with all other evangelical Christian denominations. All of these Churches strongly believe Jesus's words in the Gospels: "You must be born again before you can see, or enter, the Kingdom of Heaven" stated in John 3:6-7 in the bible. Their doctrines also mandate that to be both "born again" and "saved", one must have a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
The term born again has its origin in the New Testament. In the First Epistle of Peter, the author describes the new birth as taking place from the seed which is the Word of God. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus himself refers to the Word of God as the seed.
In contemporary Christian usage and apart from evangelicalism, the term is distinct from similar terms which are sometimes used in Christianity in reference to a person who is, or is becoming, a Christian. This usage of the term is usually linked to baptism with water and the related doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Individuals who profess to be "born again" (meaning born in the "Holy Spirit") often state that they have a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ".
In addition to using this phrase with those who do not profess to be Christians, some Evangelical Christians use the phrase and evangelize those who belong to other Christian denominations or groups. This practice is based on the belief that non-Evangelical Christians, even those Christians who are Christians, are "born again" and do not have a "personal relationship with Jesus." They therefore believe that they should evangelize to non-Evangelical Christians in the same way that they would evangelize to people who do not profess the Christian faith.
The phrase "born again" is also used as an adjective to describe individual members of the movement who espouse this belief, and it is also used as an adjective to describe the movement itself ("born-again Christian" and the "born-again movement").
Origin
The term is derived from an event in the Gospel of John in which the words of Jesus were not understood by a Jewish Pharisee, Nicodemus:
The Gospel of John was written in Koine Greek, and the original text is ambiguous which results in a double entendre that Nicodemus misunderstands. The word translated as 'again' is (), which could mean either 'again', or 'from above'. The double entendre is a figure of speech that the gospel writer uses to create bewilderment or misunderstanding in the hearer; the misunderstanding is then clarified by either Jesus or the narrator. Nicodemus takes only the literal meaning from Jesus's statement, while Jesus clarifies that he means more of a spiritual rebirth from above. English translations have to pick one sense of the phrase or another; the NIV, King James Version, and Revised Version use "born again", while the New Revised Standard Version and the New English Translation prefer the "born from above" translation. Most versions will note the alternative sense of the phrase in a footnote.
Edwyn Hoskyns argues that "born from above" is to be preferred as the fundamental meaning and he drew attention to phrases such as "birth of the Spirit", "birth from God", but maintains that this necessarily carries with it an emphasis upon the newness of the life as given by God himself.
The final use of the phrase occurs in the First Epistle of Peter, rendered in the King James Version as:
Here, the Greek word translated as 'born again' is ().
Interpretations
The traditional Jewish understanding of the promise of salvation is interpreted as being rooted in "the seed of Abraham"; that is, physical lineage from Abraham. Jesus explained to Nicodemus that this doctrine was in errorthat every person must have two birthsnatural birth of the physical body and another of the water and the spirit. This discourse with Nicodemus established the Christian belief that all human beingswhether Jew or Gentilemust be "born again" of the spiritual seed of Christ. This understanding is further reinforced in 1 Peter 1:23. The Catholic Encyclopedia states that "[a] controversy existed in the primitive church over the interpretation of the expression the seed of Abraham. It is [the First Epistle of Peter's] teaching in one instance that all who are Christ's by faith are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise. He is concerned, however, with the fact that the promise is not being fulfilled to the seed of Abraham (referring to the Jews)."
Charles Hodge writes that "The subjective change wrought in the soul by the grace of God, is variously designated in Scripture" with terms such as new birth, resurrection, new life, new creation, renewing of the mind, dying to sin and living to righteousness, and translation from darkness to light.
Jesus used the "birth" analogy in tracing spiritual newness of life to a divine beginning. Contemporary Christian theologians have provided explanations for "born from above" being a more accurate translation of the original Greek word transliterated . Theologian Frank Stagg cites two reasons why the newer translation is significant:
The emphasis "from " (implying "from ") calls attention to the source of the "newness of life". Stagg writes that the word 'again' does not include the of the new kind of beginning;
More than personal improvement is needed; "a new destiny requires a new origin, and the new origin must be from God."
An early example of the term in its more modern use appears in the sermons of John Wesley. In the sermon entitled A New Birth he writes, "none can be holy unless he be born again", and "except he be born again, none can be happy even in this world. For[...] a man should not be happy who is not holy." Also, "I say, [a man] may be born again and so become an heir of salvation." Wesley also states infants who are baptized are born again, but for adults it is different:
A Unitarian work called The Gospel Anchor noted in the 1830s that the phrase was not mentioned in any of the Gospels, nor by any Epistles except in that of 1 Peter. "It was not regarded by any of the Evangelists but John of sufficient importance to record." It adds that without John, "we should hardly have known that it was necessary for one to be born again." This suggests that "the text and context was meant to apply to Nicodemus particularly, and not to the world."
Historicity
Scholars of the historical Jesus, who attempt to ascertain how closely the stories of Jesus match the historical events they are based on, generally treat Jesus's conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 with skepticism. It details what is presumably a private conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, with none of the disciples seemingly attending, making it unclear how a record of this conversation was acquired. In addition, the conversation is recorded in no other ancient Christian source other than John and works based on John. According to Bart Ehrman, the larger issue is that the same problem English translations of the Bible have with the Greek () is a problem in the Aramaic language as well: there is no single word in Aramaic that means both 'again' and 'from above', yet the conversation rests on Nicodemus making this misunderstanding. As the conversation was between two Jews in Jerusalem, where Aramaic was the native language, there is no reason to think that they would have spoken in Greek. This implies that even if based on a real conversation, the author of John heavily modified it to include Greek wordplay and idiom.
Denominational positions
Catholicism
Historically, the classic text from John 3 was consistently interpreted by early Church Fathers as a reference to baptism. Modern Catholic interpreters have noted that the phrase 'born from above' or 'born again' is clarified as 'being born of water and Spirit'.
Catholic commentator John F. McHugh notes, "Rebirth, and the commencement of this new life, are said to come about , of water and spirit. This phrase (without the article) refers to a rebirth which the early Church regarded as taking place through baptism."
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) notes that the essential elements of Christian initiation are: "proclamation of the Word, acceptance of the Gospel entailing conversion, profession of faith, Baptism itself, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and admission to Eucharistic communion." Baptism gives the person the grace of forgiveness for all prior sins; it makes the newly baptized person a new creature and an adopted child of God; it incorporates them into the Body of Christ and creates a sacramental bond of unity leaving an indelible mark on the person's soul. "Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, the person baptized is configured to Christ. Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation. Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated." The Holy Spirit is involved with each aspect of the movement of grace. "The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion. [...] Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high."
The Catholic Church also teaches that under special circumstances, the need for water baptism can be superseded by the Holy Spirit in a 'Baptism of desire', such as when catechumens die or are martyred prior to Baptism.
Pope John Paul II wrote in about "the problem of children baptized in infancy [who] come for catechesis in the parish without receiving any other initiation into the faith and still without any explicit personal attachment to Jesus Christ." He noted that "being a Christian means saying 'yes' to Jesus Christ, but let us remember that this 'yes' has two levels: It consists of surrendering to the word of God and relying on it, but it also means, at a later stage, endeavoring to know better—and better the profound meaning of this word."
The modern expression being "born again" is really about the concept of "conversion".
The National Directory of Catechesis (published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB) defines conversion as, "the acceptance of a personal relationship with Christ, a sincere adherence to him, and a willingness to conform one's life to his." To put it more simply, "Conversion to Christ involves making a genuine commitment to him and a personal decision to follow him as his disciple."
Echoing the writings of Pope John Paul II, the National Directory of Catechesis describes a new intervention required by the modern world called the "New Evangelization". This is directed to the Church, to the baptized who were never effectively evangelized before, to those who have never made a personal commitment to Christ and the Gospel, to those formed by the values of secular culture, to those who have lost a sense of faith, and to those who are alienated.
Declan O'Sullivan, co-founder of the Catholic Men's Fellowship and knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, wrote that the "New Evangelization emphasizes the personal encounter with Jesus Christ as a pre-condition for spreading the gospel. The born-again experience is not just an emotional, mystical high; the really important matter is what happened in the convert's life after the moment or period of radical change."
Lutheranism
The Lutheran Church holds that "we are cleansed of our sins and born again and renewed in Holy Baptism by the Holy Ghost. But some Lutherans also teach that whoever is baptized must, through daily contrition and repentance, drown The Old Adam so that daily a new man come forth and arise who walks before God in righteousness and purity forever. Conservative Lutherans teach that whoever lives in sins after his baptism has again lost the grace of baptism."
Moravianism
With regard to the new birth, the Moravian Church holds that a personal conversion to Christianity is a joyful experience, in which the individual "accepts Christ as Lord" after which faith "daily grows inside the person." For Moravians, "Christ lived as a man because he wanted to provide a blueprint for future generations" and "a converted person could attempt to live in his image and daily become more like Jesus." As such, "heart religion" characterizes Moravian Christianity. The Moravian Church has historically emphasized evangelism, especially missionary work, to spread the faith.
Anabaptism
Anabaptist denominations, such as the Mennonites, teach that "True faith entails a new birth, a spiritual regeneration by God's grace and power; 'believers' are those who have become the spiritual children of God." In Anabaptist theology, the pathway to salvation, is "marked not by a forensic understanding of salvation by 'faith alone', but by the entire process of repentance, self-denial, faith rebirth and obedience." Those who wish to tarry this path receive baptism after the new birth.
Anglicanism
The phrase born again is mentioned in the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church in article XV, entitled "Of Christ alone without Sin". In part, it reads: "sin, as S. John saith, was not in Him. But all we the rest, although baptized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things: and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Although the phrase "baptized and born again in Christ" occurs in Article XV, the reference is clearly to the scripture passage in John 3:3.
Reformed
In Reformed theology, Holy Baptism is the sign and the seal of one's regeneration, which is of comfort to the believer. The time of one's regeneration, however, is a mystery to oneself according to the Canons of Dort.
According to the Reformed churches being born again refers to "the inward working of the Spirit which induces the sinner to respond to the effectual call". According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q 88, "the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption are, his ordinances, especially the word, sacraments, and prayer; all of which are made effectual to the elect for salvation." Effectual calling is "the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel."
In Reformed theology, "regeneration precedes faith." Samuel Storms writes that, "Calvinists insist that the sole cause of regeneration or being born again is the will of God. God first sovereignly and efficaciously regenerates, and only in consequence of that do we act. Therefore, the individual is passive in regeneration, neither preparing himself nor making himself receptive to what God will do. Regeneration is a change wrought in us by God, not an autonomous act performed by us for ourselves."
Quakerism
The majority of the world's Quakers are evangelical in churchmanship and teach a born-again experience (cf. Evangelical Friends Church International).
The Central Yearly Meeting of Friends, a Holiness Quaker denomination, teaches that regeneration is the "divine work of initial salvation (Tit. 3:5), or conversion, which involves the accompanying works of justification (Rom. 5:18) and adoption (Rom. 8:15, 16)." In regeneration, which occurs in the new birth, there is a "transformation in the heart of the believer wherein he finds himself a new creation in Christ (II Cor. 5:17; Col. 1:27)."
Following the new birth, George Fox taught the possibility of "holiness of heart and life through the instantaneous baptism with the Holy Spirit subsequent to the new birth" (cf. Christian perfection).
Methodism
In Methodism, the "new birth is necessary for salvation because it marks the move toward holiness. That comes with faith." John Wesley held that the New Birth "is that great change which God works in the soul when he brings it into life, when he raises it from the death of sin to the life of righteousness." In the life of a Christian, the new birth is considered the first work of grace. In keeping with Wesleyan-Arminian covenant theology, the Articles of Religion, in Article XVII – Of Baptism, state that baptism is a "sign of regeneration or the new birth." The Methodist Visitor in describing this doctrine, admonishes individuals: "'Ye must be born again.' Yield to God that He may perform this work in and for you. Admit Him to your heart. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'" Methodist theology teaches that the new birth contains two phases that occur together, justification and regeneration:
Baptists
Baptists teach that people are born again when they believe that Jesus died for their sin, and was buried, and rose again, and that by believing/trusting in Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, eternal life shall be granted as a gift by God. Those who have been born again, according to Baptist teaching, know that they are "[children] of God because the Holy Spirit witnesses to them that they are" (cf. assurance).
Plymouth Brethren
The Plymouth Brethren teach that the new birth effects salvation and those who testify that they have been born again, repented, and have faith in the Scriptures are given the right hand of fellowship, after which they can partake of the Lord's Supper.
Pentecostalism
Holiness Pentecostals historically teach the new birth (first work of grace), entire sanctification (second work of grace) and baptism with the Holy Spirit, as evidenced by glossolalia, as the third work of grace. The new birth, according to Pentecostal teaching, imparts "spiritual life".
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that individuals do not have the power to choose to be born again, but that God calls and selects his followers "from above". Only those belonging to the "144,000" are considered to be born again.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Book of Mormon emphasizes the need for everyone to be reborn of God.
Latter Day Saints believe that to be born again is referring to a true repentance. In otherwords, rejecting the carnal sinful nature of men and making a covenant with God to live a righteous, Christ like life. This covenant is done initially as baptism by immersion at the age of 8, or age of accountability, or when someone newly converts. It is then renewed weekly through partaking of sacrament during church meetings.
It is a common misconception that the Church of Jesus Christ teaches that these ordinances are required works to be "saved". It is actually taught that Christ has already saved all mankind from physical death and will save from spiritual death through repentance and obeying God's commandments at judgement day, after death and resurrection..Baptism and Sacrament are done as according to the faith of a person as an outward expression of an inward commitment to serve God and live a righteous life.
Disagreements between denominations
The term "born again" is used by several Christian denominations, but there are disagreements on what the term means, and whether members of other denominations are justified in claiming to be born-again Christians.
Catholic Answers says:
On the other hand, an Evangelical site argues:
The Reformed view of regeneration may be set apart from other outlooks in at least two ways.
History and usage
Historically, Christianity has used various metaphors to describe its rite of initiation, that is, spiritual regeneration via the sacrament of baptism by the power of the water and the spirit. This remains the common understanding in most of Christendom, held, for example, in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and in other historic branches of Protestantism. However, sometime after the Reformation, Evangelicalism attributed greater significance to the expression born again as an experience of religious conversion, symbolized by deep-water baptism, and rooted in a commitment to one's own personal faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. This same belief is, historically, also an integral part of Methodist doctrine, and is connected with the doctrine of Justification.
According to Encyclopædia Britannica:
According to J. Gordon Melton:
According to Andrew Purves and Charles Partee:
The term born again has become widely associated with the evangelical Christian renewal since the late 1960s, first in the United States and then around the world. Associated perhaps initially with Jesus People and the Christian counterculture, born again came to refer to a conversion experience, accepting Jesus Christ as lord and savior in order to be saved from hell and given eternal life with God in heaven, and was increasingly used as a term to identify devout believers. By the mid-1970s, born again Christians were increasingly referred to in the mainstream media as part of the born again movement.
In 1976, Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson's book Born Again gained international notice. Time magazine named him "One of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in America." The term was sufficiently prevalent so that during the year's presidential campaign, Democratic party nominee Jimmy Carter described himself as "born again" in the first Playboy magazine interview of an American presidential candidate.
Colson describes his path to faith in conjunction with his criminal imprisonment and played a significant role in solidifying the "born again" identity as a cultural construct in the US. He writes that his spiritual experience followed considerable struggle and hesitancy to have a "personal encounter with God." He recalls:
Jimmy Carter was the first President of the United States to publicly declare that he was born-again, in 1976. By the 1980 campaign, all three major candidates stated that they had been born again.
Sider and Knippers state that "Ronald Reagan's election that fall [was] aided by the votes of 61% of 'born-again' white Protestants."
The Gallup Organization reported that "In 2003, 42% of U.S. adults said they were born-again or evangelical; the 2004 percentage is 41%" and that, "Black Americans are far more likely to identify themselves as born-again or evangelical, with 63% of blacks saying they are born-again, compared with 39% of white Americans. Republicans are far more likely to say they are born-again (52%) than Democrats (36%) or independents (32%)."
The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics, referring to several studies, reports "that 'born-again' identification is associated with lower support for government anti-poverty programs." It also notes that "self-reported born-again" Christianity, "strongly shapes attitudes towards economic policy."
Names which have been inspired by the term
The idea of "rebirth in Christ" has inspired some common European forenames: French René/Renée, Dutch Renaat/Renate, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Croatian Renato/Renata, Latin Renatus/Renata, all of which mean "reborn", "born again".
Statistics
The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics notes: "The GSS ... has asked a born-again question on three occasions ... 'Would you say you have been 'born again' or have had a 'born-again' experience?" The Handbook says that "Evangelical, black, and Latino Protestants tend to respond similarly, with about two-thirds of each group answering in the affirmative. In contrast, only about one third of mainline Protestants and one sixth of Catholics (Anglo and Latino) claim a born-again experience." However, the handbook suggests that "born-again questions are poor measures even for capturing evangelical respondents. ... it is likely that people who report a born-again experience also claim it as an identity."
See also
Notes
References
External links
The New Birth, John Wesley, sermon No. 45. Wesley's teaching on being born again, and argument that it is fundamental to Christianity.
Christian fundamentalism
Christian terminology
Evangelical theology |
4952 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell%20B-1%20Lancer | Rockwell B-1 Lancer | The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It has been nicknamed the "Bone" (from "B-One"). It is one of three strategic bombers serving in the U.S. Air Force fleet along with the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress .
The B-1 was first envisioned in the 1960s as a platform that would combine the Mach 2 speed of the B-58 Hustler with the range and payload of the B-52, and was meant to ultimately replace both bombers. After a long series of studies, Rockwell International (now part of Boeing) won the design contest for what emerged as the B-1A. This version had a top speed of Mach 2.2 at high altitude and the ability to fly for long distances at Mach 0.85 at very low altitudes. The combination of the high cost of the aircraft, the introduction of the AGM-86 cruise missile that flew the same basic speed and distance, and early work on the B-2 stealth bomber reduced the need for the B-1. The program was canceled in 1977, after the B-1A prototypes had been built.
The program was restarted in 1981, largely as an interim measure due to delays in the B-2 stealth bomber program. The B-1A design was altered, reducing top speed to Mach 1.25 at high altitude, increasing low-altitude speed to Mach 0.96, extensively improving electronic components, and upgrading the airframe to carry more fuel and weapons. Dubbed the B-1B, deliveries of the new variant began in 1985; the plane formally entered service with Strategic Air Command (SAC) as a nuclear bomber the following year. By 1988, all 100 aircraft had been delivered.
With the disestablishment of SAC and its reassignment to the Air Combat Command in 1992, the B-1B was converted for a conventional bombing role. It first served in combat during Operation Desert Fox in 1998 and again during the NATO action in Kosovo the following year. The B-1B has supported U.S. and NATO military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. As of 2021 the Air Force has 45 B-1Bs. The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is to begin replacing the B-1B after 2025; all B-1s are planned to be retired by 2036.
Development
Background
In 1955, the USAF issued requirements for a new bomber combining the payload and range of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress with the Mach 2 maximum speed of the Convair B-58 Hustler. In December 1957, the USAF selected North American Aviation's B-70 Valkyrie for this role, a six-engine bomber that could cruise at Mach 3 at high altitude (). Soviet Union interceptor aircraft, the only effective anti-bomber weapon in the 1950s, were already unable to intercept the high-flying Lockheed U-2; the Valkyrie would fly at similar altitudes, but much higher speeds, and was expected to fly right by the fighters.
By the late 1950s, however, anti-aircraft surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) could threaten high-altitude aircraft, as demonstrated by the 1960 downing of Gary Powers' U-2. The USAF Strategic Air Command (SAC) was aware of these developments and had begun moving its bombers to low-level penetration even before the U-2 incident. This tactic greatly reduces radar detection distances through the use of terrain masking; using features of the terrain like hills and valleys, the line-of-sight from the radar to the bomber can be broken, rendering the radar (and human observers) incapable of seeing it. Additionally, radars of the era were subject to "clutter" from stray returns from the ground and other objects, which meant a minimum angle existed above the horizon where they could detect a target. Bombers flying at low altitudes could remain under these angles simply by keeping their distance from the radar sites. This combination of effects made SAMs of the era ineffective against low-flying aircraft. The same effects also meant that low-flying aircraft were difficult to detect by higher-flying interceptors, since their radar systems could not readily pick out aircraft against the clutter from ground reflections (lack of look-down/shoot-down capability).
The switch from high-altitude to low-altitude flight profiles severely affected the B-70, the design of which was tuned for high-altitude performance. Higher aerodynamic drag at low level limited the B-70 to subsonic speed while dramatically decreasing its range. The result would be an aircraft with somewhat higher subsonic speed than the B-52, but less range. Because of this, and a growing shift to the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force, the B-70 bomber program was cancelled in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, and the two XB-70 prototypes were used in a supersonic research program.
Although never intended for the low-level role, the B-52's flexibility allowed it to outlast its intended successor as the nature of the air war environment changed. The B-52's huge fuel load allowed it to operate at lower altitudes for longer times, and the large airframe allowed the addition of improved radar jamming and deception suites to deal with radars. During the Vietnam War, the concept that all future wars would be nuclear was turned on its head, and the "big belly" modifications increased the B-52's total bomb load to , turning it into a powerful tactical aircraft which could be used against ground troops along with strategic targets from high altitudes. The much smaller bomb bay of the B-70 would have made it much less useful in this role.
Design studies and delays
Although effective, the B-52 was not ideal for the low-level role. This led to a number of aircraft designs known as penetrators, which were tuned specifically for long-range low-altitude flight. The first of these designs to see operation was the supersonic F-111 fighter-bomber, which used variable-sweep wings for tactical missions. A number of studies on a strategic-range counterpart followed.
The first post-B-70 strategic penetrator study was known as the Subsonic Low-Altitude Bomber (SLAB), which was completed in 1961. This produced a design that looked more like an airliner than a bomber, with a large swept wing, T-tail, and large high-bypass engines. This was followed by the similar Extended Range Strike Aircraft (ERSA), which added a variable-sweep wing, then en vogue in the aviation industry. ERSA envisioned a relatively small aircraft with a payload and a range of including flown at low altitudes. In August 1963, the similar Low-Altitude Manned Penetrator design was completed, which called for an aircraft with a bomb load and somewhat shorter range of .
These all culminated in the October 1963 Advanced Manned Precision Strike System (AMPSS), which led to industry studies at Boeing, General Dynamics, and North American. In mid-1964, the USAF had revised its requirements and retitled the project as Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft (AMSA), which differed from AMPSS primarily in that it also demanded a high-speed high-altitude capability, similar to that of the existing Mach 2-class F-111. Given the lengthy series of design studies, Rockwell engineers joked that the new name actually stood for "America's Most Studied Aircraft".
The arguments that led to the cancellation of the B-70 program had led some to question the need for a new strategic bomber of any sort. The USAF was adamant about retaining bombers as part of the nuclear triad concept that included bombers, ICBMs, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) in a combined package that complicated any potential defense. They argued that the bomber was needed to attack hardened military targets and to provide a safe counterforce option because the bombers could be quickly launched into safe loitering areas where they could not be attacked. However, the introduction of the SLBM made moot the mobility and survivability argument, and a newer generation of ICBMs, such as the Minuteman III, had the accuracy and speed needed to attack point targets. During this time, ICBMs were seen as a less costly option based on their lower unit cost, but development costs were much higher. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara preferred ICBMs over bombers for the Air Force portion of the deterrent force and felt a new expensive bomber was not needed. McNamara limited the AMSA program to studies and component development beginning in 1964.
Program studies continued; IBM and Autonetics were awarded AMSA advanced avionics study contracts in 1968. McNamara remained opposed to the program in favor of upgrading the existing B-52 fleet and adding nearly 300 FB-111s for shorter range roles then being filled by the B-58. He again vetoed funding for AMSA aircraft development in 1968.
B-1A program
President Richard Nixon reestablished the AMSA program after taking office, keeping with his administration's flexible response strategy that required a broad range of options short of general nuclear war. Nixon's Secretary of Defense, Melvin Laird, reviewed the programs and decided to lower the numbers of FB-111s, since they lacked the desired range, and recommended that the AMSA design studies be accelerated. In April 1969, the program officially became the B-1A. This was the first entry in the new bomber designation series, created in 1962. The Air Force issued a request for proposals in November 1969.
Proposals were submitted by Boeing, General Dynamics and North American Rockwell in January 1970. In June 1970, North American Rockwell was awarded the development contract. The original program called for two test airframes, five flyable aircraft, and 40 engines. This was cut in 1971 to one ground and three flight test aircraft. The company changed its name to Rockwell International and named its aircraft division North American Aircraft Operations in 1973. A fourth prototype, built to production standards, was ordered in the fiscal year 1976 budget. Plans called for 240 B-1As to be built, with initial operational capability set for 1979.
Rockwell's design had features common to the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark and North American XB-70 Valkyrie. It used a crew escape capsule, that ejected as a unit to improve crew survivability if the crew had to abandon the aircraft at high speed. Additionally, the design featured large variable-sweep wings in order to provide both more lift during takeoff and landing, and lower drag during a high-speed dash phase. With the wings set to their widest position the aircraft had a much better airfield performance than the B-52, allowing it to operate from a wider variety of bases. Penetration of the Soviet Union's defenses would take place at supersonic speed, crossing them as quickly as possible before entering the more sparsely defended interior of the country where speeds could be reduced again. The large size and fuel capacity of the design would allow the "dash" portion of the flight to be relatively long.
In order to achieve the required Mach 2 performance at high altitudes, the exhaust nozzles and air intake ramps were variable. Initially, it had been expected that a Mach 1.2 performance could be achieved at low altitude, which required that titanium be used in critical areas in the fuselage and wing structure. The low altitude performance requirement was later lowered to Mach 0.85, reducing the amount of titanium and therefore cost. A pair of small vanes mounted near the nose are part of an active vibration damping system that smooths out the otherwise bumpy low-altitude ride. The first three B-1As featured the escape capsule that ejected the cockpit with all four crew members inside. The fourth B-1A was equipped with a conventional ejection seat for each crew member.
The B-1A mockup review occurred in late October 1971; this resulted in 297 requests for alteration to the design due to failures to meet specifications and desired improvements for ease of maintenance and operation. The first B-1A prototype (Air Force serial no. 74–0158) flew on 23 December 1974. As the program continued the per-unit cost continued to rise in part because of high inflation during that period. In 1970, the estimated unit cost was $40 million, and by 1975, this figure had climbed to $70 million.
New problems and cancellation
In 1976, Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected to Japan with his MiG-25 "Foxbat". During debriefing he described a new "super-Foxbat" (almost certainly referring to the MiG-31) that had look-down/shoot-down radar in order to attack cruise missiles. This would also make any low-level penetration aircraft "visible" and easy to attack. Given that the B-1's armament suite was similar to the B-52, and it now appeared no more likely to survive Soviet airspace than the B-52, the program was increasingly questioned. In particular, Senator William Proxmire continually derided the B-1 in public, arguing it was an outlandishly expensive dinosaur. During the 1976 federal election campaign, Jimmy Carter made it one of the Democratic Party's platforms, saying "The B-1 bomber is an example of a proposed system which should not be funded and would be wasteful of taxpayers' dollars."
When Carter took office in 1977 he ordered a review of the entire program. By this point the projected cost of the program had risen to over $100 million per aircraft, although this was lifetime cost over 20 years. He was informed of the relatively new work on stealth aircraft that had started in 1975, and he decided that this was a better approach than the B-1. Pentagon officials also stated that the AGM-86 Air-Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) launched from the existing B-52 fleet would give the USAF equal capability of penetrating Soviet airspace. With a range of , the ALCM could be launched well outside the range of any Soviet defenses and penetrate at low altitude like a bomber (with a much lower radar cross-section (RCS) due to smaller size), and in much greater numbers at a lower cost. A small number of B-52s could launch hundreds of ALCMs, saturating the defense. A program to improve the B-52 and develop and deploy the ALCM would cost at least 20% less than the planned 244 B-1As.
On 30 June 1977, Carter announced that the B-1A would be canceled in favor of ICBMs, SLBMs, and a fleet of modernized B-52s armed with ALCMs. Carter called it "one of the most difficult decisions that I've made since I've been in office." No mention of the stealth work was made public with the program being top secret, but it is now known that in early 1978 he authorized the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) project, which eventually led to the B-2 Spirit.
Domestically, the reaction to the cancellation was split along partisan lines. The Department of Defense was surprised by the announcement; it expected that the number of B-1s ordered would be reduced to around 150. Congressman Robert Dornan (R-CA) claimed, "They're breaking out the vodka and caviar in Moscow." However, it appears the Soviets were more concerned by large numbers of ALCMs representing a much greater threat than a smaller number of B-1s. Soviet news agency TASS commented that "the implementation of these militaristic plans has seriously complicated efforts for the limitation of the strategic arms race." Western military leaders were generally happy with the decision. NATO commander Alexander Haig described the ALCM as an "attractive alternative" to the B-1. French General Georges Buis stated "The B-1 is a formidable weapon, but not terribly useful. For the price of one bomber, you can have 200 cruise missiles."
Flight tests of the four B-1A prototypes for the B-1A program continued through April 1981. The program included 70 flights totaling 378 hours. A top speed of Mach 2.22 was reached by the second B-1A. Engine testing also continued during this time with the YF101 engines totaling almost 7,600 hours.
Shifting priorities
It was during this period that the Soviets started to assert themselves in several new theaters of action, in particular through Cuban proxies during the Angolan Civil War starting in 1975 and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. U.S. strategy to this point had been focused on containing Communism and preparation for war in Europe. The new Soviet actions revealed that the military lacked capability outside these narrow confines.
The U.S. Department of Defense responded by accelerating its Rapid Deployment Forces concept but suffered from major problems with airlift and sealift capability. In order to slow an enemy invasion of other countries, air power was critical; however the key Iran-Afghanistan border was outside the range of the U.S. Navy's carrier-based attack aircraft, leaving this role to the U.S. Air Force.
During the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan campaigned heavily on the platform that Carter was weak on defense, citing the cancellation of the B-1 program as an example, a theme he continued using into the 1980s. During this time Carter's defense secretary, Harold Brown, announced the stealth bomber project, apparently implying that this was the reason for the B-1 cancellation.
B-1B program
On taking office, Reagan was faced with the same decision as Carter before: whether to continue with the B-1 for the short term, or to wait for the development of the ATB, a much more advanced aircraft. Studies suggested that the existing B-52 fleet with ALCM would remain a credible threat until 1985. It was predicted that 75% of the B-52 force would survive to attack its targets. After 1985, the introduction of the SA-10 missile, the MiG-31 interceptor and the first effective Soviet Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) systems would make the B-52 increasingly vulnerable. During 1981, funds were allocated to a new study for a bomber for the 1990s time-frame which led to developing the Long-Range Combat Aircraft (LRCA) project. The LRCA evaluated the B-1, F-111, and ATB as possible solutions; an emphasis was placed on multi-role capabilities, as opposed to purely strategic operations.
In 1981, it was believed the B-1 could be in operation before the ATB, covering the transitional period between the B-52's increasing vulnerability and the ATB's introduction. Reagan decided the best solution was to procure both the B-1 and ATB, and on 2 October 1981 he announced that 100 B-1s were to be ordered to fill the LRCA role.
In January 1982, the U.S. Air Force awarded two contracts to Rockwell worth a combined $2.2 billion for the development and production of 100 new B-1 bombers. Numerous changes were made to the design to make it better suited to the now expected missions, resulting in the B-1B. These changes included a reduction in maximum speed, which allowed the variable-aspect intake ramps to be replaced by simpler fixed geometry intake ramps. This reduced the B-1B's radar cross-section which was seen as a good trade off for the speed decrease. High subsonic speeds at low altitude became a focus area for the revised design, and low-level speeds were increased from about Mach 0.85 to 0.92. The B-1B has a maximum speed of Mach 1.25 at higher altitudes.
The B-1B's maximum takeoff weight was increased to from the B-1A's . The weight increase was to allow for takeoff with a full internal fuel load and for external weapons to be carried. Rockwell engineers were able to reinforce critical areas and lighten non-critical areas of the airframe, so the increase in empty weight was minimal. To deal with the introduction of the MiG-31 equipped with the new Zaslon radar system, and other aircraft with look-down capability, the B-1B's electronic warfare suite was significantly upgraded.
Opposition to the plan was widespread within Congress. Critics pointed out that many of the original problems remained in both areas of performance and expense. In particular it seemed the B-52 fitted with electronics similar to the B-1B would be equally able to avoid interception, as the speed advantage of the B-1 was now minimal. It also appeared that the "interim" time frame served by the B-1B would be less than a decade, being rendered obsolete shortly after the introduction of a much more capable ATB design. The primary argument in favor of the B-1 was its large conventional weapon payload, and that its takeoff performance allowed it to operate with a credible bomb load from a much wider variety of airfields. Production subcontracts were spread across many congressional districts, making the aircraft more popular on Capitol Hill.
B-1A No. 1 was disassembled and used for radar testing at the Rome Air Development Center in the former Griffiss Air Force Base, New York. B-1As No. 2 and No. 4 were then modified to include B-1B systems. The first B-1B was completed and began flight testing in March 1983. The first production B-1B was rolled out on 4 September 1984 and first flew on 18 October 1984. The 100th and final B-1B was delivered on 2 May 1988; before the last B-1B was delivered, the USAF had determined that the aircraft was vulnerable to Soviet air defenses.
Design
Overview
The B-1 has a blended wing body configuration, with variable-sweep wing, four turbofan engines, triangular ride-control fins and cruciform tail. The wings can sweep from 15 degrees to 67.5 degrees (full forward to full sweep). Forward-swept wing settings are used for takeoff, landings and high-altitude economical cruise. Aft-swept wing settings are used in high subsonic and supersonic flight. The B-1's variable-sweep wings and thrust-to-weight ratio provide it with improved takeoff performance, allowing it to use shorter runways than previous bombers. The length of the aircraft presented a flexing problem due to air turbulence at low altitude. To alleviate this, Rockwell included small triangular fin control surfaces or vanes near the nose on the B-1. The B-1's Structural Mode Control System moves the vanes, and lower rudder, to counteract the effects of turbulence and smooth out the ride.
Unlike the B-1A, the B-1B cannot reach Mach 2+ speeds; its maximum speed is Mach 1.25 (about 950 mph or 1,530 km/h at altitude), but its low-level speed increased to Mach 0.92 (700 mph, 1,130 km/h). The speed of the current version of the aircraft is limited by the need to avoid damage to its structure and air intakes. To help lower its radar cross-section, the B-1B uses serpentine air intake ducts (see S-duct) and fixed intake ramps, which limit its speed compared to the B-1A. Vanes in the intake ducts serve to deflect and shield radar returns from the highly reflective engine compressor blades.
The B-1A's engine was modified slightly to produce the GE F101-102 for the B-1B, with an emphasis on durability, and increased efficiency. The core from this engine was subsequently used in several other engines, including the GE F110 used in the F-14 Tomcat, F-15K/SG variants and later versions of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. It is also the basis for the non-afterburning GE F118 used in the B-2 Spirit and the U-2S. The F101 engine core is also used in the CFM56 civil engine.
The nose-gear door is the location for ground-crew control of the auxiliary power unit (APU) which can be used during a scramble for quick-starting the APU.
Avionics
The B-1's main computer is the IBM AP-101, which was also used on the Space Shuttle orbiter and the B-52 bomber. The computer is programmed with the JOVIAL programming language. The Lancer's offensive avionics include the Westinghouse (now Northrop Grumman) AN/APQ-164 forward-looking offensive passive electronically scanned array radar set with electronic beam steering (and a fixed antenna pointed downward for reduced radar observability), synthetic aperture radar, ground moving target indication (GMTI), and terrain-following radar modes, Doppler navigation, radar altimeter, and an inertial navigation suite. The B-1B Block D upgrade added a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver beginning in 1995.
The B-1's defensive electronics include the Eaton AN/ALQ-161A radar warning and defensive jamming equipment, which has three sets of antennas; one at the front base of each wing and the third rear-facing in the tail radome. Also in the tail radome is the AN/ALQ-153 missile approach warning system (pulse-Doppler radar). The ALQ-161 is linked to a total of eight AN/ALE-49 flare dispensers located on top behind the canopy, which are handled by the AN/ASQ-184 avionics management system. Each AN/ALE-49 dispenser has a capacity of 12 MJU-23A/B flares. The MJU-23A/B flare is one of the world's largest infrared countermeasure flares at a weight of over . The B-1 has also been equipped to carry the ALE-50 towed decoy system.
Also aiding the B-1's survivability is its relatively low RCS. Although not technically a stealth aircraft, thanks to the aircraft's structure, serpentine intake paths and use of radar-absorbent material its RCS is about 1/50th that of the similar sized B-52. This is approximately 26 ft2 or 2.4 m2, comparable to that of a small fighter aircraft.
The B-1 holds 61 FAI world records for speed, payload, distance, and time-to-climb in different aircraft weight classes. In November 1993, three B-1Bs set a long-distance record for the aircraft, which demonstrated its ability to conduct extended mission lengths to strike anywhere in the world and return to base without any stops. The National Aeronautic Association recognized the B-1B for completing one of the 10 most memorable record flights for 1994.
Upgrades
The B-1 has been upgraded since production, beginning with the "Conventional Mission Upgrade Program" (CMUP), which added a new MIL-STD-1760 smart-weapons interface to enable the use of precision-guided conventional weapons. CMUP was delivered through a series of upgrades:
Block A was the standard B-1B with the capability to deliver non-precision gravity bombs.
Block B brought an improved Synthetic Aperture Radar, and upgrades to the Defensive Countermeasures System and was fielded in 1995.
Block C provided an "enhanced capability" for delivery of up to 30 cluster bomb units (CBUs) per sortie with modifications made to 50 bomb racks.
Block D added a "Near Precision Capability" via improved weapons and targeting systems, and added advanced secure communications capabilities. The first part of the electronic countermeasures upgrade added Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), ALE-50 towed decoy system, and anti-jam radios.
Block E upgraded the avionics computers and incorporated the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD), the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) and the AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air to Surface Standoff Munition), substantially improving the bomber's capability. Upgrades were completed in September 2006.
Block F was the Defensive Systems Upgrade Program (DSUP) to improve the aircraft's electronic countermeasures and jamming capabilities, but it was canceled in December 2002 due to cost overruns and delays.
In 2007, the Sniper XR targeting pod was integrated on the B-1 fleet. The pod is mounted on an external hardpoint at the aircraft's chin near the forward bomb bay. Following accelerated testing, the Sniper pod was fielded in summer 2008. Future precision munitions include the Small Diameter Bomb.
The USAF commenced the Integrated Battle Station (IBS) modification in 2012 as a combination of three separate upgrades when it realised the benefits of completing them concurrently; the Fully Integrated Data Link (FIDL), Vertical Situational Display Unit (VSDU) and Central Integrated Test System (CITS). FIDL enables electronic data sharing, eliminating the need to enter information between systems by hand. VSDU replaces existing flight instruments with multifunction color displays, a second display aids with threat evasion and targeting, and acts as a back-up display. CITS saw a new diagnostic system installed that allows crew to monitor over 9,000 parameters on the aircraft. Other additions are to replace the two spinning mass gyroscopic inertial navigation system with ring laser gyroscopic systems and a GPS antenna, replacement of the APQ-164 radar with the Scalable Agile Beam Radar – Global Strike (SABR-GS) active electronically scanned array, and a new attitude indicator. The IBS upgrades were completed in 2020.
In August 2019, the Air Force unveiled a modification to the B-1B to allow it to carry more weapons internally and externally. Using the moveable forward bulkhead, space in the intermediate bay was increased from 180 to 269 in (457 to 683 cm). Expanding the internal bay to make use of the Common Strategic Rotary Launcher (CSRL), as well as utilizing six of the eight external hardpoints that had been previously out of use to keep in line with the New START Treaty, would increase the B-1B's weapon load from 24 to 40. The configuration also enables it to carry heavier weapons in the 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) range, such as hypersonic missiles; the AGM-183 ARRW is planned for integration onto the bomber. In the future the HAWC could be used by the bomber which, combining both internal and external weapon carriage, could conceivably bring the total number of hypersonic weapons to 31.
Operational history
Strategic Air Command
The second B-1B, "The Star of Abilene", was the first B-1B delivered to SAC in June 1985. Initial operational capability was reached on 1 October 1986 and the B-1B was placed on nuclear alert status. The B-1 received the official name "Lancer" on 15 March 1990. However, the bomber has been commonly called the "Bone"; a nickname that appears to stem from an early newspaper article on the aircraft wherein its name was phonetically spelled out as "B-ONE" with the hyphen inadvertently omitted.
In late 1990, engine fires in two Lancers led to a grounding of the fleet. The cause was traced back to problems in the first-stage fan, and the aircraft were placed on "limited alert"; in other words, they were grounded unless a nuclear war broke out. Following inspections and repairs they were returned to duty beginning on 6 February 1991. By 1991, the B-1 had a fledgling conventional capability, forty of them able to drop the Mk-82 General Purpose (GP) bomb, although mostly from low altitude. Despite being cleared for this role, the problems with the engines prevented their use in Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War. B-1s were primarily reserved for strategic nuclear strike missions at this time, providing the role of airborne nuclear deterrent against the Soviet Union. The B-52 was more suited to the role of conventional warfare and it was used by coalition forces instead.
Originally designed strictly for nuclear war, the B-1's development as an effective conventional bomber was delayed. The collapse of the Soviet Union had brought the B-1's nuclear role into question, leading to President George H. W. Bush ordering a $3 billion conventional refit.
After the inactivation of SAC and the establishment of the Air Combat Command (ACC) in 1992, the B-1 developed a greater conventional weapons capability. Part of this development was the start-up of the U.S. Air Force Weapons School B-1 Division. In 1994, two additional B-1 bomb wings were also created in the Air National Guard, with former fighter wings in the Kansas Air National Guard and the Georgia Air National Guard converting to the aircraft. By the mid-1990s, the B-1 could employ GP weapons as well as various CBUs. By the end of the 1990s, with the advent of the "Block D" upgrade, the B-1 boasted a full array of guided and unguided munitions.
The B-1B no longer carries nuclear weapons; its nuclear capability was disabled by 1995 with the removal of nuclear arming and fuzing hardware. Under provisions of the New START treaty with Russia, further conversions were performed. These included modification of aircraft hardpoints to prevent nuclear weapon pylons from being attached, removal of weapons bay wiring bundles for arming nuclear weapons, and destruction of nuclear weapon pylons. The conversion process was completed in 2011, and Russian officials inspect the aircraft every year to verify compliance.
Air Combat Command
The B-1 was first used in combat in support of operations in Iraq during Operation Desert Fox in December 1998, employing unguided GP weapons. B-1s have been subsequently used in Operation Allied Force (Kosovo) and, most notably, in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The B-1 has deployed an array of conventional weapons in war zones, most notably the GBU-31, JDAM. In the first six months of Operation Enduring Freedom, eight B-1s dropped almost 40 percent of aerial ordnance, including some 3,900 JDAMs. JDAM munitions were heavily used by the B-1 over Iraq, notably on 7 April 2003 in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Saddam Hussein and his two sons. During Operation Enduring Freedom, the B-1 was able to raise its mission capable rate to 79%.
Of the 100 B-1Bs built, 93 remained in 2000 after losses in accidents. In June 2001, the Pentagon sought to place one-third of its then fleet into storage; this proposal resulted in several U.S. Air National Guard officers and members of Congress lobbying against the proposal, including the drafting of an amendment to prevent such cuts. The 2001 proposal was intended to allow money to be diverted to further upgrades to the remaining B-1Bs, such as computer modernization. In 2003, accompanied by the removal of B-1Bs from the two bomb wings in the Air National Guard, the USAF decided to retire 33 aircraft to concentrate its budget on maintaining availability of remaining B-1Bs. In 2004, a new appropriation bill called for some retired aircraft to return to service, and the USAF returned seven mothballed bombers to service to increase the fleet to 67 aircraft.
On 14 July 2007, the Associated Press reported on the growing USAF presence in Iraq, including reintroduction of B-1Bs as a close-at-hand platform to support Coalition ground forces. Beginning in 2008, B-1s were used in Iraq and Afghanistan in an "armed overwatch" role, loitering for surveillance purposes while ready to deliver guided bombs in support of ground troops as required.
The B-1B underwent a series of flight tests using a 50/50 mix of synthetic and petroleum fuel; on 19 March 2008, a B-1B from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, became the first USAF aircraft to fly at supersonic speed using a synthetic fuel during a flight over Texas and New Mexico. This was conducted as part of an USAF testing and certification program to reduce reliance on traditional oil sources. On 4 August 2008, a B-1B flew the first Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod equipped combat sortie where the crew successfully targeted enemy ground forces and dropped a GBU-38 guided bomb in Afghanistan.
In March 2011, B-1Bs from Ellsworth Air Force Base attacked undisclosed targets in Libya as part of Operation Odyssey Dawn.
With upgrades to keep the B-1 viable, the USAF may keep it in service until approximately 2038. Despite upgrades, a single flight hour needs 48.4 hours of repair. The fuel, repairs, and other needs for a 12-hour mission cost $720,000 (~$ in ) as of 2010. The $63,000 cost per flight hour is, however, less than the $72,000 for the B-52 and the $135,000 of the B-2. In June 2010, senior USAF officials met to consider retiring the entire fleet to meet budget cuts. The Pentagon plans to begin replacing the aircraft with the B-21 Raider after 2025. In the meantime, its "capabilities are particularly well-suited to the vast distances and unique challenges of the Pacific region, and we'll continue to invest in, and rely on, the B-1 in support of the focus on the Pacific" as part of President Obama's "Pivot to East Asia".
In August 2012, the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron returned from a six-month tour in Afghanistan. Its 9 B-1Bs flew 770 sorties, the most of any B-1B squadron on a single deployment. The squadron spent 9,500 hours airborne, keeping one of its bombers in the air at all times. They accounted for a quarter of all combat aircraft sorties over the country during that time and fulfilled an average of two to three air support requests per day. On 4 September 2013, a B-1B participated in a maritime evaluation exercise, deploying munitions such as laser-guided 500 lb GBU-54 bombs, 500 lb and 2,000 lb JDAM, and Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM). The aim was to detect and engage several small craft using existing weapons and tactics developed from conventional warfare against ground targets; the B-1 is seen as a useful asset for maritime duties such as patrolling shipping lanes.
Beginning in 2014, the B-1 was used against the Islamic State (IS) in the Syrian Civil War. From August 2014 to January 2015, the B-1 accounted for eight percent of USAF sorties during Operation Inherent Resolve. The 9th Bomb Squadron was deployed to Qatar in July 2014 to support missions in Afghanistan, but when the air campaign against IS began on 8 August, the aircraft were employed in Iraq. During the Battle of Kobane in Syria, the squadron's B-1s dropped 660 bombs over 5 months in support of Kurdish forces defending the city. This amounted to one-third of all bombs used during OIR during the period, and they killed some 1,000 ISIL fighters. The 9th Bomb Squadron's B-1s went "Winchester"–dropping all weapons on board–31 times during their deployment. They dropped over 2,000 JDAMs during the six-month rotation. B-1s from the 28th Bomb Wing flew 490 sorties where they dropped 3,800 munitions on 3,700 targets during a six-month deployment. In February 2016, the B-1s were sent back to the U.S. for cockpit upgrades.
Air Force Global Strike Command
As part of a USAF reorganization announced in April 2015, all B-1s were reassigned from Air Combat Command to Global Strike Command (GSC) in October 2015.
On 8 July 2017, the USAF flew two B-1s near the North Korean border in a show of force amid increasing tensions, particularly in response to North Korea's 4 July test of an ICBM capable of reaching Alaska.
On 14 April 2018, B-1s launched 19 JASSM missiles as part of the 2018 bombing of Damascus and Homs in Syria. In August 2019, six B-1Bs met full mission capability; 15 were undergoing depot maintenance and 39 under repair and inspection.
In February 2021, the USAF announced it will retire 17 B-1s, leaving 45 aircraft in service. Four of these will be stored in a condition that will allow their return to service if required.
In March 2021, B-1s deployed to Norway's Ørland Main Air Station for the first time. During the deployment, they conducted bombing training with Norwegian and Swedish ground force Joint terminal attack controllers. One B-1 also conducted a warm-pit refuel at Bodø Main Air Station, marking the first landing inside Norway's Arctic Circle, and integrated with four Swedish Air Force JAS 39 Gripen fighters.
Variants
B-1A The B-1A was the original B-1 design with variable engine intakes and Mach 2.2 top speed. Four prototypes were built; no production units were manufactured.
B-1B The B-1B is a revised B-1 design with reduced radar signature and a top speed of Mach 1.25. It is optimized for low-level penetration. A total of 100 B-1Bs were produced.
B-1R The B-1R was a 2004 proposed upgrade of existing B-1B aircraft. The B-1R (R for "regional") would be fitted with advanced radars, air-to-air missiles, and new Pratt & Whitney F119 engines (from the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor). This variant would have a top speed of Mach 2.2, but with 20% shorter range. Existing external hardpoints would be modified to allow multiple conventional weapons to be carried, increasing overall loadout. For air-to-air defense, an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar would be added and some existing hardpoints modified to carry air-to-air missiles.
Operators
The USAF had 62 B-1Bs in service as of August 2017.
Aircraft on display
B-1A
B-1B
Accidents and incidents
From 1984 to 2001, ten B-1s were lost due to accidents with 17 crew members or people on board killed.
In September 1987, B-1B (serial number 84–0052) from the 96th Bomb Wing, 338th Combat Crew Training Squadron, Dyess AFB, crashed near La Junta, Colorado, while flying on a low-level training route. This was the only B-1B crash to occur with six crew members aboard. The two crew members in jump seats, and one of the four crew members in ejection seats perished. The root cause of the accident was thought to be a bird strike on a wing's leading edge during the low-level flight. The impact was severe enough to sever fuel and hydraulic lines on one side of the aircraft, while the other side's engines functioned long enough to allow for ejection. The B-1B fleet was later modified to protect these supply lines.
In October 1990, while flying a training route in eastern Colorado, B-1B (86-0128) from the 384th Bomb Wing, 28th Bomb Squadron, McConnell AFB, experienced an explosion as the engines reached full power without afterburners. Fire on the aircraft's left was spotted. The No. 1 engine was shut down and its fire extinguisher was activated. The accident investigation determined that the engine had suffered catastrophic failure, engine blades had cut through the engine mounts and the engine became detached from the aircraft.
In December 1990, B-1B (83-0071) from the 96th Bomb Wing, 337th Bomb Squadron, Dyess AFB, Texas, experienced a jolt that caused the No. 3 engine to shut down with its fire extinguisher activating. This event, coupled with the October 1990 engine incident, led to a 50+ day grounding of the B-1Bs not on nuclear alert status. The problem was eventually traced back to problems in the first-stage fan, and all B-1Bs were equipped with modified engines.
Specifications (B-1B)
Weapons loads
Notable appearances in media
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
Dao, James. "Much-Maligned B-1 Bomber Proves Hard to Kill." The New York Times, 1 August 2001.
Donald, David, ed. "Rockwell B-1B". The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1997. .
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External links
B-1B Fact Sheet on af.mil
B-1B product page and B-1B history page on Boeing.com
B-1 history page on NASA/Langley Research Center site
B-1B Lancer in Airman Magazine's Airframe Profiles
Aircraft first flown in 1974
Cruciform tail aircraft
Quadjets
B-001
1970s United States bomber aircraft
Variable-sweep-wing aircraft
Supersonic aircraft
Strategic bombers |
4953 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book%20of%20Common%20Prayer | Book of Common Prayer | The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The first prayer book, published in 1549 in the reign of King Edward VI of England, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with Rome. The work of 1549 was the first prayer book to include the complete forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English. It contained Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Litany, and Holy Communion and also the occasional services in full: the orders for Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, "prayers to be said with the sick", and a funeral service. It also set out in full the "propers" (that is the parts of the service which varied week by week or, at times, daily throughout the Church's Year): the introits, collects, and epistle and gospel readings for the Sunday service of Holy Communion. Old Testament and New Testament readings for daily prayer were specified in tabular format as were the Psalms and canticles, mostly biblical, that were provided to be said or sung between the readings.
The 1549 book was soon succeeded by a 1552 revision which was more Reformed but from the same editorial hand, that of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was used only for a few months, as after Edward VI's death in 1553, his half-sister Mary I restored Roman Catholic worship. Mary died in 1558 and, in 1559, Elizabeth I's first Parliament authorised the 1559 prayer book, which effectively reintroduced the 1552 book with modifications to make it acceptable to more traditionally minded worshippers and clergy.
In 1604, James I ordered some further changes, the most significant being the addition to the Catechism of a section on the Sacraments; this resulted in the 1604 Book of Common Prayer. Following the tumultuous events surrounding the English Civil War, when the Prayer Book was again abolished, another revision was published as the 1662 prayer book. That edition remains the official prayer book of the Church of England, although throughout the later twentieth century, alternative forms which were technically supplements have largely displaced the Book of Common Prayer for the main Sunday worship of most English parish churches.
Various permutations of the Book of Common Prayer with local variations are used in churches within and exterior to the Anglican Communion in over 50 countries and over 150 different languages. In many of these churches, the 1662 prayer book remains authoritative even if other books or patterns have replaced it in regular worship.
Traditional English-language Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian prayer books have borrowed from the Book of Common Prayer, and the marriage and burial rites have found their way into those of other denominations and into the English language. Like the King James Version of the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, many words and phrases from the Book of Common Prayer have entered common parlance.
Full name
The full name of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England, Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be Sung or said in churches: And the Form and Manner of Making, ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.
History
Background
The forms of parish worship in the late mediaeval church in England, which followed the Latin Roman Rite, varied according to local practice. By far the most common form, or "use", found in Southern England was that of Sarum (Salisbury). However, there was no single book; the services that would be provided by the Book of Common Prayer were to be found in the Missal (the Eucharist), the Breviary (daily offices), Manual (the occasional services of baptism, marriage, burial etc.), and Pontifical (services appropriate to a bishop—confirmation, ordination). The chant (plainsong, plainchant) for worship was contained in the Roman Gradual for the Mass, the Antiphonale for the offices, and the Processionale for the litanies. The Book of Common Prayer has never contained prescribed music or chant; however, John Merbecke produced his Booke of Common Praier noted in 1550, which set what would have been the ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Creed, etc.) in the new BCP to simple plainchant inspired by Sarum Use.
The work of producing a liturgy in the English language was largely done by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, starting cautiously in the reign of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and then more radically under his son Edward VI (1547–1553). In his early days, Cranmer was a conservative humanist, and an admirer of Erasmus. After 1531, Cranmer's contacts with reformers from continental Europe helped to change his outlook. The Exhortation and Litany, the earliest English-language service of the Church of England, was the first overt manifestation of his changing views. It was no mere translation from the Latin, instead making its Protestant character clear by the drastic reduction of the place of saints, compressing what had been the major part into three petitions. Published in 1544, the Exhortation and Litany borrowed greatly from Martin Luther's Litany and Myles Coverdale's New Testament and was the only service that might be considered Protestant to have been finished within the lifetime of Henry VIII.
1549 prayer book
Only after the death of Henry VIII and the accession of Edward VI in 1547 could revision of prayer books proceed faster. Despite conservative opposition, Parliament passed the Act of Uniformity on 21 January 1549, and the newly authorised Book of Common Prayer (BCP) was required to be in use by Whitsunday (Pentecost), 9 June. Cranmer is "credited [with] the overall job of editorship and the overarching structure of the book," though he borrowed and adapted material from other sources.
The prayer book had provisions for the daily offices (Morning and Evening Prayer), scripture readings for Sundays and holy days, and services for Communion, public baptism, confirmation, matrimony, visitation of the sick, burial, purification of women upon the birth of a child, and Ash Wednesday. An ordinal for ordination services of bishops, priests, and deacons was added in 1550. There was also a calendar and lectionary, which meant a Bible and a Psalter were the only other books required by a priest.
The BCP represented a "major theological shift" in England towards Protestantism. Cranmer's doctrinal concerns can be seen in the systematic amendment of source material to remove any idea that human merit contributed to an individual's salvation. The doctrines of justification by faith and predestination are central to Cranmer's theology. These doctrines are implicit throughout the prayer book and had important implications for his understanding of the sacraments. Cranmer believed that someone who was not one of God's elect received only the outward form of the sacrament (washing in baptism or eating bread in Communion), but did not receive actual grace, with only the elect receiving the sacramental sign and the grace. Cranmer held the position that faith, a gift given only to the elect, united the outward sign of sacrament and its inward grace, with only the unity of the two making the sacrament effective. This position was in agreement with the Reformed churches, but was in opposition to Roman Catholic and Lutheran views.
As a compromise with conservatives, the word Mass was kept, with the service titled "The Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass". The service also preserved much of the mediaeval structure of the Mass—stone altars remained, the clergy wore traditional vestments, much of the service was sung, and the priest was instructed to put the communion wafer into communicants' mouths instead of in their hands. Nevertheless, the first BCP was a "radical" departure from traditional worship in that it "eliminated almost everything that had till then been central to lay Eucharistic piety".
A priority for Protestants was to replace the Roman Catholic teaching that the Mass was a sacrifice to God ("the very same sacrifice as that of the cross") with the Protestant teaching that it was a service of thanksgiving and spiritual communion with Christ. Cranmer's intention was to suppress Catholic notions of sacrifice and transubstantiation in the Mass. To stress this, there was no elevation of the consecrated bread and wine, and eucharistic adoration was prohibited. The elevation had been the central moment of the mediaeval Mass, attached as it was to the idea of real presence. Cranmer's eucharistic theology was close to the Calvinist spiritual presence view, and can be described as Receptionism and Virtualism - i.e. the real presence of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. The words of administration in the 1549 rite were deliberately ambiguous; they could be understood as identifying the bread with the body of Christ or (following Cranmer's theology) as a prayer that the communicant might spiritually receive the body of Christ by faith.
Many of the other services were little changed. Cranmer based his baptism service on Martin Luther's service, which was a simplification of the long and complex mediaeval rite. Like communion, the baptism service maintained a traditional form. The confirmation and marriage services followed the Sarum rite. There were also remnants of prayer for the dead and the Requiem Mass, such as the provision for celebrating holy communion at a funeral. Cranmer's work of simplification and revision was also applied to the Daily Offices, which were reduced to Morning and Evening Prayer. Cranmer hoped these would also serve as a daily form of prayer to be used by the laity, thus replacing both the late mediaeval lay observation of the Latin Hours of the Virgin and its English-language equivalent primers.
1552 prayer book
The 1549 book was, from the outset, intended only as a temporary expedient, as German reformer Bucer was assured on meeting Cranmer for the first time in April 1549: "concessions … made both as a respect for antiquity and to the infirmity of the present age," as he wrote. According to historian Christopher Haigh, the 1552 prayer book "broke decisively with the past". The services for baptism, confirmation, communion and burial were rewritten, and ceremonies hated by Protestants were removed. Unlike the 1549 version, the 1552 prayer book removed many traditional sacramentals and observances that reflected belief in the blessing and exorcism of people and objects. In the baptism service, infants no longer received minor exorcism. Anointing was no longer included in the services for baptism, ordination and visitation of the sick. These ceremonies were altered to emphasise the importance of faith, rather than trusting in rituals or objects.
Many of the traditional elements of the communion service were removed in the 1552 version. The name of the service was changed to "The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion", removing the word Mass. Stone altars were replaced with communion tables positioned in the chancel or nave, with the priest standing on the north side. The priest was to wear the surplice instead of traditional Mass vestments. The service appears to promote a spiritual presence view of the Eucharist, meaning that Christ is spiritually but not corporally present.
There was controversy over how people should receive communion: kneeling or seated. John Knox protested against kneeling. Ultimately, it was decided that communicants should continue to kneel, but the Privy Council ordered that the Black Rubric be added to the prayer book to clarify the purpose of kneeling. The rubric denied "any real and essential presence … of Christ's natural flesh and blood" in the Eucharist and was the clearest statement of eucharistic theology in the prayer book. The 1552 service removed any reference to the "body of Christ" in the words of administration to reinforce the teaching that Christ's presence in the Eucharist was a spiritual presence and, in the words of historian Peter Marshall, "limited to the subjective experience of the communicant". Instead of communion wafers, the prayer book instructed that ordinary bread was to be used "to take away the superstition which any person hath, or might have". To further emphasise there was no holiness in the bread and wine, any leftovers were to be taken home by the curate for ordinary consumption. This prevented eucharistic adoration of the reserved sacrament above the high altar.
The burial service was removed from the church. It was to now take place at the graveside. In 1549, there had been provision for a Requiem (not so called) and prayers of commendation and committal, the first addressed to the deceased. All that remained was a single reference to the deceased, giving thanks for their delivery from 'the myseryes of this sinneful world.' This new Order for the Burial of the Dead was a drastically stripped-down memorial service designed to undermine definitively the whole complex of traditional Catholic beliefs about Purgatory and intercessory prayer for the dead.
The Orders of Morning and Evening Prayer were extended by the inclusion of a penitential section at the beginning including a corporate confession of sin and a general absolution, although the text was printed only in Morning Prayer with rubrical directions to use it in the evening as well. The general pattern of Bible reading in the 1549 edition was retained (as it was in 1559) except that distinct Old and New Testament readings were now specified for Morning and Evening Prayer on certain feast days. Following the publication of the 1552 Prayer Book, a revised English Primer was published in 1553, adapting the Offices, Morning and Evening Prayer, and other prayers for lay domestic piety.
The 1552 book, however, was used only for a short period, as Edward VI had died in the summer of 1553 and, as soon as she could do so, Mary I restored union with Rome. The Latin Mass was re-established, altars, roods and statues of saints were reinstated in an attempt to restore the English Church to its Roman affiliation. Cranmer was punished for his work in the English Reformation by being burned at the stake on 21 March 1556. Nevertheless, the 1552 book was to survive. After Mary's death in 1558, it became the primary source for the Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer, with subtle, if significant, changes only.
Hundreds of English Protestants fled into exile, establishing an English church in Frankfurt am Main. A bitter and very public dispute ensued between those, such as Edmund Grindal and Richard Cox, who wished to preserve in exile the exact form of worship of the 1552 Prayer Book, and those, such as John Knox the minister of the congregation, who regarded that book as still partially tainted with compromise. Eventually, in 1555, the civil authorities expelled Knox and his supporters to Geneva, where they adopted a new prayer book, The Form of Prayers, which derived principally from Calvin's French-language La Forme des Prières. Consequently, when the accession of Elizabeth I re-asserted the dominance of the Reformed Church of England, there remained a significant body of more Protestant believers who were nevertheless hostile to the Book of Common Prayer. John Knox took The Form of Prayers with him to Scotland, where it formed the basis of the Scottish Book of Common Order.
1559 prayer book
Under Elizabeth I, a more permanent enforcement of the reformed Church of England was undertaken and the 1552 book was republished, scarcely altered, in 1559. The Prayer Book of 1552 "was a masterpiece of theological engineering." The doctrines in the Prayer Book and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion as set forth in 1559 would set the tone of Anglicanism, which preferred to steer a via media ("middle way") between Lutheranism and Calvinism. The conservative nature of these changes underlines the fact that Reformed principles were by no means universally popular – a fact that the Queen recognised. Her revived Act of Supremacy, giving her the ambiguous title of supreme governor, passed without difficulty, but the Act of Uniformity 1558, giving statutory force to the Prayer Book, passed through the House of Lords by only three votes in 1559. It made constitutional history in being imposed by the laity alone, as all the bishops, except those imprisoned by the Queen and unable to attend, voted against it. Convocation had made its position clear by affirming the traditional doctrine of the Eucharist, the authority of the Pope, and the reservation by divine law to clergy "of handling and defining concerning the things belonging to faith, sacraments, and discipline ecclesiastical." After these innovations and reversals, the new forms of Anglican worship took several decades to gain acceptance, but by the end of her reign in 1603, 70–75% of the English population were on board.
The alterations, though minor, were, however, to cast a long shadow over the development of the Church of England. It would be a long road back for the Church, with no clear indication that it would retreat from the 1559 Settlement except for minor official changes. In one of the first moves to undo Cranmer's liturgy, the Queen insisted that the Words of Administration of Communion from the 1549 Book be placed before the Words of Administration in the 1552 Book, thereby re-opening the issue of the Real Presence. At the administration of the Holy Communion, the words from the 1549 book, "the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ …," were combined with the words of Edward VI's second Prayer Book of 1552, "Take, eat in remembrance …," "suggesting on the one hand a real presence to those who wished to find it and on the other, the communion as memorial only," i.e. an objective presence and subjective reception. The 1559 Prayer Book, however, retained the truncated Prayer of Consecration of the Communion elements, which omitted any notion of objective sacrifice. It was preceded by the Proper Preface and Prayer of Humble Access (placed there to remove any implication that the Communion was a sacrifice to God). The Prayer of Consecration was followed by Communion, the Lord's Prayer, and a Prayer of Thanksgiving or an optional Prayer of Oblation whose first line included a petition that God would "...accepte this our Sacrifice of prayse and thankes geuing...". The latter prayer was removed (a longer version followed the Words of the Institution in the 1549 Rite) "to avoid any suggestion of the sacrifice of the Mass." The Marian Bishop Scot opposed the 1552 Book "on the grounds it never makes any connection between the bread and the Body of Christ. Untrue though [his accusation] was, the restoration of the 1549 Words of Distribution emphasized its falsity."
However, beginning in the 17th century, some prominent Anglican theologians tried to cast a more traditional Catholic interpretation onto the text as a Commemorative Sacrifice and Heavenly Offering even though the words of the Rite did not support such interpretations. Cranmer, a good liturgist, was aware that the Eucharist from the mid-second century on had been regarded as the Church's offering to God, but he removed the sacrificial language anyway, whether under pressure or conviction. It was not until the Anglican Oxford Movement of the mid-19th century and later 20th-century revisions that the Church of England would attempt to deal with the eucharistic doctrines of Cranmer by bringing the Church back to "pre-Reformation doctrine." In the meantime, the Scottish and American Prayer Books not only reverted to the 1549 text, but even to the older Roman and Eastern Orthodox pattern by adding the Oblation and an Epiclesis - i.e. the congregation offers itself in union with Christ at the Consecration and receives Him in Communion - while retaining the Calvinist notions of "may be for us" rather than "become" and the emphasis on "bless and sanctify us" (the tension between the Catholic stress on objective Real Presence and Protestant subjective worthiness of the communicant). However, these Rites asserted a kind of Virtualism in regard to the Real Presence while making the Eucharist a material sacrifice because of the oblation, and the retention of "may be for us the Body and Blood of thy Savior" rather than "become" thus eschewing any suggestion of a change in the natural substance of bread and wine.
Another move, the "Ornaments Rubric", related to what clergy were to wear while conducting services. Instead of the banning of all vestments except the rochet for bishops and the surplice for parish clergy, it permitted "such ornaments … as were in use … in the second year of King Edward VI." This allowed substantial leeway for more traditionalist clergy to retain the vestments which they felt were appropriate to liturgical celebration, namely Mass vestments such as albs, chasubles, dalmatics, copes, stoles, maniples, etc. (at least until the Queen gave further instructions, as per the text of the Act of Uniformity of 1559). The rubric also stated that the Communion service should be conducted in the 'accustomed place,' namely facing a Table against the wall with the priest facing it. The rubric was placed at the section regarding Morning and Evening Prayer in this Prayer Book and in the 1604 and 1662 Books. It was to be the basis of claims in the 19th century that vestments such as chasubles, albs and stoles were canonically permitted.
The instruction to the congregation to kneel when receiving communion was retained, but the Black Rubric (#29 in the Forty-Two Articles of Faith, which were later reduced to 39) which denied any "real and essential presence" of Christ's flesh and blood, was removed to "conciliate traditionalists" and aligned with the Queen's sensibilities. The removal of the Black Rubric complements the double set of Words of Administration at the time of communion and permits an action — kneeling to receive — which people were used to doing. Therefore, nothing at all was stated in the Prayer Book about a theory of the Presence or forbidding reverence or adoration of Christ via the bread and wine in the Sacrament. On this issue, however, the Prayer Book was at odds with the repudiation of transubstantiation and the forbidden carrying about of the Blessed Sacrament in the Thirty-Nine Articles. As long as one did not subscribe publicly to or assert the latter, one was left to hold whatever opinion one wanted on the former. The Queen herself was famous for saying she was not interested in "looking in the windows of men's souls."
Among Cranmer's innovations, retained in the new Prayer Book, was the requirement of weekly Holy Communion services. In practice, as before the English Reformation, many received communion rarely, as little as once a year in some cases; George Herbert estimated it at no more than six times per year. Practice, however, varied from place to place. Very high attendance at festivals was the order of the day in many parishes and in some, regular communion was very popular; in other places families stayed away or sent "a servant to be the liturgical representative of their household." Few parish clergy were initially licensed by the bishops to preach; in the absence of a licensed preacher, Sunday services were required to be accompanied by reading one of the homilies written by Cranmer. George Herbert was, however, not alone in his enthusiasm for preaching, which he regarded as one of the prime functions of a parish priest. Music was much simplified, and a radical distinction developed between, on the one hand, parish worship, where only the metrical psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins might be sung, and, on the other hand, worship in churches with organs and surviving choral foundations, where the music of John Marbeck and others was developed into a rich choral tradition. The whole act of parish worship might take well over two hours, and accordingly, churches were equipped with pews in which households could sit together (whereas in the medieval church, men and women had worshipped separately). Diarmaid MacCulloch describes the new act of worship as "a morning marathon of prayer, scripture reading, and praise, consisting of mattins, litany, and ante-communion, preferably as the matrix for a sermon to proclaim the message of scripture anew week by week."
Many ordinary churchgoers — that is, those who could afford one, as it was expensive — would own a copy of the Prayer Book. Judith Maltby cites a story of parishioners at Flixton in Suffolk who brought their own Prayer Books to church in order to shame their vicar into conforming with it. They eventually ousted him. Between 1549 and 1642, roughly 290 editions of the Prayer Book were produced. Before the end of the English Civil War (1642–1651) and the introduction of the 1662 prayer book, something like a half a million prayer books are estimated to have been in circulation.
The 1559 prayer book was also translated into other languages within the English sphere of influence. A translation into Latin was made in the form of Walter Haddon's Liber Precum Publicarum of 1560. Intended for use in the worship of the collegiate chapels of Oxford, Cambridge, Eton, and Winchester, it was resisted by some Protestants. The Welsh edition of the Book of Common Prayer for use in the Church in Wales was published in 1567. It was translated by William Salesbury assisted by Richard Davies.
Changes in 1604
On Elizabeth's death in 1603, the 1559 book, substantially that of 1552 which had been regarded as offensive by some, such as Bishop Stephen Gardiner, as being a break with the tradition of the Western Church, had come to be regarded in some quarters as unduly Catholic. On his accession and following the so-called "Millenary Petition", James I called the Hampton Court Conference in 1604—the same meeting of bishops and Puritan divines that initiated the Authorized King James Version of the Bible. This was in effect a series of two conferences: (i) between James and the bishops; (ii) between James and the Puritans on the following day. The Puritans raised four areas of concern: purity of doctrine; the means of maintaining it; church government; and the Book of Common Prayer. Confirmation, the cross in baptism, private baptism, the use of the surplice, kneeling for communion, reading the Apocrypha; and subscription to the BCP and Articles were all touched on. On the third day, after James had received a report back from the bishops and made final modifications, he announced his decisions to the Puritans and bishops.
The business of making the changes was then entrusted to a small committee of bishops and the Privy Council and, apart from tidying up details, this committee introduced into Morning and Evening Prayer a prayer for the Royal Family; added several thanksgivings to the Occasional Prayers at the end of the Litany; altered the rubrics of Private Baptism limiting it to the minister of the parish, or some other lawful minister, but still allowing it in private houses (the Puritans had wanted it only in the church); and added to the Catechism the section on the sacraments. The changes were put into effect by means of an explanation issued by James in the exercise of his prerogative under the terms of the 1559 Act of Uniformity and Act of Supremacy.
The accession of Charles I (1625–1649) brought about a complete change in the religious scene in that the new king used his supremacy over the established church "to promote his own idiosyncratic style of sacramental Kingship" which was "a very weird aberration from the first hundred years of the early reformed Church of England". He questioned "the populist and parliamentary basis of the Reformation Church" and unsettled to a great extent "the consensual accommodation of Anglicanism". These changes, along with a new edition of the Book of Common Prayer, led to the Bishops' Wars and later to the English Civil War.
With the defeat of Charles I (1625–1649) in the Civil War, the Puritan pressure, exercised through a much-changed Parliament, had increased. Puritan-inspired petitions for the removal of the prayer book and episcopacy "root and branch" resulted in local disquiet in many places and, eventually, the production of locally organised counter petitions. The parliamentary government had its way but it became clear that the division was not between Catholics and Protestants, but between Puritans and those who valued the Elizabethan settlement. The 1604 book was finally outlawed by Parliament in 1645 to be replaced by the Directory of Public Worship, which was more a set of instructions than a prayer book. How widely the Directory was used is not certain; there is some evidence of its having been purchased, in churchwardens' accounts, but not widely. The Prayer Book certainly was used clandestinely in some places, not least because the Directory made no provision at all for burial services. Following the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the establishment of the Commonwealth under Lord Protector Cromwell, the Prayer Book was not reinstated until shortly after the restoration of the monarchy to England.
John Evelyn records, in Diary, receiving communion according to the 1604 Prayer Book rite:
Christmas Day 1657. I went to London with my wife to celebrate Christmas Day. … Sermon ended, as [the minister] was giving us the holy sacrament, the chapel was surrounded with soldiers, and all the communicants and assembly surprised and kept prisoners by them, some in the house, others carried away. … These wretched miscreants held their muskets against us as we came up to receive the sacred elements, as if they would have shot us at the altar.
Changes made in Scotland
In 1557, the Scots Protestant lords had adopted the English Prayer Book of 1552, for reformed worship in Scotland. However, when John Knox returned to Scotland in 1559, he continued to use the Form of Prayer he had created for the English exiles in Geneva and, in 1564, this supplanted the Book of Common Prayer under the title of the Book of Common Order.
Following the accession of King James VI of Scotland to the throne of England his son, King Charles I, with the assistance of Archbishop Laud, sought to impose the prayer book on Scotland. The 1637 prayer book was not, however, the 1559 book but one much closer to that of 1549, the first book of Edward VI. First used in 1637, it was never accepted, having been violently rejected by the Scots. During one reading of the book at the Holy Communion in St Giles' Cathedral, the Bishop of Brechin was forced to protect himself while reading from the book by pointing loaded pistols at the congregation. Following the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (including the English Civil War), the Church of Scotland was re-established on a presbyterian basis but by the Act of Comprehension 1690, the rump of Episcopalians were allowed to hold onto their benefices. For liturgy, they looked to Laud's book and in 1724 the first of the "wee bookies" was published, containing, for the sake of economy, the central part of the Communion liturgy beginning with the offertory.
Between then and 1764, when a more formal revised version was published, a number of things happened which were to separate the Scottish Episcopal liturgy more firmly from either the English books of 1549 or 1559. First, informal changes were made to the order of the various parts of the service and inserting words indicating a sacrificial intent to the Eucharist clearly evident in the words, "we thy humble servants do celebrate and make before thy Divine Majesty with these thy holy gifts which we now OFFER unto thee, the memorial thy Son has commandeth us to make;" secondly, as a result of Bishop Rattray's researches into the liturgies of St James and St Clement, published in 1744, the form of the invocation was changed. These changes were incorporated into the 1764 book which was to be the liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church (until 1911 when it was revised) but it was to influence the liturgy of the Episcopal Church in the United States. A new revision was finished in 1929, the Scottish Prayer Book 1929, and several alternative orders of the Communion service and other services have been prepared since then.
1662
The 1662 Prayer Book was printed two years after the restoration of the monarchy, following the Savoy Conference between representative Presbyterians and twelve bishops which was convened by Royal Warrant to "advise upon and review the Book of Common Prayer". Attempts by the Presbyterians, led by Richard Baxter, to gain approval for an alternative service book failed. Their major objections (exceptions) were: firstly, that it was improper for lay people to take any vocal part in prayer (as in the Litany or Lord's Prayer), other than to say "amen"; secondly, that no set prayer should exclude the option of an extempore alternative from the minister; thirdly, that the minister should have the option to omit part of the set liturgy at his discretion; fourthly, that short collects should be replaced by longer prayers and exhortations; and fifthly, that all surviving "Catholic" ceremonial should be removed. The intent behind these suggested changes was to achieve a greater correspondence between liturgy and Scripture. The bishops gave a frosty reply. They declared that liturgy could not be circumscribed by Scripture, but rightfully included those matters which were "generally received in the Catholic church." They rejected extempore prayer as apt to be filled with "idle, impertinent, ridiculous, sometimes seditious, impious and blasphemous expressions." The notion that the Prayer Book was defective because it dealt in generalisations brought the crisp response that such expressions were "the perfection of the liturgy".
The Savoy Conference ended in disagreement late in July 1661, but the initiative in prayer book revision had already passed to the Convocations and from there to Parliament. The Convocations made some 600 changes, mostly of details, which were "far from partisan or extreme". However, Edwards states that more of the changes suggested by high Anglicans were implemented (though by no means all) and Spurr comments that (except in the case of the Ordinal) the suggestions of the "Laudians" (Cosin and Matthew Wren) were not taken up possibly due to the influence of moderates such as Sanderson and Reynolds. For example, the inclusion in the intercessions of the Communion rite of prayer for the dead was proposed and rejected. The introduction of "Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here in earth" remained unaltered and only a thanksgiving for those "departed this life in thy faith and fear" was inserted to introduce the petition that the congregation might be "given grace so to follow their good examples that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom". Griffith Thomas commented that the retention of the words "militant here in earth" defines the scope of this petition: we pray for ourselves, we thank God for them, and adduces collateral evidence to this end. Secondly, an attempt was made to restore the Offertory. This was achieved by the insertion of the words "and oblations" into the prayer for the Church and the revision of the rubric so as to require the monetary offerings to be brought to the table (instead of being put in the poor box) and the bread and wine placed upon the table. Previously it had not been clear when and how bread and wine got onto the altar. The so-called "manual acts", whereby the priest took the bread and the cup during the prayer of consecration, which had been deleted in 1552, were restored; and an "amen" was inserted after the words of institution and before communion, hence separating the connections between consecration and communion which Cranmer had tried to make. After communion, the unused but consecrated bread and wine were to be reverently consumed in church rather than being taken away for the priest's own use. By such subtle means were Cranmer's purposes further confused, leaving it for generations to argue over the precise theology of the rite. One change made that constituted a concession to the Presbyterian Exceptions, was the updating and re-insertion of the so-called "Black Rubric", which had been removed in 1559. This now declared that kneeling in order to receive communion did not imply adoration of the species of the Eucharist nor "to any Corporal Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood"—which, according to the rubric, were in heaven, not here.
While intended to create unity, the division established under the Commonwealth and the licence given by the Directory for Public Worship were not easily passed by. Unable to accept the new book, 936 ministers were deprived. The actual language of the 1662 revision was little changed from that of Cranmer. With two exceptions, some words and phrases which had become archaic were modernised; secondly, the readings for the epistle and gospel at Holy Communion, which had been set out in full since 1549, were now set to the text of the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible. The Psalter, which had not been printed in the 1549, 1552 or 1559 books—was in 1662 provided in Miles Coverdale's translation from the Great Bible of 1538.
It was this edition which was to be the official Book of Common Prayer during the growth of the British Empire and, as a result, has been a great influence on the prayer books of Anglican churches worldwide, liturgies of other denominations in English, and of the English people and language as a whole.
Further attempts at revision
1662–1832
Between 1662 and the 19th century, further attempts to revise the Book in England stalled. On the death of Charles II, his brother James, a Roman Catholic, became James II. James wished to achieve toleration for those of his own Roman Catholic faith, whose practices were still banned. This, however, drew the Presbyterians closer to the Church of England in their common desire to resist 'popery'; talk of reconciliation and liturgical compromise was thus in the air. But with the flight of James in 1688 and the arrival of the Calvinist William of Orange the position of the parties changed. The Presbyterians could achieve toleration of their practices without such a right being given to Roman Catholics and without, therefore, their having to submit to the Church of England, even with a liturgy more acceptable to them. They were now in a much stronger position to demand changes that were ever more radical. John Tillotson, Dean of Canterbury pressed the king to set up a commission to produce such a revision. The so-called Liturgy of Comprehension of 1689, which was the result, conceded two thirds of the Presbyterian demands of 1661; but, when it came to convocation the members, now more fearful of William's perceived agenda, did not even discuss it and its contents were, for a long time, not even accessible. This work, however, did go on to influence the prayer books of many British colonies.
1833–1906
By the 19th century, pressures to revise the 1662 book were increasing. Adherents of the Oxford Movement, begun in 1833, raised questions about the relationship of the Church of England to the apostolic church and thus about its forms of worship. Known as Tractarians after their production of Tracts for the Times on theological issues, they advanced the case for the Church of England being essentially a part of the "Western Church", of which the Roman Catholic Church was the chief representative. The illegal use of elements of the Roman rite, the use of candles, vestments and incense – practices collectively known as Ritualism – had become widespread and led to the establishment of a new system of discipline, intending to bring the "Romanisers" into conformity, through the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874. The Act had no effect on illegal practices: five clergy were imprisoned for contempt of court and after the trial of the much loved Bishop Edward King of Lincoln, it became clear that some revision of the liturgy had to be embarked upon.
One branch of the Ritualism movement argued that both "Romanisers" and their Evangelical opponents, by imitating, respectively, the Church of Rome and Reformed churches, transgressed the Ornaments Rubric of 1559 ("… that such Ornaments of the Church, and of the Ministers thereof, at all Times of their Ministration, shall be retained, and be in use, as were in this Church of England, by the Authority of Parliament, in the Second Year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth"). These adherents of ritualism, among whom were Percy Dearmer and others, claimed that the Ornaments Rubric prescribed the ritual usages of the Sarum Rite with the exception of a few minor things already abolished by the early reformation.
Following a Royal Commission report in 1906, work began on a new prayer book. It took twenty years to complete, prolonged partly due to the demands of the First World War and partly in the light of the 1920 constitution of the Church Assembly, which "perhaps not unnaturally wished to do the work all over again for itself".
1906–2000
In 1927, the work on a new version of the prayer book reached its final form. In order to reduce conflict with traditionalists, it was decided that the form of service to be used would be determined by each congregation. With these open guidelines, the book was granted approval by the Church of England Convocations and Church Assembly in July 1927. However, it was defeated by the House of Commons in 1928.
The effect of the failure of the 1928 book was salutary: no further attempts were made to revise the Book of Common Prayer. Instead a different process, that of producing an alternative book, led to the publication of Series 1, 2 and 3 in the 1960s, the 1980 Alternative Service Book and subsequently to the 2000 Common Worship series of books. Both differ substantially from the Book of Common Prayer, though the latter includes in the Order Two form of the Holy Communion a very slight revision of the prayer book service, largely along the lines proposed for the 1928 Prayer Book. Order One follows the pattern of the modern Liturgical Movement.
In the Anglican Communion
With British colonial expansion from the 17th century onwards, Anglicanism spread across the globe. The new Anglican churches used and revised the use of the Book of Common Prayer, until they, like the English church, produced prayer books which took into account the developments in liturgical study and practice in the 19th and 20th centuries which come under the general heading of the Liturgical Movement.
Africa
In South Africa a Book of Common Prayer was "Set Forth by Authority for Use in the Church of the Province of South Africa" in 1954. The 1954 prayer book is still in use in some churches in southern Africa; however, it has been largely replaced by An Anglican Prayerbook 1989 and versions of that translated to other languages in use in southern Africa.
Asia
China
The Book of Common Prayer is translated literally as in Chinese (Mandarin: Gōng dǎo shū; Cantonese: Gūng tóu syū). The former dioceses in the now defunct Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui had their own Book of Common Prayer. The General Synod and the College of Bishops of Chung Hwa Sheng Kung Hui planned to publish a unified version for the use of all Anglican churches in China in 1949, which was the 400th anniversary of the first publishing of the Book of Common Prayer. After the communists took over mainland China, the Diocese of Hong Kong and Macao became independent of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui, and continued to use the edition issued in Shanghai in 1938 with a revision in 1959. This edition, also called the "Black-Cover Book of Common Prayer" () for its cover, still remains in use after the establishment of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (Anglican province in Hong Kong). The language style of "Black-Cover Book of Common Prayer" is closer to Classical Chinese than contemporary Chinese.
India
The Church of South India was the first modern Episcopal uniting church, consisting as it did, from its foundation in 1947, at the time of Indian independence, of Anglicans, Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Reformed Christians. Its liturgy, from the first, combined the free use of Cranmer's language with an adherence to the principles of congregational participation and the centrality of the Eucharist, much in line with the Liturgical Movement. Because it was a minority church of widely differing traditions in a non-Christian culture (except in Kerala, where Christianity has a long history), practice varied wildly.
Japan
The BCP is called "Kitōsho" () in Japanese. The initial effort to compile such a book in Japanese goes back to 1859, when the missionary societies of the Church of England and of the Episcopal Church of the United States started their work in Japan, later joined by the Anglican Church of Canada in 1888. In 1879, the Seikōkai Tō Bun (, Anglican Prayer Texts) were prepared in Japanese As the Anglican Church in Japan was established in 1887, the Romanised Nippon Seikōkai Kitō Bun () were compiled in 1879. There was a major revision of these texts and the first Kitōsho was born in 1895, which had the Eucharistic part in both English and American traditions. There were further revisions, and the Kitōsho published in 1939 was the last revision that was done before World War II, still using the Historical kana orthography.
After the end of the War, the Kitōsho of 1959 became available, using post-war Japanese orthography, but still in traditional classical Japanese language and vertical writing. In the fifty years after World War II, there were several efforts to translate the Bible into modern colloquial Japanese, the most recent of which was the publication in 1990 of the Japanese New Interconfessional Translation Bible. The Kitōsho using the colloquial Japanese language and horizontal writing was published in the same year. It also used the Revised Common Lectionary. This latest Kitōsho since went through several minor revisions, such as employing the Lord's Prayer in Japanese common with the Catholic Church (共通口語訳「主の祈り」) in 2000.
Korea
In 1965, the Anglican Church of Korea first published a translation of the 1662 BCP into Korean and called it gong-dong-gi-do-mun (공동기도문) meaning "common prayers". In 1994, the prayers announced "allowed" by the 1982 Bishops Council of the Anglican Church of Korea was published in a second version of the Book of Common Prayers In 2004, the National Anglican Council published the third and the current Book of Common Prayers known as "seong-gong-hwe gi-do-seo (성공회 기도서)" or the "Anglican Prayers", including the Calendar of the Church Year, Daily Offices, Collects, Proper Liturgies for Special Days, Baptism, Holy Eucharist, Pastoral Offices, Episcopal Services, Lectionary, Psalms and all of the other events the Anglican Church of Korea celebrates.
The Diction of the books has changed from the 1965 version to the 2004 version. For example, the word "God" has changed from classical Chinese term "Cheon-ju (천주)" to native Korean word "ha-neu-nim (하느님)," in accordance with the Public Christian translation, and as used in 1977 Common Translation Bible (gong-dong beon-yeok-seong-seo, 공동번역성서) that the Anglican Church of Korea currently uses.
Philippines
As the Philippines is connected to the worldwide Anglican Communion through the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, the main edition of the Book of Common Prayer in use throughout the islands is the same as that of the United States.
Aside from the American version and the newly published Philippine Book of Common Prayer, Filipino-Chinese congregants of Saint Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in the Diocese of the Central Philippines uses the English-Chinese Diglot Book of Common Prayer, published by the Episcopal Church of Southeast Asia.
The ECP has since published its own Book of Common Prayer upon gaining full autonomy on 1 May 1990. This version is notable for the inclusion of the Misa de Gallo, a popular Christmastide devotion amongst Filipinos that is of Catholic origin.
Europe
Ireland
The first printed book in Ireland was in English, the Book of Common Prayer.
William Bedell had undertaken an Irish translation of the Book of Common Prayer in 1606. An Irish translation of the revised prayer book of 1662 was effected by John Richardson (1664–1747) and published in 1712 as Leabhar na nornaightheadh ccomhchoitchionn. "Until the 1960s, the Book of Common Prayer, derived from 1662 with only mild tinkering, was quite simply the worship of the church of Ireland." The 1712 edition had parallel columns in English and Irish languages.
After its independence and disestablishment in 1871, the Church of Ireland developed its own prayer book which was published in 1878. It has been revised several times, and the present edition has been used since 2004.
Isle of Man
The first Manx translation of the Book of Common Prayer was made by John Phillips (Bishop of Sodor and Man) in 1610. A more successful "New Version" by his successor Mark Hiddesley was in use until 1824 when English liturgy became universal on the island.
Portugal
The Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church formed in 1880. A Portuguese language Prayer Book is the basis of the Church's liturgy. In the early days of the church, a translation into Portuguese from 1849 of the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer was used. In 1884 the church published its own prayer book based on the Anglican, Roman and Mozarabic liturgies. The intent was to emulate the customs of the primitive apostolic church. Newer editions of their prayer book are available in Portuguese and with an English translation.
Spain
The Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (, IERE) is the church of the Anglican Communion in Spain. It was founded in 1880 and since 1980 has been an extra-provincial church under the metropolitan authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Previous to its organisation, there were several translations of the Book of Common Prayer into Spanish in 1623 and in 1707.
In 1881 the church combined a Spanish translation of the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer with the Mozarabic Rite liturgy, which had recently been translated. This is apparently the first time the Spanish speaking Anglicans inserted their own "historic, national tradition of liturgical worship within an Anglican prayer book." A second edition was released in 1889, and a revision in 1975. This attempt combined the Anglican structure of worship with indigenous prayer traditions.
Wales
An Act of Parliament passed in 1563, entitled "An Act for the Translating of the Bible and the Divine Service into the Welsh Tongue", ordered that both the Old and New Testament be translated into Welsh, alongside the Book of Common Prayer. This translation – completed by the then bishop of St David's, Richard Davies, and the scholar William Salesbury – was published in 1567 as Y Llyfr Gweddi Gyffredin. A further revision, based on the 1662 English revision, was published in 1664.
The Church in Wales began a revision of the book of Common Prayer in the 1950s. Various sections of authorised material were published throughout the 1950s and 1960s; however, common usage of these revised versions only began with the introduction of a revised order for the Holy Eucharist. Revision continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with definitive orders being confirmed throughout the 70s for most orders. A finished, fully revised Book of Common Prayer for use in the Church in Wales was authorised in 1984, written in traditional English, after a suggestion for a modern language Eucharist received a lukewarm reception.
In the 1990s, new initiation services were authorised, followed by alternative orders for morning and evening prayer in 1994, alongside an alternative order for the Holy Eucharist, also in 1994. Revisions of various orders in the Book of Common Prayer continued throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s.
Oceania
Aotearoa, New Zealand, Polynesia
As for other parts of the British Empire, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer was initially the standard of worship for Anglicans in New Zealand. The 1662 Book was first translated into Maori in 1830, and has gone through several translations and a number of different editions since then. The translated 1662 BCP has commonly been called Te Rawiri ("the David"), reflecting the prominence of the Psalter in the services of Morning and Evening Prayer, as the Maori often looked for words to be attributed to a person of authority. The Maori translation of the 1662 BCP is still used in New Zealand, particularly among older Maori living in rural areas.
After earlier trial services in the mid-twentieth century, in 1988 the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia authorised through its general synod A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa intended to serve the needs of New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Island Anglicans. This book is unusual for its cultural diversity; it includes passages in the Maori, Fijian, Tongan and English languages. In other respects, it reflects the same ecumenical influence of the Liturgical Movement as in other new Anglican books of the period, and borrows freely from a variety of international sources. The book is not presented as a definitive or final liturgical authority, such as the use of the definite article in the title might have implied. While the preface is ambiguous regarding the status of older forms and books, the implication however is that this book is now the norm of worship for Anglicans in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The book has also been revised in a number of minor ways since the initial publication, such as by the inclusion of the Revised Common Lectionary and an online edition is offered freely as the standard for reference.
Australia
The Anglican Church of Australia, known officially until 1981 as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, became self-governing in 1961. Its general synod agreed that the Book of Common Prayer was to "be regarded as the authorised standard of worship and doctrine in this Church". After a series of experimental services offered in many dioceses during the 1960s and 70s, in 1978 An Australian Prayer Book was produced, formally as a supplement to the book of 1662, although in fact it was widely taken up in place of the old book. The AAPB sought to adhere to the principle that, where the liturgical committee could not agree on a formulation, the words or expressions of the Book of Common Prayer were to be used, if in a modern idiom. The result was a conservative revision, including two forms of eucharistic rite: a First Order that was essentially the 1662 rite in more contemporary language, and a Second Order that reflected the Liturgical Movement norms, but without elements such as a eucharistic epiclesis or other features that would have represented a departure from the doctrine of the old book. An Australian Prayer Book has been formally accepted for usage in other churches, including the Reformed Episcopal Church in the United States.
A Prayer Book for Australia, produced in 1995 and again not technically a substitute for the 1662 prayer book, nevertheless departed from both the structure and wording of the Book of Common Prayer, prompting conservative reaction. Numerous objections were made and the notably conservative evangelical Diocese of Sydney drew attention both to the loss of BCP wording and of an explicit "biblical doctrine of substitutionary atonement". Sydney delegates to the general synod sought and obtained various concessions but that diocese never adopted the book. The Diocese of Sydney has instead developed its own prayer book, called Sunday Services, to "supplement" the 1662 prayer book (which, as elsewhere in Australia, is rarely used), and preserve the original theology which the Sydney diocese asserts has been changed. In 2009 the diocese published Better Gatherings which includes the book Common Prayer (published 2012), an updated revision of Sunday Services.
North and Central America
Canada
The Anglican Church of Canada, which until 1955 was known as the Church of England in the Dominion of Canada, or simply the Church of England in Canada, developed its first Book of Common Prayer separately from the English version in 1918, which received final authorisation from General Synod on 16 April 1922. The revision of 1959 was much more substantial, bearing a family relationship to that of the abortive 1928 book in England. The language was conservatively modernised, and additional seasonal material was added. As in England, while many prayers were retained though the structure of the Communion service was altered: a prayer of oblation was added to the eucharistic prayer after the "words of institution", thus reflecting the rejection of Cranmer's theology in liturgical developments across the Anglican Communion. More controversially, the Psalter omitted certain sections, including the entirety of Psalm 58. General Synod gave final authorisation to the revision in 1962, to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. A French translation, Le Recueil des Prières de la Communauté Chrétienne, was published in 1967.
After a period of experimentation with the publication of various supplements, the Book of Alternative Services was published in 1985.
Indigenous languages
The Book of Common Prayer has also been translated into these North American indigenous languages: Cowitchan, Cree, Haida, Ntlakyapamuk, Slavey, Eskimo-Aleut, Dakota, Delaware, Mohawk, Ojibwe.
Ojibwa
Joseph Gilfillan was the chief editor of the 1911 Ojibwa edition of the Book of Common Prayer entitled Iu Wejibuewisi Mamawi Anamiawini Mazinaigun (Iw Wejibwewizi Maamawi-anami'aawini Mazina'igan).
United States
The Episcopal Church separated itself from the Church of England in 1789, the first church in the American colonies having been founded in 1607. The first Book of Common Prayer of the new body, approved in 1789, had as its main source the 1662 English book, with significant influence also from the 1764 Scottish Liturgy (see above) which Bishop Seabury of Connecticut brought to the USA following his consecration in Aberdeen in 1784.
The preface to the 1789 Book of Common Prayer says, "this Church is far from intending to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship … further than local circumstances require." There were some notable differences. For example, in the Communion service the prayer of consecration follows mainly the Scottish orders derived from 1549 and found in the 1764 Book of Common Prayer. The compilers also used other materials derived from ancient liturgies especially Eastern Orthodox ones such as the Liturgy of St. James. An epiclesis or invocation of the Holy Spirit in the eucharistic prayer was included, as in the Scottish book, though modified to meet reformist objections. Overall however, the book was modelled on the English Prayer Book, the Convention having resisted attempts at more radical deletion and revision.
Article X of the Canons of the Episcopal Church provides that "[t]he Book of Common Prayer, as now established or hereafter amended by the authority of this Church, shall be in use in all the Dioceses of this Church," which is a reference to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.
The Prayer Book Cross was erected in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in 1894 as a gift from the Church of England. Created by Ernest Coxhead, it stands on one of the higher points in Golden Gate Park. It is located between John F. Kennedy Drive and Park Presidio Drive, near Cross Over Drive. This sandstone cross commemorates the first use of the Book of Common Prayer in California by Sir Francis Drake's chaplain on 24 June 1579.
In 2019, the Anglican Church in North America released its own revised edition of the BCP. It included a modernised rendering of the Coverdale Psalter, "renewed for contemporary use through efforts that included the labors of 20th century Anglicans T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis..." According to Robert Duncan, the first archbishop of the ACNA, "The 2019 edition takes what was good from the modern liturgical renewal movement and also recovers what had been lost from the tradition."
The 2019 edition does not contain a catechism, but is accompanied by an extensive ACNA catechism, in a separate publication, To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism.
Modern Catholic adaptations
Under Pope John Paul II's Pastoral Provision of the early 1980s, former Anglicans began to be admitted into new Anglican Use parishes in the US. The Book of Divine Worship was published in the United States in 2003 as a liturgical book for their use, composed of material drawn from the 1928 and 1979 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Roman Missal. It was mandated for use in all personal ordinariates for former Anglicans in the US from Advent 2013. Following the adoption of the ordinariates' Divine Worship: The Missal in Advent 2015, the Book of Divine Worship was suppressed.
To complement the forthcoming Divine Worship missal, the newly erected Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the UK authorised the usage of an interim Anglican Use Divine Office in 2012. The Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham followed from both the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer tradition and that of the Catholic Church's Liturgy of the Hours, introducing hours–Terce, Sext, and None–not found in any standard Book of Common Prayer. Unlike other contemporary forms of the Catholic Divine Office, the Customary contained the full 150 Psalm psalter.
In 2019, the St. Gregory's Prayer Book was published by Ignatius Press as a resource for all Catholic laity, combining selections from the Divine Worship missal with devotions drawn from various Anglican prayer books and other Anglican sources approved for Catholic use in a format that somewhat mimics the form and content of the Book of Common Prayer.
In 2020, the first of two editions of Divine Worship: Daily Office was published. While the North American Edition was the first Divine Office introduced in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, the Commonwealth Edition succeeded the previous Customary for the Personal Ordinariates of Our Lady of Walsingham and Our Lady of the Southern Cross. The North American Edition more closely follows the American 1928, American 1979, and Canadian 1962 prayer books, while the Commonwealth Edition more closely follows the precedents set by the Church of England's 1549 and 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
Religious influence
The Book of Common Prayer has had a great influence on a number of other denominations. While theologically different, the language and flow of the service of many other churches owe a great debt to the prayer book. In particular, many Christian prayer books have drawn on the Collects for the Sundays of the Church Year—mostly freely translated or even "rethought" by Cranmer from a wide range of Christian traditions, but including a number of original compositions—which are widely recognised as masterpieces of compressed liturgical construction.
John Wesley, an Anglican priest whose revivalist preaching led to the creation of Methodism wrote in his preface to The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America (1784), "I believe there is no Liturgy in the world, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational piety than the Common Prayer of the Church of England." Many Methodist churches in England and the United States continued to use a slightly revised version of the book for communion services well into the 20th century. In the United Methodist Church, the liturgy for eucharistic celebrations is almost identical to what is found in the Book of Common Prayer, as are some of the other liturgies and services.
A unique variant was developed in 1785 in Boston, Massachusetts when the historic King's Chapel (founded 1686) left the Episcopal Church and became an independent Unitarian church. To this day, King's Chapel uniquely uses The Book of Common Prayer According to the Use in King's Chapel in its worship; the book eliminates trinitarian references and statements.
Literary influence
Along with the King James Version of the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, the Book of Common Prayer has been one of the major influences on modern English parlance. As it has been in regular use for centuries, many phrases from its services have passed into everyday English, either as deliberate quotations or as unconscious borrowings. They have often been used metaphorically in non-religious contexts, and authors have used phrases from the prayer book as titles for their books.
Some examples of well-known phrases from the Book of Common Prayer are:
"Speak now or forever hold your peace" from the marriage liturgy.
"Till death us do part", from the marriage liturgy.
"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" from the funeral service.
"In the midst of life, we are in death." from the committal in the service for the burial of the dead (first rite).
"From all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil" from the litany.
"Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" from the collect for the second Sunday of Advent.
"Evil liver" from the rubrics for Holy Communion.
"All sorts and conditions of men" from the Order for Morning Prayer.
"Peace in our time" from Morning Prayer, Versicles.
References and allusions to Prayer Book services in the works of Shakespeare were tracked down and identified by Richmond Noble. Derision of the Prayer Book or its contents "in any interludes, plays, songs, rhymes, or by other open words" was a criminal offence under the 1559 Act of Uniformity, and consequently Shakespeare avoids too direct reference; but Noble particularly identifies the reading of the Psalter according to the Great Bible version specified in the Prayer Book, as the biblical book generating the largest number of Biblical references in Shakespeare's plays. Noble found a total of 157 allusions to the Psalms in the plays of the First Folio, relating to 62 separate Psalms—all, save one, of which he linked to the version in the Psalter, rather than those in the Geneva Bible or Bishops' Bible. In addition, there are a small number of direct allusions to liturgical texts in the Prayer Book; e.g. Henry VIII 3:2 where Wolsey states "Vain Pomp and Glory of this World, I hate ye!", a clear reference to the rite of Public Baptism; where the Godparents are asked "Doest thou forsake the vaine pompe and glory of the worlde..?"
As novelist P. D. James observed, "We can recognize the Prayer Book's cadences in the works of Isaac Walton and John Bunyan, in the majestic phrases of John Milton, Sir Thomas Browne and Edward Gibbon. We can see its echo in the works of such very different writers as Daniel Defoe, Thackeray, the Brontës, Coleridge, T. S. Eliot and even Dorothy L. Sayers." James herself used phrases from the Book of Common Prayer and made them into best-selling titles – Devices and Desires and The Children of Men – while Alfonso Cuarón's 2006 film Children of Men placed the phrase onto cinema marquees worldwide.
Copyright status
In England there are only three bodies entitled to print the Book of Common Prayer: the two privileged presses (Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press), and The King's Printer. Cambridge University Press holds letters patent as The King's Printer and so two of these three bodies are the same. The Latin term ("with privilege") is printed on the title pages of Cambridge editions of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (and the King James Version of the Bible) to denote the charter authority or privilege under which they are published.
The primary function for Cambridge University Press in its role as King's Printer is preserving the integrity of the text, continuing a long-standing tradition and reputation for textual scholarship and accuracy of printing. Cambridge University Press has stated that as a university press, a charitable enterprise devoted to the advancement of learning, it has no desire to restrict artificially that advancement, and that commercial restrictiveness through a partial monopoly is not part of its purpose. It therefore grants permission to use the text, and licence printing or the importation for sale within the UK, as long as it is assured of acceptable quality and accuracy.
The Church of England, supported by the Prayer Book Society, publishes an online edition of the Book of Common Prayer with permission of Cambridge University Press.
In accordance with Canon II.3.6(b)(2) of the Episcopal Church (United States), the church relinquishes any copyright for the version of the Book of Common Prayer currently adopted by the Convention of the church (although the text of proposed revisions remains copyrighted).
Editions
Anglican Church of Canada (1964). The Canadian Book of Occasional Offices: Services for Certain Occasions not Provided in the Book of Common Prayer, compiled by the Most Rev. Harold E. Sexton, Abp. of British Columbia, published at the request of the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada. Toronto: Anglican Church of Canada, Dept. of Religious Education. x, 162 p.
Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (198-?). When Ye Pray: Praying with the Church, [by] Roland F. Palmer [an editor of the 1959/1962 Canadian B.C.P.]. Ottawa: Anglican Catholic Convent Society. N.B.: "This book is a companion to the Prayer Book to help … to use the Prayer Book better."—Pg. 1. Without ISBN
Reformed Episcopal Church in Canada and Newfoundland (1892). The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Reformed Episcopal Church in the Dominion of Canada, Otherwise Known as the Protestant Church of England. ... Toronto, Ont.: Printed ... by the Ryerson Press ... for the Synod of Canada, 1951, t.p. verso 1892. N.B.: This is the liturgy as it had been authorised in 1891.
Church in Wales (1984). The Book of Common Prayer, for the Use in the Church in Wales. Penarth, Wales: Church in Wales Publications. 2 vol. N.B.: Title also in Welsh on vol. 2: Y Llfr Gweddi Giffredin i'w arfer yn Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru; vol. 1 is entirely in English; vol. 2 is in Welsh and English on facing pages. Without ISBN
Reformed Episcopal Church (U.S.)(1932). The Book of Common Prayer, According to the Use of the Reformed Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Rev. fifth ed. Philadelphia, Penn.: Reformed Episcopal Publication Society, 1963, t.p. 1932. xxx, 578 p. N.B.: On p. iii: "[T]he revisions made … in the Fifth Edition [of 1932] are those authorized by the [Reformed Episcopal] General Councils from 1943 through 1963."
The Episcopal Church (2003). The Book of Common Prayer: Selected Liturgies … According to the Use of the Episcopal Church = Le Livre de la prière commune: Liturgies sélectionnées … selon l'usage de l'Eglise Épiscopale. Paris: Convocation of American Churches in Europe. 373, [5] p. N.B.: Texts in English and as translated into French, from the 1979 B.C.P. of the Episcopal Church (U.S.), on facing pages.
The Episcopal Church (2007). The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church Together with The Psalter or Psalms of David According to the use of The Episcopal Church". New York, Church Publishing Incorporated. N.B.: "…amended by action of the 2006 General Convention to include the Revised Common Lectionary." (Gregory Michael Howe, February 2007)
See also
Anglican devotions
Anglican Service Book
Prayer Book Rebellion
Prayer Book Society of Canada
The Books of Homilies
Metrical psalter
Book of Common Prayer (1843 illustrated version)
Book of Common Prayer (1845 illuminated version)
16th century Protestant hymnals
Anabaptist
Ausbund
Anglican
Whole Book of Psalms
Lutheran
First Lutheran hymnal
Erfurt Enchiridion
Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn
Swenske songer eller wisor 1536
Thomissøn's hymnal
Presbyterian
Book of Common Order
Scottish Psalter
Reformed
Souterliedekens
Genevan Psalter
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
Lewis, C.S. (196–). "Miserable Offenders": an Interpretation of [sinfulness and] Prayer Book Language [about it], in series, The Advent Papers. Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications.
— Original in English is The Worship of the Church Seabury Press (1952)}}
Further reading
Order for Celebrating Mass: being a complete calendar for mass and vespers ... in strict accordance with the use of the Western Church. Wantage: St Mary's Press, printed for the compiler, 1953
The Order of Divine Service for the year of Our Lord 1966, eightieth year of issue. London: W. Knott & Son Ltd, [1965]
Forbes, Dennis (1992). Did the Almighty intend His book to be copyrighted?, European Christian Bookstore Journal, April 1992
External links
Full text online edition of The Book of Common Prayer at The Church of England
The full text of The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of The Episcopal Church, 1979 edition
The online text of The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of The Episcopal Church, 1979 edition
Links to various editions of the Book of Common Prayer from various Provinces of the Anglican Communion, curated by Charles Wohlers at the Society of Archbishop Justus: Books of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer in many languages
The Prayer Book Society of England
Prayer Book Society USA
1549 books
1552 books
1559 books
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4960 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham%20Small%20Arms%20Company | Birmingham Small Arms Company | The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process.
After the Second World War, BSA did not manage its business well, and a government-organised rescue operation in 1973 led to a takeover of such operations as it still owned. Those few that survived this process disappeared into the ownership of other businesses.
History of the BSA industrial group
Machine-made guns
BSA began in June 1861 in the Gun Quarter, Birmingham, England. It was formed by a group of fourteen gunsmith members of the Birmingham Small Arms Trade Association specifically to manufacture guns by machinery. They were encouraged to do this by the War Office which gave the BSA gunsmiths free access to technical drawings and to the War Office's Board of Ordnance's Royal Small Arms Factory factory at Enfield. New machinery developed in the USA installed at Enfield had greatly increased its output without needing more skilled craftsmen. This new machinery brought to Birmingham the principle of the interchangeability of parts.
BSA bought of land at Small Heath, Birmingham, built a factory there and made a road on the site calling it Armoury Road. Their enterprise was rewarded in 1863 with an order for 20,000 Turkish infantry rifles.
The system of management of BSA was changed in 1863 when shareholders elected a Board of Directors: Joseph Wilson, Samuel Buckley, Isaac Hollis, Charles Playfair, Charles Pryse, Birmingham mayor Sir John Ratcliffe (c.1798-1864), Edward Gem, and J.F. Swinburn under the chairmanship of John Dent Goodman (1816-1900).
Erratic demand
The first War Office contract was not agreed until 1868. In 1879 without work the factory was shut for a year.
New ventures
Bicycles
The next year, 1880, BSA branched out into bicycle manufacture. The gun factory proved remarkably adaptable to the manufacture of cycle parts. What cycles needed was large quantities of standard parts accurately machined at low prices. In 1880 BSA manufactured the Otto Dicycle, In the 1880s the company began to manufacture safety bicycles on their own account and not until 1905 was the company's first experimental motorcycle constructed. Bicycle production ceased in 1887 as the company concentrated on producing the Lee–Metford magazine-loading rifle for the War Office which was re-equipping the British Army with it. The order was for 1,200 rifles per week. BSA recommenced manufacturing bicycles on their own behalf from 1908. BSA Cycles Ltd was set up in 1919 for the manufacture of both bicycles and motorcycles. BSA sold the bicycle business to Raleigh in 1957 after separating the bicycle and motorcycle business in 1953.
Bicycle components
In 1893, BSA commenced making bicycle hubs and continued to supply the cycle trade with bicycle parts up to 1936. BSA bought The Eadie Manufacturing Company of Redditch in 1907 and so began to manufacture the Eadie two speed hub gear and the Eadie coaster brake hub. BSA also signed an agreement with the Three Speed Gear Syndicate in 1907 to manufacture a 3 speed hub under licence. This was later classified as the Sturmey Archer Type X. BSA introduced a 'Duo' hub in the late 1930s which was capable of one fixed gear and one gear with a freewheel. All BSA hub gear production temporarily ceased in 1939, until they recommenced making their 3 speed hub around 1945. The Eadie coaster hub made a brief return in 1953 on two BSA bicycle models. BSA forever ceased production of their hub gears in 1955.
Ammunition
BSA sold its ammunition business in 1897 to Birmingham Metal and Munitions Company Limited part of the Nobel-Dynamite Trust, through Kynoch a forerunner of ICI.
Sparkbrook Royal Small Arms Factory
In 1906 Frank Dudley Docker was appointed a director of the company. By the autumn of that year BSA was in some difficulty. They had purchased the Sparkbrook Royal Small Arms Factory from the War Office, and in return, the War Office undertook to give BSA a quarter of all orders for Lee–Enfield rifles. But, the War Office did not honour their undertaking. The ensuing financial crisis did not prevent BSA from signing an agreement to purchase control of bicycle component manufacturer, the Eadie Manufacturing Company of Redditch, on 11 February 1907. That decision was ratified by the shareholders of both companies at separate Extraordinary General Meetings held in the Grand Hotel, Birmingham on 27 February 1907. Albert Eadie became a BSA director, a post he held until his death in 1931.
Sporting firearms
The very variable military market was now supported by sales of target military rifles, sporting rifles, various patterns of miniature rifles and air rifles. Aperture sights were in demand for Bisley and other military rifle meetings.
Motorcycles
Motor bicycles were added to bicycle products in 1910. The BSA hp was exhibited at the 1910 Olympia Show, London for the 1911 season. The entire BSA production sold out in 1911, 1912 and 1913.
Motor cars
BSA cars
In an effort to make use of the Sparkbrook factory BSA established a motorcar department there. An independent part of it was occupied by Lanchester Motor Company. The first prototype automobile was produced in 1907. The following year, marketed under BSA Cycles Ltd, the company sold 150 automobiles and again began producing complete bicycles on its own account. By 1909 it was clear the new motorcar department was unsuccessful; an investigation committee reported to the BSA Board on the many failures of its management and their poor organisation of production.
Daimler cars and trucks
Dudley Docker had joined the board in 1906 and was appointed deputy chairman of BSA in 1909. He had made a spectacular financial success of a merger of five large rolling-stock companies in 1902 and become the leader of the period's merger movement. Believing he could buy the missing management skills that could not be found within BSA he started merger talks with The Daimler Company Limited of Coventry. Daimler and Rover were then the largest British car producers. Daimler was immensely profitable. After its capital reconstruction in 1904 Daimler's profits were 57 per cent and 150 per cent returns on invested capital in 1905 and 1906. The attraction for Daimler shareholders was the apparent stability of BSA.
So in 1910 BSA purchased Daimler with BSA shares but Docker who negotiated the arrangements either ignored or failed in his assessment of their consequences for the new combine. The combine was never adequately balanced or co-ordinated. One of the financial provisions obliged Daimler to pay BSA an annual dividend of £100,000 representing approximately 40 per cent of the actual cash BSA had put into Daimler. This financial burden deprived Daimler of badly needed cash to fund development, forcing the Daimler company to borrow money from the Midland Bank.
BSA had still not recovered financially from the earlier purchase of Royal Small Arms factory at Sparkbrook and BSA were not in a position to finance Daimler, nor had either company ample liquid resources. BSA went ahead with motorcycle production in 1910, their first model available for the 1911 season. In 1913 the BSA group were compelled through pressure from the Midland Bank to make a capital issue of 300,000 preference shares. In the short term this was to solve the liquidity issue but further diluted the group's capitalisation.
Dudley Docker retired as a BSA director in 1912 and installed Lincoln Chandler on the BSA board as his replacement. Dudley Docker liked to draw a comparison between the BSA–Daimler merger he engineered and that of his 1902 merger of Metropolitan Carriage Wagon & Finance Company and Patent Shaft. However, there was not the integration of facilities in the BSA–Daimler case, nor was there a reorganisation of either BSA or Daimler and in view of the earlier criticism contained in the 1909 report of the investigation committee, BSA continued to produce cars of their own using Daimler engines. In 1913 Daimler employed 5,000 workers to manufacture 1,000 vehicles, an indication that things were not well.
Steel bodies
In 1912, BSA would be one of two automobile manufacturers pioneering the use of all-steel bodies, joining Hupmobile in the US.
Lewis Automatic Machine Gun
In 1913 BSA undertook to manufacture quick-firing machine guns for the Lewis Automatic Arms Company whose rights covered the world except for the American Continent.
First World War
During the First World War, the company returned to arms manufacture and greatly expanded its operations. BSA produced rifles, Lewis guns, shells, bicycles, motorcycles and, through Daimler, aero engines, aircraft and other vehicles for the war effort as well as machine tools.
Following the Armistice the BSA group was described by its chairman as:
Three distinct legal entities: BSA guns, BSA (machine) tools and BSA cycles all at Sparkbrook, Smallheath and Redditch
Daimler at Coventry
William Jessop and Savilles the two steel-making companies in Sheffield
Daimler Hire and Burton Griffiths in London
New ventures
Motorcycles
In November 1919 BSA launched their first 50-degree vee-twin, Model E, 770cc side valve (6-7 hp) motorcycle for the 1920 season. The machine had interchangeable valves, total loss oil system with mechanical pump and an emergency hand one. Retail price was £130. Other features were Amac carburettor, chain drive, choice of magneto or Magdyno, 7-plate clutch, 3 speed gear box with kickstarter and new type of cantilever fork
Aviation
During the war Daimler had built enormous numbers of aero engines and aircraft and by the end was building 80 Airco de Havilland bombers a month. In February 1920 BSA amalgamated with what was the world's largest aircraft manufacturer, Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco), Airco's main plant at Hendon had employed between 7,000 and 8,000 people. The Airco group of companies had turned out a new aircraft every 45 minutes.
Within days BSA discovered Airco was in a far more serious financial state than George Holt Thomas had revealed. Holt Thomas was immediately dropped from his new seat on the BSA board and all BSA's new acquisitions were placed in the hands of a liquidator. Some of the businesses were allowed to continue for some years, Aircraft Transport and Travel's assets being eventually rolled into Daimler Air Hire to make Daimler Airway Limited. BSA failed to pay a dividend for the following four years while it tried to recover from its losses. Some relief was achieved when in March 1924 Daimler Airway and its management became the major constituent of Imperial Airways.
As well as the Daimler car range, BSA Cycles Ltd re-entered the car market under the BSA name in 1921 with a V-twin engined light car followed by four-cylinder models up to 1926, when the name was temporarily dropped. In 1929 a new range of 3- and 4-wheel cars appeared and production of these continued until 1936.
By the end of 1924 difficult economic conditions left the bulk of BSA profits coming from cars and cycles. There were no sales of arms for military purposes in spite of large new facilities built at Government's request. The shares in Pennsylvania's Jessop Steel Co were disposed of without loss. During 1928 there was a drastic reorganisation of the business of some BSA subsidiaries.
By 1930 the BSA Group's primary activities were BSA cycles and Daimler vehicles.
Car production under the BSA name ceased in the 1930s. BSA remained the largest manufacturer of motorcycles but the market was less than half the size of the late 1920s and production was unprofitable yet the value of BSA's motor cars and cycles was now more than half group turnover.
Lanchester
In 1931 the Lanchester Motor Company at Sparkbrook was acquired and production of their cars transferred to Daimler's Coventry works. The first new product was a version of the Daimler Light Twenty or 16/20 and called Lanchester 15/18.
Economic conditions began to improve in the mid 1930s and BSA's activities and profits all grew sharply. International tensions added more activity. An aero engine shadow factory was built and entered production during 1938. Motor cycle sales shrank but BSA maintained its relative position. 1937's new British registrations fell from 57,000 to 46,500. Defence and military equipment including Daimler's Scout car were in heavy demand in Britain and in export markets.
Armaments
In the 1930s, the board of directors authorised expenditure on bringing their arms-making equipment back to use – it had been stored at company expense since the end of the Great War in the belief that BSA might again be called upon to perform its patriotic duty. In 1939, BSA acquired the blueprints for a submachine gun designed by Hungarian arms designer Pál Király and the rights to manufacture it. Examples were produced in 9mm Mauser Export calibre. It was estimated that it would only cost £5 each to manufacture: by comparison, the Thompson submachine guns bought after the start of hostilities cost around £50, while SMLE rifles and the later Sten submachine guns cost £7. 15s and £2. 10s respectively in 1943. However the trials did not lead to acceptance; referring to the complex trigger mechanism and Frank Hobart said "no soldier could have coped with this watchmaker's dream",
Second World War
By the outbreak of the Second World War, BSA Guns Ltd at Small Heath, was the only factory producing rifles in the UK. The Royal Ordnance Factories did not begin production until 1941. BSA Guns Ltd was also producing .303 Browning machine guns for the Air Ministry (the main aircraft armament at the time) at the rate of 600 guns per week in March 1939 and Browning production was to peak at 16,390 per month by March 1942. The armed forces had chosen the 500 cc side-valve BSA M20 motorcycle as their preferred machine. On the outbreak of war the Government requisitioned the 690 machines BSA had in stock as well as placing an order for another 8,000 machines. South Africa, Ireland, India, Sweden and the Netherlands also wanted machines.
The Government passed the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 on 24 August allowing the drafting of defence regulations affecting food, travel, requisitioning of land and supplies, manpower and agricultural production. A second Emergency Powers (Defence) Act was passed on 22 May 1940 allowing the conscription of labour. The fall of France had not been anticipated in Government planning and the encirclement of a large part of the British Expeditionary Force into the Dunkirk pocket resulted in a hasty evacuation of that part of the B.E.F following the abandonment of their equipment. The parlous state of affairs "no arms, no transport, no equipment" in the face of the threat of imminent invasion of Britain by Nazi forces was recorded by the Chief of the Imperial General Staff Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke in his diary entries of the 1/2 July 1940.
The creation of the Home Guard (initially as the Local Defence Volunteers) following Anthony Eden's broadcast appeal to the Nation on Tuesday 14 May 1940 also created further demand for arms production to equip this new force. BSA, as the only rifle producer in Britain, had to step up to the mark and the workforce voluntarily went onto a seven-day week. Motorcycle production was also stepped up from 500 to 1,000 machines per week which meant a finished machine coming off the production line every 5 minutes. The motorcycle department had been left intact in 1939 due to demand which was doubled following Dunkirk. At the same time BSA staff were providing lectures and demonstrations on motorcycle riding and maintenance to 250,000 officers and men in all parts of the UK.
The BSA factory at Small Heath was bombed by the Luftwaffe on 26 August 1940 resulting in one high explosive bomb and a shower of incendiaries hitting the main barrel mill which was the only one operating on service rifles in the country, causing the unaffordable loss of 750 machine tools but fortunately no loss of life. Two further Blitz air raids took place on 19 and 22 November 1940. The air raid of 19 November did the most damage, causing loss of production and trapping hundreds of workers. Since BSA was the sole producer of the main aircraft armament, the resulting delays in productions reportedly caused most worries to PM Churchill among all the industrial damage during the Blitz.
Two BSA night-shift electricians, Alf Stevens and Alf Goodwin, helped rescue their fellow workers. Alf Stevens was awarded the George Medal for his selfless acts of bravery in the rescue and Alf Goodwin was awarded the British Empire Medal. Workers involved in the works Civil Defence were brought in to help search for and clear bodies to get the plant back into production. The net effect of the November raids was to destroy machine shops in the four-storey 1915 building, the original 1863 gunsmiths' building and nearby buildings, 1,600 machine tools, kill 53 employees, injure 89, 30 of them seriously and halt rifle production for three months.
The Government Ministry of Supply and BSA immediately began a process of production dispersal throughout Britain, through the shadow factory scheme. Factories were set up at Tipton, Dudley, Smethwick, Blackheath, Lye, Kidderminster, Stourport, Tyseley, and Bromsgrove to manufacture Browning machine guns, Stoke, Corsham, and Newcastle-under-Lyme produced the Hispano cannon, Leicester and Studley Road produced the Besa machine gun, Ruislip produced the Oerlikon 20mm cannon, Stafford produced rocket projectiles, Tamworth produced two-pounder gun carriages, Mansfield produced the Boys Anti-tank gun and Shirley produced rifles. These were dispersal factories which were in addition to Small Heath and the other BSA factories opened in the two years following the 1940 blitz. At its peak Small Heath was running 67 factories engaged in war production. BSA operations were also dispersed to other companies under licence.
In 1941 BSA was approached to produce a new pedal cycle with a maximum weight allowance of only 22 lb especially for airborne use. This required a new concept in frame design which BSA found, producing a machine which weighed 21 lb, one pound less than the design specification and which also exceeded the design requirement for an effective life of 50 miles many times over. Over 60,000 folding bicycles were produced, a figure equal to half the total production of military bicycles during World War II. BSA also produced folding motorcycles for the Airborne Division. In late 1942 BSA examined the Special Operations Executive designed Welgun with a view to manufacture. BSA were willing to manufacture the gun in the quantities required starting April 1943 but the cheaper and less accurate Sten Mk IV was adopted for production by the Ministry of Supply. BSA bought the Sunbeam motorcycles and bicycle business from Associated Motor Cycles Ltd in 1943 and then Ariel Motors Ltd in 1944. During the course of the conflict BSA produced 1,250,000 Lee–Enfield .303 service rifles, 404,383 Sten sub-machine guns, 468,098 Browning machine guns plus spares equivalent to another 100,000, 42,532 Hispano cannon, 32,971 Oerlikon cannon, 59,322 7.9 mm Besa machine guns, 3,218 15 mm Besa machine guns, 68,882 Boys Anti-tank guns, 126,334 motorcycles, 128,000 military bicycles (over 60,000 of which were folding paratrooper bicycles), 10,000,000 shell fuse cases, 3,485,335 magazines and 750,000 anti-aircraft rockets were supplied to the armed forces.
At the same time other parts of the Group were having similar problems. Before World War II Daimler had been linked with other Coventry motor manufacturers in a government-backed scheme for aero engine manufacture and had been allocated two shadow factories. Apart from this, BSA-owned Daimler was producing Scout Cars and Daimler Mk I Armoured Cars which had been designed by BSA at Small Heath not Coventry as well as gun turrets, gun parts, tank transmissions, rocket projectiles and other munitions. This activity had not gone unnoticed by the enemy, which made Radford Works a target in the Coventry air raids. Radford Works received direct hits in four separate air raids during 1940. None of these attacks were to seriously disrupt production, however two more serious air raids were carried out in April 1941 which destroyed half the factory. In all it is estimated that 170 bombs containing 52,000 lbs of explosive were dropped on Radford Works as well as the thousands of incendiaries. Like BSA, Daimler had to find dispersal units. A back-handed compliment was paid by Field Marshal Rommel to the workers at Radford Works when he used a captured Daimler Scout to escape following his defeat at El Alamein.
Post-war
BSA cycles
BSA produced the first Sunbeam bicycle catalogue in 1949 and produced its own '4 Star' derailleur gear with an associated splined cassette hub and 4 sprocket cassette. This design was different from the 1930s Bayliss Wiley cassette hub which had a threaded sprocket carrier. BSA bought New Hudson motorcycle and bicycle business in 1950 and followed this up in 1951 with the purchase of Triumph Motorcycles which brought Jack Sangster onto the BSA board. The effect of this acquisition was to make BSA into the largest producer of motorcycles in the world at that time.
1952 saw BSA establish a Professional Cycling Team. Bob Maitland a successful amateur cyclist and the highest placed British finisher in the 1948 Olympic Games road race and now an independent rider in the BSA team was a BSA employee working in the design office as a draughtsman. It was Bob Maitland who was responsible for the design of post war BSA range of lightweight sports bicycles based on his knowledge of cycling. Bob Maitland also made some of the components used on the bicycles of the professional team which were not standard production machines. In the 1952 Tour of Britain Road Race run between Friday 22 August and Saturday 6 September, involving 14 individual stages and covering a total race distance of 1,470 miles, the BSA team of Bob Maitland, "Tiny" Thomas, Pete Proctor, Alf Newman and Stan Jones won the overall team race and Pete Proctor "King of the Mountains" classification. The riders also enjoyed success on the individual stages of the race. The team competed in four further events, 14 September Tour of the Chilterns, 1st "Tiny" Thomas and Team Prize, 21 September Weston-Super-Mare Grand Prix, Team Prize, 28 September Staffordshire Grand Prix, 1st Bob Maitland and Team Prize, 5 October Tour Revenge Race, Dublin, 1st "Tiny" Thomas and Team prize.
In 1953 BSA withdrew motorcycle production from BSA Cycles Ltd, the company it has established in 1919, by creating BSA Motorcycles Ltd.
In 1953 the BSA Professional Cycling Team was managed by Syd Cozens. Successes were 5/6 April Bournemouth Two Day Road Race, 1st Bob Maitland, 12 April Dover to London 63 Miles Road Race, 1st Stan Jones, 31 May Langsett 90 Miles Road Race, 1st Bob Maitland and "King of the Mountains", 7 June Tour of the Wrekin, 1st Bob Maitland, 12 July Severn Valley 100 Miles Road Race, 1st "Tiny" Thomas, 19 July Jackson Trophy, Newcastle, Team Prize, 9 August Les Adams Memorial 80 Miles Road Race, 1st Alf Newman, Team Prize, "King of the Mountains" Arthur Ilsley, 30 August Weston-Super-Mare 100 Miles Grand Prix, 1st Bob Maitland, Team Prize. The team also competed in the 1,624-mile, 12 stage, 1953 Tour of Britain Road Race. The 1953 line up had changed as Arthur Ilsley replaced Pete Proctor in the team. "Tiny" Thomas won the overall individual classification, the Team were runners-up in the team competition and Arthur Ilsley was 3rd in the "King of the Mountains" competition. Bob Maitland also had notable success by winning the Independent National Championship.
1954 saw the introduction of the BSA Quick Release 3 Speed hub gear. It was a split axle three speed gear intended for use with bicycles equipped with oil bath chainguards. The original BSA 3 speed hub gear had been made under licence from the Three-Speed Gear Syndicate since 1907. The design was later to be classified as the Sturmey-Archer 'Type X', but all BSA hub gear production ceased in 1955
Management
Sir Bernard Docker remained chairman of BSA until 1956 when the BSA removed him. In an acrimonious dispute conducted in the media the matter was brought to the BSA shareholders at the Annual General Meeting where the decision of the Board was upheld. Another significant departure for the fortune of the BSA Group but less controversial was the retirement on ill health grounds of James Leek CBE, managing director from 1939 until his retirement. Sir Bernard Docker was replaced as Chairman of the BSA Board by Jack Sangster.
Dispersals
The BSA bicycle division, BSA Cycles Ltd., including the BSA cycle dealer network was sold to Raleigh in 1957. Raleigh initially continued bicycle production in Birmingham at Coventry Road, Sheldon, Birmingham 26, into the early 1960s using up BSA parts but as time went on more stock Raleigh parts and fittings were used, some continuing to bear the 'piled arms' stamp. TI Group, owners of the British Cycle Corporation, bought Raleigh in 1960 thus gaining access to the BSA brand. Bicycles bearing the BSA name are currently manufactured and distributed within India by TI Cycles of India but have no direct connection to the original Birmingham BSA company.
In 1960, Daimler was sold to Jaguar.
1961 was the centenary year of the BSA Group and, in recognition of this milestone, the company magazine produced an anniversary issue of BSA Group News in June called BSA Centenary 1861–1961, in which many of the achievements of the Group were celebrated. This year also saw the end of military rifle production; however, BSA still continued to make sporting guns.
Products
Bicycles
According to Charles Spencer, BSA was manufacturing the "Delta" bicycle circa 1869. In 1880 the company was approached to manufacture the "Otto Dicycle". An initial contract was signed to produce 210 and a further contract followed for a further 200. In all it is believed that a total of 953 Otto machines were made. BSA then went into bicycle production on their own account, the first machines to their own specification being exhibited at the 1881 Stanley Show. BSA went on to design and manufacture a "safety" bicycle (patent:15,342 of 1884). BSA was also producing tricycles and a licence was obtained in 1885 to manufacture ball bearings. BSA ceased bicycle manufacture in 1887 because of the demand for arms. Bicycle component manufacture commenced in 1894 and BSA continued to supply the bicycle trade up to 1936. The company recommenced bicycle manufacture on their own account again in 1908 and these were exhibited at the Stanley Show in 1909. Bicycle manufacture was what led BSA into motorcycles. BSA produced bicycles for both the police and military and notably a folding bicycle for the British Army during World War I and the more well known folding Paratroopers bicycle during World War II. BSA supplied the Irish Army with bicycles after 1922.
BSA manufactured a range of bicycles from utility roadsters through to racing bicycles. The BSA range of Sports bicycles expanded in the 1930s following the granting of a patent for a new lighter design of seat lug in 1929 and tandems were introduced into the BSA bicycle range as well. BSA had a reputation for quality and durability and their components were more expensive that either Chater-Lea or Brampton. BSA launched a high end club cyclists machine in the early 1930s initially branded as the "Super-eeze". Never slow to avail of publicity BSA sponsored the great Australian cyclist Hubert Opperman and re-branded the top of the range machine the "Opperman" model. A less expensive range of clubman lightweight machines was introduced from 1936 with the "Cyclo" 3 speed derailleur equipped "Clubman". Subtle changes were made to the range, most models being equipped with "Russ" patent forks and some models were made for only two seasons. This all stopped around September 1939 with the outbreak of war. A revised catalogue with a much reduced range was issued in March 1940 which also saw the launch of the BSA "Streamlight" model. A novel all white bicycle was produced for the blackout but had disappeared from a severely reduced bicycle range the details of which were circulated to dealers from December 1941. BSA had ceased production of their 3 speed hub gear in 1939 and production appears to have started again by 1945 although with a black finish instead of chromium plating. BSA bought Sunbeam in 1943 and produced Sunbeam bicycles using up existing frames and parts and using BSA components for the missing bits. The first BSA produced Sunbeam catalogue was published in 1949
Post war BSA expanded their bicycle range but faced problems of shortages of raw materials such as steel and was required to export a lot of their manufactured output in order to get a Government licence to purchase the necessary raw materials. The company moved bicycle production to the new Waverley Works after World War II. BSA continued to innovate introducing the 4 Star derailleur gear in 1949 along with an associated 4-speed 'unit' or cassette hub. The derailleur design was altered from 1950 and was certainly available up to 1953 but was not a great success. BSA bought New Hudson in 1950 and started to manufacture and sell New Hudson branded machines as well as Sunbeam. It appears that the top of the range BSA lightweight club cyclist machine was the "Gold Column" and this appears to have been changed into the BSA "Tour of Britain" model following the success of the BSA Professional Cycling Team in the 1952 Tour of Britain race. The "Tour of Britain" model was heavily promoted in the BSA 1953 sales literature. The factory made "Tour of Britain" model was not the same as those ridden by the professional team. Only eight machines were crafted for the professional team and none of the components appear to have been standard BSA parts. 1953 saw BSA separate the bicycle / motorcar and motorcycle business into different holdings.
The good times were coming to an end and demand for bicycles fell with the end of rationing in 1954. James Leek, managing director of BSA Cycles Ltd was suffering ill health and he retired in 1956, the same year the BSA Chairman, Sir Bernard Docker, was removed from the BSA Board. Jack Sangster who had joined the BSA Board in 1951 following the purchase of his company Triumph Motorcycles became chairman. The bicycle manufacturing business BSA Cycles Ltd was sold to Raleigh Industries in 1957.
Motorcycles
BSA Motorcycles were made by BSA Cycles Ltd, under the BSA parent, until 1953 when the motorcycle business was moved into holding BSA Motorcycles Ltd. The first instance of intention to produce motorcycles was reported in The Motor Cycle, a British motorcycling journal, in July 1906. The first wholly BSA motorcycle, the H.P. was built in 1910 and displayed at the first Olympia Show, London on 21 November in that year. Sir Hallewell Rogers, BSA Chairman, had informed the shareholders at the company's 1910 AGM in Birmingham "We have decided to put a motor-bicycle on the market for the coming season .... These machines will be on exhibit at the Cycle and Motor Show on November 21st, after which date we look forward to commencing delivery". The machines were available for the 1911 season and entire production sold out. BSA had previously acquired a commercially available engine in 1905 and fitted it to one of their bicycle frames and discovered at first hand the problems that needed to be overcome. BSA Cycles Ltd was set up as a subsidiary company in 1919 under Managing Director Charles Hyde to manufacture both bicycles and motorcycles.
Civilian firearms
The 1906 war office pattern rifle
The Sportsman series of .22 Long Rifle bolt-action rifles
Various Martini action target .22lr rifles
The Ralock and Armatic semi automatic .22lr rifles
Various bolt action hunting rifles
Trademarks
Rights to the motorcycle brand went to Norton Villiers Triumph and on its liquidation were purchased by BSA Company. Rights to the guns brand were acquired by Gamo for its new subsidiary, BSA Guns (UK) Limited.
See also
List of modern armament manufacturers
Notes
References
External links
BSA History from the Days of the Crimea (1918)
Catalogue of the BSA archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
British brands
BSA motorcycles
Defunct companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands
British companies established in 1861
Manufacturing companies established in 1861
Defunct cycle manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Defunct firearms manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Machine tool builders
Manufacturing companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands
Military vehicle manufacturers
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Motorcycle manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Scooter manufacturers
World War I vehicles of the United Kingdom
Small Heath, Birmingham
1861 establishments in England |
4964 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli%20number | Bernoulli number | In mathematics, the Bernoulli numbers are a sequence of rational numbers which occur frequently in analysis. The Bernoulli numbers appear in (and can be defined by) the Taylor series expansions of the tangent and hyperbolic tangent functions, in Faulhaber's formula for the sum of m-th powers of the first n positive integers, in the Euler–Maclaurin formula, and in expressions for certain values of the Riemann zeta function.
The values of the first 20 Bernoulli numbers are given in the adjacent table. Two conventions are used in the literature, denoted here by and ; they differ only for , where and . For every odd , . For every even , is negative if is divisible by 4 and positive otherwise. The Bernoulli numbers are special values of the Bernoulli polynomials , with and .
The Bernoulli numbers were discovered around the same time by the Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli, after whom they are named, and independently by Japanese mathematician Seki Takakazu. Seki's discovery was posthumously published in 1712 in his work Katsuyō Sanpō; Bernoulli's, also posthumously, in his Ars Conjectandi of 1713. Ada Lovelace's note G on the Analytical Engine from 1842 describes an algorithm for generating Bernoulli numbers with Babbage's machine. As a result, the Bernoulli numbers have the distinction of being the subject of the first published complex computer program.
Notation
The superscript used in this article distinguishes the two sign conventions for Bernoulli numbers. Only the term is affected:
with ( / ) is the sign convention prescribed by NIST and most modern textbooks.
with ( / ) was used in the older literature, and (since 2022) by Donald Knuth following Peter Luschny's "Bernoulli Manifesto".
In the formulas below, one can switch from one sign convention to the other with the relation , or for integer = 2 or greater, simply ignore it.
Since for all odd , and many formulas only involve even-index Bernoulli numbers, a few authors write "" instead of . This article does not follow that notation.
History
Early history
The Bernoulli numbers are rooted in the early history of the computation of sums of integer powers, which have been of interest to mathematicians since antiquity.
Methods to calculate the sum of the first positive integers, the sum of the squares and of the cubes of the first positive integers were known, but there were no real 'formulas', only descriptions given entirely in words. Among the great mathematicians of antiquity to consider this problem were Pythagoras (c. 572–497 BCE, Greece), Archimedes (287–212 BCE, Italy), Aryabhata (b. 476, India), Abu Bakr al-Karaji (d. 1019, Persia) and Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (965–1039, Iraq).
During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries mathematicians made significant progress. In the West Thomas Harriot (1560–1621) of England, Johann Faulhaber (1580–1635) of Germany, Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665) and fellow French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) all played important roles.
Thomas Harriot seems to have been the first to derive and write formulas for sums of powers using symbolic notation, but even he calculated only up to the sum of the fourth powers. Johann Faulhaber gave formulas for sums of powers up to the 17th power in his 1631 Academia Algebrae, far higher than anyone before him, but he did not give a general formula.
Blaise Pascal in 1654 proved Pascal's identity relating the sums of the th powers of the first positive integers for .
The Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernoulli (1654–1705) was the first to realize the existence of a single sequence of constants which provide a uniform formula for all sums of powers.
The joy Bernoulli experienced when he hit upon the pattern needed to compute quickly and easily the coefficients of his formula for the sum of the th powers for any positive integer can be seen from his comment. He wrote:
"With the help of this table, it took me less than half of a quarter of an hour to find that the tenth powers of the first 1000 numbers being added together will yield the sum 91,409,924,241,424,243,424,241,924,242,500."
Bernoulli's result was published posthumously in Ars Conjectandi in 1713. Seki Takakazu independently discovered the Bernoulli numbers and his result was published a year earlier, also posthumously, in 1712. However, Seki did not present his method as a formula based on a sequence of constants.
Bernoulli's formula for sums of powers is the most useful and generalizable formulation to date. The coefficients in Bernoulli's formula are now called Bernoulli numbers, following a suggestion of Abraham de Moivre.
Bernoulli's formula is sometimes called Faulhaber's formula after Johann Faulhaber who found remarkable ways to calculate sum of powers but never stated Bernoulli's formula. According to Knuth a rigorous proof of Faulhaber's formula was first published by Carl Jacobi in 1834. Knuth's in-depth study of Faulhaber's formula concludes (the nonstandard notation on the LHS is explained further on):
"Faulhaber never discovered the Bernoulli numbers; i.e., he never realized that a single sequence of constants ... would provide a uniform
for all sums of powers. He never mentioned, for example, the fact that almost half of the coefficients turned out to be zero after he had converted his formulas for from polynomials in to polynomials in ."
In the above Knuth meant ; instead using the formula avoids subtraction:
Reconstruction of "Summae Potestatum"
The Bernoulli numbers (n)/(n) were introduced by Jakob Bernoulli in the book Ars Conjectandi published posthumously in 1713 page 97. The main formula can be seen in the second half of the corresponding facsimile. The constant coefficients denoted , , and by Bernoulli are mapped to the notation which is now prevalent as , , , . The expression means – the small dots are used as grouping symbols. Using today's terminology these expressions are falling factorial powers . The factorial notation as a shortcut for was not introduced until 100 years later. The integral symbol on the left hand side goes back to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1675 who used it as a long letter for "summa" (sum). The letter on the left hand side is not an index of summation but gives the upper limit of the range of summation which is to be understood as . Putting things together, for positive , today a mathematician is likely to write Bernoulli's formula as:
This formula suggests setting when switching from the so-called 'archaic' enumeration which uses only the even indices 2, 4, 6... to the modern form (more on different conventions in the next paragraph). Most striking in this context is the fact that the falling factorial has for the value . Thus Bernoulli's formula can be written
if , recapturing the value Bernoulli gave to the coefficient at that position.
The formula for in the first half of the quotation by Bernoulli above contains an error at the last term; it should be instead of .
Definitions
Many characterizations of the Bernoulli numbers have been found in the last 300 years, and each could be used to introduce these numbers. Here only four of the most useful ones are mentioned:
a recursive equation,
an explicit formula,
a generating function,
an integral expression.
For the proof of the equivalence of the four approaches.
Recursive definition
The Bernoulli numbers obey the sum formulas
where and denotes the Kronecker delta. Solving for gives the recursive formulas
Explicit definition
In 1893 Louis Saalschütz listed a total of 38 explicit formulas for the Bernoulli numbers, usually giving some reference in the older literature. One of them is (for ):
Generating function
The exponential generating functions are
where the substitution is . If we let and then
Then and for the m term in the series for is:
If
then we find that
showing that the values of obey the recursive formula for the Bernoulli numbers .
The (ordinary) generating function
is an asymptotic series. It contains the trigamma function .
Integral Expression
From the generating functions above, one can obtain the following integral formula for the even Bernoulli numbers:
Bernoulli numbers and the Riemann zeta function
The Bernoulli numbers can be expressed in terms of the Riemann zeta function:
for .
Here the argument of the zeta function is 0 or negative.
By means of the zeta functional equation and the gamma reflection formula the following relation can be obtained:
for .
Now the argument of the zeta function is positive.
It then follows from () and Stirling's formula that
for .
Efficient computation of Bernoulli numbers
In some applications it is useful to be able to compute the Bernoulli numbers through modulo , where is a prime; for example to test whether Vandiver's conjecture holds for , or even just to determine whether is an irregular prime. It is not feasible to carry out such a computation using the above recursive formulae, since at least (a constant multiple of) arithmetic operations would be required. Fortunately, faster methods have been developed which require only operations (see big notation).
David Harvey describes an algorithm for computing Bernoulli numbers by computing modulo for many small primes , and then reconstructing via the Chinese remainder theorem. Harvey writes that the asymptotic time complexity of this algorithm is and claims that this implementation is significantly faster than implementations based on other methods. Using this implementation Harvey computed for . Harvey's implementation has been included in SageMath since version 3.1. Prior to that, Bernd Kellner computed to full precision for in December 2002 and Oleksandr Pavlyk for with Mathematica in April 2008.
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:right"
! Computer !! Year !! n !! Digits*
|-
|align=left| J. Bernoulli || ~1689 || 10 || 1
|-
|align=left| L. Euler || 1748 || 30 || 8
|-
|align=left| J. C. Adams || 1878 || 62 || 36
|-
|align=left| D. E. Knuth, T. J. Buckholtz || 1967 || ||
|-
|align=left| G. Fee, S. Plouffe || 1996 || ||
|-
|align=left| G. Fee, S. Plouffe || 1996 || ||
|-
|align=left| B. C. Kellner || 2002 || ||
|-
|align=left| O. Pavlyk || 2008 || ||
|-
|align=left| D. Harvey || 2008 || ||
|}
* Digits is to be understood as the exponent of 10 when is written as a real number in normalized scientific notation.
A possible algorithm for computing Bernoulli numbers in the Julia programming language is given by
b = Array{Float64}(undef, n+1)
b[1] = 1
b[2] = -0.5
for m=2:n
for k=0:m
for v=0:k
b[m+1] += (-1)^v * binomial(k,v) * v^(m) / (k+1)
end
end
end
return b
Applications of the Bernoulli numbers
Asymptotic analysis
Arguably the most important application of the Bernoulli numbers in mathematics is their use in the Euler–Maclaurin formula. Assuming that is a sufficiently often differentiable function the Euler–Maclaurin formula can be written as
This formulation assumes the convention . Using the convention the formula becomes
Here (i.e. the zeroth-order derivative of is just ). Moreover, let denote an antiderivative of . By the fundamental theorem of calculus,
Thus the last formula can be further simplified to the following succinct form of the Euler–Maclaurin formula
This form is for example the source for the important Euler–Maclaurin expansion of the zeta function
Here denotes the rising factorial power.
Bernoulli numbers are also frequently used in other kinds of asymptotic expansions. The following example is the classical Poincaré-type asymptotic expansion of the digamma function .
Sum of powers
Bernoulli numbers feature prominently in the closed form expression of the sum of the th powers of the first positive integers. For define
This expression can always be rewritten as a polynomial in of degree . The coefficients of these polynomials are related to the Bernoulli numbers by Bernoulli's formula:
where denotes the binomial coefficient.
For example, taking to be 1 gives the triangular numbers .
Taking to be 2 gives the square pyramidal numbers .
Some authors use the alternate convention for Bernoulli numbers and state Bernoulli's formula in this way:
Bernoulli's formula is sometimes called Faulhaber's formula after Johann Faulhaber who also found remarkable ways to calculate sums of powers.
Faulhaber's formula was generalized by V. Guo and J. Zeng to a -analog.
Taylor series
The Bernoulli numbers appear in the Taylor series expansion of many trigonometric functions and hyperbolic functions.
Tangent
Cotangent
Hyperbolic tangent
Hyperbolic cotangent
Laurent series
The Bernoulli numbers appear in the following Laurent series:
Digamma function:
Use in topology
The Kervaire–Milnor formula for the order of the cyclic group of diffeomorphism classes of exotic -spheres which bound parallelizable manifolds involves Bernoulli numbers. Let be the number of such exotic spheres for , then
The Hirzebruch signature theorem for the genus of a smooth oriented closed manifold of dimension 4n also involves Bernoulli numbers.
Connections with combinatorial numbers
The connection of the Bernoulli number to various kinds of combinatorial numbers is based on the classical theory of finite differences and on the combinatorial interpretation of the Bernoulli numbers as an instance of a fundamental combinatorial principle, the inclusion–exclusion principle.
Connection with Worpitzky numbers
The definition to proceed with was developed by Julius Worpitzky in 1883. Besides elementary arithmetic only the factorial function and the power function is employed. The signless Worpitzky numbers are defined as
They can also be expressed through the Stirling numbers of the second kind
A Bernoulli number is then introduced as an inclusion–exclusion sum of Worpitzky numbers weighted by the harmonic sequence 1, , , ...
This representation has .
Consider the sequence , . From Worpitzky's numbers , applied to is identical to the Akiyama–Tanigawa transform applied to (see Connection with Stirling numbers of the first kind). This can be seen via the table:
{| style="text-align:center"
|+ Identity ofWorpitzky's representation and Akiyama–Tanigawa transform
|-
|1|| || || || || ||0||1|| || || || ||0||0||1|| || || ||0||0||0||1|| || ||0||0||0||0||1||
|-
|1||−1|| || || || ||0||2||−2|| || || ||0||0||3||−3|| || ||0||0||0||4||−4|| || || || || || ||
|-
|1||−3||2|| || || ||0||4||−10||6|| || ||0||0||9||−21||12|| || || || || || || || || || || || ||
|-
|1||−7||12||−6|| || ||0||8||−38||54||−24|| || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || ||
|-
|1||−15||50||−60||24|| || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || ||
|-
|}
The first row represents .
Hence for the second fractional Euler numbers () / ():
A second formula representing the Bernoulli numbers by the Worpitzky numbers is for
The simplified second Worpitzky's representation of the second Bernoulli numbers is:
() / () = × () / ()
which links the second Bernoulli numbers to the second fractional Euler numbers. The beginning is:
The numerators of the first parentheses are (see Connection with Stirling numbers of the first kind).
Connection with Stirling numbers of the second kind
If one defines the Bernoulli polynomials as:
where for are the Bernoulli numbers.
One also has the following for Bernoulli polynomials,
The coefficient of in is .
Comparing the coefficient of in the two expressions of Bernoulli polynomials, one has:
(resulting in ) which is an explicit formula for Bernoulli numbers and can be used to prove Von-Staudt Clausen theorem.
Connection with Stirling numbers of the first kind
The two main formulas relating the unsigned Stirling numbers of the first kind to the Bernoulli numbers (with ) are
and the inversion of this sum (for , )
Here the number are the rational Akiyama–Tanigawa numbers, the first few of which are displayed in the following table.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align=center"
|+ Akiyama–Tanigawa number
! !!0!!1!!2!!3!!4
|-
! 0
| 1 || || || ||
|-
! 1
| || || || || ...
|-
! 2
| || || || ... || ...
|-
! 3
| 0 || || ... || ... || ...
|-
! 4
| − || ... || ... || ... || ...
|}
The Akiyama–Tanigawa numbers satisfy a simple recurrence relation which can be exploited to iteratively compute the Bernoulli numbers. This leads to the algorithm shown in the section 'algorithmic description' above. See /.
An autosequence is a sequence which has its inverse binomial transform equal to the signed sequence. If the main diagonal is zeroes = , the autosequence is of the first kind. Example: , the Fibonacci numbers. If the main diagonal is the first upper diagonal multiplied by 2, it is of the second kind. Example: /, the second Bernoulli numbers (see ). The Akiyama–Tanigawa transform applied to = 1/ leads to (n) / (n + 1). Hence:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Akiyama–Tanigawa transform for the second Euler numbers
|-
! !! 0 !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4
|-
! 0
| 1 || || || ||
|-
! 1
| || || || || ...
|-
! 2
| 0 || || || ... || ...
|-
! 3
| − || − || ... || ... || ...
|-
! 4
| 0 || ... || ... || ... || ...
|}
See and . () / () are the second (fractional) Euler numbers and an autosequence of the second kind.
( = ) × ( = ) = = .
Also valuable for / (see Connection with Worpitzky numbers).
Connection with Pascal's triangle
There are formulas connecting Pascal's triangle to Bernoulli numbers
where is the determinant of a n-by-n Hessenberg matrix part of Pascal's triangle whose elements are:
Example:
Connection with Eulerian numbers
There are formulas connecting Eulerian numbers to Bernoulli numbers:
Both formulae are valid for if is set to . If is set to − they are valid only for and respectively.
A binary tree representation
The Stirling polynomials are related to the Bernoulli numbers by . S. C. Woon described an algorithm to compute as a binary tree:
Woon's recursive algorithm (for ) starts by assigning to the root node . Given a node of the tree, the left child of the node is and the right child . A node is written as in the initial part of the tree represented above with ± denoting the sign of .
Given a node the factorial of is defined as
Restricted to the nodes of a fixed tree-level the sum of is , thus
For example:
Integral representation and continuation
The integral
has as special values for .
For example, and . Here, is the Riemann zeta function, and is the imaginary unit. Leonhard Euler (Opera Omnia, Ser. 1, Vol. 10, p. 351) considered these numbers and calculated
Another similar integral representation is
The relation to the Euler numbers and
The Euler numbers are a sequence of integers intimately connected with the Bernoulli numbers. Comparing the
asymptotic expansions of the Bernoulli and the Euler numbers shows that the Euler numbers are in magnitude approximately times larger than the Bernoulli numbers . In consequence:
This asymptotic equation reveals that lies in the common root of both the Bernoulli and the Euler numbers. In fact could be computed from these rational approximations.
Bernoulli numbers can be expressed through the Euler numbers and vice versa. Since, for odd , (with the exception ), it suffices to consider the case when is even.
These conversion formulas express a connection between the Bernoulli and the Euler numbers. But more important, there is a deep arithmetic root common to both kinds of numbers, which can be expressed through a more fundamental sequence of numbers, also closely tied to . These numbers are defined for as
The magic of these numbers lies in the fact that they turn out to be rational numbers. This was first proved by Leonhard Euler in a landmark paper De summis serierum reciprocarum (On the sums of series of reciprocals) and has fascinated mathematicians ever since. The first few of these numbers are
( / )
These are the coefficients in the expansion of .
The Bernoulli numbers and Euler numbers can be understood as special views of these numbers, selected from the sequence and scaled for use in special applications.
The expression [ even] has the value 1 if is even and 0 otherwise (Iverson bracket).
These identities show that the quotient of Bernoulli and Euler numbers at the beginning of this section is just the special case of when is even. The are rational approximations to and two successive terms always enclose the true value of . Beginning with the sequence starts ( / ):
These rational numbers also appear in the last paragraph of Euler's paper cited above.
Consider the Akiyama–Tanigawa transform for the sequence () / ():
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;"
! 0
|1||||0||−||−||−||0
|-
! 1
| || 1|| || 0|| −|| −||
|-
! 2
| −|| || || || || ||
|-
! 3
| −1|| −|| −|| || || ||
|-
! 4
| || −|| −|| || || ||
|-
! 5
| 8|| || || || || ||
|-
! 6
| −|| || || || || ||
|}
From the second, the numerators of the first column are the denominators of Euler's formula. The first column is − × .
An algorithmic view: the Seidel triangle
The sequence Sn has another unexpected yet important property: The denominators of Sn+1 divide the factorial . In other words: the numbers , sometimes called Euler zigzag numbers, are integers.
(). See ().
Their exponential generating function is the sum of the secant and tangent functions.
.
Thus the above representations of the Bernoulli and Euler numbers can be rewritten in terms of this sequence as
These identities make it easy to compute the Bernoulli and Euler numbers: the Euler numbers are given immediately by and the Bernoulli numbers are fractions obtained from by some easy shifting, avoiding rational arithmetic.
What remains is to find a convenient way to compute the numbers . However, already in 1877 Philipp Ludwig von Seidel published an ingenious algorithm, which makes it simple to calculate .
Start by putting 1 in row 0 and let denote the number of the row currently being filled
If is odd, then put the number on the left end of the row in the first position of the row , and fill the row from the left to the right, with every entry being the sum of the number to the left and the number to the upper
At the end of the row duplicate the last number.
If is even, proceed similar in the other direction.
Seidel's algorithm is in fact much more general (see the exposition of Dominique Dumont ) and was rediscovered several times thereafter.
Similar to Seidel's approach D. E. Knuth and T. J. Buckholtz gave a recurrence equation for the numbers and recommended this method for computing and 'on electronic computers using only simple operations on integers'.
V. I. Arnold rediscovered Seidel's algorithm and later Millar, Sloane and Young popularized Seidel's algorithm under the name boustrophedon transform.
Triangular form:
{| style="text-align:right"
| || || || || || || 1|| || || || || ||
|-
| || || || || || 1|| || 1|| || || || ||
|-
| || || || || 2|| || 2|| || 1|| || || ||
|-
| || || || 2|| || 4|| || 5|| || 5|| || ||
|-
| || || 16|| || 16|| || 14|| || 10|| || 5|| ||
|-
| || 16|| || 32|| || 46|| || 56|| || 61|| || 61||
|-
|272|| ||272|| ||256|| ||224|| ||178|| ||122|| || 61
|}
Only , with one 1, and , with two 1s, are in the OEIS.
Distribution with a supplementary 1 and one 0 in the following rows:
{| style="text-align:right"
| || || || || || || 1|| || || || || ||
|-
| || || || || || 0|| || 1|| || || || ||
|-
| || || || || −1|| || −1|| || 0|| || || ||
|-
| || || || 0|| || −1|| || −2|| || −2|| || ||
|-
| || || 5|| || 5|| || 4|| || 2|| || 0|| ||
|-
| || 0|| || 5|| || 10|| || 14|| || 16|| || 16||
|-
|−61|| ||−61|| ||−56|| ||−46|| ||−32|| ||−16|| || 0
|}
This is , a signed version of . The main andiagonal is . The main diagonal is . The central column is . Row sums: 1, 1, −2, −5, 16, 61.... See . See the array beginning with 1, 1, 0, −2, 0, 16, 0 below.
The Akiyama–Tanigawa algorithm applied to () / () yields:
{| style="text-align:right"
| 1|| 1|| || 0|| −|| −|| −
|-
| 0|| 1|| || 1|| 0|| −
|-
| −1|| −1|| || 4||
|-
| 0|| −5|| −|| 1
|-
| 5|| 5|| −
|-
| 0|| 61
|-
| −61
|}
1. The first column is . Its binomial transform leads to:
{| style="text-align:right"
|-
| 1|| 1|| 0|| −2|| 0|| 16|| 0
|-
|0||−1||−2||2||16||−16
|-
|−1||−1||4||14||−32
|-
|0||5||10||−46
|-
|5||5||−56
|-
|0||−61
|-
|−61
|}
The first row of this array is . The absolute values of the increasing antidiagonals are . The sum of the antidiagonals is
2. The second column is . Its binomial transform yields:
{| style="text-align:right"
|-
| 1|| 2|| 2|| −4|| −16|| 32|| 272
|-
|1||0||−6||−12||48||240
|-
|−1||−6||−6||60||192
|-
|−5||0||66||32
|-
|5||66||66
|-
|61||0
|-
|−61
|}
The first row of this array is . The absolute values of the second bisection are the double of the absolute values of the first bisection.
Consider the Akiyama-Tanigawa algorithm applied to () / ( () = abs( ()) + 1 = .
{| style="text-align:right"
|1||2||2||||1||||
|-
|−1||0||||2||||0
|-
|−1||−3||−||3||
|-
|2||−3||−||−13
|-
|5||21||−
|-
|−16||45
|-
|−61
|}
The first column whose the absolute values are could be the numerator of a trigonometric function.
is an autosequence of the first kind (the main diagonal is ). The corresponding array is:
{| style="text-align:right"
|0||−1||−1||2||5||−16||−61
|-
|−1||0||3||3||−21||−45
|-
|1||3||0||−24||−24
|-
|2||−3||−24||0
|-
|−5||−21||24
|-
|−16||45
|-
|−61
|}
The first two upper diagonals are = × . The sum of the antidiagonals is = 2 × (n + 1).
− is an autosequence of the second kind, like for instance / . Hence the array:
{| style="text-align:right"
|-
|2||1||−1||−2||5||16||−61
|-
|−1||−2||−1||7||11||−77
|-
|−1||1||8||4||−88
|-
|2||7||−4||−92
|-
|5||−11||−88
|-
|−16||−77
|-
|−61
|}
The main diagonal, here , is the double of the first upper one, here . The sum of the antidiagonals is = 2 × (1). − = 2 × .
A combinatorial view: alternating permutations
Around 1880, three years after the publication of Seidel's algorithm, Désiré André proved a now classic result of combinatorial analysis. Looking at the first terms of the Taylor expansion of the trigonometric functions
and André made a startling discovery.
The coefficients are the Euler numbers of odd and even index, respectively. In consequence the ordinary expansion of has as coefficients the rational numbers .
André then succeeded by means of a recurrence argument to show that the alternating permutations of odd size are enumerated by the Euler numbers of odd index (also called tangent numbers) and the alternating permutations of even size by the Euler numbers of even index (also called secant numbers).
Related sequences
The arithmetic mean of the first and the second Bernoulli numbers are the associate Bernoulli numbers:
, , , , , / . Via the second row of its inverse Akiyama–Tanigawa transform , they lead to Balmer series / .
The Akiyama–Tanigawa algorithm applied to () / () leads to the Bernoulli numbers / , / , or without , named intrinsic Bernoulli numbers .
{| style="text-align:center; padding-left; padding-right: 2em;"
|-
|1||||||||
|-
|||||||||
|-
|0||||||||
|-
|−||−||−||−||0
|-
|0||−||−||−||−
|}
Hence another link between the intrinsic Bernoulli numbers and the Balmer series via ().
() = 0, 2, 1, 6,... is a permutation of the non-negative numbers.
The terms of the first row are f(n) = . 2, f(n) is an autosequence of the second kind. 3/2, f(n) leads by its inverse binomial transform to 3/2 −1/2 1/3 −1/4 1/5 ... = 1/2 + log 2.
Consider g(n) = 1/2 – 1 / (n+2) = 0, 1/6, 1/4, 3/10, 1/3. The Akiyama-Tanagiwa transforms gives:
{| style="text-align:center; padding-left; padding-right:2em;"
|-
|0||||||||||||...
|-
|−||−||−||−||−||−||...
|-
|0||−||−||−||−||−||...
|-
|||||||||0||−||...
|}
0, g(n), is an autosequence of the second kind.
Euler () / () without the second term () are the fractional intrinsic Euler numbers The corresponding Akiyama transform is:
{| style="text-align:center; padding-left; padding-right: 2em;"
|-
|1||1||||||
|-
|0||||||||
|-
|−||−||0||||
|-
|0||−||−||−||−
|-
|||||−||−||−
|}
The first line is . preceded by a zero is an autosequence of the first kind. It is linked to the Oresme numbers. The numerators of the second line are preceded by 0. The difference table is:
{| style="text-align:center; padding-left; padding-right: 2em;"
|-
|0||1||1||||||||
|-
|1||0||−||−||−||−||−
|-
|−1||−||0||||||||
|}
Arithmetical properties of the Bernoulli numbers
The Bernoulli numbers can be expressed in terms of the Riemann zeta function as for integers provided for the expression is understood as the limiting value and the convention is used. This intimately relates them to the values of the zeta function at negative integers. As such, they could be expected to have and do have deep arithmetical properties. For example, the Agoh–Giuga conjecture postulates that is a prime number if and only if is congruent to −1 modulo . Divisibility properties of the Bernoulli numbers are related to the ideal class groups of cyclotomic fields by a theorem of Kummer and its strengthening in the Herbrand-Ribet theorem, and to class numbers of real quadratic fields by Ankeny–Artin–Chowla.
The Kummer theorems
The Bernoulli numbers are related to Fermat's Last Theorem (FLT) by Kummer's theorem, which says:
If the odd prime does not divide any of the numerators of the Bernoulli numbers then has no solutions in nonzero integers.
Prime numbers with this property are called regular primes. Another classical result of Kummer are the following congruences.
Let be an odd prime and an even number such that does not divide . Then for any non-negative integer
A generalization of these congruences goes by the name of -adic continuity.
-adic continuity
If , and are positive integers such that and are not divisible by and , then
Since , this can also be written
where and , so that and are nonpositive and not congruent to 1 modulo . This tells us that the Riemann zeta function, with taken out of the Euler product formula, is continuous in the -adic numbers on odd negative integers congruent modulo to a particular , and so can be extended to a continuous function for all -adic integers the -adic zeta function.
Ramanujan's congruences
The following relations, due to Ramanujan, provide a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers that is more efficient than the one given by their original recursive definition:
Von Staudt–Clausen theorem
The von Staudt–Clausen theorem was given by Karl Georg Christian von Staudt and Thomas Clausen independently in 1840. The theorem states that for every ,
is an integer. The sum extends over all primes for which divides .
A consequence of this is that the denominator of is given by the product of all primes for which divides . In particular, these denominators are square-free and divisible by 6.
Why do the odd Bernoulli numbers vanish?
The sum
can be evaluated for negative values of the index . Doing so will show that it is an odd function for even values of , which implies that the sum has only terms of odd index. This and the formula for the Bernoulli sum imply that is 0 for even and ; and that the term for is cancelled by the subtraction. The von Staudt–Clausen theorem combined with Worpitzky's representation also gives a combinatorial answer to this question (valid for n > 1).
From the von Staudt–Clausen theorem it is known that for odd the number is an integer. This seems trivial if one knows beforehand that the integer in question is zero. However, by applying Worpitzky's representation one gets
as a sum of integers, which is not trivial. Here a combinatorial fact comes to surface which explains the vanishing of the Bernoulli numbers at odd index. Let be the number of surjective maps from } to }, then . The last equation can only hold if
This equation can be proved by induction. The first two examples of this equation are
,
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Thus the Bernoulli numbers vanish at odd index because some non-obvious combinatorial identities are embodied in the Bernoulli numbers.
A restatement of the Riemann hypothesis
The connection between the Bernoulli numbers and the Riemann zeta function is strong enough to provide an alternate formulation of the Riemann hypothesis (RH) which uses only the Bernoulli numbers. In fact Marcel Riesz proved that the RH is equivalent to the following assertion:
For every there exists a constant (depending on ) such that as .
Here is the Riesz function
denotes the rising factorial power in the notation of D. E. Knuth. The numbers occur frequently in the study of the zeta function and are significant because is a -integer for primes where does not divide . The are called divided Bernoulli numbers.
Generalized Bernoulli numbers
The generalized Bernoulli numbers are certain algebraic numbers, defined similarly to the Bernoulli numbers, that are related to special values of Dirichlet -functions in the same way that Bernoulli numbers are related to special values of the Riemann zeta function.
Let be a Dirichlet character modulo . The generalized Bernoulli numbers attached to are defined by
Apart from the exceptional , we have, for any Dirichlet character , that if .
Generalizing the relation between Bernoulli numbers and values of the Riemann zeta function at non-positive integers, one has the for all integers :
where is the Dirichlet -function of .
Eisenstein–Kronecker number
Eisenstein–Kronecker numbers are an analogue of the generalized Bernoulli numbers for imaginary quadratic fields. They are related to critical L-values of Hecke characters.
Appendix
Assorted identities
See also
Bernoulli polynomial
Bernoulli polynomials of the second kind
Bell number
Euler number
Genocchi number
Kummer's congruences
Poly-Bernoulli number
Hurwitz zeta function
Euler summation
Stirling polynomial
Sums of powers
Notes
References
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Footnotes
External links
The first 498 Bernoulli Numbers from Project Gutenberg
A multimodular algorithm for computing Bernoulli numbers
The Bernoulli Number Page
Bernoulli number programs at LiteratePrograms
Number theory
Topology
Integer sequences |
4971 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boers | Boers | Boers ( ; () are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled Dutch Cape Colony, but the United Kingdom incorporated it into the British Empire in 1806. The name of the group is derived from Trekboer then later "boer", which means "farmer" in Dutch and Afrikaans.
In addition, the term also applied to those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to colonise in the Orange Free State, Transvaal (together known as the Boer Republics), and to a lesser extent Natal. They emigrated from the Cape to live beyond the reach of the British colonial administration, with their reasons for doing so primarily being the new Anglophone common law system being introduced into the Cape and the British abolition of slavery in 1833.
The term Afrikaners or Afrikaans people is generally used in modern-day South Africa for the white Afrikaans-speaking population of South Africa (the largest group of White South Africans) encompassing the descendants of both the Boers, and the Cape Dutch who did not embark on the Great Trek.
Origin
European colonists
The Dutch East India Company (; VOC) was formed in the Dutch Republic in 1602, and at this time the Dutch had entered the competition for the colonial and imperial trade of commerce in Southeast Asia. The end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 saw European soldiers and refugees widely dispersed across Europe. Immigrants from Germany, Scandinavia, and Switzerland traveled to the Netherlands in the hope of finding employment with the VOC. During the same year, one of their ships was stranded in Table Bay near what would eventually become Cape Town, and the shipwrecked crew had to forage for themselves on shore for several months. They were so impressed with the natural resources of the country that on their return to the Republic, they represented to the VOC directors the great advantages to be had for the Dutch Eastern trade from a properly provided and fortified station at the Cape. As a result, the VOC sent a Dutch expedition in 1652 led by Jan van Riebeek, who constructed a fort and laid out vegetable gardens at Table Bay.
Landing at Table Bay, Van Riebeek took control over Cape Town, and after ten years and one month of governing the colony, in 1662, Jan van Riebeeck stepped down as Commander at the Cape.
Free Burghers
VOC favoured the idea of freemen at the Cape and many workers of VOC requested to be discharged in order to become free burghers. As a result Jan van Riebeeck approved the notion on favourable conditions and earmarked two areas near the Liesbeek River for farming purposes in 1657. The two areas which were allocated to the freemen, for agricultural purposes, were named Groeneveld and Dutch Garden. These areas were separated by the Amstel River (Liesbeek River). Nine of the best applicants were selected to use the land for agricultural purposes. The freemen or free burghers as they were afterwards termed, thus became subjects of VOC and were no longer its servants.
In 1671, the Dutch first purchased land from the indigenous Khoikhoi beyond the limits of the fort built by Van Riebeek; this marked the development of the Colony proper. As the result of the investigations of a 1685 commissioner, the government worked to recruit a greater variety of immigrants to develop a stable community. They formed part of the class of , also known as ('free citizens'), former VOC employees who remained at the Cape after serving their contracts. A large number of became independent farmers and applied for grants of land, as well as loans of seed and tools, from VOC administration.
Dutch free immigrants
VOC authorities had been endeavouring to induce gardeners and small farmers to emigrate from Europe to South Africa, but with little success. They were only able to attract a few families through tales of wealth, but the Cape had little charm in comparison. In October 1670, however, the Chamber of Amsterdam announced that a few families were willing to leave for the Cape and Mauritius during the following December. Among the new names of burghers at this time are Jacob and Dirk van Niekerk, Johannes van As, Francois Villion, Jacob Brouwer, Jan van Eden, Hermanus Potgieter, Albertus Gildenhuis, and Jacobus van den Berg.
French Huguenots
During 1688–1689, the colony was greatly strengthened by the arrival of nearly two hundred French Huguenots, who were political refugees from the religious wars in France following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They joined colonies at Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Franschhoek and Paarl. The influence of the Huguenots on the character of the colonists was marked, leading to the VOC directing in 1701 that only Dutch should be taught in schools. This resulted in the Huguenots assimilating by the middle of the 18th century, with a loss in the use and knowledge of French. The colony gradually spread eastwards, and in 1754 land as far as Algoa Bay was included in the colony.
At this time the European colonists numbered eight to ten thousand. They possessed numerous slaves, grew wheat in sufficient quantity to make it a commodity crop for export, and were famed for the good quality of their wines. But their chief wealth was in cattle. They enjoyed considerable prosperity.
Through the latter half of the 17th and the whole of the 18th century, troubles arose between the colonists and the government as the VOC administration was despotic. Its policies were not directed at development of the colony, but to using it to profit the VOC. VOC closed the colony against free immigration, kept the whole of the trade in its own hands, combined the administrative, legislative and judicial powers in one body, prescribed to the farmers the nature of the crops they were to grow, demanded a large part of their produce as a kind of tax, and made other exactions.
Trekboers
From time to time, indentured VOC servants were endowed with the right of freeburghers but the VOC retained the power to compel them to return into its service whenever they deemed it necessary. This right to force into servitude those who might incur the displeasure of the governor or other high officers was not only exercised with reference to the individuals themselves; it was claimed by the government to be applicable to their children as well.
The tyranny caused many to feel desperate and to flee from oppression, even before 1700 trekking began. In 1780, Joachim van Plettenberg, the governor, proclaimed the Sneeuberge to be the northern boundary of the colony, expressing "the anxious hope that no more extension should take place, and with heavy penalties forbidding the rambling peasants to wander beyond". In 1789, so strong had feelings amongst the burghers become that delegates were sent from the Cape to interview the authorities at Amsterdam. After this deputation, some nominal reforms were granted.
It was largely to escape oppression that the farmers trekked farther and farther from the seat of government. VOC, to control the emigrants, established a magistracy at Swellendam in 1745 and another at Graaff Reinet in 1786. The Gamtoos River had been declared, c. 1740, the eastern frontier of the colony but it was soon passed. In 1780, however, the Dutch, to avoid collision with the Bantu peoples, agreed with them to make the Great Fish River the common boundary. In 1795 the heavily taxed burghers of the frontier districts, who were afforded no protection against the Bantus, expelled the VOC officials, and set up independent governments at Swellendam and Graaff Reinet.
The trekboers of the 19th century were the lineal descendants of the trekboers of the 18th century. The end of the 19th century saw a revival of the same tyrannical monopolist policy as that in the VOC government in the Transvaal. If the formula, "In all things political, purely despotic; in all things commercial, purely monopolist", was true of the VOC government in the 18th century, it was equally true of Kruger's government in the latter part of the 19th.
The underlying fact which made the trek possible is that the Dutch-descended colonists in the eastern and northeastern parts of the colony were not cultivators of the soil, but of purely pastoral and nomadic habits, ever ready to seek new pastures for their flocks and herds, possessing no special affection for any particular locality. These people, thinly scattered over a wide territory, had lived for so long with little restraint from the law that when, in 1815, by the institution of "Commissions of Circuit", justice was brought nearer to their homes, various offences were brought to light, the remedying of which caused much resentment.
The Dutch-descended colonists in the eastern and northeastern parts of the colony, as a result of the Great Trek, had removed themselves from governmental rule and become widely spread out. However, the institution of "Commissions of Circuit" in 1815 allowed the prosecution of crimes, with offences committed by the trekboers—notably including many against people they had enslaved—seeing justice. These prosecutions were very unpopular amongst the trekkers and were seen as interfering with their rights over the enslaved people they viewed as their property.
Invasion of the Cape Colony
The Invasion of the Cape Colony was a British military expedition launched in 1795 against the Dutch Cape Colony at the Cape of Good Hope. The Netherlands had fallen under the revolutionary government of France and a British force under General Sir James Henry Craig was sent to Cape Town to secure the colony from the French for the Prince of Orange, a refugee in England. The governor of Cape Town at first refused to obey the instructions from the Prince, but when the British proceeded to land troops to take possession anyway, he capitulated. His action was hastened by the fact that the Khoikhoi, escaping from their former enslavers, flocked to the British standard. The burghers of Graaff Reinet did not surrender until a force had been sent against them; in 1799 and again in 1801 they rose in revolt. In February 1803, as a result of the peace of Amiens (February 1803), the colony was handed over to the Batavian Republic which introduced many reforms, as had the British during their eight years' rule. One of the first acts of General Craig had been to abolish torture in the administration of justice. The country still remained essentially Dutch, and few British citizens were attracted to it. Its cost to the British exchequer during this period was £16,000,000. The Batavian Republic entertained very liberal views as to the administration of the country, but had little opportunity to enact them.
When the War of the Third Coalition broke out in 1803, a British force was once again sent to the Cape. After an engagement (January 1806) on the shores of Table Bay, the Dutch garrison of Castle of Good Hope surrendered to the British under Sir David Baird, and in the 1814 Anglo-Dutch treaty the colony was ceded outright by The Netherlands to the British crown. At that time the colony extended to the line of mountains guarding the vast central plateau, then called Bushmansland (after a name for the San people), and had an area of about 120,000 sq. m. and a population of some 60,000, of whom 27,000 were whites, 17,000 free Khoikhoi and the rest enslaved people, mostly non-indigenous blacks and Malays.
Dislike of British rule
Although the colony was fairly prosperous, many of the Dutch farmers were as dissatisfied with British rule as they had been with that of the VOC, though their grounds for complaint were not the same. In 1792, Moravian missions had been established which targeted the Khoikhoi, and in 1799 the London Missionary Society began work among both Khoikhoi and Bantu peoples. The missionaries' championing of Khoikhoi grievances caused much dissatisfaction among the majority of the Dutch colonists, whose views temporarily prevailed, for in 1812 an ordinance was issued which empowered magistrates to bind Khoikhoi children as apprentices under conditions which differed little from slavery. Simultaneously, the movement for the abolition of slavery was gaining strength in England, and the missionaries appealed from the colonists to the mother country.
Slachter's Nek
A farmer named Frederick Bezuidenhout refused to obey a summons issued on the complaint of a Khoikhoi, and, firing on the party sent to arrest him, was killed by the return fire. This caused a small rebellion in 1815, known as Slachters Nek, described as "the most insane attempt ever made by a set of men to wage war against their sovereign" by Henry Cloete. Upon its suppression, five ringleaders were publicly hanged at the spot where they had sworn to expel "the English tyrants". The feeling caused by the hanging of these men was deepened by the circumstances of the execution, as the scaffold on which the rebels were simultaneously hanged broke down from their united weight and the men were afterwards hanged one by one. An ordinance was passed in 1827, abolishing the old Dutch courts of and (resident magistrates being substituted) and establishing that henceforth all legal proceedings should be conducted in English. The granting in 1828, as a result of the representations of the missionaries, of equal rights with whites to the Khoikhoi and other free coloured people, the imposition (1830) of heavy penalties for harsh treatment of enslaved people, and finally the emancipation of the enslaved people in 1834, were measures which combined to aggravate the farmers' dislike of government. Moreover, what these enslavers viewed as the inadequate compensation for the freeing of the enslaved people, and the suspicions engendered by the method of payment, caused much resentment; and in 1835 the farmers again removed themselves to unknown country to escape the government. While emigration beyond the colonial border had been continuous for 150 years, it now took on larger proportions.
Cape Frontier Wars (1779–1879)
The migration of the trekboers from the Cape Colony into the Eastern Cape parts of South Africa, where the native Xhosa people had established settlements, gave rise to a series of conflicts between the Boers and the Xhosas. In 1775 the Cape government established a boundary between the trekboers and the Xhosas at the Bushmans and Upper Fish Rivers. The Boers and Xhosas ignored the boundary, with both groups establishing homes on either side of the frontier. Governor van Plettenberg attempted to persuade both groups to respect the boundary line without success. The Xhosas were accused of stealing cattle and in 1779 a series of skirmishes erupted along the border which initiated the 1st Frontier War.
The frontier remained unstable, resulting in the outbreak of the 2nd Frontier War in 1789. Raids carried out by Boers and Xhosas on both sides of the boundary caused much friction in the area which resulted in several groups being drawn into the conflict. In 1795, the British invasion of the Cape Colony resulted in a change of government. After the government takeover the British began to draw up policies with regards to the frontier resulting in a Boer rebellion in Graaff-Reinet. The policies caused the Khoisan tribes to join some Xhosa chiefs in attacks against British forces during the 3rd Frontier War (1799–1803).
Peace was restored to the area when the British, under the Treaty of Amiens, returned the Cape Colony to the Dutch Batavian Republic in 1803. In January 1806 during a second invasion, the British reoccupied the colony after the Battle of Blaauwberg. Tensions in the Zuurveld led the colonial administration and Boer colonists to expel many of the Xhosa tribes from the area, initiating the 4th Frontier War in 1811. Conflicts between the Xhosas on the frontier led to the 5th Frontier War in 1819.
The Xhosas, due to dissatisfaction with vacillating government policies regarding where they were permitted to live, undertook large-scale cattle thefts on the frontier. The Cape government responded with several military expeditions. In 1834 a large Xhosa force moved into the Cape territory, which began the 6th Frontier War. Additional fortifications were built by the government and mounted patrols were not well received by the Xhosas, who continued with raids on farms during the 7th Frontier War (1846–1847). The 8th (1850–1853) and 9th Frontier Wars (1877–1878) continued at the same pace as their predecessors. Eventually the Xhosas were defeated and the territories were brought under British control.
Great Trek
The Great Trek occurred between 1835 and the early 1840s. During that period some 12,000 to 14,000 Boers (including women and children), impatient with British rule, emigrated from Cape Colony into the great plains beyond the Orange River, and across them again into Natal and the vastness of the Zoutspansberg, in the northern part of the Transvaal. Those Trekboers who occupied the eastern Cape were semi-nomadic. A significant number in the eastern Cape frontier later became ('border farmers') who were the direct ancestors of the Voortrekkers.
The Boers addressed several correspondence to the British Colonial Government before leaving the Cape Colony as reasons for their departure. Piet Retief, one of the leaders of the Boers during the time, addressed a letter to the government on 22 January 1837 in Grahamstown stating that the Boers did not see any prospect for peace or happiness for their children in a country with such internal commotions. Retief further complained about the severe financial losses which they felt had resulted from the laws of the British administration. While there was financial compensation for the freeing of the people they had enslaved, the Boers found it to be inadequate. They also felt that the English church system was incompatible with the Dutch Reformed Church. By this time the Boers had already formed a separate code of laws in preparation for the great trek and were aware of the dangerous territory they were about to enter. Retief concluded his letter with "We quit this colony under the full assurance that the English Government has nothing more to require of us, and will allow us to govern ourselves without its interference in future".
Boer states and republics
As the Voortrekkers progressed further inland, they continued to establish Boer colonies on the interior of South Africa.
Anglo-Boer wars
Following the British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877, Paul Kruger was a key figure in organizing a Boer resistance which led to expulsion of the British from the Transvaal. The Boers then fought the Second Boer War in the late 19th and early 20th century against the British in order to ensure the republics of the Transvaal (the ) and the Orange Free State, remaining independent, ultimately capitulating in 1902.
Boer War diaspora
After the Second Boer War, a Boer diaspora occurred. Starting in 1903, the largest group emigrated to the Patagonia region of Argentina and to Brazil. Another group emigrated to British colony of Kenya, from where most returned to South Africa during the 1930s, while a third group under the leadership of General Ben Viljoen emigrated to Mexico and to New Mexico and Texas in the southwestern United States.
1914 Boer Revolt
The Maritz Rebellion (also known as the Boer Revolt, the Five Shilling Rebellion or the Third Boer War) occurred in 1914 at the start of World War I, in which men who supported the re-creation of the Boer republics rose up against the government of the Union of South Africa because they did not want to side with the British against the German Empire so soon after the war with the British.
Many Boers had German ancestry and many members of the government were themselves former Boer military leaders who had fought with the Maritz rebels against the British in the Second Boer War. The rebellion was put down by Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, and the ringleaders received heavy fines and terms of imprisonment. One, Jopie Fourie, an officer in the Union Defence Force, was convicted for treason when he refused to take up arms alongside the British, and was executed by the South African government in 1914.
Characteristics
Language
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken widely in South Africa and Namibia, and to a lesser extent in Botswana and Zimbabwe. It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland (Hollandic dialect) spoken by the mainly Dutch colonists of what is now South Africa, where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the course of the 18th century. Hence, it is a daughter language of Dutch, and was previously referred to as Cape Dutch (also used to refer collectively to the early Cape colonists) or kitchen Dutch (a derogatory term used in its earlier days). However, it is also variously (although incorrectly) described as a creole or as a partially creolised language. The term is ultimately derived from Dutch meaning African Dutch.
Culture
The desire to wander, known as , was a notable characteristic of the Boers. It figured prominently in the late 17th century when the Trekboers began to inhabit the northern and eastern Cape frontiers, again during the Great Trek when the Voortrekkers left the eastern Cape en masse, and after the major republics were established during the Thirstland ('') Trek. One such trekker described the impetus for emigrating as, "a drifting spirit was in our hearts, and we ourselves could not understand it. We just sold our farms and set out northwestwards to find a new home".
A rustic characteristic and tradition was developed quite early on as Boer society was born on the frontiers of white colonisation and on the outskirts of Western civilisation.
The Boer quest for independence manifested in a tradition of declaring republics, which predates the arrival of the British; when the British arrived, Boer republics had already been declared and were in rebellion from the VOC.
Beliefs
The Boers of the frontier were known for their independent spirit, resourcefulness, hardiness, and self-sufficiency, whose political notions verged on anarchy but had begun to be influenced by republicanism.
The Boers had cut their ties to Europe as they emerged from the Trekboer group.
The Boers possessed a distinct Protestant culture, and the majority of Boers and their descendants were members of a Reformed Church. The ('Dutch Reformed Church') was the national Church of the South African Republic (1852–1902). The Orange Free State (1854–1902) was named after the Protestant House of Orange in the Netherlands.
The Calvinist influence, in such fundamental Calvinist doctrines such as unconditional predestination and divine providence, remains present in a minority of Boer culture, who see their role in society as abiding by the national laws and accepting calamity and hardship as part of their Christian duty. Many Boers have since converted denominations and are now members of Baptist, Charismatic, Pentecostal or Lutheran Churches.
Modern usage
During recent times, mainly during the apartheid reform and post-1994 eras, some white Afrikaans-speaking people, mainly with conservative political views, and of Trekboer and Voortrekker descent, have chosen to be called , rather than Afrikaners, to distinguish their identity. They believe that many people of Voortrekker descent were not assimilated into what they see as the Cape-based Afrikaner identity. They suggest that this developed after the Second Anglo-Boer War and the subsequent establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. Some Boer nationalists have asserted that they do not identify as a right-wing element of the political spectrum.
They contend that the Boers of the South African Republic and Orange Free State republics were recognised as a separate people or cultural group under international law by the Sand River Convention (which created the South African Republic in 1852), the Bloemfontein Convention (which created the Orange Free State Republic in 1854), the Pretoria Convention (which re-established the independence of the South African Republic 1881), the London Convention (which granted the full independence to the South African Republic in 1884), and the Vereeniging Peace Treaty, which formally ended the Second Anglo-Boer War on 31 May 1902. Others contend, however, that these treaties dealt only with agreements between governmental entities and do not imply the recognition of a Boer cultural identity per se.
The supporters of these views feel that the Afrikaner label was used from the 1930s onwards as a means of politically unifying the white Afrikaans speakers of the Western Cape with those of Trekboer and Voortrekker descent in the north of South Africa, where the Boer Republics were established.
Since the Anglo-Boer war, the term ('farmer people') was rarely used in the 20th century by the various regimes because of the effort to assimilate the with the Afrikaners. A portion of those who are the descendants of the have reasserted use of this designation.
The supporters of the Boer designation view the term Afrikaner as an artificial political label which usurped their history and culture, turning Boer achievements into Afrikaner achievements. They feel that the Western-Cape based Afrikaners – whose ancestors did not trek eastwards or northwards – took advantage of the republican Boers' destitution following the Anglo-Boer War. At that time, the Afrikaners attempted to assimilate the Boers into the new politically-based cultural label.
In contemporary South Africa, Boer and Afrikaner have often been used interchangeably. The Boers are the smaller segment within the Afrikaner designation, as the Afrikaners of Cape Dutch origin are more numerous. directly translated means African, and thus refers to all Afrikaans-speaking people in Africa who have their origins in the Cape Colony founded by Jan Van Riebeeck. Boer is a specific group within the larger Afrikaans-speaking population.
During apartheid, Boer was used by opponents of apartheid in various contexts, referring to institutional structures such as the National Party; or to specific groups of people such as members of the Police Force (colloquially known as Boere) and Army, Afrikaners, or white South Africans generally. This usage is often viewed as pejorative in contemporary South Africa.
Politics
Boere-Vryheidsbeweging
Boerestaat Party
Freedom Front Plus
Front National
Herstigte Nasionale Party
National Conservative Party of South Africa
Education
The Movement for Christian-National Education is a federation of 47 Calvinist private schools, primarily in the Free State and the Transvaal, committed to educating Boer children from grade 0 through to 12.
Media
Some local radio stations promote the ideals of those who identify with the Boer people, like Radio Rosestad 100.6 FM (in Bloemfontein), Overvaal Stereo and Radio Pretoria. An internet-based radio station, Boerevolk Radio, promotes Boer separatism.
Territories
Territorial areas in the form of a ('Boer State') are being developed as colonies exclusively for Boers/Afrikaners, notably Orania in the Northern Cape and Kleinfontein near Pretoria.
Notable Boers
Voortrekker leaders
Sarel Cilliers
Andries Hendrik Potgieter
Andries Pretorius
Piet Retief
Great trek
Racheltjie de Beer
Dirkie Uys
Marthinus Jacobus Oosthuizen
Participants in the Second Anglo-Boer War
Koos de la Rey, general; regarded as being one of the great military leaders of the Second Anglo-Boer War
Danie Theron, soldier
Christiaan Rudolf de Wet, general
Siener van Rensburg, considered a prophet by some
Politicians
Louis Botha, first prime minister of South Africa (1910–1919) and former Boer general
Petrus Jacobus Joubert, general and cabinet member of the Transvaal Republic
Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal Republic
Martinus Theunis Steyn, 6th State President of the Orange Free State
Spies
Robey Leibbrandt
Fritz Joubert Duquesne, Boer captain known as the Black Panther who served in the Second Boer War
In modern fiction
The history of the Cape Colony and the Boers in South Africa is covered at length in the 1980 novel The Covenant by American author James A. Michener.
See also
Notes
References
Sources
External links
Afrikaans words and phrases
Dutch words and phrases
Great Trek
Society of South Africa |
4973 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballarat | Ballarat | Ballarat ( ) (Wathaurong: balla arat) is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third largest city in Victoria.
Within months of Victoria separating from the colony of New South Wales in 1851, gold was discovered near Ballarat, sparking the Victorian gold rush. Ballarat subsequently became a thriving boomtown that for a time rivalled Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, in terms of wealth and cultural influence. In 1854, following a period of civil disobedience in Ballarat over gold licenses, local miners launched an armed uprising against government forces. Known as the Eureka Rebellion, it led to the introduction of white male suffrage in Australia, and as such is interpreted as the origin of Australian democracy. The rebellion's symbol, the Eureka Flag, has become a national symbol.
Proclaimed a city on 9 September 1870, Ballarat's prosperity, unlike that of many other gold boomtowns, continued until the late 19th century, as the city's fields experienced sustained high gold yields for many decades. By the turn of the century, Ballarat's importance relative to Melbourne rapidly faded with the slowing of gold extraction. It has endured as a major regional centre and is the commercial capital and largest city of the Central Highlands, as well as a significant tourist destination. Ballarat is known for its history, culture and well-preserved colonial-era heritage, with much of the city subject to heritage overlays.
History
Prehistory and European settlement
The Ballarat region was first populated by the Wadawurrung people, an Indigenous Australian people. The first Europeans to sight the area were an August 1837 party of six men, including Thomas Livingstone Learmonth and Henry Anderson, who scaled Mount Buninyong. Some of this party set off again in January 1838, this time with others including Thomas' brother Somerville Learmonth and William Cross Yuille and his cousin Archibald Buchanan Yuille.
The Yuille cousins arrived in 1838 and took up a sheep run at Ballarat. The first houses were built near Woolshed Creek (Sebastopol) by Henry Anderson and taken over by the Yuilles. William Yuille established a hut on the northern edge of the swamp which would be called Yuille's Swamp, later Lake Wendouree. Archibald Yuille named his property "Ballaarat", from the local Wathaurong Aboriginal words, balla and arat, meaning a camping or 'resting place', with the word 'balla' meaning bent elbow. Both 'Ballaarat' and 'Ballarat' were used interchangeably until the present spelling was officially adopted by the City of Ballarat in 1994, when the city amalgamated with surrounding local government areas.
Gold rush era
The first publicised discovery of gold in the region was by Thomas Hiscock on 2 August 1851, in Buninyong to the south. The find brought other prospectors to the area and on 19 August 1851, more gold was found at Poverty Point. Within days, a gold rush began, bringing thousands of prospectors to the Yarrowee Valley, which became known as the Ballarat diggings. Yields were particularly high, with the first prospectors in the area extracting between half an ounce (which was more than the average wage of the time) and up to five ounces of alluvial gold per day. As news of the Victorian gold rush reached the world, Ballarat gained an international reputation as a particularly rich goldfield. As a result, a huge influx of immigrants occurred, including many from Ireland and China, gathering in a collection of prospecting shanty towns around the creeks and hills. Within a few months, numerous alluvial runs were established, several deep mining leads began, and the population had swelled to over 1,000 people.
The first post office opened on 1 November 1851, the first to open in a Victorian gold-mining settlement. Parts of the district were first surveyed by William Urquhart as early as October 1851. By 1852 his grid plan and wide streets for land sales in the new township of West Ballarat, built upon a plateau of basalt, contrasted markedly with the existing narrow unplanned streets, tents, and gullies of the original East Ballarat settlement. The new town's main streets of the time were named in honour of police commissioners and gold commissioners of the time, with the main street, Sturt Street, named after Evelyn Pitfield Shirley Sturt; Dana Street named after Henry Dana; Lydiard Street after his assistant; Doveton Street after Francis Crossman Doveton, Ballarat's first gold commissioner; Armstrong after David Armstrong; and Mair Street after William Mair. These officials were based at the government encampment (after which nearby Camp Street was named), which was strategically positioned on an escarpment with an optimal view over the district's diggings.
The first newspaper, The Banner, published on 11 September 1853, was one of many to be distributed during the gold-rush period. Print media played a large role in the early history of the settlement. Ballarat attracted a sizable number of miners from the Californian 1848 gold rush, and some were known as Ballafornians.
Civil disobedience in Ballarat led to an armed civil uprising, the Eureka Rebellion (colloquially referred to as the "Eureka Stockade") which took place in Ballarat on 3 December 1854. The event, in which 22 miners were killed, is considered to be a defining moment in Australian history.
The city earned the nickname "The Golden City" in the 1850s. The gold rush population peaked at almost 60,000, mostly male diggers, by 1858. However the early population was largely itinerant. As quickly as the alluvial deposits drew prospectors to Ballarat, the rate of gold extraction fluctuated and, as they were rapidly worked dry, many quickly moved to rush other fields as new findings were announced, particularly Mount Alexander in 1852, Fiery Creek in 1855, and Ararat in 1857. By 1859, a smaller number of permanent settlers numbering around 23,000, many of whom had built personal wealth in gold, established a prosperous economy based around a shift to deep underground gold mining.
Confidence of the city's early citizens in the enduring future of their city is evident in the sheer scale of many of the early public buildings, generous public recreational spaces, and opulence of many of its commercial establishments and private housing. A local steam locomotive industry developed from 1854 with the Phoenix Foundry operating until 1906. The railway came to the town with the opening of the Geelong–Ballarat line in 1862 and Ballarat developed as a major railway town. As the city grew the region's original indigenous inhabitants were quickly expelled to the fringe and by 1867 few remained.
Post gold rush
From the late 1860s to the early 20th century, Ballarat made a successful transition from a gold rush town to an industrial-age city. The ramshackle tents and timber buildings gradually made way for permanent buildings, many impressive structures of solid stone and brick mainly built from wealth generated by early mining.
Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh visited between 9 and 13 December 1867 and as the first royal visit, the occasion was met with great fanfare. The Prince Room was prepared at Craigs Royal Hotel for his stay. The city's first civic centre—Prince Alfred Hall—erected over the Yarrowee between the two municipalities, was named in his honour during his visit. The later attempt by Ballaratian Henry James O'Farrell to assassinate the Prince was met with shock and great horror from locals.
Ballarat was proclaimed a city in 1871. Gong Gong dam was built in 1877 to alleviate flooding and to provide a permanent water supply. A direct railway to Melbourne was completed in December 1889. Many industries and workshops had been established as a result of manufacturing and servicing for the deep lead mining industry.
20th century
Local boosters at the start of the 20th century adopted the nickname "Athens of Australia", first used to describe Ballarat by the jurist and politician Sir John Madden. The first electricity supply was completed in 1901, and that year a bluestone power station was built at the corner of Ripon Street and Wendouree Parade with the main aim of electrifying the city's tramway network. Despite such advancements, mining activity slowed at this time and Ballarat's growth all but stopped, leading to a decades-long period of decline. The Sunshine rail disaster in 1908 resulted in the death of dozens of Ballarat residents, and in August 1909, a great storm lashed the city, resulting in the death of one person and the injury of seven others, as well as the destruction of numerous homes.
Ballarat's significant representation in World War I resulted in heavy human loss. Around this time, it was overtaken in population by the port city of Geelong, further diminishing its provincial status. In response, local lobbyists continually pushed the Victorian government for decentralisation, the greatest success being the Victorian Railways opening the Ballarat North Workshops in April 1917. The Great Depression proved a further setback for Ballarat, with the closure of many institutions and causing the worst unemployment in the city's history, with over a thousand people in the dole queue.
The city's two municipalities, Ballarat East and West Town Councils, finally amalgamated in 1921 to form the City of Ballarat.
While deep, the depression was also brief. The interwar period proved a period of recovery for Ballarat with a number of major infrastructure projects well underway including a new sewerage system. In 1930, Ballarat Airport was established. By 1931, Ballarat's economy and population was recovering strongly with further diversification of industry, although in 1936 Geelong displaced it as the state's second largest city. During World War II an expanded Ballarat airport was the base of the RAAF Wireless Air Gunners' School as well as the base for USAAF Liberator bomber squadrons. In 1942, Ballarat became connected to the state electricity grid by a 66,000 kV line. Prior to this, power supply was generated locally.
During World War II, Ballarat was the location of RAAF No.1 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot (IAFD), completed in 1942 in the defence of Australia against a Japanese invasion and decommissioned on 29 August 1944. Usually consisting of four tanks, 31 fuel depots were built across Australia for the storage and supply of aircraft fuel for the RAAF and the US Army Air Forces at a total cost of £900,000 ($1,800,000).
In the post-war era, Ballarat's growth continued. In response to an acute housing shortage, significant suburban expansion occurred. An extensive Housing Commission of Victoria estate was built on the former Ballarat Common (today known as Wendouree West). The estate was originally planned to contain over 750 prefabricated houses. While planning for the estate began in 1949, main construction occurred between 1951 and 1962.
The 1950s brought a new optimism to the city. On 17 April 1952 it was announced that Lake Wendouree was to be the venue for rowing events of the 1956 Summer Olympics, and work soon began on an Olympic village in Gillies Street. A new prefabricted power terminal substation at Norman Street Ballarat North was constructed between 1951 and 1953 by the State Electricity Commission. The first Begonia Festival, a highly successful community celebration, was held in 1953. Elizabeth II visited on 8 March 1954. The Civic Centre, Prince Alfred Hall had burned down suspiciously that year; however a new Civic Hall was constructed and opened in March 1955. On 23 November 1956, the Olympic torch was carried through the city, and the following day the rowing events were held at the lake. On 2 March 1958 the Queen Mother visited Ballarat.
During the following decades, the city saw increased threats to its heritage. In 1964, the Ballarat City Council passed laws banning pillar-supported verandahs in the CBD, which threatened the removal of historic cast iron verandahs in the city. The by-law was met by staunch opposition from the National Trust, which had begun campaigning to protect some of the city's most historic buildings. By the 1970s, Ballarat began to officially recognise its substantial heritage, and the first heritage controls were recommended to ensure its preservation. With the opening of Sovereign Hill, the city made a rapid shift to become a major cultural tourist destination, visited by thousands each year.
During the 1970s, a further 300 houses were constructed at Wendouree West. Private housing in the adjacent suburb of Wendouree closely matched and eventually eclipsed this by the mid-1960s. The suburb of greater Wendouree and Wendouree West had evolved as the suburban middle-class heart of the city. Charles, Prince of Wales visited Ballarat on 28 October 1974 during which he toured Sovereign Hill, the Ballarat College of Advanced Education's new Mt Helen Campus and the White Swan Reservoir and spoke at Civic Hall.
Ballarat played an important role in the Stolen Generation throughout the 20th century, where the Ballarat Orphanage saw Aboriginal children who had been taken from their families. The Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative (BADAC) was established by members of the Ballarat and district Aboriginal community in 1979. It became a co-operative to deliver health, social, welfare and community development programs to local Aboriginal people. In 2017, local Aboriginal community elder Ted Lovett was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to the indigenous community and for his works in eliminating racism in sports in south-west Victoria. Karen Heap and Ted Lovett were listed on the Victoria's Aboriginal Honour Role both in part for their work at BADAC.
21st century
The city continued to grow at the national average throughout the late 20th century and early 21st century. In 2008 the City of Ballarat released a plan directing that growth of the city over the next 30 years is to be concentrated to the west of the city centre. The Ballarat West Growth Area Plan was approved by the city and state government in 2010, planning an extensive fringe development consisting of 14,000 new homes and up to 40,000 new residents including new activity centres and employment zones.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse final report, published on 15 December 2017, found that 139 people made a claim of child sexual abuse to the Diocese of Ballarat between 1980 and 2015, and 21 alleged perpetrators were identified in these claims. Seventeen of the 21 alleged and convicted perpetrators were priests, which is 8.7% of the priests who ministered during this period. About 45 victims are estimated to have committed suicide.
Geography
Ballarat lies at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range in Central Western Victoria. Also known as the Central Highlands, it is named so because of its elevated position and moderate hills and terrain with a lack of any alpine mountains that are situated a few hundred kilometres NE. The city lies within a mostly gently undulating section of the midland volcanic plains which stretch from Creswick in the north, to Rokewood in the south, and from Lal Lal in the south-east to Pittong in the west.
Geologically, the area consists of alluvial sediment and volcanic flows originating from now-extinct volcanoes such as nearby Buninyong (750m, 2460 ft) and Warrenheip (746m, 2446 ft), which are the area's tallest peaks. As a result, the basin contains large areas of fertile agricultural soil. Ballarat itself is situated on an alluvial basin of the Yarrowee catchment and its tributary creeks, penetrated by sub-ranges of schists composed of granites and quartz. Along with the visible river and creeks, the catchment basin has numerous active and inactive aquifers and natural wetlands, which are used for urban water supply, agriculture and recreation.
There are numerous densely forested areas around Ballarat; however due to historic wood milling and land clearing there remain no old-growth forests. The major natural bodies of water are in the west and include the former shallow swamps of Lake Wendouree which is central to the city's western suburbs and beyond Winter's Swamp and the large Lake Burrumbeet wetland complex. Almost all of the other numerous bodies of water have been created artificially and include several reservoirs, the largest being the White Swan Reservoir and smaller suburban lakes such as Lake Esmond.
The contiguous urban area of Ballarat covers approximately of the local government area's . Approximately 90% of the urban area's land use is residential and suburban. From the city centre this area extends approximately north to the hills around Invermay, approximately east to Leigh Creek in the foothills of Mount Warrenheip, approximately west along the plains to Lucas and approximately south along the Yarrowee River and Canadian Creek valley to the fringe of Buninyong. The central city is situated low in the valley of the Yarrowee River and surrounded by hills such that the city skyline is visible only from the hills and the lower lying inner eastern suburbs. The reach of the Yarrowee River toward Ballarat Central becomes a stormwater drain and is completely covered over as it flows under the CBD.
Urban structure
The city is home to nationally significant heritage structures. These include the Ballarat Botanical Gardens (established 1857), with the greatest concentration of public statuary, the official Prime Ministers Avenue, the longest running lyric theatre building (Her Majesty's Theatre, established 1875), the first municipal observatory, established 1886, and the earliest and longest war memorial avenue (the Avenue of Honour, established between 1917 and 1919).
Ballarat is a primarily low-rise city. The City of Ballarat defines two Major Activity Centres within the urban area – the Central Business District (CBD) and Wendouree with a high concentration of business, retail and community function based primarily on the Melbourne 2030 planning model and a further 11 neighbourhood activity centres. The tallest building in urban Ballarat is the seven-storey Henry Bolte wing of the Ballarat Base Hospital (1994). Beyond the central area, urban Ballarat extends into several suburban areas with a mixture of housing styles. Predominant styles are 19th-century villas, Victorian terraces, Federation homes and Georgian red brick homes. Settlement patterns around Ballarat consist of small villages and country towns, some with less than a few thousand people.
The Central Business District (located in Ballarat Central) is a large mixed-use office and retail district bounded to the north by railway lines, to the west by Drummond Street, to the south to Grant street and to the east by Princes Street and spanning the floodplain of the Yarrowee River. Lydiard, Sturt Streets, Armstrong, Doveton, Dana Street and Bridge Street (known as Bridge Mall) along with the historic centre of East Ballarat—Main Street and Bakery Hill have retained stands of commercial and civic buildings of state and national heritage significance.
The inner established suburbs were initially laid out around the key mining areas and include Ballarat East, Bakery Hill, Golden Point, Soldiers Hill, Black Hill, Brown Hill, Eureka, Canadian, Mount Pleasant, Redan, Sebastopol and Newington.
The post gold rush era has seen a boom in expansion, extending the conurbation north, south and west. To the west, Ballarat has expanded West to Lucas, Alfredton, Delacombe To The North West Wendouree, Wendouree West and Miners Rest To the north it has expanded to Ballarat North, Invermay Park, Invermay, Victoria Invermay and Nerrina; to the east to Warrenheip and south to Sebastopol, Mount Clear and Mount Helen with the urban area encroaching the large town of Buninyong.
Wendouree is currently the only major suburban activity centre with a large indoor shopping mall—Stockland Shopping Centre (expanded in 2007) and also has a number of surrounding retail parks including a strip shopping centre along Howitt Street including the large retail chain Harvey Norman. Elsewhere are small suburban hubs with supermarkets such as IGA (supermarkets) and small stretches of shopfronts.
Unlike Melbourne, Ballarat does not have a defined urban growth boundary. This has put continuing pressure on the city council to approve development applications for subdivisions outside of the city fringe. In response to lobbying by landholders, the Ballarat West Growth Area Plan, a major greenfield land development plan, was prepared and has approved by the city and state government to allow for planned fringe communities consisting of 14,000 new homes and up to 40,000 new residents, effectively doubling the city's urban area by extending the urban sprawl from Sebastopol, Delacombe and Alfredton west toward Bonshaw, Smythes Creek and Cardigan with a new suburb to be known as Lucas to be created. New activity centres have been developed at Delacombe and Alfredton.
Architecture
Ballarat is renowned for its Victorian architectural heritage. In 2003 Ballarat was the first of two Australian cities to be registered as a member of the International League of Historical Cities and in 2006 hosted the 10th World League of Historical Cities Congress. The city's history is a major focus of the Collaborative Research Centre in Australian History, part of Federation University Australia, and is located at old Ballarat Gaol.
The legacy of the wealth generated during Ballarat's gold boom is still visible in a large number of fine stone buildings in and around the city, especially in the Lydiard Street area. This precinct contains some of Victoria's finest examples of Victorian era buildings, many of which are on the Victorian Heritage Register or classified by the National Trust of Australia. Notable civic buildings include the Town Hall (1870–72), the former Post Office (1864), the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery (1887), the Mechanics' Institute (1860, 1869), the Queen Victoria Wards of the Ballarat Base Hospital (1890s) and the Ballarat railway station (1862, 1877, 1888). Other historic buildings include the Provincial Hotel (1909), Reid's Coffee Palace (1886), Craig's Royal Hotel (1862–1890) and Her Majesty's Theatre (1875), the oldest intact and operating lyric theatre in Australia and Ballarat Fire Station (1864, 1911) one of Victoria's oldest fire fighting structures and the Jewish synagogue (1861) the oldest surviving synagogue on the Australian mainland.
Restoration of historic buildings is encouraged including a low interest council Heritage Loans Scheme. and the prevention of demolition by neglect discouraged by council policies. Since the 1970s, the local council has become increasingly aware of the economic and social value of heritage preservation. This is in stark contrast to the 1950s and 60s when Ballarat followed Melbourne in encouraging the removal of Victorian buildings, verandahs in particular. Recent restoration projects funded by the Ballarat include the reconstruction of significant cast iron lace verandahs including the Mining Exchange, Art Gallery (2007), Mechanics institute (2005–) on Lydiard Street and in 2010 the restoration of the Town Hall and the long neglected Unicorn Hotel façade on Sturt Street.
Ballarat Citizens for Thoughtful Development formed in 1998 and was incorporated as Ballarat Heritage Watch in 2005 to ensure that the city's architectural heritage is given due consideration in the planning process.
The Ballarat Botanical Gardens (established in 1858) are recognised as the finest example of a regional botanical gardens in Australia and are home to many heritage listed exotic tree species and feature a modern glasshouse and horticultural centre and the Prime Ministers Avenue which features bronze busts of every past Australian Prime Minister.
Ballarat is notable for its very wide boulevards. The main street is Sturt Street with over of central gardens known as the Sturt Street Gardens featuring bandstands, fountains, statues, monuments, memorials and lampposts. Ballarat is home to the largest of a collection of Avenues of Honour in Victoria. The Ballarat Avenue of Honour consists of a total of approximately 4,000 trees, mostly deciduous which in many parts arch completely over the road. Each tree has a bronze plaque dedicated to a soldier from the Ballarat region who enlisted during World War I. The Avenue of Honour and the Arch of Victory are on the Victorian Heritage Register and are seen by approximately 20,000 visitors each year.
The city also has the greatest concentration of public statuary in any Australian city with many parks and streets featuring sculptures and statues dating from the 1860s to the present. Some of the other notable memorials located in the Sturt Street Gardens in the middle of Ballarat's main boulevard include a bandstand situated in the heart of the city that was funded and built by the City of Ballarat Band in 1913 as a tribute to the bandsmen of the , a fountain dedicated to the early explorers Burke and Wills, and those dedicated to monarchs and those who have played pivotal roles in the development of the city and its rich social fabric. These include, Robert Burns, Peter Lalor, Sir Albert Coates, Harold Edward Elliott (Pompey Elliot), William Dunstan, King George V, Queen Victoria and more.
Ballarat has an extensive array of significant war memorials, the most recent of which is the Australian Ex Prisoner of War Memorial. The most prominent memorial in the city is the Ballarat Victory Arch that spans the old Western Highway on the Western approaches of the city. The archway serves as the focal point for the Avenue of Honour. Other significant individual monuments located along Sturt Street include those dedicated to the Boer War (1899–1901), the World War II (1939–1945) cenotaph, and Vietnam (1962–1972) (located adjacent to the Arch of Victory).
Climate
Ballarat has a moderate oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) with four distinct seasons. Its elevation, ranging between above sea level, causes its mean monthly temperatures to tend to be on average below those of Melbourne, especially in winter. The mean daily maximum temperature for January is , while the mean minimum is . In July, the mean maximum is ; average July minimum is . Ballarat has 55.2 clear days annually, with the majority in summer and early autumn. Ballarat has very rainy winters.
The city has a reputation for unpredictable and extreme weather, ranging from snowfall to intense heatwaves. Perhaps the most infamous feature of Ballarat's climate is the chilly winter, often accentuated by driving winds. In 2023, a journalist for ABC Ballarat wrote that Ballarat "is notorious for its frosty winters and the near year-round puffer jacket uniform of its residents". When measured by mean temperatures, Ballarat is the coldest city in Victoria.
Temperatures can dip below freezing from May to September, however a low of 0-2 °C is more common - widespread frosts and fog are a regular sight. Snowfall typically falls on nearby Mount Buninyong and Mount Warrenheip a few times a year, but in the urban area only once or twice, particularly during heavy winters. Snow has been known to fall heavily with several inches accumulating even in the CBD. Heavy snow seasons occurred in 1900–1902 and 1905–1907 (with record falls in 1906), and moderate snow seasons were recorded during the 1940s and 1980s. Snowfalls in the urban area have occurred in recent years: November 2006 (light), July 2007 (heavy), June 2008 (light), August 2008 (light), August 2014 (moderate) and June 2016 (light), July 2017 (light), June 2018 (moderate), May 2019 (light), and August and September 2020 (light and heavy).The mean annual rainfall is , with August being the wettest month (). There are an average of 198 rain-free days per year. Like much of Australia, Ballarat experiences cyclical drought and heavy rainfall. Flooding of the Yarrowee catchment occurs occasionally. In 1869 a serious flood of the Yarrowee River put most of the lower section of business district including Bridge and Grenville streets under water and caused the loss of two lives. Prolonged drought (an average annual rainfall with falls averaging as low as per year since 2001) caused Lake Wendouree to dry up completely for the first time in its history between 2006 and 2007. More recently higher rainfall levels have been recorded including in the 24 hours to 9 am on 14 January 2011, ending a four-day period of flooding rains across much of Victoria and Tasmania, and contributing to the wettest January on record, with a total of of rain for the month.
The city's mean daily wind run is 470 km, almost twice that of Melbourne, making it one of the windiest cities in Australia. This in turn causes warm summers to feel substantially cooler and near freezing winter days to have a far below zero wind chill.
Ballarat's highest maximum recorded temperature was on 7 February 2009 during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave. The lowest recorded minimum was on 21 July 1982.
Environment
Natural reserves and commons
While there are no national parks in Ballarat's proximity, Ballarat is bordered by extensive bushland to the north, south and south west and sensitive wetlands to the east. The most central park to the city is the 130 ha Victoria Park, with a plethora of ovals and fields, playgrounds, walking tracks and quiet roads. There are a number of nearby state parks and large reserves including the Enfield State Park, Creswick Regional Park, Mount Warrenheip Flora Reserve, Mount Buninyong Reserve and Lake Burrumbeet park. There are also smaller parks, like Black Hill, Victoria Park, Pioneer Park and Yarowee Reserve, located within walking distance of the city centre.
Ballarat is unique in Australia—and internationally—for having retained much of its commons land, which can be used by any resident of Ballarat. Ballarat Town Common, Ballarat West Town Common and Ballarat Common are located to the west of the city. Ballarat Town Common can be accessed via Howe Street in Miners Rest and is used by dog walkers and ramblers, especially because of its open grass fields and native wetland. Ballarat West Town Common is presently farmed on by licensed farmers. The commons were reduced in size during the 20th century for property development.
The region is home to a large koala population with protected areas established in the city's outer southern and eastern settlements.
Pollution
Air quality in Ballarat is generally good, however dust is sometimes an issue in the summer months and woodsmoke from fireplaces contributes to reductions in visibility in the winter months. Ballarat's waterways have historically been affected by heavy pollution from both mining and industry.
The Ballarat Environment Network formed in 1993 to provide a voice for environmental and nature conservation issues in Ballarat and its surroundings. Another large lobby group for sustainability in the city is the Ballarat Renewable Energy And Zero Emissions (BREAZE) formed in 2006. The City of Ballarat released an Environment Sustainability Strategy for the city in 2007.
Many parts of urban Ballarat have been affected by the introduction of exotic species, particularly introduced flora. Common gorse is one such problem which has prompted the formation of an official Ballarat Region Gorse Task Force in 1999 to control. European rabbits and red foxes cause significant environmental damage in the region's agriculture areas.
Economy
The economy of Ballarat is driven by all three economic sectors, though contemporary Ballarat has emerged as a primarily service economy with its main industry being the service industry and its key areas of business including tourism, hospitality, retail, professional services, government administration and education. Secondary sector including manufacturing, which had grown in the 20th century remains an important sector. The city's historic primary sector roots including mining and agriculture continue to play a role, though one that has declined since the 20th century. Industries emerging this century include information technology service sector and renewable energy.
Service industries
As a major service centre for the populous goldfields region, Ballarat has large sectors of employment in business including retail, professional services and trades as well as state and federal government branch offices for public services and health care and non-government service organisations. Collectively these industries employ more than half of the city's workforce and generate the bulk of the city's economic activity.
Ballarat is the main retail economy in the region. The city has several key retail districts including a pedestrian mall known as Bridge Mall comprising over 100 traders. There are also indoor shopping malls including Central Square Shopping Centre and Stockland Wendouree. better known as Wendouree Village, with a large number of specialty stores. Major department stores include Myer, Target, Big W, Kmart, Harvey Norman and Harris Scarfe. Additionally each of the major supermarkets (Coles, Woolworths, IGA and Aldi) are represented. Servicing the financial sector are branches of the big four Australian retail banks (National Australia Bank, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac) along with Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and St George Bank and a number of smaller independent financial services firms.
Federation University Australia exports education through a large international students program and throughout Australia through distance education programs.
In recent years, a large technology park, the Ballarat Technology Park with communications centre has been established, with tenants including IBM and employing over 1,400 people.
Ballarat West Employment Zone (BWEZ) is located on the north-west fringe of Ballarat, adjacent to the Ballarat Airport, existing rail infrastructure and the Ballarat Western Link Road. Ballarat West Employment Zone (BWEZ) will become the engine room for jobs and economic growth in Ballarat over the next 20 years. The project involves the development of surplus Crown Land for industrial, wholesale, logistics, construction, commercial and residential uses, encouraging employment growth in Ballarat and the surrounding region. BWEZ will also include a freight hub, secure infrastructure and access to road, rail and ports. Businesses located un BWEZ include CHS Broadbent, Westlab Pty Ltd, Agrimac, Milestone Benchtops, Kane Transport and Office Vision.
Tourism and hospitality
Ballarat attracts 2.2 million visitors a year and the tourism and hospitality industry is a A$480 million a year sector which accounts for around 15% of Ballarat's economy and employs around 2,870 people. Tourism in Ballarat is promoted by Ballarat Regional Tourism.
A significant heritage tourism industry has not grown substantially in Ballarat since the 1960s. Ballarat is most notable for the award-winning open-air museum known as Sovereign Hill, a recreated 1850s gold mining settlement opened in 1970. Sovereign Hill is Ballarat's biggest tourism drawcard and is consistently rated among the best outdoor museums in the world and continues to expand. Sovereign Hill accounts for over half a million of Ballarat's visitors and $40 million in tourism revenue.
Several businesses and attractions have capitalised on Ballarat's gold mining history. They include Kryal Castle (1972), "Gold Rush Mini Golf" (2002) featuring the "Big Miner" (2006) one of Australia's big things (although the original proposal appeared larger and for the miner to hold the Eureka Flag) at Ballarat's eastern entrance.
Other tourist attractions include the Eureka Centre; The Gold Museum, Ballarat; Ballarat Botanic gardens and Lake Wendouree; the Ballarat Tramway Museum and Ballarat Wildlife Park. A large number of Ballarat hotels, motels and restaurants service the tourism industry. The Ballarat Tourist Association is an industry based non-profit, membership organisation representing the city's tourism industry.
Ballarat hosts a number of annual festivals with historical and cultural focus including the Ballarat Begonia Festival, Ballarat Heritage Weekend and Ballarat Beat Rockabilly Festival.
Manufacturing
According to the 2021 Australian Census, manufacturing is Ballarat's sixth largest employment sector, accounting for 7% of all workers.
Ballarat attracts investment from several international manufacturers. The Australian headquarters of Mars, Incorporated was established in Ballarat in 1979 with the main Ballarat factory producing popular confectionery including Mars bars, Snickers and M&M's for the Australian market as well as expanding in 2013 to produce Maltesers. McCain Foods Limited Australian headquarters was established in Ballarat in 1970 and the company continues to expand its operations. The Ballarat North Workshops is a major manufacturer of public transportation products with current investment from Alstom.
Ballarat also has a large number of home-grown companies producing textiles, general industrial engineering, food products, brick and tiles, building components, prefabricated housing components and automotive components. Brewing was once a large-scale operation, with many large businesses including the public company Phoenix Brewery, and although large-scale brewing has ceased, the city retains a substantial microbrewery industry.
Primary sector
Though historically an important sector, the production of Ballarat's primary sector declined for many decades, recovering only marginally since 2006. Where historically the mining industry supported tens of thousands of workers or the majority of the population, today agriculture dominates the sector, though collectively both industries employ less than thousand people or just over 2% of the City of Ballarat's total workforce.
Ballarat rose to prominence as a goldrush boomtown, though gold no longer plays a pivotal role in the economy of the city. Nevertheless, deep underground mining continues to the present date with a single main mine operating. There are still thought to be large, undiscovered gold reserves in the Ballarat region, with investigations being made by local and national companies. Lihir Gold invested in Ballarat Goldfields in 2006, however it downscaled its operations in 2009 due to the expense of extraction before selling its stake in 2010 to Castlemaine Goldfields. Along with gold, lignite (coal), kaolin (clay) and iron ore have also been mined in the Ballarat region and nearby Lal Lal however many of the resource deposits have since been exhausted. An active quarrying industry with large enterprises including Boral Limited extracts and manufactures building materials from the Ballarat region, including clays, aggregates, cements, asphalts.
Approximately half () of the municipality's area is rural with optimal conditions for agriculture including rich volcanic soils and climate. This area is used primarily for agriculture and animal husbandry and generates more than $37 million in commodities. The region supports an active potato growing industry that has supplied local food manufacturers including McCain, though more recently has been threatened by cheaper imports. Other large crops include grains, vegetables, grapes and berries. Cattle and poultry stocks, including sheep, cows and pigs, support an active local meat and dairy industry. The Ballarat Livestock Selling Centre is the largest cattle exchange in regional Victoria. The Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society formed in 1856 and has run the Ballarat Show annually since 1859.
A$7.5 million forestry industry is active in nearby state forests as well as on a small scale in the urban area along the Canadian Valley around the suburbs of Mt Clear and Mt Helen areas with pine plantations and sawmill operations.
Renewable energy
The Ballarat region has a rapidly growing renewable energy industry, in particular due to its abundant wind energy, attracting significant investment and generating revenue for local landholders and local councils. The region is also a source of bountiful geothermal energy, solar power and biomass although to date, only its wind, solar and hydroelectricity has been harvested commercially. All local commercially produced electricity is sent to the National Electricity Market.
Wind energy is generated by local wind farms. The largest, Waubra Wind Farm, completed in 2009, is capable of producing enough electricity to power a city 3 to 4 times the size of Ballarat. Other significant nearby wind farms include Mount Mercer, completed 2014, which produces enough energy to power 100,000 homes, equivalent to Ballarat's population. The first community-owned wind farm in Australia, the Hepburn Wind Project at Leonards Hill, completed in 2011, produces the equivalent amount of electricity used by the town of Daylesford.
Hydroelectricity is generated at White Swan reservoir micro hydro plant established in 2008 and producing the equivalent electricity needs of around 370 homes. Ballarat Solar Park, opened in 2009 at the Airport site in Mitchell Park, is Victoria's first ground-mounted, flat-plate and grid-connected photovoltaic farm. Built by Sharp Corporation for Origin Energy, it is and generates the equivalent electricity needs of around 150 homes.
Demographics
Ballarat is the 4th largest inland city in Australia, and the 3rd largest Victorian city behind Melbourne and Geelong. According to the 2021 census, there were 111,973 people in Ballarat, a moderate increase from 105,471 in June 2018. This follows annual growth of 1.78% since June 2013 (slightly faster than the national rate of 1.56% during the same period).
The recently accelerated growth rate has been attributed by demographers to increased commuter activity arising from surging house and land prices in Melbourne coupled with public transport improvements between Ballarat and Melbourne.
While most of the city's population can trace their ancestry to Anglo-Celtic descent, 16.3% of the population are born overseas. These include people from England (2.1%), India (1.6%), New Zealand (0.9%), China (0.6%), and the Philippines (0.6%). 8.2% speak a language other than English. 18.8% of the population is over the age of 65. The median age in Ballarat is 38 years.
Ballarat's ethnic make up is partly the result of the mid 19th Century gold rush, where people of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and East Asian descent emigrated here in the hope of landing a fortune.
The median income of the local government area of Ballarat in 2019-2010 was $A50,767. According to the 2021 Census, Ballarat's working population include Professionals (22.8%), Community and Personal Service Workers (13.8%), Technicians and Trades Workers (13.8%), Clerical and Administrative Workers (12.3%), and Managers (11.2%). The unemployment rate in 2021 was 4.8%.
21.9% of the population have completed further education after high school.
Christianity is the most common religion in Ballarat. Catholics (21.3%), Anglicans (7.9%) and the Uniting Church (4.7%) were the largest Christian denominations. 47.6% stated they had no religion and a further 5.9% did not answer the question. .
Governance
Council Chamber in Ballarat Town Hall, Sturt Street, is the seat of local government for the City of Ballarat. The council was created in 1994 as an amalgamation of a number of other municipalities in the region. The city is made up of 3 wards, each represented by three councillors elected once every four years by postal voting. The Mayor of Ballarat, currently Des Hudson, is elected from these councillors by their colleagues for a one-year term. The Town Hall and annexe contains some council offices, however the council's administrative headquarters are located at the council owned Phoenix Building and the leased Gordon Buildings on the opposite side of Bath Lane.
In state politics, Ballarat is located in the Legislative Assembly districts of Eureka and Wendouree, with both of these seats currently held by the Australian Labor Party. In federal politics, Ballarat is located in a single House of Representatives division—the Division of Ballarat. The Division of Ballarat has been a safe Australian Labor Party seat since 2001, and was the seat of the second Prime Minister of Australia, Alfred Deakin.
Law enforcement is overseen from regional police headquarters at the law complex in Dana Street with a single local police station operating in Buninyong. Due to an increase in crime rates and population, two additional local police stations were proposed in 2011 one each for the suburbs of North Ballarat and Sebastopol. Justice is conducted locally overseen through branches of the Supreme, County, Magistrates and Children's Court of Victoria which operate out of the Ballarat courts Complex adjacent police headquarters in Dana Street. Corrections, at least in the longer term are no longer handled locally since the closure of the Ballarat Gaol in 1965. Offenders can be detained in 25 available cells at the police complex though are commonly transferred to nearby Corrections Victoria facilities such as the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat.
Public safety and emergency services are provided by several state funded organisations including local volunteer based organisations. Storms and flooding are handled by the State Emergency Service (SES) Mid West Region Headquarters at Wendouree. Bushfires are handled by the Country Fire Authority District 15 Headquarters and Grampians Region Headquarters at Wendouree and urban structure fires are handled by multiple urban fire brigades operating at fire stations including the Ballarat Fire Brigade at Barkly Street Ballarat East, Ballarat City Fire Brigade at Sturt Street Ballarat Central and suburban stations including Wendouree and Sebastopol. Medical emergency and paramedic services are provided through Ambulance Victoria and include the Rural Ambulance Victoria, St. John Ambulance and Ballarat Base Hospital ambulance services. City of Ballarat is responsible for coordinating the Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee (MEMPC) which prepares the Municipal Emergency Management Plan which is actioned in conjunction with local police.
Media
Newspapers
Ballarat has two local newspapers, one owned by Australian Community Media and one a private equity. The Courier is a daily and The Ballarat Times News Group is a free weekly. The latter is distributed across most of the city on Thursday and contains news of community events, advertisements for local businesses, and a classifieds section. Ballarat was the hub of Australian Community Media's Victoria production and manufacturing with all printed material for the state coming from the Wendouree print site until it closed in September 2020.
Radio stations
Local radio stations include 3BA, Power FM and several community radio stations. There is also a Ballarat branch of ABC Local Radio's national network.
102.3 FM – 3BA (local "classic hits" commercial radio station)
103.1 FM – Power FM 103.1 FM (local "top-40" commercial radio station)
99.9 FM – Voice FM 99.9 – formerly known as 3BBB (local community radio station)
107.9 FM – ABC Ballarat (government-funded local news, current affairs, light entertainment and talkback)
103.9 FM – Good News Radio 103.9 (Christian community-based radio station)
Television
Television station BTV Channel 6 Ballarat commenced transmission of test patterns on 17 March 1962. Today Ballarat is serviced by numerous "free to air" High Definition and Standard Definition Digital television services. Two television broadcasting stations are located in the city, including WIN, WIN HD, 9Life, 9Go! and 9Gem (sub-licensees of the Nine Network) and Seven, 7HD, 7two, 7mate, 7Bravo and 7flix (Seven Network owned and operated). These two stations broadcast relayed services throughout regional Victoria. The city also receives Southern Cross 10, 10 HD, 10 Peach, 10 Bold, 10 Shake and Sky News Regional (sub-licensees of Network 10) which is based in Bendigo but operates a local office.
Ballarat television maintains a similar schedule to the national television network but maintains local commercials and regional news programming.
WIN previously presented a 30-minute local WIN News bulletin from its studios in the city, where WIN News bulletins for Albury, Bendigo, Gippsland, Shepparton and Mildura were also broadcast. In 2015, the Ballarat studios closed with production of the regional Victorian news bulletins being relocated to Wollongong in New South Wales, where they now originate from. WIN retains reporters and camera crews for its Ballarat bulletin in the city.
Southern Cross 10, airs short local news updates like Seven throughout the day, broadcast from its Hobart studios.
Seven airs short local news and weather updates throughout the day, broadcast from its Canberra studios with an office in the city.
In addition to commercial television services, Ballarat receives Government funded ABC (ABC TV, ABC TV Plus, ABC Kids, ABC Me, ABC News) and SBS (SBS TV, SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, SBS WorldWatch, SBS Food and NITV) television services.
On 5 May 2011, analog television transmissions ceased in most areas of regional Victoria and some border regions including Ballarat and surrounding areas. All local free-to-air television services are now broadcasting in digital transmission only. This was done as part of the federal government's plan for digital terrestrial television in Australia, where all analogue transmission systems are gradually turned off and replaced with modern DVB-T transmission systems.
Subscription television services are provided by Neighbourhood Cable, Foxtel and SelecTV.
Education
Ballarat has two universities, Federation University and a campus of the Australian Catholic University.
Formerly the University of Ballarat, Federation University Australia was opened in 2014. It originated as the Ballarat School of Mines, founded in 1870, and was once affiliated with the University of Melbourne. The main campus is located in Mount Helen, approximately southeast of the city. The university also has campuses in the Ballarat CBD, Horsham, Berwick, Brisbane, Churchill, Ararat and Stawell.
The Australian Catholic University's Ballarat campus is located on Mair Street. It was formerly the Aquinas Training College, run by the Ballarat East Sisters of Mercy in 1909. It is ACU's only campus located outside of a capital city.
Ballarat has five State Government-operated secondary schools of which Ballarat High School (established in 1907) is the oldest. Ballarat High School and Mount Clear College are the only state school members of the Ballarat Associated Schools. The three remaining schools are Phoenix College and the two newly formed schools Mount Rowan Secondary College and Woodmans Hill Secondary College which emerged from the old Ballarat Secondary College. Phoenix College was formed in 2012 as an amalgamation of Sebastopol College and Redan Primary School.
The city is well serviced by Catholic schools, with eight primary schools and three secondary colleges which include the all-boys St Patrick's College, the all-girls Loreto College and the co-educational Damascus College, which was formed by the amalgamation of St Martin's in the Pines, St Paul's College and Sacred Heart College in 1995.
Ballarat has three other non-government secondary schools: Ballarat Christian College, Ballarat Clarendon College and Ballarat Grammar School.
The later two schools are day and boarding schools who provide education from Preschool to Year 12. Both of these co-educational schools are classified as academically excellent as the only Ballarat schools to be ranked on the tables of the top 100 Victorian schools based on median VCE scores and percentage of scores of 40 and above. In 2015, Clarendon was placed at 9th best VCE results in the State, above Melbourne Grammar, Geelong College, Scotch College, Trinity Grammar School (Victoria), Xavier College, and Haileybury College. Ballarat Grammar was placed at 82nd, above Wesley College, Geelong Grammar and Tintern.
The City of Ballarat has three public libraries, the largest and most extensive of which is the City of Ballarat Library, run by the City of Ballarat and located on Doveton Street North. Another library service is provided by the Ballarat Mechanics' Institute in Sturt Street, which is the oldest library in the city and a significant heritage site; it contains a collection of historic, archival and rare reference material as well as more general books.
Arts and culture
The Art Gallery of Ballarat houses one of Australia's oldest and most extensive collections of early Australian works. It is the oldest and largest regional gallery in Australia.
Federation University Australia operates the Post Office Gallery in the Wardell designed former Post Office on the corner of Sturt and Lydiard Streets.
Events and festivals
Ballarat is home to many annual festivals and events that attract thousands of visitors. The oldest large annual event is the Ballarat Agricultural Show (since 1859), currently held at the Ballarat Showgrounds and has attracted attendances of up to 30,000 and is an official public holiday for residents of the city.
Major cultural festivals include the historical Ballarat Welsh Eisteddfods and the annual competitions run by the South Street Society from the late 1880s, later revived as the Royal South Street Eisteddfod which went into recess in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Lake Wendouree is featured in many including the biggest and most prominent is the Begonia Festival (held annually since 1953). SpringFest (held annually since 2001) attracts more than 15,000 people from around Victoria and features market stalls and activities around the lake.
The controversial Ballarat Swap Meet (formerly the Super Southern Swap Meet and held annually since 1989) attracts 30,000 visitors a year. Ballarat Heritage Weekend (held annually since 2006) celebrates the city's heritage with activities such as historic vehicles and displays in and around the CBD and has attracted as many as 14,500 visitors a year from around Victoria. The Ballarat Beer Festival at the City Oval (since 2012) has attracted more than 4,000 visitors. The Ballarat Airport Open Day (Ballarat's unofficial air show, held annually since 2009) also attracts thousands.
Other minor cultural festivals include the Ballarat Writers Festival, Ballarat International Foto Biennale and the Goldfields Music Festival.
Entertainment
Ballarat has a lively and well established theatrical community with several local ensembles as well as a number of large performing arts venues. Major performing arts venues include the 900 capacity Her Majesty's Theatre, the Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts, Mary's Mount Theatre and the Post Office Box Theatre.
The Ballarat Civic Hall is a large public building constructed in 1958 as a general purpose venue. Its stripped classical design was heavily criticised during its planning, however it has gained some cultural significance to the city with its cavernous spaces holding many significant events over the years. Civic Hall was closed in 2002 and public pressure forced the council to redevelop it in 2018 as a modern performing arts and exposition centre. The refurbished building is a modern interpretation of its original 1950s built form and features a 1000 capacity main hall capable of use for concerts, meetings and civic events.
Ballarat has its own symphony orchestra, the Ballarat Symphony Orchestra which was formed in 1987. Some notable theatre organisations in Ballarat include BLOC (Ballarat Light Opera Company) founded in 1959. Ballarat is also the home to Australia's oldest and largest annual performing arts eisteddfod. The Royal South Street Eisteddfod is an all-encompassing performing arts festival and competition event that is conducted over twelve weeks annually.
In the 1970s the Ballarat urban area contained no less than 60 hotels. The introduction of gaming machines in the early 1990s has brought about significant change in the city entertainment precincts. By 2006 at least 20 hotels had closed and some of those that remain have been redeveloped as dining and/or gaming venues. Gaming machines have brought significant revenue to the remaining hotels, sports and social clubs which has enabled many to expand and modernise. The city has several dance clubs as well as a highly active live music and jazz scene. Hotels are popular meeting places for young people. The city has many fine restaurants, wine bars and eateries as well as themed restaurants. A large cinema complex consisting of several theatres is located behind the façade of the old Regent cinemas in the heart of the city. Dance parties are popular within the Ballarat area; BTR is an organisation founded in 2006 that has begun hosting dance events in Ballarat.
Cultural depictions
Ballarat has inspired many visual artists. Eugene von Guerard documented the city's establishment as a gold digging settlement, while Albert Henry Fullwood and Knut Bull depicted the city's boom era streetscapes. Ballarat features prominently in literature and fiction, including "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", a short story from Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891); King Billy of Ballarat and Other Stories (1892) by Morley Roberts; The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1917) by Henry Handel Richardson; Murder on the Ballarat Train (1993) by Kerry Greenwood; and Illywhacker (1985) by Peter Carey.
Ballarat is also a popular filming location. Australia's second oldest feature film, Eureka Stockade (1907), is the first in a line of films about the historic Ballarat event. The city makes cameos in Dogs in Space (1986), My Brother Jack (2001), Ned Kelly (2003) and The Writer (2005). The television series The Doctor Blake Mysteries (2012–2017) is set in Ballarat and also mostly shot there. The series was picked by the Seven Network, which proposes to make several telemovies without the Blake character, picking up the story line after his death, leaving his widow Jean.
Two ships of the Royal Australian Navy have been named HMAS Ballarat after the city, the corvette HMAS Ballarat (J184) and the frigate HMAS Ballarat (FFH 155).
Sport and recreation
Ballarat Highlanders Rugby Football Club (est. 1976) is based at Doug Dean Reserve, Delecombe. They play in the statewide Victoria Rugby Championship, which they last won in 2016. They also host the Ballarat Charity 7s (est 2022), a short form version of Rugby Union and all proceeds from the event get donated to a local charity (2022 – Ballarat Men's Mental Health, 2023 – GROW Group Ballarat). Current notable players include ex-Fiji 7s star Jone Qorovarua and 2016 Ballarat Championship winner Josh Pyalanda being the current highest capped player (130+).
Australian rules football is the most popular spectator and participation sports in Ballarat. It has its own dedicated stadium, Eureka Stadium, which serves as a venue of the Australian Football League (AFL), as well as the home ground of the semi-professional North Ballarat Roosters, which formerly competed in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The Ballarat Football League, established in 1893, features six local teams, including the Ballarat Football Club, which was founded in 1860 and remains one of the world's oldest football clubs. Other Ballarat-based teams compete in the regional Central Highlands Football League.
Cricket is Ballarat's second most-popular sport. It has three international standard cricket ovals, including Eastern Oval, which was one of the host venues of the 1992 Cricket World Cup. The Ballarat Cricket Association is the city's principle cricket competition. Soccer is also popular in Ballarat. Based at Morshead Park Stadium, the semi-professional Ballarat City FC competes in the National Premier League, the third tier competition of Australian soccer. Melbourne's Western United FC plays four A-League matches per year at Eureka Stadium. Basketball is played in Ballarat with the Ballarat Sports Events Centre hosting South East Australian Basketball League matches involving the Ballarat Miners and Ballarat Rush. Netball is similarly popular, with many netball clubs affiliated with local Australian rules clubs.
Athletics is and has historically been very popular with 4 local clubs competing at the BRAC (Ballarat Regional Athletics Centre) located at the Llanberis Athletics Track in Golden Point, 5 minutes from the CBD. The city features a rich and decorated athletics history with Australia's most successful track and field athlete (Jared Tallent - Racewalker), and many other Olympians (Steve Moneghetti, Greg Smith (Paralympian)) having been born in Ballarat.
Rowing and kayaking is centred on Lake Wendouree, which hosts the Victorian Schools Rowing Championships as well as the annual "Head of the Lake" rowing regatta. The city hosted rowing events for the 1956 Summer Olympic Games. Horse racing and greyhound racing are also popular, with dedicated facilities. The Ballarat Turf Club schedules around 28 race meetings a year including the Ballarat Cup meeting in mid-November. Athletics facilities include an international standard athletics track at Golden Point. Swimming and water sport is facilitated at two Olympic-sized pools as well as an indoor competition short course pool. The main facility is the Ballarat Aquatic Centre located in Lake Gardens. Baseball was first organised in Australia at Ballarat in 1857, and three local teams compete in the Geelong Baseball Association.
Golf is played at four main venues which include the Ballarat Golf Course in Alfredton, home to the Ballarat Golf Club. The Ballarat Roller Derby League was formed in 2008, and held their first match in 2009. They have two teams who compete in local events, and a combined travelling team, the Rat Pack, who compete in interleague roller derby competitions.
Until they were cancelled in July 2023, Ballarat, along with other cities in regional Victoria, was scheduled to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games with Eureka Stadium flagged to host athletics, the Eastern Oval T20 cricket, and Selkirk Stadium to host boxing.
Infrastructure
Health
Ballarat has two major hospitals. The public health services are managed by Ballarat Health Services including the Ballarat Base which services the entire region and the Queen Elizabeth Centre for aged care on Ascot Street Sth. The St John of God Health Care centre also on Drummond Street Nth, established in 1915 is currently the largest private hospital in regional Victoria.
The Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre (BRICC) on the corner of Drummond and Sturt Street includes a number of facilities focused on cancer treatment.
The Heart Foundation did a study in 2014 that Ballarat had the highest level of physical inactivity (85.3 per cent) in Australia and that 32.9 per cent of residents were deemed obese.
Utilities
Ballarat's residents are serviced by a wide range of public utilities including water, gas and electricity, telephony and data communications supplied, overseen and regulated by state based authorities and private enterprise and local council.
Water supply as well as sewage collection and disposal are provided by Central Highlands Water. Drinking water is sourced from a network reservoirs all located in the highlands to the east, however the majority is sourced from two main reservoirs—Lal Lal and White Swan. The Lal Lal Reservoir (built in 1970 with a capacity of ) is Ballarat's largest water catchment accounting for approximately two-thirds of the city's water usage. The White Swan reservoir (built in 1952 with a capacity) supplies most of the remainder. Since May 2008, the White Swan has been topped up by water from Bendigo's Sandhurst Reservoir through the Goldfields Superpipe with water originally sourced from the Goulburn River system. Kirks Reservoir (built between 1860 and 1862 with a capacity of ) and Gong Gong Reservoir (built in 1877 at Gong Gong, Victoria with a capacity of ) are historic main water supplies now maintained for emergency use. Other reservoirs supplying Ballarat include Moorabool reservoir (located in Bolwarrah, Victoria with a capacity of ), Wilson's Reservoir (located in the Wombat State Forest with a capacity of ), Beales reservoir (built 1863 located at Wallace with a capacity of ) and Pincotts reservoir (built 1867 located at Leigh Creek, Victoria with a capacity of ). Sewage is managed by two plants—the Ballarat North Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Ballarat South Waste Water Treatment Plant.
Residential electricity is supplied by Victorian electricity distributor Powercor, while residential natural gas is supplied by AGL Energy.
Telephone services are provided via the Doveton Street (BRAT) telephone exchange which was originally built by the Australian Telecommunications Commission (now known as Telstra) who remains its owner, though Optus now also operates services from this facility. The city's cellular network currently uses Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). Telstra has provided mobile telecommunications to Ballarat since 2003 (initially as CDMA). Optus provided competition with its entrance to the market in 2003 along with significant service upgrades in 2004 followed by Vodafone in mid-2009.
Data communications are provided by several companies. Telstra was the first company to provide dial-up Internet access via the Ballarat exchange, however the first network for broadband Internet access available in the city was a hybrid optical fiber cable and coaxial cable built by Neighbourhood Cable in 2001. Since then, Telstra and Optus have entered the Ballarat market, providing Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) services for residential Internet access from four main exchanges—Ballarat, Wendouree (Howitt Street), Sebastopol (Skipton Street) and Alfredton (Cuthberts Road). These companies also provide mobile data access Evolved HSPA and since late 2011 3GPP Long Term Evolution (4G). Ballarat's rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) is seen as vital for the city's growing IT industry. During Ballarat's first stage NBN rollout in 2012, 17,800 homes will be directly connected to the network via optical fibre cable.
Transportation
The motor vehicle is the main form of transport in Ballarat. A network of state highways radiate from Ballarat and the Western Freeway (A8) dual carriageway bypasses the central city to the north of the urban area, providing a direct road connection to Melbourne (approximately 90 minutes), westward to Ararat (approximately 75 minutes) and Horsham. Five freeway interchanges service the urban area, East Ballarat (half diamond) interchange at Victoria Street (C805); Brown Hill interchange (full diamond) at Daylesford-Ballarat Road (C292), Creswick Road interchange (full diamond) at Wendouree (A300); the Mount Rowan interchange (half diamond) at Gillies Road, Wendouree (C307) and the Mitchell Park interchange (full diamond) at Howe Street (C287). The Midland Highway is a dual carriageway which runs north along Creswick Road to the Western Freeway interchange but becomes a single carriageway north of Ballarat to Creswick (approximately 25 minutes) and runs south as the dual carriageway of Skipton Road to Magpie before becoming a single carriageway to Geelong (approximately 87 minutes). The Glenelg Highway connects directly to Mount Gambier and the Sunraysia Highway west of Ballarat which connects directly to Mildura. Sturt Street and Victoria Street, both dual carriageways carry the bulk of the east-west CBD traffic, while Mair Street is planned to become a four lane dual carriageway to relieve pressure on these main streets. Other dual carriageway main roads in the west include Howitt Street and Gillies Street. The busiest roads by far are located in the west and south at Albert Street in Redan, Sturt Street in Newington and Gillies Street in Lake Gardens which carry 22,400, 22,000 and 21,500 vehicles per day respectively and all have 4 traffic lanes.
Rail
Ballarat is a major rail transport hub in Victoria. Situated at the junction of the Ballarat line, Ararat line and Mildura lines, it currently has several connections for both passenger rail services and freight rail. The city has two passenger railway stations, the hub of Ballarat railway station and suburban Wendouree railway station. From Ballarat station, V/Line operates VLocity trains to Melbourne, west to Ararat and north to Maryborough. Since the controversial removal of "flagship" express services in 2011, successive timetable changes have slowed peak hour services to Southern Cross, with the current journey taking a minimum of 73 minutes. Patronage however has continued to grow. The Regional Rail Link project was built in 2015 to separate Ballarat trains from Melbourne's suburban rail network. Interurban services (Ballarat-Melbourne) now run half-hourly during weekday peak and hourly during weekday non-peak and on weekends from Ballarat station. A twice daily (thrice daily on weekdays) (57 minute) service connects Ballarat to Ararat (stopping at Beaufort) while there is a (53 minute) service to and from Maryborough (stopping at Creswick, Clunes, and Talbot) once a day (twice a day on weekdays) each way. Victoria's electronic ticketing system, Myki, was implemented on rail services between Wendouree and Melbourne on 24 July 2013. Ballarat is connected to Geelong by rail via the Geelong-Ballarat railway line, which currently operates only for freight.
Bus
CDC Ballarat operates the bus network covering the city centre, Ballarat and Wendouree stations, and most surrounding suburbs, contracted by Public Transport Victoria.
Tram
The once extensive Ballarat tramway network operated between 1887 and 1971 with a small section of remaining track being utilised as a tourist and museum tramway. There have been proposals to extend the network, particularly as a major tourist facility but also to connect it to the railways and return it as a viable component of the Ballarat public transport system, including a strong lobby in 2001–2002, 2010–11 and 2014, however Ballarat City Council and federal member of parliament have dismissed recent proposals.
Airport
Ballarat Airport located north-west of the CBD consists of two sealed runways (each approximately long and wide) as well as extensive sealed aprons, night lighting and NDB navaid. Master Plans for the Airport were completed in 2005 and subsequently 2013. The report made a series of recommendations and forecasts that included lengthening, widening and strengthening of the existing main runway, consideration for expansion of the passenger terminal, recommendations for future use of aprons, and development of future structures supporting larger aircraft that would result from the forecast increased frequent usage. In 2020, initial Federal funding was provided to enable the re-building and re-instatement of the main north–south runway to 1900m (6233 feet).
Cycling and walking
Ballarat has a long history of cycling as a form of transport and recreation. The current cycling network continues to grow and consists of several marked on-road routes and of segregated bicycle facilities including several main routes: the Ballarat–Skipton Rail Trail and the Yarrowee River Trail with connections to the Gong Gong Reservoir. Buningyong Trail, Sebastopol Trail, and the Lake Wendouree shared path. The Ballarat Bicycle Users Group provides advocacy for the growing number of cyclists in the city. The popularity of cycling in Ballarat is also demonstrated by the large number of spectators and participants drawn to cycling sporting events held in the city.
Crime
In 2014, the city was one of a number of Australian regional centres examined by an ABC Four Corners report on the use of methamphetamine, along with Devonport, Burnie, Castlemaine and St Arnaud.
See also
List of people from Ballarat
References
Bibliography
History books
Bate, Weston. Lucky City: The First Generation of Ballarat 1851–1901 (1978)
Bate, Weston. Life After Gold: Twentieth-Century Ballarat Melbourne University Press (1993)
Carboni, Raffaello. The Eureka Stockade (1980) first published (1855)
Goodman, David. Gold Seeking: Victorian and California in the 1850s (1994)
Jacobs, Wendy. Ballarat: A Guide to Buildings and Areas 1851–1940 Jacob Lewis Vines Conservation Architects and Planners (1981)
Lynch, John. The Story of the Eureka Stockade: Epic Days in the early fifties at Ballarat, (1947?)
Flett, James. The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria
Molony, John. Eureka, (1984)
Molony, John. By Wendouree, (2010)
Serle, Geoffrey. The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria, 1851–1860, (1963)
Freund, Peter, with Val Sarah. Her Maj: A History of Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat (2007)
Ballarat City Council
Victorian Heritage Register, Heritage Victoria
External links
Ballarat City Council
Visit Ballarat – Ballarats Official Tourism website
Ballarat – Tourism Victoria – Government tourism site.
Ballarat and District Industrial Heritage Project
Ballarat TV Guide – All channels currently broadcasting in Ballarat and surrounding areas
Mining towns in Victoria (state)
Cities in Victoria (state)
1838 establishments in Australia
Populated places established in 1838 |
4980 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohdan%20Khmelnytsky | Bohdan Khmelnytsky | Bohdan Zynovii Mykhailovych Khmelnytskyi (Ruthenian: Ѕѣнові Богданъ Хмелнiцкiи; modern ; 6 August 1657) was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Ukrainian Cossacks as Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, which was then under the suzerainty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates (1648–1654) that resulted in the creation of an independent Cossack state in Ukraine. In 1654, he concluded the Treaty of Pereyaslav with the Russian Tsar and allied the Cossack Hetmanate with Tsardom of Russia, thus placing central Ukraine under Russian protection. During the uprising the Cossacks led a massacre of thousands of Jewish people during 1648–1649 as one of the most traumatic events in the history of the Jews in Ukraine and Ukrainian nationalism.
Early life
Although there is no definite proof of the date of Khmelnytsky's birth, Ukrainian-born historian Mykhaylo Maksymovych suggests that it is likely 27 December 1595 Julian (St. Theodore's day). As was the custom in the Orthodox Church, he was baptized with one of his middle names, Theodor, translated into Ukrainian as Bohdan. A biography of Khmelnytsky by Smoliy and Stepankov, however, suggests that it is more likely he was born on 9 November (feast day of St Zenoby, 30 October in Julian calendar) and was baptized on 11 November (feast day of St. Theodore in the Catholic Church).
Khmelnytsky was probably born in the village of Subotiv, near Chyhyryn in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland at the estate of his father Mykhailo Khmelnytsky. He was born into Ukrainian lesser nobility. His father was a courtier of Great Crown Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, but later joined the court of his son-in-law Jan Daniłowicz, who in 1597 became starosta of Korsuń and Chyhyryn and appointed Mykhailo as his deputy in Chyhyryn (pidstarosta). For his service, he was granted a strip of land near the town, where Mykhailo set up a khutor Subotiv.
There has been controversy as to whether Bohdan and his father belonged to the Szlachta (Polish term for noblemen). Some sources state that in 1590 his father Mykhailo was appointed as a sotnyk for the Korsun-Chyhyryn starosta Jan Daniłowicz, who continued to colonize the new Ukrainian lands near the Dnieper river. Khmelnytsky identified as a noble, and his father's status as a pidstarosta of Chyhyryn helped him to be considered as such by others. During the Uprising, however, Khmelnytsky would stress his mother's Cossack roots and his father's exploits with the Cossacks of the Sich.
Khmelnytsky attended a Jesuit college, possibly in Jarosław, but more likely in Lviv in the school founded by hetman Żółkiewski. He completed his schooling by 1617, acquiring a broad knowledge of world history and learning Polish and Latin. Later he learned Turkish, Tatar, and French. Unlike many of the other Jesuit students, he did not embrace Roman Catholicism but remained Orthodox.
Marriage and family
Khmelnytsky married Hanna Somkivna, a sister of a rich Pereyaslavl Cossack; the couple settled in Subotiv. By the second half of the 1620s, they had three daughters: Stepanyda, Olena, and Kateryna. His first son Tymish (Tymofiy) was born in 1632, and another son Yuriy was born in 1640.
Registered Cossack
Upon completion of his studies in 1617, Khmelnytsky entered into service with the Cossacks. As early as 1619, he was sent together with his father to Moldavia, when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth entered into war against the Ottoman Empire. During the battle of Cecora (Țuțora) on 17 September 1620, his father was killed, and young Khmelnytsky, among many others including future hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, was captured by the Turks. He spent the next two years in captivity in Constantinople as a prisoner of an Ottoman Kapudan Pasha (presumably Parlak Mustafa Pasha). Other sources claim that he spent his slavery in Ottoman Navy on galleys as an oarsman, where he picked up a knowledge of Turkic languages.
While there is no concrete evidence as to his return to Ukraine, most historians believe Khmelnytsky either escaped or was ransomed. Sources vary as to his benefactor – his mother, friends, the Polish king – but perhaps by Krzysztof Zbaraski, ambassador of the Commonwealth to the Ottomans. In 1622 he paid 30,000 thalers in ransom for all prisoners of war captured at the Battle of Cecora. Upon return to Subotiv, Khmelnytsky took over operating his father's estate and became a registered Cossack in the Chyhyryn Regiment.
He most likely did not take part in any of the Cossack uprisings that broke out in Ukraine at that time. His loyal service achieved him the rank of military clerk (pisarz wojskowy) of the registered Cossacks in 1637. It happened after the capitulation of the Pavlyuk uprising in the town Borowica on 24 December 1637, when field hetman Mikołaj Potocki appointed new Cossack eldership. He had to do it because some of the elders either joined Pavlyuk or were killed by him (like former military clerk, Teodor Onuszkowicz). Because of his new position Khmelnytsky was the one who prepared and signed an act of capitulation. Fighting didn't stop in Borowica, rebel Cossacks rose up again under the new command of Ostryanyn and Hunia in the spring next year. Mikołaj Potocki was successful again and after a six week long siege, the rebel Cossacks were forced to capitulate on 3 August 1638. Like the year before, some registered Cossacks joined the rebels, while some of them remained loyal. Unlike the last time, Potocki decided not to punish the rebel Cossacks, but forced all of them to swear loyalty to the king and the state and swear not to seek revenge against each other. The Hetman also agreed to their request to send emissaries to the king to seek royal grace and preserve Cossack rights. They were elected on a council on 9 September 1638 in Kyiv. Bohdan Khmelnytsky was one of them; the other three were Iwan Bojaryn, colonel of Kaniów, Roman Połowiec and Jan Wołczenko. The emissaries didn't achieve much, mostly because all decisions were already made by the Sejm earlier this year, when deputies accepted the project presented by the grand Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski. Cossacks were forced to accept harsh new terms at the next council in Masłowy Staw, at the Ros river. According to one of the articles of the Ordynacya Woyska Zaporowskiego ("Ordinance of the Zaporozhian Army") registered Cossacks lost the right to elect their own officers and a commander, called elder (starszy) or commissar. From now on, the elder was to be nominated by the Sejm, from the Grand Hetman’s recommendation. The Grand Hetman also got the right to appoint all officers. Commissars, colonels and osauls had to be a noblemen, while sotniks and atamans had to be Cossacks, who were "distinguished in a service for Us and the Commonwealth". Khmelnytsky became one of the sotniks of Chyhryn regiment.
In 1663 in Paris Pierre Chevalier published a book about Cossack uprising called Histoire de la guerre des Cosaques contre la Pologne, which he dedicated to Nicolas Léonor de Flesselles, count de Brégy, who was an ambassador to Poland in 1645. In the dedication he described the meeting de Brégy had with Khmelnytsky in France, and group of Cossacks he brought to France to fight against Spain in Flanders. Chevalier also claimed that he himself commanded Cossacks in Flanders. Although in distant parts of the book Chevalier doesn't mention either Cossacks or Khmelnytsky even once. In his other writing, Relation des Cosaques (avec la vie de Kmielniski, tirée d’un Manuscrit), published the same year, which also contains a biography of Khmelnytsky, there is no mention about his or any other Cossacks stay in France or Flanders. Moreover first Chevalier book is the only source that mention such an event, there is not trace of it even in correspondence of count de Brègy. Although it is true that he was conducting a recruitment of soldiers in Poland for French army in years 1646-1648. In fact he succeeded and about 3000 of them travelled via Gdańsk to Flanders and took part in fights around Dunkirk. French sources describes them as infanterie tout Poulonnois qu’Allemand. They were commanded by colonels Krzysztof Przyjemski, Andrzej Przyjemski and Georges Cabray. Second recruitment that shipped off in 1647 were commanded by Jan Pleitner, Dutch military engineer in service of Władysław IV and Jan Denhoff, colonel of Royal Guard. 17th century French historian Jean-François Sarasіn in his Histoire de siège de Dunkerque when describing participation of Polish mercenaries in fights over Dunkirk, notes that they were commanded by some "Sirot". Some historians identify him as Ivan Sirko, Cossack ataman.
Claims that Khmelnytsky and Cossacks were actually in France are supported by some Ukrainian historians, while other and most Polish scholarship finds it unlikely.
Czapliński Affair
Upon the death of magnate Stanisław Koniecpolski (March 1646) his successor, Aleksander, redrew the maps of his possessions. He laid claim to Khmelnytsky's estate, claiming it as his. Trying to find protection from this grab by the powerful magnate, Khmelnytsky wrote numerous appeals and letters to different representatives of the Polish crown but to no avail. At the end of 1645 the Chyhyryn starosta Daniel Czapliński officially received authority from Koniecpolski to seize Khmelnytsky's Subotiv estate.
In the summer of 1646, Khmelnytsky arranged an audience with King Władysław IV to plead his case, as he had favourable standing at the court. Władysław, who wanted Cossacks on his side in the wars he planned, gave Khmelnytsky a royal charter, protecting his rights to the Subotiv estate. But, because of the structure of the Commonwealth at that time and the lawlessness of Ukraine, even the King was not able to prevent a confrontation with local magnates. In the beginning of 1647, Daniel Czapliński started to harass Khmelnytsky in order to force him off the land. On two occasions the magnate had Subotiv raided: considerable property damage was done and Khmelnytsky's son Yuriy was badly beaten. Finally, in April 1647, Czapliński succeeded in evicting Khmelnytsky from the land, and he was forced to move with his large family to a relative's house in Chyhyryn.
In May 1647, Khmelnytsky arranged a second audience with the king to plead his case but found him unwilling to confront a powerful magnate. In addition to losing the estate, Khmelnytsky suffered the loss of his wife Hanna, and he was left alone with their children. He promptly remarried, to Motrona (Helena Czaplińska), by that time wife of Daniel Czapliński, the so-called "Helen of the steppe". He was less successful in real estate, and was unable to regain the land and property of his estate or financial compensation for it. During this time, he met several higher Polish officials to discuss the Cossacks' war with the Tatars, and used this occasion again to plead his case with Czapliński, still unsuccessfully.
While Khmelnytsky found no support from the Polish officials, he found it in his Cossack friends and subordinates. His Chyhyryn regiment and others were on his side. All through the autumn of 1647 Khmelnytsky travelled from one regiment to another, and had numerous consultations with Cossack leaders throughout Ukraine. His activity raised suspicion among the local Polish authorities already used to Cossack revolts; he was promptly arrested. Koniecpolski issued an order for his execution, but the Chyhyryn Cossack polkovnyk, who held Khmelnytsky, was persuaded to release him. Not willing to tempt fate any further, Khmelnytsky headed for the Zaporozhian Sich with a group of his supporters.
Uprising
While the Czapliński Affair is generally regarded as the immediate cause of the uprising, it was primarily a catalyst for actions representing rising popular discontent. Religion, ethnicity, and economics factored into this discontent. While the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth remained a union of nations, a sizable population of Orthodox Ruthenians were ignored. Oppressed by the Polish magnates, they took their wrath out on Poles, as well as the Jews, who often managed the estates of Polish nobles. The advent of the Counter-Reformation worsened relations between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Many Orthodox Ukrainians considered the Union of Brest as a threat to their Orthodox faith.
Initial successes
At the end of 1647 Khmelnytsky reached the estuary of the Dnieper river. On 7 December, his small detachment (300–500 men), with the help of registered Cossacks who went over to his side, disarmed the small Polish detachment guarding the area and took over the Zaporozhian Sich. The Poles attempted to retake the Sich but were decisively defeated as more registered Cossacks joined the forces. At the end of January 1648, a Cossack Rada was called and Khmelnytsky was unanimously elected a hetman. A period of feverish activity followed. Cossacks were sent with hetman's letters to many regions of Ukraine calling on Cossacks and Orthodox peasants to join the rebellion, Khortytsia was fortified, efforts were made to acquire and make weapons and ammunition, and emissaries were sent to the Khan of Crimea, İslâm III Giray.
Initially, Polish authorities took the news of Khmelnytsky's arrival at the Sich and reports about the rebellion lightly. The two sides exchanged lists of demands: the Poles asked the Cossacks to surrender the mutinous leader and disband, while Khmelnytsky and the Rada demanded that the Commonwealth restore the Cossacks' ancient rights, stop the advance of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, yield the right to appoint Orthodox leaders of the Sich and of the Registered Cossack regiments, and to remove Commonwealth troops from Ukraine. The Polish magnates considered the demands an affront, and an army headed by Stefan Potocki moved in the direction of the Sich.
Had the Cossacks stayed at Khortytsia, they might have been defeated, as in many other rebellions. However, Khmelnytsky marched against the Poles. The two armies met on 16 May 1648 at Zhovti Vody, where, aided by the Tatars of Tugay Bey, the Cossacks inflicted their first crushing defeat on the Commonwealth. It was repeated soon afterwards, with the same success, at the Battle of Korsuń on 26 May 1648. Khmelnytsky used his diplomatic and military skills: under his leadership, the Cossack army moved to battle positions following his plans, Cossacks were proactive and decisive in their manoeuvrers and attacks, and most importantly, he gained the support of both large contingents of registered Cossacks and the Crimean Khan, his crucial ally for the many battles to come.
Establishment of Cossack Hetmanate
The Patriarch of Jerusalem Paiseus, who was visiting Kyiv at this time, referred to Khmelnytsky as the Prince of Rus, the head of an independent Ukrainian state, according to contemporaries. In February 1649, during negotiations in Pereiaslav with a Polish delegation headed by Senator Adam Kysil, Khmelnytsky declared that he was "the sole autocrat of Rus" and that he had "enough power in Ukraine, Podilia, and Volhynia... in his land and principality stretching as far as Lviv, Chełm, and Halych."
After the period of initial military successes, the state-building process began. His leadership was demonstrated in all areas of state-building: military, administration, finance, economics and culture. Khmelnytsky made the Zaporozhian Host the supreme power in the new Ukrainian state and unified all the spheres of Ukrainian society under his authority. Khmelnytsky built a new government system and developed military and civilian administration.
A new generation of statesmen and military leaders came to the forefront: Ivan Vyhovsky, Pavlo Teteria, Danylo Nechai and Ivan Nechai, Ivan Bohun, Hryhoriy Hulyanytsky. From Cossack polkovnyks, officers, and military commanders, a new elite within the Cossack Hetman state was born. Throughout the years, the elite preserved and maintained the autonomy of the Cossack Hetmanate in the face of Russia's attempt to curb it. It was also instrumental in the onset of the period of Ruin that followed, eventually destroying most of the achievements of the Khmelnytsky era.
Complications
Khmelnytsky's initial successes were followed by a series of setbacks as neither Khmelnytsky nor the Commonwealth had enough strength to stabilise the situation or to inflict a defeat on the enemy. What followed was a period of intermittent warfare and several peace treaties, which were seldom upheld. From spring 1649 onward, the situation turned for the worse for the Cossacks; as Polish attacks increased in frequency, they became more successful. The resulting Treaty of Zboriv on 18 August 1649 was unfavourable for the Cossacks. It was followed by another defeat at the battle of Berestechko on 18 June 1651 in which the Tatars betrayed Khmelnytsky and held the hetman captive. The Cossacks suffered a crushing defeat, with an estimated 30,000 casualties. They were forced to sign the Treaty of Bila Tserkva, which favoured the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Warfare broke open again and, in the years that followed, the two sides were almost perpetually at war. Now, the Crimean Tatars played a decisive role and did not allow either side to prevail. It was in their interests to keep both Ukraine and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from getting too strong and becoming an effective power in the region.
Khmelnytsky started looking for another foreign ally. Although the Cossacks had established their de facto independence from Poland, the new state needed legitimacy, which could be provided by a foreign monarch. In search of a protectorate, Khmelnytsky approached the Ottoman sultan in 1651, and formal embassies were exchanged. The Turks offered vassalship, like their other arrangements with contemporary Crimea, Moldavia and Wallachia. However, the idea of a union with the Muslim monarch was not acceptable to the general populace and most Cossacks.
The other possible ally was the Tsardom of Russia. However, despite appeals for help from Khmelnytsky in the name of the shared Orthodox faith, the tsar preferred to wait, until the threat of a Cossack-Ottoman union in 1653 finally forced him to action. The idea that the tsar might be favourable to taking Ukraine under his hand was communicated to the hetman and so diplomatic activity intensified.
Treaty with the tsar
After a series of negotiations, it was agreed that the Cossacks would accept overlordship by the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. To finalize the treaty, a Russian embassy led by boyar Vasily Buturlin came to Pereyaslav, where, on 18 January 1654, the Cossack Rada was called and the treaty concluded. Historians have not come to consensus in interpreting the intentions of the tsar and Khmelnytsky in signing this agreement. The treaty legitimized Russian claims to the capital of Kievan Rus' and strengthened the tsar's influence in the region. Khmelnytsky needed the treaty to gain a legitimate monarch's protection and support from a friendly Orthodox power.
Historians have differed in their reading of Khmelnytsky's goal with the union: whether it was to be a military union, a suzerainty, or a complete incorporation of Ukraine into the Tsardom of Russia.
The differences were expressed during the ceremony of the oath of allegiance to the tsar: the Russian envoy refused to reciprocate with an oath from the ruler to his subjects, as the Cossacks and Ruthenians expected since it was the custom of the Polish king.
Khmelnytsky stormed out of the church and threatened to cancel the entire treaty. The Cossacks decided to rescind the demand and abide by the treaty.
Final years
As a result of the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav, the geopolitical map of the region changed. Russia entered the scene, and the Cossacks' former allies, the Tatars, had switched sides and gone over to the Polish side, initiating warfare against Khmelnytsky and his forces. Tatar raids depopulated whole areas of Sich. Cossacks, aided by the Tsar's army, took revenge on Polish possessions in Belarus, and in the spring of 1654, the Cossacks drove the Poles from much of the country. Sweden entered the mêlée. Old adversaries of both Poland and Russia, they occupied a share of Lithuania before the Russians could get there.
The occupation displeased Russia because the tsar sought to take over the Swedish Baltic provinces. In 1656, with the Commonwealth increasingly war-torn but also increasingly hostile and successful against the Swedes, the ruler of Transylvania, George II Rákóczi, also joined in. Charles X of Sweden had solicited his help because of the massive Polish popular opposition and resistance against the Swedes. Under blows from all sides, the Commonwealth barely survived.
Russia attacked Sweden in July 1656, while its forces were deeply involved in Poland. That war ended in status quo two years later, but it complicated matters for Khmelnytsky, as his ally was now fighting his overlord. In addition to diplomatic tensions between the tsar and Khmelnytsky, a number of other disagreements between the two surfaced. In particular, they concerned Russian officials' interference in the finances of the Cossack Hetmanate and in the newly captured Belarus. The tsar concluded a separate treaty with the Poles in Vilnius in 1656. The Hetman's emissaries were not even allowed to attend the negotiations.
Khmelnytsky wrote an irate letter to the tsar accusing him of breaking the Pereyaslav agreement. He compared the Swedes to the tsar and said that the former were more honourable and trustworthy than the Russians.
In Poland, the Cossack army and Transylvanian allies suffered a number of setbacks. As a result, Khmelnytsky had to deal with a Cossack rebellion on the home front. Troubling news also came from Crimea, as Tatars, in alliance with Poland, were preparing for a new invasion of Ukraine. Though already ill, Khmelnytsky continued to conduct diplomatic activity, at one point even receiving the tsar's envoys from his bed.
On 22 July, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and became paralysed after his audience with the Kyiv Colonel Zhdanovich. His expedition to Halychyna had failed because of mutiny within his army. Less than a week later, Bohdan Khmelnytsky died at 5 a.m. on 27 July 1657. His funeral was held on 23 August, and his body was taken from his capital, Chyhyryn, to his estate, at Subotiv, for burial in his ancestral church. In 1664 a Polish hetman Stefan Czarniecki recaptured Subotiv, which according to some Ukrainian historians, ordered the bodies of the hetman and his son, Tymish, to be exhumed and desecrated, while others claim that is not the case.
Influences
Khmelnytsky had a crucial influence on the history of Ukraine. He not only shaped the future of Ukraine but affected the balance of power in Europe, as the weakening of Poland-Lithuania was exploited by Austria, Saxony, Prussia, and Russia. His actions and role in events were viewed differently by different contemporaries, and even now there are greatly differing perspectives on his legacy.
Ukrainian assessment
In Ukraine, Khmelnytsky is generally regarded as a national hero. A city and a region of the country bear his name. His image is prominently displayed on Ukrainian banknotes and his monument in the centre of Kiev is a focal point of the Ukrainian capital. There have also been several issues of the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky – one of the highest decorations in Ukraine and in the former Soviet Union.
However, with all this positive appreciation of his legacy, even in Ukraine it is far from being unanimous. He is criticised for his union with Russia, which in the view of some, proved to be disastrous for the future of the country. Prominent Ukrainian poet, Taras Shevchenko, was one of Khmelnytsky's very vocal and harsh critics. Others criticize him for his alliance with the Crimean Tatars, which permitted the latter to take a large number of Ukrainian peasants as slaves. (The Cossacks as a military caste did not protect the kholopy, the lowest stratum of the Ukrainian people). Folk songs capture this. On the balance, the view of his legacy in present-day Ukraine is more positive than negative, with some critics acknowledging that the union with Russia was dictated by necessity and an attempt to survive in those difficult times.
In a 2018 Ukraine's Rating Sociological Group poll, 73% of Ukrainian respondents had a positive attitude to Khmelnytsky.
Polish assessment
Khmelnytsky's role in the history of the Polish State has been viewed mostly in a negative light. The rebellion of 1648 proved to be the end of the Golden Age of the Commonwealth and the beginning of its demise. Although it survived the rebellion and the following war, within a hundred years it was divided amongst Russia, Prussia, and Austria in the partitions of Poland. Many Poles blamed Khmelnytsky for the decline of the Commonwealth.
Khmelnytsky has been a subject to several works of fiction in the 19th century Polish literature, but the most notable treatment of him in Polish literature is found in Henryk Sienkiewicz's With Fire and Sword. The rather critical portrayal of him by Sienkiewicz has been moderated in the 1999 movie adaptation by Jerzy Hoffman.
Russian and Soviet history
The official Russian historiography stressed the fact that Khmelnytsky entered into union with Moscow's Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with an expressed desire to "re-unify" Ukraine with Russia. This view corresponded with the official theory of Moscow as an heir of the Kievan Rus', which appropriately gathered its former territories.
Khmelnytsky was viewed as a national hero of Russia for bringing Ukraine into the "eternal union" of all the Russias – Great (Russia), Little (Ukraine) and White (Belarus) Russia. As such, he was much respected and venerated during the existence of the Russian Empire. His role was presented as a model for all Ukrainians to follow: to aspire for closer ties with Great Russia. This view was expressed in a monument commissioned by the Russian nationalist Mikhail Yuzefovich, which was installed in the centre of Kyiv in 1888.
Russian authorities decided the original version of the monument (created by Russian sculptor Mikhail Mikeshin) was too xenophobic; it was to depict a vanquished Pole, Jew, and a Catholic priest under the hooves of the horse. The inscription on the monument reads "To Bohdan Khmelnytsky from one and indivisible Russia." Mikeshin also created the Monument to the Millennium of Russia in Novgorod, which has Khmelnytsky shown as one of Russia's prominent figures.
Soviet historiography followed in many ways the Imperial Russian theory of re-unification while adding the class struggle dimension to the story. Khmelnytsky was praised not only for re-unifying Ukraine with Russia, but also for organizing the class struggle of oppressed Ukrainian peasants against Polish exploiters.
Jewish history
The assessment of Khmelnytsky in Jewish history is overwhelmingly negative because he blamed Jews in assisting Polish szlachta, as the former were often employed by them as tax collectors. Bohdan sought to eradicate Jews from Ukraine. Thus, according to the treaty of Zboriv all Jewish people were forbidden to live on the territory controlled by Cossack rebels.
The Khmelnytsky Uprising led to the deaths of an estimated 18,000–100,000 Jews living in the territory. Due to the lack of reliable data for the assessment of the local Jewish population's size and the amount of victims, giving a more accurate estimate is a tough if not impossible task for historians. Atrocity stories about massacre victims who had been buried alive, cut to pieces or forced to kill one another spread throughout Europe and beyond. The pogroms contributed to a revival of the ideas of Isaac Luria, who revered the Kabbalah, and the identification of Sabbatai Zevi as the Messiah. Orest Subtelny writes:
Between 1648 and 1656, tens of thousands of Jews—given the lack of reliable data, it is impossible to establish more accurate figures—were killed by the rebels, and to this day the Khmelnytsky uprising is considered by Jews to be one of the most traumatic events in their history.
Commemoration
The Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi is named after Khmelnytsky.
In most Ukrainian cities there are Bohdan Khmelnytskyi streets, as well as Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Avenue in the city of Dnipro.
The Separate Presidential Brigade "Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi", a unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine tasked with protecting the president of Ukraine, is named in honor of Khmelnytsky.
See also
Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky Regiment
, known as Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky 1918-1922
Bohdan Khmelnytsky Bridge in Moscow
List of Ukrainian rulers
Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a state military award in Ukraine
Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (Soviet Union)
With Fire and Sword (1884), an historical novel by Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz about these events.
References
Further reading
Władysław Andrzej Serczyk, Na dalekiej Ukrainie. Dzieje Kozaczyzny do 1648 roku, Kraków 2008.
Władysław Andrzej Serczyk, Na płonącej Ukrainie. Dzieje Kozaczyzny 1648-1651, Kraków 2009.
Valeriy Smoliy, Valeriy Stepankov, Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Sotsialno-politychnyi portret Second Edition. Lebid, Kyiv. 1995. .
Orest Subtelny. Ukraine. A history. University of Toronto press. 1994. .
Zbigniew Wójcik, Czy Kozacy Zaporoscy byli na służbie Mazarina?, "Przegląd Historyczny", vol. 64/3 (1973).
Stephen Velychenko, The influence of historical, political and social ideas on the politics of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Cossack officers between 1648 and 1657, Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1981.
Mykhailo Hrushevsky. History of Ukraine-Rus’. Volume 8, The Cossack Age, 1626 to 1650: trans. Marta Daria Olynyk, ed. Frank Sysyn, with Myroslav Yurkevich. 2002.
Mykhailo Hrushevsky. History of Ukraine-Rus’. Volume 9-1, The Khmelnytsky Era, 1651 to 1653: trans. Bohdan Strumiński, ed. Serhii Plokhy and Frank E. Sysyn, with Uliana M. Pasicznyk. 2005.
Mykhailo Hrushevsky. History of Ukraine-Rus’. Volume 9-2, The Khmelnytsky Era, 1654 to 1657, part 1: trans. Marta Daria Olynyk, ed. Serhii Plokhy and Frank E. Sysyn, with Myroslav Yurkevich. 2008.
Mykhailo Hrushevsky. History of Ukraine-Rus’. Volume 9-2, The Khmelnytsky Era, 1654 to 1657, part 2: trans. Marta Daria Olynyk, ed. Yaroslav Fedoruk and Frank E. Sysyn, with Myroslav Yurkevich. 2010.
External links
Oleksander Ohloblyn, Khmelnytsky, Bohdan, article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).
Cossack State after 1649 (map)
Biography of Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Mykola Mashchenko, Film about Khmelnytsky (2008), Dovzhenko Film Studios
Dr. Henry Abramson, Video on Nathan of Hanover and the Ukrainian Revolution of 1648–1649, 19 February 2013, Jewish Biography as History, Jewish History lectures, Henry Abramson website
1590s births
1657 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Antisemitism in Ukraine
17th-century Ukrainian people
Founding monarchs
Hetmans of Zaporizhian Host
People from Cherkasy Oblast |
4986 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle%20of%20Okinawa | Battle of Okinawa | The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. The initial invasion of Okinawa on 1 April 1945 was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Kerama Islands surrounding Okinawa were preemptively captured on 26 March by the 77th Infantry Division. The 82-day battle lasted from 1 April until 22 June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air Base on the large island of Okinawa as a base for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, away.
The United States created the Tenth Army, a cross-branch force consisting of the U.S. Army 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th Infantry Divisions with the 1st, 2nd, and 6th Marine Divisions, to fight on the island. The Tenth Army was unique in that it had its own Tactical Air Force (joint Army-Marine command) and was supported by combined naval and amphibious forces. Opposing the Allied forces on the ground was the Japanese Thirty-Second Army.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and kotetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or kotetsu no hageshi kaze ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of Japanese kamikaze attacks and the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle was the bloodiest in the Pacific, with around 50,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese casualties, including Okinawans conscripted into the Japanese Army. According to local authorities, at least 149,425 Okinawan people were killed, died by coerced suicide or went missing.
In the naval operations surrounding the battle, both sides lost considerable numbers of ships and aircraft, including the Japanese battleship . After the battle, Okinawa provided a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields in proximity to Japan for US forces in preparation for a planned invasion of the Japanese home islands.
Order of battle
Allied
In all, the US Army had over 103,000 soldiers (of these, 38,000+ were non-divisional artillery, combat support and HQ troops, with another 9,000 service troops), over 88,000 Marines and 18,000 Navy personnel (mostly Seabees and medical personnel). At the start of the Battle of Okinawa, the US Tenth Army had 182,821 personnel under its command. It was planned that Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. would report to Vice Admiral Richmond K. Turner until the amphibious phase was completed, after which he would report directly to Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. Total aircraft in the US Navy, Marine and Army Air Force exceeded 3,000 over the course of the battle, including fighters, attack aircraft, scout planes, bombers and dive-bombers. The invasion was supported by a fleet consisting of 18 battleships, 27 cruisers, 177 destroyers/destroyer escorts, 39 aircraft carriers (11 fleet carriers, 6 light carriers and 22 escort carriers) and various support and troop transport ships.
The British naval contingent accompanied 251 British naval aircraft and included a British Commonwealth fleet with Australian, New Zealand and Canadian ships and personnel.
Japanese
The Japanese land campaign (mainly defensive) was conducted by the 67,000-strong (77,000 according to some sources) regular 32nd Army and some 9,000 Imperial Japanese Navy troops at Oroku Naval Base (only a few hundred of whom had been trained and equipped for ground combat), supported by 39,000 drafted local Ryukyuan people (including 24,000 hastily drafted rear militia called Boeitai and 15,000 non-uniformed laborers). The Japanese had used kamikaze tactics since the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but for the first time they became a major part of the defense. Between the American landing on 1 April and 25 May, seven major kamikaze attacks were attempted, involving more than 1,500 planes.
The 32nd Army initially consisted of the 9th, 24th and 62nd Divisions and the 44th Independent Mixed Brigade. The 9th Division was moved to Taiwan before the invasion, resulting in shuffling of Japanese defensive plans. Primary resistance was to be led in the south by Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima, his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Isamu Chō and his chief of operations, Colonel Hiromichi Yahara. Yahara advocated a defensive strategy, whilst Chō advocated an offensive one.
In the north, Colonel Takehido Udo was in command. The naval troops were led by Rear Admiral Minoru Ōta. They expected the Americans to land 6–10 divisions against the Japanese garrison of two and a half divisions. The staff calculated that superior quality and numbers of weapons gave each US division five or six times the firepower of a Japanese division. To this, would be added the Americans' abundant naval and air firepower.
Japanese use of children
On Okinawa, the Imperial Japanese Army mobilized 1,780 schoolboys aged 14–17 years into front line service as an Iron and Blood Imperial Corps (), while female Himeyuri students were organized into a nursing unit. This mobilization was conducted by an ordinance of the Ministry of the Army, not by law. The ordinances mobilized the students as volunteer soldiers for form's sake; in reality, the military authorities ordered schools to force almost all students to "volunteer" as soldiers; sometimes they counterfeited the necessary documents. About half of the Tekketsu Kinnōtai were killed, including in suicide bomb attacks against tanks and in guerrilla operations.
Among the 21 male and female secondary schools that made up these student corps, 2,000 students died on the battlefield. Even with the female students acting mainly as nurses to Japanese soldiers, they were still exposed to the harsh conditions of war.
Naval battle
The US Navy's Task Force 58, deployed to the east of Okinawa with a picket group of 6 to 8 destroyers, kept 13 carriers (7 fleet carriers and 6 light carriers) on duty from 23 March to 27 April and a smaller number thereafter. Until 27 April, a minimum of 14 and up to 18 escort carriers were in the area at all times. Until 20 April, British Task Force 57, with 4 large and 6 escort carriers, remained off the Sakishima Islands to protect the southern flank.
The protracted length of the campaign under stressful conditions forced Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to take the unprecedented step of relieving the principal naval commanders to rest and recuperate. Following the practice of changing the fleet designation with the change of commanders, US naval forces began the campaign as the US 5th Fleet under Admiral Spruance, but ended it as the 3rd Fleet under Admiral Halsey.
Japanese air opposition had been relatively light during the first few days after the landings. However, on 6 April the expected air reaction began with an attack by 400 planes from Kyushu. Periodic heavy air attacks continued through April. During the period of 26 March to 30 April, 20 American ships were sunk and 157 damaged by enemy action. By 30 April the Japanese had lost more than 1,100 planes to Allied naval forces alone.
Between 6 April and 22 June, the Japanese flew 1,465 kamikaze aircraft in large-scale attacks from Kyushu, 185 individual kamikaze sorties from Kyushu, and 250 individual kamikaze sorties from Taiwan, then called Formosa. While US intelligence estimated there were 89 planes on Formosa, the Japanese actually had about 700, dismantled or well camouflaged and dispersed into scattered villages and towns; the US Fifth Air Force disputed Navy claims of kamikaze coming from Formosa.
The ships lost were smaller vessels, particularly the destroyers of the radar pickets, as well as destroyer escorts and landing ships. While no major Allied warships were lost, several fleet carriers were severely damaged. Land-based Shin'yō-class suicide motorboats were also used in the Japanese suicide attacks, although Ushijima had disbanded the majority of the suicide boat battalions before the battle because of expected low effectiveness against a superior enemy. The boat crews were re-formed into three additional infantry battalions.
Operation Ten-Go
Operation Ten-Go (Ten-gō sakusen) was the attempted attack by a strike force of 10 Japanese surface vessels, led by Yamato and commanded by Admiral Seiichi Itō. This small task force had been ordered to fight through enemy naval forces, then beach Yamato and fight from shore, using her guns as coastal artillery and her crew as naval infantry. The Ten-Go force was spotted by submarines shortly after it left the Japanese home waters and was intercepted by US carrier aircraft.
Under attack from more than 300 aircraft over a two-hour span, the world's largest battleship sank on 7 April 1945 after a one-sided battle, long before she could reach Okinawa. (US torpedo bombers were instructed to aim for only one side to prevent effective counter flooding by the battleship's crew, and to aim for the bow or the stern where armor was believed to be the thinnest.) Of Yamatos screening force, the light cruiser and 4 of the 8 destroyers were also sunk. The Imperial Japanese Navy lost some 3,700 sailors, including Admiral Itō, at the cost of 10 US aircraft and 12 airmen.
British Pacific Fleet
The British Pacific Fleet, taking part as Task Force 57, was assigned the task of neutralizing the Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Islands, which it did successfully from March 26 to April 10. On April 10, its attention was shifted to airfields in northern Formosa. The force withdrew to San Pedro Bay on April 23. On May 1, the British Pacific Fleet returned to action, subduing the airfields as before, this time with naval bombardment as well as aircraft. Several kamikaze attacks caused significant damage, but as the Royal Navy carriers had armoured flight decks, they experienced only a brief interruption to their force's operations.
Land battle
The land battle took place over about 81 days beginning on 1 April 1945. The first Americans ashore were soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division who landed in the Kerama Islands, west of Okinawa on 26 March. Subsidiary landings followed, and the Kerama group was secured over the next five days. In these preliminary operations, the 77th Infantry Division suffered 27 dead and 81 wounded, while the Japanese dead and captured numbered over 650. The operation provided a protected anchorage for the fleet and eliminated the threat from suicide boats.
On 31 March, Marines of the Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion landed without opposition on Keise Shima, four islets just west of the Okinawan capital of Naha. A group of "Long Tom" artillery pieces went ashore on the islets to cover operations on Okinawa.
Northern Okinawa
The main landing was made by the XXIV Corps and the III Amphibious Corps on the Hagushi beaches on the western coast of Okinawa on 1 April. The 2nd Marine Division conducted a demonstration off the Minatoga beaches on the southeastern coast to deceive the Japanese about American intentions and delay movement of reserves from there.
Tenth Army swept across the south-central part of the island with relative ease, capturing the Kadena and the Yomitan airbases within hours of the landing. In light of the weak opposition, General Buckner decided to proceed immediately with Phase II of his plan, the seizure of northern Okinawa. The 6th Marine Division headed up the Ishikawa Isthmus and by 7 April had sealed off the Motobu Peninsula.
Six days later on 13 April, the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Marine Regiment, reached Hedo Point at the northernmost tip of the island. By this point, the bulk of the Japanese forces in the north (codenamed Udo Force) were cornered on the Motobu Peninsula. The terrain was mountainous and wooded, with the Japanese defenses concentrated on Mount Yaedake, a twisted mass of rocky ridges and ravines on the center of the peninsula. There was heavy fighting before the Marines finally cleared Yaedake on 18 April. However, this was not the end of ground combat in northern Okinawa. On 24 May, the Japanese mounted Operation Gi-gou: a company of Giretsu Kuteitai commandos were airlifted in a suicide attack on Yomitan. They destroyed of fuel and nine planes before being killed by the defenders, who lost two men.
Meanwhile, the 77th Infantry Division assaulted Ie Shima, a small island off the western end of the peninsula, on 16 April. In addition to conventional hazards, the 77th Infantry Division encountered kamikaze attacks and even local women armed with spears. There was heavy fighting before the area was declared secured on 21 April and became another airbase for operations against Japan.
Southern Okinawa
While the 6th Marine Division cleared northern Okinawa, the US Army 96th and 7th Infantry Divisions wheeled south across the narrow isthmus of Okinawa. The 96th Infantry Division began to encounter fierce resistance in west-central Okinawa from Japanese troops holding fortified positions east of Highway No. 1 and about northwest of Shuri, from what came to be known as Cactus Ridge. The 7th Infantry Division encountered similarly fierce Japanese opposition from a rocky pinnacle located about southwest of Arakachi (later dubbed "The Pinnacle"). By the night of 8 April, American troops had cleared these and several other strongly fortified positions. They suffered over 1,500 battle casualties in the process while killing or capturing about 4,500 Japanese. Yet the battle had only begun, for it was realized that "these were merely outposts," guarding the Shuri Line.
The next American objective was Kakazu Ridge (), two hills with a connecting saddle that formed part of Shuri's outer defenses. The Japanese had prepared their positions well and fought tenaciously. The Japanese soldiers hid in fortified caves. American forces often lost personnel before clearing the Japanese out from each cave or other hiding place. The Japanese sent Okinawans at gunpoint out to obtain water and supplies for them, which led to civilian casualties. The American advance was inexorable but resulted in a high number of casualties on both sides.
As the American assault against Kakazu Ridge stalled, Lieutenant General Ushijima—influenced by General Chō—decided to take the offensive. On the evening of 12 April, the 32nd Army attacked American positions across the entire front. The Japanese attack was heavy, sustained, and well organized. After fierce close combat, the attackers retreated, only to repeat their offensive the following night. A final assault on 14 April was again repulsed. The effort led the 32nd Army's staff to conclude that the Americans were vulnerable to night infiltration tactics but that their superior firepower made any offensive Japanese troop concentrations extremely dangerous, and they reverted to their defensive strategy.
The 27th Infantry Division, which had landed on 9 April, took over on the right, along the west coast of Okinawa. General John R. Hodge now had three divisions in the line, with the 96th in the middle and the 7th to the east, with each division holding a front of only about . Hodge launched a new offensive on 19 April with a barrage of 324 guns, the largest ever in the Pacific Ocean Theater. Battleships, cruisers, and destroyers joined the bombardment, which was followed by 650 Navy and Marine planes attacking the Japanese positions with napalm, rockets, bombs, and machine guns. The Japanese defenses were sited on reverse slopes, where the defenders waited out the artillery barrage and aerial attack in relative safety, emerging from the caves to rain mortar rounds and grenades upon the Americans advancing up the forward slope.
A tank assault to achieve breakthrough by outflanking Kakazu Ridge failed to link up with its infantry support attempting to cross the ridge and therefore failed with the loss of 22 tanks. Although flame tanks cleared many cave defenses, there was no breakthrough, and the XXIV Corps suffered 720 casualties. The losses might have been greater except for the fact that the Japanese had practically all of their infantry reserves tied up farther south, held there by another feint off the Minatoga beaches by the 2nd Marine Division that coincided with the attack.
At the end of April, after Army forces had pushed through the Machinato defensive line, the 1st Marine Division relieved the 27th Infantry Division and the 77th Infantry Division relieved the 96th. When the 6th Marine Division arrived, the III Amphibious Corps took over the right flank and Tenth Army assumed control of the battle.
On 4 May, the 32nd Army launched another counter-offensive. This time, Ushijima attempted to make amphibious assaults on the coasts behind American lines. To support his offensive, the Japanese artillery moved into the open. By doing so, they were able to fire 13,000 rounds in support, but effective American counter-battery fire destroyed dozens of Japanese artillery pieces. The attack failed.
Buckner launched another American attack on 11 May. Ten days of fierce fighting followed. On 13 May, troops of the 96th Infantry Division and 763rd Tank Battalion captured Conical Hill (). Rising above the Yonabaru coastal plain, this feature was the eastern anchor of the main Japanese defenses and was defended by about 1,000 Japanese. Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions fought for "Sugar Loaf Hill" (). The capture of these two key positions exposed the Japanese around Shuri on both sides. Buckner hoped to envelop Shuri and trap the main Japanese defending force.
By the end of May, monsoon rains which had turned contested hills and roads into a morass exacerbated both the tactical and medical situations. The ground advance began to resemble a World War I battlefield, as troops became mired in mud, and flooded roads greatly inhibited evacuation of wounded to the rear. Troops lived on a field sodden by rain, part garbage dump and part graveyard. Unburied Japanese and American bodies decayed, sank in the mud and became part of a noxious stew. Anyone sliding down the greasy slopes could easily find their pockets full of maggots at the end of the journey.
From 24 to 27 May the 6th Marine Division cautiously occupied the ruins of Naha, the largest city on the island, finding it largely deserted.
On 26 May aerial observers saw large troop movements just below Shuri. On 28 May Marine patrols found recently abandoned positions west of Shuri. By 30 May the consensus among Army and Marine intelligence was that the majority of Japanese forces had withdrawn from the Shuri Line. On 29 May the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines (1/5 Marines) occupied high ground east of Shuri Castle and reported that the castle appeared undefended. At 10:15 Company A, 1/5 Marines occupied the castle.
Shuri Castle had been shelled by the battleship for three days before this advance. The 32nd Army withdrew to the south and thus the Marines had an easy task of securing Shuri Castle. The castle, however, was outside the 1st Marine Division's assigned zone, and only frantic efforts by the commander and staff of the 77th Infantry Division prevented an American airstrike and artillery bombardment which would have resulted in many friendly fire casualties.
On 29 May a Confederate flag was raised over Shuri Castle, before being removed and replaced by a US flag three days later on orders of General Buckner.
The Japanese retreat, although harassed by artillery fire, was conducted with great skill at night and aided by the monsoon storms. The 32nd Army was able to move nearly 30,000 personnel into its last defense line on the Kiyan Peninsula, which ultimately led to the greatest slaughter on Okinawa in the latter stages of the battle, including the deaths of thousands of civilians. In addition, there were 9,000 IJN troops supported by 1,100 militia, with approximately 4,000 holed up at the underground headquarters on the hillside overlooking the Okinawa Naval Base in the Oroku Peninsula, east of the airfield.
On 4 June, elements of the 6th Marine Division launched an amphibious assault on the peninsula. The 4,000 Japanese sailors, including Admiral Ōta, all committed suicide within the hand-built tunnels of the underground naval headquarters on 13 June. By 17 June, the remnants of Ushijima's shattered 32nd Army were pushed into a small pocket in the far south of the island to the southeast of Itoman.
On 18 June, General Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery fire while monitoring the progress of his troops from a forward observation post. Buckner was replaced by Major General Roy Geiger. Upon assuming command, Geiger became the only US Marine to command a numbered army of the US Army in combat; he was relieved five days later by General Joseph Stilwell. On 19 June, Brigadier General Claudius Miller Easley, the commander of the 96th Infantry Division, was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire, also while checking on the progress of his troops at the front.
The last remnants of Japanese resistance ended on 21 June, although some Japanese continued hiding, including the future governor of Okinawa Prefecture, Masahide Ōta. Ushijima and Chō committed suicide by seppuku in their command headquarters on Hill 89 in the closing hours of the battle. Colonel Yahara had asked Ushijima for permission to commit suicide, but the general refused his request, saying: "If you die there will be no one left who knows the truth about the battle of Okinawa. Bear the temporary shame but endure it. This is an order from your army commander." Yahara was the most senior officer to have survived the battle on the island, and he later authored a book titled The Battle for Okinawa. On 22 June Tenth Army held a flag-raising ceremony to mark the end of organized resistance on Okinawa. On 23 June a mopping-up operation commenced, which concluded on 30 June.
On 15 August 1945, Admiral Matome Ugaki was killed while part of a kamikaze raid on Iheyajima island. The official surrender ceremony was held on 7 September, near the Kadena Airfield.
Casualties
The Battle of Okinawa was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War. The most complete tally of deaths during the battle is at the Cornerstone of Peace monument at the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum, which identifies the names of each individual who died at Okinawa in World War II. As of 2022, the monument lists 241,686 names, including 149,611 Okinawans, 77,485 Imperial Japanese soldiers, 14,010 Americans, and smaller numbers of people from South Korea (382), the United Kingdom (82), North Korea (82) and Taiwan (34).
The numbers correspond to recorded deaths during the Battle of Okinawa from the time of the American landings in the Kerama Islands on 26 March 1945 to the signing of the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945, in addition to all Okinawan casualties in the Pacific War in the 15 years from the Manchurian Incident, along with those who died in Okinawa from war-related events in the year before the battle and the year after the surrender. 234,183 names were inscribed by the time of unveiling, and new names are added as necessary. 40,000 of the Okinawan civilians killed had been drafted or impressed by the Japanese army and are often counted as combat deaths.
Military losses
American
The Americans suffered some 48,000 casualties, not including some 33,000 non-battle casualties (psychiatric, injuries, illnesses), of whom over 12,000 were killed or missing. Killed in action were 4,907 Navy, 4,675 Army, and 2,938 Marine Corps personnel; when excluding naval losses at sea and losses on the surrounding islands (such as Ie Shima), 6,316 killed and over 30,000 wounded occurred on Okinawa proper. Other authors such as John Keegan have come up with higher numbers.
The most famous American casualty was Lieutenant General Buckner, whose decision to attack the Japanese defenses head-on, although extremely costly in American lives, was ultimately successful. Four days from the closing of the campaign, Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery fire, which blew lethal slivers of coral into his body, while inspecting his troops at the front line. He was the highest-ranking US officer to be killed by enemy fire during the Second World War. The day after Buckner was killed, Brigadier General Easley was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire. War correspondent Ernie Pyle was also killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on Ie Shima, a small island just off of northwestern Okinawa.
Aircraft losses over the three-month period were 768 US planes, including those bombing the Kyushu airfields launching kamikazes. Combat losses were 458, and the other 310 were operational accidents. At sea, 368 Allied ships—including 120 amphibious craft—were damaged while another 36—including 15 amphibious ships and 12 destroyers—were sunk during the Okinawa campaign. The US Navy's dead exceeded its wounded, with 4,907 killed and 4,874 wounded, primarily from kamikaze attacks.
American personnel casualties included thousands of cases of mental breakdown. According to the account of the battle presented in Marine Corps Gazette:
Medal of Honor recipients from Okinawa are:
Beauford T. Anderson – 13 April
Richard E. Bush – 16 April
Robert Eugene Bush – 2 May
Henry A. Courtney Jr. – 14–15 May
Clarence B. Craft – 31 May
James L. Day – 14–17 May
Desmond Doss – 29 April – 21 May
John P. Fardy – 7 May
William A. Foster – 2 May
Harold Gonsalves – 15 April
William D. Halyburton Jr. – 10 May
Dale M. Hansen – 7 May
Louis J. Hauge Jr. – 14 May
Elbert L. Kinser – 4 May
Fred F. Lester – 8 June
Martin O. May – 19–21 April
Richard M. McCool Jr. – 10–11 June
Robert M. McTureous Jr. – 7 June
John W. Meagher – 19 June
Edward J. Moskala – 9 April
Joseph E. Muller – 15–16 May
Alejandro R. Ruiz – 28 April
Albert E. Schwab – 7 May
Seymour W. Terry – 11 May
Allied naval vessels sunk or damaged at Okinawa
The following table lists the Allied naval vessels that received damage or were sunk in the Battle of Okinawa between 19 March – 30 July 1945. The table lists a total of 147 damaged ships, five of which were damaged by enemy suicide boats and another five by mines. During the naval battle, which started before the amphibious landings on Okinawa on 1 April, USS Franklin suffered over 800 killed and missing and USS Bunker Hill suffered 396 killed and missing. These were the first and third largest loss of life on damaged or sunken American aircraft carriers during World War II. The USS Franklin (hit by two bombs in a level bombing attack by a D4Y Suisei (Judy) on 19 March 1945) and USS Bunker Hill were the only two aircraft carriers that sustained very severe damage from Japanese attacks and as a result were the only aircraft carriers in the Essex-class that did not experience any active service after the end of World War II. One source estimated that total Japanese sorties during the entire Okinawa campaign exceeded 3,700, with a large percentage being kamikaze attacks, and that the attackers damaged slightly more than 200 Allied vessels, with 4,900 naval officers and seamen killed and roughly 4,824 wounded or missing. The USS Thorton was damaged as the result of a collision with another US ship.
The Japanese air attacks were so intense that Fifth Fleet commander Admiral Spruance's flagships were struck two separate times (USS Indianapolis was hit in March and had to retire for repairs which forced him to transfer to USS New Mexico which was also hit in May). Fast Carrier Task Force commander Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher and his chief of staff Commodore Arleigh Burke were yards away from getting killed or wounded by kamikazes on his flagship USS Bunker Hill, which killed three of Mitscher's staff officers and eleven of his enlisted staff members and also destroyed his flag cabin along with all of his uniforms, personal papers, and possessions. Just two days later Mitscher's new flagship USS Enterprise was also struck by a kamikaze forcing him to have to change his flagship yet again. Both fleet carriers were knocked out for the rest of the war.
sunk or had to be scuttled due to irreparable damage. Of those sunk, the majority were relatively smaller ships; these included destroyers of around 300–450 feet. A few small cargo ships were also sunk, several containing munitions which caught fire.
scrapped or decommissioned as a result of damage.
Japanese losses
The US military estimates that 110,071 Japanese soldiers were killed during the battle. This total includes conscripted Okinawan civilians.
A total of 7,401 Japanese regulars and 3,400 Okinawan conscripts surrendered or were captured during the battle of Okinawa. Additional Japanese and renegade Okinawans were captured or surrendered over the next few months, bringing the total to 16,346. This was the first battle in the Pacific War in which thousands of Japanese soldiers surrendered or were captured. Many of the prisoners were native Okinawans who had been pressed into service shortly before the battle and were less imbued with the Imperial Japanese Army's no-surrender doctrine. When the American forces occupied the island, many Japanese soldiers put on Okinawan clothing to avoid capture, and some Okinawans would come to the Americans' aid by offering to identify these mainland Japanese.
The Japanese lost 16 combat vessels, including the super battleship Yamato. Early claims of Japanese aircraft losses put the total at 7,800, however later examination of Japanese records revealed that Japanese aircraft losses at Okinawa were far below often-repeated US estimates for the campaign. The number of conventional and kamikaze aircraft actually lost or expended by the 3rd, 5th, and 10th Air Fleets, combined with about 500 lost or expended by the Imperial Army at Okinawa, was roughly 1,430. The Allies destroyed 27 Japanese tanks and 743 artillery pieces (including mortars, anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns), some of them eliminated by the naval and air bombardments but most knocked out by American counter-battery fire.
Civilian losses, suicides, and atrocities
Some of the other islands that saw major battles in World War II, such as Iwo Jima, were uninhabited or had been evacuated. Okinawa, by contrast, had a large indigenous civilian population; US Army records from the planning phase of the operation made the assumption that Okinawa was home to about 300,000 civilians. The official US Tenth Army count for the 82-day campaign is a total of 142,058 recovered enemy bodies (including those civilians pressed into service by the Imperial Japanese Army), with the deduction made that about 42,000 were non-uniformed civilians who had been killed in the crossfire. Okinawa Prefecture's estimate is over 100,000 losses.
During the battle, American forces found it difficult to distinguish civilians from soldiers. It became common for them to shoot at Okinawan houses, as one infantryman wrote:
There was some return fire from a few of the houses, but the others were probably occupied by civilians—and we didn't care. It was a terrible thing not to distinguish between the enemy and women and children. Americans always had great compassion, especially for children. Now we fired indiscriminately.
In its history of the war, the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum presents Okinawa as being caught between Japan and the United States. During the battle, the Imperial Japanese Army showed indifference to Okinawans' safety, and its soldiers used civilians as human shields or outright killed them. The Japanese military also confiscated food from the Okinawans and executed those who hid it, leading to mass starvation, and forced civilians out of their shelters. Japanese soldiers also killed about 1,000 people who spoke in the Okinawan language to suppress spying. The museum writes that "some were blown apart by [artillery] shells, some finding themselves in a hopeless situation were driven to suicide, some died of starvation, some succumbed to malaria, while others fell victim to the retreating Japanese troops."
With the impending Japanese defeat, civilians often committed mass suicide, urged on by the Japanese soldiers who told locals that victorious American soldiers would go on a rampage of killing and raping. Ryūkyū Shimpō, one of the two major Okinawan newspapers, wrote in 2007: "There are many Okinawans who have testified that the Japanese Army directed them to commit suicide. There are also people who have testified that they were handed grenades by Japanese soldiers" to blow themselves up. Thousands of civilians, having been induced by Japanese propaganda to believe that American soldiers were barbarians who committed horrible atrocities, killed their families and themselves to avoid capture at the hands of the Americans. Some of them threw themselves and their family members from the southern cliffs where the Peace Museum now resides.
Okinawans "were often surprised at the comparatively humane treatment they received from the American enemy". Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power by Mark Selden states that the Americans "did not pursue a policy of torture, rape, and murder of civilians as Japanese military officials had warned". American Military Intelligence Corps combat translators such as Teruto Tsubota managed to convince many civilians not to kill themselves. Survivors of the mass suicides blamed also the indoctrination of their education system of the time, in which the Okinawans were taught to become "more Japanese than the Japanese" and were expected to prove it.
Witnesses and historians claim that soldiers, mainly Japanese troops, raped Okinawan women during the battle. Rape by Japanese troops reportedly "became common" in June, after it became clear that the Imperial Japanese Army had been defeated. Marine Corps officials in Okinawa and Washington have said that they knew of no rapes by American personnel in Okinawa at the end of the war. There are, however, numerous credible testimony accounts which note that a large number of rapes were committed by American forces during the battle. This includes stories of rape after trading sexual favors or even marrying Americans, such as the alleged incident in the village of Katsuyama, where civilians said they had formed a vigilante group to ambush and kill three black American soldiers who they claimed would frequently rape the local girls there.
MEXT textbook controversy
There is ongoing disagreement between Okinawa's local government and Japan's national government over the role of the Japanese military in civilian mass suicides during the battle. In March 2007, the national Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) advised textbook publishers to reword descriptions that the embattled Imperial Japanese Army forced civilians to kill themselves in the war to avoid being taken prisoner. MEXT preferred descriptions that just say that civilians received hand grenades from the Japanese military. This move sparked widespread protests among Okinawans. In June 2007, the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly adopted a resolution stating, "We strongly call on the (national) government to retract the instruction and to immediately restore the description in the textbooks so the truth of the Battle of Okinawa will be handed down correctly and a tragic war will never happen again."
On 29 September 2007, about 110,000 people held the biggest political rally in the history of Okinawa to demand that MEXT retract its order to textbook publishers regarding revising the account of the civilian suicides. The resolution states, "It is an undeniable fact that the 'multiple suicides' would not have occurred without the involvement of the Japanese military and any deletion of or revision to (the descriptions) is a denial and distortion of the many testimonies by those people who survived the incidents." In December 2007, MEXT partially admitted the role of the Japanese military in civilian mass suicides. The ministry's Textbook Authorization Council allowed the publishers to reinstate the reference that civilians "were forced into mass suicides by the Japanese military", on condition it is placed in sufficient context. The council report states, "It can be said that from the viewpoint of the Okinawa residents, they were forced into the mass suicides." That was not enough for the survivors who said it is important for children today to know what really happened.
The Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburō Ōe wrote a booklet that states that the mass suicide order was given by the military during the battle. He was sued by revisionists, including a wartime commander during the battle, who disputed this and wanted to stop publication of the booklet. At a court hearing, Ōe testified "Mass suicides were forced on Okinawa islanders under Japan's hierarchical social structure that ran through the state of Japan, the Japanese armed forces and local garrisons." In March 2008, the Osaka Prefecture Court ruled in favor of Ōe, stating, "It can be said the military was deeply involved in the mass suicides." The court recognized the military's involvement in the mass suicides and murder-suicides, citing the testimony about the distribution of grenades for suicide by soldiers and the fact that mass suicides were not recorded on islands where the military was not stationed.
In 2012, Korean-Japanese director Pak Su-nam announced her work on the documentary Nuchigafu (Okinawan for "only if one is alive") collecting living survivors' accounts to show "the truth of history to many people", alleging that "there were two types of orders for 'honorable deaths'—one for residents to kill each other and the other for the military to kill all residents". In March 2013, Japanese textbook publisher Shimizu Shoin was permitted by MEXT to publish the statements that "Orders from Japanese soldiers led to Okinawans committing group suicide" and "The [Japanese] army caused many tragedies in Okinawa, killing local civilians and forcing them to commit mass suicide."
Aftermath
90% of the buildings on the island were destroyed, along with countless historical documents, artifacts, and cultural treasures, and the tropical landscape was turned into "a vast field of mud, lead, decay and maggots". The military value of Okinawa was significant. Okinawa provided a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields in proximity to Japan. The US cleared the surrounding waters of mines in Operation Zebra, occupied Okinawa, and set up the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands, a form of military government, after the battle. In 2011, one official of the prefectural government told David Hearst of The Guardian:
Effect on the wider war
Because the next major event following the Battle of Okinawa was the total surrender of Japan, the effect of this battle is more difficult to consider. Because Japan surrendered when it did, the anticipated series of battles and the invasion of the Japanese homeland never occurred, and all military strategies on both sides which presupposed this apparently-inevitable next development were immediately rendered moot.
Some military historians believe that the Okinawa campaign led directly to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as a means of avoiding the planned ground invasion of the Japanese mainland. This view is explained by Victor Davis Hanson in his book Ripples of Battle:
Meanwhile, many parties continue to debate the broader question of "why Japan surrendered", attributing the surrender to a number of possible reasons including: the atomic bombings, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, and Japan's depleted resources.
Memorial
In 1995, the Okinawa government erected a memorial monument named the Cornerstone of Peace in Mabuni, the site of the last fighting in southeastern Okinawa. The memorial lists all the known names of those who died in the battle, civilian and military, Japanese and foreign. As of 2022, the monument lists 241,686 names.
Modern US base
Significant US forces remain garrisoned on Okinawa as the United States Forces Japan, which the Japanese government sees as an important guarantee of regional stability, and Kadena remains the largest US air base in Asia. Local residents have long protested against the size and presence of the base.
See also
Himeyuri students
Chiran Special Attack Peace Museum
History of the Ryukyus
Josef R. Sheetz
Rape during the occupation of Japan
Suicide in Japan
Okinawa Memorial Day
Naval Base Okinawa
Marine Corps Air Station Futenma
Camp Hansen
Torii Station
Camp Schwab
Camp Foster
Camp Kinser
Giretsu Kuteitai
Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum
References
Citations
Sources
, famous Marine memoir
– Firsthand account of the battle by a surviving Japanese officer.
External links
US military on the Battle of Okinawa
New Zealand account with reference to Operation Iceberg
Cornerstone of Peace
Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum
The Peace Learning Archive in OKINAWA
A photographic record of aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable, 1944–45, including Operation Iceberg, the attack on the Sakashimas
WWII: Battle of Okinawa – slideshow by Life magazine
Operation Iceberg Operational Documents Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, KS
Oral history interview with Mike Busha, a member of the 6th Marine Division during the Battle of Okinawa from the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University
Oral history interview with Albert D'Amico, a Navy Veteran who was aboard LST 278 during the landing at Okinawa from the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University
Booknotes interview with Robert Leckie on Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II, September 3, 1995.
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4988 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brezhnev%20Doctrine | Brezhnev Doctrine | The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy that proclaimed that any threat to "socialist rule" in any state of the Soviet Bloc in Central and Eastern Europe was a threat to all of them, and therefore, it justified the intervention of fellow socialist states. It was proclaimed in order to justify the Soviet-led occupation of Czechoslovakia earlier in 1968, with the overthrow of the reformist government there. The references to "socialism" meant control by the communist parties which were loyal to the Kremlin. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev repudiated the doctrine in the late 1980s, as the Kremlin accepted the peaceful overthrow of Soviet rule in all its satellite countries in Eastern Europe.
The policy was first and most clearly outlined by Sergei Kovalev in a 26, 1968 Pravda article entitled "Sovereignty and the International Obligations of Socialist Countries". Leonid Brezhnev reiterated it in a speech at the Fifth Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party on November 13, 1968, which stated: "When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries."
This doctrine was announced to retroactively justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 that ended the Prague Spring, along with earlier Soviet military interventions, such as the invasion of Hungary in 1956. These interventions were meant to put an end to liberalization efforts and uprisings that had the potential to compromise Soviet hegemony inside the Soviet Bloc, which was considered by the Soviet Union to be an essential and defensive and strategic buffer in case hostilities with NATO were to break out.
In practice, the policy meant that only limited independence of the satellite states' communist parties was allowed and that none would be allowed to compromise the cohesiveness of the Eastern Bloc in any way. That is, no country could leave the Warsaw Pact or disturb a ruling communist party's monopoly on power. Implicit in this doctrine was that the leadership of the Soviet Union reserved, for itself, the power to define "socialism" and "capitalism". Following the announcement of the Brezhnev Doctrine, numerous treaties were signed between the Soviet Union and its satellite states to reassert these points and to further ensure inter-state cooperation. The principles of the doctrine were so broad that the Soviets even used it to justify their military intervention in the communist (but non-Warsaw Pact) nation of Afghanistan in 1979. The Brezhnev Doctrine stayed in effect until it was ended with the Soviet reaction to the Polish crisis of 1980–1981.
Mikhail Gorbachev refused to use military force when Poland held free elections in 1989 and Solidarity defeated the Polish United Workers' Party. It was superseded by the facetiously named Sinatra Doctrine in 1989, alluding to the Frank Sinatra song "My Way". The refusal to intervene in the emancipation of the Eastern European satellite states and the Pan-European Picnic then led to the fall of the Iron Curtain and the largely peaceful collapse of the Eastern Bloc.
Origins
1956 Hungarian Revolution and Soviet invasion
The period between 1953 and 1968 was saturated with dissidence and reformation within the Soviet satellite states. 1953 saw the death of Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin, followed closely by Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 "Secret Speech" denouncing Stalin. This denouncement of the former leader led to a period of the Soviet Era known commonly as "De-Stalinization." Under the blanket reforms of this process, Imre Nagy came to power in Hungary as the new Prime Minister, taking over for Mátyás Rákosi. Almost immediately Nagy set out on a path of reform. Police power was reduced, collectivized farms were split up and being returned to individual peasants, industry and food production shifted and religious tolerance was becoming more prominent. These reforms shocked the Hungarian Communist Party. Nagy was quickly overthrown by Rákosi in 1955, and stripped of his political livelihood. Shortly after this coup, Khrushchev signed the Belgrade Declaration which stated "separate paths to socialism were permissible within the Soviet Bloc." With hopes for serious reform just having been extinguished in Hungary, this declaration was not received well by the Hungarians. Tensions quickly mounted in Hungary with demonstrations and calls for not only the withdrawal of Soviet troops, but for a Hungarian withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact as well. By October 23 Soviet forces landed in Budapest. A chaotic and bloody suppression of revolutionary forces lasted from October 24 until November 7, ending with thousands of Hungarians murdered and many more fleeing the country. Although order was restored, tensions remained on both sides of the conflict. Hungarians resented the end of the reformation, and the Soviets wanted to avoid a similar crisis from occurring again anywhere in the Soviet Bloc.
A peaceful Brezhnev Doctrine
When the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was suppressed, the Soviets adopted the mindset that governments supporting both communism and capitalism must coexist, and more importantly, build relations. This idea stressed that all people are equal, and own the right to solve the problems of their own countries themselves, and that in order for both states to peacefully coexist, neither country can exercise the right to get involved in each other's internal affairs. While this idea was brought up following the events of Hungary, they were not put into effect for a great deal of time. This is further explained in the Renunciation section.
1968 Prague Spring
Notions of reform had been slowly growing in Czechoslovakia since the early-mid 1960s. However, once the Stalinist President Antonín Novotný resigned as head of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in January 1968, the Prague Spring began to take shape. Alexander Dubček replaced Novotný as head of the party, initially thought a friend to the Soviet Union. It was not long before Dubček began making serious liberal reforms. In an effort to establish what Dubček called "developed socialism", he instituted changes in Czechoslovakia to create a much more free and liberal version of the socialist state. Aspects of a market economy were implemented, travel restrictions were eased for citizens, state censorship loosened, the power of the secret police was limited, and steps were taken to improve relations with the west. As the reforms piled up, the Kremlin quickly grew uneasy as they hoped to not only preserve their power within Czechoslovakia, but to avoid another Hungarian-style revolution as well. Soviet panic compounded in March of 1968 when student protests erupted in Poland and Antonín Novotný resigned as the Czechoslovak President. On March 21, Yuri Andropov, the KGB Chairman, issued a grave statement concerning the reforms taking place under Dubček. "The methods and forms by which the work is progressing in Czechoslovakia remind one very much of Hungary. In this outward appearance of chaos…there is a certain order. It all began like this in Hungary also, but then came the first and second echelons, and then, finally the social democrats."
Leonid Brezhnev sought clarification from Dubček on March 21, with the Politburo convened, on the situation in Czechoslovakia. Eager to avoid a similar fate as Imre Nagy, Dubček reassured Brezhnev that the reforms were totally under control and not on a similar path to those seen in 1956 in Hungary. Despite Dubček's assurances, other Soviet allies grew uneasy by the reforms taking place in an Eastern European neighbor. The First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party (banned after the restoration of Ukrainian independence in 1991) called on Moscow for an immediate invasion of Czechoslovakia in order to stop Dubček's "socialism with a human face" from spreading into the Ukrainian SSR and sparking unrest. By May 6, Brezhnev condemned Dubček's system, declaring it a step toward "the complete collapse of the Warsaw Pact." After three months of negotiations, agreements, and rising tensions between Moscow and Czechoslovakia, the Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion began on the night of August 20, 1968, which was to be met with great Czechoslovak discontent and resistance for many months into 1970.
Formation of the Doctrine
Brezhnev realized the need for a shift from Nikita Khrushchev's idea of "different paths to socialism" towards one that fostered a more unified vision throughout the socialist camp. "Economic integration, political consolidation, a return to ideological orthodoxy, and inter-Party cooperation became the new watchwords of Soviet bloc relations." On November 12, 1968, Brezhnev stated that "[w]hen external and internal forces hostile to socialism try to turn the development of a given socialist country in the direction of … the capitalist system ... this is no longer merely a problem for that country's people, but a common problem, the concern of all socialist countries." Brezhnev's statement at the Fifth Congress of the Polish United Workers Party effectively classified the issue of sovereignty as less important than the preservation of Soviet-style socialism. While no new doctrine had been officially announced, it was clear that Soviet intervention was imminent if Moscow perceived any satellite to be at risk of jeopardizing the Soviet hegemony.
Brezhnev Doctrine in practice
The vague, broad nature of the Brezhnev Doctrine allowed application to any international situation the USSR saw fit. This is clearly evident not only through the Prague Spring in 1968, and the indirect pressure on Poland from 1980 to 1981, but also in the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan starting in the 1970s. Any instance which caused the USSR to question whether or not a country was becoming a "risk to international socialism", the use of military intervention was, in Soviet eyes, not only justified, but necessary.
Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979
The Soviet government's desire to link its foreign policy to the Brezhnev Doctrine was evoked again when it ordered a military intervention in Afghanistan in 1979. This was perhaps the last chapter of this doctrine's saga.
In April 1978, a coup in Kabul brought the Afghan Communist Party to power with Nur Muhammad Taraki being installed as the second president of Afghanistan. The previous president, Mohammed Daoud Khan was killed during the coup. The Saur Revolution (as the coup was known) took Moscow by surprise, who preferred that the pro-Soviet Daoud Khan stay in power. The previous regime had maintained a pro-Soviet foreign policy as Daoud Khan was a Pashtun who rejected the Durand Line as the frontier with Pakistan. The Afghan Communist Party was divided into a factional struggle between factions known as the Khalq and Parcham. The Parcham was the more moderate of the two factions, arguing that Afghanistan was not ready for socialism, requiring more gradual process while the ultra-Communist Khalq favored a more radical approach. The Khalq faction was victorious and the leader of the Pacham faction Babrak Karmal fled to Moscow in fear of his life, to take up the position as Afghan ambassador in Moscow.
Islamic fundamentalists took issue with the Communist party in power. As a result, a jihad was proclaimed against the Communist government. Brezhnev and other Soviet leaders falsely portrayed the United States as the one behind the jihad in Afghanistan, and the rebellion in Afghanistan was seen in Moscow not so much in the context of Afghan politics with an unpopular government pursuing policies that much of the population rejected (such as the collectivisation of agriculture), but rather in the context of the Cold War, being seen as the first stage of an alleged American plot to instigate a jihad in Soviet Central Asia where the majority of the population was Muslim. To assist the government, the Soviet Union drastically increased its military aid to Afghanistan while sending Soviet advisers to train the Afghan military.
Following a split in the Communist Party, the leader of the Khalq faction, Hafizullah Amin, overthrew President Nur Muhammad Taraki and had him murdered on 8 October 1979. Soviet diplomats in Kabul had a low opinion of Taraki's ability to handle the rebellion, and an even lower one of Amin, who was regarded as a fanatic, but incompetent leader who lost control of the situation. In the fall of 1979, the leaders who pressed the most strongly for an invasion of Afghanistan to replace the incompetent Amin with Karmal, who was the man better able to preserve the communist regime's existence, were the Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, the Chairman of KGB, Yuri Andropov and the Defense Minister Marshal Dmitry Ustinov. The intervention was envisioned in Moscow was merely a short conflict to stabilize the situation and allow the Communist regime to regain power. Brezhnev was indecisive, fearing that an occupation of Afghanistan might not be the short war that Gromyko, Ustinov and Andropov kept insisting it would be, but was fearful of the possibility of an Islamic fundamentalist regime being established that would export Islam into Soviet Central Asia. As it was, the inability and unwillingness of much of the Soviet-controlled Afghan Army to fight led the Soviets to involve themselves in Afghanistan for almost 10 years. Ironically, despite what was being feared in Moscow, the United States was not supporting the Islamic fundamentalist rebellion in Afghanistan, and only started to support the mujahideen ("warriors of Allah") with weapons after the Soviet invasion, concentrating foreign policy matters in the form of linkage towards preventing Soviet expansion.
During his talks with the Soviets during his time as Ambassador, Karmal coordinated with the Soviet government to replace Amin. It was this coordination that led to both Soviet soldiers and airborne units organizing a coup against the Amin-led Afghanistan government, during which Amin was assassinated. In his place, the Soviets installed their ally, former-Ambassador Babrak Karmal, as the new lead of the government in Afghanistan.
The Soviet Union, once again, fell back to the Brezhnev Doctrine for rationale, claiming that it was both morally and politically justified. It was also explained by the Soviets that they owed help to their friend and ally Babrak Karmal.
Renunciation
The long lasting struggle of the war in Afghanistan made the Soviets realize that their reach and influence was in fact limited. "[The war in Afghanistan] had shown that socialist internationalism and Soviet national interests were not always compatible." Tensions between the USSR and Czechoslovakia since 1968, as well as Poland in 1980, proved the inefficiencies inherent in the Brezhnev Doctrine. The Solidarity trade union protests in Poland were suppressed without outside intervention, leaving the Brezhnev doctrine effectively dead. Although the Kremlin wanted to preserve communism in its satellites, the decision was not to intervene. Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika finally opened the door for Soviet Bloc countries and republics to make reforms without fear of Soviet intervention. When East Germany desperately asked for Soviet troops to put down growing unrest in 1989, Gorbachev flatly refused.
Post-Brezhnev Doctrine
With the agreement to terminate the Brezhnev Doctrine, later came on a new leader for the Soviets—Mikhail Gorbachev. His views were much more relaxed. This is most likely due to the fact that Brezhnev Doctrine was no longer at the disposal of the Soviet Union. This had a major effect on the way that the Soviets carried out their new mentality when dealing with countries they once tried to control. This was best captured by Gorbachev's involvement with a group by the name of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). This organization lessens the control that the Soviets had on all other partners of the agreement. This notion provided other countries that were once oppressed under communist intervention, to go about their own political reform. This actually carried over internally as well. In fact, the Soviet Union's biggest problem after the removal of the Brezhnev Doctrine, was the Khrushchev Dilemma. This did not address how to stop internal political reform, but how to tame the physical violence that comes along with it. It had become clear that the Soviet Union was beginning to loosen up.
It is possible to pinpoint the renouncement of the Brezhnev Doctrine as to what started the end for the Soviet Union. Countries that were once micromanaged now could do what they wanted to politically, because the Soviets could no longer try to conquer where they saw fit. With that, the Soviet Union began to collapse. While the communist agenda had caused infinite problems for other countries, it was the driving force behind the Soviet Union staying together. After all, it seems that the removal of the incentive to conquer, and forcing of communism upon other nations, defeated the one thing Soviet Russia had always been about, the expansion of Communism.
With the fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine, came the fall of the man, Brezhnev himself, the share of power in the Warsaw Pact, and perhaps the final moment for the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall that had prevented the migration of East Germans to West Germany. The Brezhnev Doctrine coming to a close, was perhaps the beginning of the end for one of the strongest empires in the world's history, the Soviet Union.
In other Communist countries
The Soviet Union was not the only Communist country to intervene militarily in fellow countries. Vietnam deposed the Khmer Rouge in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War of 1978, which was followed by a revenge Chinese invasion of Vietnam in the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979.
Criticisms
Brezhnev Doctrine as a UN violation
This doctrine was even furthermore a problem in the view of the United Nations. The UN's first problem was that it permits use of force. This is a clear violation of Article 2, Chapter 4 of the United Nations Charter which states, "All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations." When international law conflicts with the Charter, the Charter has precedent. It is this, that makes the Brezhnev Doctrine illegal.
See also
Captive Nations
Imperialism
Monroe Doctrine
Russian-occupied territories
Soviet Empire
Sovietization
Soviet occupations
Satellite state
Tankie
Ulbricht Doctrine
Western betrayal
References
Bibliography
Freedman, Lawrence, and Jeffrey Michaels. "Soviet Doctrine from Brezhnev to Gorbachev." in The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2019) pp. 527–542.
.
Hunt, Lynn. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures (Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston and London. 2009).
Jones, Robert A. The Soviet Concept of 'Limited Sovereignty' from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Brezhnev Doctrine (Springer, 2016).
Kemp-Welch, Anthony. "Poland and the Brezhnev Doctrine (1968–1989)." Wolność i Solidarność 10 (2017): 155–223. online in English
Kramer, Mark. "The Kremlin, the Prague Spring, and the Brezhnev Doctrine." in Promises of 1968 (2010) pp: 285–370. online
Lesaffer, Randall. "Brezhnev Doctrine." in The Encyclopedia of Diplomacy (2018) pp: 1–5.
Loth, Wilfried. "Moscow, Prague and Warsaw: Overcoming the Brezhnev Doctrine." Cold War History 1.2 (2001): 103–118.
Mitchell, R. Judson. "The Brezhnev doctrine and communist ideology." The Review of Politics 34.2 (1972): 190–209. online
Ouimet, Matthew: The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign Policy. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London. 2003.
Pravda, September 25, 1968; translated by Novosti, Soviet press agency. Reprinted in L. S. Stavrianos, The Epic of Man (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1971), pp. 465–466.
Valenta, Jiri. "Soviet Decisionmaking on Afghanistan, 1979." im Soviet Decisionmaking for National Security (Routledge, 2021) pp. 218–236.
External links
1968 in international relations
1968 in the Soviet Union
Czechoslovakia–Soviet Union relations
Eastern Bloc
Foreign policy doctrines
Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
Leonid Brezhnev
Neo-Stalinism
Neo-Sovietism
Prague Spring |
4996 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabham | Brabham | Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham (), was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four Drivers' and two Constructors' World Championships in its 30-year Formula One history. Jack Brabham's 1966 FIA Drivers' Championship remains the only such achievement using a car bearing the driver's own name.
In the 1960s, Brabham was the world's largest manufacturer of open-wheel racing cars for sale to customer teams; by 1970 it had built more than 500 cars. During this period, teams using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three. Brabham cars also competed in the Indianapolis 500 and in Formula 5000 racing. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brabham introduced such innovations as in-race refuelling, carbon brakes, and hydropneumatic suspension. Its unique Gordon Murray-designed 'fan car' won its only race before being withdrawn.
The team won two more Formula One Drivers' Championships in the 1980s with Brazilian Nelson Piquet. He won his first championship in in the ground effect BT49-Ford, and became the first to win a Drivers' Championship with a turbocharged car, in . In 1983 the Brabham BT52, driven by Piquet and Italian Riccardo Patrese, was powered by the BMW M12 straight-4 engine, and powered Brabham to four of the team's thirty-five Grand Prix victories.
British businessman Bernie Ecclestone owned Brabham during most of the 1970s and 1980s, and later became responsible for administering the commercial aspects of Formula One. Ecclestone sold the team in 1988. Its last owner was the Middlebridge Group, a Japanese engineering firm. Midway through the 1992 season, the team collapsed financially as Middlebridge was unable to make repayments against loans provided by Landhurst Leasing. The case was investigated by the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office. In 2009, an unsuccessful attempt was made by a German organisation to enter the 2010 Formula One season using the Brabham name.
Origins
The Brabham team was founded by Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac, who met in 1951 while both were successfully building and racing cars in their native Australia. Brabham was the more successful driver and went to the United Kingdom in 1955 to further his racing career. There he started driving for the Cooper Car Company works team and by 1958 had progressed with them to Formula One, the highest category of open-wheel racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motor sport's world governing body. In 1959 and 1960, Brabham won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in Cooper's revolutionary mid-engined cars.
Despite their innovation of putting the engine behind the driver, the Coopers and their chief designer, Owen Maddock, were generally resistant to developing their cars. Brabham pushed for further advances, and played a significant role in developing Cooper's highly successful 1960 T53 "lowline" car, with input from his friend Tauranac. Brabham was confident he could do better than Cooper, and in late 1959 he asked Tauranac to come to the UK and work with him, initially producing upgrade kits for Sunbeam Rapier and Triumph Herald road cars at his car dealership, Jack Brabham Motors, but with the long-term aim of designing racing cars. Brabham describes Tauranac as "absolutely the only bloke I'd have gone into partnership with". Later, Brabham offered a Coventry-Climax FWE-engined version of the Herald, with and uprated suspension to match the extra power.
To meet that aim, Brabham and Tauranac set up Motor Racing Developments Ltd. (MRD), deliberately avoiding the use of either man's name. The new company would compete with Cooper in the market for customer racing cars. As Brabham was still employed by Cooper, Tauranac produced the first MRD car, for the entry level Formula Junior class, in secrecy. Unveiled in the summer of 1961, the "MRD" was soon renamed. Motoring journalist Jabby Crombac pointed out that "[the] way a Frenchman pronounces those initials—written phonetically, 'em air day'—sounded perilously like the French word... merde." Gavin Youl achieved a second-place finish at Goodwood and another at Mallory Park in the MRD-Ford. The cars were subsequently known as Brabhams, with type numbers starting with BT for "Brabham Tauranac".
By the 1961 Formula One season, the Lotus and Ferrari teams had developed the mid-engined approach further than Cooper. Brabham had a poor season, scoring only four points, and—having run his own private Coopers in non-championship events during 1961—left the company in 1962 to drive for his own team: the Brabham Racing Organisation, using cars built by Motor Racing Developments. The team was based at Chessington, England and held the British licence.
Racing history—Formula One
Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac (1961–1970)
Motor Racing Developments initially concentrated on making money by building cars for sale to customers in lower formulae, so the new car for the Formula One team was not ready until partway through the 1962 Formula One season. The Brabham Racing Organisation (BRO) started the year fielding a customer Lotus chassis, which was delivered at 3am to keep it a secret. Brabham took two points finishes in Lotuses, before the turquoise-liveried Brabham BT3 car made its debut at the 1962 German Grand Prix. It retired with a throttle problem after 9 of the 15 laps, but went on to take a pair of fourth places at the end of the season.
From the 1963 season, Brabham was partnered by American driver Dan Gurney, the pair now running in Australia's racing colours of green and gold. Brabham took the team's first win at the non-championship Solitude Grand Prix in 1963. Gurney took the marque's first two wins in the world championship, at the 1964 French and Mexican Grands Prix. Brabham works and customer cars took another three non-championship wins during the 1964 season. The 1965 season was less successful, with no championship wins. Brabham finished third or fourth in the Constructors' Championship for three years running, but poor reliability marred promising performances on several occasions. Motor sport authors Mike Lawrence and David Hodges have said that a lack of resources may have cost the team results, a view echoed by Tauranac.
The FIA doubled the Formula One engine capacity limit to 3 litres for the 1966 season and suitable engines were scarce. Brabham used engines from Australian engineering firm Repco, which had never produced a Formula One engine before, based on aluminium V8 engine blocks from the defunct American Oldsmobile F85 road car project, and other off-the-shelf parts. Consulting and design engineer Phil Irving (of Vincent Motorcycle fame) was the project engineer responsible for producing the initial version of the engine. Few expected the Brabham-Repcos to be competitive, but the light and reliable cars ran at the front from the start of the season. At the French Grand Prix at Reims-Gueux, Brabham became the first man to win a Formula One world championship race in a car bearing his own name. Only his former teammate, Bruce McLaren, has since matched the achievement. It was the first in a run of four straight wins for the Australian veteran. Brabham won his third title in 1966, becoming the only driver to win the Formula One World Championship in a car carrying his own name (cf Surtees, Hill and Fittipaldi Automotive). In 1967, the title went to Brabham's teammate, New Zealander Denny Hulme. Hulme had better reliability through the year, possibly due to Brabham's desire to try new parts first. The Brabham team took the Constructors' World Championship in both years.
For 1968, Austrian Jochen Rindt replaced Hulme, who had left to join McLaren. Repco produced a more powerful version of their V8 to maintain competitiveness against Ford's new Cosworth DFV, but it proved very unreliable. Slow communications between the UK and Australia had always made identifying and correcting problems very difficult. The car was fast—Rindt set pole position twice during the season—but Brabham and Rindt finished only three races between them, and ended the year with only ten points.
Although Brabham bought Cosworth DFV engines for the 1969 season, Rindt left to join Lotus. His replacement, Jacky Ickx, had a strong second half to the season, winning in Germany and Canada, after Brabham was sidelined by a testing accident. Ickx finished second in the Drivers' Championship, with 37 points to Jackie Stewart's 63. Brabham himself took a couple of pole positions and two top-3 finishes, but did not finish half the races. The team were second in the Constructors' Championship, aided by second places at Monaco and Watkins Glen scored by Piers Courage, driving a Brabham for the Frank Williams Racing Cars privateer squad.
Brabham took his last win in the opening race of the 1970 season and was competitive throughout the year, although mechanical failures blunted his challenge. After losing secured victories in the last corner at both Monaco and England, Jack decided he's has enough, and sold his part in the company to former Jochen Rindt manager, a businessman named Bernie Ecclestone, in the end of the year. Aided by number-two driver Rolf Stommelen, the team came fourth in the Constructors' Championship.
Ron Tauranac (1971)
Tauranac signed double world champion Graham Hill and young Australian Tim Schenken to drive for the 1971 season. Tauranac designed the unusual 'lobster claw' BT34, featuring twin radiators mounted ahead of the front wheels, a single example of which was built for Hill. Although Hill, no longer a front-runner since his 1969 accident, took his final Formula One win in the non-championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, the team scored only seven championship points.
Bernie Ecclestone (1972–1987)
Tauranac left Brabham early in the 1972 season after Ecclestone changed the way the company was organised without consulting him. Ecclestone has since said "In retrospect, the relationship was never going to work", noting that "[Tauranac and I] both take the view: 'Please be reasonable, do it my way'". The highlights of an aimless year, during which the team ran three different models, were pole position for Argentinian driver Carlos Reutemann at his home race at Buenos Aires and a victory in the non-championship Interlagos Grand Prix. For the 1973 season, Ecclestone promoted the young South African engineer Gordon Murray to chief designer and moved Herbie Blash from the Formula Two programme to become the Formula One team manager. Both would remain with the team for the next 15 years. For 1973, Murray produced the triangular cross-section BT42, with which Reutemann scored two podium finishes and finished seventh in the Drivers' Championship.
In the 1974 season, Reutemann took the first three victories of his Formula One career, and Brabham's first since 1970. The team finished a close fifth in the Constructors' Championship, fielding the much more competitive BT44s. After a strong finish to the 1974 season, many observers felt the team were favourites to win the 1975 title. The year started well, with a first win for Brazilian driver Carlos Pace at the Interlagos circuit in his native São Paulo. However, as the season progressed, tyre wear frequently slowed the cars in races, and the team was constantly outperformed by Ferrari and McLaren. Pace took another two podiums and finished sixth in the championship; while Reutemann had five podium finishes, including a dominant win in the 1975 German Grand Prix, and finished third in the Drivers' Championship. The team likewise ranked second in the Constructors' Championship at the end of the year.
While rival teams Lotus and McLaren relied on the Cosworth DFV engine from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Ecclestone sought a competitive advantage by investigating other options. Despite the success of Murray's Cosworth-powered cars, Ecclestone signed a deal with Italian motor manufacturer Alfa Romeo to use their large and powerful flat-12 engine from the 1976 season. The engines were free, but they rendered the new BT45s, now in red Martini Racing livery, unreliable and overweight. At that time, designer David North was hired to work alongside Murray. The 1976 and 1977 seasons saw Brabham fall toward the back of the field again. Reutemann negotiated a release from his contract before the end of the 1976 season and signed with Ferrari. Ulsterman John Watson replaced him at Brabham for 1977. Watson lost near certain victory in the French Grand Prix (Dijon) of that year when his car ran low on fuel on the last lap and was passed by Mario Andretti's Lotus, with Watson's second place being the team's best result of the season. The car often showed at the head of races, but the unreliability of the Alfa Romeo engine was a major problem. The team lost Pace early in the 1977 season when he died in a light aircraft accident.
For the 1978 season, Murray's BT46 featured several new technologies to overcome the weight and packaging difficulties caused by the Alfa Romeo engines. Ecclestone signed then two-time Formula One world champion Niki Lauda from Ferrari through a deal with Italian dairy products company Parmalat which met the cost of Lauda ending his Ferrari contract and made up his salary to the £200,000 Ferrari was offering. 1978 was the year of the dominant Lotus 79 "wing car", which used aerodynamic ground effect to stick to the track when cornering, but Lauda won two races in the BT46, one with the controversial "B" or "fan car" version.
The partnership with Alfa Romeo ended during the 1979 season, the team's first with young Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet. Murray designed the full-ground effect BT48 around a rapidly developed new Alfa Romeo V12 engine and incorporated an effective "carbon-carbon braking" system—a technology Brabham pioneered in 1976. However, unexpected movement of the car's aerodynamic centre of pressure made its handling unpredictable and the new engine was unreliable. The team dropped to eighth in the Constructors' Championship by the end of the season. Alfa Romeo started testing their own Formula One car during the season, prompting Ecclestone to revert to Cosworth DFV engines, a move Murray described as being "like having a holiday". The new, lighter, Cosworth-powered BT49 was introduced before the end of the year at the Canadian Grand Prix; where after practice Lauda announced his immediate retirement from driving, later saying that he "was no longer getting any pleasure from driving round and round in circles".
The team used the BT49 over four seasons. In the 1980 season Piquet scored three wins and the team took third in the Constructors' Championship with Piquet second in the Drivers' Championship. This season saw the introduction of the blue and white livery that the cars would wear through several changes of sponsor, until the team's demise in 1992. With a better understanding of ground effect, the team further developed the BT49C for the 1981 season, incorporating a hydropneumatic suspension system to avoid ride height limitations intended to reduce downforce. Piquet, who had developed a close working relationship with Murray, took the drivers' title with three wins, albeit amid accusations of cheating. The team finished second in the Constructors' Championship, behind the Williams team.
Renault had introduced turbocharged engines to Formula One in 1977. Brabham had tested a BMW four-cylinder M12 turbocharged engine in the summer of 1981. For the 1982 season the team designed a new car, the BT50, around the BMW engine which, like the Repco engine 16 years before, was based on a road car engine block, the BMW M10. Brabham continued to run the Cosworth-powered BT49D in the early part of the season while reliability and driveability issues with the BMW units were resolved. The relationship came close to ending, with the German manufacturer insisting that Brabham use their engine. The turbo car took its first win at the Canadian Grand Prix. In the Constructors' Championship, the team finished fifth, the drivers Riccardo Patrese, who scored the last win of the Brabham-Ford combination in the Monaco Grand Prix, 10th and World Champion Piquet a mere 11th in the Drivers' Championship. In the 1983 season, Piquet took the championship lead from Renault's Alain Prost at the last race of the year, the South African Grand Prix to become the first driver to win the Formula One Drivers' World Championship with a turbo-powered car. The team did not win the Constructors' Championship in either 1981 or 1983, despite Piquet's success. Patrese was the only driver other than Piquet to win a race for Brabham in this period—the drivers in the second car contributed only a fraction of the team's points in each of these championship seasons. Patrese finished ninth in the Drivers' Championship with 13 points, dropping the team behind Ferrari and Renault to third in the Constructors' Championship.
Piquet took the team's last wins: two in 1984 by winning the seventh and eighth races of that season, the Canadian Grand Prix and the Detroit Grand Prix, and one in 1985 by winning the French Grand Prix. He finished fifth in 1984 and a mere eighth in 1985 in the respective Drivers' Championships. After seven years and two world championships, Piquet felt he was worth more than Ecclestone's salary offer for 1986, and reluctantly left for the Williams team at the end of the season.
For the 1986 season, Patrese returned to Brabham, and was joined by Elio de Angelis. The season was a disaster for Brabham, scoring only two points. Murray's radical long and low BT55, with its BMW M12 engine tilted over to improve its aerodynamics and lower its centre of gravity, had severe reliability issues, and the Pirelli tyres performed poorly. De Angelis became the Formula One team's only fatality when he died in a testing accident at the Paul Ricard circuit. Derek Warwick, who replaced de Angelis, was close to scoring two points for fifth in the British Grand Prix, but a problem on the last lap dropped him out of the points.
In August, BMW after considering running their own in-house team, announced their departure from Formula One at the end of the season. Murray, who had largely taken over the running of the team as Ecclestone became more involved with his role at the Formula One Constructors Association, felt that "the way the team had operated for 15 years broke down". He left Brabham in November to join McLaren.
Ecclestone held BMW to their contract for the 1987 season, but the German company would only supply the laydown engine. The upright units, around which Brabham had designed their new car, were sold for use by the Arrows team. Senior figures at Brabham, including Murray, have admitted that by this stage Ecclestone had lost interest in running the team. The 1987 season was only slightly more successful than the previous year—Patrese and de Cesaris scoring 10 points between them, including two third places at the Belgian Grand Prix and the Mexican Grand Prix. Unable to locate a suitable engine supplier, the team missed the FIA deadline for entry into the 1988 world championship and Ecclestone finally announced the team's withdrawal from Formula One at the Brazilian Grand Prix in April 1988. During the season-ending Australian Grand Prix, Ecclestone announced he had sold MRD to EuroBrun team owner Walter Brun for an unknown price.
Joachim Lüthi (1989)
Brun soon sold the team on, this time to Swiss financier Joachim Lüthi, who brought it back into Formula One for the 1989 season. The new Brabham BT58, powered by a Judd V8 engine (originally another of Jack Brabham's companies), was produced for the 1989 season. Italian driver Stefano Modena, who had driven for the team in the 1987 Australian Grand Prix in a one off drive for the team, drove alongside the more experienced Martin Brundle who was returning to Formula One after spending 1988 winning the World Sportscar Championship for Jaguar. Modena took the team's last podium: a third place at the Monaco Grand Prix (Brundle, who had only just scraped through pre-qualifying by 0.021 seconds before qualifying a brilliant 4th, had been running third but was forced to stop to replace a flat battery, finally finishing sixth). The team also failed to make the grid sometimes: Brundle failed to prequalify at the Canadian Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix. The team finished 9th in the Constructors' Championship at the end of the season.
Middlebridge Racing (1989–1992)
After Lüthi's arrest on tax fraud charges in mid-1989, several parties disputed the ownership of the team. Middlebridge Group Limited, a Japanese engineering firm owned by billionaire Koji Nakauchi, was already involved with established Formula 3000 team Middlebridge Racing and gained control of Brabham for the 1990 season. Herbie Blash had returned to run the team in 1989 and continued to do so in 1990. Middlebridge paid for its purchase using £1 million loaned to them by finance company Landhurst Leasing, but the team remained underfunded and would only score a few more points finishes in its last three seasons.
Jack Brabham's youngest son, David, raced for the Formula One team for a short time in 1990 including the season-ending Australian Grand Prix (the first time a Brabham had driven a Brabham car in an Australian Grand Prix since 1968). 1990 was another disastrous year, with Modena's fifth place in the season-opening United States Grand Prix being the only top six finish. The team finished ninth in the Constructors' Championship. Brundle and fellow Briton Mark Blundell, scored only three points during the 1991 season. Due to poor results in the first half of 1991, they had to prequalify in the second half of the season; Blundell failed to do so in Japan, as did Brundle in Australia. The team finished 10th in the Constructors' Championship, behind another struggling British team, Lotus. The 1992 season started with Eric van de Poele and Giovanna Amati after Akihiko Nakaya was denied a superlicense. Damon Hill, the son of another former Brabham driver and World Champion, debuted in the team after Amati was dropped when her sponsorship failed to materialise. Amati, the fifth and last () woman to race in Formula One, ended her career with three DNQs.
Argentine Sergio Rinland designed the team's final cars around Judd engines, except for 1991 when Yamaha powered the cars. In the 1992 season the cars (which were updated versions of the 1991 car) rarely qualified for races. Hill gave the team its final finish, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he crossed the finish line 11th and last, four laps behind the winner, Ayrton Senna. After the end of that race the team ran out of funds and collapsed.
Middlebridge Group Limited had been unable to continue making repayments against the £6 million ultimately provided by Landhurst Leasing, which went into administration. The Serious Fraud Office investigated the case. Landhurst's managing directors were found guilty of corruption and imprisoned, having accepted bribes for further loans to Middlebridge. It was one of four teams to leave Formula One that year. (cf March Engineering, Fondmetal and Andrea Moda Formula). Although there was talk of reviving the team for the following year, its assets passed to Landhurst Leasing and were auctioned by the company's receivers in 1993. Among these was the team's old factory in Chessington, which was acquired by Yamaha Motor Sports and used to house Activa Technology Limited, a company manufacturing composite components for race and road cars run by Herbie Blash. The factory was bought by the Carlin DPR GP2 motor racing team in 2006.
Motor Racing Developments
Brabham cars were also widely used by other teams, and not just in Formula One. Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac called the company they set up in 1961 to design and build formula racing cars to customer teams Motor Racing Developments (MRD), and this company had a large portfolio of other activities. Initially, Brabham and Tauranac each held 50 per cent of the shares. Tauranac was responsible for design and running the business, while Brabham was the test driver and arranged corporate deals like the Repco engine supply and the use of the MIRA wind tunnel. He also contributed ideas to the design process and often machined parts and helped build the cars.
From 1963 to 1965, MRD was not directly involved in Formula One, and often ran works cars in other formulae. A separate company, Jack Brabham's Brabham Racing Organisation, ran the Formula One works entry. Like other customers, BRO bought its cars from MRD, initially at £3,000 per car, although it did not pay for development parts. Tauranac was unhappy with his distance from the Formula One operation and before the 1966 season suggested that he was no longer interested in producing cars for Formula One under this arrangement. Brabham investigated other chassis suppliers for BRO, however the two reached an agreement and from 1966 MRD was much more closely involved in this category. After Jack Brabham sold his shares in MRD to Ron Tauranac at the end of 1969, the works Formula One team was MRD.
Despite only building its first car in 1961, by the mid-1960s MRD had overtaken established constructors like Cooper to become the largest manufacturer of single-seat racing cars in the world, and by 1970 had built over 500 cars. Of the other Formula One teams which used Brabhams, Frank Williams Racing Cars and the Rob Walker Racing Team were the most successful. The 1965 British Grand Prix saw seven Brabhams compete, only two of them from the works team, and there were usually four or five at championship Grands Prix throughout that season. The firm built scores of cars for the lower formulae each year, peaking with 89 cars in 1966. Brabham had the reputation of providing customers with cars of a standard equal to those used by the works team, which worked "out of the box". The company provided a high degree of support to its customers—including Jack Brabham helping customers set up their cars. During this period the cars were usually known as "Repco Brabhams", not because of the Repco engines used in Formula One between 1966 and 1968, but because of a smaller-scale sponsorship deal through which the Australian company had been providing parts to Jack Brabham since his Cooper days.
At the end of 1971 Bernie Ecclestone bought MRD. He retained the Brabham brand, as did subsequent owners. Although the production of customer cars continued briefly under Ecclestone's ownership, he believed the company needed to focus on Formula One to succeed. The last production customer Brabhams were the Formula Two BT40 and the Formula Three BT41 of 1973, although Ecclestone sold ex-works Formula One BT44Bs to RAM Racing as late as 1976.
In 1988 Ecclestone sold Motor Racing Developments to Alfa Romeo. The Formula One team did not compete that year, but Alfa Romeo put the company to use designing and building a prototype "Procar"—a racing car with the silhouette of a large saloon (the Alfa Romeo 164) covering a composite racing car chassis and mid-mounted race engine. This was intended for a racing series for major manufacturers to support Formula One Grands Prix, and was designated the Brabham BT57.
Racing history—other categories
IndyCar
Brabham cars competed at the Indianapolis 500 from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. After an abortive project in 1962, MRD was commissioned in 1964 to build an IndyCar chassis powered by an American Offenhauser engine. The resultant BT12 chassis was raced by Jack Brabham as the "Zink-Urschel Trackburner" at the 1964 event and retired with a fuel tank problem. The car was entered again in 1966, taking a third place for Jim McElreath. From 1968 to 1970, Brabham returned to Indianapolis, at first with a 4.2-litre version of the Repco V8 the team used in Formula One—with which Peter Revson finished fifth in 1969—before reverting to the Offenhauser engine for 1970. The Brabham-Offenhauser combination was entered again in 1971 by J.C. Agajanian, finishing fifth in the hands of Bill Vukovich II. Although no Brabham car ever won at Indianapolis, McElreath won four United States Automobile Club (USAC) races over 1965 and 1966 in the BT12. The "Dean Van Lines Special" in which Mario Andretti won the 1965 USAC national championship was a direct copy of this car, made with permission from Brabham by Andretti's crew chief Clint Brawner. Revson took Brabham's final USAC race win in a BT25 in 1969, using the Repco engine.
Formula Two
In the 1960s and early 1970s, drivers who had reached Formula One often continued to compete in Formula Two. In 1966 MRD produced the BT18 for the lower category, with a Honda engine acting as a stressed component. The car was extremely successful, winning 11 consecutive Formula Two races in the hands of the Formula One pairing of Brabham and Hulme. Cars were entered by MRD and not by the Brabham Racing Organisation, avoiding a direct conflict with Repco, their Formula One engine supplier.
Formula Three
The first Formula Three Brabham, the BT9, won only four major races in 1964. The BT15 which followed in 1965 was a highly successful design. 58 cars were sold, which won 42 major races. Further developments of the same concept, including wings by the end of the decade, were highly competitive up until 1971. The BT38C of 1972 was Brabham's first production monocoque and the first not designed by Tauranac. Although 40 were ordered, it was less successful than its predecessors. The angular BT41 was the final Formula Three Brabham.
Formula 5000
Brabham made one car for Formula 5000 racing, the Brabham BT43. Rolled out in late 1973 it was tested in early 1974 by John Watson at Silverstone before making its debut at the Rothmans F5000 Championship Round at Monza on 30 June 1974, driven by Martin Birrane. Former Australian Drivers' Champion Kevin Bartlett used the Chevrolet powered Brabham BT43 to finish 3rd in the 1978 Australian Drivers' Championship including finishing 5th in the 1978 Australian Grand Prix.
Sports cars
Tauranac did not enjoy designing sports cars and could only spare a small amount of his time from MRD's very successful single-seater business. Only 14 sports car models were built between 1961 and 1972, out of a total production of almost 600 chassis. The BT8A was the only one built in any numbers, and was quite successful in national level racing in the UK in 1964 and 1965. The design was "stretched" in 1966 to become the one-off BT17, originally fitted with the 4.3-litre version of the Repco engine for Can-Am racing. It was quickly abandoned by MRD after engine reliability problems became evident.
Technical innovation
Brabham was considered a technically conservative team in the 1960s, chiefly because it persevered with traditional spaceframe cars long after Lotus introduced lighter, stiffer monocoque chassis to Formula One in 1962. Chief designer Tauranac reasoned that monocoques of the time were not usefully stiffer than well designed spaceframe chassis, and were harder to repair and less suitable for MRD's customers. His "old fashioned" cars won the Brabham team the 1966 and 1967 championships, and were competitive in Formula One until rule changes forced a move to monocoques in 1970.
Despite the perceived conservatism, in 1963 Brabham was the first Formula One team to use a wind tunnel to hone its designs to reduce drag and stop the cars lifting off the ground at speed. The practice became the norm in only the early 1980s, and is possibly the most important factor in the design of modern cars. Towards the end of the 1960s, teams began to exploit aerodynamic downforce to push the cars' tyres down harder on the track and enable them to maintain faster speeds through high-speed corners. At the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, Brabham was the first, alongside Ferrari, to introduce full width rear wings to this effect.
The team's most fertile period of technical innovation came in the 1970s and 1980s when Gordon Murray became technical director. During 1976, the team introduced carbon-carbon brakes to Formula One, which promised reduced unsprung weight and better stopping performance due to carbon's greater coefficient of friction. The initial versions used carbon-carbon composite brake pads and a steel disc faced with carbon "pucks." The technology was not reliable at first; in 1976, Carlos Pace crashed at at the Österreichring circuit after heat build-up in the brakes boiled the brake fluid, leaving him with no way of stopping the car. By 1979, Brabham had developed an effective carbon-carbon braking system, combining structural carbon discs with carbon brake pads. By the late 1980s, carbon brakes were used by all competitors in almost all top level motor sports.
Although Brabham experimented with airdams and underbody skirts in the mid-1970s, the team, like the rest of the field, did not immediately understand Lotus's development of a ground effect car in 1977. The Brabham BT46B "Fan car" of 1978, generated enormous downforce with a fan, which sucked air from beneath the car, although its claimed use was for engine cooling. The car raced only once in the Formula One World Championship—Niki Lauda winning the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix—before a loophole in the regulations was closed by the FIA.
Although in 1979 Murray was the first to use lightweight carbon fibre composite panels to stiffen Brabham's aluminium alloy monocoques, he echoed his predecessor Tauranac in being the last to switch to the new fully composite monocoques. Murray was reluctant to build the entire chassis from composite materials until he understood their behaviour in a crash, an understanding achieved in part through an instrumented crash test of a BT49 chassis. The team did not follow McLaren's 1981 MP4/1 with its own fully composite chassis until the "lowline" BT55 in 1986, the last team to do so. This technology is now used in all top level single seater racing cars.
For the 1981 season the FIA introduced a minimum ride height for the cars, intended to slow them in corners by limiting the downforce created by aerodynamic ground effect. Gordon Murray devised a hydropneumatic suspension system for the BT49C, which allowed the car to settle to a much lower ride height at speed. Brabham was accused of cheating by other teams, although Murray believes that the system met the letter of the regulations. No action was taken against the team and others soon produced systems with similar effects.
At the 1982 British Grand Prix, Brabham reintroduced the idea of re-fuelling and changing the car's tyres during the race, unseen since the 1957 Formula One season, to allow its drivers to sprint away at the start of races on a light fuel load and soft tyres. After studying techniques used at the Indianapolis 500 and in NASCAR racing in the United States, the team was able to refuel and re-tyre the car in 14 seconds in tests ahead of the race. In 1982 Murray felt the tactic did little more than "get our sponsors noticed at races we had no chance of winning," but in 1983 the team made good use of the tactic. Refuelling was banned for 1984, although it reappeared between 1994 and 2009, but tyre changes have remained part of Formula One.
Controversy
The fan car and hydropneumatic suspension exploited loopholes in the sporting regulations. In the early 1980s, Brabham was accused of going further and breaking the regulations. During 1981, Piquet's first championship year, rumours circulated of illegal underweight Brabham chassis. Driver Jacques Laffite was among those to claim that the cars were fitted with heavily ballasted bodywork before being weighed at scrutineering. The accusation was denied by Brabham's management. No formal protest was made against the team and no action was taken against it by the sporting authorities.
From 1978, Ecclestone was president of the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA), a body formed by the teams to represent their interests. This left his team open to accusations of having advance warning of rule changes. Ecclestone denies that the team benefited from this and Murray has noted that, contrary to this view, at the end of 1982 the team had to abandon its new BT51 car, built on the basis that ground effect would be permitted in 1983. Brabham had to design and build a replacement, the BT52, in only three months. At the end of the 1983 season, Renault and Ferrari, both beaten to the Drivers' Championship by Piquet, protested that the Research Octane Number (RON) of the team's fuel was above the legal limit of 102. The FIA declared that a figure of up to 102.9 was permitted under the rules, and that Brabham had not exceeded this limit.
Later use of the Brabham name
Revival attempts
On 4 June 2009, Franz Hilmer confirmed that he had used the name to lodge an entry for the 2010 Formula One season as a cost-capped team under the new budget cap regulations. The Brabham family was not involved and announced that it was seeking legal advice over the use of the name. The team's entry was not accepted, and the Brabham family later obtained legal recognition of their exclusive rights to the Brabham brand.
Brabham Racing
In September 2014, David Brabham—the son of Brabham founder Sir Jack Brabham—announced the reformation of the Brabham Racing team under the name Project Brabham, with plans to enter the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship and 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 category using a crowdsourcing business model. The company also expressed interest in returning to Formula One, but did not have the financial capacity to do so.
In 2019, Brabham Automotive announced its goal to enter the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship using a BT62 in the GTE class. The team competed in the 2019 GT Cup Championship. It also entered the final two races of the 2019 Britcar Endurance Championship, winning on its debut.
In 2021, Brabham Automotive debuted their BT63 GT2 car at the season finale of the 2021 GT2 European Series.
Championship results
Results achieved by the "works" Brabham team. Bold results indicate a championship win.
See also
List of Brabham race cars
Notes
References
Books
.
Newspapers and Magazines
Websites
Also available in hardcopy. Published by HMSO July 1998.
All race and championship results are taken from the Official Formula 1 Website. 1962 Season review. www.formula1.com. Retrieved 27 April 2006
External links
www.forix.com Biography of Jack Brabham, with significant content on the early years of the Brabham team.
www.nvo.com Picture gallery of historic Brabhams.
www.motorracing-archive.com Summary history of Brabham 1961–1972, including significant race results and production numbers for all models. (Archived here).
www.oldracingcars.com Complete race history of all Brabham F1 models from 1966 to 1982 and links to Brabham research projects on other models.
www.f3history.co.uk History of Formula Three, including Brabham (under 'Manufacturers'). (Archived here)
www.autocoursegpa.com Complete world championship Brabham team statistics
Auto racing teams in the United Kingdom
British racecar constructors
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England
Formula One constructors
Formula Two constructors
Formula One entrants
Formula Two entrants
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1960
Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1992
1960 establishments in England
1992 disestablishments in England
Auto racing teams established in 1960
Auto racing teams disestablished in 1992
Formula One World Constructors' Champions
British Formula Three teams |
4997 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing%20B-17%20Flying%20Fortress | Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress | The Boeing B-17 'Flying Fortress' is an American four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater of Operations and dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II. It is the third-most produced bomber of all time, behind the American four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the German multirole, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88. It was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft.
In a USAAC competition, Boeing's prototype Model 299/XB-17 outperformed two other entries but crashed, losing the initial 200-bomber contract to the Douglas B-18 Bolo. Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation, which were introduced into service in 1938. The B-17 evolved through numerous design advances but from its inception, the USAAC (later, the USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon. It was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bombload. It also developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base.
The B-17 saw early action in the Pacific War, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields. But it was primarily employed by the USAAF in the daylight strategic bombing campaign over Europe, complementing RAF Bomber Command's night-time area bombing of German industrial, military and civilian targets. Of the roughly of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, over (42.6%) were dropped from B-17s.
As of November 2022, four aircraft remain airworthy, none flown in combat. Dozens more are in storage or on static display, the oldest of these is The Swoose, a B-17D which was flown in combat in the Pacific on the first day of the United States' involvement in World War II.
Development
Origins
On 8 August 1934, the USAAC tendered a proposal for a multiengine bomber to replace the Martin B-10. The Air Corps was looking for a bomber capable of reinforcing the air forces in Hawaii, Panama, and Alaska. Requirements were for it to carry a "useful bombload" at an altitude of for 10 hours with a top speed of at least .
They also desired, but did not require, a bomber with a range of and a speed of . The competition for the air corps contract was to be decided by a "fly-off" between Boeing's design, the Douglas DB-1, and the Martin Model 146 at Wilbur Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio.
The prototype B-17, with the Boeing factory designation of Model 299, was designed by a team of engineers led by E. Gifford Emery and Edward Curtis Wells, and was built at Boeing's own expense. It combined features of the company's experimental XB-15 bomber and 247 transport. The B-17's armament consisted of five .30 caliber (7.62 mm) machine guns, with a payload up to of bombs on two racks in the bomb bay behind the cockpit. The aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines, each producing at .
The first flight of the Model 299 was on 1935 with Boeing chief test pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. The day before, Richard Williams, a reporter for The Seattle Times, coined the name "Flying Fortress" when – observing the large number of machine guns sticking out from the new aircraft – he described it as a "15-ton flying fortress" in a picture caption. The most distinct mount was in the nose, which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward nearly all frontal angles.
Boeing was quick to see the value of the name and had it trademarked for use. Boeing also claimed in some of the early press releases that Model 299 was the first combat aircraft that could continue its mission if one of its four engines failed. On , the prototype flew from Seattle to Wright Field in nine hours and three minutes with an average cruising speed of , much faster than the competition.
At the fly-off, the four-engined Boeing's performance was superior to those of the twin-engine DB-1 and Model 146. In March 1935 Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur created GHQ Air Force and promoted lieutenant colonel Frank Maxwell Andrews to brigadier general to become the head of GHQ Air Force. MacArthur and Andrews both believed that the capabilities of large four-engined aircraft exceeded those of shorter-ranged, twin-engine aircraft, and that the B-17 was better suited to new, emerging USAAC doctrine. Their opinions were shared by the air corps procurement officers, and even before the competition had finished, they suggested buying 65 B-17s.
On 30 October 1935, a test flight determining the rate of climb and service ceiling was planned. The command pilot was Major Ployer Peter Hill, Wright Field Material Division Chief of the Flying Branch, his first flight in the Model 299. Copilot was Lieutenant Donald Putt, while Boeing chief test pilot Leslie R. Tower was behind the pilots in an advisory role. Also on board were Wright Field test observer John Cutting and mechanic Mark Koegler. Tragically, the plane stalled and spun into the ground soon after takeoff, bursting into flames. Though initially surviving the impact, Hill died within a few hours, and Tower on 19 November. Post-accident interviews with Tower and Putt determined the control surface gust lock had not been released. Doyle notes, "The loss of Hill and Tower, and the Model 299, was directly responsible for the creation of the modern written checklist used by pilots to this day."
The crashed Model 299 could not finish the evaluation, thus disqualifying it from the competition. While the Air Corps was still enthusiastic about the aircraft's potential, Army officials were daunted by its cost; Douglas quoted a unit price of $58,200 () based on a production order of 220 aircraft, compared with $99,620 ( ) from Boeing. MacArthur's successor, Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig, canceled the order for 65 YB-17s and ordered 133 of the twin-engined Douglas B-18 Bolo, instead. Secretary of War Harry Hines Woodring in October 1938 decided that no four-engine bombers, including B-17s, would be purchased by the War Department in 1939.
Initial orders
Despite the crash, the USAAC had been impressed by the prototype's performance, and on 1936, through a legal loophole, the Air Corps ordered 13 YB-17s (designated Y1B-17 after November 1936 to denote its special F-1 funding) for service testing. The YB-17 incorporated a number of significant changes from the Model 299, including more powerful Wright R-1820-39 Cyclone engines. Although the prototype was company-owned and never received a military serial (the B-17 designation itself did not appear officially until January 1936, nearly three months after the prototype crashed), the term "XB-17" was retroactively applied to the NX13372's airframe and has entered the lexicon to describe the first Flying Fortress.
Between 1 March and 4 August 1937, 12 of the 13 Y1B-17s were delivered to the 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field in Virginia for operational development and flight tests. One suggestion adopted was the use of a preflight checklist to avoid accidents such as that which befell the Model 299. In one of their first missions, three B-17s, directed by lead navigator Lieutenant Curtis LeMay, were sent by General Andrews to "intercept" and photograph the Italian ocean liner Rex off the Atlantic coast. The mission was successful and widely publicized. The 13th Y1B-17 was delivered to the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio, to be used for flight testing.
A 14th Y1B-17 (37-369), originally constructed for ground testing of the airframe's strength, was upgraded by Boeing with exhaust-driven General Electric turbo-superchargers, and designated Y1B-17A. Designed by Sanford Moss, engine exhaust gases turned the turbine's steel-alloy blades, forcing high-pressure ram air into the Wright Cyclone GR-1820-39 engine supercharger. Scheduled to fly in 1937, it encountered problems with the turbochargers, and its first flight was delayed until 1938. The aircraft was delivered to the Army on 1939. Once service testing was complete, the Y1B-17s and Y1B-17A were redesignated B-17 and B-17A, respectively, to signify the change to operational status. The Y1B-17A had a maximum speed of , at its best operational altitude, compared to for the Y1B-17. Also, the Y1B-17A's new service ceiling was more than higher at , compared to the Y1B-17's . These turbo-superchargers were incorporated into the B-17B.
Opposition to the Air Corps' ambitions for the acquisition of more B-17s faded, and in late 1937, 10 more aircraft designated B-17B were ordered to equip two bombardment groups, one on each U.S. coast. Improved with larger flaps and rudder and a well-framed, 10 panel plexiglass nose, the B-17Bs were delivered in five small batches between July 1939 and March 1940. In July 1940, an order for 512 B-17s was issued, but at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, fewer than 200 were in service with the army.
A total of 155 B-17s of all variants were delivered between 1937 and 1941, but production quickly accelerated, with the B-17 once holding the record for the highest production rate for any large aircraft. The aircraft went on to serve in every World War II combat zone, and by the time production ended in May 1945, 12,731 B-17s had been built by Boeing, Douglas, and Vega (a subsidiary of Lockheed).
Design and variants
The aircraft went through several alterations in each of its design stages and variants. Of the 13 YB-17s ordered for service testing, 12 were used by the 2nd Bomb Group of Langley Field, Virginia, to develop heavy bombing techniques, and the 13th was used for flight testing at the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio. Experiments on this aircraft led to the use of a quartet of General Electric turbo-superchargers, which later became standard on the B-17 line. A 14th aircraft, the YB-17A, originally destined for ground testing only and upgraded with the turbochargers, was redesignated B-17A after testing had finished.
As the production line developed, Boeing engineers continued to improve upon the basic design. To enhance performance at slower speeds, the B-17B was altered to include larger rudders and flaps. The B-17C changed from three bulged, oval-shaped gun blisters to two flush, oval-shaped gun window openings, and on the lower fuselage, a single "bathtub" gun gondola housing, which resembled the similarly configured and located Bodenlafette/"Bola" ventral defensive emplacement on the German Heinkel He 111P-series medium bomber.
While models A through D of the B-17 were designed defensively, the large-tailed B-17E was the first model primarily focused on offensive warfare. The B-17E was an extensive revision of the Model 299 design: The fuselage was extended by ; a much larger rear fuselage, vertical tailfin, rudder, and horizontal stabilizer were added; a gunner's position was added in the new tail; the nose (especially the bombardier's framed, 10-panel nose glazing) remained relatively the same as the earlier B through D versions had; a Sperry electrically powered manned dorsal gun turret just behind the cockpit was added; a similarly powered (also built by Sperry) manned ventral ball turret just aft of the bomb bay – replaced the relatively hard-to-use, Sperry model 645705-D remotely operated ventral turret on the earliest examples of the E variant. These modifications resulted in a 20% increase in aircraft weight. The B-17's turbocharged Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 engines were upgraded to increasingly more powerful versions of the same powerplants throughout its production, and similarly, the number of machine gun emplacement locations was increased.
The B-17F variants were the primary versions flying for the Eighth Air Force to face the Germans in 1943 and had standardized the manned Sperry ball turret for ventral defense, also replacing the earlier, 10-panel framed bombardier's nose glazing from the B subtype with an enlarged, nearly frameless Plexiglas bombardier's nose enclosure for improved forward vision.
Two experimental versions of the B-17 were flown under different designations, the XB-38 'Flying Fortress' and the YB-40 'Flying Fortress.' The XB-38 was an engine testbed for Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engines, should the Wright engines normally used on the B-17 become unavailable. The only prototype XB-38 to fly crashed on its ninth flight, and the concept was abandoned. The Allison V-1710 was reallocated to fighter aircraft.
The YB-40 was a heavily armed modification of the standard B-17 used before the North American P-51 Mustang, an effective long-range fighter, became available to act as escort. Additional armament included an additional dorsal turret in the radio room, a remotely operated and fired Bendix-built "chin turret" directly below the bombardier's accommodation, and twin guns in each of the waist positions. The ammunition load was over 11,000 rounds. All of these modifications made the YB-40 well over heavier than a fully loaded B-17F. The YB-40s with their numerous heavy modifications had trouble keeping up with the lighter bombers once they had dropped their bombs, so the project was abandoned and finally phased out in July 1943. The final production blocks of the B-17F from Douglas' plants did, however, adopt the YB-40's "chin turret", giving them a much-improved forward defense capability.
By the time the definitive B-17G appeared, the number of guns had been increased from seven to 13, the designs of the gun stations were finalized, and other adjustments were completed. The B-17G was the final version of the Flying Fortress, incorporating all changes made to its predecessor, the B-17F, and in total, 8,680 were built, the last (by Lockheed) on 1945. Many B-17Gs were converted for other missions such as cargo hauling, engine testing, and reconnaissance. Initially designated SB-17G, a number of B-17Gs were also converted for search-and-rescue duties, later to be redesignated B-17H.
Late in World War II, at least 25 B-17s were fitted with radio controls and television cameras, loaded with of high explosives and designated BQ-7 "Aphrodite missiles" for Operation Aphrodite against bombing-resistant German bunkers. The operation, which involved remotely flying the Aphrodite drones onto their targets by accompanying CQ-17 "mothership" control aircraft, was approved on 1944, and assigned to the 388th Bombardment Group stationed at RAF Fersfield, a satellite of RAF Knettishall.
The first four drones were sent to Mimoyecques (V-3 site), the Siracourt V-1 bunker, and the V-2 Blockhaus d'Éperlecques at Watten, and La Coupole at Wizernes on 4 August, causing little damage and two pilots were killed. On August 12, a Consolidated B-24 Liberator, part of the United States Navy's contribution ("Project Anvil") , en route for Heligoland piloted by Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (future U.S. president John F. Kennedy's elder brother) exploded over the Blyth estuary. Blast damage was caused over a radius of . Naval flights stopped but a few more missions were flown by the USAAF. The Aphrodite project was effectively scrapped in early 1945.
Operational history
The B-17 began operations in World War II with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1941, and in the Southwest Pacific with the U.S. Army. The 19th Bombardment Group had deployed to Clark Field in the Philippines a few weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as the first of a planned heavy bomber buildup in the Pacific. Half of the group's B-17s were wiped out on 8 December 1941 when they were caught on the ground during refueling and rearming for a planned attack on Japanese airfields on Formosa. The small force of B-17s operated against the Japanese invasion force until they were withdrawn to Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory. In early 1942, the 7th Bombardment Group began arriving in Java with a mixed force of B-17s and LB-30/B-24s. A squadron of B-17s from this force detached to the Middle East to join the First Provisional Bombardment Group, thus becoming the first American B-17 squadron to go to war against the Germans. After the defeat in Java, the 19th withdrew to Australia, where it continued in combat until it was sent home by General George C. Kenney when he arrived in Australia in mid-1942. In July 1942, the first USAAF B-17s were sent to England to join the Eighth Air Force. Later that year, two groups moved to Algeria to join Twelfth Air Force for operations in North Africa. The B-17s were primarily involved in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign against German targets ranging from U-boat pens, docks, warehouses, and airfields to industrial targets such as aircraft factories. In the campaign against German aircraft forces in preparation for the invasion of France, B-17 and B-24 raids were directed against German aircraft production while their presence drew the Luftwaffe fighters into battle with Allied fighters.
During World War II, the B-17 equipped 32 overseas combat groups, inventory peaking in August 1944 at 4,574 USAAF aircraft worldwide. The British heavy bombers, the Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax, dropped 608,612 long tons (681,645 short tons) and 224,207 long tons (251,112 short tons) respectively.
RAF use
The RAF entered World War II with no heavy bomber of its own in service; the biggest available were long-range medium bombers such as the Vickers Wellington, which could carry up to of bombs. While the Short Stirling and Handley Page Halifax became its primary bombers by 1941, in early 1940, the RAF agreed with the U.S. Army Air Corps to acquire 20 B-17Cs, which were given the service name Fortress I. Their first operation, against Wilhelmshaven on 1941 was unsuccessful. On three B-17s of 90 Squadron took part in a raid on the German capital ship Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen anchored in Brest from , to draw German fighters away from 18 Handley Page Hampdens attacking at lower altitudes, and in time for 79 Vickers Wellingtons to attack later with the German fighters refueling. The operation did not work as expected, with 90 Squadron's Fortresses being unopposed.
By September, the RAF had lost eight B-17Cs in combat and had experienced numerous mechanical problems, and Bomber Command abandoned daylight bombing raids using the Fortress I because of the aircraft's poor performance. The experience showed both the RAF and USAAF that the B-17C was not ready for combat, and that improved defenses, larger bomb loads, and more accurate bombing methods were required. However, the USAAF continued using the B-17 as a day bomber, despite misgivings by the RAF that attempts at daylight bombing would be ineffective.
As use by Bomber Command had been curtailed, the RAF transferred its remaining Fortress I aircraft to Coastal Command for use as a long-range maritime patrol aircraft. These were augmented starting in July 1942 by 45 Fortress Mk IIA (B-17E) followed by 19 Fortress Mk II (B-17F) and three Fortress Mk III (B-17G). A Fortress IIA from No. 206 Squadron RAF sank U-627 on 1942, the first of 11 U-boat kills credited to RAF Fortress bombers during the war.
As sufficient Consolidated Liberators finally became available, Coastal Command withdrew the Fortress from the Azores, transferring the type to the meteorological reconnaissance role. Three squadrons undertook Met profiles from airfields in Iceland, Scotland, and England, gathering data for vital weather forecasting purposes.
The RAF's No. 223 Squadron, as part of 100 Group, operated several Fortresses equipped with an electronic warfare system known as "Airborne Cigar" (ABC). This was operated by German-speaking radio operators to identify and jam German ground controllers' broadcasts to their nightfighters. They could also pose as ground controllers themselves to steer nightfighters away from the bomber streams.
Initial USAAF operations over Europe
The air corps – renamed United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on 20 June 1941 – used the B-17 and other bombers to bomb from high altitudes with the aid of the then-secret Norden bombsight, known as the "Blue Ox", which was an optical electromechanical gyrostabilized analog computer. The device was able to determine, from variables put in by the bombardier, the point at which the aircraft's bombs should be released to hit the target. The bombardier essentially took over flight control of the aircraft during the bomb run, maintaining a level altitude during the final moments before release.
The USAAF began building up its air forces in Europe using B-17Es soon after entering the war. The first Eighth Air Force units arrived in High Wycombe, England, on 1942, to form the 97th Bomb Group. On 1942, 12 B-17Es of the 97th, with the lead aircraft piloted by Major Paul Tibbets and carrying Brigadier General Ira Eaker as an observer, were close escorted by four squadrons of RAF Spitfire IXs (and a further five squadrons of Spitfire Vs to cover the withdrawal) on the first USAAF heavy bomber raid over Europe, against the large railroad marshalling yards at Rouen-Sotteville in France, while a further six aircraft flew a diversionary raid along the French coast. The operation, carried out in good visibility, was a success, with only minor damage to one aircraft, unrelated to enemy action, and half the bombs landing in the target area. The raid helped allay British doubts about the capabilities of American heavy bombers in operations over Europe.
Two additional groups arrived in Britain at the same time, bringing with them the first B-17Fs, which served as the primary AAF heavy bomber fighting the Germans until September 1943. As the raids of the American bombing campaign grew in numbers and frequency, German interception efforts grew in strength (such as during the attempted bombing of Kiel on 13 June 1943), such that unescorted bombing missions came to be discouraged.
Combined offensive
The two different strategies of the American and British bomber commands were organized at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. The resulting "Combined Bomber Offensive" weakened the Wehrmacht, destroyed German morale, and established air superiority through Operation Pointblank's destruction of German fighter strength in preparation for a ground offensive. The USAAF bombers attacked by day, with British operations – chiefly against industrial cities – by night.
Operation Pointblank opened with attacks on targets in Western Europe. General Ira C. Eaker and the Eighth Air Force placed highest priority on attacks on the German aircraft industry, especially fighter assembly plants, engine factories, and ball-bearing manufacturers. Attacks began in April 1943 on heavily fortified key industrial plants in Bremen and Recklinghausen.
Since the airfield bombings were not appreciably reducing German fighter strength, additional B-17 groups were formed, and Eaker ordered major missions deeper into Germany against important industrial targets. The 8th Air Force then targeted the ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt, hoping to cripple the war effort there. The first raid on 1943 did not result in critical damage to the factories, with the 230 attacking B-17s being intercepted by an estimated 300 Luftwaffe fighters. The Germans shot down 36 aircraft with the loss of 200 men, and coupled with a raid earlier in the day against Regensburg, a total of 60 B-17s were lost that day.
A second attempt on Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943 later came to be known as "Black Thursday". While the attack was successful at disrupting the entire works, severely curtailing work there for the remainder of the war, it was at an extreme cost. Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, and 12 more were scrapped due to damage – a loss of 77 B-17s. Additionally, 122 bombers were damaged and needed repairs before their next flights. Of 2,900 men in the crews, about 650 did not return, although some survived as prisoners of war. Only 33 bombers landed without damage. These losses were a result of concentrated attacks by over 300 German fighters.
Such high losses of aircrews could not be sustained, and the USAAF, recognizing the vulnerability of heavy bombers to interceptors when operating alone, suspended daylight bomber raids deep into Germany until the development of an escort fighter that could protect the bombers all the way from the United Kingdom to Germany and back. At the same time, the German nightfighting ability noticeably improved to counter the nighttime strikes, challenging the conventional faith in the cover of darkness. The 8th Air Force alone lost 176 bombers in October 1943, and was to suffer similar casualties on 1944 on missions to Oschersleben, Halberstadt, and Brunswick. Lieutenant General James Doolittle, commander of the 8th, had ordered the second Schweinfurt mission to be cancelled as the weather deteriorated, but the lead units had already entered hostile air space and continued with the mission. Most of the escorts turned back or missed the rendezvous, and as a result, 60 B-17s were destroyed.
A third raid on Schweinfurt on 1944 highlighted what came to be known as "Big Week", during which the bombing missions were directed against German aircraft production. German fighters needed to respond, and the North American P-51 Mustang and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters (equipped with improved drop tanks to extend their range) accompanying the American heavies all the way to and from the targets engaged them. The escort fighters reduced the loss rate to below 7%, with a total of 247 B-17s lost in 3,500 sorties while taking part in the Big Week raids.
By September 1944, 27 of the 42 bomb groups of the 8th Air Force and six of the 21 groups of the 15th Air Force used B-17s. Losses to flak continued to take a high toll of heavy bombers through 1944, but the war in Europe was being won by the Allies. And by 1945, 2 days after the last heavy bombing mission in Europe, the rate of aircraft loss was so low that replacement aircraft were no longer arriving and the number of bombers per bomb group was reduced. The Combined Bomber Offensive was effectively complete.
Pacific Theater
On 7 December 1941, a group of 12 B-17s of the 38th (four B-17C) and 88th (eight B-17E) Reconnaissance Squadrons, en route to reinforce the Philippines, was flown into Pearl Harbor from Hamilton Field, California, arriving while the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was going on. Leonard "Smitty" Smith Humiston, co-pilot on First Lieutenant Robert H. Richards' B-17C, AAF S/N 40-2049, reported that he thought the U.S. Navy was giving the flight a 21-gun salute to celebrate the arrival of the bombers, after which he realized that Pearl Harbor was under attack. The Fortress came under fire from Japanese fighter aircraft, though the crew was unharmed with the exception of one member who suffered an abrasion on his hand. Japanese activity forced them to divert from Hickam Field to Bellows Field. On landing, the aircraft overran the runway and ran into a ditch, where it was then strafed. Although initially deemed repairable, 40-2049 (11th BG / 38th RS) received more than 200 bullet holes and never flew again. Ten of the 12 Fortresses survived the attack.
By 1941, the Far East Air Force (FEAF) based at Clark Field in the Philippines had 35 B-17s, with the War Department eventually planning to raise that to 165. When the FEAF received word of the attack on Pearl Harbor, General Lewis H. Brereton sent his bombers and fighters on various patrol missions to prevent them from being caught on the ground. Brereton planned B-17 raids on Japanese airfields in Formosa, in accordance with Rainbow 5 war plan directives, but this was overruled by General Douglas MacArthur. A series of disputed discussions and decisions, followed by several confusing and false reports of air attacks, delayed the authorization of the sortie. By the time the B-17s and escorting Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters were about to get airborne, they were destroyed by Japanese bombers of the 11th Air Fleet. The FEAF lost half its aircraft during the first strike, and was all but destroyed over the next few days.
Another early World War II Pacific engagement, on 1941, involved Colin Kelly, who reportedly crashed his B-17 into the Japanese battleship Haruna, which was later acknowledged as a near bomb miss on the heavy cruiser Ashigara. Nonetheless, this deed made him a celebrated war hero. Kelly's B-17C AAF S/N 40-2045 (19th BG / 30th BS) crashed about from Clark Field after he held the burning Fortress steady long enough for the surviving crew to bail out. Kelly was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Noted Japanese ace Saburō Sakai is credited with this kill, and in the process, came to respect the ability of the Fortress to absorb punishment.
B-17s were used in early battles of the Pacific with little success, notably the Battle of Coral Sea and Battle of Midway. While there, the Fifth Air Force B-17s were tasked with disrupting the Japanese sea lanes. Air Corps doctrine dictated bombing runs from high altitude, but they soon found only 1% of their bombs hit targets. However, B-17s were operating at heights too great for most A6M Zero fighters to reach.
The B-17's greatest success in the Pacific was in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in which aircraft of this type were responsible for damaging and sinking several Japanese transport ships. On 2 March 1943, six B-17s of the 64th Squadron flying at attacked a major Japanese troop convoy off New Guinea, using skip bombing to sink , which carried 1,200 army troops, and damage two other transports, Teiyo Maru and Nojima. On 3 March 1943, 13 B-17s flying at bombed the convoy, forcing the convoy to disperse and reducing the concentration of their anti-aircraft defenses. The B-17s attracted a number of Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, which were in turn attacked by the P-38 Lightning escorts. One B-17 broke up in the air, and its crew was forced to take to their parachutes. Japanese fighter pilots machine-gunned some of the B-17 crew members as they descended and attacked others in the water after they landed. Five of the Japanese fighters strafing the B-17 aircrew were promptly engaged and shot down by three Lightnings, though these were also then lost. The allied fighter pilots claimed 15 Zeros destroyed, while the B-17 crews claimed five more. Actual Japanese fighter losses for the day were seven destroyed and three damaged. The remaining seven transports and three of the eight destroyers were then sunk by a combination of low level strafing runs by Royal Australian Air Force Beaufighters, and skip bombing by USAAF North American B-25 Mitchells at , while B-17s claimed five hits from higher altitudes. On the morning of 4 March 1943, a B-17 sank the destroyer Asashio with a bomb while she was picking up survivors from Arashio.
At their peak, 168 B-17 bombers were in the Pacific theater in September 1942, but already in mid-1942 Gen. Arnold had decided that the B-17 was unsuitable for the kind of operations required in the Pacific and made plans to replace all of the B-17s in the theater with B-24s (and later, B-29s) as soon as they became available. Although the conversion was not complete until mid-1943, B-17 combat operations in the Pacific theater came to an end after a little over a year. Surviving aircraft were reassigned to the 54th Troop Carrier Wing's special airdrop section and were used to drop supplies to ground forces operating in close contact with the enemy. Special airdrop B-17s supported Australian commandos operating near the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul, which had been the primary B-17 target in 1942 and early 1943.
B-17s were still used in the Pacific later in the war, however, mainly in the combat search and rescue role. A number of B-17Gs, redesignated B-17Hs and later SB-17Gs, were used in the Pacific during the final year of the war to carry and drop lifeboats to stranded bomber crews who had been shot down or crashed at sea. These aircraft were nicknamed Dumbos, and remained in service for many years after the end of World War II.
Bomber defense
Before the advent of long-range fighter escorts, B-17s had only their .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns to rely on for defense during the bombing runs over Europe. As the war intensified, Boeing used feedback from aircrews to improve each new variant with increased armament and armor. Defensive armament increased from four machine guns and one nose machine gun in the B-17C, to thirteen machine guns in the B-17G. But because the bombers could not maneuver when attacked by fighters and needed to be flown straight and level during their final bomb run, individual aircraft struggled to fend off a direct attack.
A 1943 survey by the USAAF found that over half the bombers shot down by the Germans had left the protection of the main formation. To address this problem, the United States developed the bomb-group formation, which evolved into the staggered combat box formation in which all the B-17s could safely cover any others in their formation with their machine guns. This made a formation of bombers a dangerous target to engage by enemy fighters. In order to more quickly form these formations, assembly ships, planes with distinctive paint schemes, were utilized to guide bombers into formation, saving assembly time. Luftwaffe fighter pilots likened attacking a B-17 combat box formation to encountering a fliegendes Stachelschwein, "flying porcupine", with dozens of machine guns in a combat box aimed at them from almost every direction. However, the use of this rigid formation meant that individual aircraft could not engage in evasive maneuvers: they had to fly constantly in a straight line, which made them vulnerable to German flak. Moreover, German fighter aircraft later developed the tactic of high-speed strafing passes rather than engaging with individual aircraft to inflict damage with minimum risk. As a result, the B-17s' loss rate was up to 25% on some early missions. It was not until the advent of long-range fighter escorts (particularly the North American P-51 Mustang) and the resulting degradation of the Luftwaffe as an effective interceptor force between February and June 1944, that the B-17 became strategically potent.
The B-17 was noted for its ability to absorb battle damage, still reach its target and bring its crew home safely. Wally Hoffman, a B-17 pilot with the Eighth Air Force during World War II, said, "The plane can be cut and slashed almost to pieces by enemy fire and bring its crew home." Martin Caidin reported one instance in which a B-17 suffered a midair collision with a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, losing an engine and suffering serious damage to both the starboard horizontal stabilizer and the vertical stabilizer, and being knocked out of formation by the impact. The B-17 was reported as shot down by observers, but it survived and brought its crew home without injury. Its toughness was compensation for its shorter range and lighter bomb load compared to the B-24 and British Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. Stories circulated of B-17s returning to base with tails shredded, engines destroyed and large portions of their wings destroyed by flak. This durability, together with the large operational numbers in the Eighth Air Force and the fame achieved by the Memphis Belle, made the B-17 a key bomber aircraft of the war. Other factors such as combat effectiveness and political issues also contributed to the B-17's success.
Luftwaffe attacks
After examining wrecked B-17s and B-24s, Luftwaffe officers discovered that on average it took about 20 hits with 20 mm shells fired from the rear to bring them down. Pilots of average ability hit the bombers with only about two percent of the rounds they fired, so to obtain 20 hits, the average pilot had to fire one thousand rounds at a bomber. Early versions of the Fw 190, one of the best German interceptor fighters, were equipped with two MG FF cannons, which carried only 500 rounds when belt-fed (normally using 60-round drum magazines in earlier installations), and later with the better Mauser MG 151/20 cannons, which had a longer effective range than the MG FF weapon. Later versions carried four or even six MG 151/20 cannon and twin 13 mm machine guns. The German fighters found that when attacking from the front, where fewer defensive guns were mounted (and where the pilot was exposed and not protected by armor as he was from the rear), it took only four or five hits to bring a bomber down.
To rectify the Fw 190's shortcomings, the number of cannons fitted was doubled to four, with a corresponding increase in the amount of ammunition carried, creating the Sturmbock bomber destroyer version. This type replaced the vulnerable twin-engine Zerstörer heavy fighters which could not survive interception by P-51 Mustangs flying well ahead of the combat boxes in an air supremacy role starting very early in 1944 to clear any Luftwaffe defensive fighters from the skies. By 1944, a further upgrade to Rheinmetall-Borsig's MK 108 cannons mounted either in the wing, or in underwing, conformal mount gun pods, was made for the Sturmbock Focke-Wulfs as either the /R2 or /R8 field modification kits, enabling aircraft to bring a bomber down with just a few hits.
The adoption of the 21 cm Nebelwerfer-derived Werfer-Granate 21 (Wfr. Gr. 21) rocket mortar by the Luftwaffe in mid-August 1943 promised the introduction of a major "stand-off" style of offensive weapon – one strut-mounted tubular launcher was fixed under each wing panel on the Luftwaffe's single-engine fighters, and two under each wing panel of a few twin-engine Bf 110 daylight Zerstörer aircraft. However, due to the slow 715 mph velocity and characteristic ballistic drop of the fired rocket (despite the usual mounting of the launcher at about 15° upward orientation), and the small number of fighters fitted with the weapons, the Wfr. Gr. 21 never had a major effect on the combat box formations of Fortresses. The Luftwaffe also fitted heavy-caliber Bordkanone-series 37, 50 and even cannon as anti-bomber weapons on twin-engine aircraft such as the special Ju 88P fighters, as well as one model of the Me 410 Hornisse but these measures did not have much effect on the American strategic bomber offensive. The Me 262, however, had moderate success against the B-17 late in the war. With its usual nose-mounted armament of four MK 108 cannons, and with some examples later equipped with the R4M rocket, launched from underwing racks, it could fire from outside the range of the bombers' defensive guns and bring an aircraft down with one hit, as both the MK 108's shells and the R4M's warheads were filled with the "shattering" force of the strongly brisant Hexogen military explosive.
Luftwaffe-captured B-17s
During World War II approximately 40 B-17s were captured and refurbished by Germany after crash-landing or being forced down, with about a dozen put back into the air. Given German Balkenkreuz national markings on their wings and fuselage sides, and swastika tail fin–flashes, the captured B-17s were used to determine the B-17's vulnerabilities and to train German interceptor pilots in attack tactics. Others, with the cover designations Dornier Do 200 and Do 288, were used as long-range transports by the Kampfgeschwader 200 special duties unit, carrying out agent drops and supplying secret airstrips in the Middle East and North Africa. They were chosen specifically for these missions as being more suitable for this role than other available German aircraft; they never attempted to deceive the Allies and always wore full Luftwaffe markings. One B-17 of KG200, bearing the Luftwaffe's KG 200 Geschwaderkennung (combat wing code) markings A3+FB, was interned by Spain when it landed at Valencia airfield, 1944, remaining there for the rest of the war. It has been alleged that some B-17s kept their Allied markings and were used by the Luftwaffe in attempts to infiltrate B-17 bombing formations and report on their positions and altitudes. According to these allegations, the practice was initially successful, but Army Air Force combat aircrews quickly developed and established standard procedures to first warn off, and then fire upon any "stranger" trying to join a group's formation.
Soviet-interned B-17s
The U.S. did not offer B-17s to the Soviet Union as part of its war materiel assistance program, but at least 73 aircraft were acquired by the Soviet Air Force. These aircraft had landed with mechanical trouble during the shuttle bombing raids over Germany or had been damaged by a Luftwaffe raid in Poltava. The Soviets restored 23 to flying condition and concentrated them in the 890th Bomber Regiment of the 45th Bomber Aviation Division, but they never saw combat. In 1946 (or 1947, according to Holm), the regiment was assigned to the Kazan factory (moving from Baranovichi) to help the Soviet effort to reproduce the more advanced Boeing B-29 as the Tupolev Tu-4.
Swiss-interned B-17s
During the Allied bomber offensive, U.S. and British bombers sometimes flew into Swiss airspace, either because they were damaged or, on rare occasions, accidentally bombing Swiss cities. Swiss aircraft attempted to intercept and force individual aircraft to land, interning their crews; one Swiss pilot was killed, shot down by a U.S. bomber crew in September 1944.
Official Swiss records identify 6,501 airspace violations during the course of the war, with 198 foreign aircraft landing on Swiss territory and 56 aircraft crashing there. In October 1943, the Swiss interned Boeing B-17F-25-VE, tail number 25841, and its U.S. flight crew after the Flying Fortress developed engine trouble after a raid over Germany and was forced to land. The aircraft was turned over to the Swiss Air Force, who then flew the bomber until the end of the war, using other interned but non-airworthy B-17s for spare parts. The bomber's topside surfaces were repainted a dark olive drab, but retained its light gray under wing and lower fuselage surfaces. It carried Swiss national white cross insignia in red squares on both sides of its rudder, fuselage sides, and on the topside and underside wings. The B-17F also carried light gray flash letters "RD" and "I" on either side of the fuselage's Swiss national insignia.
Japanese-captured B-17s
In 1942, Japanese technicians and mechanics rebuilt three damaged B-17s, one "D" and two "E" series, using parts salvaged from abandoned B-17 wrecks in the Philippines and the Java East Indies. The three bombers, which still contained their top-secret Norden bombsights, were ferried to Japan where they underwent extensive technical evaluation by the Giken, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force's Air Technical Research Institute (Koku Gijutsu Kenkyujo) at Tachikawa's air field. The "D" model, later deemed an obsolescent design, was used in Japanese training and propaganda films. The two "E"s were used to develop air combat tactics for use against B-17s; they were also used as enemy aircraft in pilot and crew training films. One of the two "E"s was photographed late in the war by U. S. aerial recon. It was code-named "Tachikawa 105" after the mystery aircraft's wingspan (104 feet) but not correctly identified as a captured B-17 until after the war. No traces of the three captured Flying Fortresses were ever found in Japan by Allied occupation forces. The bombers were assumed either lost by various means or scrapped late in the war for their vital war materials.
Postwar history
U.S. Air Force
After World War II, the B-17 was quickly phased out of use as a bomber and the Army Air Forces retired most of its fleet. Flight crews ferried the bombers back across the Atlantic to the United States where the majority were sold for scrap and melted down, although many remained in use in second-line roles such as VIP transports, air-sea rescue and photo-reconnaissance. Strategic Air Command (SAC), established in 1946, used reconnaissance B-17s (at first called F-9 [F for Fotorecon], later RB-17) until 1949.
The USAF Air Rescue Service of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) operated B-17s as so-called "Dumbo" air-sea rescue aircraft. Work on using B-17s to carry airborne lifeboats had begun in 1943, but they entered service in the European theater only in February 1945. They were also used to provide search and rescue support for B-29 raids against Japan. About 130 B-17s were converted to the air-sea rescue role, at first designated B-17H and later SB-17G. Some SB-17s had their defensive guns removed, while others retained their guns to allow use close to combat areas. The SB-17 served through the Korean War, remaining in service with USAF until the mid-1950s.
In 1946, surplus B-17s were chosen as drone aircraft for atmospheric sampling during the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests, being able to fly close to or even through the mushroom clouds without endangering a crew. This led to more widespread conversion of B-17s as drones and drone control aircraft, both for further use in atomic testing and as targets for testing surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles. were converted to drones. The last operational mission flown by a USAF Fortress was conducted on 1959, when a DB-17P, serial 44-83684 , directed a QB-17G, out of Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, as a target for an AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missile fired from a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. A retirement ceremony was held several days later at Holloman AFB, after which 44-83684 was retired. It was subsequently used in various films and in the 1960s television show 12 O'Clock High before being retired to the Planes of Fame aviation museum in Chino, California. Perhaps the most famous B-17, the Memphis Belle, has been restored – with the B-17D The Swoose under way – to her World War II wartime appearance by the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
U.S. Navy and Coast Guard
During the last year of World War II and shortly thereafter, the United States Navy (USN) acquired 48 ex-USAAF B-17s for patrol and air-sea rescue work. The first two ex-USAAF B-17s, a B-17F (later modified to B-17G standard) and a B-17G were obtained by the Navy for various development programs. At first, these aircraft operated under their original USAAF designations, but on 31 July 1945 they were assigned the naval aircraft designation PB-1, a designation which had originally been used in 1925 for the Boeing Model 50 experimental flying boat.
Thirty-two B-17Gs were used by the Navy under the designation PB-1W, the suffix -W indicating an airborne early warning role. A large radome for an S-band AN/APS-20 search radar was fitted underneath the fuselage and additional internal fuel tanks were added for longer range, with the provision for additional underwing fuel tanks. Originally, the B-17 was also chosen because of its heavy defensive armament, but this was later removed. These aircraft were painted dark blue, the standard Navy paint scheme which had been adopted in late 1944. PB-1Ws continued in USN service until 1955, gradually being phased out in favor of the Lockheed WV-2 (known in the USAF as the EC-121, a designation adopted by the USN in 1962), a military version of the Lockheed 1049 Constellation commercial airliner.
In July 1945, 16 B-17s were transferred to the Coast Guard via the Navy; these aircraft were initially assigned U.S. Navy Bureau Numbers (BuNo), but were delivered to the Coast Guard designated as PB-1Gs beginning in July 1946. Coast Guard PB-1Gs were stationed at a number of bases in the U.S. and Newfoundland, with five at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, two at CGAS San Francisco, two at NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, one at CGAS Kodiak, Alaska, and one in Washington state. They were used primarily in the "Dumbo" air-sea rescue role, but were also used for iceberg patrol duties and for photo mapping. The Coast Guard PB-1Gs served throughout the 1950s, the last example not being withdrawn from service until 14 October 1959.
Special operations
B-17s were used by the CIA front companies Civil Air Transport, Air America and Intermountain Aviation for special missions. These included B-17G 44-85531, registered as N809Z. These aircraft were primarily used for agent drop missions over the People's Republic of China, flying from Taiwan, with Taiwanese crews. Four B-17s were shot down in these operations.
In 1957 the surviving B-17s had been stripped of all weapons and painted black. One of these Taiwan-based B-17s was flown to Clark Air Base in the Philippines in mid-September, assigned for covert missions into Tibet.
On 28 May 1962, N809Z, piloted by Connie Seigrist and Douglas Price, flew Major James Smith, USAF and Lieutenant Leonard A. LeSchack, USNR to the abandoned Soviet arctic ice station NP 8, as Operation Coldfeet. Smith and LeSchack parachuted from the B-17 and searched the station for several days. On 1 June, Seigrist and Price returned and picked up Smith and LeSchack using a Fulton Skyhook system installed on the B-17. N809Z was used to perform a Skyhook pick up in the James Bond movie Thunderball in 1965. This aircraft, now restored to its original B-17G configuration, was on display in the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon until it was sold to the Collings Foundation in 2015.
Operators
The B-17, a versatile aircraft, served in dozens of USAAF units in theaters of combat throughout World War II, and in other roles for the RAF. Its main use was in Europe, where its shorter range and smaller bombload relative to other aircraft did not hamper it as much as in the Pacific Theater. Peak USAAF inventory (in August 1944) was 4,574 worldwide.
Surviving aircraft
Forty-five planes survive in complete form, 38 in the United States. Four are airworthy.
Fortresses as a symbol
The B-17 Flying Fortress became symbolic of the United States of America's air power. In a 1943 Consolidated Aircraft poll of 2,500 men in cities where Consolidated advertisements had been run in newspapers, 73% had heard of the B-24 and 90% knew of the B-17.
After the first Y1B-17s were delivered to the Army Air Corps 2nd Bombardment Group, they were used on flights to promote their long range and navigational capabilities. In January 1938, group commander Colonel Robert Olds flew a Y1B-17 from the U.S. east coast to the west coast, setting a transcontinental record of 13 hours 27 minutes. He also broke the west-to-east coast record on the return trip, averaging in 11 hours 1 minute. Six bombers of the 2nd Bombardment Group took off from Langley Field on 1938 as part of a goodwill flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Covering they returned on , with seven aircraft setting off on a flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, three days later. In a well-publicized mission on 12 May of the same year, three Y1B-17s "intercepted" and took photographs of the Italian ocean liner SS Rex off the Atlantic coast.
Many pilots who flew both the B-17 and the B-24 preferred the B-17 for its greater stability and ease in formation flying. The electrical systems were less vulnerable to damage than the B-24's hydraulics, and the B-17 was easier to fly than a B-24 when missing an engine. During the war, the largest offensive bombing force, the Eighth Air Force, had an open preference for the B-17. Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle wrote about his preference for equipping the Eighth with B-17s, citing the logistical advantage in keeping field forces down to a minimum number of aircraft types with their individual servicing and spares. For this reason, he wanted B-17 bombers and P-51 fighters for the Eighth. His views were supported by Eighth Air Force statisticians, whose mission studies showed that the Flying Fortress's utility and survivability was much greater than those of the B-24 Liberator. Making it back to base on numerous occasions, despite extensive battle damage, the B-17's durability became legendary; stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage were widely circulated during the war. Despite an inferior performance and smaller bombload than the more numerous B-24 Liberators, a survey of Eighth Air Force crews showed a much higher rate of satisfaction with the B-17.
Notable B-17s
All American – This B-17F survived having her tail almost cut off in a mid-air collision with a Bf 109 over Tunisia but returned safely to base in Algeria.
Chief Seattle – sponsored by the city of Seattle, she disappeared (MIA) on 14 August 1942 flying a recon mission for the 19th BG, 435th BS and the crew declared dead on 7 December 1945.
Hell's Kitchen – B-17F 41-24392 was one of only three early B-17F's in 414th BS to complete more than 100 combat missions.
Mary Ann – a B-17D that was part of an unarmed flight which left Hamilton Air Field, Novato, California on 6 December 1941 en route to Hickam Field in Hawaii, arriving during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The plane and her crew were immediately forced into action on Wake Island and in the Philippines during the outbreak of World War II. She became famous when her exploits were featured in Air Force, one of the first of the patriotic war films released in 1943.
Memphis Belle – one of the first B-17s to complete a tour of duty of 25 missions in the 8th Air Force and the subject of a feature film, now completely restored and on display since 17 May 2018 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
Miss Every Morning Fix'n – B-17C. Previously named 'Pamela'. Stationed in Mackay, Queensland, Australia during World War II. On 14 June 1943, crashed shortly after takeoff from Mackay while ferrying U.S. forces personnel back to Port Moresby, with 40 of the 41 people on board killed. It remains the worst air disaster in Australian history. The sole survivor, Foye Roberts, married an Australian and returned to the States. He died in Wichita Falls, Texas, on 4 February 2004.
Murder Inc. – A B-17 bombardier wearing the name of the B-17 "Murder Inc." on his jacket was used for propaganda in German newspapers.
Old 666 – B-17E flown by the most highly decorated crew in the Pacific Theater
Royal Flush – B-17F 42-6087 from the 100th Bomb Group and commanded on one mission by highly decorated USAAF officer Robert Rosenthal, she was the lone surviving 100th BG B-17 of 10 October 1943 raid against Münster to return to the unit's base at RAF Thorpe Abbotts.
Sir Baboon McGoon – B-17F featured in the June 1944 issue of Popular Science magazine and the 1945 issue of Flying magazine. Articles discuss mobile recovery crews following October 1943 belly landing at Tannington, England.
The Swoose – Initially nicknamed Ole Betsy while in service, The Swoose is the only remaining intact B-17D, built in 1940, the oldest surviving Flying Fortress, and the only surviving B-17 to have seen action in the Philippines campaign (1941–1942); she is in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum and is being restored for final display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. The Swoose was flown by Frank Kurtz, father of actress Swoosie Kurtz, who named his daughter after the bomber.
Ye Olde Pub – A highly damaged B-17 piloted by Charlie Brown that was not shot down by Franz Stigler, as memorialized in the painting A Higher Call by John D. Shaw.
5 Grand – 5,000th B-17 made, emblazoned with Boeing employee signatures, served with the 333rd Bomb Squadron, 96th Bomb Group in Europe. Damaged and repaired after gear-up landing, transferred to 388th Bomb Group. Returned from duty following V-E Day, flown for war bonds tour, then stored at Kingman, Arizona. Following an unsuccessful bid for museum preservation, the aircraft was scrapped.
Accidents and incidents
Noted B-17 pilots and crew members
Medal of Honor recipients
Many B-17 crew members received military honors and 17 received the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States:
Brigadier General Frederick Castle (flying as co-pilot) – awarded posthumously for remaining at controls so others could escape damaged aircraft.
2nd Lt Robert Femoyer (navigator) – awarded posthumously
1st Lt Donald J. Gott (pilot) – awarded posthumously
2nd Lt David R. Kingsley (bombardier) – awarded posthumously for tending to injured crew and giving up his parachute to another
1st Lt William R. Lawley Jr. – "heroism and exceptional flying skill"
Sgt Archibald Mathies (engineer-gunner) – awarded posthumously
1st Lt Jack W. Mathis (bombardier) – posthumously, the first airman in the European theater to be awarded the Medal of Honor
2nd Lt William E. Metzger Jr. (co-pilot) – awarded posthumously
1st Lt Edward Michael
1st Lt John C. Morgan
Capt Harl Pease (awarded posthumously)
2nd Lt Joseph Sarnoski (awarded posthumously)
S/Sgt Maynard H. Smith (gunner)
1st Lt Walter E. Truemper (awarded posthumously)
T/Sgt Forrest L. Vosler (radio operator)
Brigadier General Kenneth Walker Commanding officer of V Bomber Command, killed while leading small force in raid on Rabaul – awarded posthumously
Maj Jay Zeamer Jr. (pilot) – earned on unescorted reconnaissance mission in Pacific, same mission as Sarnoski
Other military achievements or events
Lincoln Broyhill (1925–2008), tail-gunner on a B-17 in the 483rd Bombardment Group. He received a Distinguished Unit Citation and set two individual records in a single day: (1) most German jets destroyed by a single gunner in one mission (two), and (2) most German jets destroyed by a single gunner during the entirety of World War II.
Allison C. Brooks (1917–2006), a B-17 pilot who was awarded numerous military decorations and was ultimately promoted to the rank of major general and served in active duty until 1971.
1st Lt Eugene Emond (1921–1998): Lead pilot for Man O War II Horsepower Limited. Received the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, American Theater Ribbon and Victory Ribbon. Was part of D-Day and witnessed one of the first German jets when a Me 262A-1a flew through his formation over Germany. One of the youngest bomber pilots in the U.S. Army Air Forces.
Immanuel J. Klette (1918–1988): Second-generation German-American whose 91 combat missions were the most flown by any Eighth Air Force pilot in World War II.
Capt Colin Kelly (1915–1941): Pilot of the first U.S. B-17 lost in action.
Col Frank Kurtz (1911–1996): The USAAF's most decorated pilot of World War II. Commander of the 463rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force, Celone Field, Foggia, Italy. Clark Field Philippines attack survivor. Olympic bronze medalist in diving (1932), 1944–1945. Father of actress Swoosie Kurtz, herself named for the still-surviving B-17D mentioned above.
Gen Curtis LeMay (1906–1990): Became head of the Strategic Air Command and Chief of Staff of the USAF.
Lt Col Nancy Love (1914–1976) and Betty (Huyler) Gillies (1908–1998): The first women pilots to be certified to fly the B-17, in 1943 and to qualify for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron.
SSgt Alan Magee (1919–2003): B-17 gunner who on 3 January 1943 survived a freefall after his aircraft was shot down by the Luftwaffe over St. Nazaire.
Col Robert K. Morgan (1918–2004): Pilot of Memphis Belle.
Lt Col Robert Rosenthal (1917–2007): Commanded the only surviving B-17, Royal Flush, of a US 8th Air Force raid by the 100th Bomb Group on Münster on 10 October 1943. Completed 53 missions. Earned sixteen medals for gallantry (including one each from Britain and France), and led the raid on Berlin on 3 February 1945, that is likely to have ended the life of Roland Freisler, the infamous "hanging judge" of the People's Court.
1st Lt Bruce Sundlun (1920–2011): Pilot of Damn Yankee of the 384th Bomb Group was shot down over Belgium on 1 December 1943 and evaded capture until reaching Switzerland 5 May 1944.
Specifications (B-17G)
Notable appearances in media
B-17 in popular culture
Hollywood featured the B-17 in its period films, such as director Howard Hawks' Air Force starring John Garfield and Twelve O'Clock High starring Gregory Peck. Both films were made with the full cooperation of the United States Army Air Forces and used USAAF aircraft and (for Twelve O'Clock High) combat footage. In 1964, the latter film was made into a television show of the same name and ran for three years on ABC TV. Footage from Twelve O' Clock High was also used, along with three restored B-17s, in the 1962 film The War Lover. An early model YB-17 also appeared in the 1938 film Test Pilot with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, and later with Clark Gable in Command Decision in 1948, in Tora! Tora! Tora! in 1970, and in Memphis Belle with Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Billy Zane, and Harry Connick Jr. in 1990. The most famous B-17, the Memphis Belle, toured the U. S. with her crew to reinforce national morale (and to sell war bonds). She was featured in a USAAF documentary, Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress.
The Flying Fortress has also been featured in artistic works expressing the physical and psychological stress of the combat conditions and the high casualty rates that crews suffered. Works such as The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell and Heavy Metals section "B-17" depict the nature of these missions. The Ball turret itself has inspired works like Steven Spielberg's The Mission. Artists who served on the bomber units also created paintings and drawings depicting the combat conditions in World War II.
See also
Notes
References
{{Reflist
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Further reading
Birdsall, Steve. The B-17 Flying Fortress. Dallas, Texas: Morgan Aviation Books, 1965. .
Davis, Larry. B-17 in Action. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1984. .
Jablonski, Edward. Flying Fortress. New York: Doubleday, 1965. .
Johnsen, Frederick A. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Stillwater, Minnesota: Voyageur Press, 2001. .
Gansz, David M. B-17 Production – Boeing Aircraft: 4 January 1944 – 26 February 1944 B-17G-35 to G-45 42-31932 – 42-32116 and 42-97058 – 42-97407. New Jersey: First Mountain Belgians, 2020. .
Gansz, David M. B-17 Production – Boeing Aircraft: 26 February 1944 – 25 April 1944 B-17G-50 to G-60 42-102379 – 42-102978. New Jersey: First Mountain Belgians, 2013. .
Gansz, David M. B-17 Production – Boeing Aircraft: 25 April 1944 – 22 June 1944 B-17G-65 to G-75 43-37509 – 43-38073. New Jersey: First Mountain Belgians, 2017. .
Lloyd, Alwyn T. B-17 Flying Fortress in Detail and Scale, Vol. 11: Derivatives, Part 2. Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers, 1983. .
Lloyd, Alwyn T. B-17 Flying Fortress in Detail and Scale, Vol. 20: More derivatives, Part 3. Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books, 1986. .
Lloyd, Alwyn T. and Terry D. Moore. B-17 Flying Fortress in Detail and Scale, Vol. 1: Production Versions, Part 1. Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers, 1981. .
O'Leary, Michael. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (Osprey Production Line to Frontline 2). Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1999. .
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External links
B-17 Flying Fortress
1930s United States bomber aircraft
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World War II bombers of the United States
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5008 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle%20of%20Actium | Battle of Actium | The Battle of Actium was a naval battle fought between Octavian's maritime fleet, led by Marcus Agrippa, and the combined fleets of both Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII Philopator. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC in the Ionian Sea, near the former Roman colony of Actium, Greece, and was the climax of over a decade of rivalry between Octavian and Antony.
In early 31 BC, the year of the battle, Antony and Cleopatra were temporarily stationed in Greece. Mark Antony possessed 500 ships and 70,000 infantry, and made his camp at Actium, and Octavian, with 400 ships and 80,000 infantry, arrived from the north and occupied Patrae and Corinth, where he managed to cut Antony's southward communications with Egypt (via the Peloponnese) with help from Marcus Agrippa. Octavian previously gained a preliminary victory in Greece, where his navy successfully ferried troops across the Adriatic Sea under the command of Marcus Agrippa. Octavian landed on mainland Greece, opposite of the island of Corcyra (modern Corfu) and proceeded south, on land.
Trapped on both land and sea, portions of Antony's army deserted and fled to Octavian's side (daily), and Octavian's forces became comfortable enough to make preparations for battle. Antony's fleet sailed through the bay of Actium on the western coast of Greece, in a desperate attempt to break free of the naval blockade. It was there that Antony's fleet faced the much larger fleet of smaller, more manoeuvrable ships under commanders Gaius Sosius and Agrippa. Antony and his remaining forces were spared only due to a last-ditch effort by Cleopatra's fleet that had been waiting nearby. Octavian pursued them and defeated their forces in Alexandria on 1 August 30 BC—after which Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.
Octavian's victory enabled him to consolidate his power over Rome and its dominions. He adopted the title of Princeps ("first citizen"), and in 27 BC was awarded the title of Augustus ("revered") by the Roman Senate. This became the name by which he was known in later times. As Augustus, he retained the trappings of a restored Republican leader, but historians generally view his consolidation of power and the adoption of these honorifics as the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.
Background
The alliance among Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus, commonly known as the Second Triumvirate, was renewed for a five-year term at Tarentum in 37 BC. However, the triumvirate broke down when Octavian saw Caesarion, the professed son of Julius Caesar and Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, as a major threat to his power. This occurred when Mark Antony, the other most influential member of the triumvirate, abandoned his wife, Octavian's sister Octavia Minor. Afterward he moved to Egypt to start a long-term romance with Cleopatra, becoming Caesarion's de facto stepfather. Octavian and the majority of the Roman Senate saw Antony as leading a separatist movement that threatened to break the Roman Republic's unity.
Octavian's prestige and, more importantly, his legions' loyalty had been boosted by Julius Caesar's legacy of 44 BC, by which he was officially adopted as Caesar's only son and the sole legitimate heir of his enormous wealth. Antony had been the most important and most successful senior officer in Caesar's army (magister equitum) and, thanks to his military record, claimed a substantial share of the political support of Caesar's soldiers and veterans. Both Octavian and Antony had fought against their common enemies in the Liberators' civil war that followed the assassination of Caesar.
After years of loyal cooperation with Octavian, Antony started to act independently, eventually arousing his rival's suspicion that he was vying to become sole master of Rome. When he left Octavia Minor and moved to Alexandria to become Cleopatra's official partner, many Roman politicians suspected that he was trying to become the unchecked ruler of Egypt and other eastern kingdoms while still maintaining his command over the many Roman legions in the East. As a personal challenge to Octavian's prestige, Antony tried to get Caesarion accepted as a true heir of Caesar, even though the legacy did not mention him. Antony and Cleopatra formally elevated Caesarion, then 13, to power in 34 BC, giving him the title "King of the Kings" (Donations of Alexandria). Such an entitlement was seen as a threat to Roman republican traditions. It was widely believed that Antony had once offered Caesarion a diadem. Thereafter, Octavian started a propaganda war, denouncing Antony as an enemy of Rome and asserting that he intended to establish a monarchy over the Roman Empire on Caesarion's behalf, circumventing the Roman Senate. It was also said that Antony intended to move the imperial capital to Alexandria.
As the Second Triumvirate formally expired on the last day of 33 BC, Antony wrote to the Senate that he did not wish to be reappointed. He hoped that it might regard him as its champion against the ambition of Octavian, whom he presumed would not be willing to abandon his position in a similar manner. The causes of mutual dissatisfaction between the two had been accumulating. Antony complained that Octavian had exceeded his powers in deposing Lepidus, in taking over the countries held by Sextus Pompeius and in enlisting soldiers for himself without sending half to him. Octavian complained that Antony had no authority to be in Egypt; that his execution of Sextus Pompeius was illegal; that his treachery to the king of Armenia disgraced the Roman name; that he had not sent half the proceeds of the spoils to Rome according to his agreement; and that his connection with Cleopatra and acknowledgement of Caesarion as a legitimate son of Caesar were a degradation of his office and a menace to himself.
In 32 BC, one-third of the Senate and both consuls, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius, allied with Antony. The consuls had determined to conceal the extent of Antony's demands. Ahenobarbus seems to have wished to keep quiet, but on 1 January Sosius made an elaborate speech in favor of Antony, and would have proposed the confirmation of his act had it not been vetoed by a tribune. Octavian was not present, but at the next meeting made a reply that provoked both consuls to leave Rome to join Antony; Antony, when he heard of it, after publicly divorcing Octavia, went at once to Ephesus with Cleopatra, where a vast fleet was gathered from all parts of the East, of which Cleopatra furnished a large proportion. After staying with his allies at Samos, Antony moved to Athens. His land forces, which had been in Armenia, came down to the coast of Asia and embarked under Publius Canidius Crassus.
Octavian kept up his strategic preparations. Military operations began in 32 BC, when his general Agrippa captured Methone, a Greek town allied to Antony. But by the publication of Antony's will, which Lucius Munatius Plancus had put into Octavian's hands, and by carefully letting it be known in Rome what preparations were going on at Samos and how Antony was effectively acting as the agent of Cleopatra, Octavian produced such a violent outburst of feeling that he easily obtained Antony's deposition from the consulship of 31 BC, for which Antony had been designated. In addition to the deposition, Octavian procured a proclamation of war against Cleopatra. This was well understood to mean against Antony, though he was not named. In issuing a war declaration, the Senate deprived Antony of any legal authority.
Battle
Antony initially planned to anticipate an attack by descent upon Italy toward the end of 32 BC; he went as far as Corcyra. Finding the sea guarded by a squadron of Octavian's ships, Antony retired to winter at Patrae while his fleet for the most part lay in the Ambracian Gulf, and his land forces encamped near the promontory of Actium, while the opposite side of the narrow strait into the Ambracian Gulf was protected by a tower and troops.
After Octavian's proposals for a conference with Antony were scornfully rejected, both sides prepared for the struggle the next year. The early months passed without any notable events, other than some successful forays by Agrippa along the coasts of Greece, primarily designed to divert Antony's attention. In August, troops landed near Antony's camp on the north side of the strait. Still, Antony could not be tempted out. It took some months for his full strength to arrive from the various places in which his allies or his ships had wintered. During these months Agrippa continued his attacks upon Greek towns along the coast, while Octavian's forces engaged in various successful cavalry skirmishes, so that Antony abandoned the strait's north side between the Ambracian Gulf and the Ionian Sea and confined his soldiers to the southern camp. Cleopatra now advised that garrisons be put into strong towns and that the main fleet return to Alexandria. The large contingent furnished by Egypt gave her advice as much weight as her personal influence over Antony, and it appears that this movement was agreed to.
Octavian learned of this and debated how to prevent it. At first of a mind to let Antony sail and then attack him, he was prevailed upon by Agrippa to give battle. On 1 September he addressed his fleet, preparing them for battle. The next day was wet and the sea was rough. When the trumpet signal for the start rang out, Antony's fleet began issuing from the straits and the ships moved into line and remained quiet. Octavian, after a short hesitation, ordered his vessels to steer to the right and pass the enemy's ships. For fear of being surrounded, Antony was forced to give the word to attack.
Order of battle
The two fleets met outside the Gulf of Actium on the morning of 2 September. Antony's fleet had 250 larger galleys, with towers full of armed men. He led them through the straits towards the open sea. Octavian's fleet had 400 galleys. His fleet was waiting beyond the straits, led by the experienced admiral Agrippa, commanding from the left wing of the fleet, Lucius Arruntius the centre and Marcus Lurius the right. Titus Statilius Taurus commanded Octavian's armies, and observed the battle from shore to the north of the straits. Antony and Lucius Gellius Poplicola commanded the Antonian fleet's right wing, Marcus Octavius and Marcus Insteius commanded the centre, while Gaius Sosius commanded the left wing; Cleopatra's squadron was behind them. Sosius launched the initial attack from the fleet's left wing while Antony's chief lieutenant Publius Canidius Crassus commanded the triumvir's land forces.
Pelling notes that the presence of two former consuls on Antony's side commanding the wings indicates that it was there that the major action was expected to take place. Octavius and Insteius, commanding Antony's centre, were lower-profile figures.
Combat
It is estimated that Antony had around 140 ships, to Octavian's 260. Antony had shown up to Actium with a much larger force of around 500 ships, but could not man all of them. The problem facing Antony was desertion. Plutarch and Dio speak of how desertion and disease plagued Antony's camp. What Antony lacked in quantity was made up for in quality: his ships were mainly the standard Roman warship, quinqueremes with smaller quadriremes, heavier and wider than Octavian's, making them ideal weapon platforms, however, due to their larger size they were less manoeuvrable than Octavian's ships. Antony's personal flagship, like his admirals', was a "ten". An "eight" war galley had around 200 heavy marines, archers and at least six ballista catapults. Larger than Octavian's ships, Antony's war galleys were very difficult to board in close combat and his troops were able to rain missiles onto smaller and lower ships. The harpax, Agrippa's device made for grappling and boarding enemy ships, made this task a bit easier. The galleys' bows were armoured with bronze plates and square-cut timbers, making a successful ramming attack with similar equipment difficult. The only way to disable such a ship was to smash its oars, rendering it immobile and isolated from the rest of its fleet. Antony's ships' main weakness was lack of manoeuvrability; such a ship, once isolated from its fleet, could be swamped with boarding attacks. Also, many of his ships were undermanned with rowing crews; there had been a severe malaria outbreak while they were waiting for Octavian's fleet to arrive.
Octavian's fleet was largely made up of smaller "Liburnian" vessels. His ships, though smaller, were still manageable in the heavy surf and could outmanoeuvre Antony's ships, get in close, attack the above-deck crew with arrows and ballista-launched stones, and retreat. Moreover, his crews were better-trained, professional, well-fed and rested. A medium ballista could penetrate the sides of most warships at close range and had an effective range of around 200 yards. Most ballistas were aimed at the marines on the ships' fighting decks.
Before the battle one of Antony's generals, Quintus Dellius, defected to Octavian, bringing with him Antony's battle plans.
Shortly after midday, Antony was forced to extend his line from the protection of the shore and finally engage the enemy. Seeing this, Octavian's fleet put to sea. Antony had hoped to use his biggest ships to drive back Agrippa's wing on the north end of his line, but Octavian's entire fleet, aware of this strategy, stayed out of range. By about noon the fleets were in formation but Octavian refused to be drawn out, so Antony was forced to attack. The battle raged all afternoon without decisive result.
Cleopatra's fleet, in the rear, retreated to the open sea without engaging. A breeze sprang up in the right direction and the Egyptian ships were soon out of sight. Lange argues that Antony would have had victory within reach were it not for Cleopatra's retreat.
Antony had not observed the signal, and believing that it was mere panic and all was lost, followed the fleeing squadron. The contagion spread fast; everywhere sails unfurled and towers and other heavy fighting gear went by the board. Some fought on, and only long after nightfall, when many a ship was blazing from the firebrands thrown upon them, was the work done. Making the best of the situation, Antony burned the ships he could no longer man while clustering the remainder tightly together. With many oarsmen dead or unfit to serve, the powerful, head-on ramming tactic for which the Octaries had been designed was now impossible. Antony transferred to a smaller vessel with his flag and managed to escape, taking a few ships with him as an escort to help break through Octavian's lines. Those left behind were captured or sunk.
J. M. Carter gives a differing account of the battle. He postulates that Antony knew he was surrounded and had nowhere to run. To turn this to his advantage, he gathered his ships around him in a quasi-horseshoe formation, staying close to the shore for safety. Then, should Octavian's ships approach his, the sea would push them into the shore. Antony foresaw that he would not be able to defeat Octavian's forces, so he and Cleopatra stayed in the rear of the formation. Eventually Antony sent the ships on the northern part of the formation to attack. He had them move out to the north, spreading out Octavian's ships, which until this point were tightly arranged. He sent Sosius to spread the remaining ships to the south. This left a hole in the middle of Octavian's formation. Antony seized the opportunity and, with Cleopatra on her ship and him on a different ship, sped through the gap and escaped, abandoning his entire force.
With the end of the battle, Octavian exerted himself to save the crews of the burning vessels and spent the whole night on board. The next day, as much of the land army had not escaped to their own lands, submitted, or were followed in their retreat to Macedonia and forced to surrender, Antony's camp was occupied, bringing an end to the war.
Alternative theories
Scientists researching the "dead water" phenomenon are investigating whether the Egyptian fleet may have been trapped in dead water, which can substantially reduce the speed of a ship.
Aftermath
The battle had extensive political consequences. Under cover of darkness some 19 legions and 12,000 cavalry fled before Antony was able to engage Octavian in a land battle. Thus, after Antony lost his fleet, his army, which had been equal to Octavian's, deserted. Though he had not laid down his imperium, Antony was a fugitive and a rebel without that shadow of a legal position the presence of the consuls and senators had given him in the previous year. Some of the victorious fleet went in pursuit of him, but Octavian visited Greece and Asia and spent the winter at Samos, though he had to briefly visit Brundisium to settle a mutiny and arrange for assignations of land.
At Samos Octavian received a message from Cleopatra with the present of a gold crown and throne, offering to abdicate in favor of her sons. She was allowed to believe that she would be well treated, for Octavian was anxious to secure her for his triumph. Antony, who had found himself generally deserted, after vainly attempting to secure the army stationed near Paraetonium under Pinarius and sending his eldest son Antyllus with money to Octavian and an offer to live at Athens as a private citizen, found himself in the spring attacked on two sides. Cornelius Gallus was advancing from Paraetonium and Octavian landed at Pelusium, with the connivance, it was believed, of Cleopatra. Antony was defeated by Gallus and, returning to Egypt, advanced on Pelusium.
Despite a minor victory at Alexandria on 31 July 30 BC, more of Antony's men deserted, leaving him with insufficient forces to fight Octavian. A slight success over Octavian's tired soldiers encouraged him to make a general attack, in which he was decisively beaten. Failing to escape by ship, he stabbed himself in the stomach upon mistakenly believing false rumours propagated by Cleopatra claiming that she had committed suicide. He did not die at once, and when he found out that Cleopatra was still alive, he insisted on being taken to the mausoleum where she was hiding and died in her arms. She was soon brought to the palace and vainly attempted to move Octavian to pity.
Cleopatra killed herself on 12 August 30 BC. Most accounts say she put an end to her life by the bite of an asp conveyed to her in a basket of figs. Octavian had Caesarion killed later that month, finally securing his legacy as Caesar's only 'son', while sparing Cleopatra's children by Antony, with the exception of Antony's older son. Octavian admired the bravery of Cleopatra and gave her and Antony a public military funeral in Rome. The funeral was grand and a few of Antony's legions marched alongside the tomb. A day of mourning throughout Rome was enacted. This was partly due to Octavian's respect for Antony and partly because it further helped show the Roman people how benevolent Octavian was. Octavian had previously shown little mercy to surrendered enemies and acted in ways that had proven unpopular with the Roman people, yet he was given credit for pardoning many of his opponents after the Battle of Actium. Further, after the battle, upon Octavian's return to Rome he celebrated his triple triumph spread over three days: the first for his victory over Illyria, the second for the Battle of Actium, and the third for his conquest of Egypt.
Octavian's victory at Actium gave him sole, uncontested control of "Mare Nostrum" ("Our Sea", i.e., the Roman Mediterranean) and he became "Augustus Caesar" and the "first citizen" of Rome. The victory, consolidating his power over every Roman institution, marked Rome's transition from republic to empire. Egypt's surrender after Cleopatra's death marked the demise of both the Hellenistic Period and the Ptolemaic Kingdom, turning it into a Roman province.
To commemorate his victory, Octavian founded the nearby city of Nicopolis ("City of Victory") in 29 BC on the southernmost promontory of Epirus, opposite Actium at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf. On a hill just north of the new city, at the site where he had made his camp in 31 BC, he constructed a victory monument decorated with the bronze rostra (rams) taken from the captured warships of Antony's fleet.
See also
Altar of Victory
Antony and Cleopatra
Nicopolis
Notes
References
Attribution:
Further reading
Military Heritage published a feature about the Battle of Actium (Joseph M. Horodyski, August 2005, Volume 7, No. 1, pp. 58–63, 78), .
External links
The Actium Project
The Naval Battle of Actium
Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 50
30s BC conflicts
31 BC
Actium
1st century BC in Egypt
1st century BC in the Roman Republic
Ancient Acarnania
Augustus
Caesarion
Cleopatra
Actium
Actium
Actium
Roman Epirus
Roman Republican civil wars |
5009 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebrafish | Zebrafish | The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family (Cyprinidae) of the order Cypriniformes. Native to India and South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (and thus often called a "tropical fish" although both tropical and subtropical). It is also found in private ponds.
The zebrafish is an important and widely used vertebrate model organism in scientific research. Zebrafish has been used for biomedicine and developmental biology. The species is used for studies, such as neurobehavioral phenomena. It is also used for psychological reasons such as abuse, cognitive, and affective disorders. The species are used to study and observe behavioral research.
Taxonomy
The zebrafish is a derived member of the genus Brachydanio, of the family Cyprinidae. It has a sister-group relationship with Danio aesculapii. Zebrafish are also closely related to the genus Devario, as demonstrated by a phylogenetic tree of close species.
Distribution
Range
The zebrafish is native to freshwater habitats in South Asia where it is found in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. The northern limit is in the South Himalayas, ranging from the Sutlej river basin in the Pakistan–India border region to the state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast Indian. Its range is concentrated in the Ganges and Brahmaputra River basins, and the species was first described from Kosi River (lower Ganges basin) of India. Its range further south is more local, with scattered records from the Western and Eastern Ghats regions. It has frequently been said to occur in Myanmar (Burma), but this is entirely based on pre-1930 records and likely refers to close relatives only described later, notably Danio kyathit. Likewise, old records from Sri Lanka are highly questionable and remain unconfirmed.
Zebrafish have been introduced to California, Connecticut, Florida and New Mexico in the United States, presumably by deliberate release by aquarists or by escape from fish farms. The New Mexico population had been extirpated by 2003 and it is unclear if the others survive, as the last published records were decades ago. Elsewhere the species has been introduced to Colombia and Malaysia.
Habitats
Zebrafish typically inhabit moderately flowing to stagnant clear water of quite shallow depth in streams, canals, ditches, oxbow lakes, ponds and rice paddies. There is usually some vegetation, either submerged or overhanging from the banks, and the bottom is sandy, muddy or silty, often mixed with pebbles or gravel. In surveys of zebrafish locations throughout much of its Bangladeshi and Indian distribution, the water had a near-neutral to somewhat basic pH and mostly ranged from in temperature. One unusually cold site was only and another unusually warm site was , but the zebrafish still appeared healthy. The unusually cold temperature was at one of the highest known zebrafish locations at above sea level, although the species has been recorded to .
Description
The zebrafish is named for the five uniform, pigmented, horizontal, blue stripes on the side of the body, which are reminiscent of a zebra's stripes, and which extend to the end of the caudal fin. Its shape is fusiform and laterally compressed, with its mouth directed upwards. The male is torpedo-shaped, with gold stripes between the blue stripes; the female has a larger, whitish belly and silver stripes instead of gold. Adult females exhibit a small genital papilla in front of the anal fin origin. The zebrafish can reach up to in length, although they typically are in the wild with some variations depending on location. Its lifespan in captivity is around two to three years, although in ideal conditions, this may be extended to over five years. In the wild it is typically an annual species.
Psychology
In 2015, a study was published about zebrafishes' capacity for episodic memory. The individuals showed a capacity to remember context with respect to objects, locations and occasions (what, when, where). Episodic memory is a capacity of explicit memory systems, typically associated with conscious experience.
The Mauthner cells integrate a wide array of sensory stimuli to produce the escape reflex. Those stimuli are found to include the lateral line signals by McHenry et al. 2009 and visual signals consistent with looming objects by Temizer et al. 2015, Dunn et al. 2016, and Yao et al. 2016.
Reproduction
The approximate generation time for Danio rerio is three months. A male must be present for ovulation and spawning to occur. Zebrafish are asynchronous spawners and under optimal conditions (such as food availability and favorable water parameters) can spawn successfully frequently, even on a daily basis. Females are able to spawn at intervals of two to three days, laying hundreds of eggs in each clutch. Upon release, embryonic development begins; in absence of sperm, growth stops after the first few cell divisions. Fertilized eggs almost immediately become transparent, a characteristic that makes D. rerio a convenient research model species. Sex determination of common laboratory strains was shown to be a complex genetic trait, rather than to follow a simple ZW or XY system.
The zebrafish embryo develops rapidly, with precursors to all major organs appearing within 36 hours of fertilization. The embryo begins as a yolk with a single enormous cell on top (see image, 0 h panel), which divides into two (0.75 h panel) and continues dividing until there are thousands of small cells (3.25 h panel). The cells then migrate down the sides of the yolk (8 h panel) and begin forming a head and tail (16 h panel). The tail then grows and separates from the body (24 h panel). The yolk shrinks over time because the fish uses it for food as it matures during the first few days (72 h panel). After a few months, the adult fish reaches reproductive maturity (bottom panel).
To encourage the fish to spawn, some researchers use a fish tank with a sliding bottom insert, which reduces the depth of the pool to simulate the shore of a river. Zebrafish spawn best in the morning due to their Circadian rhythms. Researchers have been able to collect 10,000 embryos in 10 minutes using this method. In particular, one pair of adult fish is capable of laying 200–300 eggs in one morning in approximately 5 to 10 at time. Male zebrafish are furthermore known to respond to more pronounced markings on females, i.e., "good stripes", but in a group, males will mate with whichever females they can find. What attracts females is not currently understood. The presence of plants, even plastic plants, also apparently encourages spawning.
Exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of diisononyl phthalate (DINP), commonly used in a large variety of plastic items, disrupt the endocannabinoid system and thereby affect reproduction in a sex-specific manner.
Feeding
Zebrafish are omnivorous, primarily eating zooplankton, phytoplankton, insects and insect larvae, although they can eat a variety of other foods, such as worms and small crustaceans, if their preferred food sources are not readily available.
In research, adult zebrafish are often fed with brine shrimp, or paramecia.
In the aquarium
Zebrafish are hardy fish and considered good for beginner aquarists. Their enduring popularity can be attributed to their playful disposition, as well as their rapid breeding, aesthetics, cheap price and broad availability. They also do well in schools or shoals of six or more, and interact well with other fish species in the aquarium. However, they are susceptible to Oodinium or velvet disease, microsporidia (Pseudoloma neurophilia), and Mycobacterium species. Given the opportunity, adults eat hatchlings, which may be protected by separating the two groups with a net, breeding box or separate tank.
In captivity, zebrafish live approximately forty-two months. Some captive zebrafish can develop a curved spine.
The zebra danio was also used to make genetically modified fish and were the first species to be sold as GloFish (fluorescent colored fish).
Strains
In late 2003, transgenic zebrafish that express green, red, and yellow fluorescent proteins became commercially available in the United States. The fluorescent strains are tradenamed GloFish; other cultivated varieties include "golden", "sandy", "longfin" and "leopard".
The leopard danio, previously known as Danio frankei, is a spotted colour morph of the zebrafish which arose due to a pigment mutation. Xanthistic forms of both the zebra and leopard pattern, along with long-finned strains, have been obtained via selective breeding programs for the aquarium trade.
Various transgenic and mutant strains of zebrafish were stored at the China Zebrafish Resource Center (CZRC), a non-profit organization, which was jointly supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Wild-type strains
The Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN) provides up-to-date information about current known wild-type (WT) strains of D. rerio, some of which are listed below.
AB (AB)
AB/C32 (AB/C32)
AB/TL (AB/TL)
AB/Tuebingen (AB/TU)
C32 (C32)
Cologne (KOLN)
Darjeeling (DAR)
Ekkwill (EKW)
HK/AB (HK/AB)
HK/Sing (HK/SING)
Hong Kong (HK)
India (IND)
Indonesia (INDO)
Nadia (NA)
RIKEN WT (RW)
Singapore (SING)
SJA (SJA)
SJD (SJD)
SJD/C32 (SJD/C32)
Tuebingen (TU)
Tupfel long fin (TL)
Tupfel long fin nacre (TLN)
WIK (WIK)
WIK/AB (WIK/AB)
Hybrids
Hybrids between different Danio species may be fertile: for example, between D. rerio and D. nigrofasciatus.
Scientific research
D. rerio is a common and useful scientific model organism for studies of vertebrate development and gene function. Its use as a laboratory animal was pioneered by the American molecular biologist George Streisinger and his colleagues at the University of Oregon in the 1970s and 1980s; Streisinger's zebrafish clones were among the earliest successful vertebrate clones created. Its importance has been consolidated by successful large-scale forward genetic screens (commonly referred to as the Tübingen/Boston screens). The fish has a dedicated online database of genetic, genomic, and developmental information, the Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN). The Zebrafish International Resource Center (ZIRC) is a genetic resource repository with 29,250 alleles available for distribution to the research community. D. rerio is also one of the few fish species to have been sent into space.
Research with D. rerio has yielded advances in the fields of developmental biology, oncology, toxicology, reproductive studies, teratology, genetics, neurobiology, environmental sciences, stem cell research, regenerative medicine, muscular dystrophies and evolutionary theory.
Model characteristics
As a model biological system, the zebrafish possesses numerous advantages for scientists. Its genome has been fully sequenced, and it has well-understood, easily observable and testable developmental behaviors. Its embryonic development is very rapid, and its embryos are relatively large, robust, and transparent, and able to develop outside their mother. Furthermore, well-characterized mutant strains are readily available.
Other advantages include the species' nearly constant size during early development, which enables simple staining techniques to be used, and the fact that its two-celled embryo can be fused into a single cell to create a homozygous embryo. The zebrafish is also demonstrably similar to mammalian models and humans in toxicity testing, and exhibits a diurnal sleep cycle with similarities to mammalian sleep behavior. However, zebrafish are not a universally ideal research model; there are a number of disadvantages to their scientific use, such as the absence of a standard diet and the presence of small but important differences between zebrafish and mammals in the roles of some genes related to human disorders.
Regeneration
Zebrafish have the ability to regenerate their heart and lateral line hair cells during their larval stages. The cardiac regenerative process likely involves signaling pathways such as Notch and Wnt; hemodynamic changes in the damaged heart are sensed by ventricular endothelial cells and their associated cardiac cilia by way of the mechanosensitive ion channel TRPV4, subsequently facilitating the Notch signaling pathway via KLF2 and activating various downstream effectors such as BMP-2 and HER2/neu. In 2011, the British Heart Foundation ran an advertising campaign publicising its intention to study the applicability of this ability to humans, stating that it aimed to raise £50 million in research funding.
Zebrafish have also been found to regenerate photoreceptor cells and retinal neurons following injury, which has been shown to be mediated by the dedifferentiation and proliferation of Müller glia. Researchers frequently amputate the dorsal and ventral tail fins and analyze their regrowth to test for mutations. It has been found that histone demethylation occurs at the site of the amputation, switching the zebrafish's cells to an "active", regenerative, stem cell-like state. In 2012, Australian scientists published a study revealing that zebrafish use a specialised protein, known as fibroblast growth factor, to ensure their spinal cords heal without glial scarring after injury. In addition, hair cells of the posterior lateral line have also been found to regenerate following damage or developmental disruption. Study of gene expression during regeneration has allowed for the identification of several important signaling pathways involved in the process, such as Wnt signaling and Fibroblast growth factor.
In probing disorders of the nervous system, including neurodegenerative diseases, movement disorders, psychiatric disorders and deafness, researchers are using the zebrafish to understand how the genetic defects underlying these conditions cause functional abnormalities in the human brain, spinal cord and sensory organs. Researchers have also studied the zebrafish to gain new insights into the complexities of human musculoskeletal diseases, such as muscular dystrophy. Another focus of zebrafish research is to understand how a gene called Hedgehog, a biological signal that underlies a number of human cancers, controls cell growth.
Genetics
Background genetics
Inbred strains and traditional outbred stocks have not been developed for laboratory zebrafish, and the genetic variability of wild-type lines among institutions may contribute to the replication crisis in biomedical research. Genetic differences in wild-type lines among populations maintained at different research institutions have been demonstrated using both Single-nucleotide polymorphisms and microsatellite analysis.
Gene expression
Due to their fast and short life cycles and relatively large clutch sizes, D. rerio or zebrafish are a useful model for genetic studies. A common reverse genetics technique is to reduce gene expression or modify splicing using Morpholino antisense technology. Morpholino oligonucleotides (MO) are stable, synthetic macromolecules that contain the same bases as DNA or RNA; by binding to complementary RNA sequences, they can reduce the expression of specific genes or block other processes from occurring on RNA. MO can be injected into one cell of an embryo after the 32-cell stage, reducing gene expression in only cells descended from that cell. However, cells in the early embryo (less than 32 cells) are interpermeable to large molecules, allowing diffusion between cells. Guidelines for using Morpholinos in zebrafish describe appropriate control strategies. Morpholinos are commonly microinjected in 500pL directly into 1-2 cell stage zebrafish embryos. The morpholino is able to integrate into most cells of the embryo.
A known problem with gene knockdowns is that, because the genome underwent a duplication after the divergence of ray-finned fishes and lobe-finned fishes, it is not always easy to silence the activity of one of the two gene paralogs reliably due to complementation by the other paralog. Despite the complications of the zebrafish genome, a number of commercially available global platforms exist for analysis of both gene expression by microarrays and promoter regulation using ChIP-on-chip.
Genome sequencing
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute started the zebrafish genome sequencing project in 2001, and the full genome sequence of the Tuebingen reference strain is publicly available at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)'s Zebrafish Genome Page. The zebrafish reference genome sequence is annotated as part of the Ensembl project, and is maintained by the Genome Reference Consortium.
In 2009, researchers at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi, India, announced the sequencing of the genome of a wild zebrafish strain, containing an estimated 1.7 billion genetic letters. The genome of the wild zebrafish was sequenced at 39-fold coverage. Comparative analysis with the zebrafish reference genome revealed over 5 million single nucleotide variations and over 1.6 million insertion deletion variations. The zebrafish reference genome sequence of 1.4GB and over 26,000 protein coding genes was published by Kerstin Howe et al. in 2013.
Mitochondrial DNA
In October 2001, researchers from the University of Oklahoma published D. rerio's complete mitochondrial DNA sequence. Its length is 16,596 base pairs. This is within 100 base pairs of other related species of fish, and it is notably only 18 pairs longer than the goldfish (Carassius auratus) and 21 longer than the carp (Cyprinus carpio). Its gene order and content are identical to the common vertebrate form of mitochondrial DNA. It contains 13 protein-coding genes and a noncoding control region containing the origin of replication for the heavy strand. In between a grouping of five tRNA genes, a sequence resembling vertebrate origin of light strand replication is found. It is difficult to draw evolutionary conclusions because it is difficult to determine whether base pair changes have adaptive significance via comparisons with other vertebrates' nucleotide sequences.
Developmental genetics
T-boxes and homeoboxes are vital in Danio similarly to other vertebrates. The Bruce et al. team are known for this area, and in Bruce et al. 2003 & Bruce et al. 2005 uncover the role of two of these elements in oocytes of this species. By interfering via a dominant nonfunctional allele and a morpholino they find the T-box transcription activator Eomesodermin and its target mtx2 – a transcription factor – are vital to epiboly. (In Bruce et al. 2003 they failed to support the possibility that Eomesodermin behaves like Vegt. Neither they nor anyone else has been able to locate any mutation which – in the mother – will prevent initiation of the mesoderm or endoderm development processes in this species.)
Pigmentation genes
In 1999, the nacre mutation was identified in the zebrafish ortholog of the mammalian MITF transcription factor. Mutations in human MITF result in eye defects and loss of pigment, a type of Waardenburg Syndrome. In December 2005, a study of the golden strain identified the gene responsible for its unusual pigmentation as SLC24A5, a solute carrier that appeared to be required for melanin production, and confirmed its function with a Morpholino knockdown. The orthologous gene was then characterized in humans and a one base pair difference was found to strongly segregate fair-skinned Europeans and dark-skinned Africans. Zebrafish with the nacre mutation have since been bred with fish with a roy orbison (roy) mutation to make Casper strain fish that have no melanophores or iridophores, and are transparent into adulthood. These fish are characterized by uniformly pigmented eyes and translucent skin.
Transgenesis
Transgenesis is a popular approach to study the function of genes in zebrafish. Construction of transgenic zebrafish is rather easy by a method using the Tol2 transposon system. Tol2 element which encodes a gene for a fully functional transposase capable of catalyzing transposition in the zebrafish germ lineage. Tol2 is the only natural DNA transposable element in vertebrates from which an autonomous member has been identified. Examples include the artificial interaction produced between LEF1 and Catenin beta-1/β-catenin/CTNNB1. Dorsky et al. 2002 investigated the developmental role of Wnt by transgenically expressing a Lef1/β-catenin reporter.
There are well-established protocols for editing zebrafish genes using CRISPR-Cas9 and this tool has been used to generate genetically modified models.
Transparent adult bodies
In 2008, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital developed a new strain of zebrafish, named Casper, whose adult bodies had transparent skin. This allows for detailed visualization of cellular activity, circulation, metastasis and many other phenomena. In 2019 researchers published a crossing of a prkdc-/- and a IL2rga-/- strain that produced transparent, immunodeficient offspring, lacking natural killer cells as well as B- and T-cells. This strain can be adapted to warm water and the absence of an immune system makes the use of patient derived xenografts possible. In January 2013, Japanese scientists genetically modified a transparent zebrafish specimen to produce a visible glow during periods of intense brain activity.
In January 2007, Chinese researchers at Fudan University genetically modified zebrafish to detect oestrogen pollution in lakes and rivers, which is linked to male infertility. The researchers cloned oestrogen-sensitive genes and injected them into the fertile eggs of zebrafish. The modified fish turned green if placed into water that was polluted by oestrogen.
RNA splicing
In 2015, researchers at Brown University discovered that 10% of zebrafish genes do not need to rely on the U2AF2 protein to initiate RNA splicing. These genes have the DNA base pairs AC and TG as repeated sequences at the ends of each intron. On the 3'ss (3' splicing site), the base pairs adenine and cytosine alternate and repeat, and on the 5'ss (5' splicing site), their complements thymine and guanine alternate and repeat as well. They found that there was less reliance on U2AF2 protein than in humans, in which the protein is required for the splicing process to occur. The pattern of repeating base pairs around introns that alters RNA secondary structure was found in other teleosts, but not in tetrapods. This indicates that an evolutionary change in tetrapods may have led to humans relying on the U2AF2 protein for RNA splicing while these genes in zebrafish undergo splicing regardless of the presence of the protein.
Orthology
D. rerio has three transferrins, all of which cluster closely with other vertebrates.
Inbreeding depression
When close relatives mate, progeny may exhibit the detrimental effects of inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression is predominantly caused by the homozygous expression of recessive deleterious alleles. For zebrafish, inbreeding depression might be expected to be more severe in stressful environments, including those caused by anthropogenic pollution. Exposure of zebrafish to environmental stress induced by the chemical clotrimazole, an imidazole fungicide used in agriculture and in veterinary and human medicine, amplified the effects of inbreeding on key reproductive traits. Embryo viability was significantly reduced in inbred exposed fish and there was a tendency for inbred males to sire fewer offspring.
Aquaculture research
Zebrafish are common models for research into fish farming, including pathogens and parasites causing yield loss and/or spread to adjacent wild populations.
This usefulness is less than it might be due to Danios taxonomic distance from the most common aquaculture species. Because the most common are salmonids and cod in the Protacanthopterygii and sea bass, sea bream,
tilapia, and flatfish, in the Percomorpha, zebrafish results may not be perfectly applicable. Various other models Goldfish (Carassius auratus), Medaka (Oryzias latipes), Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), Roach (Rutilus rutilus), Pufferfish (Takifugu rubripes), Swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii) are less used normally but would be closer to particular target species.
The only exception are the Carp (including Grass Carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella) and Milkfish (Chanos chanos) which are quite close, both being in the Cyprinidae. However it should also be noted that Danio consistently proves to be a useful model for mammals in many cases and there is dramatically more genetic distance between them than between Danio and any farmed fish.
Neurochemistry
In a glucocorticoid receptor-defective mutant with reduced exploratory behavior, fluoxetine rescued the normal exploratory behavior. This demonstrates relationships between glucocorticoids, fluoxetine, and exploration in this fish.
Drug discovery and development
The zebrafish and zebrafish larva is a suitable model organism for drug discovery and development. As a vertebrate with 70% genetic homology with humans, it can be predictive of human health and disease, while its small size and fast development facilitates experiments on a larger and quicker scale than with more traditional in vivo studies, including the development of higher-throughput, automated investigative tools. As demonstrated through ongoing research programmes, the zebrafish model enables researchers not only to identify genes that might underlie human disease, but also to develop novel therapeutic agents in drug discovery programmes. Zebrafish embryos have proven to be a rapid, cost-efficient, and reliable teratology assay model.
Drug screens
Drug screens in zebrafish can be used to identify novel classes of compounds with biological effects, or to repurpose existing drugs for novel uses; an example of the latter would be a screen which found that a commonly used statin (rosuvastatin) can suppress the growth of prostate cancer. To date, 65 small-molecule screens have been carried out and at least one has led to clinical trials. Within these screens, many technical challenges remain to be resolved, including differing rates of drug absorption resulting in levels of internal exposure that cannot be extrapolated from the water concentration, and high levels of natural variation between individual animals.
Toxico- or pharmacokinetics
To understand drug effects, the internal drug exposure is essential, as this drives the pharmacological effect. Translating experimental results from zebrafish to higher vertebrates (like humans) requires concentration-effect relationships, which can be derived from pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analysis.
Because of its small size, however, it is very challenging to quantify the internal drug exposure. Traditionally multiple blood samples would be drawn to characterize the drug concentration profile over time, but this technique remains to be developed. To date, only a single pharmacokinetic model for paracetamol has been developed in zebrafish larvae.
Computational data analysis
Using smart data analysis methods, pathophysiological and pharmacological processes can be understood and subsequently translated to higher vertebrates, including humans. An example is the use of systems pharmacology, which is the integration of systems biology and pharmacometrics.
Systems biology characterizes (part of) an organism by a mathematical description of all relevant processes. These can be for example different signal transduction pathways that upon a specific signal lead to a certain response. By quantifying these processes, their behaviour in healthy and diseased situation can be understood and predicted.
Pharmacometrics uses data from preclinical experiments and clinical trials to characterize the pharmacological processes that are underlying the relation between the drug dose and its response or clinical outcome. These can be for example the drug absorption in or clearance from the body, or its interaction with the target to achieve a certain effect. By quantifying these processes, their behaviour after different doses or in different patients can be understood and predicted to new doses or patients.
By integrating these two fields, systems pharmacology has the potential to improve the understanding of the interaction of the drug with the biological system by mathematical quantification and subsequent prediction to new situations, like new drugs or new organisms or patients.
Using these computational methods, the previously mentioned analysis of paracetamol internal exposure in zebrafish larvae showed reasonable correlation between paracetamol clearance in zebrafish with that of higher vertebrates, including humans.
Medical research
Cancer
Zebrafish have been used to make several transgenic models of cancer, including melanoma, leukemia, pancreatic cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. Zebrafish expressing mutated forms of either the BRAF or NRAS oncogenes develop melanoma when placed onto a p53 deficient background. Histologically, these tumors strongly resemble the human disease, are fully transplantable, and exhibit large-scale genomic alterations. The BRAF melanoma model was utilized as a platform for two screens published in March 2011 in the journal Nature. In one study, the model was used as a tool to understand the functional importance of genes known to be amplified and overexpressed in human melanoma. One gene, SETDB1, markedly accelerated tumor formation in the zebrafish system, demonstrating its importance as a new melanoma oncogene. This was particularly significant because SETDB1 is known to be involved in the epigenetic regulation that is increasingly appreciated to be central to tumor cell biology.
In another study, an effort was made to therapeutically target the genetic program present in the tumor's origin neural crest cell using a chemical screening approach. This revealed that an inhibition of the DHODH protein (by a small molecule called leflunomide) prevented development of the neural crest stem cells which ultimately give rise to melanoma via interference with the process of transcriptional elongation. Because this approach would aim to target the "identity" of the melanoma cell rather than a single genetic mutation, leflunomide may have utility in treating human melanoma.
Cardiovascular disease
In cardiovascular research, the zebrafish has been used to model human myocardial infarction model. The zebrafish heart completely regenerates after about 2 months of injury without any scar formation. Zebrafish is also used as a model for blood clotting, blood vessel development, and congenital heart and kidney disease.
Immune system
In programmes of research into acute inflammation, a major underpinning process in many diseases, researchers have established a zebrafish model of inflammation, and its resolution. This approach allows detailed study of the genetic controls of inflammation and the possibility of identifying potential new drugs.
Zebrafish has been extensively used as a model organism to study vertebrate innate immunity. The innate immune system is capable of phagocytic activity by 28 to 30 h postfertilization (hpf) while adaptive immunity is not functionally mature until at least 4 weeks postfertilization.
Infectious diseases
As the immune system is relatively conserved between zebrafish and humans, many human infectious diseases can be modeled in zebrafish. The transparent early life stages are well suited for in vivo imaging and genetic dissection of host-pathogen interactions. Zebrafish models for a wide range of bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens have already been established; for example, the zebrafish model for tuberculosis provides fundamental insights into the mechanisms of pathogenesis of mycobacteria. Furthermore, robotic technology has been developed for high-throughput antimicrobial drug screening using zebrafish infection models.
Repairing retinal damage
Another notable characteristic of the zebrafish is that it possesses four types of cone cell, with ultraviolet-sensitive cells supplementing the red, green and blue cone cell subtypes found in humans. Zebrafish can thus observe a very wide spectrum of colours. The species is also studied to better understand the development of the retina; in particular, how the cone cells of the retina become arranged into the so-called 'cone mosaic'. Zebrafish, in addition to certain other teleost fish, are particularly noted for having extreme precision of cone cell arrangement.
This study of the zebrafish's retinal characteristics has also extrapolated into medical enquiry. In 2007, researchers at University College London grew a type of zebrafish adult stem cell found in the eyes of fish and mammals that develops into neurons in the retina. These could be injected into the eye to treat diseases that damage retinal neurons—nearly every disease of the eye, including macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetes-related blindness. The researchers studied Müller glial cells in the eyes of humans aged from 18 months to 91 years, and were able to develop them into all types of retinal neurons. They were also able to grow them easily in the lab. The stem cells successfully migrated into diseased rats' retinas, and took on the characteristics of the surrounding neurons. The team stated that they intended to develop the same approach in humans.
Muscular dystrophies
Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a heterogeneous group of genetic disorders that cause muscle weakness, abnormal contractions and muscle wasting, often leading to premature death. Zebrafish is widely used as model organism to study muscular dystrophies. For example, the sapje (sap) mutant is the zebrafish orthologue of human Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The Machuca-Tzili and co-workers applied zebrafish to determine the role of alternative splicing factor, MBNL, in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) pathogenesis. More recently, Todd et al. described a new zebrafish model designed to explore the impact of CUG repeat expression during early development in DM1 disease. Zebrafish is also an excellent animal model to study congenital muscular dystrophies including CMD Type 1 A (CMD 1A) caused by mutation in the human laminin α2 (LAMA2) gene. The zebrafish, because of its advantages discussed above, and in particular the ability of zebrafish embryos to absorb chemicals, has become a model of choice in screening and testing new drugs against muscular dystrophies.
Bone physiology and pathology
Zebrafish have been used as model organisms for bone metabolism, tissue turnover, and resorbing activity. These processes are largely evolutionary conserved. They have been used to study osteogenesis (bone formation), evaluating differentiation, matrix deposition activity, and cross-talk of skeletal cells, to create and isolate mutants modeling human bone diseases, and test new chemical compounds for the ability to revert bone defects. The larvae can be used to follow new (de novo) osteoblast formation during bone development. They start mineralising bone elements as early as 4 days post fertilisation. Recently, adult zebrafish are being used to study complex age related bone diseases such as osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta. The (elasmoid) scales of zebrafish function as a protective external layer and are little bony plates made by osteoblasts. These exoskeletal structures are formed by bone matrix depositing osteoblasts and are remodeled by osteoclasts. The scales also act as the main calcium storage of the fish. They can be cultured ex-vivo (kept alive outside of the organism) in a multi-well plate, which allows manipulation with drugs and even screening for new drugs that could change bone metabolism (between osteoblasts and osteoclasts).
Diabetes
Zebrafish pancreas development is very homologous to mammals, such as mice. The signaling mechanisms and way the pancreas functions are very similar. The pancreas has an endocrine compartment, which contains a variety of cells. Pancreatic PP cells that produce polypeptides, and β-cells that produce insulin are two examples of those such cells. This structure of the pancreas, along with the glucose homeostasis system, are helpful in studying diseases, such as diabetes, that are related to the pancreas. Models for pancreas function, such as fluorescent staining of proteins, are useful in determining the processes of glucose homeostasis and the development of the pancreas. Glucose tolerance tests have been developed using zebrafish, and can now be used to test for glucose intolerance or diabetes in humans. The function of insulin are also being tested in zebrafish, which will further contribute to human medicine. The majority of work done surrounding knowledge on glucose homeostasis has come from work on zebrafish transferred to humans.
Obesity
Zebrafish have been used as a model system to study obesity, with research into both genetic obesity and over-nutrition induced obesity. Obese zebrafish, similar to obese mammals, show dysregulation of lipid controlling metabolic pathways, which leads to weight gain without normal lipid metabolism. Also like mammals, zebrafish store excess lipids in visceral, intramuscular, and subcutaneous adipose deposits. These reasons and others make zebrafish good models for studying obesity in humans and other species. Genetic obesity is usually studied in transgenic or mutated zebrafish with obesogenic genes. As an example, transgenic zebrafish with overexpressed AgRP, an endogenous melacortin antagonist, showed increased body weight and adipose deposition during growth. Though zebrafish genes may not be the exact same as human genes, these tests could provide important insight into possible genetic causes and treatments for human genetic obesity. Diet-induced obesity zebrafish models are useful, as diet can be modified from a very early age. High fat diets and general overfeeding diets both show rapid increases in adipose deposition, increased BMI, hepatosteatosis, and hypertriglyceridemia. However, the normal fat, overfed specimens are still metabolically healthy, while high-fat diet specimens are not. Understanding differences between types of feeding-induced obesity could prove useful in human treatment of obesity and related health conditions.
Environmental toxicology
Zebrafish have been used as a model system in environmental toxicology studies.
Epilepsy
Zebrafish have been used as a model system to study epilepsy. Mammalian seizures can be recapitulated molecularly, behaviorally, and electrophysiologically, using a fraction of the resources required for experiments in mammals.
See also
Japanese rice fish or medaka, another fish used for genetic, developmental, and biomedical research
List of freshwater aquarium fish species
Denison barb
References
Further reading
External links
British Association of Zebrafish Husbandry
International Zebrafish Society (IZFS)
European Society for Fish Models in Biology and Medicine (EuFishBioMed)
The Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN)
The Zebrafish International Resource Center (ZIRC)
The European Zebrafish Resource Center (EZRC)
The China Zebrafish Resource Center (CZRC)
The Zebrafish Genome Sequencing Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
FishMap: The Zebrafish Community Genomics Browser at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB)
WebHome Zebrafish GenomeWiki Beta Preview at the IGIB
Genome sequencing initiative at the IGIB
Danio rerio at Danios.info
Sanger Institute Zebrafish Mutation Resource
Zebrafish genome via Ensembl
FishforScience.com – using zebrafish for medical research
FishForPharma
Breeding Zebrafish
Fish described in 1822
Danio
Fish of Bangladesh
Freshwater fish of India
Freshwater fish of Pakistan
Animal models
Stem cell research
Regenerative biomedicine
Animal models in neuroscience
Taxa named by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton
Fish of Nepal
Fish of Bhutan |
5013 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle%20of%20Adwa | Battle of Adwa | The Battle of Adwa (; ; , also spelled Adowa) was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. The Ethiopian forces defeated the Italian invading force on Sunday 1 March 1896, near the town of Adwa. The decisive victory thwarted the campaign of the Kingdom of Italy to expand its colonial empire in the Horn of Africa. By the end of the 19th century, European powers had carved up almost all of Africa after the Berlin Conference; only Ethiopia and Liberia still maintained their independence. Adwa became a pre-eminent symbol of pan-Africanism and secured Ethiopian sovereignty until the Second Italo-Ethiopian War forty years later.
Background
In 1889, the Italians signed the Treaty of Wuchale with the then King Menelik of Shewa. The treaty, signed after the Italian occupation of Eritrea, recognized Italy's claim over the coastal colony. In it, Italy also promised to provide financial assistance and military supplies. A dispute later arose over the interpretation of the two versions of the document. The Italian-language version of the disputed Article 17 of the treaty stated that the Emperor of Ethiopia was obliged to conduct all foreign affairs through Italian authorities, effectively making Ethiopia a protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy. The Amharic version of the article, however, stated that the Emperor could use the good offices of the Kingdom of Italy in his relations with foreign nations if he wished. However, the Italian diplomats claimed that the original Amharic text included the clause and that Menelik II knowingly signed a modified copy of the Treaty.
The Italian government decided on a military solution to force Ethiopia to abide by the Italian version of the treaty. As a result, Italy and Ethiopia came into confrontation, in what was later to be known as the First Italo-Ethiopian War. In December 1894, Bahta Hagos led a rebellion against the Italians in Akele Guzai, in what was then Italian controlled Eritrea. Units of General Oreste Baratieri's army under Major Pietro Toselli crushed the rebellion and killed Bahta. The Italian army then occupied the Tigrayan capital, Adwa. In January 1895, Baratieri's army went on to defeat Ras Mengesha Yohannes in the Battle of Coatit, forcing Mengesha to retreat further south.
By late 1895, Italian forces had advanced deep into Ethiopian territory. On 7 December 1895, Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael, Fitawrari Gebeyehu and Ras Mengesha Yohannes commanding a larger Ethiopian group of Menelik's vanguard annihilated a small Italian unit at the Battle of Amba Alagi. The Italians were then forced to withdraw to more defensible positions in Tigray Province, where the two main armies faced each other. By late February 1896, supplies on both sides were running low. General Oreste Baratieri, commander of the Italian forces, knew the Ethiopian forces had been living off the land, and once the supplies of the local peasants were exhausted, Emperor Menelik II's army would begin to melt away. However, the Italian government insisted that General Baratieri act.
On the evening of 29 February, Baratieri, about to be replaced by a new governor, General Baldissera, met with his generals Matteo Albertone, Giuseppe Arimondi, Vittorio Dabormida, and Giuseppe Ellena, concerning their next steps. He opened the meeting on a negative note, revealing to his brigadiers that provisions would be exhausted in less than five days, and suggested retreating, perhaps as far back as Asmara. His subordinates argued forcefully for an attack, insisting that to retreat at this point would only worsen the poor morale. Dabormida exclaimed, "Italy would prefer the loss of two or three thousand men to a dishonorable retreat." Baratieri delayed making a decision for a few more hours, claiming that he needed to wait for some last-minute intelligence, but in the end announced that the attack would start the next morning at 9:00am. His troops began their march to their starting positions shortly after midnight.
Order of battle
Ethiopian forces
Shewa; Negus Negasti Menelik II: 25,000 rifles / 3,000 horses / 32 guns
Semien; Itaghiè Taytu: 3,000 rifles / 600 horses / 4 guns
Gojjam; Negus Tekle Haymanot: 5,000 rifles
Harar; Ras Makonnen: 15,000 rifles
Tigray; Ras Mengesha Yohannes and Ras Alula: 12,000 rifles / 6 guns
Wollo; Ras Mikael: 6,000 rifles / 5,000 horses
Gondar; Ras Gugsa Olié: 8,000 rifles
Lasta; Wagshum Guangul: 6,000 rifles
In addition there were ~20,000 spearmen and swordsmen as well as an unknown number of armed peasants.
Estimates for the Ethiopian forces under Menelik range from a low of 73,000 to a high of over 100,000 outnumbering the Italians by an estimated five times. The forces were divided among Emperor Menelik, Empress Taytu Betul, Ras Wale Betul, Ras Mengesha Atikem, Ras Mengesha Yohannes, Ras Alula Engida (Abba Nega), Ras Mikael of Wollo, Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael,Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, Fitawrari Gebeyyehu, and Negus Tekle Haymanot Tessemma. In addition, the armies were followed by a similar number of camp followers who supplied the army, as had been done for centuries. Most of the army consisted of riflemen, a significant percentage of whom were in Menelik's reserve; however, there were also a significant number of cavalry and infantry only armed with lances (those with lances were referred to as "lancer servants"). According to some Italian diplomats, the Ethiopians were supported by a regiment of Kuban Cossacks led by N. S. Leontiev, however, historian, Richard Caulk would assert that Leontiev did not in fact participate in the battle, rather he visited Ethiopia first unofficially in January 1895, and then officially as a representative of Russia in August 1895, but then left later that year, returning only after the Battle of Adwa.
Ethnic composition of the Ethiopian army
At the Battle of Adwa, Ethiopian fighters from all parts of the country rallied to the cause and took up positions on the battlefield that allowed them to come to each other's aid during combat. Armies who participated in the battle includes Tekle Haymanot's Amhara infantry and cavalry; Ras Mengesha’s Tigrayan army; Ras Mikael’s Oromo cavalry; Ras Makonnen's Harar army that composed of Amhara and Gurage infantry and Oromo cavalry; Wag-shum Gwangul's Agew and Amhara infantry from Wag and Lasta. Fitawrari Tekle led the Wellega Oromo cavalry while Ras Gugsa Olié's army was composed of Amharas from Semien and Quara. Empress Taytu Bitul led her own Begemder Amhara and Yejju fighters. The Fitawrari's army, normally the leader of the advanced guard, was commanded by Fitawrari Gebeyehu. The mehal sefari or central fighting unit mostly included Shewan Amhara infantry and Mecha-Tulama Oromo cavalry. The Ethiopian army at Adwa was, therefore, a mosaic of various ethnic groups and tribes that marched north for a common, national cause.
Italian forces
Immediately before the battle of Adwa, the Italian army consisted of 29,700 Italians and 14,000 askaris. However, as Harold Marcus notes, "several thousand" soldiers were needed in support roles and to guard the lines of communication to the rear. He accordingly estimates that the Italian force at Adwa consisted of just 14,519 effective combat troops. Where as, David L. Lewis estimates that the Italian army consisted of four brigades, totaling 17,770 troops with fifty-six artillery pieces. One brigade under General Albertone was made up of Eritrean Ascari led by Italian officers. The remaining three brigades were Italian units under Brigadiers Dabormida, Ellena and Arimondi. While these included elite Bersaglieri and Alpini units, a large proportion of the troops were inexperienced conscripts recently drafted from metropolitan regiments in Italy into newly formed "d'Africa" battalions for service in Africa. Additionally, a limited number of troops were from the Cacciatori d'Africa; units permanently serving in Africa and in part recruited from Italian settlers.
According to historian Chris Prouty:
The Italian operational corps in Eritrea was under the command of General Oreste Baratieri. The chief of staff was Lieutenant Colonel Giacchino Valenzano.
Right column: (4,833 rifles / 18 cannons) 2nd Infantry Brigade (Gen. Vittorio Dabormida);
3rd Africa Infantry Regiment, (Col. Ottavio Ragni)
5th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Luigi Giordano)
6th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Leopoldo Prato)
10th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Gennaro De Fonseca)
6th Africa Infantry Regiment (Col. Cesare Airaghi)
3rd Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Luigi Branchi)
13th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Alberto Rayneri)
14th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Secondo Solaro)
Native Mobile Militia Battalion (Maj. Lodovico De Vito)
Native Company from the Asmara Chitet (Cpt. Alberto Sermasi)
2nd Artillery Brigade (Maj. Alberto Zola)
5th Mountain Artillery Battery (Cpt. Giuseppe Mottino)
6th Mountain Artillery Battery (Cpt. Giuseppe Regazzi)
7th Mountain Artillery Battery (Cpt. Vittorio Gisla)
Central column: (3,324 rifles / 12 cannons) 1st Infantry Brigade (Gen. Giuseppe Arimondi);
1st Africa Bersaglieri Regiment (Col. Francesco Stevani)
1st Africa Bersaglieri Battalion (Maj. Matteo De Stefano)
2nd Africa Bersaglieri Battalion (Maj. Lorenzo Compiano)
1st Africa Infantry Regiment (Col. Ugo Brusati)
2nd Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Flaciano Viancini)
4th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Luigi De Amicis)
9th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Giuseppe Baudoin)
1st Company of the 5th Native Battalion (Cpt. Pietro Pavesi)
8th Mountain Artillery Battery (Cpt. Vincenzo Loffredo)
11th Mountain Artillery Battery (Cpt. Giocanni Franzini)
Left column: (4,339 rifles / 14 cannons) Native Brigade (Gen. Matteo Albertone);
1st Native Battalion (Maj. Domenico Turitto)
6th Native Battalion (Maj. Giuseppe Cossu)
5th Native Battalion (Maj. Rodolfo Valli)
8th Native Battalion (Maj. Giocanni Gamerra)
"Okulè Kusai" Native Irregular Company (Lt. Alessandro Sapelli)
1st Artillery Brigade (Maj. Francesco De Rosa)
1st Native Mountain Artillery Battery (Cpt. Clemente Henry)
2nd Section of the 2nd Native Mountain Artillery Battery (Lt. Arnaldo Vibi)
3rd Mountain Artillery Battery (Cpt. Edoardo Bianchini)
4th Mountain Artillery Battery (Cpt. Umberto Masotto)
Reserve column: (3,032 rifles /12 cannons) 3rd Infantry Brigade (Gen. Giuseppe Ellena);
4th Africa Infantry Regiment (Col. Giovanni Romero)
7th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Alberto Montecchi)
8th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Achille Violante)
11th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Sebastiano Manfredi)
12th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Rinaldo Amatucci)
5th Africa Infantry Regiment (Col. Luigi Nava)
15th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Achille Ferraro)
16th Africa Infantry Battalion (Maj. Bugenio Vandiol)
1st Africa Alpini Battalion (Lt. Col. Davide Menini)
3rd Native Battalion (Lt. Col. Giuseppe Galliano)
1st Quick Fire Artillery Battery (Cpt. Giovanni Aragno)
2nd Quick Fire Artillery Battery (Cpt. Domencio Mangia)
Sappers company
Budget restrictions and supply shortages meant that many of the rifles and artillery pieces issued to the Italian reinforcements sent to Africa were obsolete models, while clothing and other equipment was often substandard. The logistics and training of the recently arrived conscript contingents from Italy were inferior to the experienced colonial troops based in Eritrea.
Battle
On the night of 29 February and the early morning of 1 March, three Italian brigades advanced separately towards Adwa over narrow mountain tracks, while a fourth remained camped. David Levering Lewis states that the Italian battle plan called for three columns to march in parallel formation to the crests of three mountains – Dabormida commanding on the right, Albertone on the left, and Arimondi in the center – with a reserve under Ellena following behind Arimondi. The supporting crossfire each column could give the others made the 'soldiers as deadly as razored shears'. Albertone's brigade was to set the pace for the others. He was to position himself on the summit known as Kidane Mehret, which would give the Italians the high ground from which to meet the Ethiopians. However, the three leading Italian brigades had become separated during their overnight march and by dawn were spread across several miles of very difficult terrain. Their sketchy maps caused Albertone to mistake one mountain for Kidane Meret, and when a scout pointed out his mistake, Albertone advanced directly into the Ethiopian positions.
Unbeknownst to General Baratieri, Emperor Menelik knew his troops had exhausted the ability of the local peasants to support them and had planned to break camp the next day (2 March). The Emperor had risen early to begin prayers for divine guidance when spies from Ras Alula, brought him news that the Italians were advancing. The Emperor summoned the separate armies of his nobles and with the Empress Taytu Betul beside him, ordered his forces forward. Negus Tekle Haymanot commanded the right wing with his troops from Gojjam, Ras Mengesha in the left with his troops from Tigray, Ras Makonnen leading the center with his troops, and Ras Mikael at the north side leading the Wollo Oromo cavalry. In the reserves on the hills just west of Adwa, were the Emperor Menelik and Empress Taitu, with the warriors of Ras Olié and Wagshum Guangul. The Ethiopian forces positioned themselves on the hills overlooking the Adwa valley, in perfect position to receive the Italians, who were exposed and vulnerable to crossfire.
Albertone's Ascari Brigade was the first to encounter the onrush of Ethiopians at 06:00AM, near Kidane Meret. The Ethiopian units closest to Albertone’s advanced position on the slopes of the Hill of Enda Kidane Meret first moved to the attack. The first group to engage with Albertone was the Tigray army under the command of Ras Mengesha and Ras Alula. They were immediately joined by troops under Negus Tekle Haymanot, Ras Makonnen and Ras Mikael while those of Wagshum Guangul and Ras Olié came up soon after, so a large proportion of the Ethiopian army was soon concentrated against Albertone’s isolated Ascari Brigade. Initially the Italian artillery inflicted heavy casualties on the Ethiopian formations until a portion of the Ethiopians led by Balcha Safo deployed their quick-firing Hotchkiss guns on the lower side of Mount Abba Gerima. Albertone’s advantage in artillery fire was removed and his guns were silenced as his gunners were slaughtered by the Ethiopian artillery. Albertone's heavily outnumbered Ascaris held their position for two hours until Albertone's surrender, and under Ethiopian pressure the survivors sought refuge with Arimondi's brigade. Arimondi's brigade beat back the armies of Harar, Tigray, Wollo, Gondar and Lasta who repeatedly charged the Italian positions for three hours with gradually fading strength until Menelik released his reserve of 25,000 Shewans and overran the Italian defenders. Arimondi’s brigade now broke and fled, the officers and a few ascari who remained with them were soon overwhelmed. Two companies of Bersaglieri who arrived at the same moment could not help and were cut down.
General Baratieri, realizing that the battle was lost, ordered a general retreat. He tried to get the last uncommitted units of the Italian reserve column led by General Ellena to cover the retreat. But before they could form up, their lines were broken by a flood of fleeing Italian soldiers. The reserve had no chance to form a coherent defence and were overwhelmed within minutes. By noon, the Italian center was completely broken and the Ethiopian cavalry from Shewa and Wollo then pursued the fleeing Italians relentlessly, as Berkeley records from eyewitness accounts, “the Abyssinians wild with enthusiasm then rushed in upon them, reckless of losses and death.” General Arimondi's mule ran away in the confusion and Arimondi as well as almost all his officers were cut down.
Dabormida's Italian Brigade had moved to support Albertone but was unable to reach him in time. Cut off from the remainder of the Italian army, Dabormida was unaware that the other Italian troops had been annihilated as he had not received any communication from Baratieri. The Ethiopians who had just defeated Generals Arimondi’s and Ellena's brigades were now moving to encircle Dabormida's brigade from the rear. By 4:30PM Dabormida, still unaware of the rout of the rest of the army, now began a desperate attempt to break out of the encirclement and make a hasty retreat north. However, he inadvertently marched his command into a narrow valley where the Wollo Oromo cavalry under Ras Mikael virtually wiped out his brigade. Dabormida's remains were never found, although an old woman living in the area said that she had given water to a mortally wounded Italian officer, "a chief, a great man with spectacles and a watch, and golden stars".
The retreating columns under Baratieri were harried for 9 miles before the Ethiopian cavalry gave up the pursuit, fires were then lit on the highest hilltops to signal local peasants to attack Italian and Ascari stragglers. Baratieri’s defeated army continued to retreat throughout the night, crossing the Belessa River and reaching Italian Eritrea by March 4th. Back at the battlefield the Ethiopians were celebrating, chanting "Mow, mow down the tender grass! The corn of Italy that was sown in Tigré has been reaped by Menelik, and he has given it to the birds!"
Immediate aftermath
George Berkeley records that the Italian casualties were approximately 6,100 men killed: 261 officers, 2,918 white NCOs and privates, 954 permanently missing, and about 2,000 ascari. Another 1,428 were wounded – 470 Italians (including 31 officers) and 958 ascari. With 1,865 Italians and 2,000 ascaris taken prisoner. Richard Caulk estimates that the number of Italians killed were 300 officers, 4,600 Italian rank and 1,000 askari for a total of 5,900 dead. As well as and 1,000 of those who escaped wounded and at least 2,000 captured. Citing contemporary figures, Caulk records Ethiopian losses to be 3,886 killed and 6,000 wounded. Whereas Berkeley estimates Ethiopian losses to be 7,000 killed and 10,000 wounded. In their flight to Eritrea, the Italians left behind all of their artillery and 11,000 rifles, as well as most of their transport. As Paul B. Henze notes, "Baratieri's army had been completely annihilated while Menelik's was intact as a fighting force and gained thousands of rifles and a great deal of equipment from the fleeing Italians."
800 captured Eritrean Ascari, regarded as traitors by the Ethiopians, had their right hands and left feet amputated, some were even castrated. Augustus Wylde records when he visited the battlefield months after the battle, the pile of severed hands and feet was still visible, "a rotting heap of ghastly remnants." Further, many Ascari had not survived their punishment, Wylde writing how the neighborhood of Adwa "was full of their freshly dead bodies; they had generally crawled to the banks of the streams to quench their thirst, where many of them lingered unattended and exposed to the elements until death put an end to their sufferings."
Despite some instances of abuse, the Italian prisoners were generally treated better by the Ethiopians. Among the prisoners was General Albertone, Chris Prouty notes that Albertone was given into the care of Azaj Zamanel, commander of Empress Taytu's personal army, and "had a tent to himself, a horse and servants". However, around 70 Italian prisoners were massacred in retaliation for the death of Bashah Aboye, the officer responsible for the massacre was reportedly imprisoned by Menelik.
Public opinion in Italy was outraged. Chris Prouty offers a panoramic overview of the response in Italy to the news:
Aftermath
Emperor Menelik decided not to follow up on his victory by attempting to drive the routed Italians out of their colony. The victorious Emperor limited his demands to little more than the abrogation of the Treaty of Wuchale. In the context of the prevailing balance of power, the emperor's crucial goal was to preserve Ethiopian independence. In addition, Ethiopia had just begun to emerge from a long and brutal famine; Harold Marcus reminds us that the army was restive over its long service in the field, short of rations, and the short rains which would bring all travel to a crawl would soon start to fall. At the time, Menelik claimed a shortage of cavalry horses with which to harry the fleeing soldiers. Chris Prouty observes that "a failure of nerve on the part of Menelik has been alleged by both Italian and Ethiopian sources." Lewis believes that it "was his farsighted certainty that total annihilation of Baratieri and a sweep into Eritrea would force the Italian people to turn a bungled colonial war into a national crusade" that stayed his hand.
As a direct result of the battle, Italy signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa, recognizing Ethiopia as an independent state. Almost forty years later, on 3 October 1935, after the League of Nations's weak response to the Abyssinia Crisis, the Italians launched a new military campaign endorsed by Benito Mussolini, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. This time the Italians employed vastly superior military technology such as tanks and aircraft, as well as chemical warfare, and the Ethiopian forces were defeated by May 1936. Following the war, Italy occupied Ethiopia for five years (1936–41), before eventually being driven out during World War II by British Empire forces and Ethiopian Arbegnoch guerillas.
Significance
"The confrontation between Italy and Ethiopia at Adwa was a fundamental turning point in Ethiopian history," writes Henze. On a similar note, the Ethiopian historian Bahru Zewde observed that "few events in the modern period have brought Ethiopia to the attention of the world as has the victory at Adwa".
This defeat of a colonial power and the ensuing recognition of African sovereignty became rallying points for later African nationalists during their struggle for decolonization, as well as activists and leaders of the Pan-African movement. As the Afrocentric scholar Molefe Asante explains,
On the other hand, many writers have pointed out how this battle was a humiliation for the Italian military. Italian historian Tripodi argued that some of the roots of the rise of Fascism in Italy went back to this defeat and to the perceived need to "avenge" the defeat that started to be present in the military and nationalistic groups of the Kingdom of Italy. The same Mussolini declared when Italian troops occupied Addis Ababa in May 1936: Adua è vendicata (Adwa has been avenged).
Indeed, one student of Ethiopia's History, Donald N. Levine, points out that for the Italians Adwa "became a national trauma which demagogic leaders strove to avenge. It also played no little part in motivating Italy's revanchist adventure in 1935". Levine also noted that the victory "gave encouragement to isolationist and conservative strains that were deeply rooted in Ethiopian culture, strengthening the hand of those who would strive to keep Ethiopia from adopting techniques imported from the modern West – resistances with which both Menelik and Haile Selassie would have to contend".
Present-day celebrations of Adwa
Public holiday
The Adwa Victory Day is a public holiday in all regional states and charter cities across Ethiopia. All schools, banks, post offices and government offices are closed, with the exceptions of health facilities. Some taxi services and public transports choose not to operate on this day. Shops are normally open but most close earlier than usual.
Public celebrations
The Victory of Adwa, being a public holiday, is commemorated in public spaces. In Addis Ababa, the Victory of Adwa is celebrated at Menelik Square with the presence of government officials, patriots, foreign diplomats and the general public. The Ethiopian Police Orchestra play various patriotic songs as they walk around Menelik Square.
The public dress up in traditional Ethiopian patriotic attire. Men often wear Jodhpurs and various types of vest; they carry the Ethiopian flag and various patriotic banners and placards, as well as traditional Ethiopian shields and swords called Shotel. Women dress up in different patterns of handcrafted traditional Ethiopian clothing, known in Amharic as Habesha kemis. Some wear black gowns over all, while others put royal crowns on their heads. Women's styles of dress, like their male counterparts, imitate the traditional styles of Ethiopian patriotic women. Of particular note is the dominant presence of the Empress Taytu Betul during these celebrations.
The beloved and influential wife of Emperor Menelik II, Empress Taytu Betul, played a significant role during the Battle of Adwa. Although often overlooked, thousands of women participated in the Battle of Adwa. Some were trained as nurses to attend to the wounded, and others mainly cooked and supplied food and water to the soldiers and comforted the wounded.
In addition to Addis Ababa, other major cities in Ethiopia, including Bahir Dar, Debre Markos and the town of Adwa itself, where the battle took place, celebrate the Victory of Adwa in public ceremonies.
Symbols
Several images and symbols are used during the commemoration of the Victory of Adwa, including the tri-coloured green, gold and red Ethiopian flag, images of Emperor Menelik II and Empress Taytu Betul, as well as other prominent kings and war generals of the time including King Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, King Michael of Wollo, Dejazmach Balcha Safo, Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis Dinagde, and Fitawrari Gebeyehu, among others. Surviving members of the Ethiopian patriotic battalions wear the various medals that they collected for their participation on different battlefields. Young people often wear T-shirts adorned by Emperor Menelik II, Empress Taytu, Emperor Haile Selassie and other notable members of the Ethiopian monarchy. Popular and patriotic songs are often played on amplifiers. Of particular note are Ejigayehu Shibabaw's ballad dedicated to the Battle of Adwa and Teddy Afro's popular song "Tikur Sew", which literally translates to "black man or black person" – a poetic reference to Emperor Menelik II's decisive African victory over Europeans, as well as the Emperor's darker skin complexion.
See also
Scramble for Africa
Colonisation of Africa
Notes
Footnotes
Citations
References
Berkeley, G.F.-H. (1902) The Campaign of Adowa and the Rise of Menelik, Westminster: A. Constable, 403 pp.,
Brown, P.S. and Yirgu, F. (1996) The Battle of Adwa 1896, Chicago: Nyala Publishing, 160 pp.,
Bulatovich, A.K. (nd) With the Armies of Menelik II: Journal of an Expedition from Ethiopia to Lake Rudolf, translated by Richard Seltzer,
Bulatovich, A.K. (2000) Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes: Country in Transition, 1896–1898, translated by Richard Seltzer, Lawrenceville, N.J. : Red Sea Press,
Henze, P.B. (2004) Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia, London: Hurst & Co.,
Jonas, R.A. (2011) The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire, Bellknap Press of Harvard University Press,
Lewis, D.L. (1988) The Race to Fashoda: European Colonialism and African Resistance in the Scramble for Africa, 1st ed., London: Bloomsbury,
Marcus, H.G. (1995) The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia, 1844–1913, Lawrenceville, N.J.: Red Sea Press,
Pankhurst, K.P. (1968) Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800–1935, Addis Ababa: Haile Sellassie I University Press, 772 pp.,
Pankhurst, K.P. (1998) The Ethiopians: A History, The Peoples of Africa Series, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers,
Rosenfeld, C.P. (1986) Empress Taytu and Menelik II: Ethiopia 1883–1910, London: Ravens Educational & Development Services,
Uhlig, S. (ed.) (2003) Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, 1 (A–C), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz,
Worrell, R. (2005) Pan-Africanism in Barbados: An Analysis of the Activities of the Major 20th-Century Pan-African Formations in Barbados, Washington, DC: New Academia Publishing,
Zewde, Bahru (1991) A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1974, Eastern African Studies series, London: Currey,
With the Armies of Menelik II, emperor of Ethiopia at www.samizdat.com
External links
Historynet: Ethiopia's Decisive Victory at Adowa
Who Was Count Abai?
The Colony of Eritrea from its Origins until March 1, 1899 from 1899 which details the Battle of Adwa from the World Digital Library
Painting depicting the Battle of Adwa, Catalogue No. E261845, Department of Anthropology, NMNH, Smithsonian Institution
Conflicts in 1896
Battles of the First Italo-Ethiopian War
Battle of Adwa
Battle of Adwa
Battles involving Italy
Battles involving Ethiopia
Battles involving Eritrea
March 1896 events
Orders of battle |
5015 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B8rn%20Lomborg | Bjørn Lomborg | Bjørn Lomborg (; born 6 January 1965) is a Danish author and the president of the think tank Copenhagen Consensus Center. He is the former director of the Danish government's Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI) in Copenhagen. He became internationally known for his best-selling and controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist (2001).
This book's claim that many environmental issues are overstated was criticised by the scientific community and brought Lomborg popular media attention. In 2002, Lomborg and the Environmental Assessment Institute founded the Copenhagen Consensus. In 2004, he was listed as one of Time's 100 most influential people.
In his subsequent book, Cool It (2007), and its film adaptation, Lomborg outlined his views on global warming, many of which contradict the scientific consensus on climate change. These views include the claim that the negative impacts are overstated and his opposition to climate change mitigation. Lomborg agrees that global warming is real and man-made and will have a serious impact but enumerates other disagreements with the scientific consensus. In 2009, Business Insider cited Lomborg as one of "The 10 Most-Respected Global Warming Skeptics".
Lomborg's views and work have attracted scrutiny from the scientific community. The majority of scientists reacted negatively to The Skeptical Environmentalist, and he was formally accused of scientific misconduct over the book; the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty concluded in an evaluation of the book that "one couldn't prove that Lomborg had deliberately been scientifically dishonest, although he had broken the rules of scientific practice in that he interpreted results beyond the conclusions of the authors he cited." His positions on climate change have been challenged by experts and characterised as cherry picking.
Education
Lomborg was an undergraduate at the University of Georgia, earned an M.A. degree in political science at the University of Aarhus in 1991, and a PhD degree in political science at the University of Copenhagen in 1994.
Career
Lomborg lectured in statistics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Aarhus as an assistant professor (1994–1996) and associate professor (1997–2005). He left the university in February 2005 and in May of that year became an adjunct professor in Policy-making, Scientific Knowledge and the Role of Experts at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School.
Early in his career, his professional areas of interest lay in the simulation of strategies in collective action dilemmas, simulation of party behavior in proportional voting systems, and the use of surveys in public administration. In 1996, Lomborg's paper, "Nucleus and Shield: Evolution of Social Structure in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma", was published in the academic journal American Sociological Review.
Later, Lomborg's interests shifted to the use of statistics in the environmental arena. In 1998, Lomborg published four essays about the state of the environment in the leading Danish newspaper Politiken, which according to him "resulted in a firestorm debate spanning over 400 articles in major metropolitan newspapers." This led to the Skeptical Environmentalist, whose English translation was published as a work in environmental economics by Cambridge University Press in 2001. The book brought him international prominence as an opponent of the scientific consensus on climate change. He later edited Global Crises, Global Solutions, which presented the first conclusions of the Copenhagen Consensus, published in 2004 by the Cambridge University Press. In 2007, he authored a book entitled Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming.
In March 2002, the newly elected center-right prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, appointed Lomborg to run Denmark's new Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI). On 22 June 2004, Lomborg announced his decision to resign from this post to go back to the University of Aarhus, saying his work at the Institute was done and that he could better serve the public debate from the academic sector.
As of 2020, Lomborg is a visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank.
Books
The Skeptical Environmentalist
In 2001, he attained significant attention by publishing The Skeptical Environmentalist, a controversial book whose main thesis is that many of the most-publicized claims and predictions on environmental issues are wrong. The book received negative reviews among the scientific community, including from the Union of Concerned Scientists, Nature and Scientific American, with many scientists criticising its assertions as poorly supported, selectively using data and misrepresenting sources. However, it was well received in popular media and brought Lomborg to international attention.
Formal accusations of scientific dishonesty
After the publication of The Skeptical Environmentalist, Lomborg was formally accused of scientific dishonesty by a group of environmental scientists, who brought a total of three complaints against him to the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DCSD), a body under Denmark's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MSTI). Lomborg was asked whether he regarded the book as a "debate" publication, and thereby not under the purview of the DCSD, or as a scientific work; he chose the latter, clearing the way for the inquiry that followed. The charges claimed that The Skeptical Environmentalist contained deliberately misleading data and flawed conclusions. Due to the similarity of the complaints, the DCSD decided to proceed on the three cases under one investigation.
In January 2003, the DCSD released a ruling that sent a mixed message, finding the book to be scientifically dishonest through misrepresentation of scientific facts, but Lomborg himself not guilty due to his lack of expertise in the fields in question. That February, Lomborg filed a complaint against the decision with the MSTI, which had oversight over the DCSD. In December, 2003, the Ministry annulled the DCSD decision, citing procedural errors, including lack of documentation of errors in the book, and asked the DCSD to re-examine the case. In March 2004, the DCSD formally decided not to act further on the complaints, reasoning that renewed scrutiny would, in all likelihood, result in the same conclusion.
The original DCSD decision about Lomborg provoked a petition signed by 287 Danish academics, primarily social scientists, who criticised the DCSD for evaluating the book as a work of science, whereas the petitioners considered it clearly an opinion piece by a non-scientist. The Danish Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation then asked the Danish Research Agency (DRA) to form an independent working group to review DCSD practices. In response to this, another group of Danish scientists collected over 600 signatures, primarily from the medical and natural sciences community, to support the continued existence of the DCSD and presented their petition to the DRA.
Cool It
Lomborg's follow-up to The Skeptical Environmentalist, Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, was published in 2007. In it, Lomborg expanded on his views of climate change. Lomborg starts with the premise "Global warming is real and man-made. It will have a serious impact on humans and the environment toward the end of this century." Lomborg argues at length that warming will result in reducing total deaths from extreme temperatures, due to warming in cold climates. The main theme is that then-current approaches for addressing climate change, such as the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, were not economically cost-effective.
The Lomborg Deception, a 2010 Yale University Press book by Howard Friel, analyzed the ways in which Lomborg has "selectively used (and sometimes distorted) the available evidence", and alleged that the sources Lomborg provided in the footnotes did not support and, in some cases directly contradicted, Lomborg's assertions in the text of the book. Lomborg denied those claims in a 27-page argument-by-argument response. Friel wrote a reply to that response, in which he admitted two errors but otherwise rejected Lomborg's arguments.
Documentary film
Bjørn Lomborg was the subject of documentary feature film Cool It, adapted from his book of the same name. It was released on 12 November 2010 in the US. The film in part explicitly challenged Al Gore's 2006 Oscar-winning environmental awareness documentary, An Inconvenient Truth." The film received a media critic collective rating of 51% from Rotten Tomatoes and 61% from Metacritic.
Copenhagen Consensus
Lomborg and the Environmental Assessment Institute founded the Copenhagen Consensus in 2002, which seeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics. A panel of prominent economists was assembled to evaluate and rank a series of problems every four years. The project was funded largely by the Danish government and was co-sponsored by The Economist. A book summarizing the conclusions of the economists' first assessment, Global Crises, Global Solutions, edited by Lomborg, was published in October 2004 by Cambridge University Press.
In 2006, Lomborg became director of the newly established Copenhagen Consensus Center, a Danish government-funded institute intended to build on the mandate of the EAI, and expand on the original Copenhagen Consensus conference. Denmark withdrew its funding in 2012 and the Center faced imminent closure. Lomborg left the country and reconstituted the Center as a non-profit organization in the United States. The Center was based out of a "Neighborhood Parcel Shipping Center" in Lowell, Massachusetts, though Lomborg himself was based in Prague in the Czech Republic. In 2015, Lomborg described the center's funding as "a little more than $1m a year ... from private donations", of which Lomborg himself was paid $775,000 in 2012.
Australian Consensus Centre
In 2014, the Australian Government offered the University of Western Australia $4 million to establish a "consensus centre", with Lomborg as director. The university accepted the offer, setting off a firestorm of opposition from its faculty and students, and from climate scientists around the world. In April 2015, the university reversed the decision and rejected the offer. The government continued to seek a sponsor for the proposed institution. On 21 October 2015, the offered funding was withdrawn. In April 2015, it was announced that an alliance between the Copenhagen Consensus Center and the University of Western Australia would see the establishment of the Australian Consensus Centre, a new policy research center at the UWA Business School. The University described the Center's goals as a "focus on applying an economic lens to proposals to achieve good for Australia, the region and the world, prioritizing those initiatives which produce the most social value per dollar spent.". This appointment came under intense scrutiny, particularly when leaked documents revealed that the Australian government had approached UWA and offered to fund the Consensus Centre, information subsequently confirmed by a senior UWA lecturer. Reports indicated that Prime Minister Tony Abbott's office was directly responsible for Lomborg's elevation. $4 million of the total funding for the Center was to be provided by the Australian federal government, with UWA not contributing any funding for the centre.
On 8 May 2015, UWA cancelled the contract for hosting the Australian Consensus Centre as "the proposed centre was untenable and lacked academic support". The Australian federal education minister, Christopher Pyne, said that he would find another university to host the ACC.
In July 2015, Flinders University senior management began quietly canvassing its staff about a plan to host the renamed Lomborg Consensus Centre at the University, likely in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. A week later the story was broken on Twitter by the NTEU (National Tertiary Education Union) and Scott Ludlam. The story appeared the next day in The Australian, but described as "academic conversations" with no mention of Bjorn Lomborg's involvement and portrayed as a grassroots desire for the Centre by the University. The following week, a story appeared in The Guardian quoting two Flinders University academics and an internal document demonstrating staff's withering rejection of the idea. Flinders staff and students vowed to fight against the establishment of any Centre or any partnership with Lomborg, citing his lack of scientific credibility, his lack of academic legitimacy and the political nature of the process of establishing the Centre with the Abbott federal government. The Australian Youth Climate Coalition and 350.org launched a national campaign to support staff and students in their rejection of Lomborg.
On 21 October 2015, education minister Simon Birmingham told a senate committee the offered funding had been withdrawn. It was subsequently unclear whether the Australian Government would honour its original commitment and transfer the funds directly to the Centre to cover the costs incurred.
Views on climate change
Lomborg has set out his views on climate change in several books, articles, interviews, and opinion pieces. Lomborg believes that climate change is occurring and humans are responsible, but disputes that the effects and economic impacts will be negative. He argues that finances should be spent elsewhere, rather than on mitigation. He does not support solar panels, saying they are "inefficient", which is "why you have to subsidise them", despite fossil fuels also being subsidised. According to Reuters, "many nations, especially in the developing world where food and water supplies are most vulnerable to climate shifts projected by the U.N. panel of climate scientists, reject Lomborg’s views" that investment into technology is an adequate response to climate change. He has opposed the Kyoto Protocol and called the Paris Agreement a "charade". He has been accused of exaggerating the economic costs of climate change mitigation policies.
Several of Lomborg's articles, in newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Telegraph, have been checked by Climate Feedback, a worldwide network of scientists who assess the credibility of influential climate change media coverage. The Climate Feedback reviewers assessed that the scientific credibility of the articles ranged between "low" and "very low". The Climate Feedback reviewers came to the conclusion that in one case, Lomborg "practices cherry picking"; in a second case, he "had reached his conclusions through cherry-picking from a small subset of the evidence, misrepresenting the results of existing studies, and relying on flawed reasoning"; in a third case, "[his] article [is in] blatant disagreement with available scientific evidence, while the author does not offer adequate evidence to support his statements"; and in a fourth case, "The author, Bjorn Lomborg, cherry-picks this specific piece of research and uses it in support of a broad argument against the value of climate policy. He also misrepresents the Paris Agreement to downplay its potential to curb future climate change."
Personal life
Lomborg is gay and a vegetarian. As a public figure he has been a participant in information campaigns in Denmark about homosexuality, and states that "Being a public gay is to my view a civic responsibility. It's important to show that the width of the gay world cannot be described by a tired stereotype, but goes from leather gays on parade-wagons to suit-and-tie yuppies on the direction floor, as well as everything in between".
Recognition and awards
The Global Leaders of Tomorrow (Class 2002) - World Economic Forum (2002)
The Stars of Europe (category: Agenda Setters) - BusinessWeek (17 June 2002): "No matter what they think of his views, nobody denies that Bjorn Lomborg has shaken the environmental movement to its core."
The 2004 Time 100 (in Scientists & Thinkers) - Time (26 April 2004): "Our list of the most influential people in the world today: He just might be the Martin Luther of the environmental movement."
Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll (#14) Foreign Policy and Prospect (2005)
Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll (#41) Foreign Policy and Prospect (2008)
50 people who could save the planet - The Guardian (5 January 2008)
Glocal Hero Award - Transatlantyk - Poznań International Film and Music Festival (2011)
FP Top 100 Global Thinkers - Foreign Policy (2012): "For taking the black and white out of climate politics"
Discussions in the media
After the release of The Skeptical Environmentalist in 2001, Lomborg was subjected to intense scrutiny and criticism in the media. As in the scientific community, his scientific qualifications and integrity were criticised, although some popular media outlets supported him. The verdict of the Danish Committees for Scientific Dishonesty fueled this debate and brought it into the spotlight of international mass media. By the end of 2003 Lomborg had become an international celebrity, with frequent appearances on radio, television and print media around the world. He is also a regular contributor to Project Syndicate since 2005.
Scientific American published criticism of Lomborg's book. Lomborg responded on his own website, quoting the article at such length that Scientific American threatened to sue for copyright infringement. Lomborg eventually removed the rebuttal from his website; it was later published in PDF format on Scientific Americans site. The magazine also printed a response to the rebuttal.
The Economist defended Lomborg, claiming the panel of experts that had criticised Lomborg in Scientific American was both biased and did not actually counter Lomborg's book. The Economist argued that the panel's opinion had come under no scrutiny at all, and that Lomborg's responses had not been reported.
Penn & Teller: Bullshit! — the U.S. Showtime television programme featured an episode entitled "Environmental Hysteria" in which Lomborg criticised what he claimed was environmentalists' refusal to accept a cost-benefit analysis of environmental questions, and stressed the need to prioritise some issues above others.
Rolling Stone stated, "Lomborg pulls off the remarkable feat of welding the techno-optimism of the Internet age with a lefty's concern for the fate of the planet."
The Union of Concerned Scientists criticised The Skeptical Environmentalist, claiming it to be "seriously flawed and failing to meet basic standards of credible scientific analysis", accusing Lomborg of presenting data in a fraudulent way, using flawed logic and selectively citing non-peer-reviewed literature. The review was conducted by Peter Gleick, Jerry D. Mahlman, Edward O. Wilson, Thomas Lovejoy, Norman Myers, Jeff Harvey, and Stuart Pimm.
The New York Times criticised False Alarm, stating "This book proves the aphorism that a little knowledge is dangerous. It's nominally about air pollution. It's really about mind pollution." The review was conducted by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
Publications
"Nucleus and Shield: Evolution of Social Structure in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma", American Sociological Review, 1996.
Global Crises, Global Solutions, Copenhagen Consensus, Cambridge University Press, 2004. , as editor
How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place, Cambridge University Press, 2006. , as editor
Solutions for the World's Biggest Problems – Costs and Benefits, Cambridge University Press, 2007. , as editor
Smart Solutions to Climate Change, Comparing Costs and Benefits, Cambridge University Press, 2010, .
The Nobel Laureates Guide to the Smartest Targets for the World 2016–2030, Copenhagen Consensus Center, 2015.
Prioritizing Development: A Cost Benefit Analysis of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals Cambridge University Press, 2018, , as editor
See also
Global warming controversy
Environmental skepticism
Project Syndicate
References
Further reading
Sarvis, Will. Embracing Philanthropic Environmentalism: The Grand Responsibility of Stewardship, (McFarland, 2019).
External links
Lomborg's personal website, with own articles, links to related broadcasts on radio and TV, and Lomborg's opinion on the issues with the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty
Column archive at The Guardian
Column archive at Project Syndicate
"Lomborg Errors" compilation of claims of errors in Lomborg's work
Interviews
Articles
1965 births
Living people
Aarhus University alumni
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Academic staff of Copenhagen Business School
Danish economics writers
Academic staff of Aarhus University
Danish political scientists
Environmental economists
Gay academics
Gay scientists
Danish gay writers
Non-fiction environmental writers
Political science educators
University of Copenhagen alumni
University of Georgia alumni
The Australian journalists
21st-century Danish LGBT people
Environmental skepticism
Cornucopians
Hoover Institution people |
5020 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banda%20Islands | Banda Islands | The Banda Islands () are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java, and constitute an administrative district (kecamatan) within the Central Maluku Regency in the Indonesian province of Maluku. The islands rise out of deep ocean and have a total land area of approximately . They had a population of 18,544 at the 2010 Census and 20,924 at the 2020 Census. Until the mid-19th century the Banda Islands were the world's only source of the spices nutmeg and mace, produced from the nutmeg tree. The islands are also popular destinations for scuba diving and snorkeling. The main town and administrative centre is Banda Neira, located on the island of the same name.
History
Pre-European history
The first documented human presence in the Banda Islands comes from a rock shelter site on Pulau Ay that was in use at least 8,000 years ago.
The earliest mention of the Banda Islands are found in Chinese records dating as far back as 200 BCE though there is speculation that it is mentioned in earlier Indian sources. The Srivijaya Kingdom had extensive trade contacts with the Banda Islands. Also during this period (from the late 13th century and onwards) Islam arrived in the region. It soon became established in the area.
Before the arrival of Europeans, Banda had an oligarchic form of government led by ('rich men') and the Bandanese had an active and independent role in trade throughout the archipelago. Banda was the world's only source of nutmeg and mace, spices used as flavourings, medicines, and preserving agents that were at the time highly valued in European markets. They were sold by Arab traders to the Venetians for exorbitant prices. The traders did not divulge the exact location of their source and no European was able to deduce their location.
The first written accounts of Banda are in Suma Oriental, a book written by the Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires who was based in Malacca from 1512 to 1515 but visited Banda several times. On his first visit, he interviewed the Portuguese and the far more knowledgeable Malay sailors in Malacca. He estimated the early sixteenth century population to be 2500–3000. He reported the Bandanese as being part of an Indonesia-wide trading network and the only native Malukan long-range traders taking cargo to Malacca, although shipments from Banda were also being made by Javanese traders.
In addition to the production of nutmeg and mace, Banda maintained significant entrepôt trade; goods that moved through Banda included cloves from Ternate and Tidore in the north, bird-of-paradise feathers from the Aru Islands and Western New Guinea, massoi bark for traditional medicines and salves. In exchange, Banda predominantly received rice and cloth; namely light cotton batik from Java, calicoes from India and ikat from the Lesser Sundas. In 1603, an average quality sarong-sized cloth traded for eighteen kilograms of nutmeg. Some of these textiles were then sold on, ending up in Halmahera and New Guinea. Coarser ikat from the Lesser Sundas was traded for sago from the Kei Islands, Aru and Seram.
Portuguese
In August 1511, on behalf of the king of Portugal, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Malacca, which at the time was a major hub of Asian trade. In November of that year, after having secured Malacca and learned of the Banda Islands' location, Albuquerque sent an expedition of three ships led by his good friend António de Abreu to find them. Malay pilots, either recruited or forcibly conscripted, guided them via Java, the Lesser Sundas and Ambon to Banda, arriving in early 1512. The first Europeans to reach the Banda Islands, the expedition remained in Banda for about one month, purchasing and filling their ships with Banda's nutmeg, mace, and cloves, in which Banda had a thriving entrepôt trade. D'Abreu sailed through Ambon and Seram while his second in command Francisco Serrão went ahead towards the Maluku islands, was shipwrecked and ended up in Ternate.
Distracted by hostilities elsewhere in the archipelago, such as Ambon and Ternate, the Portuguese did not return to the Banda Islands until 1529, when Portuguese trader Captain Garcia Henriques landed troops. Five of the Banda islands were within gunshot of each other and Henriques realised that a fort on the main island Neira would give him full control of the group. The Bandanese were, however, hostile to such a plan, and their warlike antics were both costly and tiresome to Garcia whose men were attacked when they attempted to build a fort. From then on, the Portuguese were infrequent visitors to the islands, preferring to buy their nutmeg from traders in Malacca.
Unlike inhabitants of other eastern Indonesian islands visited by the Portuguese, such as Ambon, Solor, Ternate and Morotai, the Bandanese displayed no enthusiasm for Christianity or the Europeans who brought it in the sixteenth century, and no serious attempt was made to Christianise the Bandanese. Maintaining their independence, the Bandanese never allowed the Portuguese to build a fort or permanent post in the islands. Ironically, it was this lack of presence which attracted the Dutch to trade in Banda instead of the clove-producing islands of Ternate and Tidore.
Dutch control
The Dutch followed the Portuguese to Banda but were to have a much more dominating and lasting presence. Dutch–Bandanese relations were mutually resentful from the outset, with Holland's first merchants complaining of Bandanese reneging on agreed deliveries and price, and cheating on quantity and quality. For the Bandanese, on the other hand, although they welcomed another competitor purchaser for their spices, the items of trade offered by the Dutch—heavy woolens, and damasks, unwanted manufactured goods, for example—were usually unsuitable in comparison to traditional trade products. The Javanese, Arab and Indian, and Portuguese traders for example brought indispensable items along with steel knives, copper, medicines, and prized Chinese porcelain.
As much as the Dutch disliked dealing with the Bandanese, the trade was a highly profitable one with spices selling for 300 times the purchase price in Banda. This amply justified the expense and risk in shipping them to Europe. The allure of such profits saw an increasing number of Dutch expeditions; it was soon seen that in trade with the East Indies, competition from each would eat into all their profits. Thus the competitors united to form the (VOC) (the United East India Company, referred to in English as the Dutch East India Company) in 1602.
Until the early seventeenth century the Bandas were ruled by a group of leading citizens, the (literally 'rich men'); each of these was head of a district. At the time nutmeg was one of the "fine spices" kept expensive in Europe by disciplined manipulation of the market, but a desirable commodity for Dutch traders in the ports of India as well; economic historian Fernand Braudel notes that India consumed twice as much as Europe. A number of Banda's were persuaded by the Dutch to sign a treaty granting the Dutch a monopoly on spice purchases. Even though the Bandanese had little understanding of the significance of the treaty known as 'The Eternal Compact', or that not all Bandanese leaders had signed, it would later be used to justify Dutch troops being brought in to defend their monopoly.
In April 1609, Admiral Pieter Willemsz. Verhoeff arrived at Banda Neira with a request by Maurice, Prince of Orange to build a fort on the island (the eventual Fort Nassau). The Bandanese were not excited about this idea. On 22 May, before building of the fort had started, the called a meeting with the Dutch admiral, purportedly to negotiate prices. Instead, they led Verhoeff and two high-ranked men into an ambush and decapitated them and subsequently killed 46 of the Dutch visitors. Jan Pietersz Coen, who was a lower-ranked merchant on the expedition, managed to escape, but the traumatic event likely influenced his future attitude towards the Bandanese.
English–Dutch rivalry
While Portuguese and Spanish activity in the region had weakened, the English had built fortified trading posts on tiny Ai and Run islands, ten to twenty kilometres from the main Banda Islands. With the English paying higher prices, they were significantly undermining Dutch aims for a monopoly. As Anglo-Dutch tensions increased in 1611 the Dutch built the larger and more strategic Fort Belgica above Fort Nassau.
In 1615, the Dutch invaded Ai with 900 men, whereupon the English retreated to Run where they regrouped. Japanese mercenaries served in the Dutch forces. That same night, the English launched a surprise counter-attack on Ai, retaking the island and killing 200 Dutchmen. A year later, a much stronger Dutch force attacked Ai. This time the defenders were able to hold off the attack with cannon fire, but after a month of siege they ran out of ammunition. The Dutch killed the defenders, and afterwards strengthened the fort, renaming it 'Fort Revenge'.
Massacre of the Bandanese
Newly appointed VOC governor-general Jan Pieterszoon Coen set about enforcing Dutch monopoly over the Banda's spice trade. In 1621 well-armed soldiers were landed on Bandaneira Island and within a few days they had also occupied neighbouring and larger Lontar. The were forced at gunpoint to sign an unfeasibly arduous treaty, one that was in fact impossible to keep, thus providing Coen an excuse to use superior Dutch force against the Bandanese. The Dutch quickly noted a number of alleged violations of the new treaty, in response to which Coen launched a punitive massacre. Japanese mercenaries were hired to deal with the , forty of whom were beheaded with their heads impaled and displayed on bamboo spears. The butchering and beheadings were carried out by the Japanese for the Dutch.
The islanders were tortured and their villages destroyed by the Dutch. The Bandanese chiefs were also tortured by the Dutch and Japanese.
The Dutch carved 68 parcels out of the islands after the enslavement and slaughter of the natives.
The population of the Banda Islands prior to Dutch conquest is generally estimated to have been around 13,000–15,000 people, some of whom were Malay and Javanese traders, as well as Chinese and Arabs. The actual numbers of Bandanese who were killed, forcibly expelled or fled the islands in 1621 remain uncertain. But readings of historical sources suggest around one thousand Bandanese likely survived in the islands, and were spread throughout the nutmeg groves as forced labourers. The Dutch subsequently re-settled the islands with imported slaves, convicts and indentured labourers (to work the nutmeg plantations), as well as immigrants from elsewhere in Indonesia. Most survivors fled as refugees to the islands of their trading partners, in particular Keffing and Guli Guli in the Seram Laut chain and Kei Besar. Shipments of surviving Bandanese were also sent to Batavia (Jakarta) to work as slaves in developing the city and its fortress. Some 530 of these individuals were later returned to the islands because of their much-needed expertise in nutmeg cultivation (something sorely lacking among newly arrived Dutch settlers).
Whereas up until this point the Dutch presence had been simply as traders, that was sometimes treaty-based, the Banda conquest marked the start of the first overt colonial rule in Indonesia, albeit under the auspices of the VOC.
VOC monopoly
Having nearly eradicated the islands' native population, Coen divided the productive land of approximately half a million nutmeg trees into sixty-eight 1.2-hectare . These land parcels were then handed to Dutch planters known as of which 34 were on Lontar, 31 on Ai and 3 on Neira. With few Bandanese left to work them, slaves from elsewhere were brought in. Now enjoying control of the nutmeg production, the VOC paid the nd of the Dutch market price for nutmeg; however, the still profited immensely, building substantial villas with opulent imported European decorations.
The outlying island of Run was harder for the VOC to control and they exterminated all nutmeg trees there. The production and export of nutmeg was a VOC monopoly for almost two hundred years. Fort Belgica, one of many forts built by the Dutch East India Company, is one of the largest remaining European forts in Indonesia.
English–Dutch rivalry continues
Though not physically present at the Banda Islands, the English claimed the small island of Run until 1667 when, under the Treaty of Breda, the Dutch and English agreed to maintain the colonial status quo and relinquish their respective claims.
In 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was a vassal of Napoleonic France and hence in conflict with Britain. The French and British were each seeking to control lucrative Indian Ocean trade routes. On 10 May 1810, a squadron consisting of the 36-gun frigate , HMS Piedmontaise (formerly a French frigate), 18-gun sloop , and the 12-gun transport left Madras with money, supplies and troops to support the garrison at Amboyna, recently captured from the Dutch. The frigates and sloop carried a hundred officers and men of the Madras European Regiment, while the Mandarin carried supplies. The squadron was commanded by Captain Christopher Cole, with Captain Charles Foote on the Piedmontaise and Captain Richard Kenah aboard the Barracouta. After departing from Madras, Cole informed Foote and Kenah of Cole's plan to capture the Bandas; Foote and Kenah agreed. In Singapore, Captain Spencer informed Cole that over 700 regular Dutch troops may have been located in the Bandas.
The squadron took a circuitous route to avoid alerting the Dutch. On 9 August 1810, the British appeared at Banda Neira. They quickly stormed the island and attacked Belgica Castle at sunrise. The battle was over within hours, with the Dutch surrendering Fort Nassau – after some subterfuge – and within days the remainder of the Banda Islands. After the Dutch surrender, Captain Charles Foote (of the Piedmontaise) was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Banda Islands. This action was a prelude to Britain's invasion of Java in 1811.
Before the Dutch retook control of the islands, the British removed many nutmeg trees and transplanted them to Ceylon and other British colonies. The competition largely destroyed the value of the Banda Islands to the Dutch.
Recent history
In the late 1990s, violence between Christians and Muslims spilled over from intercommunal conflict in Ambon. The disturbance and resulting deaths damaged the previously prosperous tourism industry.
Geography
There are seven inhabited islands and several that are uninhabited. The inhabited islands are:
Main group (formed from the drowned caldera of a former volcano):
Banda Neira, or Naira, the island with the administrative capital and a small airfield (as well as accommodation for visitors). Present on Banda Neira is Fort Belgica, one of the largest remaining Dutch forts that are still intact in Indonesia.
Banda Api, an active volcano (Gunung Api) with a peak of about 650 m
Banda Besar, or Lonthoir, is the largest island (Indonesian besar, big), long and wide. It has three main settlements, Lonthoir, Selamon and Waer.
Some distance to the west:
Pulau Ai or Pulau Ay
Pulau Run, further west again. In the 17th century, this island was involved in an exchange between the British and the Dutch: it was exchanged for the island of Manhattan in New York.
To the east:
Pulau Pisang (Banana Island), also known as Syahrir.
To the southeast:
Pulau Hatta, formerly Rosengain or Rozengain
Others, possibly small and/or uninhabited, are:
Nailaka, a short distance northeast of Pulau Run
Batu Kapal, a small island northwest of Pulau Pisang
Manuk, an active volcano
Pulau Keraka or Pulau Karaka (Crab Island), a short distance north of Banda Api
Manukang or Suanggi, to the northwest of the main group
Hatta Reef
The islands are part of the Banda Sea Islands moist deciduous forests ecoregion.
Demographics
Language
Bandanese speak Banda Malay, which has several features distinguishing it from Ambonese Malay, a Malay dialect that is a lingua franca in central and southern Maluku alongside Indonesian. Banda Malay is famous in the region for its unique, lilting accent, but it also has a number of locally identifying words in its lexicon, many of them borrowings or loanwords from Dutch.
Examples:
fork: (Dutch )
ant: (Dutch )
spoon: (Dutch )
difficult: (Dutch )
floor: (Dutch )
porch: (Dutch )
Banda Malay shares many Portuguese loanwords with Ambonese Malay not appearing in the national language, Indonesian. But it has comparatively fewer, and they differ in pronunciation.
Examples:
turtle: (Banda Malay); (Ambonese Malay) (from Portuguese )
throat: (Banda Malay); (Ambonese Malay) (from Portuguese )
Finally, and most noticeably, Banda Malay uses some distinct pronouns. The most immediately distinguishing is that of the second person singular familiar form of address: .
The descendants of some of the Bandanese who fled Dutch conquest in the seventeenth century live in the Kai Islands (Kepulauan Kei) to the east of the Banda group, where a version of the original Banda language is still spoken in the villages of Banda Eli and Banda Elat on Kai Besar Island. While long integrated into Kei Island society, residents of these settlements continue to value the historical origins of their ancestors.
Culture
Most of the present-day inhabitants of the Banda Islands are descended from migrants and plantation labourers from various parts of Indonesia, as well as from indigenous Bandanese. They have inherited aspects of pre-colonial ritual practices in the Banda Islands that are highly valued and still performed, giving them a distinct and very local cultural identity.
See also
1938 Banda Sea earthquake
Dutch East India Company in Indonesia
History of Indonesia
List of earthquakes in Indonesia
Maluku Islands
Further reading
Ghosh, Amitav (2021). The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 1529369479.
Giles Milton. Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History (Sceptre books, Hodder and Stoughton, London)
Notes
General references
Warburg, Otto (1897) Die Muskatnuss: ihre Geschichte, Botanik, Kultur, Handel und Verwerthung sowie ihre Verfälschungen und Surrogate zugleich ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte der Banda-Inseln. Leipzig: Engelmann.
External links
Capture of Banda Neira by the British Royal Navy 1810
Forts of the Spice Islands
Portuguese colonialism in Indonesia
Dutch East India Company
Archipelagoes of Indonesia
Landforms of Maluku (province)
Volcanic groups
Banda Sea
Central Maluku Regency
Islands of the Indian Ocean
Populated places in Indonesia |
5025 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane%20Broncos | Brisbane Broncos | The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos currently compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club has won seven premierships, including two New South Wales Rugby League premierships, a Super League premiership and four NRL premierships. The Broncos have won two World Club Challenges, and four minor premierships in multiple competitions. Prior to 2015, Brisbane had never been defeated in a grand final, and since 1991, the club has failed to qualify for the finals five times. The club is one of the most successful clubs in the National Rugby League since it began in 1998, winning three premierships (second only to the Sydney Roosters, Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Storm' four). The club is one of the most successful clubs in the history of rugby league, having won 59.9% of games played since its induction in 1988, second only to Melbourne Storm with 67.3%.
In 2012, the club recorded the highest annual revenue of all NRL clubs. Along with financial competitiveness in 2009, the Broncos was voted one of Australia's most popular and most watched football teams, and has one of the highest average attendances of any rugby league club in the world; 33,337 in the 2012 NRL season.
The club was founded in April 1987 as part of the Winfield Cup's national expansion, becoming, along with the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants, one of Queensland's first two participants in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership. The Broncos later became the dominant force in the competition before playing a significant role in the Super League War of the mid-1990s, then continuing to compete successfully in the newly created National Rugby League competition. The Broncos are based in the Brisbane suburb of Red Hill where their training ground and Leagues club are located (), but they play their home games at Suncorp Stadium in nearby Milton. It is the only publicly listed sports club on the Australian Securities Exchange, trading as Brisbane Broncos Limited ().
At the end of the 2020 regular season, head coach Anthony Seibold resigned after the club secured its first wooden spoon. Kevin Walters accepted an initial two-year contract as head coach.
History
Beginnings (1988–1991)
A Brisbane license was the Queensland Rugby League's direct response to the threat posed by the VFL's (now AFL) expansion team the Brisbane Bears which was granted a license in 1986 for entry in the 1987 season. Soon after the granting of the license, QRL officials mobilized, seeking a NSWRL franchise and rich backers. The aim of QRL general manager Ross Livermore was specifically to stifle the VFL's publicity and promotions in the state.
The QRL's bid was bolstered by Queensland's success in the 1980s, the early years of the State of Origin series between Queensland and New South Wales, in addition to the inclusion of a combined Brisbane Rugby League team in the mid-week competition, convinced the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) to invite a Queensland-based team into the competition. After tough competition between the various syndicates for the Brisbane licence, the QRL chose the bid of former Brisbane Rugby League (BRL) players, Barry Maranta and Paul Morgan. At the first meeting with the NSWRL hierarchy, the newly formed Brisbane Broncos were asked to pay a $500,000 fee.
The Broncos secured the services of Australia national rugby league team captain Wally Lewis to be the inaugural club captain and former BRL and then Canberra Raiders coach Wayne Bennett, on top of a host of other talented players including Chris Johns, Allan Langer, Terry Matterson, Gene Miles and Kerrod Walters. The team made their debut in the NSWRL's 1988 Winfield Cup premiership against reigning premiers, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, and defeated them 44–10. They sat inside the Top 4 for a majority of the season, even sitting in 1st for 3 weeks. But the competition race was so tight, a 16–4 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Round 14 was enough to drop them from 2nd to 6th. Brisbane would not return to the Top 5, and a 20–10 loss to eventual runners up Balmain Tigers denied them the chance to enter a playoff for 5th place. Leading into 1989, Brisbane recruited Sam Backo from the Raiders while Steve Renouf was given his first grade debut. In their second season they won the mid-week knockout competition, the 1989 Panasonic Cup, but their league performance again revolved around a midseason slump, this time a 5-game losing streak which dropped them from 2nd to 7th. Brisbane would recover to enter a playoff for the 5th and final spot in the finals, but lost 38–14 to the Cronulla Sharks, ending their season.
Leading up to the 1990 season, Brisbane recruited Kevin Walters from Canberra. However, the biggest news was the decision of Bennett to remove Lewis as club captain on the basis that he wasn't a good trainer or teammate, with Miles resuming the captaincy of the side. While the move was controversial, it seemed to have the desired effect, as the Broncos finished the season in 2nd, qualifying for their maiden finals series. Their finals debut was an upset 26–16 loss to the Penrith Panthers in the major Preliminary Semi, before they beat Manly 12–4 in the Minor Semi to qualify for a Preliminary Final showdown with Canberra. With a spot in the Grand Final on the line, Brisbane collapsed in sensational fashion at the Sydney Football Stadium (SFS), losing 32–4. Lewis, still upset about Bennett's treatment of his captaincy, left the club to go to the Gold Coast. He was replaced by Trevor Gillmeister, who joined from the Eastern Suburbs Roosters. Unfortunately, Brisbane endured their worst season to date in 1991, spending just 2 weeks total inside the Top 5 and hovering around 10th for much of the year before a 5-game winning streak saw them finish 7th, just a solitary draw outside a playoff for 5th place.
The Golden Age and Super League (1992–1997)
Leading up to 1992, Brisbane landed another major piece from the Raiders, premiership winning prop Glenn Lazarus. The retirement of Miles saw Langer appointed club captain. Despite the new captain, 1992 was by far their best season yet, never sitting below 4th on the ladder and finishing the season with the minor premiership. The Illawarra Steelers met them in the Major Semi-final, where Brisbane took a 22–12 win to go into the first Grand Final in club history. 14 days later, they met the St George Dragons at the SFS. After a cagey first half which saw Brisbane lead 8–6 at the break, the Broncos dominated the second 40 minutes, with Langer and backrower Allan Cann crossing for 2 tries each in a 28–8 victory. Langer was named Clive Churchill Medallist for his phenomenal performance.
Brisbane's Premiership defence in 1993 got off to a slow start, but they would recover to return to contention for the minor premiership. On the last round of the season, Brisbane took on St George, needing a win to keep their minor premiership hopes alive. St George won 16–10, and wins to Manly and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs saw Brisbane drop from 2nd all the way to 5th, plunging them into sudden death football, all matches being played in Sydney. They ended Manly's season with a dominant 36–10 win, then took on a Canberra side whose form had plummeted following a broken leg to superstar halfback Ricky Stuart, and Brisbane cast them aside 30–12. Brisbane then met minor premiers Canterbury for a spot in the Grand Final, and their season looked on tenterhooks as the Bulldogs took a 16-10 halftime lead. But Brisbane steeled and won 23–16, and set up a Grand Final rematch with the Dragons. No team had ever won the NSWRL from 5th, however Brisbane became the first to do so when they won a defensive dogfight 14–6, winning back to back premierships, the last team to do so in a unified comp until the Roosters in 2018–19. During that season, they also handed future dual-international winger Wendell Sailor his first grade debut.
1994 was a tough year for Brisbane, they didn't reach the Top 5 until Round 8 before dropping out and not returning until Round 17, ultimately finishing 5th. Brisbane again ended Manly's season in the first week of the finals, this time 16–4, but they could not repeat the magic of '93, with a Jason Taylor field goal ending their season in a heart breaking 15–14 loss to the North Sydney Bears. In 1995, the Super League War broke out. After threats of expulsion from the NSWRL, the Broncos were one of the last clubs to sign with the new league and all players followed suit (The Canberra Raiders, Canterbury Bulldogs and Cronulla Sharks were the first to sign, and it was only revealed many years later that the Broncos were in fact one of the last clubs to sign for either competition). Broncos CEO John Ribot moved to take over the running of the rebel Super League, leading to a perception that the conflict was orchestrated by the club. The 1995 season, the first under the ARL banner, went pretty well for Brisbane- they sat in the Top 4 for most of the year, finished 3rd, and unearthed a pair of future club legends- rugged prop Shane Webcke and future Golden Boot winner Darren Lockyer. Unfortunately, Brisbane couldn't capitalise in the first 8-team finals series, losing to the Raiders 14–8 in the qualifying final before falling 24–10 to the eventual Premiers, the now-Sydney Bulldogs. 1996 went pretty similarly- sit comfortably in the Top 4 and ultimately finish 2nd, only to lose 21–16 to North Sydney and 22–16 to the Cronulla Sharks to end their season.
Brisbane's decision to side with the Super League saw a host of players join them from the ARL- most notably St George pair Anthony Mundine and Gordon Tallis, which offset the departure of longtime hooker Kerrod Walters to the Adelaide Rams. Brisbane dominated the Super League season, never leaving 1st position after Round 5 and beating Cronulla 34-2 and then 2 weeks later 26–8 to win the title in convincing fashion. Brisbane also competed in the World Club Challenge, going undefeated in their group (including a 76-0 demolition of Halifax Blue Sox), before beating St Helens 66–12, the Auckland Warriors 22–16 and the Hunter Mariners 36–12 to win the only edition of the costly tournament.
Unified competition, sixth premiership (1998–2006)
Brisbane entered the 1998 NRL season as one of the favourites to win the unified competition- despite the return of Mundine to the Dragons and the departure of Lazarus to become the inaugural captain of the newly formed Melbourne Storm. Despite a rocky period which saw them drop to 6th after 14 rounds, Brisbane stormed home on a 12-game unbeaten run to seal the minor premiership. They were also able to fill the hole of Lazarus by debuting Petero Civoniceva.Despite this form however, they were stunned 15–10 by the Parramatta Eels in their first finals match, meaning they would need an extra game to qualify for the Grand Final. They responded in typical Brisbane style- routing Melbourne and Sydney City (formerly Eastern Suburbs) 30-6 and 46-18 respectively to qualify for the big dance, where they ended Canterbury's dream finals run with a 38–12 victory. The rampaging Tallis was named Clive Churchill Medallist after a dominant performance in the middle of the park, including a try from dummy half.
1999 was disappointing for the club with a terrible early-season form hindering their attempt at a third consecutive premiership losing 8 of their first 10 matches. Club legend Langer retired mid-season, with Kevin Walters taking over the captaincy. The club went on another 12 game unbeaten run and ultimately qualified for the finals in 8th position, however their season ended in a dominant 42–20 loss against minor premiers Cronulla. The season wasn't all negative, as future Queensland representatives Dane Carlaw, Lote Tuqiri and Chris Walker all made first grade debuts for the club, although club legend Renouf did leave to finish his career with the Wigan Warriors. But Brisbane responded with a dominant 2000 season, buoyed by the signing of Ben Ikin to fill the hole left by Langer. Brisbane dominated the regular season, running away with the minor premiership, before beating the Sharks 34–20 and the Eels 16–10 to book a Grand Final matchup with the Roosters. The Broncos ground out a 14–6 victory for their 5th title in 9 years, with Lockyer receiving the Clive Churchill Medal for his performance. 2000 also saw the debut of even more future representative players- Ashley Harrison, Justin Hodges, Brad Meyers and Carl Webb. After just one full season as captain, Walters retired (although he would have a 5-game comeback in 2001), with Tallis anointed as club captain, and young North Queensland Cowboys half Scott Prince was brought in as his replacement
2001 saw the beginning of the Broncos "Post-Origin Slump", a succession of losing streaks after Origin which sees Brisbane slide down the ladder and disappoint in the finals. In Round 19, Brisbane sat 2nd on the ladder, before losing 6 straight matches and finishing the year in 5th place. They fell 22–6 to Cronulla in the Qualifying Final, before beating the now-merged St George-Illawarra Dragons 44–28 to secure a Preliminary Final berth, where they were defeated 24–16 by minor premiers Parramatta. The year saw the debut of 2 more future stars- the speedy Brent Tate as well as goal kicking forward Corey Parker. A brutal knee injury suffered by Ikin would sideline him for all of 2002, and while a neck injury to Tallis threatened to end his career, he would return at the start of the next season. Sailor would also leave the club, enticed by a massive offer from the Queensland Reds to switch codes. Hodges also left the club, the offer of guaranteed gametime from the Roosters too much for him to ignore. After joining the Warrington Wolves and making a stunning comeback to the Queensland squad, Langer returned to the club for one last season in 2002 to help ease their halves problem. Brisbane finished the year in 3rd position, although they were challenging for the minor premiership until they lost 4 of their last 5 matches. Brisbane eliminated Parramatta with a 24–14 win, but fell in the Preliminary Final for the second year in a row, losing 16–12 to the eventual premiers, the Roosters. 2002 also saw one of the greatest moments in Brisbane's club history- in a Round 12 clash with the Wests Tigers, missing 15 regular first graders as well as head coach Bennett due to injuries and Origin, a Broncos squad captained by Shane Walker and coached by assistant Craig Bellamy pulled off a stunning 28–14 victory. Just a year after Sailor went to Rugby Union, his former wing partner Tuqiri joined him, joining the New South Wales Waratahs. Wing partner Chris Walker also jumped ship, heading to the South Sydney Rabbitohs on a big contract.
2003 saw one of the worst "Post-Origin Slumps" in club history. The club sat 1st as late as Round 17, and were comfortably positioned 3rd after 19 weeks before both Tallis and Lockyer were felled by injuries in the Round 19 win over Melbourne. Brisbane dropped their last 7 matches, even after the return of their 2 superstar for the last 2 weeks of the season, and dropped to 8th place on the ladder- their season ending in the Qualifying Final when minor premiers and eventual premiers Penrith reversed an 18–10 half time deficit to beat Brisbane 28–18. That year did see the debuts of Neville Costigan and Sam Thaiday. Meanwhile, Prince had struggled to find game time after 2001 and left for the Tigers, where he would win the 2005 Clive Churchill medal and captain the side to premiership glory in one of the biggest "Ones that Got Away" for the Broncos. The club again had a bounceback year in 2004, with the shock move of Lockyer from fullback to five-eighth a major catalyst for their success. Of course, it helped that his replacement at fullback, 17 year old sensation Karmichael Hunt, was able to fit straight into the Broncos side. Brisbane spent almost the entire season inside the Top 4 and finished in 3rd position, but were stunned 31–14 by Melbourne, who had Bellamy as their head coach. This set them up with a sudden death semi final against the Cowboys, who they were undefeated against leading into the match. Brisbane volunteered to move the match from Accor Stadium to Willows Sports Complex, and the Cowboys responded by using their raucous home support to stun their "Big Brothers" 10–0. The match would be the last for a host of club icons- captain Tallis and Ikin both retired, their NSW representative goal kicking winger Michael De Vere (Huddersfield Giants) and Queensland prop Meyers (Bradford Bulls) left for the English Super League, while their other Origin prop Webb joined the Cowboys. With Lockyer named club captain and Hodges returning to the club, Brisbane dominated the start of the 2005 season and sat in 1st position after 24 rounds, but 5 straight losses to end the season saw them again slide to 3rd, where they again lost in the opening week to Melbourne, this time 24–18. This sent them into another semi final, this time against Prince and the eventual premiers Tigers, who brushed the Broncos aside 34–6.
Leading into 2006, Brisbane were able to retain a similar squad to 2005. Ben Hannant proved to be a key rotational piece after arriving from the Roosters, Darius Boyd made his first grade debut and would be a key part of Brisbane's backline, and longtime Queensland Cup veteran Shane Perry would become the solution for Brisbane's halfback spot. After being inside the Top 2 after Round 17, the Broncos again entered the post-Origin slump, losing 5 consecutive games. This season however, they reversed this run of form, winning 5 straight games to close out the regular season in 3rd. This had come after Bennett had signed a secret deal to become the Roosters coach from 2007, but reneged on the deal after it became public. Despite the reverse in form, it looked like their finals success was going on par with previous seasons after they fell 20–4 against the Dragons in the qualifying final. But Brisbane got a break against an injury hit Knights squad, and Brisbane took a crushing 50–6 victory to qualify for their first Preliminary Final in 4 seasons. Brisbane took on the Bulldogs, and their season was on life support when Canterbury led 20–6 at half time. The lead prompted Bulldogs prop Willie Mason to exclaim “We're going to the grand final!”. That sledge sparked a dramatic Broncos comeback, as they ran in a 31-0 second half to blitz the Bulldogs 37–20 and book a spot in the Grand Final against Melbourne. Despite being massive underdogs, Brisbane looked in control throughout the entire match, and a Darren Lockyer field goal sealed a dramatic 15–8 victory and Brisbane's 6th premiership. Unsung hooker Shaun Berrigan was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal for his aggressive performance in the ruck. Webcke had already announced his intention to retire, and did so as a champion.
Bennett's final years (2007–2008)
Once again, Brisbane started a premiership defence poorly, losing 7 of their first 10 to sit 15th, but their stay at the bottom of the table was abruptly ended when they produced a club record 71–6 victory over a battered Knights side. Brisbane climbed back up the ladder to sit 5th after Origin, but their season again took a turn in a Round 18 clash with the Cowboys, when Lockyer's season abruptly ended with a torn ACL. Brisbane would lose 5 of their last 7 matches, including a 68–22 thrashing at the hands of the Eels, and would end the season in 8th place and being thrashed 40-0 by the Storm in the Qualifying Final. Civoniceva left the club for Penrith, upset that they had prioritised the signing of Panthers prop Joel Clinton over retaining him. Tate also departed for the Warriors, while Berrigan left for Hull FC. In their place came Clinton, Eels hooker PJ Marsh and another ex-Panther, Peter Wallace, who would replace the ageing Perry as Lockyer's halves partner.
Lockyer, however, missed some serious game time in 2008 and wasn't 100% healthy until Round 18, at which point Brisbane sat 7th on the ladder. But the bigger news to come out of the start of that season was Bennett's decision to walk out of the final year of his contract to become the head coach of the Dragons from 2009. Bennett had seen his relationship with the Broncos board deteriorate after his courtship with the Roosters, and decided to leave after 21 seasons with the club. His former assistant Bellamy seemed set for a return to Brisbane as his replacement, only to blindside the club by re-signing with the Storm after a botched interview. Ultimately, it was decided that longtime assistant Ivan Henjak would be promoted to the head coaching role from 2009, and he began taking more of a role in training. With Lockyer returning, Brisbane won 6 of their final 9 games to finish 5th, and upset the Roosters 24–16 in the qualifying final to set up a semi final showdown with Bellamy and the Storm. Brisbane led 14–12 with under 10 minutes to go, and seemed to have won the game when Hannant crossed the line, with Bennett seen displaying a rare show of emotion. But the video referee deemed Hannant was held up, and a few minutes later an Ashton Sims knock on saw Greg Inglis score for the Storm to seal a late 16–14 victory, breaking Brisbane hearts and ending their season.
The Rebuild (2009–2014)
2009 saw a wave of change around Red Hill- not only was there a new head coach, but a host of roster changes. Boyd joined Bennett at the Dragons, the representative foursome of Hannant, Greg Eastwood, Michael Ennis and David Stagg all joined the Bulldogs, and boom winger Denan Kemp, who tied the club record with 4 tries in a single game against the Eels, was lured away to the Warriors. In their place was boom teenager Israel Folau, young back rower Ben Te'o and a host of club-developed talent, including Gerard Beale, Alex Glenn, Josh McGuire, Andrew McCullough and Jharal Yow Yeh. Brisbane sat Top 4 until the Origin period, when they collapsed, conceding 40+ points in 3 straight games, an extra 44–12 loss to South Sydney and a then-club record 56–0 thrashing at the hands of the Raiders, leaving them dangling in 10th position. But 5 straight wins to close out the season, including a 22–10 win over Canberra just 36 days later, saw them finish in 6th position. This revival was largely due to the emergence of rampaging forward Dave Taylor. The Broncos stunned the 3rd place Titans 40–32 in the qualifying final, setting up a showdown with Bennett's Dragons in a sudden death semi final. Brisbane took one up on their former mentor with a dominant 24–10 victory, however Wallace fractured his ankle in the win, leaving them without a recognised halfback ahead of their preliminary final matchup with the Storm, one of the bigger reasons they fell 40–10.
2010 saw significant roster changes: the injury-enforced retirement of Marsh, Taylor's decision to move to the Rabbitohs and Karmichael Hunt's decision to switch to the AFL with the Gold Coast Suns. Furthermore, they received a massive blow during pre-season when Hodges ruptured his achilles, causing him to miss the entire season. Brisbane stuttered and lost 6 of their first 8 matches, before reversing form and entering the Top 8. But in their Round 22 clash with the Cowboys, Lockyer took a hit and injured his rib cartilage. Despite his best efforts, Lockyer missed the rest of the regular season, and without him Brisbane slumped to 4 straight defeats, sliding from 7th to 10th and missing the finals for the first time since 1991. An even bigger blow for Brisbane was a contract saga involving Greg Inglis, who was departing the Melbourne Storm in the wake of their salary cap saga. Inglis had agreed in principle to join the Broncos for 2011 onward, but then decided to cancel a flight to Brisbane to sign the contract under the alibi that "It's raining and I don't think the planes are flying". Behind the scenes, former Bronco Anthony Mundine was convincing Inglis to join the Rabbitohs, which he did a week later. Inglis would've replaced Folau, who followed Hunt's lead in switching to the AFL, this time to the Greater Western Sydney Giants. On a positive note, the season saw the debut of future international Matt Gillett.
In February 2011, it was announced that Henjak was to be sacked from the club, only three weeks before the beginning of the season. Anthony Griffin, Henjak's assistant, took over as coach for the 2011 season, becoming just the third head coach in the history of Broncos. Ben Hannant also returned to the club, but even more pressing was the decision of Lockyer to retire after the season, ending a 16-year playing career which, in Round 22, saw him overtake Terry Lamb and Steve Menzies for the most first grade games played, finishing at 355, a record which would stand until Cameron Smith overtook him in 2017. Brisbane stagnated for a little while, but finished the season in 3rd position, setting up a qualifying finals matchup with the Warriors which they won 40–10, meaning they would head to take on the Dragons once again in the semi-finals. Bennett, who had looked like he was set to rejoin the Broncos in 2012, had announced that he was joining Newcastle at the end of the season- meaning the match would either be the last of Lockyer's career, or Bennett's last with the Dragons. Brisbane led 12-6 towards the end of the game before Lockyer caught Beale's knee in his face, fracturing his cheekbone. St George Illawarra tied the game, necessitating Golden Point, where an injured Lockyer slotted home a field goal to seal a 13–12 win and keep Brisbane in the finals. Unfortunately, Lockyer was unable to play in the Preliminary Final against Manly, which the Sea Eagles won 26–14.
2012 marked the Broncos' 25th season in the NRL competition. Civoniceva returned for one last season, and Thaiday was appointed club captain. The club also lost winger Jharal Yow Yeh in Round 4 to a brutal leg injury, suffering a compound fracture in his leg and an ankle dislocation. Yow Yeh retired in 2014, as he never fully recovered from the injury. Brisbane spent much of the season inside the Top 4, but another "Post-Origin Slide" saw them finish 8th, and they were eliminated by the Cowboys 33–16 in the Qualifying Final. Beale (Dragons) and Te'o (Rabbitohs) both left the club, along with the retiring Civoniceva, and Prince returned to the club for his swansong. Unfortunately, 2013 was not a good year for Brisbane- they were out of the Top 8 after Round 10 and never returned, finishing 12th, the lowest position in club history at the time. Future Origin winger Corey Oates made his debut during this season, however. Prince retired and Wallace returned to the Panthers, largely because of the emergence of Ben Hunt as the club's halfback.
Perhaps one of their biggest signings in quite some time, former Dally M Medallist Ben Barba joined the club in 2014 as their marquee signing. Barba attempted to join the Broncos one year prior, but was refused a release by the Bulldogs. Todd Lowrie, Martin Kennedy and Daniel Vidot also joined the Broncos from the Warriors, Roosters and Dragons respectively. There was also a change in the club captaincy, with Thaiday standing down and being replaced by a co-captain structure of Hodges and Parker.
The Broncos failed to find any sort of consistency during the season, their best patch of form being four straight wins against the Titans, Tigers, Sea Eagles and Raiders. They also experienced their worst collapse as a club against the Cronulla Sharks at home in Round 16, where they led the Sharks 22-0 at one stage, ultimately falling 24–22 by full time. Brisbane never really challenged for the title throughout the season and ultimately finished 8th, again being eliminated by the Cowboys in the Qualifying Final, this time by the score of 32–20. That game would be Griffin's last as head coach, as it had been announced mid-season that Wayne Bennett was set to return to the Broncos from 2015.
Bennett's second stint (2015–2018)
The roster change under Bennett was dramatic from the moment he returned. Ben Barba was released after just one season, eventually joining Cronulla. Ben Hannant left for the Cowboys, and Kiwi international Josh Hoffman departed for the Gold Coast. In return, Darius Boyd returned to the club, and was joined by ex-Tiger enforcer Adam Blair and boom Raider Anthony Milford, as well as a pair of up and coming rookies in Joe Ofahengaue and Kodi Nikorima making their debuts. The captaincy underwent another change as well, with Hodges given sole captaincy of the club. Their campaign started rocky, a 36-6 thrashing at the hands of South Sydney, but they soon found their feet and won 8 straight matches during the Origin period – a drastic change from the previous years – ultimately finishing the season in 2nd place. They took down the Cowboys 16–12 in the Qualifying Final to advance straight to a Preliminary Final showdown with the minor premier Roosters. A Boyd intercept try inside the first minute set the tone for the clash, and Brisbane would dominate 31–12 to advance to a Grand Final showdown with the Cowboys. In what is considered by some commentators to be one of the best Grand Finals in recent history, the Broncos led 16-12 for much of the second half before Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt scored in the corner on the last play of regulation to tie the match. Superstar half Johnathan Thurston missed the subsequent conversion, sending the clash to golden point. The Broncos won the golden point coin toss and elected to receive, putting them in a great position to win the match. However, off the kickoff, Ben Hunt knocked on, giving the Cowboys possession just metres out from the Broncos line. Thurston kicked a field goal 2 minutes into the Golden Point period to win the match for the Cowboys 17–16, ending the season in jubilation for Townsville and heartbreak for Brisbane.
Justin Hodges retired after the Grand Final, and the captaincy was again given to Corey Parker. James Roberts, a speedy centre, had been lured away from the Titans at the last minute to join the Broncos, and he was joined by young Raiders forward Tevita Pangai Junior and young back rower Jai Arrow, who had emerged from Brisbane's development program. Brisbane started the season strongly but endured a "Post-Origin Slump" to drop out of the Top 4, finishing in 5th. After eliminating the Titans 44–28 in the Qualifying Final, Brisbane travelled to Townsville for a knockout clash with the Cowboys. In another classic between the two sides, the game went into extra time - a new rule brought in after their grand final thriller 12 months earlier. At 20-all, when a Michael Morgan try sealed a 26–20 win for the Cowboys, ending their season - the third time in 5 years their season had concluded in Townsville. Parker retired after the match, but Brisbane brought in embattled ex-New Zealand halfback Benji Marshall on a lifeline deal, as well as established prop Korbin Sims from Newcastle and experienced winger David Mead from the Gold Coast. Darius Boyd was also named club captain for 2017.
Prior to the start of the 2017 season it was announced Hunt had signed a large contract with the Dragons beginning in 2018, and that likely contributed to a season where Hunt was dropped to reserve grade and the bench, before finishing the season at hooker after Andrew McCullough tore his ACL. Brisbane started their 2017 campaign in shaky fashion, winning two of their first five games, the club sitting in ninth position at the end of Round 5. Following this, the Broncos found their form and re-entered the top 8 without exiting it again, finishing the 2017 season in 3rd, but with a 4 win gap between them and the 1st placed Storm. Making matters worse, Boyd was injured in their Round 26 win over the Cowboys, and missed their 24–22 loss in a classic Qualifying Final against the Roosters, before the Boyd-less Broncos advanced to another Preliminary Final with a 13–6 win over the Panthers. Boyd was rushed back into the squad for the showdown with runaway favourites Melbourne, but was clearly not healthy and didn't do much to alter the 30–0 defeat.
Along with Ben Hunt, Jai Arrow, Adam Blair and Benji Marshall also left the club, departing for the Titans, Warriors and Tigers respectively. Jack Bird was the club's marquee signing, joining from Cronulla, although his season lasted just 8 games as he dealt with injury. Wayne Bennett blamed Cronulla for Jack Bird's injury problems, as he had claimed that Cronulla had told Bird that he was not injured and did not require surgery before departing for Brisbane.
The Broncos also had signed prop Matt Lodge on a one-year deal, a move which attracted controversy, as Lodge had been out of the NRL due to his arrest in New York during the 2015 off-season. While many in the media and the NRL fanbase called for Lodge's contract to be deregistered, Bennett and the Broncos stood by Lodge.
2018 also saw a major success from Brisbane's youth, with debuts handed out to Payne Haas, David Fifita, Kotoni Staggs and Jake Turpin. Brisbane, however, were not the team they had been, and instead of being in the Top 4 race, they were just looking to make the finals. A big 48–16 win over Manly, which saw Corey Oates score 4 tries, saw the club finish in 6th, but just one win separated them from 1st, such was the tightness of the competition. The following week, Brisbane were eliminated from the finals series after being defeated 48–18 by a highly unfancied St George-Illawarra side. The loss was also the final game for the retiring Sam Thaiday.
After the 2018 season, a rift emerged between Bennett and CEO Paul White, which ultimately saw Bennett sign with the Rabbitohs to become coach from 2020. Just weeks later, Bennett was sacked as the head coach for making preseason plans with the Rabbitohs for the following year, and in return South Sydney appointed Bennett as head coach with immediate effect, freeing up their coach Anthony Seibold, who had already signed with Brisbane from 2020, to become the Broncos head coach for 2019.
Anthony Seibold era (2019–2020)
Along with Bennett, a host of key players left Brisbane. Josh McGuire left for North Queensland and Korbin Sims for St. George Illawarra, then halfway through the season, James Roberts, Jaydn Su'A and Kodi Nikorima also departed the club for the Rabbitohs and Warriors. Jack Bird once again dealt with injuries, only playing 9 games, and it quickly became clear that the now 32 year old Darius Boyd had lost a step. The Broncos handed debuts to Patrick Carrigan, Xavier Coates, Tom Dearden, Herbie Farnworth and Keenan Palasia, while also signing Rhys Kennedy and James Segeyaro mid-season. A four match losing streak early in the season set the tone for the club, as they sat 14th after Round 16, only to go on a run of 6 wins and a draw from their last 10 games to ensure they finished in 8th place. They played Parramatta in week one of the finals at the new Bankwest Stadium and lost the match 58–0, marking the club's worst ever defeat. It was also the biggest finals loss in the history of the competition which eclipsed the previous record set by Newtown when they defeated St George 55–7 in the 1944 finals series. It also extended the club's longest ever premiership drought to thirteen seasons. The club signed out of favour half Brodie Croft from the Melbourne Storm on a three year deal, beginning in 2020.
2020 started well for Brisbane, winning their first two games against North Queensland and South Sydney, before the competition was suspended upon completion of round 2 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the competition returned from its unscheduled hiatus in late May, the optimism at the Broncos fizzled out quickly, as they lost 34–6 to Parramatta in the first game of the season restart. The club then recorded their worst ever loss the following week against the Sydney Roosters, losing 59–0. The losses continued to pile up for Brisbane, the mid-season signing of Issac Luke and the return of Ben Te'o making almost no impact. The Broncos were also impacted by injuries, as many players missed more than half of the shortened season.
The club's only post COVID lockdown victory came against fellow bottom of the ladder team, Canterbury-Bankstown in round 9. After a 28–10 loss to South Sydney, Anthony Seibold resigned as coach of the Brisbane Broncos, with assistant Peter Gentle taking over as caretaker coach until the end of the season.
While the Brisbane club were more competitive under Gentle, the club would lose their final 11 matches of the season in a row including a 36–8 loss to the Canberra Raiders despite leading 8–6 at half time, another big loss against the Sydney Roosters, this time 58–12 at the Sydney Cricket Ground and a 32–16 loss in the final round to North Queensland which condemned Brisbane to the club's first ever wooden spoon after Canterbury-Bankstown beat Souths in round 19 to leap ahead of the Brisbane club on the ladder on points differential. Darius Boyd and Jordan Kahu both retired at the end of the 2020 season, while David Fifita would be departing as well to join the Titans.
Kevin Walters era (2021–present)
After missing out on the signature of Craig Bellamy as head coach, Kevin Walters was signed as coach for the 2021 NRL season for two years. Walters moved on two of Brisbane's players who were on large contracts in Jack Bird and Joe Ofahengaue, with the two signing with St. George Illawarra and Wests Tigers. Brisbane brought in experienced players, John Asiata, Albert Kelly, David Mead, Dale Copley and Danny Levi in an attempt to take pressure off the young players. Walters named Alex Glenn as the captain for the 2021 season.
The problems at Red Hill continued, firstly surrendering a 16–0 lead against Parramatta in their season opener to concede the next 24 points without an answer to end up losing 16–24, followed by losing 16–28 to local rivals, the Gold Coast Titans to record their 13th loss in a row. In round 3, Brisbane recorded their first victory in 259 days after they beat Canterbury-Bankstown 24–0.
In round 8 of the 2021 NRL season, Brisbane staged an incredible comeback against the Gold Coast. After being down 22–0, Brisbane would go on to win the match 36–28.
An unlikely round 11 win against the Sydney Roosters at the Sydney Cricket Ground saw the Brisbane club end a 13-game losing streak outside of Queensland, however losses to Melbourne, St. George Illawarra, Canberra and South Sydney saw Brisbane once again fall to the bottom of the ladder as of round 15. The club would go on to win four of their last nine games to avoid the Wooden Spoon and finish in 14th place. Alex Glenn retired after this game, marking the end of a twelve year career.
Even though Brisbane struggled, Tyson Gamble emerged as a serviceable half for the club. Gamble was limited to two games in 2020, but managed more game time under Walters, as he chopped and changed halves pairings throughout the season. The club also lured Karmichael Hunt back from the NSW Waratahs, twelve years after he initially departed the Broncos for Australian rules football.
During the season, the Brisbane club ran the broom through the front office and the playing group. Paul White resigned as CEO and was replaced with Dave Donaghy from the Storm. Donaghy began his tenure in the middle of 2021, after a lengthy legal process that prevented him from commencing his role earlier in the year. Former Bronco Ben Ikin was hired as the Football and Performance Director. The turnaround for Brisbane's recruitment seemingly began when the club announced the signing of embattled Rabbitohs half Adam Reynolds on a three year deal from 2022 onwards. In addition to Reynolds, the club also signed Ryan James from the Raiders, Cowboys forward Corey Jensen, Kurt Capewell from the Panthers, as well as Jordan Pereira and Tyrone Roberts as depth signings. In addition to the new signings at the club, many of the young players extended their contracts to keep them at the Broncos, something that was becoming a rarity ever since 2018. Ben Te'o and Karmichael Hunt quietly retired from rugby league, while Danny Levi, Anthony Milford, John Asiata, Brodie Croft, Xavier Coates and Richard Kennar departed for other clubs. Jesse Arthars was also sent to the New Zealand Warriors on a loan deal for the 2022 season, expected to return for the 2023 campaign. Ex-Cowboy Te Maire Martin also made his NRL return with the Broncos, having initially retired three years prior due to a bleed on his brain. Adam Reynolds was named as the captain for the Brisbane in the 2022 season.
2022 began well for Brisbane, despite losing captain Adam Reynolds to COVID-19 in their Round 1 clash against the South Sydney Rabbitohs. They won their opening games against South Sydney and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs to sit in the top 8 at the end of the round for the first time since 2020. They then went on to lose three games in a row, before going on a seven game winning streak, including a 38–0 thrashing of Manly and another comeback victory against the Gold Coast Titans. This was the longest winning streak the Broncos had experienced since winning six straight games under Wayne Bennett in 2017. During the club's winning streak, the club was rocked by star forward Payne Haas requesting a release, which was denied. During the Round 12 clash against the Gold Coast, Haas was relentlessly booed by Brisbane fans when he had the ball.
The Broncos' seven-game winning streak was broken by the Melbourne Storm, who had beaten the Brisbane side 32–20 after a shaky start. Brisbane were defeated 40–26 by North Queensland the following week, before winning three games in a row. The last placed Wests Tigers defeated Brisbane at home in an upset, winning 32–18. This match saw Patrick Carrigan placed on report for a 'hip drop' tackle on Jackson Hastings, which caused an injury to the Tigers' half and ended his season. Carrigan missed four matches due to suspension. After losing to the Sydney Roosters the following week, Brisbane seemed to be back on track after beating the Newcastle Knights 28–10. The final three rounds were a nightmare for the Broncos, as they recorded a 60–12 loss against the Storm, a 53–6 loss against the Eels, then a 22–12 loss to St. George Illawarra in the final round of the regular season. Brisbane's horrific performances saw them drop out of the top 8 and miss the finals for a third straight season, the longest consecutive finals drought in Brisbane's history to date. The club also made history for the wrong reasons, being the first club to miss the finals with more wins than losses since Canberra in 1999, as well as being the first club to sit in the top four after Round 17 and miss the finals.
During the 2022 season, rumours had persisted that Warriors fullback Reece Walsh was seeking a return to Australia after the New Zealand Warriors had announced that they would be returning to New Zealand. However, both the Warriors and Walsh denied the rumours and insisted that he was committed to the move. In July, however, reports began emerging that Walsh was granted a release from the Warriors and that he was looking to return to a Queensland team. On July 7, the Broncos confirmed the signing of Walsh for 2023 and beyond. To accommodate Walsh in the salary cap, Martin was given permission to negotiate with other clubs and signed with the New Zealand Warriors from 2023 onwards.
At the start of the final round (27) of the regular 2023 season, Brisbane was positioned on top of the NRL ladder. Having qualified for the finals, eleven of the thirteen regular players were rested. The Melbourne Storm subsequently won 32-22 at Suncorp Stadium and by the end of round 27, Brisbane missed out on their first minor premiership win since 2000 due to a lesser points differential than the Penrith Panthers. Notwithstanding, Brisbane qualified to play Penrith in the 2023 NRL Grand Final at Accor Stadium on 1 October; however, Brisbane conceded the largest comeback in NRL Grand Final history in the final twenty minutes to lose 24-26.
Emblem and colours
It had originally been planned for the Brisbane Broncos to adopt a logo incorporating both a kangaroo and a stylised "Q" which had been featured in the logo for the Queensland Rugby League for many years. However, with the Australian national rugby league team also known as the Kangaroos, this was deemed inappropriate and conflicting. The state flower the Cooktown Orchid and the Poinsettia which had long been used by Brisbane representative teams in the Bulimba Cup and midweek knockout competitions was also ruled out, along with other Australian animals such as the brumby, possum, galah and the kookaburra, which was used on Brisbane's Kookaburra Queen paddleships.
Having wanted to continue with the use of alliteration for local sporting teams such as the Brisbane Bullets and Brisbane Bears (later the Brisbane Lions), the club's directors eventually decided on the nickname Broncos. This name was chosen by Barry Maranta because he was a fan of an NFL team, the Denver Broncos. The Australian newspaper has described the name as "Mystifyingly American".
The original club logo was first featured in the Broncos' inaugural season in the premiership in 1988 and was used until 1999. It used a mostly gold colour scheme, in line with the predominant colour on the team jerseys. In 2000, the club adopted a new logo with a more maroon design, which was much closer to the traditional colour associated with Queensland rugby league and Queensland sport in general. This design continues to be used to date.
Traditionally, the colours of the Brisbane Broncos have been maroon, white and gold, which have all long been linked to the history of rugby league in Queensland. Initially, the founders of the club favored the official blue and gold colours of Brisbane City Council. However, Sydney advertiser John Singleton advised the board that "Queenslanders had been booing players wearing blue for more than three-quarters of a century." As a result, the traditional maroon and white colours of Queensland along with gold, symbolizing the Queensland sunshine,
were adopted as the club's colours.
In the inaugural 1988 season, the club's jersey design featured the top third being gold, the middle being alternating hoops of maroon and white and the bottom third being maroon. Although this design featured gold strongly, it did not please everyone as the jersey had to differentiate from the maroon and white of Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the maroon of the Queensland rugby league team. Following a number of design changes in the 1990s including a predominantly white jersey from 1997 to 1998, blue was added to the jersey in 2001 as a minor colour to show the aforementioned historical link with the colours of Brisbane. However, this was later dropped from the design in favor of a mainly maroon jersey with gold trim.
At the 1995 Rugby League World Sevens tournament, the club introduced a new combination of jersey colours – mauve, aqua and white. Brisbane Broncos Marketing Manager Shane Edwards stated that it "will become our Sevens strip... but we will never change the Broncos' colours." In 2001, following the release of the club's predominantly white with navy-blue and maroon away jersey, the National Rugby League ordered the club to produce a third jersey since the new away jersey clashed with the home jerseys of the Penrith Panthers, Melbourne Storm and New Zealand Warriors. An aqua strip using the same design as the jerseys used from 1999 to 2001 was worn, which was much derided by the local media. Following two years of public pressure the club dropped the jersey in favor of the design worn against Newcastle in 2003.
International Sports Clothing became Brisbane's kit provider in October 2016, replacing long-time suppliers Nike.
Stadium
In their first five seasons, the Broncos played their matches at the 52,500 capacity Lang Park (or more commonly referred to as "Suncorp Stadium" due to sponsorship of Suncorp, Australia), the ground considered to be the home of rugby league in Queensland. However, following ongoing conflict with the Queensland Rugby League and Lang Park Trust due to a sponsorship conflict with the QRL having a commercial agreement with Castlemaine XXXX brewery with prominent signs around the ground, while the Broncos were sponsored by rival brewery Powers who were not permitted any permanent signs (the Broncos initially got around this by not using the change rooms at half time during games, instead sitting on the ground with a temporary protective banner surrounding them which just happened to have prominent Powers logos), the team relocated to the 60,000 capacity ANZ Stadium in 1993 (ANZ had been the main stadium of the 1982 Commonwealth Games). The club's home match attendance, which had averaged 19,637 at Lang Park, increased to 43,200 at the new ground in the first season following the club's first premiership title in the previous season. However, despite the team's second premiership in 1993, crowds gradually declined and it was not until 2002 that the club again registered more than the 1996 average attendance of 23,712. ANZ Stadium, as the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre was called at the time due to sponsorship rights, was featured on an episode of The Mole in April 2002.
With the Queensland Government's $280 million redevelopment of Lang Park, the team moved back to the refurbished and renamed Suncorp Stadium upon its completion in mid-2003. The more centrally-located stadium has begun to attract larger crowds, with the 2006 average attendance of 31,208 being significantly higher than the Newcastle Knights with 21,848 and about double the regular season competition average of 15,601.
The club record attendance for a regular season match is 58,593, set against the St. George Dragons in the final round of the 1993 season. The record attendance for a match at Suncorp Stadium is 50,859 for Darren Lockyer's final home game. Before kick-off at the Stadium an instrumental version of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" is routinely played. Whenever the Broncos score a try, "Chelsea Dagger" by The Fratellis is played.
The Broncos all-time home attendance record was set at ANZ Stadium during the 1997 Super League Grand Final when 58,912 saw the Broncos defeat the Cronulla Sharks 26–8 to claim the only Super League premiership played in Australia.
Home venues
Supporters
The Brisbane Broncos have the largest fan base of any NRL club and they have been voted the most popular rugby league team in Australia for several years. A Broncos supporters group called "The Thoroughbreds" which is made up of prominent businessmen, made an unsuccessful bid to purchase News Ltd's controlling share of the club in 2007.
Average regular season attendance
1988: 16,111 (lowest home attendance)
1989: 18,217
1990: 22,709
1991: 19,463
1992: 21,687
1993: 43,200 (largest home attendance)
1994: 37,705
1995: 35,902
1996: 23,712
1997: 19,298
1998: 20,073
1999: 22,763
2000: 21,239
2001: 19,710
2002: 20,131
2003: 24,326
2004: 28,667
2005: 30,331
2006: 31,208
2007: 32,868
2008: 33,426
2009: 34,587
2010: 35,032
2011: 33,209
2012: 33,337
2013: 30,480
2014: 34,235
2015: 36,096
2016: 34,476
2017: 31,929
2018: 31,394
2019: 29,516
2020: 8,624 (Attendance numbers impacted by crowd restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
2021: 21,444 (Attendance numbers impacted by crowd restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
2022: 29,594
Notable supporters
Notable supporters of this club, amongst others, include:
Mackenzie Arnold, Australian footballer and goalkeeper
Carl Barron, Australian comedian
Allan Border, Australian cricket captain
Quentin Bryce, 25th Governor General of Australia
Cate Campbell, Malawian-born Australian swimmer and Olympic gold medalist
Jim Chalmers, Treasurer of Australia
Andrew Fraser, 47th Treasurer of Queensland
Bernard Fanning, lead singer of Powderfinger
Katrina Gorry, Australian footballer
Wayne Goss, 34th Premier of Queensland
Ian Healy, former international wicket-keeper
Les Hiddins, former Australian soldier, known as "The Bush Tucker Man"
Mark Hunt, mixed martial artist
Dami Im, singer, winner of The X Factor Australia in 2013
Steve Irwin, TV personality and environmentalist
Usman Khawaja, Australian cricketer
Marnus Labuschagne, Australian cricketer
Georgie Tunny, The Project co-host
Yvonne Sampson, Fox Sports Presenter
Lincoln Lewis, Australian actor
Craig Lowndes, V8 Supercars driver
Chris Lynn, Australian cricketer
Steven Miles, 35th Deputy Premier of Queensland
Patty Mills, professional basketballer
Sally Pearson, Olympic athlete
Rick Price, musician
Terry Price, professional golfer
Patrick Rafter, retired tennis player
Kevin Rudd, 26th Prime Minister of Australia
Cam Smith, professional golfer
Karl Stefanovic, television presenter
Samantha Stosur, professional tennis player and 2011 US Open champion
Andrew Symonds, international cricketer
Ken Talbot, mining magnate
Don Walker, musician
Corporate
The Broncos are the only publicly listed NRL club. The largest shareholder in the Broncos is Nationwide News Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, which as of 30 June 2021, owned 68.87%. BGM Projects is another major shareholder.
John Ribot, a former first grade rugby league player in Queensland and New South Wales, was the club's original chief executive officer (CEO). Ribot left when he signed to become the CEO of the rebel Australian rugby league competition Super League. (p. 24,112) Shane Edwards, the Broncos Marketing Manager at the time, was promoted to CEO and later resigned. Bruno Cullen, who had been with the Broncos' off-field staff since 1989, became the club's third CEO in 2003.
In 2011 Cullen was replaced by current CEO Paul White. Rugby league player Darren Lockyer is a member of the board of directors.
Kia are the major sponsor of the Broncos as of 2020, replacing NRMA Insurance. Nova 106.9 are the main radio sponsors after taking over from rival station B105 FM in late 2006. Live broadcasts of all Broncos matches are provided by both ABC Radio Brisbane and Triple M. Channel Nine Queensland also sponsors the Broncos, although former player Shane Webcke is signed to rival Seven Queensland.
In 2012, local Brisbane based company Firstmac replaced WOW Sight & Sound as sleeve sponsor for three years to launch into the retail financial services market. This sponsorship took only 9 days to negotiate following the announcement of WOW Sight & Sound going into receivership. Firstmac stipulated a unique clause in their contract that they could pay for 250 tickets to be distributed to WOW Sight & Sound staff that lost their jobs. Firstmac has since launched a Firstmac Broncos home loan in conjunction with their new sponsorship agreement.
Asics are the Broncos current apparel provider as of November 2020.
Between 1997 and 2016, the club's apparel was manufactured by Nike. Between 2017 and 2020, International Sports Clothing served as the club's apparel manufacturer. From the 2021 season, Asics will supply the club's on-and-off-field apparel.
Sponsors
The Brisbane Broncos' first major sponsor was Powers Brewing who sponsored them until 1993. The Broncos currently have a number of sponsorship deals with the following:
Kia Motors
NRMA Insurance
ISC
Firstmac / loans.com.au
Asics
Coca-Cola
Powerade
Star Entertainment Group
Deadly Choices
Arrow Energy
New Era
Nova 106.9
Nine News Queensland
McDonald's
The Courier-Mail
Event Cinemas
XXXX Gold
Players
2023 NRL squad
Representative players
Notable players
Due to the club's premiership success and its being the dominant Queensland team in the competition for the majority of its participation, the Brisbane Broncos' list of representative players is extensive. Consequently, there have been a large number of Queensland Maroons in the team. In 2007, a 20-man legends team was announced to celebrate the club's 20-year anniversary.
1988 first-ever squad
Colin Scott – Fullback
Joe Kilroy – Wing
Chris Johns – Centre
Gene Miles – Centre
Michael Hancock – Wing
Wally Lewis – Five-eighth
Allan Langer – Halfback
Terry Matterson – Lock
Brett Le Man – Second Row
Keith Gee – Second Row
Greg Dowling – Prop
Greg Conescu – Hooker
Bryan Niebling – Prop
Mark Hohn – Interchange
Billy Noke – Interchange
Craig Grauf – Interchange
Wayne Bennett – Coach
Personnel
Coaches
Current personnel
Statistics and records
The Brisbane Broncos are the second most successful club in terms of percentage of total games won, having won 63.63% of their games, as of 29 August 2012. This is marginally less (0.01%) than first placed Melbourne Storm. In their twenty completed seasons, the club has made a total of seven Grand Finals, winning six and losing one to the North Queensland Cowboys in 2015. They are one of only two clubs to have won the World Club Challenge twice, and were the first club to do so on British soil. They also won the now defunct Panasonic Cup in 1989.
Former team captain Darren Lockyer holds the record for the most First Grade games for the club. Lockyer also held the record for the most points scored for the club, tallying 1,171 since his debut in 1995, before Corey Parker overtook him in August 2015 with 1,222 career points for Brisbane Broncos. Darren Lockyer also holds the club record of 272 points in a season, having achieved this in 1998. Darren Lockyer was named Fullback in Queensland Rugby League's Team of the Century in 1998–2007 and he won 4 grand finals with the Brisbane Broncos (including a Clive Churchill Medal) and a World Cup title with Australia. He also won the Golden Boot Award for world's best player in this position before switching to Five-eighth.
Steve Renouf also shares the club record for the most tries in a season with Darren Smith at 23. After over a decade after Steve Renouf's move from the Brisbane Broncos to Wigan Warriors, he was still the club's all-time try scorer with a 142 career tries. Five times, he scored 4 tries in a single match from 1991 to 1998 and was known as one of the greatest centres the game has ever seen. In 2008, Steve Renouf was named centre in the Indigenous Team of the Century.
Lote Tuqiri's tally of 26 points from three tries and seven goals in a single match against the Northern Eagles remains the club record for most individual points in a game. He also won the 1999 Brisbane Broncos season's rookie of the year award.
Corey Parker holds the record for most goals in a game kicking ten in a round one clash of 2008, breaking the previous mark of nine kicked by Lockyer in 1998 and matched by Michael De Vere in 2001. He also scored a try on debut during 2001. Parker converted ten from ten goals in the Broncos 48–12 win over the Penrith Panthers in which Parker scored 24 points placing him in equal second place on the most points in a match tally. In 2013, Corey Parker was named Dally M Lock of the Year and in 2009 received the Broncos' Paul Morgan Award. Corey Parker also received the Paul Morgan Award yet again in 2013 and 2015.
Six players have scored four tries in a match for the Brisbane Broncos including Steve Renouf (5 times), Wendell Sailor, Karmichael Hunt, Justin Hodges, Denan Kemp and former Australian Wallabies player, Israel Folau. Wendell Sailor has held the record for the most tries scored in a finals match (four tries against St. George Illawarra Dragons, Semi-final 2001, Brisbane won 44–28).
The most field goals in a match however hasn't been past one field goal which has been accomplished several times.
The club's biggest winning margin is 65 points, achieved in 2007 in a 71–6 victory over the Newcastle Knights. Their heaviest defeat is a 59–0 loss by the Sydney Roosters on 4 June 2020 . The club's highest winning margin in a Grand Final is by 26 points (38–12, against Canterbury Bulldogs, 1998).
In the 2017 NRL season, the Brisbane Broncos' highest try-scorer was former Gold Coast Titans centre James Roberts with 15 tries. The highest points-scorer was Jordan Kahu with 67 goals and 8 tries. The most metres run in the season was by Tautau Moga with 3410 metres.
Brisbane Broncos win–loss records
Source:
Active teams
Discontinued teams
Season summary
Finals appearances
28 (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023)
Honours
World Club Challenge: 2
1992, 1997
Premiership: 6
1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2006,
Minor Premiership: 4
1992, 1997, 1998, 2000
Panasonic Cup: 1
1989
Lotto Challenge Cup: 1
1991
Tooheys Challenge Cup: 1
1995
Club rivalries
North Queensland Cowboys
Brisbane's biggest rivals are the North Queensland Cowboys. The two clubs had a long-standing 'sibling rivalry' with North Queensland characterized as the underdog. Brisbane initially were dominant in the fixture with Brisbane going undefeated against North Queensland for the first nine years until North Queensland recorded their first ever victory in the 2004 elimination final defeating Brisbane 10–0.
The rivalry reached new heights after North Queensland won their first premiership, beating Brisbane at the 2015 Grand Final at Stadium Australia. Considered one of the greatest grand finals of all time, the win established North Queensland as competitive equals. Between 2015 and 2017 a staggering three of five games played between the two clubs led to a Golden Point finish. In the final round of the 2020 NRL season, North Queensland condemned Brisbane to their first ever Wooden Spoon. Brisbane needed to win the match to overtake Canterbury-Bankstown but lost the match.
It is regarded as one of the greatest modern sports rivalries earning the nickname of the "Queensland derby".
Gold Coast Titans
The match between Brisbane and the Gold Coast is known as the South Queensland Derby. The media and supporters of both club's have described this fixture as Big Brother against Little Brother. Brisbane are the more successful team in the fixture with the Gold Coast only defeating Brisbane eleven times since 2007. The two club's have only met in two finals matches, the first being in 2009 when Brisbane won 40–32. The other time being in 2016 when the Gold Coast reached the finals by default due to Parramatta's salary cap points deduction. Brisbane won the match 44–28.
The Gold Coast are geographically the closest club to Brisbane. Brisbane previously enjoyed derbies with the Gold Coast Chargers, until the Chargers exited the competition at the end of 1998 season, returning as the Gold Coast Titans in 2007 and before that with the Gold Coast Seagulls and Gold Coast-Tweed Giants. In the 2021 NRL season, Brisbane recorded the biggest ever comeback in their history by defeating the Gold Coast 36–28 after being down 22–0.
Melbourne Storm
Since the 2006 NRL Grand Final where Brisbane edged out Melbourne 15–8, a rivalry still continues today between the two clubs. The two sides have played each other in multiple finals matches. Adding to this, both Brisbane and Melbourne players usually feature heavily in Queensland's annual State of Origin side. Since the 2006 decider, Brisbane have played Melbourne on thirty-four occasions and only won five times. In round 27 of the 2023 NRL season, the two sides met in the final round of the regular campaign. Brisbane and Melbourne both rested regular players as each team had already qualified for the finals. Melbourne won 32-22 and by the end of the round, Brisbane missed out on their first Minor Premiership win since 2000.
The two sides would meet the following week in the 2023 qualifying final with Brisbane defeating Melbourne 26-0 to book a place in the preliminary final. It was the first time Brisbane had beaten Melbourne at Suncorp Stadium since 2009 and the first time that they had defeated Melbourne in 14 attempts.
Dolphins
The Battle of Brisbane is a new rivalry which began with the Dolphins' admission as the second Brisbane club in 2023. This marked the first time that Brisbane has had two professional rugby league teams since the demise of the South Queensland Crushers in 1997. In round 4 of the 2023 NRL season, the two sides played against each other for the first time. In a match which saw both sides take the lead, Brisbane would go on to win 18–12 in front of 51,047 fans. This was the biggest crowd at Suncorp Stadium for a regular season game in its history.
Club affiliations
The Brisbane Broncos have three split feeder clubs from the Queensland Cup: Northern Suburbs Devils, Souths Logan Magpies and Wynnum-Manly Seagulls. Former feeder clubs of the Broncos are the now-defunct Aspley Broncos and Toowoomba Clydesdales, active clubs Central Queensland Capras, who switched to The Dolphins, Ipswich Jets who switched to Newcastle Knights, Redcliffe Dolphins who switched to New Zealand Warriors, and Burleigh Bears who switched to the Gold Coast Titans.
Club victory song
The current Broncos' victory song, "We're The Broncos" was written in 1995 (the earlier rock song "Let's Go Broncos" written by Bob Bax in 1988 remains a club anthem)
Lyrics:
We're the Broncos
The mighty Broncos
We keep fighting every second till the end
We're the Broncos
The greatest team on earth
We're the heart of all Queensland
Never stop
We never rest
On and on we beat the best
Never giving up we bleed maroon and gold
For the league
We risk it all
We're standing tall
We're the finest and the greatest club of all
We're the Broncos
The mighty Broncos
We keep fighting every second till the end
We breathe in our soul
The best game of all
We are the Broncos of Queensland
Hey!!
Women's team
In 2017, the Brisbane Broncos launched a bid to enter a team in the inaugural NRL Women's Premiership in 2018. On 27 March 2018, the club won a license to participate in the inaugural NRL Women's season, on the back of a strong bid which included the NRL's desire for a geographical spread. Paul Dyer was named as the coach of the women's side, but stepped down after the inaugural season to concentrate on his role as game development manager. Kelvin Wright was named his replacement in May 2019.
In June 2018, Ali Brigginshaw, Brittany Breayley, Heather Ballinger, Teuila Fotu-Moala and Caitlyn Moran were unveiled as the club's first five signings. Tain Drinkwater was also appointed the CEO of the team.
The club won the inaugural NRL Women's Premiership title by defeating the Sydney Roosters by 34–12 in the 2018 NRL Women's Premiership Grand Final.
Current squad
See also
Sport in Queensland
Rugby league in Queensland
References
External links
Official sites
Official website
Broncos Leagues Club
Brisbane Broncos results - Latest scores for Brisbane Broncos
Statistics & information sites
Rugby League Tables
RL1908 Broncos History
Supporter sites
BroncosHQ – Brisbane Broncos Fan Discussion Forum
Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange
National Rugby League clubs
News Corp Australia
Rugby clubs established in 1987
Rugby league teams in Brisbane
1987 establishments in Australia |
5026 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane%20Lions | Brisbane Lions | The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition.
The Lions came into existence in 1996 when the AFL expansion club the Brisbane Bears, established in 1987, absorbed the AFL operations of one of the league's foundation clubs, Fitzroy, established in Melbourne, Victoria in 1883. Upon changing the club's official name and adopting Fitzroy's AFL nickname, Brisbane contested its first AFL season as the Lions in 1997. Its colours of maroon, blue, and gold were drawn from both Fitzroy and the Bears.
The club plays its home matches at the Gabba in Brisbane, and its headquarters and training facilities are located at Springfield Central Stadium. The Lions are one of the most successful AFL clubs of the 2000s, appearing in four consecutive grand finals from 2001 to 2004, a period in which they won three premierships (2001, 2002, 2003). They also finished runners-up in 2023.
The Lions were a foundation team in the AFL Women's competition in 2017, and have featured in four grand finals in that time, winning the premiership in 2021 and finishing runners-up on the other occasions. They also field a reserves men's team in the Victorian Football League, and operate an under-18s academy which contests Division 2 of the men's and women's underage national championships and the Talent League.
History of Fitzroy Football Club pre-1996, and Brisbane Bears
Fitzroy Football Club
The Melbourne-based Fitzroy Football Club was formed on 26 September 1883 at The Brunswick Hotel. The Victorian Football Association (VFA) made changes to their rules, allowing Fitzroy to join as the seventh club in 1884, playing in the maroon and blue colours of the local Normanby Junior Football Club.
They quickly became one of the most successful clubs, consistently in the top four, and drawing large crowds to their home at the Brunswick Street Oval in Edinburgh Gardens. This success was capped off by Fitzroy winning the VFA premiership in 1895.
Fitzroy would then go on to be one of the eight break-away clubs who formed the Victorian Football League in 1897.
They would continue their VFA form and be a powerhouse in the early days of the new VFL, winning a total of eight premierships, of which seven (1898, 1899, 1904, 1905, 1913, 1916 and 1922) were won while they were nicknamed the Maroons, and one (1944) as the Gorillas.
The club also boasted 6 Brownlow Medal winners who were Haydn Bunton Sr., Wilfred Smallhorn, Dinny Ryan, Allan Ruthven, Kevin Murray, and Bernie Quinlan.
The club changed its nickname to the Lions in 1957, but when Fitzroy was evicted from its home ground of Brunswick St Oval in 1965, this began a sustained period of poor on-field performance and financial losses. Fitzroy entered one of the least successful periods any VFL/AFL club has had. The club finished in the bottom three 11 times in the 1960s and 1970s, including three wooden spoons in four years between 1963 and 1966. The club won only a single game between 1963 and 1964 – known as the Miracle Match when it defeated eventual premiers Geelong in Round 10, 1963 – but its 1964 season was winless, and as of 2023 stands as the only winless season by any club since 1950.
Despite a revival in the '80s, when the Lions made the finals four times under the coaching of Robert Walls and David Parkin, and the playing group of 1981 Brownlow Medallist Bernie Quinlan, Ron Alexander, Garry Wilson, Gary Pert and Paul Roos, the club's financial situation was perilous.
The VFL's plans to move or merge struggling Fitzroy to Brisbane pre-dated the Brisbane Bears, and negotiations between the league and the club began in 1986 with the playing group voting for a move to Brisbane. However, Fitzroy resisted the move despite significant incentives and in response, the VFL made the decision to cut any further financial assistance to the club. By the start of the 1996 season, they were almost at the end of their financial tether. With no home ground, back to back wooden spoons, and their future under a cloud, Fitzroy began to consider options for survival.
Brisbane Bears (1987–1996)
The Brisbane Bears were born in 1987 and initially played home matches at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast. In its early days, the club was uncompetitive on the field and struggled to shake the derisive tags which included "The Carrara Koalas" (in reference to the Gold Coast home and the somewhat tame marsupial) and "The Bad News Bears".
After the collapse of the business empire belonging to Bears deputy chairman Christopher Skase and the resignation of chairman Paul Cronin, the club was taken over by the AFL and re-sold to Gold Coast hospitality businessman Reuben Pelerman.
Off-field, Pelerman was losing millions of dollars annually on the club and at one point in 1991 told Bears coach Robert Walls that he was closing it down. The Bears would go on to finish last in 1990 and 1991.
To survive, The Bears experimented with playing matches at the Gabba in Brisbane in 1991, moving all home matches to the venue ahead of the 1993 season.
As part of the club's move to the Gabba, Pelerman agreed to release the Bears from private ownership and revert to a traditional club structure in which the club's members were able to elect the board.
Membership and attendances instantly tripled now that the club was finally playing in their home city of Brisbane.
The Bears only qualified for the finals series in 1995 and 1996, and the closest the club came to a Grand Final was a preliminary final in 1996.
On extremely shaky financial ground, the Bears struggled to generate many revenue opportunities in their short and turbulent ten-year existence. Despite improving its on-field fortunes, and drafting exciting young players on such as Michael Voss, Justin Leppitsch, Jason Akermanis, Darryl White, and Nigel Lappin, the club's existence was still at threat due to severe financial problems, and since 1990, The Bears had been actively exploring merger options with Fitzroy.
Brisbane Bears absorb Fitzroy's AFL operations, become Brisbane Lions
Fitzroy's directors had agreed in principle to merge with the eventual 1996 premiers, North Melbourne, as the "North-Fitzroy Kangaroos". However, that proposal was rejected 15–1 by the club presidents, reportedly out of concern that an all-Victorian merge would be too powerful. Instead, Fitzroy was placed into administration, and its administrator accepted an offer to merge its AFL operations with Brisbane.
Brisbane Bears then changed its name to Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club (trading as Brisbane Lions), remained at the Gabba, and was coached by Bears coach John Northey. However, the club's identity, logo, song, and guernsey would be based on those of Fitzroy, three Fitzroy representatives would serve on the board, and the Lions would keep an office in Melbourne. None of the Fitzroy representatives, former Fitzroy champion Laurie Serafini, David Lucas and Ken Levy, chosen to serve on Brisbane's board, were Fitzroy directors at that time.
Eight Fitzroy players were allowed to be recruited to the Brisbane Lions outside of the normal draft or trade system. They were Brad Boyd, Chris Johnson, Jarrod Molloy, John Barker, Nick Carter, Simon Hawking, Scott Bamford and Shane Clayton.
Fitzroy played its last VFL/AFL game on 1 September 1996 against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval, and the Bears' last match was a preliminary final on Saturday 21 September 1996 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against North Melbourne.
The Brisbane Lions were officially launched on 1 November 1996, joining the national competition in 1997.
Brisbane Lions history
Beginnings: 1997–2000
In 1997, the Lions narrowly made the finals, finishing eighth. They ended up with the same win–loss record as fellow 1997 newcomers Port Adelaide, who missed out due to having an inferior percentage. Their first two games were against the eventual grand finalists of that year, Adelaide and St Kilda. They went down to Adelaide by 36 points before recording an emphatic 97-point thrashing of St Kilda in round 2. The Lions met St Kilda again in a cut-throat away qualifying final, going down by 46 points after leading the Saints at half-time. The Brisbane Lions in 1997 remain the only team in VFL/AFL history to have made the finals in their first season.
Despite a talented playing list, the disruption of the merger and injuries to key players Michael Voss and Brad Boyd took their toll. The Lions would go on to finish last at the end of the 1998 season. Accordingly, Northey was sacked as coach with eight rounds remaining in the season. During the off-season, the club hired Leigh Matthews, who in 1990 had delivered Collingwood its first premiership since 1958.
Matthews, who was voted "Player of the Century" in 2000, played his entire career with Hawthorn and brought many of the Hawthorn disciplines to the Lions. Importantly, he forced the Lions to embrace and acknowledge their Fitzroy heritage with murals and records being erected at the Gabba, and past players names being placed on lockers. Within a year, the Lions rose from the bottom of the ladder to fourth. The 1999 season included a Round 20 Gabba match where the Lions led Fremantle by 113 points at half-time after having kicked 21 goals. Their half-time score of 21.5 (131) still remains the highest half-time score in VFL/AFL history. Brisbane would win their first finals as a merged entity against Carlton and the Western Bulldogs before losing to the eventual premiers, the Kangaroos, in a 1999 preliminary final. The Lions played finals again in 2000 but bowed out in the second week after losing an away game to Carlton by 82 points.
In this period the club drafted and recruited key players who would go onto be pillars of the Lions triple premiership years. Victorian Luke Power, Fitzroy father-son selection Jonathan Brown, and exciting WA product Simon Black would come via the draft, and Brad Scott, Mal Michael, and ex-Fitzroy B&F winner Martin Pike would be recruited from Hawthorn, Collingwood, and North Melbourne respectively.
Triple premiership success: 2001–2004
The Lions began 2001 by making the final of the Ansett Australia Cup, their first pre-season grand final. They went down by 85 points away to Port Adelaide, who they had also been scheduled to play in Round 1 at the same venue. After an inconsistent start to their 2001 season, the Lions took on the reigning premiers Essendon in Round 10. Brisbane finished as 28-point victors, and head coach Leigh Matthews famously used a Predator quote, "if it bleeds, we can kill it", to inspire his team for the game. The Lions would then win 16 games straight, finishing the year undefeated and booking their place in the 2001 AFL Grand Final to play Essendon.
Going in as underdogs, Brisbane started the game well, scoring the first goal of the match from a free kick awarded to Alastair Lynch for holding against Dustin Fletcher. Essendon fought back late in the first quarter and then took control of the game in the second term. The Lions' poor kicking for goal almost put them out of the game in the second quarter as Essendon blew their lead out to 20 points late in the term.
However, The Lions managed to overrun Essendon in the third term, kicking six goals to one and turning a 14-point deficit into a 16-point lead. Brisbane's pace in the midfield and the tiring legs of most of the Essendon players played a pivotal role in them taking full control of the game in the second half.
The Lions won their first premiership comfortably, with a final score of 15.18 (108) to 12.10 (82).
The win was topped off with Lions utility player Shaun Hart winning the Norm Smith Medal after being judged best on ground in the Grand Final.
In 2002, the Lions won a club-record 17 games, spending most of the season firmly entrenched in the top two with Port Adelaide. They narrowly missed out on the minor premiership following a final round defeat to the Power in Adelaide. In the finals, the Lions claimed easy home victories over the two Adelaide-based teams on their way to a second consecutive Grand Final. They faced Collingwood, who had surprised many that year after having missed the finals the previous seven seasons. Brisbane ended up defeating the Magpies 9.12 (66) to 10.15 (75) in cold and wet conditions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Early in the contest, the Lions lost both ruckman Beau McDonald and utility player Martin Pike to injury and had to complete the match with a limited bench.
In 2003, the Lions became the first team in the national era to win three consecutive premierships. With a number of players under an injury cloud—and having lost to Collingwood in a qualifying final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground three weeks previously–the Lions went into the game as underdogs. However, they sealed their place in history as an AFL dynasty by thrashing the Magpies in cool but sunny conditions. At one stage in the final quarter, the Lions led by almost 80 points before relaxing when the match was well and truly won, allowing Collingwood to score the last four goals. The final score of 20.14 (134) to 12.12 (84) saw the club become only the fourth in VFL/AFL history to win three consecutive premierships and the first since the creation of the AFL. Simon Black claimed the Norm Smith Medal with a dominant 39-possession match, the most possessions ever gathered by a player in a grand final; the record was equalled by Melbourne's Christian Petracca 18 years later in the 2021 Grand Final.
During their premiership years, the club took the premiership cups to Brunswick Street Oval, Fitzroy, the home of the Fitzroy Football Club, each morning after the grand final. Honouring Fitzroy's history at their traditional home ground was seen as an important way of connecting with the Melbourne-based Fitzroy supporters who'd chosen to support the Brisbane Lions.
The 2004 season saw Brisbane remain in the top portion of the ladder for most of the season. Reaching the finals in second position, Brisbane controversially had to travel to Melbourne to play against Geelong in the preliminary final due to a contract between the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and the Australian Football League (AFL) that required one preliminary final to be played each year at the MCG. Port Adelaide had finished on top of the ladder and hosted the other preliminary final in Adelaide. Former player Jason Akermanis has since claimed that coach Leigh Matthews was furious over the preliminary final location decision. Despite this setback, Brisbane beat Geelong and reached the grand final for the fourth consecutive year. Their opponents, Port Adelaide, playing in their first grand final, were too good on the day and recorded a 40-point win in what was the first-ever all-non-Victorian grand final. The grand final is partly remembered for a wild punch-up between Port Adelaide's Darryl Wakelin and Alastair Lynch, who was playing in his last ever game and therefore immune from suspension.
Rebuild and Michael Voss: 2005–2013
The Lions endured a slow start to the 2005 season before having a form reversal towards the end of the year, which included ten-goal thrashings of top-four contenders Geelong and Melbourne. Going into Round 20, they were half a game clear inside the top eight and had one of the strongest percentages in the league. However, they would lose their final three games and miss the finals, with their season culminating in a record-breaking 139-point loss to St Kilda at the Telstra Dome. It remains the club's heaviest defeat, in addition to being the largest victory in the over-100-year history of St Kilda. Some believed that the St Kilda game, rather than the 2004 Grand Final, had signaled the end of Brisbane's triple premiership dynasty.
The Lions began the 2006 season optimistically, but injuries plagued the club as they again missed the finals, with Brisbane's players recording an AFL record total of 200 matches lost to injury for the season.
The Brisbane Lions' 2007 season started with them finishing runners-up to Carlton in the 2007 NAB Cup Grand Final. The Lions would fail to make the finals for a third successive year, again showing promising glimpses at stages, with a shock away win against reigning premiers the West Coast Eagles, and a 93-point hiding of finalists Collingwood at the MCG. They made history in 2007 by becoming the first club in the history of the AFL to have five co-captains.
The team struggled during the 2008 season and missed out on the finals with a 10–12 record, losing 3 games despite having at least 5 more scoring shots in each of those games. Following the season, Coach Leigh Matthews resigned after 10 seasons and 3 premierships with the club. The Lions appointed former player and Captain Michael Voss as the coach ahead of 2009.
After only winning 2 games from the first 5 played in 2009, the club won 9 of the next 12 to sit in 6th on the ladder, where they would finish the season. They would also record a strong victory over eventual premiers Geelong during this timeframe by 43 points. The club beat Carlton in their Elimination Final, coming from 30 points behind in the final quarter to win by 7 points, before losing to the Western Bulldogs in a Semi Final.
The 2009/2010 off-season was dominated by the arrival of Brendan Fevola from Carlton, with a belief in the club that Fevola could help them capitalise and improve upon their strong 2009 season. Indeed, the Lions won their first four matches of the 2010 season to be top of the ladder after four rounds, but they would only win three more games after that, to finish 13th by the end of the season.
The Lions' 2010/2011 off-season was disrupted by the sacking of Fevola after just one season at the Lions, following repeated off-field indiscretions which included getting drunk in the Brisbane streets during New Year's Eve celebrations. On the field, the Lions won only four games for the year and finished 15th overall. The 2011 season saw the debut of another Queensland-based team, the Gold Coast Suns. The Suns, who were coming off a 139-point loss to Essendon the previous week, upset the Lions by 8 points in their first encounter. Despite their worst season since 1998, coach Michael Voss was granted a contract extension after the board recommended that Voss was the best man to take the club forward into the future. Leading into season 2012, only two players from the triple-premiership-winning team of 2001–2003 remained: Simon Black and Jonathan Brown.
The 2013 season started well for Brisbane, defeating Carlton in the final of the NAB Cup, with Daniel Rich winning the Michael Tuck Medal for best on ground. However, the club began its 2013 season with back-to-back losses to the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide. Injuries took a toll on the team, with young players Claye Beams and Jared Polec suffering severe injuries. In Round 13, Brisbane defeated second-placed Geelong, coming from 52 points down late in the third quarter to win by 5 points due to an Ash McGrath goal after the siren in his 200th match, in what would become known as the Miracle on Grass.
On 13 August 2013, coach Michael Voss was told his contract would not be renewed.
On 18 October 2013, Brisbane Lions Hall of Famer Simon Black announced his retirement.
Playing under Justin Leppitsch: 2014–2016
On 25 August 2013, a former premiership player for the Lions, Justin Leppitsch, was confirmed as the senior coach of the Lions for the next three seasons.
During Round 13, 2014 Lions captain Jonathan Brown was the victim of a facial injury in a clash between the Lions and the Greater Western Sydney Giants. He collided with Tomas Bugg's knee and was taken off the ground. He suffered a concussion and subsequently retired from football. His retirement, alongside the retirement of Ash McGrath, meant there were no players from the triple-premiership era remaining at the club.
On 29 August 2016, Leppitsch was sacked as coach of the Lions after multiple disappointing seasons.
Chris Fagan era: 2017–present
On 4 October 2016, Hawthorn football manager Chris Fagan was announced as Brisbane's senior coach from the 2017 season onwards.
The Lions claimed the 2017 wooden spoon, despite winning 5 games for the season, 2 more than the previous season. Their percentage of 74.3 was the worst in the league, behind Fremantle with a percentage of 74.4. The 2018 season was very similar, recording 5 wins to finish in 15th place, but multiple close losses showed signs of a young team about to breakout into finals contention.
The Lions had a dramatically improved 2019 season, making the finals for the first time since 2009 and finishing second on the AFL ladder with 16 wins, behind minor premiers Geelong on percentage. However, Brisbane were bundled out of the finals in straight sets at the Gabba, losing to eventual premiers Richmond by 47 points in their qualifying final and then to eventual runners-up Greater Western Sydney by three points in their semi-final due to a late Brent Daniels goal. The Lions became the first team since Geelong in 1997 to finish second on the ladder and not progress to a preliminary final.
Brisbane repeated their form displayed in 2019 the following year, once again finishing second on percentage at the conclusion of the home-and-away season. They won 14 games in a shortened 17-game season. During their qualifying final, they defeated Richmond for the first time since 2009 and qualified for a preliminary final berth, but went on to be beaten by a more experienced Geelong side in that match.
After an inconsistent start to the 2021 season the Lions hit form, winning seven straight games to sit in the top four for most of the year. However, losses to Melbourne, Richmond, Hawthorn and St Kilda meant the Lions sat in fifth as of the final round.
With the double chance on the line, the Lions regained fourth spot in the dying seconds of their final home-and-away game against West Coast. A behind kicked by Lincoln McCarthy put them ahead of the fourth-placed Bulldogs by a single point of ladder percentage, and a goal after the siren from Charlie Cameron then sealed the result for the Lions, who finished in the top four for the third year running under Chris Fagan. However, the Lions bowed out in straight sets for the second time in three years after suffering losses to eventual premiers Melbourne and eventual runners-up Western Bulldogs in the finals, with the latter winning by a single point, due to a contentious free kick paid to the Bulldogs in the final seconds of the game.
Brisbane reached the finals once again in 2022, but this time missed the top four. With a win-loss record of fifteen wins and seven losses, the Lions finished sixth and hosted seventh-placed Richmond at the Gabba in an Elimination Final. After a close game which had 17 lead changes, the Lions prevailed, defeating the Tigers by a margin of two points in a 106–104 victory thanks to a late Joe Daniher goal. The Lions then played the Melbourne Demons in the Semi-Final, and upset the reigning premiers against all odds, bundling them out in straight sets with a score of 92–79 to progress to their second Preliminary Final under Fagan, taking on Geelong once again in a rematch of the 2020 Preliminary Final.
Unfortunately for Brisbane, their impressive finals run came to an end against the Cats, suffering a 71-point defeat in the First Preliminary Final that ended their 2022 season.
Brisbane reinforced their squad with multiple star signings in the off-season, such as star midfielder Josh Dunkley, tall forward Jack Gunston and father-son draftee Will Ashcroft, to make them one of the competition's flag favourites for the 2023 AFL season. Additionally, Fagan also penned a two-year contract extension to keep him at the club until 2025, with Lachie Neale and Harris Andrews also taking over as co-captains from long-serving Lions veteran Dayne Zorko, who stepped down before the commencement of the 2023 season.
Brisbane finished the 2023 Home & Away season in second position, finishing in the Top 2 for the third time under Fagan after previously doing so in 2019 and 2020, and finishing in the Top 4 for the fourth time after also doing so in 2021. They faced Port Adelaide in the Second Qualifying Final on the 9th of September at the Gabba, beating the Power by 48 points and going straight through to a home preliminary final, their third under Fagan, where they faced Carlton on the 23rd of September for a place in the 2023 AFL Grand Final.
After conceding the first five goals, The Lions fought back, prevailing by 16 points over the Blues to progress to the AFL Grand Final for the first time since 2004. This meant that they faced Collingwood, exactly 20 years on since they faced the Magpies in the 2003 Grand Final and completed the historic three-peat.
The Lions would fall short of the premiership in 2023, losing to the Magpies in an extremely close Grand Final with a final score of 12.18.(90) to 13.8.(86).
Membership base and sponsorship
Crowds and memberships for the Brisbane Lions grew dramatically during the four seasons in which they made the AFL Grand Final.
The club still maintains healthy Victorian support, and The Royal Derby Hotel in Fitzroy is the official social venue for Victorian Lions fans, showing all televised games, and displaying a mural of club greats Kevin Murray and Jonathan Brown on its Alexandra Parade side.
To add to this presence in Melbourne, the Lions Historical Society is based at Etihad Stadium, containing exhibits from Fitzroy, the Bears, and the Brisbane Lions.
A 2000 Roy Morgan AFL survey of household incomes suggested that Brisbane Lions supporters were among the lowest-earning supporters in the league.
Statistics highlighted in bold denote the best known season for Brisbane in that category
Statistics highlighted in italic denote the worst known season for Brisbane in that category
Non-playing/coaching staff
Sponsorship
Relationship with the Fitzroy Football Club
The Fitzroy Football Club came out of administration in 1998. For a brief time, it experimented in partnerships with other semi-professional and amateur clubs before incorporating the Fitzroy Reds in 2009 to play in the Victorian Amateur Football Association. Fitzroy largely resumed its original VFL/AFL identity playing in the VAFA through its continued use of its 1975–1996 VFL/AFL jumper, its club song, and its 1884–1966 home ground at the Brunswick Street Oval.
The goal was to not only maintain a strong presence in Melbourne for Victorian-based Fitzroy/Brisbane Lions supporters, but to also provide for the Fitzroy supporters who chose not to support Brisbane in the AFL. This was all done with the full support of the Brisbane Lions.
Fitzroy Football Club improved its relationship with the Brisbane Lions in the ten years from 1999 to 2009. In that time Brisbane have used the letters BBFFC printed below the back of the neck of the club's guernseys from 2002 onwards, in line with Brisbane's official name . Fitzroy played the curtain-raiser at the MCG when the Brisbane Lions met the Collingwood Magpies in the AFL Heritage Round of 2003. Brisbane also now wears a version of Fitzroy's AFL guernsey with red instead of maroon in most matches played in Victoria, consistent with Fitzroy's most recent colours.
Relationships between Fitzroy and Brisbane however were strained in late 2009, when Brisbane announced that it was adopting a new logo for season 2010 and beyond, which Fitzroy Football Club believed contravened Section 7.2 c) of the Deed of Arrangement between Fitzroy and Brisbane. The new logo, a lion's head facing forward, replaced the former Fitzroy logo of a passant lion with a football.
Mockingly referred to as 'The Paddlepop Lion', the new logo on the club jumper proved deeply unpopular amongst Lions fans who demanded it be changed back to the traditional Fitzroy passant Lion.
On 22 December 2009, Fitzroy lodged a Statement of Claim with the Supreme Court of Victoria, seeking an order that the Brisbane Lions be restrained from using as its logo, the new logo or any other logo other than 'the Fitzroy lion logo', in line with Brisbane's legal obligations as specified in the Deed of Arrangement, including their obligation to use the Fitzroy logo in perpetuity. On 15 July 2010, the two clubs reached a settlement, agreeing that the Fitzroy logo symbolically represents the historic deal between Brisbane and Fitzroy, and represents the Brisbane Lions in the AFL. Fitzroy agreed to a compromise whereby Brisbane would use both the old and new logos alongside each other in an official capacity for the next 14 years on all official club stationary and club publications, as well as the Lions' official website for the shorter period of seven years.
After immense pressure from both Lions and Fitzroy fans, Brisbane returned to using the old logo on its playing guernseys from 2015, but the new logo will remain for corporate purposes.
The Brisbane Lions have renewed and maintained strong ties with the Fitzroy Football Club in the VAFA and the Fitzroy junior football club. Brisbane Lions sponsor a male and female Fitzroy player each year, conduct coaching workshops for Fitzroy, frequently invite the Fitzroy juniors to form a guard of honour for Victorian games, and have had Fitzroy past players and representatives as elected board members.
Club identity
Emblem
In 1997, the club unveiled its new emblem, consisting of the golden Fitzroy Lion on a badge of Maroon and Blue. The club used this emblem from 1997 until the end of 2000. In 2001, the club would unveil a new emblem in the shape of a football, emblazoned with the words "Brisbane Lions" and with the Fitzroy Lion located within the "o" of Lions. This emblem was used until 2010, when the emblem was again changed, this time in favour of a forward-facing Lion head.
Guernseys
Home Guernsey (worn 1997–2009 and since 2015): Predominantly maroon guernsey with a blue yoke featuring a golden Fitzroy Lion, with a gold collar and cuffs. For shorts, maroon home shorts are worn in home games, while white shorts are worn in away games.
Away Guernsey (worn 2008–2009 and since 2015): Predominantly red guernsey with a blue yoke featuring a golden Fitzroy lion, with a blue collar and cuffs, and based on Fitzroy's final colours in the AFL. White away shorts are worn when this guernsey is used.
Clash Guernsey (worn since 2023): This predominantly gold guernsey features a maroon Fitzroy lion on a gold background (reminiscent of the Bears' first guernsey), with a maroon yoke and golden cuffs. The same shorts as the Away Guernsey are worn.
Mascot
The Lion's Mascot Manor representative and club mascot was Bernie "Gabba" Vegas until 2016 when Roy the Lion (named Roy after the nickname for Fitzroy fans) replaced him as mascot. In 2021 the club unveiled their Lioness mascot Auroara.
Song
The club's team song, "The Pride of Brisbane Town", is based on the Fitzroy Football Club song written by ex-Fitzroy player Bill Stephen, and is sung to the music of "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem.
Training base
Between 1997 and 2022, the club trained out of the Gabba during the football season. The club's administrative and indoor training facilities were also located in the stadium. Due to the cricket season in the summer which is during the off-season for the Lions, the club was required to train at alternative locations over the years, this has included the University of Queensland campus, Leyshon Park in Yeronga, Giffin Park in Coorparoo, Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex in Burpengary and elsewhere, meaning the club lacked a dedicated and permanent home year-round. In 2020 the club announced that it would move its training and administrative facilities into Springfield Central Stadium (known for ground-sponsorship purposes as Brighton Homes Arena), an 8,000-capacity high-class facility in Ipswich that enables the club to base itself in the single location and play reserve-grade and AFLW matches at the one location. The Lions moved into the facility in October 2022.
Rivalries
Collingwood
Pre-1996, Fitzroy and Collingwood were fierce local rivals for over 100 years,
sharing a suburban boundary down Smith Street, Melbourne, and both clubs topping the premiership tally in the early days of the VFL. The bad blood between The Bears and Collingwood began in 1993 after top draft pick Nathan Buckley walked out on them and went to the Magpies after playing only a single season in Brisbane. Buckley was adamant that the move was the right career direction, with the belief he had more chance of winning a premiership elsewhere. However the rivalry between the Lions and the Magpies was properly ignited in late 1999 when Collingwood played their last ever AFL game at their spiritual home ground, Victoria Park. The Lions emerged 42 point victors that day and consigned the Magpies to their second wooden spoon in their VFL/AFL history. The rivalry between the two clubs peaked in the early 2000s, as the clubs played off in two consecutive Grand Finals in 2002 and 2003, with the Lions emerging victors on both occasions.
Gold Coast Suns
The Brisbane Lions have a rivalry with fellow Queensland AFL team the Gold Coast Suns. The two teams contest the QClash twice each season. The first QClash was held in 2011, with the game establishing the highest pay TV audience ever for an AFL game, with a total of 354,745 viewers watching the game.
The medal for the player adjudged best on ground is known as the Marcus Ashcroft Medal. It is named after former footballer Marcus Ashcroft, who played junior football on the Gold Coast for Southport and 318 VFL/AFL games for the Brisbane Bears/Lions between 1989 and 2003. He later joined Gold Coast's coaching staff and was the first Queenslander to play 300 VFL/AFL games. Lion Dayne Beams has won the medal three times, the most by any player.
The trophy awarded to the winner of the game is currently known as the "QClash Trophy". The trophy is a "traditional style" looking silver cup with a wooden base and a plaque. The plaque's inscription reads from left to right, "Brisbane Lions AFC", "QCLASH", "Gold Coast Suns FC".
Port Adelaide
The Port Adelaide Football Club entered the AFL in 1997 after Fitzroy's AFL operations were merged with Brisbane. Supporters of Fitzroy and the Brisbane Bears were aggrieved about Port's entry having taken place under these circumstances.
In their early days, the two clubs could not be separated and had multiple close encounters, with a draw in two of their first three meetings. In the early 2000s, the rivalry reached its peak as the two clubs would be the most dominant of the era, consistently finishing at the top of the ladder. Between 2001 and 2004, the clubs met each other in the 2001 Ansett Australia Cup Grand Final, a 2001 qualifying final, a 2002 preliminary final and the 2004 Grand Final. Other notable encounters from this period include a round 22 match in 2002 to determine the minor premiership that year, which Port Adelaide won by a single goal, and a round 17 match in 2003 with 7 lead changes in the final quarter, which Port Adelaide won by a point.
Honours
Club honours
Individual
Team of the Decade
In June 2006, to recognise ten years since the creation of the Brisbane Lions, a Team of the Decade was announced.
Hall of Fame
Legends
Inductees
Club facts
Coaches (men's)
Coaches (women's)
Captains (men's)
Captains (women's)
Match records (men's)
Biggest winning margin: 141 points – 29.15 (189) vs. Adelaide 6.12 (48), the Gabba, 24 July 2004
Biggest losing margin: 139 points – 7.5 (47) vs. St Kilda 28.18 (186), Docklands Stadium, 27 August 2005
Highest score: 29.15 (189) vs. Adelaide, the Gabba, 24 July 2004
Lowest score: 2.5 (17) vs. Richmond, Melbourne Cricket Ground, 14 April 2018
Highest score conceded: 28.18 (186) vs. St Kilda, Docklands Stadium, 27 August 2005
Lowest score conceded: 3.10 (28) vs. Essendon, Carrara Stadium, 31 July 2020
Highest aggregate score: 293 points – Brisbane Lions 25.21 (171) vs. Fremantle 19.8 (122), the Gabba, 29 April 2001
Lowest aggregate score: 76 points – Brisbane Lions 6.6 (42) vs. Collingwood 5.4 (34), the Gabba, 4 September 2020
Most goals in a match: Jonathan Brown, ten goals vs. Carlton, the Gabba, 22 July 2007
Biggest home crowds
AFL finishing positions (1997–present)
Legend: Premiers, Wooden spoon
Players
Current squad
Reserves team
The Brisbane reserves are the reserves team of the club, currently competing in the Victorian Football League.
History
In the inaugural year of the Brisbane Lions (1997), the club affiliated with the Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL), allowing players not selected for the AFL team to be drafted to individual clubs. Reserves players not on an AFL list cannot be called up to the AFL team, they must first be drafted into the AFL.
Between 1998 and 2010 the club's reserves team participated in the QAFL, where it was initially known as the "Lion Cubs". The club won their first reserve-grade premiership in 2001 when they defeated the Southport Sharks in the QAFL Grand Final. In 2004, they began to compete as the Suncoast Lions Football Club. The side played home matches at the Gabba (as a curtain raiser game for Brisbane Lions matches) and, formerly, at the Fishermans Road football complex on the Sunshine Coast.
In 2011, the team moved to the multi-state North East Australian Football League (NEAFL), where they won four premierships − 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2019.
Following the NEAFL disbanding after the 2019 season, the reserves side moved to the Victorian Football League (VFL), with their first season in 2021.
Since 2023, the side has played reserves matches at Springfield Central Stadium.
Premierships
Season summaries
Statistics highlighted in bold denote the best known season for Brisbane in that category
Statistics highlighted in italic denote the worst known season for Brisbane in that category
AFL Women's team
In May 2016, the club launched a bid to enter a team in the inaugural AFL Women's season in 2017.
The Brisbane Lions were granted a licence on 15 June 2016, becoming one of eight teams to compete in the league's first season. Former AFL Queensland employee Breeanna Brock was appointed to the position of Women's CEO the following day.
Tayla Harris and Sabrina Frederick-Traub were the club's first signings, unveiled along with the league's other 14 marquee players on 27 July 2016. A further 23 senior players and two rookie players were added to the club's inaugural list in the league's drafting and signing period. Emma Zielke captained the team for their inaugural season.
Former Collingwood and Brisbane Bears player and AFL Queensland coach Craig Starcevich was appointed the team's inaugural head coach in June 2016. The rest of the coaching team was announced on 8 November 2016 as David Lake as the midfield coach, Daniel Merrett as the backline coach and Brent Staker as the forward coach. Car company Hyundai, along with Epic Pharmacy, sponsored the team in 2017.
The Lions have been a successful team in the AFLW, reaching the finals in six of the first seven seasons. They narrowly lost grand finals in 2017, 2018, and 2022 (S7), and only missed out on finals in 2019. Due to a shortened 2020 season, the Lions played a Qualifying Final against Carlton before the season was prematurely ended due to COVID border restrictions. No premiership was awarded in 2020.
In 2021 the team finally broke through to win their first premiership by defeating arch-rival Adelaide in the grand final.
The team plays their home games at Springfield Central Stadium in Ipswich.
Current squad
Non-playing/coaching staff
Season summaries
^ Denotes the ladder was split into two conferences. Figure refers to the club's overall finishing position in the home-and-away season. Daniel Merrett was coach for round 3, and Starcevich was coach for all other matches.
Brisbane Lions Academy
The Brisbane Lions Academy, consisting of the club's junior development signings. It was formed in 2010 as one of four Northern AFL Academies including the Gold Coast Suns Academy, Sydney Swans Academy and GWS Giants Academy.
28 staff (including 3 full time) manage 220 selected underage players from age 12 up.
The men's and women's U16 and U18 teams have contested Division 2 of the men's and women's underage championships since 2017. The Under 16 women's was crowned inaugural champions in 2023.
The Lions Academy also joined the Talent League in 2019.
Some of the Academy's most notable male players include the Brisbane Lions senior AFL players Harris Andrews, Ben Keays, Eric Hipwood, Keidean Coleman, Jack Payne, Jaspa Fletcher and Matthew Hammelmann. It also includes players who went on to other clubs : Mabior Chol, Noah Cumberland, Wylie Buzza, Samson Ryan and Will Martyn. Academy members who went on to excel in other sports include Kalyn Ponga and Corey Horsburgh.
Notable female academy players include Brisbane Lions senior AFLW players Mikayla Pauga, Sophie Conway and Gabby Collingwood.
See also
Wikipedia listing of Brisbane Lions players
Merrett–Murray Medal
Australian rules football in Queensland
Sport in Queensland
Sport in Australia
Brisbane Broncos
References
External links
The Brisbane Lions – an Overview – Official AFL website of the Brisbane Lions Football Club
Brisbane Lions results – Latest scores for Brisbane Lions Football Club
1996 establishments in Australia
Australian Football League clubs
Australian rules football clubs in Brisbane
Australian rules football clubs in Queensland
Australian rules football clubs established in 1996
AFL Women's clubs |
5030 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody%20Sunday%20%281972%29 | Bloody Sunday (1972) | Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre, was a massacre on 30 January 1972 when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland. Fourteen people died: thirteen were killed outright, while the death of another man four months later was attributed to his injuries. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by shrapnel, rubber bullets, or batons, two were run down by British Army vehicles, and some were beaten. All of those shot were Catholics. The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) to protest against imprisonment without trial. The soldiers were from the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment ("1 Para"), the same battalion implicated in the Ballymurphy massacre several months before.
Two investigations were held by the British government. The Widgery Tribunal, held in the aftermath, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame. It described some of the soldiers' shooting as "bordering on the reckless", but accepted their claims that they shot at gunmen and bomb-throwers. The report was widely criticised as a "whitewash". The Saville Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 to reinvestigate the incident much more thoroughly. Following a twelve-year investigation, Saville's report was made public in 2010 and concluded that the killings were "unjustified" and "unjustifiable". It found that all of those shot were unarmed, that none were posing a serious threat, that no bombs were thrown and that soldiers "knowingly put forward false accounts" to justify their firing. The soldiers denied shooting the named victims but also denied shooting anyone by mistake. On publication of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron formally apologised. Following this, police began a murder investigation into the killings. One former soldier was charged with murder, but the case was dropped two years later when evidence was deemed inadmissible. Following an appeal by the families of the victims, however, the Public Prosecution Service resumed the prosecution.
Bloody Sunday came to be regarded as one of the most significant events of the Troubles because so many civilians were killed by forces of the state, in view of the public and the press. It was the highest number of people killed in a shooting incident during the conflict and is considered the worst mass shooting in Northern Irish history. Bloody Sunday fuelled Catholic and Irish nationalist hostility to the British Army and worsened the conflict. Support for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) rose, and there was a surge of recruitment into the organisation, especially locally. The Republic of Ireland held a national day of mourning, and huge crowds besieged and burnt down the chancery of the British Embassy in Dublin.
Background
The City of Derry was perceived by many Catholics and Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland to be the epitome of what was described as "fifty years of Unionist misrule": despite having a nationalist majority, gerrymandering ensured elections to the City Corporation always returned a unionist majority. The city was perceived to be deprived of public investment: motorways were not extended to it, a university was opened in the smaller (Protestant-majority) town of Coleraine rather than Derry and, above all, the city's housing stock was in a generally poor state. Derry therefore became a major focus of the civil rights campaign led by organisations such as the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) in the late 1960s. It was the scene of the major riot known as Battle of the Bogside in August 1969, which pushed the Northern Ireland administration to ask for military support.
While many Catholics initially welcomed the British Army as a neutral force – in contrast to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), which was regarded as a sectarian police force – relations between them soon deteriorated.
In response to rising levels of violence across Northern Ireland, internment without trial was introduced on 9 August 1971. There was disorder across the region following the introduction of internment, with 21 people being killed in three days of violence. In Belfast, soldiers of the Parachute Regiment shot dead eleven civilians in what became known as the Ballymurphy Massacre. On 10 August, Bombardier Paul Challenor became the first soldier to be killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA) in Derry, when he was shot by a sniper in the Creggan housing estate. A month after internment was introduced, a British soldier shot dead 14-year-old Catholic schoolgirl Annette McGavigan in Derry. Two months later, Kathleen Thompson, a 47-year-old mother of six was shot dead in her back garden in Derry by the British Army.
IRA activity also increased across Northern Ireland, with thirty British soldiers being killed in the remaining months of 1971, in contrast to the ten soldiers killed during the pre-internment period of the year. A further six soldiers had been killed in Derry by end of 1971. At least 1,332 rounds were fired at the British Army, who also faced 211 explosions and 180 nail bombs, and who fired 364 rounds in return. Both the Provisional IRA and the Official IRA had built barricades and established no-go areas for the British Army and RUC in Derry. By the end of 1971, 29 barricades were in place to prevent access to what was known as Free Derry, sixteen of them impassable even to the British Army's one-ton armoured vehicles. IRA members openly mounted roadblocks in front of the media, and daily clashes took place between nationalist youths and the British Army at a spot known as "aggro corner". Due to rioting and incendiary devices, an estimated worth of damage had been caused to local businesses.
Lead-up to the march
On 18 January 1972 the Northern Irish Prime Minister, Brian Faulkner, banned all parades and marches in the region until the end of the year. Four days later, in defiance of the ban, an anti-internment march was held at Magilligan strand, near Derry. Protesters marched to an internment camp but were stopped by soldiers of the Parachute Regiment. When some protesters threw stones and tried to go around the barbed wire, paratroopers drove them back by firing rubber bullets at close range and making baton charges. The paratroopers badly beat a number of protesters and had to be physically restrained by their own officers. These allegations of brutality by paratroopers were reported widely on television and in the press. Some in the British Army also thought there had been undue violence by the paratroopers.
NICRA intended to hold another anti-internment march in Derry on 30 January. The authorities decided to allow it to proceed in the Bogside, but to stop it from reaching Guildhall Square, as planned by the organisers, to avoid rioting. Major General Robert Ford, then Commander of Land Forces in Northern Ireland, ordered that the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment (1 Para), should travel to Derry to be used to arrest rioters. The arrest operation was codenamed 'Operation Forecast'. The Saville Report criticised Ford for choosing the Parachute Regiment for the operation, as it had "a reputation for using excessive physical violence". March organiser and MP Ivan Cooper had been promised beforehand that no armed IRA members would be near the march, although Tony Geraghty wrote that some of the stewards were probably IRA members.
Events of the day
The paratroopers arrived in Derry on the morning of the march and took up positions. Brigadier Pat MacLellan was the operational commander and issued orders from Ebrington Barracks. He gave orders to Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford, commander of 1 Para. He in turn gave orders to Major Ted Loden, who commanded the company who would launch the arrest operation. The protesters planned on marching from Bishop's Field, in the Creggan housing estate, to the Guildhall in the city centre, where they would hold a rally. The march set off at about 2:45p.m. There were 10,000–15,000 people on the march, with many joining along its route. Lord Widgery, in his now discredited tribunal, said that there were only 3,000 to 5,000.
The march made its way along William Street but, as it neared the city centre, its path was blocked by British Army barriers. The organisers redirected the march down Rossville Street, intending to hold the rally at Free Derry Corner instead. However, some broke off from the march and began throwing stones at soldiers manning the barriers. The soldiers fired rubber bullets, CS gas and water cannons. Such clashes between soldiers and youths were common, and observers reported that the rioting was no more violent than usual.
Some of the crowd spotted paratroopers occupying a derelict three-story building overlooking William Street, and began throwing stones up at the windows. At about 3:55p.m., these paratroopers opened fire. Civilians Damien Donaghy and John Johnston were shot and wounded while standing on waste ground opposite the building. These were the first shots fired. The soldiers claimed Donaghy was holding a black cylindrical object, but the Saville Inquiry concluded that all of those shot were unarmed.
At 4:07p.m., the paratroopers were ordered to go through the barriers and arrest rioters. The paratroopers, on foot and in armoured vehicles, chased people down Rossville Street and into the Bogside. Two people were knocked down by the vehicles. MacLellan had ordered that only one company of paratroopers be sent through the barriers, on foot, and that they should not chase people down Rossville Street. Wilford disobeyed this order, which meant there was no separation between rioters and peaceful marchers. There were many claims of paratroopers beating people, clubbing them with rifle butts, firing rubber bullets at them from close range, making threats to kill, and hurling abuse. The Saville Report agreed that soldiers "used excessive force when arresting people […] as well as seriously assaulting them for no good reason while in their custody".
One group of paratroopers took up position at a low wall about in front of a rubble barricade that stretched across Rossville Street. There were people at the barricade and some were throwing stones at the soldiers, but were not near enough to hit them. The soldiers fired on the people at the barricade, killing six and wounding a seventh.
A large group of people fled or were chased into the car park of Rossville Flats. This area was like a courtyard, surrounded on three sides by high-rise flats. The soldiers opened fire, killing one civilian and wounding six others. This fatality, Jackie Duddy, was running alongside a priest, Edward Daly, when he was shot in the back.
Another group of people fled into the car park of Glenfada Park, which was also surrounded by flats. Here, the soldiers shot at people across the car park, about away. Two civilians were killed and at least four others wounded. The Saville Report says it is probable that at least one soldier fired randomly at the crowd from the hip. The paratroopers went through the car park and out the other side. Some soldiers went out the southwest corner, where they shot dead two civilians. The other soldiers went out the southeast corner and shot four more civilians, killing two.
About ten minutes had elapsed between the time soldiers drove into the Bogside and the time the last of the civilians was shot. More than 100 rounds were fired by the soldiers. No warnings were given before soldiers opened fire.
Some of those shot were given first aid by civilian volunteers, either on the scene or after being carried into nearby homes. They were then driven to hospital, either in civilian cars or in ambulances. The first ambulances arrived at 4:28p.m. The three boys killed at the rubble barricade were driven to hospital by paratroopers. Witnesses said paratroopers lifted the bodies by the hands and feet and dumped them in the back of their armoured personnel carrier as if they were "pieces of meat". The Saville Report agreed that this is an "accurate description of what happened", saying the paratroopers "might well have felt themselves at risk, but in our view this does not excuse them".
Casualties
In all, 26 people were shot by the paratroopers; thirteen died on the day and another died of his injuries four months later. The dead were killed in four main areas: the rubble barricade across Rossville Street, the car park of Rossville Flats (on the north side of the flats), the forecourt of Rossville Flats (on the south side), and the car park of Glenfada Park.
All of the soldiers responsible insisted that they had shot at, and hit, gunmen or bomb-throwers. No soldier said he missed his target and hit someone else by mistake. The Saville Report concluded that all of those shot were unarmed and that none were posing a serious threat. It also concluded that none of the soldiers fired in response to attacks, or threatened attacks, by gunmen or bomb-throwers.
The casualties are listed in the order in which they were killed.
John "Jackie" Duddy, age 17. Shot as he ran away from soldiers in the car park of Rossville Flats. The bullet struck him in the shoulder and entered his chest. Three witnesses said they saw a soldier take deliberate aim at the youth as he ran. He was the first fatality on Bloody Sunday. Both Saville and Widgery concluded that Duddy was unarmed.
Michael Kelly, age 17. Shot in the stomach while standing at the rubble barricade on Rossville Street. Both Saville and Widgery concluded that Kelly was unarmed. The Saville Inquiry concluded that 'Soldier F' shot Kelly.
Hugh Gilmour, age 17. Shot as he ran away from soldiers near the rubble barricade. The bullet went through his left elbow and entered his chest. Widgery acknowledged that a photograph taken seconds after Gilmour was hit corroborated witness reports that he was unarmed. The Saville Inquiry concluded that 'Private U' shot Gilmour.
William Nash, age 19. Shot in the chest at the rubble barricade. Three people were shot while apparently going to his aid, including his father Alexander Nash.
John Young, age 17. Shot in the face at the rubble barricade, apparently while crouching and going to the aid of William Nash.
Michael McDaid, age 20. Shot in the face at the rubble barricade, apparently while crouching and going to the aid of William Nash.
Kevin McElhinney, age 17. Shot from behind, near the rubble barricade, while attempting to crawl to safety.
James "Jim" Wray, age 22. Shot in the back while running away from soldiers in Glenfada Park courtyard. He was then shot again in the back as he lay mortally wounded on the ground. Witnesses, who were not called to the Widgery Tribunal, stated that Wray was calling out that he could not move his legs before he was shot the second time. The Saville Inquiry concluded that he was shot by 'Soldier F'.
William McKinney, age 26. Shot in the back as he attempted to flee through Glenfada Park courtyard. The Saville Inquiry concluded that he was shot by 'Soldier F'.
Gerard "Gerry" McKinney, age 35. Shot in the chest at Abbey Park. A soldier, identified as 'Private G', ran through an alleyway from Glenfada Park and shot him from a few yards away. Witnesses said that when he saw the soldier, McKinney stopped and held up his arms, shouting, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!", before being shot. The bullet apparently went through his body and struck Gerard Donaghy behind him.
Gerard "Gerry" Donaghy, age 17. Shot in the stomach at Abbey Park while standing behind Gerard McKinney. Both were apparently struck by the same bullet. Bystanders brought Donaghy to a nearby house. A doctor examined him, and his pockets were searched for identification. Two bystanders then attempted to drive Donaghy to hospital, but the car was stopped at a British Army checkpoint. They were ordered to leave the car and a soldier drove it to a Regimental Aid Post, where an Army medical officer pronounced Donaghy dead. Shortly after, soldiers found four nail bombs in his pockets. The civilians who searched him, the soldier who drove him to the Army post, and the Army medical officer all said that they did not see any bombs. This led to claims that soldiers planted the bombs on Donaghy to justify the killings.
Patrick Doherty, age 31. Shot from behind while attempting to crawl to safety in the forecourt of Rossville Flats. The Saville Inquiry concluded that he was shot by 'Soldier F', who came out of Glenfada Park. Doherty was photographed, moments before and after he died, by French journalist Gilles Peress. Despite testimony from 'Soldier F' that he had shot a man holding a pistol, Widgery acknowledged that the photographs show Doherty was unarmed, and that forensic tests on his hands for gunshot residue proved negative.
Bernard "Barney" McGuigan, age 41. Shot in the back of the head when he walked out from cover to help Patrick Doherty. He had been waving a white handkerchief to indicate his peaceful intentions. The Saville Inquiry concluded that he was shot by 'Soldier F'.
John Johnston, age 59. Shot in the leg and left shoulder on William Street fifteen minutes before the rest of the shooting started. Johnston was not on the march, but on his way to visit a friend in Glenfada Park. He died on 16 June 1972; his death has been attributed to the injuries he received on the day. He was the only fatality not to die immediately or soon after being shot.
Aftermath
Thirteen people were shot and killed, with another wounded man dying subsequently, which his family believed was from injuries suffered that day. Apart from the soldiers, all eyewitnesses—including marchers, local residents, and British and Irish journalists present—maintain that soldiers fired into an unarmed crowd, or were aiming at fleeing people and those helping the wounded. No British soldier was wounded by gunfire or bombs, nor were any bullets or nail bombs recovered to back up their claims. The British Army's version of events, outlined by the Ministry of Defence and repeated by Home Secretary Reginald Maudling in the House of Commons the day after Bloody Sunday, was that paratroopers returned fire at gunmen and bomb-throwers. Bernadette Devlin, the independent Irish socialist republican Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Ulster, slapped Maudling for his comments, and was temporarily suspended from Parliament. Having seen the shootings firsthand, she was infuriated that the Speaker of the House of Commons, Selwyn Lloyd, repeatedly denied her the chance to speak about it in Parliament, although convention decreed that any MP witnessing an incident under discussion would be allowed to do so.
On Wednesday 2 February 1972, tens of thousands attended the funerals of eleven of the victims. In the Republic of Ireland it was observed as a national day of mourning, and there was a general strike, the biggest in Europe since the Second World War relative to population. Memorial services were held in Catholic and Protestant churches, as well as synagogues, throughout the Republic, while schools closed and public transport stopped running. Large crowds had besieged the chancery of the British embassy on Merrion Square in Dublin, and embassy staff had been evacuated. That Wednesday, tens of thousands of protesters marched to the chancery and thirteen symbolic coffins were placed outside the entrance. The Union Jack was burnt and the building was attacked with stones and petrol bombs. The outnumbered Gardaí tried to push back the crowd, but the building was burnt down. Anglo-Irish relations hit one of their lowest ebbs with the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Patrick Hillery, going to the United Nations Security Council to demand the involvement of a UN peacekeeping force in the Northern Ireland conflict. Kieran Conway, the head of the IRA's intelligence-gathering department for a period in the 1970s, stated in his memoir that after the massacre, the IRA Southern Command in Dublin received up to 200 applications from Southern Irish citizens to fight the British.
Harold Wilson, then the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, reiterated his belief that a united Ireland was the only possible solution to Northern Ireland's Troubles. William Craig, then Stormont Home Affairs Minister, suggested that the west bank of Derry should be ceded to the Republic of Ireland.
On 22 February 1972, the Official IRA attempted to retaliate for Bloody Sunday by detonating a car bomb at Aldershot military barracks, headquarters of 16th Parachute Brigade, killing seven ancillary staff.
An inquest into the deaths was held in August 1973. The city's coroner, Hubert O'Neill, a retired British Army major, issued a statement at the completion of the inquest. He declared:
Shankill shootings
Several months after Bloody Sunday, 1 Para—again under Lt Col Wilford's command—were involved in another controversial shooting incident. On 7 September, paratroopers raided the headquarters of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and houses in the Shankill area of Belfast. Two Protestant civilians were shot dead and others wounded by the paratroopers, who claimed they were returning fire at loyalist gunmen. This sparked angry demonstrations by local Protestants, and the UDA declared: "Never has Ulster witnessed such licensed sadists and such blatant liars as the 1st Paras. These gun-happy louts must be removed from the streets". A unit of the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment refused to carry out duties until 1 Para was withdrawn from the Shankill.
At the end of 1972, Wilford, who was directly in charge of the soldiers involved in Bloody Sunday and Shankill, was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Widgery Inquiry
Two days after Bloody Sunday, the British Parliament adopted a resolution for a tribunal into the shootings, resulting in Prime Minister Edward Heath commissioning the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, to undertake it. Many witnesses intended to boycott the tribunal as they lacked faith in Widgery's impartiality, but many were eventually persuaded to take part.
Widgery's quickly-produced report—completed within ten weeks (on 10 April) and published within eleven weeks (on 19 April)—supported the British Army's account of the events of the day. It stated that the soldiers returned fire at gunmen and bomb-throwers. It said "None of the deceased or wounded is proved to have been shot whilst handling a firearm or bomb. Some are wholly acquitted of complicity in such action; but there is a strong suspicion that some others had been firing weapons or handling bombs". Among the evidence presented to the tribunal were the results of paraffin tests, used to identify lead residues from firing weapons, and that nail bombs had been found on the body of one of those killed. Tests for traces of explosives on the clothes of eleven of the dead proved negative, while those of the remaining man could not be tested as they had already been washed. It has been argued that firearms residue on some victims may have come from contact with the soldiers themselves who moved some of the bodies, or that lead residue on the hands of one (James Wray) was easily explained by the fact that his occupation involved using lead-based solder. Widgery held the march organisers responsible, concluding "There would have been no deaths [...] if those who organised the illegal march had not thereby created a highly dangerous situation".
Widgery stated there was no evidence the paratroopers were sent to "flush out any IRA gunmen in the Bogside" or to punish its residents for opposing the British Army. The Saville Inquiry also trawled classified documents and found no evidence of such a plan, but said "It is of course possible for plans to be hatched in secret and kept out of documents".
Most witnesses to the event disputed the report's conclusions and regarded it as a whitewash, the slogan, "Widgery washes whiter" – a play on the contemporary advertisement for Daz soap powder – emblazoned on walls in Derry, crystallised the views of many nationalists about the report.
In 1992, British Prime Minister John Major, replying to John Hume's request for a new public inquiry, stated: "The Government made clear in 1974 that those who were killed on 'Bloody Sunday' should be regarded as innocent of any allegation that they were shot whilst handling firearms or explosives". Major was succeeded by Tony Blair. Blair's chief aide, Jonathan Powell, later described Widgery as a "complete and utter whitewash".
Saville Inquiry
In 1998, during the latter stages of the Northern Ireland peace process, Prime Minister Blair agreed to hold a public inquiry into Bloody Sunday. The inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville, was established in April 1998. The other judges were John Toohey, a former Justice of the High Court of Australia who had worked on Aboriginal issues (he replaced New Zealander Sir Edward Somers, who retired from the Inquiry in 2000 for personal reasons), and William Hoyt, former Chief Justice of New Brunswick and member of the Canadian Judicial Council. The inquiry heard testimony at the Guildhall in Derry from March 2000 until November 2004. The Saville Inquiry was much more comprehensive than the Widgery Tribunal, interviewing a wide range of witnesses including local residents, soldiers, journalists and politicians, and reviewing large amounts of photographs and footage. Lord Saville declined to comment on the Widgery report and made the point that this was a judicial inquiry into Bloody Sunday, not the Widgery Tribunal.
Colonel Wilford expressed anger at the decision to hold the inquiry and said he was proud of his actions on Bloody Sunday. Two years later, in 2000, Wilford said: "There might have been things wrong in the sense that some innocent people, people who were not carrying a weapon, were wounded or even killed. But that was not done as a deliberate malicious act. It was done as an act of war". In 2007, General (then Captain) Sir Mike Jackson, adjutant of 1 Para on Bloody Sunday, said: "I have no doubt that innocent people were shot". This was in sharp contrast to his insistence, for more than thirty years, that those killed had not been innocent.
One former paratrooper testified that a lieutenant told them the night before Bloody Sunday: "Let's teach these buggers a lesson - we want some kills tomorrow". He did not see anyone with a weapon nor hear any explosions, and said some fellow soldiers were thrilled and were shooting out of bravado or frustration. The paratrooper said several soldiers "fired their own personal supply of dum-dums", which were banned, and that one "fired 10 dum-dums into the crowd but as he still had his official quota he got away with saying he never fired a shot". Furthermore, the paratrooper said his original statement to the Widgery Inquiry was torn up and replaced by one "bearing no relation with fact".
Many observers allege that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) acted in a way to impede the inquiry. Over 1,000 Army photographs and original Army helicopter video footage were never made available. Furthermore, guns used by the soldiers on Bloody Sunday, which could have been evidence in the inquiry, were lost by the MoD. The MoD claimed all the guns had been destroyed, but some were later recovered in various locations (such as Sierra Leone and Beirut) despite the obstruction.
By the time the inquiry had retired to write up its findings it had interviewed over 900 witnesses over seven years, making it the biggest investigation in British legal history. It was also the longest and most expensive, taking twelve years and costing . The inquiry was expected to report in late 2009 but was delayed until after the 2010 general election.
Report
The report of the inquiry was published on 15 June 2010. It concluded, "The firing by soldiers of 1 PARA on Bloody Sunday caused the deaths of 13 people and injury to a similar number, none of whom was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury". It stated that British paratroopers "lost control", shooting fleeing civilians and those who tried to help the wounded. The civilians had not been warned by soldiers that they intended to shoot. Contrary to the soldiers' claims, the report concluded that the victims were unarmed, and no nail bombs or petrol bombs were thrown. "None of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers". It stated that while some soldiers probably fired out of fear and recklessness, others did not, and fired at civilians they knew were unarmed. The report stated that soldiers had concocted lies in attempting to hide their acts. Soldier H, who fired the most bullets, claimed to have fired 19 separate shots at a gunman behind a frosted glass window, but missed each time, and suggested all the bullets had gone through the same hole.
The inquiry concluded that an Official IRA sniper, positioned in a block of flats, fired one round at British soldiers, who were at the Presbyterian church on the other side of William Street. The bullet missed the soldiers and hit a drainpipe. The inquiry concluded that it was fired shortly after the British soldiers had shot Damien Donaghey and John Johnston in this area. It rejected the sniper's account that he fired in reprisal, concluding that he and another Official IRA member had already been in position and probably fired simply because the opportunity presented itself. The inquiry also concluded an Official IRA member fired a handgun at a British APC from behind a gable wall near Rossville Flats, but there is no evidence the soldiers noticed this. The IRA member said he fired three rounds in anger after seeing civilians shot. He was seen by Father Edward Daly and others, who shouted at him to stop.
Martin McGuinness, a senior member of Sinn Féin and later the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, stated in his testimony that he was second-in-command of the Provisional IRA Derry Brigade and was at the march. Paddy Ward told the inquiry he was the local leader of Fianna Éireann, the IRA youth wing, in January 1972. He claimed that McGuinness and another unnamed IRA member gave him bomb detonators on the morning of Bloody Sunday, with the intent to attack premises in Derry city centre that day. McGuinness rejected the claims as "fantasy", while Gerry O'Hara, a Sinn Féin councillor in Derry, stated that he, not Ward, was Fianna leader at the time. The inquiry was unsure of McGuinness's movements on the day. It stated that while he had probably been armed with a Thompson submachine gun, there was insufficient evidence to state whether he fired it, but concluded "we are sure that he did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire".
Regarding the soldiers in charge on Bloody Sunday, the inquiry arrived at the following findings:
Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford: Commander of 1 Para and directly responsible for the arrest operation. Found to have 'deliberately disobeyed' his superior, Brigadier Patrick MacLellan, by sending Support Company into the Bogside (and without informing MacLellan).
Major Ted Loden: Commander in charge of Support Company, following orders from Lieutenant Colonel Wilford. Cleared of misconduct; the report stated that Loden "neither realised nor should have realised that his soldiers were or might be firing at people who were not posing [...] a threat". The inquiry found that Loden could not be held responsible for claims (whether malicious or not) by some of the soldiers that they had received fire from snipers.
Captain Mike Jackson: Adjutant of 1 Para on Bloody Sunday. Cleared of sinister actions for compiling the "Loden List of Engagements". This was a brief account of what soldiers told Major Loden about why they had fired. This list played a role in the Army's initial explanations. The list did not include soldiers' names. Jackson told the inquiry it was simply a record of shots fired, not an investigative document. While the inquiry found the compiling of the list was 'far from ideal', it accepted Jackson's explanations.
Major General Robert Ford: Commander of land forces in Northern Ireland and set the British strategy to oversee the march in Derry. Cleared of any fault, but his choice of 1 Para, and in particular his selection of Wilford to be in control of arresting rioters, was found to be disconcerting, as "1 PARA was a force with a reputation for using excessive physical violence, which thus ran the risk of exacerbating the tensions between the Army and nationalists".
Brigadier Pat MacLellan: Overall operational commander of the day. Cleared of any wrongdoing as he believed Wilford would follow orders by arresting rioters and then returning to base, and could not be blamed for Wilford's actions.
Major Michael Steele: With MacLellan in the operations room and in charge of passing on the orders of the day. The inquiry accepted that Steele did not know there was no longer a separation between rioters and peaceful marchers.
a Lance Corporal referred to as "Soldier F" was found responsible for five of the killings on Bloody Sunday.
Intelligence officers Colonel Maurice Tugwell, and Colin Wallace (an Army press officer): Cleared of wrongdoing. The inquiry concluded the information Tugwell and Wallace released through the media was not a deliberate attempt to deceive the public, but rather due to the inaccurate information received.
Reporting on the findings of the Saville Inquiry in the House of Commons, British Prime Minister David Cameron said:
Cameron added: "you do not defend the British Army by defending the indefensible". He acknowledged that all those who died were unarmed when they were killed, and that a British soldier had fired the first shots at civilians. He also said that this was not premeditated, though "there was no point in trying to soften or equivocate" as "what happened should never, ever have happened". Cameron then apologised on behalf of the British Government, saying he was "deeply sorry". A survey by Angus Reid Public Opinion in June 2010 found that 61 per cent of Britons and 70 per cent of Northern Irish agreed with Cameron's apology.
Stephen Pollard, a solicitor representing several of the soldiers, claimed that the report had cherry picked the evidence and did not have justification for its findings.
Murder investigation
Following the publication of the Saville Report, a murder investigation was begun by the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Legacy Investigation Branch. On 10 November 2015, a 66-year-old former member of the Parachute Regiment was arrested for questioning over the deaths of William Nash, Michael McDaid and John Young. He was released on bail shortly after.
The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland announced in March 2019 that there was enough evidence to prosecute "Soldier F" for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney, both of whom were shot in the back. He was also charged with four attempted murders. The Saville Inquiry concluded, based on the evidence, that "Soldier F" also killed Michael Kelly, Patrick Doherty and Barney McGuigan, but evidence from the inquiry was inadmissible to the prosecution and "the only evidence capable of identifying the soldier who fired the relevant shots came from Soldier F's co-accused, Soldier G, who is deceased".
Relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims expressed dismay that only one soldier would face trial for some of the killings. In September 2020, it was ruled that there would be no charges against any other soldiers. The victims' relatives were supported by Irish nationalist political representatives. "Soldier F" received support from some Ulster loyalists and from the group Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) called for former British soldiers to be given immunity from prosecution. Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader and former soldier, Doug Beattie, said that if soldiers "went outside the law, then they have to face the law".
In July 2021, the Public Prosecution Service decided it would no longer prosecute "Soldier F" because statements from 1972 were deemed inadmissible as evidence. On 13 July 2021 Social Democratic and Labour Party MP Colum Eastwood revealed the name of "Soldier F" using parliamentary privilege. On 17 July Village magazine published the identity of "Soldier F" and some pictures of him at the time of the massacre.
In March 2022, the High Court overturned the decision not to press charges against "Soldier F" following an appeal by the family of William McKinney and ordered the Public Prosecution Service to reconsider the case. The PPS subsequently appealed the court's decision to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, but permission to appeal was refused that September and the PPS were forced to continue with the prosecution. In October 2022, it was announced that the committal hearing against "Soldier F" would resume on 16 January 2023. On 24 January 2023 the case against "Soldier F" was resumed at Derry Magistrate's Court. Following an adjournment, the case resumed on 26 May 2023. On 25 August 2023 Judge Ted Magill ruled that five statements given to the Widgery Report implicating "Soldier F" could be used as evidence at trial.
Impact on Northern Ireland divisions
When it was first deployed on duty in Northern Ireland, the British Army was welcomed by many Catholics as a neutral force there to protect them from Protestant loyalist mobs, the RUC and the B-Specials. After Bloody Sunday many Catholics turned on the British Army, seeing it no longer as their protector but as their enemy. Young nationalists became increasingly attracted to armed republican groups. With the Official IRA and Official Sinn Féin having moved away from mainstream Irish republicanism towards Marxism, the Provisional IRA began to win the support of newly radicalised, disaffected youth.
In the following twenty years, the Provisional IRA and other smaller republican groups such as the Irish National Liberation Army stepped up their armed campaigns against the state and those seen as being in service to it. With rival paramilitary organisations appearing in both the republican and loyalist communities (such as the UDA, Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), etc. on the loyalist side), the Troubles cost the lives of thousands of people.
In 1979, the Provisional IRA killed 18 British soldiers in the Warrenpoint ambush, most of them paratroopers. This happened the same day the IRA assassinated Lord Mountbatten. Republicans portrayed the attack as belated retaliation for Bloody Sunday, with graffiti declaring "13 gone and not forgotten, we got 18 and Mountbatten".
In 2012 a serving British soldier from Belfast was charged with inciting hatred, due to their use of online social media to post sectarian slurs about the killings along with banners of the Parachute Regiment.
In recent years, Parachute Regiment flags have been erected by some loyalists around the time of the Bloody Sunday anniversaries. In January 2013, shortly before the yearly Bloody Sunday remembrance march, several Parachute Regiment flags were flown in loyalist areas of Derry. The flying of the flags was condemned by nationalist politicians and relatives of the Bloody Sunday dead. The MoD also condemned the flying of the flags. The flags were replaced by Union Jacks. Later that year, the Parachute Regiment flag was flown alongside other loyalist flags in other parts of Northern Ireland. In 2014, loyalists erected the flags near the route of a Saint Patrick's Day parade in Cookstown.
Artistic reaction
Paul McCartney (who is of Irish descent) recorded the first song in response only two days after the incident. The single, entitled "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", expressed his views on the matter. This song was one of few McCartney released with Wings to be banned by the BBC.
The 1972 John Lennon album Some Time in New York City features a song entitled "Sunday Bloody Sunday", inspired by the incident, as well as the song "The Luck of the Irish", which dealt more with the Irish conflict in general. Lennon, who was of Irish descent, also spoke at a protest in New York in support of the victims and families of Bloody Sunday.
Irish poet Thomas Kinsella's 1972 poem Butcher's Dozen is a satirical and angry response to the Widgery Tribunal and the events of Bloody Sunday.
Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler (also of Irish descent) wrote the lyrics to the Black Sabbath song "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" on the album of the same name in 1973. Butler stated, "…the Sunday Bloody Sunday thing had just happened in Ireland, when the British troops opened fire on the Irish demonstrators… So I came up with the title 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath', and sort of put it in how the band was feeling at the time, getting away from management, mixed with the state Ireland was in."
The Roy Harper song "All Ireland" from the album Lifemask, written in the days following the incident, is critical of the military but takes a long-term view with regard to a solution. In Harper's book (The Passions of Great Fortune), his comment on the song ends "…there must always be some hope that the children of 'Bloody Sunday', on both sides, can grow into some wisdom".
Brian Friel's 1973 play The Freedom of the City deals with the incident from the viewpoint of three civilians.
Irish poet Seamus Heaney's Casualty (published in Field Work, 1981) criticises Britain for the death of his friend.
The Irish rock band U2 commemorated the incident in their 1983 protest song "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
Christy Moore's song "Minds Locked Shut" on the album Graffiti Tongue is all about the events of the day, and names the dead civilians.
The events of the day have been dramatised in two 2002 television films, Bloody Sunday (starring James Nesbitt) and Sunday by Jimmy McGovern.
The Celtic metal band Cruachan addressed the incident in a song "Bloody Sunday" from their 2002 album Folk-Lore.
Willie Doherty, a Derry-born artist, has amassed a large body of work which addresses the troubles in Northern Ireland. "30 January 1972" deals specifically with the events of Bloody Sunday.
In mid-2005, the play Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry, a dramatisation based on the Saville Inquiry, opened in London, and subsequently travelled to Derry and Dublin. The writer, journalist Richard Norton-Taylor, distilled four years of evidence into two hours of stage performance at the Tricycle Theatre. The play received glowing reviews in all the British broadsheets, including The Times: "The Tricycle's latest recreation of a major inquiry is its most devastating"; The Daily Telegraph: "I can't praise this enthralling production too highly… exceptionally gripping courtroom drama"; and The Independent: "A necessary triumph".
In October 2010, T with the Maggies released the song "Domhnach na Fola" (Irish for "Bloody Sunday"), written by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill on their debut album.
Notes
References
Bibliography
(extracts available online)
English, Richard. Armed Struggle;– A History of the IRA, MacMillan, London 2003,
External links
Madden & Finucane Bloody Sunday index
CAIN Web Service Bloody Sunday index
UTV Coverage: Bloody Sunday & The Saville Report
Guardian Coverage
Dáil debate on Bloody Sunday
The Widgery Report (from Cain website)
BBC Special Report
Programme of events commemorating Bloody Sunday – 2008
1610: Soldiers open fire
The events of the day
BBC Interactive Guide
Guardian Interactive Guide
History – Bloody Sunday – Events of the Day Museum of Free Derry
Contemporary newspaper coverage
"13 killed as paratroops break riot" from The Guardian, Monday 31 January 1972
"Bogsiders insist that soldiers shot first" from The Guardian, Tuesday 1 February 1972
Importance and impact
"Shootings 'triggered decades of violence'" from The Guardian, Wednesday 16 May 2001
Britain Acknowledges "Bloody Sunday" Killings Were Unjustified and Apologizes to Victims' Families – video report by Democracy Now!
1970s in County Londonderry
1972 in Northern Ireland
1972 murders in the United Kingdom
20th century in Derry (city)
British Army in Operation Banner
Deaths by firearm in Northern Ireland
1972 crimes
January 1972 events
January 1972 events in the United Kingdom
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5033 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%20Diddley | Bo Diddley | Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist and singer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, including Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, George Thorogood, Syd Barrett, and The Clash.
His use of African rhythms and a signature beat, a simple five-accent hambone rhythm, is a cornerstone of hip hop, rock, and pop music. In recognition of his achievements, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2017. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Diddley is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his use of tremolo and reverb effects to enhance the sound of his distinctive rectangular-shaped guitars.
Early life
Bo Diddley was born in McComb, Mississippi, as Ellas Otha Bates (also stated as Otha Ellas Bates or Elias Otha Bates). He was the only child of Ethel Wilson, a sharecropper's teenaged daughter, and Eugene Bates, whom he never knew. Wilson was only sixteen, and being unable to support a family, she gave her cousin, Gussie McDaniel, permission to raise her son. McDaniel eventually adopted him, and he assumed her surname. Diddley denied ever having the name "Otha" in a 2001 interview, saying "I don't know where they got that 'Otha' from", but his web site, maintained by his estate, confirms it as his middle name.
After his adoptive father Robert died in 1934, when Diddley was five years old, Gussie McDaniel moved with him and her three children to the South Side of Chicago; he later dropped Otha from his name and became Ellas McDaniel. He was an active member of Chicago's Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, where he studied the trombone and the violin, becoming so proficient on the violin that the musical director invited him to join the orchestra, in which he played until he was 18. However, he was more interested in the joyful, rhythmic music he heard at a local Pentecostal Church and took up the guitar; his first recordings were based on that frenetic church music. Diddley said he thought that the trance-like rhythm he used in his rhythm and blues music came from the Sanctified churches he had attended as a youth in his Chicago neighborhood.
Career
Inspired by a John Lee Hooker performance, Diddley supplemented his income as a carpenter and mechanic by playing on street corners with friends, including Jerome Green, in the Hipsters band, later renamed the Langley Avenue Jive Cats. Green became a near-constant member of McDaniel's backing band, the two often trading joking insults with each other during live shows. In the summers of 1943 and 1944, he played at the Maxwell Street market in a band with Earl Hooker. By 1951 he was playing on the street with backing from Roosevelt Jackson on washtub bass and Jody Williams, who had played harmonica as a boy but took up guitar in his teens after he met Diddley at a talent show, with Diddley teaching him some aspects of playing the instrument, including how to play the bass line. Williams later played lead guitar on "Who Do You Love?" (1956).
In 1951, he landed a regular spot at the 708 Club, on Chicago's South Side, with a repertoire influenced by Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters. In late 1954, he teamed up with harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold, drummer Clifton James and bass player Roosevelt Jackson and recorded demos of "I'm a Man" and "Bo Diddley". They re-recorded the songs at Universal Recording Corp. for Chess Records, with a backing ensemble comprising Otis Spann (piano), Lester Davenport (harmonica), Frank Kirkland (drums), and Jerome Green (maracas). The record was released in March 1955, and the A-side, "Bo Diddley", became a number one R&B hit.
Origins of stage name
The origin of the stage name Bo Diddley is unclear. McDaniel said his peers gave him the name, which he suspected was an insult. Diddly is a truncation of diddly squat, which means "absolutely nothing". Diddley also said that the name first belonged to a singer his adoptive mother knew. Harmonicist Billy Boy Arnold said that it was a local comedian's name, which Leonard Chess adopted as McDaniel's stage name and the title of his first single. McDaniel also stated that his school classmates in Chicago gave him the nickname, which he started using when sparring and boxing in the neighborhood with The Little Neighborhood Golden Gloves Bunch.
In the 1921 story "Black Death", by Zora Neale Hurston, Beau Diddely was a womanizer who impregnates a young woman, disavows responsibility, and meets his undoing by the powers of the local hoodoo man. Hurston submitted it in a contest run by the academic journal Opportunity in 1925, where it won an honorable mention, but it was never published during her lifetime.
A diddley bow is a homemade single-string instrument that survived in the American Deep South, especially in Mississippi. Played mainly by children, the diddley bow in its simplest form was made by nailing a length of broom wire to the side of a house, using a rock placed under the string as a movable bridge, and played in the style of a bottleneck guitar, with various objects used as a slider. The apparent consensus among scholars is that the diddley bow is derived from the monochord zithers of central Africa.
Success in the 1950s and 1960s
On November 20, 1955, Diddley appeared on the popular television program The Ed Sullivan Show. According to legend, when someone on the show's staff overheard him casually singing "Sixteen Tons" in the dressing room, he was asked to perform the song on the show. One of Diddley's later versions of the story was that upon seeing "Bo Diddley" on the cue card, he thought he was to perform both his self-titled hit single and "Sixteen Tons". Sullivan was furious and banned Diddley from his show, reputedly saying that he would not last six months. Chess Records included Diddley's cover of "Sixteen Tons" on the 1963 album Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger.
Diddley's hit singles continued in the 1950s and 1960s: "Pretty Thing" (1956), "Say Man" (1959), and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" (1962). He also released numerous albums, including Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger and Have Guitar, Will Travel. These bolstered his self-invented legend. Between 1958 and 1963, Checker Records released eleven full-length Bo Diddley albums. In the 1960s, he broke through as a crossover artist with white audiences (appearing at the Alan Freed concerts, for example), but he rarely aimed his compositions at teenagers. Diddley was among those musicians who capitalized on the mid-1960s surfing and beach party craze in the United States, and released the albums Surfin' with Bo Diddley and Bo Diddley's Beach Party. These featured heavy, distorted blues, played on his Gretsch guitar with bended notes and minor key riffs, unlike the clean, undistorted sounds of the Fender guitars used by the California surf bands. The cover of Surfin' with Bo Diddley had a photograph of two surfers riding a big wave.
In 1963, Diddley starred in a UK concert tour with the Everly Brothers and Little Richard along with the Rolling Stones (a little-known band at that time).
Diddley wrote many songs for himself and also for others. In 1956, he and guitarist Jody Williams co-wrote the pop song "Love Is Strange", a hit for Mickey & Sylvia in 1957, reaching number 11 on the chart. Mickey Baker claimed that he (Baker) and Bo Diddley's wife, Ethel Smith, wrote the song. Diddley also wrote "Mama (Can I Go Out)", which was a minor hit for the pioneering rockabilly singer Jo Ann Campbell, who performed the song in the 1959 rock and roll film Go Johnny Go.
After moving from Chicago to Washington, D.C., Diddley built his first home recording studio in the basement of his home at 2614 Rhode Island Avenue NE. Frequented by several of Washington, D.C.'s musical luminaries, the studio was the site where he recorded the Checker LP (Checker LP-2977) Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger. Diddley also produced and recorded several up-and-coming groups from the Washington, D.C. area. One of the first groups he recorded was local doo-wop group the Marquees, featuring Marvin Gaye and baritone-bass Chester Simmons, who moonlighted as Diddley's chauffeur.
The Marquees appeared in talent shows at the Lincoln Theatre, and Diddley, impressed by their smooth vocal delivery, let them rehearse in his studio. Diddley got the Marquees signed to Columbia subsidiary label OKeh Records after unsuccessfully attempting to get them a contract with his own label, Chess. The OKeh label rivaled Chess in the promotion of rhythm and blues. On September 25, 1957, Diddley drove the group to New York City to record "Wyatt Earp", a novelty song written by Reese Palmer, lead singer of the Marquees. Diddley produced the session, with the group backed by his own band. They cut their first record, a single with "Wyatt Earp" on the A-side and "Hey Little School Girl" on the B-side, but it failed to become a hit. Diddley persuaded Moonglows founder and backing vocalist Harvey Fuqua to hire Gaye. Gaye joined the Moonglows as first tenor; the group then moved to Detroit with the hope of signing with Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr.
Diddley included women in his band: Norma-Jean Wofford, also known as The Duchess; Gloria Jolivet; Peggy Jones, also known as Lady Bo, a lead guitarist (rare for a woman at that time); and Cornelia Redmond, also known as Cookie V.
Later years
In early 1971, writer-musician Michael Lydon, a founding editor of Rolling Stone, conducted a lengthy, rambling interview of Diddley, at his then home in the San Fernando Valley, California. Lydon described him as a "protean genius" whose songs were "hymns to himself", and led the published piece with a Diddley quote: "Everything I know I taught myself."
Over the decades, Diddley's performing venues ranged from intimate clubs to stadiums. On March 25, 1972, he played with the Grateful Dead at the Academy of Music in New York City. The Grateful Dead released part of this concert as Volume 30 of the band's concert album series, Dick's Picks. Also in the early 1970s, the soundtrack of the ground-breaking animated film Fritz the Cat contained his song "Bo Diddley", in which a crow dances and finger-pops to the track.
Diddley spent some years in New Mexico, living in Los Lunas from 1971 to 1978, while continuing his musical career. He served for two and a half years as a deputy sheriff in the Valencia County Citizens' Patrol; during that time he purchased and donated three highway-patrol pursuit cars. In the late 1970s, he left Los Lunas and moved to Hawthorne, Florida, where he lived on a large estate in a custom-made log cabin, which he helped to build. For the remainder of his life he divided his time between Albuquerque and Florida, living the last 13 years of his life in Archer, Florida, a small farming town near Gainesville.
In 1979, he appeared as an opening act for The Clash on their US tour.
In 1983, he made a cameo appearance as a Philadelphia pawn shop owner in the comedy film Trading Places. He also appeared in George Thorogood's music video for the song "Bad to the Bone," portraying a guitar-slinging pool shark.
In 1985, he appeared on George Thorogood's set, alongside fellow blues legend Albert Collins, on the Live Aid American stage to perform Thorogood's popular cover of Diddley's song Who Do You Love?".
In 1989, Diddley and his management company, Talent Source, entered into a licensing with the sportswear brand. The Wieden & Kennedy-produced commercial in the "Bo Knows" campaign teamed Diddley with dual sportsman Bo Jackson. The agreement ended in 1991, but in 1999, a T-shirt of Diddley's image and "You don't know diddley" slogan was purchased in a Gainesville, Florida, sports apparel store. Diddley felt that Nike should not continue to use the slogan or his likeness and fought Nike over the copyright infringement. Despite the fact that lawyers for both parties could not come to a renewed legal arrangement, Nike allegedly continued marketing the apparel and ignored cease-and-desist orders, and a lawsuit was filed on Diddley's behalf, in Manhattan Federal Court.
Diddley played a blues and rock musician named Axman in the 1990 comedy film Rockula, directed by Luca Bercovici and starring Dean Cameron.
In Legends of Guitar (filmed live in Spain in 1991), Diddley performed with Steve Cropper, B.B. King, Les Paul, Albert Collins, and George Benson, among others. He joined the Rolling Stones on their 1994 concert broadcast of Voodoo Lounge, performing "Who Do You Love?" at Joe Robbie Stadium, in Miami.
In 1996, he released A Man Amongst Men, his first major-label album (and his final studio album) with guest artists like Keith Richards, Ron Wood and the Shirelles. The album earned a Grammy Award nomination in 1997 for the Best Contemporary Blues Album category.
Diddley performed a number of shows around the country in 2005 and 2006, with fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Johnnie Johnson and his band, consisting of Johnson on keyboards, Richard Hunt on drums and Gus Thornton on bass. In 2006, he participated as the headliner of a grassroots-organized fundraiser concert to benefit the town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, which had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The "Florida Keys for Katrina Relief" had originally been set for October 23, 2005, when Hurricane Wilma barreled through the Florida Keys on October 24, causing flooding and economic mayhem.
In January 2006, the Florida Keys had recovered enough to host the fundraising concert to benefit the more hard-hit community of Ocean Springs. When asked about the fundraiser, Diddley stated, "This is the United States of America. We believe in helping one another". The all-star band included members of the Soul Providers, and famed artists Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band, Joey Covington of Jefferson Airplane, Alfonso Carey of The Village People, and Carl Spagnuolo of Jay & The Techniques. In an interview with Holger Petersen, on Saturday Night Blues on CBC Radio in the fall of 2006, he commented on racism in the music industry establishment during his early career. Diddley sold the rights to his songs early on, and until 1989 he received no royalties from the most successful part of his career.
His final guitar performance on a studio album was with the New York Dolls on their 2006 album One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. He contributed guitar work to the song "Seventeen", which was included as a bonus track on the limited-edition version of the disc.
In May 2007, Diddley suffered a stroke after a concert the previous day in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Nonetheless, he delivered an energetic performance to an enthusiastic crowd. A few months later he had a heart attack. While recovering, Diddley came back to his hometown of McComb, Mississippi, in early November 2007, for the unveiling of a plaque devoted to him on the Mississippi Blues Trail. This marked his achievements and noted that he was "acclaimed as a founder of rock-and-roll." He was not supposed to perform, but as he listened to the music of local musician Jesse Robinson, who sang a song written for this occasion, Robinson sensed that Diddley wanted to perform and handed him a microphone, the only time that he performed publicly after his stroke.
Personal life
Marriages and children
Bo Diddley was married four times. His first marriage, at 18, to Louise Willingham, lasted a year. Diddley married his second wife Ethel Mae Smith in 1949; they had two children. He met his third wife, Kay Reynolds, when she was 15, while performing in Birmingham, Alabama. They soon moved in together and married, despite taboos against interracial marriage. They had two daughters. He married his fourth wife, Sylvia Paiz, in 1992; they were divorced at the time of his death.
Health problems
On May 13, 2007, Diddley was admitted to intensive care in Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, following a stroke after a concert the previous day in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Starting the show, he had complained that he did not feel well. He referred to smoke from the wildfires that were ravaging south Georgia and blowing south to the area near his home in Archer, Florida. The next day, as he was heading back home, he seemed dazed and confused at the airport, and 911 was called, and he was immediately taken by ambulance to Creighton University Medical Center where he stayed for several days. He was then flown to Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL, where it was confirmed that he had suffered a stroke. Diddley had a history of hypertension and diabetes, and the stroke affected the left side of his brain, causing receptive and expressive aphasia (speech impairment). The stroke was followed by a heart attack, which he suffered in Gainesville, Florida, on August 28, 2007.
Death
Bo Diddley died on June 2, 2008, of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida at the age of 79. Grandson Garry Mitchell, his managers, Margo Lewis and Faith Fusillo, bass player and band leader, Debby Hastings, and many family members, were with him when he died at 1:45 am. EDT, at his home. His death was not unexpected. "There was a Gospel song that was sung, at his bedside, and when it was done, he opened his eyes, gave a thumbs up, and said, "Wow! I'm goin' to Heaven!" The song was
'Walk Around Heaven', and those were his last words."
He was survived by his children, Evelyn Kelly, Ellas A. McDaniel, Pamela Jacobs, Steven Jones, Terri Lynn McDaniel-Hines, and Tammi D. McDaniel; a brother, the Rev. Kenneth Haynes; and eighteen grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
His funeral, a four-hour "homegoing" service, took place on June 7, 2008, at Showers of Blessings Church in Gainesville, Florida. Many in attendance chanted "Hey Bo Diddley" as members of Diddley's band played a subdued version of the song.
A number of notable musicians sent flowers, including Little Richard, George Thorogood, Tom Petty and Jerry Lee Lewis. Little Richard, who had been asking his audiences to pray for Bo Diddley, throughout his illness, had to fulfill concert commitments in Westbury and New York City, the weekend of the funeral. He remembered Diddley at the concerts, performing his namesake tune. Eric Burdon, of The Animals, flew to Gainesville to attend the service.
After the funeral service, a tribute concert was held at the Martin Luther King Center in Gainesville, Florida, featuring guest performances by his son and daughter, Ellas A. McDaniel and Evelyn "Tan" Cooper; long-time background vocalist (and original Boette), Gloria Jolivet, and long-time bassist and bandleader, Debby Hastings, Eric Burdon, and former Bo Diddley & Offspring guitarist, Scott Free. In the days following his death, tributes were paid by then-President George W. Bush, the United States House of Representatives, and musicians and performers including B. B. King, Ronnie Hawkins, Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, George Thorogood, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Randolph and the Family Band and Eric Burdon. Burdon used video footage of the McDaniel family, and friends in mourning, for a video promoting his ABKCO Records release "Bo Diddley Special". Hastings is quoted as having said, "He was the rock that the roll was built on."
In November 2009, the guitar used by Bo Diddley in his final stage performance sold for $60,000 at auction.
In 2019, members of Bo Diddley's family sued to regain control of the music catalog held in trust by attorney Charles Littell. The family was successful in appointing a new trustee, music industry veteran Kendall Minter. The family was represented by Charles David of Florida Probate Law Group in the 2019 lawsuit.
Accolades
Bo Diddley was posthumously awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts degree by the University of Florida for his influence on American popular music. In its People in America radio series, about influential people in American history, the Voice of America radio service paid tribute to him, describing how "his influence was so widespread that it is hard to imagine what rock and roll would have sounded like without him." Mick Jagger stated that "he was a wonderful, original musician who was an enormous force in music and was a big influence on the Rolling Stones. He was very generous to us in our early years and we learned a lot from him". Jagger also praised the late star as a one-of-a-kind musician, adding, "We will never see his like again". The documentary film Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street by director Phil Ranstrom features Bo Diddley's last on-camera interview.
He achieved numerous accolades in recognition of his significant role as one of the founding fathers of rock and roll.
1986: Inducted into the Washington Area Music Association's Hall of Fame.
1987: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1987: Inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
1990: Lifetime Achievement Award from Guitar Player magazine
1996: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation
1998: Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
1999: His 1955 recording of his song "Bo Diddley" inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
2000: Inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame
2000: Inducted into the North Florida Music Association's Hall of Fame
2002: Pioneer in Entertainment Award from the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters
2002: Honored as one of the first BMI Icons at the 50th annual BMI Pop Awards, along with BMI affiliates Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
2003: Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame
2008: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree posthumously conferred on Diddley by the University of Florida in August (the award had been confirmed before his death in June).
2020: Induction into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame
2010: Induction into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
2017: Inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2021: Inducted into the New Mexico Music Hall of Fame.
In 2003, U.S. Representative John Conyers paid tribute to Bo Diddley in the United States House of Representatives, describing him as "one of the true pioneers of rock and roll, who has influenced generations".
In 2004, Mickey and Sylvia's 1956 recording of "Love Is Strange" (a song first recorded by Bo Diddley but not released until a year before his death) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a recording of qualitative or historical significance. Also in 2004, Bo Diddley was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame and was ranked number 20 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
In 2005, Bo Diddley celebrated his 50th anniversary in music with successful tours of Australia and Europe and with coast-to-coast shows across North America. He performed his song "Bo Diddley" with Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 20th annual induction ceremony. In the UK, Uncut magazine included his 1957 debut album, Bo Diddley, in its listing of the '100 Music, Movie & TV Moments That Have Changed the World'.
Bo Diddley was honored by the Mississippi Blues Commission with a Mississippi Blues Trail historic marker placed in McComb, his birthplace, in recognition of his enormous contribution to the development of the blues in Mississippi. On June 5, 2009, the city of Gainesville, Florida, officially renamed and dedicated its downtown plaza the Bo Diddley Community Plaza. The plaza was the site of a benefit concert at which Bo Diddley performed to raise awareness about the plight of the homeless in Alachua County and to raise money for local charities, including the Red Cross.
Beat
The "Bo Diddley beat" is essentially the clave rhythm, one of the most common bell patterns found in sub-Saharan African music traditions. One scholar found this rhythm in 13 rhythm and blues recordings made in the years 1944–55, including two by Johnny Otis from 1948.
Bo Diddley gave different accounts of how he began to use this rhythm. Ned Sublette says, "In the context of the time, and especially those maracas [heard on the record], 'Bo Diddley' has to be understood as a Latin-tinged record. A rejected cut recorded at the same session was titled only 'Rhumba' on the track sheets." The Bo Diddley beat is similar to "hambone", a style used by street performers who play out the beat by slapping and patting their arms, legs, chest, and cheeks while chanting rhymes. Somewhat resembling the "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm, Diddley came across it while trying to play Gene Autry's "(I've Got Spurs That) Jingle, Jangle, Jingle". Three years before his "Bo Diddley", a song with similar syncopation "Hambone", was cut by the Red Saunders Orchestra with the Hambone Kids. In 1944, "Rum and Coca Cola", containing the Bo Diddley beat, was recorded by the Andrews Sisters. Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" (1957) and Them's "Mystic Eyes" (1965) used the beat.
In its simplest form, the Bo Diddley beat can be counted out as either a one-bar or a two-bar phrase. Here is the count as a one-bar phrase: One e and ah, two e and ah, three e and ah, four e and ah (the boldface counts are the clave rhythm).
Many songs (for example, "Hey Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love?") often have no chord changes; that is, the musicians play the same chord throughout the piece, so that the rhythms create the excitement, rather than having the excitement generated by harmonic tension and release. In his other recordings, Bo Diddley used various rhythms, from straight back beat to pop ballad style to doo-wop, frequently with maracas by Jerome Green. His 1955 rhythm and blues hit, "Bo Diddley", had a "driving African rhythm and ham-bone beat". Beginning that same year, Diddley collaborated with various doo-wop vocal groups, using the Moonglows as a backing group on his first album, Bo Diddley, released in 1958. In one of the most well-known of his 1958 doo-wop sessions, Diddley added harmonies by the Carnations recording as the Teardrops, who sang smooth, polished doo-wop in the backgrounds on the songs "I'm Sorry", "Crackin' Up", and "Don't Let it Go".
An influential guitar player, Bo Diddley developed many special effects and other innovations in tone and attack, particularly the "shimmering" tremolo sound, and amp reverb. His trademark instrument was his self-designed, one-of-a-kind, rectangular-bodied "Twang Machine" (referred to as "cigar-box shaped" by music promoter Dick Clark), built by Gretsch. He had other uniquely shaped guitars custom-made for him by other manufacturers throughout the years, most notably the "Cadillac" and the rectangular "Turbo 5-speed" (with built-in envelope filter, flanger and delay) designs, made by Tom Holmes (who also made guitars for ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, among others). In a 2005 interview on JJJ radio in Australia, he implied that the rectangular design sprang from an embarrassing moment. During an early gig, while jumping around on stage with a Gibson L5 guitar, he landed awkwardly, hurting his groin. He then went about designing a smaller, less-restrictive guitar that allowed him to keep jumping around on stage while still playing his guitar. He also played the violin, which is featured on his mournful instrumental "The Clock Strikes Twelve", a twelve-bar blues.
Diddley often created lyrics as witty and humorous adaptations of folk music themes. His first hit, "Bo Diddley", was based on hambone rhymes. The first line of his song "Hey Bo Diddley" is derived from the nursery rhyme "Old MacDonald". The song "Who Do You Love?" with its rap-style boasting, and his use of the African-American game known as "the dozens" on the songs "Say Man" and "Say Man, Back Again," are cited as progenitors of hip-hop music; for example, in the dialogue of the song, "Say Man", percussionist Jerome Green says the lines: "You've got the nerve to call somebody ugly. Why, you so ugly till the stork that brought you in the world oughta be arrested."
Discography
Studio albums
Collaborations
Chuck Berry Is on Top, with Chuck Berry (Chess, 1959)
Two Great Guitars, with Chuck Berry (Checker, 1964)
Super Blues, with Muddy Waters and Little Walter (Checker, 1967)
The Super Super Blues Band, with Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf (Checker, 1968)
Chart singles
Notes
References
Books
Arsicaud, Laurent (2012). Bo Diddley, Je suis un homme. Camion Blanc editions.
White, George R. (1995), Bo Diddley: Living Legend. Sanctuary Publishing.
External links
1928 births
2008 deaths
20th-century American guitarists
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5034 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bela%20Lugosi | Bela Lugosi | Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian–American actor, best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic Dracula, Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956.
Lugosi began acting on the Hungarian stage in 1902. After playing in 172 productions in his native Hungary, Lugosi moved on to appear in Hungarian silent films in 1917. He had to suddenly emigrate to Germany after the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919 because of his former socialist activities (organizing a stage actors' union), leaving his first wife in the process. He acted in several films in Weimar Germany, before arriving in New Orleans as a seaman on a merchant ship, then making his way north to New York City and Ellis Island.
In 1927, he starred as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, moving with the play to the West Coast in 1928 and settling down in Hollywood. He later starred in the 1931 film version of Dracula directed by Tod Browning and produced by Universal Pictures. Through the 1930s, he occupied an important niche in horror films, but his notoriety as "Dracula" and ominous thick Hungarian accent greatly limited the roles offered to him, and he unsuccessfully tried for years to avoid the typecasting.
He co-starred in a number of films with Boris Karloff, who was able to demand top billing. To his frustration, Lugosi, a charter member of the American Screen Actors Guild, was increasingly restricted to mad scientist roles because of his inability to speak English more clearly. He was kept employed by the studios principally so that they could put his name on the posters. Among his teamings with Karloff, he performed major roles only in The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939); even in The Raven, Karloff received top billing despite Lugosi performing the lead role.
By this time, Lugosi had been receiving regular medication for sciatic neuritis, and he became addicted to doctor-prescribed morphine and methadone. This drug dependence (and his gradually worsening alcoholism) was becoming apparent to producers, and after 1948's Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, the offers dwindled to parts in low-budget films; some of these were directed by Ed Wood, including a brief (posthumous) appearance in Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957).
Lugosi married five times and had one son, Bela G. Lugosi (with his fourth wife, Lillian).
Early life
Lugosi, the youngest of four children, was born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó in 1882 in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania) to Hungarian father István Blaskó, a baker who later became a banker, and Serbian-born mother Paula de Vojnich. He was raised in a Roman Catholic family.
At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school and left home to work at a succession of manual labor jobs. His father died during his absence. He began his stage acting career in 1902. His earliest known performances are from provincial theatres in the 1903–04 season, playing small roles in several plays and operettas. He took the last name "Lugosi" in 1903 to honor his birthplace, and went on to perform in Shakespeare plays. After moving to Budapest in 1911, he played dozens of roles with the National Theatre of Hungary between 1913 and 1919. Although Lugosi would later claim that he "became the leading actor of Hungary's Royal National Theatre", many of his roles there were small or supporting parts, which led him to enter the Hungarian film industry.
During World War I, he served as an infantryman in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1914 to 1916, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. He was awarded the Wound Medal for wounds he sustained while serving on the Russian front. Returning to civilian life, Lugosi became an actor in Hungarian silent films, appearing in many of them under the stage name "Arisztid Olt".
Due to his activism in the actors' union in Hungary during the revolution of 1919 and his active participation in the Hungarian Soviet Republic, he was forced to flee his homeland when the government changed hands, initially accompanied by his first wife Ilona Szmik. They escaped to Vienna before settling in Berlin (in the Langestrasse), where he began acting in German silent films. During these moves, Ilona lost her unborn child, after which she left Lugosi and returned home to her parents where she filed for divorce, and soon after remarried.
Lugosi eventually travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana in December, 1920 working as a crewman aboard a merchant ship, then made his way north to New York City, where he again took up acting in (and sometimes directing) stage plays in 1921–1922, then worked in the New York silent film industry from 1923 to 1926. In 1921, he met and married his second wife, Ilona von Montagh, a young Hungarian emigree and stage actress whom he had worked with years before in Europe. They only lived together for a few weeks, but their divorce took until October 1925 to be finalized.
He later moved to California in 1928 to tour in the Dracula stage play, and his Hollywood film career took off. Lugosi claimed he performed the Dracula play around 1,000 times during his lifetime. He eventually became a U.S. citizen in 1931, soon after the release of his film version of Dracula.
Career
Early films
Lugosi's first film appearance was in the 1917 Hungarian silent film Leoni Leo. When appearing in Hungarian silent films, he mostly used the stage name Arisztid Olt. Lugosi made at least 10 films in Hungary between 1917 and 1918 before leaving for Germany. Following the collapse of Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, leftists and trade unionists became vulnerable, some being imprisoned or executed in public. Lugosi was proscribed from acting due to his participation in the formation of an actors' union. Exiled in Weimar-era Germany, he co-starred in at least 14 German silent films in 1920, among them Hypnose: Sklaven fremden Willens (1920), Der Januskopf (1920) and an adaptation of the Karl May novel Caravan of Death (1920).
Lugosi left Germany in October 1920, emigrating by ship to the United States, and entered the country at New Orleans in December 1920. He made his way to New York and was inspected by immigration officers at Ellis Island in March 1921. He only declared his intention to become a US citizen in 1928; on June 26, 1931, he was naturalized.
On his arrival in America, the , Lugosi worked for some time as a laborer, and then entered the theater in New York City's Hungarian immigrant colony. With fellow expatriate Hungarian actors he formed a small stock company that toured Eastern cities, playing for immigrant audiences. Lugosi acted in several Hungarian language plays before starring in his first English Broadway play, The Red Poppy in 1922. Three more parts came in 1925–26, including a five-month run in the comedy-fantasy The Devil in the Cheese. In 1925, he played an Arab Sheik in Arabesque which premiered in Buffalo, New York at the Teck Theatre before moving to Broadway.
His first American film role was in the silent melodrama The Silent Command (1923) which was filmed in New York. Four other silent roles followed, villains and continental types, all in productions made in the New York area. A rumor has circulated for decades among film historians that Lugosi played an uncredited bit part as a clown in the 1924 Lon Chaney Hollywood film He Who Gets Slapped, but this has been heavily disputed. The rumor originated from the discovery of a publicity still from this film found posthumously in Lugosi's scrapbook, which showed an unidentified clown in heavy makeup standing near Lon Chaney in one scene. It was thought to be evidence that Lugosi appeared in the film, but historians all agree that is very unlikely, since Lugosi was in both Chicago (appearing in a play called The Werewolf) and New York at the time that film was being made in Hollywood.
Dracula
Lugosi was approached in the summer of 1927 to star in a Broadway theatre production of Dracula, which had been adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. The Horace Liveright production was successful, running in New York City for 261 performances before touring the United States to much fanfare and critical acclaim throughout 1928 and 1929. In 1928, Lugosi decided to stay in California when the play ended its first West Coast run. His performance had piqued the interest of Fox Film, and he was cast in the Hollywood studio's silent film The Veiled Woman (1929). He also appeared in the film Prisoners (also 1929), believed lost, which was released in both a silent and partial talkie version.
In 1929, with no other film roles in sight, he returned to the stage as Dracula for a short West Coast tour of the play. Lugosi remained in California where he resumed his film work under contract with Fox, appearing in early talkies often as a heavy or an "exotic sheik". He also continued to lobby for his prized role in the film version of Dracula.
Despite his critically acclaimed performance on stage, Lugosi was not Universal Pictures' first choice for the role of Dracula when the company optioned the rights to the Deane play and began production in 1930. Different prominent actors, such as Paul Muni, Chester Morris, Ian Keith, John Wray, Joseph Schildkraut, Arthur Edmund Carewe, William Courtenay, John Carradine, and Conrad Veidt were considered. Lew Ayres was eventually hired to play Dracula, only to be replaced by Robert Ames after being cast in a different role in a different Universal Pictures film. Ames was in turn replaced with David Manners, who would instead come to play John Harker. Lugosi had played the role on Broadway, and was considered before director Tod Browning cast him in the role. The film was a major hit, but Lugosi was paid a salary of only $3,500, since he had too eagerly accepted the role.
Typecasting
Through his association with Dracula (in which he appeared with minimal makeup, using his natural, heavily accented voice), Lugosi found himself typecast as a horror villain in films such as Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), The Black Cat (1934) and The Raven (1935) for Universal, and the independent White Zombie (1932). His accent, while a part of his image, limited the type of role he could play.
Lugosi did attempt to break type by auditioning for other roles. He lost out to Lionel Barrymore for the role of Grigori Rasputin in Rasputin and the Empress (also 1932); C. Henry Gordon for the role of Surat Khan in Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and Basil Rathbone for the role of Commissar Dimitri Gorotchenko in Tovarich (1937), a role Lugosi had played on stage. He played the elegant, somewhat hot-tempered General Nicholas Strenovsky-Petronovich in International House (1933).
Regardless of controversy, five films at Universal – The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936), Son of Frankenstein (1939), Black Friday (1940), plus minor cameo performances in Gift of Gab (1934) and two at RKO Pictures, You'll Find Out (1940) and The Body Snatcher (1945) – paired Lugosi with Boris Karloff. Despite the relative size of their roles, Lugosi inevitably received second billing, below Karloff. There are contradictory reports of Lugosi's attitude toward Karloff, some claiming that he was openly resentful of Karloff's long-term success and ability to gain good roles beyond the horror arena, while others suggested the two actors were – for a time, at least – amicable. Karloff himself in interviews suggested that Lugosi was initially mistrustful of him when they acted together, believing that the Englishman would attempt to upstage him. When this proved not to be the case, according to Karloff, Lugosi settled down and they worked together amicably (though some have further commented that the English Karloff's on-set demand to break from filming for mid-afternoon tea annoyed Lugosi). Lugosi did get a few heroic leads, as in Universal's The Black Cat after Karloff had been accorded the more colorful role of the villain, The Invisible Ray, and a romantic role in producer Sol Lesser's adventure serial The Return of Chandu (1934), but his typecasting problem appears to have been too entrenched to be alleviated by those films.
Lugosi addressed his plea to be cast in non-horror roles directly to casting directors through his listing in the 1937 Players Directory, published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in which he (or his agent) calls the idea that he is only fit for horror films "an error."
Career decline
Lugosi developed severe, chronic sciatica, ostensibly aggravated by injuries received during his military service. Though at first he was treated with benign pain remedies such as asparagus juice, doctors increased the medication to opiates. The growth of his dependence on opiates, particularly morphine and (after 1947, when it became available in America) methadone, was directly proportional to the dwindling of Lugosi's screen offers. The problem first manifested itself in 1937, when Lugosi was forced to withdraw from a leading role in a serial production, The Secret of Treasure Island, due to constant back pain.
Historian John McElwee reports, in his 2013 book Showmen, Sell It Hot!, that Bela Lugosi's popularity received a much-needed boost in August 1938, when California theater owner Emil Umann revived Dracula and Frankenstein as a special double feature. The combination was so successful that Umann scheduled extra shows to accommodate the capacity crowds, and invited Lugosi to appear in person, which thrilled new audiences that had never seen Lugosi's classic performance. "I owe it all to that little man at the Regina Theatre," said Lugosi of exhibitor Umann. "I was dead, and he brought me back to life." Universal took notice of the tremendous business and launched its own national re-release of the same two horror favorites. The studio then rehired Lugosi to star in new films, fortunately just as Lugosi's fourth wife had given birth to a son.
Universal cast Lugosi in Son of Frankenstein (1939), appearing in the character role of Ygor, a mad blacksmith with a broken neck, in heavy makeup and beard. Lugosi was third-billed with his name above the title alongside Basil Rathbone as Dr. Frankenstein's son and Boris Karloff reprising his role as Frankenstein's monster. Regarding Son of Frankenstein, the film's director Rowland V. Lee said his crew let Lugosi "work on the characterization; the interpretation he gave us was imaginative and totally unexpected ... when we finished shooting, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he stole the show. Karloff's monster was weak by comparison."
The same year saw Lugosi making a rare appearance in an A-list motion picture: he was a stern Soviet commissar in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer romantic comedy Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Lugosi was quite effective in this small but prestigious character part and he even received top billing among the film's supporting cast, all of whom had significantly larger roles. It might have been a turning point for the actor, but within the year he was back on Hollywood's Poverty Row, playing leads for Sam Katzman. These horror, comedy and mystery B-films were mostly released by Monogram Pictures. At Universal, he often received star billing for what amounted to a supporting part.
Lugosi went to 20th Century-Fox for The Gorilla (1939), which had him playing straight man (a butler) to Patsy Kelly and the Ritz Brothers. When Lugosi's Black Friday premiered in 1940 on a double bill with the Vincent Price film The House of the Seven Gables, Lugosi and Price both appeared in person at the Chicago Theatre where it opened on Feb. 29, 1940 and remained for four performances. He was finally cast in the role of Frankenstein's monster for Universal's Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). (At the end of the previous film in the series, The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Lugosi's voice had been dubbed over that of Lon Chaney Jr. since Ygor's brain was now in the Monster's skull.) But at the last minute, Lugosi's heavily-accented dialogue was edited out after the film was completed, along with the idea of the Monster being blind, leaving his performance featuring groping, outstretched arms and moving lips seeming enigmatic (and funny) to audiences.
Lugosi kept busy during the 1940s as a screen menace. In addition to his nine Monogram features, he worked in three features for RKO and one for Columbia (The Return of the Vampire, 1943). He also accepted the lead in an experimental, economical feature, shot in the semi-professional 16mm film format and blown up to 35mm for theatrical release, Scared to Death (produced in 1944 but not released until 1947). The feature is noteworthy as being Bela Lugosi's only color film.
Lugosi played Dracula for a second and final time on film in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), which was his last "A" movie. For the remainder of his life, he appeared – less and less frequently – in obscure, forgettable, low-budget B features. From 1947 to 1950, he performed in summer stock, often in productions of Dracula or Arsenic and Old Lace, and during the rest of the year, made personal appearances in a touring "spook show", and on early commercial television.
In September 1949, Milton Berle invited Lugosi to appear in a sketch on Texaco Star Theatre. Lugosi memorized the script for the skit, but became confused on the air when Berle began to ad lib. He also appeared on the anthology series Suspense on October 11, 1949, in a live adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado".
In 1951, while in England to play a six-month tour of Dracula, Lugosi co-starred in a lowbrow film comedy, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (also known as Vampire Over London and My Son, the Vampire), released the following year. Following his return to the United States, he was interviewed for television, and reflected wistfully on his typecasting in horror parts: "Now I am the boogie man". In the same interview he expressed a desire to play more comedy, as he had in the Mother Riley farce. Independent producer Jack Broder took Lugosi at his word, casting him in a jungle-themed comedy, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952), starring nightclub comedians Duke Mitchell and Jerry Lewis look-alike Sammy Petrillo, whose act closely resembled that of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (Martin and Lewis). Hal B. Wallis, Martin and Lewis's producer, unsuccessfully sued Broder.
Stage and personal appearances
Lugosi enjoyed a lively career on stage, with plenty of personal appearances. As film offers declined, he became more and more dependent on live venues to support his family. Lugosi took over the role of Jonathan Brewster from Boris Karloff for Arsenic and Old Lace. Lugosi had also expressed interest in playing Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey to help himself professionally. He also made plenty of personal live appearances to promote his horror image or an accompanying film.
The Vincent Price film, House of Wax premiered in Los Angeles at the Paramount Theatre on April 16, 1953. The film played at midnight with a number of celebrities in the audience that night (Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Rock Hudson, Broderick Crawford, Gracie Allen, Eddie Cantor, Shelley Winters and others). Producer Alex Gordon, knowing Lugosi was in dire need of cash, arranged for the actor to stand outside the theater wearing a cape and dark glasses, holding a man costumed as a gorilla on a leash. He later allowed himself to be photographed drinking a glass of milk at a Red Cross booth there. When Lugosi playfully attempted to bite the "nurse" in attendance, she overreacted and spilled a glass of milk all over his shirt and cape. Afterward, Lugosi was interviewed by a female reporter who botched the interview by asking the prearranged questions out of order, thoroughly confusing the aging star. Embarrassed, Lugosi left abruptly, without attending the screening.
Ed Wood and final projects
[[File:Bride of the Monster photo - 1956.jpg|thumb|right|Tor Johnson and Lugosi in Bride of the Monster (1956)]]
Late in his life, Bela Lugosi again received star billing in films when the ambitious but financially limited filmmaker Ed Wood, a fan of Lugosi, found him living in obscurity and near-poverty and offered him roles in his films, such as an anonymous narrator in Glen or Glenda (1953) and a mad scientist in Bride of the Monster (1955). During post-production of the latter, Lugosi decided to seek treatment for his drug addiction, and the film's premiere was arranged to raise money for Lugosi's hospital expenses (resulting in a paltry amount of money). According to Kitty Kelley's biography of Frank Sinatra, when the entertainer heard of Lugosi's problems, he visited Lugosi at the hospital and gave him a $1,000 check. Sinatra would recall Lugosi's amazement at his visit, since the two men had never met before.
During an impromptu interview upon his release from the treatment center in 1955, Lugosi stated that he was about to begin work on a new Ed Wood film called The Ghoul Goes West. This was one of several projects proposed by Wood, including The Phantom Ghoul and Dr. Acula. With Lugosi in his Dracula cape, Wood shot impromptu test footage, with no particular storyline in mind, in front of Tor Johnson's home, at a suburban graveyard, and in front of Lugosi's apartment building on Carlton Way. This footage ended up posthumously in Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), which was filmed in 1956 soon after Lugosi died. Wood hired Tom Mason, his wife's chiropractor, to double for Lugosi in additional shots. Mason was noticeably taller and thinner than Lugosi, and had the lower half of his face covered with his cape in every shot, as Lugosi sometimes did in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Following his treatment, Lugosi made one final film, in late 1955, The Black Sleep, for Bel-Air Pictures, which was released in the summer of 1956 through United Artists with a promotional campaign that included several personal appearances by Lugosi and his co-stars, as well as Maila Nurmi (TV's horror host "Vampira"). To Lugosi's disappointment, however, his role in this film was that of a mute butler with no dialogue. Lugosi was intoxicated and very ill during the film's promotional campaign and had to return to L.A. earlier than planned. He never got to see the finished film. Tor Johnson said in interviews that Lugosi kept screaming that he wanted to die the night they shared a hotel room together.
In 1959, a British film called Lock Up Your Daughters was theatrically released (in the U.K.), composed of clips from Bela Lugosi's Monogram pictures from the 1940s. The film is lost today, but a March 16, 1959, critical review in the Kinematograph Weekly mentioned that the movie contained new Lugosi footage (intriguing since Lugosi had died in 1956). Back in 1950 however, Lugosi had appeared on a one-hour TV program called Murder and Bela Lugosi (which WPIX-TV broadcast on Sept. 18, 1950) in which Lugosi was interviewed and provided commentary about a number of his old horror films while clips from the films were being shown; historian Gary Rhodes thinks some of this Lugosi TV production found its way into the 1959 British film, which would finally explain the mystery.Review of "Lock Up Your Daughters". Kinematograph Weekly. March 16, 1959
Personal life
Lugosi repeatedly married. In June 1917, Lugosi married 19-year-old Ilona Szmik (1898–1991) in Hungary. The couple divorced after Lugosi was forced to flee his homeland for political reasons (risking execution if he stayed) and Ilona did not wish to leave her parents. The divorce became final on July 17, 1920 and was uncontested as Lugosi could not show up for the proceedings. (Szmik then married wealthy Hungarian architect Imre Francsek in December 1920, moved with him to Iran in 1930, had two children, and died in 1991.)
After living briefly in Germany, Lugosi left Europe by ship and arrived in New Orleans on October 27, 1920, and, after making his way north, underwent his primary alien inspection at Ellis Island, N.Y. on March 23, 1921.
In September 1921, he married Hungarian actress Ilona von Montagh in New York City, and she filed for divorce on November 11, 1924, charging him with adultery and complaining that he wanted her to abandon her acting career to keep house for him. The divorce became final in October, 1925. (Lugosi learned in 1935 that von Montagh and a female friend were both arrested for shoplifting in New York City, which was the last he heard of her.).
Lugosi took his place in Hollywood society and scandal when he married wealthy San Francisco resident Beatrice Woodruff Weeks (1897–1931), widow of architect Charles Peter Weeks, on July 27, 1929. Weeks subsequently filed for divorce on November 4, 1929, accusing Lugosi of infidelity, citing actress Clara Bow as the "other woman", and claimed Lugosi tried to take her checkbook and the key to her safe deposit box away from her. She even claimed he slapped her in the face one night because she ate a pork chop he had hidden in their refrigerator. Lugosi complained of her excessive drinking and dancing with other men at social gatherings. The divorce became official on December 9, 1929. (Weeks died 17 months later (at age 34) from alcoholism in Panama, Lugosi never receiving a penny from her fortune.)
On June 26, 1931, Lugosi became a naturalized United States citizen.
In 1933, the 51-year-old Lugosi married 22-year-old Lillian Arch (1911–1981), the daughter of Hungarian immigrants living in Hollywood. Lillian's father was against her marriage to Lugosi at first as the actor was experiencing financial difficulties at the time, so Bela talked her into eloping with him to Las Vegas in January 1933. They remained married for 20 years and they had a child, Bela G. Lugosi, in 1938. (Bela eventually had four grandchildren (Greg, Jeff, Tim, and Lynne) and seven great-grandchildren, although he did not live long enough to meet any of them.)
Lillian and Bela vacationed on their lakeshore property in Lake Elsinore, California (then called Elsinore), on several lots between 1944 and 1953. Lillian's parents lived on one of their properties, and Lugosi frequented the health spa there. Bela Lugosi Jr. was boarded at the Elsinore Naval and Military School in Lake Elsinore, and also lived with Lillian's parents while she and Bela were touring.
After almost breaking up their marriage in 1944, Lillian and Bela finally divorced on July 17, 1953, at least partially because of Bela's excessive drinking and his jealousy over Lillian taking a full-time job as an assistant to actor Brian Donlevy on Donlevy's radio and television series Dangerous Assignment. Lillian obtained custody of their son Bela Jr. Lugosi called the police one night after Lillian left him and threatened to commit suicide, but when the police showed up at his apartment, he denied making the call.(Lillian eventually did marry Brian Donlevy in 1966, by which time he had also become an alcoholic, and she died in 1981.)
Lugosi married Hope Lininger, his fifth wife, in 1955; she was 37 years his junior. She had been a fan, writing letters to him when he was in the hospital recovering from his drug addiction. She would sign her letters "A dash of Hope". They remained married until his death in 1956. However Bela and Hope were actually discussing getting divorced before he died.
Death
Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956, in the bedroom of his Los Angeles apartment while taking a nap. His wife, Hope, discovered him dead, on his bed dressed only in his underwear, when she came home from work that evening, he having apparently died peacefully in his sleep around 6:45 PM according to the medical examiner. He was 73 and weighed 140 pounds. The rumor that Lugosi was clutching the script for The Final Curtain, a planned Ed Wood project, at the time of his death is not true. (The script was however elsewhere in his apartment.)
Lugosi was buried wearing one of the "Dracula" capes and his full costume as well as his Dracula ring in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Contrary to popular belief, Lugosi never requested to be buried in his cloak; Bela G. Lugosi confirmed on numerous occasions that he and his mother, Lillian, made the decision but believed that it is what his father would have wanted.
The funeral was held on Saturday, August 18 at the Utter-McKinley funeral home in Hollywood. Attendees included Forrest J. Ackerman, Ed Wood (who was a pall bearer), Tor Johnson, Conrad Brooks, Richard Sheffield, both of the widows (Hope and Lillian), Bela Lugosi Jr., Norma McCarty, Loretta King, Paul Marco and actor George Becwar. Bela's fourth wife Lillian paid for the cemetery plot and stone (which was inscribed "Beloved Father"), while Hope Lugosi paid for the coffin and the funeral service. Lugosi's will left several inexpensive pieces of real estate in Elsinore and only $1,000 cash to his son, but since the will had been written on Jan. 12, 1954 (before Lugosi's fifth marriage), Bela Jr. had to share the thousand dollars evenly with Hope Lugosi.
Hope later gave most of Lugosi's personal belongings and memorabilia to Bela's young neighborhood friend Richard Sheffield, who gave Lugosi's duplicate Dracula cape to Bela Jr. and sold some of the other items to Forrest J. Ackerman. Hope told Sheffield she had searched the apartment for several days looking for $3,000 she suspected Lugosi had hidden there, but she never found it. Sheffield said years later "Lugosi had probably spent it all on alcohol." Hope later moved to Hawaii, where she worked for many years as a caregiver in a leper colony.Arthur Lennig, The Immortal Count, University Press of Kentucky, 2003 . Hope died in Hawaii in 1997, at age 78, having never remarried. Before her death, she gave several interviews to the fan press.
California Supreme Court decision on personality rights
In 1979, the Lugosi v. Universal Pictures decision by the California Supreme Court held that Lugosi's personality rights could not pass to his heirs, as a copyright would have. The court ruled that under California law, any rights of publicity, including the right to his image, terminated with Lugosi's death.
Legacy
The cape Lugosi wore in Dracula (1931) was in the possession of his son until it was put up for auction in 2011. It was expected to sell for up to $2 million, but has since been listed again by Bonhams in 2018. In 2019, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced acquisition of the cape via partial donation from the Lugosi family. In 2019 it was announced that the cape would be on display the following year.
Andy Warhol's 1963 silkscreen The Kiss depicts Lugosi from Dracula about to bite into the neck of co-star Helen Chandler, who played Mina Harker. A copy sold for $798,000 at Christie's in May 2000.
Lugosi's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is mentioned in "Celluloid Heroes", a song performed by The Kinks and written by their lead vocalist and principal songwriter, Ray Davies. It appeared on their 1972 album Everybody's in Show-Biz.
In 1979, a song called "Bela Lugosi's Dead" was released by UK post-punk band Bauhaus and is a pioneering song in the gothic rock genre. On choosing the topic of the song, the band's bassist David J remarked "There was a season of old horror films on TV and I was telling Daniel about how much I loved them. The one that had been on the night before was Dracula [1931]. I was saying how Bela Lugosi was the quintessential Dracula, the elegant depiction of the character."
An episode of Sledge Hammer! titled "Last of the Red Hot Vampires" was an homage to Bela Lugosi; at the end of the episode, it was dedicated to "Mr. Blasko".
Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff are referenced in the Curtis Stigers' song "Sleeping with the Lights On", from the 1991 album Curtis Stigers.
In Tim Burton's Ed Wood, Bela Lugosi is portrayed by Martin Landau, who received the 1994 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the performance. According to Bela G. Lugosi (his son), Forrest Ackerman, Dolores Fuller and Richard Sheffield, the film's portrayal of Lugosi is inaccurate: In real life, he never used profanity, did not hate Karloff, owned no small dogs, nor did he sleep in a coffin. Also Ed Wood did not meet Lugosi in a funeral parlor, but rather through his roommate Alex Gordon.
Péter Müller's 1998 theatrical play Lugosi – the Shadow of the Vampire () is based on Lugosi's life, telling the story of his life as he became typecast as Dracula and as his drug addiction worsened. In the Hungarian production, directed by István Szabó, Lugosi was played by Ivan Darvas.
In 2001, BBC Radio 4 broadcast There Are Such Things by Steven McNicoll and Mark McDonnell. Focusing on Lugosi and his well-documented struggle to escape from the role that had typecast him, the play went on to receive the Hamilton Deane Award for best dramatic presentation from the Dracula Society in 2002.
On July 19, 2003, German artist Hartmut Zech erected a bust of Lugosi on one of the corners of Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest.
The Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York City features a live 30-minute play that focuses on Lugosi's illegal entry into the country via New Orleans and his arrival at Ellis Island months later to enter the country legally.
In 2013 the Hungarian electronic music band Žagar recorded a song entitled "Mr. Lugosi", which contains a recording of the voice of Bela Lugosi. The song was a part of the Light Leaks record.
According to Paru Itagaki, the creator of the Japanese manga/anime Beastars, the main character Legoshi was inspired by Bela Lugosi (regarding the similar-sounding names).
In 2020, Legendary Comics published an adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula novel, which used the likeness of Lugosi.
A 2021 hardcover graphic novel depicting the life of Bela Lugosi was written and drawn by Koren Shadmi, entitled Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula. Notes
References
Further reading
Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster by Gary D. Rhodes and Tom Weaver (2015) BearManor Media,
Tod Browning's Dracula by Gary D. Rhodes (2015) Tomahawk Press,
Bela Lugosi In Person by Bill Kaffenberger and Gary D. Rhodes (2015) BearManor Media,
No Traveler Returns: The Lost Years of Bela Lugosi by Bill Kaffenberger and Gary D. Rhodes (2012) BearManor Media,
Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers, (hardcover)
Lugosi: His Life on Film, Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers by Gary D. Rhodes (2006) McFarland & Company,
The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi by Arthur Lennig (2003), (hardcover)
Bela Lugosi (Midnight Marquee Actors Series) by Gary Svehla and Susan Svehla (1995) (paperback)
Bela Lugosi: Master of the Macabre by Larry Edwards (1997), (paperback)
Films of Bela Lugosi by Richard Bojarski (1980) (hardcover)
Sinister Serials of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Jr. by Leonard J. Kohl (2000) (paperback)
Vampire over London: Bela Lugosi in Britain by Frank J. Dello Stritto and Andi Brooks (2000) (hardcover)
Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape by Robert Cremer (1976) (hardcover)
Bela Lugosi: Biografia di una metamorfosi by Edgardo Franzosini (1998)
Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula'' by Koren Shadmi (Life Drawn graphic novel)(2021)
External links
https://www.retroagogo.com/categories/collections/bela-lugosi/
Video Biography at CinemaScream.com
1882 births
1956 deaths
People from Lugoj
19th-century Hungarian people
20th-century Hungarian male actors
20th-century American male actors
19th-century Roman Catholics
20th-century Roman Catholics
20th-century sailors
American male film actors
American Roman Catholics
American people of Serbian descent
American socialists
American trade unionists
Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I
Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Hungarian emigrants to the United States
Hungarian expatriates in Austria
Hungarian expatriates in Germany
Hungarian male film actors
Hungarian male silent film actors
Hungarian male stage actors
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Naturalized citizens of the United States
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5035 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride%20of%20the%20Monster | Bride of the Monster | Bride of the Monster is a 1955 American science fiction horror film, co-written, produced and directed by Edward D. Wood Jr., and starring Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson with a supporting cast featuring Tony McCoy and Loretta King.
The film is considered to have Wood's biggest budget ($70,000). Production commenced in 1954 but, due to further financial problems, was not completed until 1955. It was released in May 1955, initially on a double bill with Macumba.
Plot
In a stretch of woods, two hunters are caught in a thunderstorm. They decide to seek refuge in Willows House, supposedly abandoned and haunted. They find Willows House occupied, and the current owner repeatedly denies them hospitality. They attempt to force their entry into the house, but a giant octopus is released from its tank and sent after them. One of the fleeing hunters is killed by the octopus, while the giant captures the other. The owner is a scientist, Dr. Eric Vornoff, and the giant is his mute assistant, Lobo. Vornoff explains that he will experiment on the unwilling hunter, who dies on the operating table.
In a police station, Officer Tom Robbins sees Lieutenant Dick Craig. There are now 12 missing victims, and the police still do not know what happened to them. The reporter behind the newspaper reports is Janet Lawton, Craig's fiancée. Janet forces her way into the office and argues with Robbins, and vows to go to Lake Marsh to investigate. At the police station, Robbins and Craig have a meeting with an intellectual from Europe, Professor Vladimir Strowski, who agrees to assist the police in investigating the Marsh but not at night. As night falls and another storm begins, Janet drives alone to Lake Marsh, but visibility is poor, and she drives off the road and into a ravine. Lobo rescues her.
Janet awakens to find herself a prisoner of Vornoff, who uses hypnosis to put her back to sleep. The following day, Craig and his partner drive to the area around Lake Marsh, a swamp. The partners also discuss the strange weather and mention that the newspapers could be right about "the atom bomb explosions distorting the atmosphere". The duo eventually discovers Janet's abandoned car and realizes she is the 13th missing victim. They leave the swamp while Strowski drives a rented car to the swamp.
Janet awakens at Willows House. Vornoff assures her that Lobo is harmless, but the giant seems fascinated with the female captive and approaches her with questionable intent. Vornoff explains the giant is human and that Vornoff found him in the "wilderness of Tibet". Vornoff then hypnotically places Janet back to sleep. He orders Lobo to transport the captive to Vornoff's private quarters.
Meanwhile, Strowski silently approaches Willows House and enters through the unlocked front door. While Strowski searches the house, Vornoff arrives to greet him. Their country of origin is interested in Vornoff's groundbreaking experiments with atomic energy and wants to recruit him. Vornoff narrates that two decades prior, Vornoff had suggested using experiments with nuclear power, which could create superhumans of great strength and size. In response, he was branded a madman and exiled by his country. Strowski reveals that he dreams of conquest in their country's name, while Vornoff dreams of his creations conquering in his own name. Craig and his partner return to the swamp by late evening and discover Strowski's abandoned car. The partners split up to search the area, Craig heading towards Willows House. Back in the secret laboratory, Vornoff uses a wave of his hand to summon Janet to his current location. She arrives dressed as a bride, summoned through telepathy. He has decided to use her as the next subject of his experiments. Lobo is reluctant to participate in this experiment, and Vornoff uses a whip to re-assert his control over his slave and assistant. Meanwhile, Craig has entered the house and accidentally discovers the secret passage. He is himself captured by Vornoff and Lobo.
As the experiment is about to begin, Lobo is visibly distressed. He decides to rebel and knocks Vornoff out. Lobo then releases Janet and transports the unconscious Vornoff to the operating table. The scientist becomes the subject of his own human experiment. This time the experiment works and Vornoff transforms into an atomic-powered superhuman being. He and Lobo physically struggle, and their fight destroys the laboratory and starts a fire. Vornoff grabs Janet and escapes from the flames. Robbins and other officers arrive to help Craig. The police pursue Vornoff through the woods. There is another thunderstorm, and a lightning strike further destroys Willows House. With his home and equipment destroyed, a distressed Vornoff abandons Janet and merely attempts to escape. Craig rolls a rock at him and lands him in the water with the octopus. They struggle until a nuclear explosion obliterates both combatants. Apparently, the end result of the chain reaction started at the destroyed laboratory. Robbins says of Vornoff "he tampered in God's domain".
Cast
Bela Lugosi as Dr. Eric Vornoff
Tor Johnson as Lobo
Tony McCoy as Lt. Dick Craig
Loretta King as Janet Lawton
Harvey B. Dunn as Captain Robbins
George Becwar as Professor Strowski
Paul Marco as Officer Kelton
Don Nagel as Martin
Bud Osborne as Mac
John Warren as Jake
Ann Wilner as Tillie
Dolores Fuller as Margie
William "Billy" Benedict as Newsboy
Ben Frommer as Drunk
Production and release
The first incarnation of the film was a 1953 script by Alex Gordon titled The Atomic Monster, but a lack of financing prevented any production. Later Ed Wood revived the project as The Monster of the Marshes. Actual shooting began in October 1954 at the Ted Allan Studios, but further money problems quickly halted the production. The required funds were supplied by a meat packing plant owner named Donald McCoy, who became credited as the film's producer on the condition that his son Tony was to star as the film's hero. According to screenwriter Dennis Rodriguez, casting the younger McCoy as a protagonist was one of two terms Donald imposed on Wood. The other term was to include an atomic explosion at the film's finale. Production resumed in 1955 at Centaur Studios.
Actor George Becwar, who played the bearded Russian agent Strowski, after getting paid for his one day of work on the film, complained that he had been underpaid to the Screen Actors Guild and caused the production to be temporarily shut down for an investigation. Wood as a result had to raise more money from backers and lost another piece of the ownership of the film as a result. An actor friend of Wood's, John Andrews, said in an interview: "Eddie hated, loathed, despised, wanted murdered, George Becwar ....I'm not overdoin' it man, I'm telling you straight. He hated George Becwar to the day he deceased, and I mean with a passion!"
The film premiered at Hollywood's Paramount theater on May 11, 1955, under the title Bride of the Atom. Wood related the story of how, after the film played, he asked the theater's manager what he thought of the picture, to which the manager replied "Stinks". Wood took scissors and physically cut the man out of an 8 X 10 group shot that was taken that night after the premiere as a publicity photo. When asked "Who was that you cut out?", Wood replied "Well, he's not there any more, so it doesn't matter".
The film was reportedly completed and released through a deal with attorney Samuel Z. Arkoff. Arkoff profited from the film more than Wood, and his earnings contributed to the funding of his American International Pictures. Wood had oversold shares in the picture and wound up owning none of it himself. The ending credits identify the copyright holder of the film as "Filmakers Releasing Organization". Distribution rights were held by Banner Films in the United States, and by Exclusive in the United Kingdom.
Analysis
Genre and background
The film combines elements of science fiction and horror fiction, genres which were frequently combined in films of the 1950s. Like many of these contemporaries, Bride serves in part as a Cold War propaganda film. The country of origin for Vornoff and Strowski is left unnamed. The only clues is that it is European and has its own dreams of conquest. By implication, the country which exiled Vornoff in the 1930s could be Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Their role as villains for the American cinema had already been solidified by the 1950s, and Wood could be alluding to both of them. Strowski uses the term master race, which is a key concept in Nazism.
Both the working title "Bride of the Atom" and the final title Bride of the Monster allude to the film Bride of Frankenstein (1935). The film otherwise follows the template of the Poverty Row horror films of the 1940s. The Atomic Age influences the film in its ominous implications concerning nuclear weapons and the threat they posed towards human civilization.
Content
This was Bela Lugosi's last speaking role in a feature film. Lugosi subsequently played a silent part in The Black Sleep (1956). Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) uses silent archive footage of Lugosi, since he died prior to the creation of its script. Lock Up Your Daughters (1959) recycled footage from Lugosi's earlier films, possibly mixed with some new material.
According to Rob Craig, in Bride, Lugosi for the last time plays "a charismatic villain whose megalomania leads to downfall and destruction". Craig considers this to be one of Lugosi's finest roles, citing the surprisingly energetic performance of the aging actor. The scenes involving hypnosis contain close-ups of Lugosi's eyes. Wood was probably trying to recreate similar scenes from an older film of Lugosi's, White Zombie (1932). Lugosi did not actually play Vornoff in the scenes demanding physicality. The film made use of body doubles for Lugosi: Eddie Parker and Red Reagan. Parker was also the body-double of Lugosi in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). Lugosi's fee for the film is estimated to have been $1,000.00.
The story is similar to an earlier Bela Lugosi movie, The Corpse Vanishes (1942). In both movies, each bride at her wedding was given an orchid, which she sniffed before passing out. In The Corpse Vanishes, Lugosi played a doctor who captured the brides and took some kind of liquid from each bride's body and injected it into his wife to make her temporarily young again. Characters included his wife, an old woman, the old woman's grown son, and a dwarf. In Bride of the Monster, Lugosi again plays a doctor doing experiments, but his only housemate/assistant is Lobo, and when his experiment fails to turn someone into an "atomic-powered superman", he throws the dead subject to an octopus or an alligator, similar to Lugosi throwing a body into a river in Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932).
The hunters of the opening scenes, Jake Long and Blake "Mac" McCreigh, were played by John Warren and Bud Osborne. The police station scenes feature cameos by a drunk and a newspaper seller. The former is played by Ben Frommer (known for playing Count Bloodcount in Transylvania 6-5000). The latter is played by William Benedict (known as one of The Bowery Boys). Janet Lawton briefly speaks with a co-worker called Margie. Margie is played by Dolores Fuller (Ed Wood's girlfriend at the time). Dick Craig's partner, Martin, is played by Don Nagel. Both Fuller and Nagel had worked with Wood in Wood's previous film Jail Bait (1954).
The film uses stock footage of a real octopus, and a fake, rubber octopus in scenes where "the monster" interacts with the actors. It is widely believed this was a prop from the John Wayne film Wake of the Red Witch (1948). Contradictory accounts claim that Wood either stole or legally rented the prop from Republic Pictures, which produced the earlier film. The struggle between Vornoff and the octopus was filmed at Griffith Park.
Craig comments that there is a stark contrast between the characters of Dick Craig and Janet Lawton. Dick speaks in a deadpan unemotional way and seems to be a rather lethargic character. Janet is a "brassy girl reporter", a dynamic character with a sense of autonomy. The role of Janet was reportedly intended for Dolores Fuller. According to Fuller's recollections, Loretta King bribed Wood into casting her as Janet, with promises of securing further funding for the film. Fuller was thus reduced to playing a cameo role, "Margie", and this led to her later breakup with Ed Wood and her moving to New York to start a songwriting career with Elvis Presley. King always vehemently denied bribing Wood in any way, saying the story was ridiculous since she never had any money to invest in films in the 1950s.
In a subplot of the film, there are storms every night for three months and strange weather patterns. The characters attribute the phenomenon to the effects the nuclear explosions have on the atmosphere. This probably reflects actual anxiety of the 1950s about potential climate change. Until the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963), atmospheric nuclear weapons testing was used widely and recklessly. Rob Craig suggests that the months of constant storms could be inspired by the Genesis flood narrative. In the context of the film, the strange weather is implied to be a side-effect of the experiments of Vornoff which apparently release radioactivity into the atmosphere.
The dialogue of the film includes lines such as "Home? I have no home!", "One is always considered mad, when one discovers something which others cannot grasp", and the closing "He tampered in God's domain." The phrases could well apply to the fates of avant-garde artists and thinkers. The title "Bride of the Atom", which Vornoff uses for Janet in the bridal dress, is inexplicable unless the scientist is actually attempting to use Janet to replace his long-lost wife. One of his reassuring lines to Janet concerning the experiment, "It hurts, just for a moment, but then you will emerge a woman...", sounds as if he is preparing her for the loss of her virginity. The scene of a young woman, in a bridal gown, restrained by leather shackles seems to be sadomasochistic in nature.
Throughout the film, the mute Lobo is implied to have an unspecified intellectual disability and to be of sub-human intelligence. Yet he successfully operates complex machinery as if trained to do so. Craig views this scene as implying that supposedly "dumb" servants can have a capacity of learning the secrets of their masters.
The final scenes, with the mushroom cloud of the nuclear explosion, use stock footage from the blast of a thermonuclear weapon ("hydrogen bomb").
The apparent fetish of Lobo with angora wool is a reflection of Wood's own fetish for the material. This serves as the film's connection to Glen or Glenda (1953), where the fetish plays a more prominent role. In 1961's The Beast of Yucca Flats, Johnson strangely pets and hugs a rabbit as he dies in that film's finale.
The character of Lobo appeared again in Wood's Night of the Ghouls, horribly burned but still alive. This film serves as a sequel of sorts to Bride. Vornoff is absent from the later film, but there are references to the activities of "the mad doctor". Tor Johnson also plays a character called Lobo in The Unearthly (1957) who also serves as a henchman to the main villain.
This film is part of what Wood aficionados refer to as "The Kelton Trilogy", a trio of films featuring Paul Marco as Officer Kelton, a whining, reluctant policeman. The other two films are Plan 9 from Outer Space and Night of the Ghouls. Kelton is the only character to appear in all three films.
Critical reception
Writing for Famous Monsters in 1962, Joe Dante, Jr. included Bride of the Monster on his list of the worst horror films of all time. Dante declared it as "definitely one of the most inexpensive thrillers ever. The sets were cardboard, and the direction card-boring." Film critic Glenn Erickson wrote in DVD Talk that "nearly every dialogue exchange is an embarrassment and every camera setup somehow wrong," but noted that Lugosi's performance "is better than okay, rising to the demands of the awful script," and that the film is "too endearing to hate." A review by Bruce Eder in AllMovie noted that the film "is ineptly made and it has seams - including mismatched interior and exterior sets and scenery that shakes during the fight scenes," that it has "some of the strangest incidental dialogue that anyone had ever heard," and that "there is a lot to laugh at in the movie, most of it unintentional." A review of the film in TV Guide described it as a "masterpiece of involuntary farce," that the "marvelously idiotic dialog keeps things moving along without stopping for breath [or] logic," and that the "final images of poor old decrepit Lugosi struggling in the arms of a motionless rubber octopus are incomparably bathetic."
Legacy
In 1986, the film was featured in the syndicated series the Canned Film Festival, and was later featured on the comedy series, Mystery Science Theater 3000. The episode also features a musical parody of the Jam Handy short film "Hired!", with Joel Robinson, Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo and Gypsy performing "Hired! The Musical".
The late 1990s dream trance track "Alright", by DJ Taucher, sampled a monologue from Bela Lugosi during the interlude of the song.
In 2005, The Devil's Rejects footage of the film was played in the movie.
In 2008, a colorized version was released by Legend Films. This version was also released on Amazon Video on Demand.
In 2010, a retrospective on the movie entitled Citizen Wood: Making 'The Bride', Unmaking the Legend was included in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume 19 DVD set as a bonus feature for said episode featuring the movie. Horror host Mr. Lobo is among the interviewees of the 27 minute documentary.
Controversies
In 1980, the book The Golden Turkey Awards claims that Lugosi's character declares his manservant Lobo (Tor Johnson) is "as harmless as a kitchen" . This allegedly misspoken line is cited as evidence of either Lugosi's failing health/mental faculties, or as further evidence of Wood's incompetence as a director. However, a viewing of the film itself reveals that Lugosi said this line correctly, the exact words being, "Don't be afraid of Lobo; he's as gentle as a kitten." The easier explanation would be that authors Michael Medved and Harry Medved saw the film in a theater setting with inferior sound quality, or viewed a damaged print. A single viewing in such conditions could result in mishearing some lines of dialogue. The inaccurate claim managed to achieve urban legend status, and continues circulating.
The biopic Ed Wood portrays the filmmakers stealing the mechanical octopus (previously used in the film Wake of the Red Witch) from the Republic Studios backlot, while failing to steal the motor which enabled the prop to move realistically. These events are alleged to have actually occurred in the 2004 documentary The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made. However, other stories circulated that Wood legitimately rented the octopus, along with some cars, for the picture. To remedy the lack of movement from the octopus prop, whenever someone was killed by the monster in the film, they simply flailed around in the shallow water while holding the tentacles around themselves to imitate its movements.
Rudolph Grey's book Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr. contains anecdotes regarding the making of this film. Grey notes that participants in the original events sometimes contradict one another, but he relates each person's information for posterity. He also includes Ed Wood's claim that only one of his films made a profit and surmises that it was most likely Bride of the Monster, but that Wood had oversold the film and could not reimburse all of the backers afterward. Most biographies mention The Violent Years as being Wood's most profitable film.
See also
List of American films of 1955
List of killer octopus films
Ed Wood filmography
Further reading
Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster by Gary D. Rhodes and Tom Weaver (2015) BearManor Media,
Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers, (hardcover)
Rudolph Grey, Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992)
The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1996), documentary film directed by Brett Thompson
References
Sources
External links
1955 films
1950s monster movies
1950s science fiction horror films
American black-and-white films
American science fiction horror films
American monster movies
American natural horror films
Films about journalists
Films about hypnosis
Films directed by Ed Wood
Films produced by Ed Wood
Films set in the United States
Films shot in Los Angeles
Mad scientist films
Films with screenplays by Ed Wood
Articles containing video clips
1955 horror films
American exploitation films
1950s English-language films
1950s American films
Films about mutants
Fictional octopuses
Human experimentation in fiction |
5046 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast | Belfast | Belfast ( , ; from , meaning "mouth of the sand-bank ford") is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 10th-largest primary urban area in the United Kingdom and the second-largest city in the island of Ireland. Belfast City had a population of 293,298 in 2021. The population of its metropolitan area was 671,559 in 2011, and the Belfast Local Government District had a population 345,418 .
By the early 19th century, Belfast was a major port. It played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in Ireland, briefly becoming the biggest linen-producer in the world, earning it the nickname "Linenopolis". By the time it was granted city status in 1888, it was a major centre of Irish linen production, tobacco-processing and rope-making. Shipbuilding was also a key industry; the Harland & Wolff shipyard, which built the and SS Canberra, was the world's largest shipyard. Industrialisation, and the resulting inward migration, made Belfast one of Ireland's biggest cities. Following the partition of Ireland in 1921, Belfast became the seat of government for Northern Ireland. There was major communal violence in the city during partition. Belfast saw further severe violence and numerous bombings during the thirty years of the Troubles, –1998, and parts of the city remain segregated between Catholics and Protestants.
Belfast is still a port with commercial and industrial docks, including the Harland & Wolff shipyard, dominating the Belfast Lough shoreline. It also has a major aerospace industry. It is served by two airports: George Best Belfast City Airport, from the city centre, and Belfast International Airport west of the city.
Name
The name Belfast derives from the Irish , later spelt (). The word means "mouth" or "river-mouth", while is the genitive singular of and refers to a sandbar or tidal ford across a river's mouth. The name therefore translates literally as "(river) mouth of the sandbar" or "(river) mouth of the ford". The sandbar formed at the confluence (at present-day Donegall Quay) of two rivers: the Lagan, which flows into Belfast Lough, and the Farset, a tributary of the Lagan. "Mouth of the Farset" might be an alternative interpretation. This area became the hub around which the original settlement developed.
The compilers of Ulster-Scots use various transcriptions of local pronunciations of "Belfast" (with which they sometimes are also content) including Bilfawst, Bilfaust or Baelfawst.
History
The county borough of Belfast was created when it was granted city status by Queen Victoria in 1888, and the city continues to straddle County Antrim on the left bank of the Lagan and County Down on the right.
Early settlements
The site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The Giant's Ring, a 5,000-year-old henge, is located near the city, and the remains of Iron Age hill forts can still be seen in the surrounding hills. Belfast remained a small settlement of little importance during the Middle Ages. The Normans may have built a castle on a site now bounded by Donegall Place, Castle Place, Cornmarket and Castle Lane in the late 12th century or early 13th century, in what is now Belfast City Centre. However, this original "Belfast Castle" was much smaller and of far less strategic importance than nearby Carrickfergus Castle, which was constructed at Carrickfergus and was probably built in the late 1170s.
As lords of Clandeboye, the O'Neill dynasty were the local Irish power. In 1616, after the Nine Years' War, the last of the local line, Conn O'Neill (remembered in Connswater River), was forced to sell their remaining stronghold, the Grey Castle or Castle Reagh (An Caisleán Riabhach in Irish) in the hills to the east of Belfast, together with surrounding lands, to English and Scottish adventurers.
Plantation town
With the undertaking of Plantation, Belfast was established as a town in 1613 by Sir Arthur Chichester. Chichester also had Belfast Castle rebuilt at this time. The mainly English and Manx settlers took Anglican communion at Corporation Church on the quay-side end of High Street. But it was with Scottish Presbyterians that the town was to grow as an industrial port. Together with French Huguenot refugees, they introduced the production of linen, an industry that carried Belfast trade to the Americas.
Reluctant to let valuable crop go to seed, flax growers and linen merchants benefited from a three-way exchange. Fortunes were made carrying rough linen clothing and salted provisions to the slave plantations of the West Indies; sugar and rum to Baltimore and New York; and for the return to Belfast of flaxseed from the colonies where the relative scarcity of labour made unprofitable the processing of the flax into linen fibre. Profits from the trade financed improvements in the town's commercial infrastructure, including the Lagan Canal, new docks and quays, and the construction of the White Linen Hall which together attracted to Belfast the linen trade that had formerly gone through Dublin. Public outrage, however, defeated the proposal of the greatest of the merchant houses, Cunningham and Greg, to commission ships for the Middle Passage.
As "Dissenters" from the established Church, Presbyterians were conscious of sharing, if only in part, the disabilities of Ireland's dispossessed Roman Catholic majority; and of being denied representation in the Irish Parliament. Belfast's two MPs remained nominees of the Chichesters (Marquesses of Donegall). With their American kinsmen, the region's Presbyterians were to share a growing disaffection from the Crown.
When early in the American War of Independence, Belfast Lough was raided by the privateer John Paul Jones, the townspeople assembled their own Volunteer militia. Formed ostensibly for defence of the Kingdom, the Volunteers were soon pressing their own protest against "taxation without representation". Further emboldened by the French Revolution, a more radical element in the town, the United Irishmen, called for Catholic emancipation and an independent representative government for the country. In hopes of French assistance, in 1798 the Society organised a republican insurrection. The rebel tradesmen and tenant farmers were defeated north of the town at the Battle of Antrim and to the south at the Battle of Ballynahinch.
Among surviving elements of the early pre-Victorian town are the Belfast Entries, 17th-century alleyways off High Street, including, in Winecellar's Entry, White's Tavern (rebuilt 1790); the First Presbyterian (Non-Subscribing) Church (1781–83) in Rosemary Street (whose members led the abolitionist charge against Greg and Cunningham); St George's Church of Ireland (1816) on the High Street site of the old Corporation Church; and the oldest public building in Belfast, Clifton House (1771–74), the Belfast Charitable Society poorhouse on North Queen Street.
Industrial expansion, Home Rule Crisis and First World War
Rapid industrial growth in the 19th century drew in landless Catholics from outlying rural and western districts, most settling to the west of the town. The plentiful supply of cheap labour helped attract English and Scottish capital to Belfast, but it was also a cause of insecurity. Protestant workers who organised to secure their access to jobs and housing gave a new lease of life in the town to the once largely rural Orange Order. Sectarian tensions were heightened by movements to repeal the Acts of Union (which followed the 1798 rebellion) and to restore a Parliament in Dublin. Given the progressive enlargement of the British electoral franchise, this would have had an overwhelming Catholic majority and, it was widely believed, interests inimical to the Protestant and industrial north. In 1864 and 1886 the issue had helped trigger deadly sectarian riots.
Sectarian tension was not in itself unique to Belfast: it was shared with Liverpool and Glasgow, cities that following the Great Famine had also experienced large-scale Irish Catholic immigration. But also common to this "industrial triangle" were traditions of labour militancy. In 1919, workers in all three cities struck for a ten-hour reduction in the working week. In Belfast—notwithstanding the political friction caused by Sinn Féin's electoral triumph in the south—this involved some 60,000 workers, Protestant and Catholic, in a four-week walk-out.
In a demonstration of their resolve not to submit to a Dublin parliament, in 1912 Belfast City Hall unionists presented the Ulster Covenant, which, with an associated Declaration for women, was to accumulate over 470,000 signatures. This was followed by the drilling and eventual arming of a 100,000-strong Ulster Volunteer Force. The crisis was abated by the onset of the Great War, the sacrifices of the UVF in which continue to be commemorated in the city (Somme Day) by unionist and loyalist organisations, although nationalists from the city also enlisted in large numbers.
Northern capital
In 1921, as the greater part of Ireland seceded as the Irish Free State, Belfast became the capital of the six counties remaining as Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. In 1932, the devolved parliament for the region was housed in new buildings at Stormont on the eastern edge of the city. In 1920–21, as the island of Ireland was partitioned, up to 500 people were killed in disturbances in Belfast, the bloodiest period of strife in the city until the Troubles of the late 1960s onwards. This period of communal violence (1920–22) was commonly referred to as the Belfast Pogrom.
Second World War
Belfast was heavily bombed during World War II. Initial raids were a surprise as the city was believed to be outside of the range of German bomber planes. In one raid, in 1941, German bombers killed around one thousand people and left tens of thousands homeless. Apart from London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz.
In the spring of 1942, the German Luftwaffe appeared twice over Belfast. In addition to the shipyards and the Shorts Brothers aircraft factory, the Belfast Blitz severely damaged or destroyed more than half the city's housing stock, devastated the old town centre around High Street, and killed over a thousand people.
Post-war redevelopment
At the end of World War II, the Unionist Government undertook programmes of "slum clearance" (the Blitz had exposed the "uninhabitable" condition of much of the city's housing) which involved decanting populations out of mill and factory, and constructing terraced streets into new peripheral housing estates. Road construction schemes, including the terminus of the M1 and the Westlink severed the streets linking north and west Belfast to the city centre, for example the dockland community of Sailortown.
The cost was borne by the British Exchequer. In what the Unionist government understood as its reward for wartime service, London had agreed that parity in taxation between Northern Ireland and Great Britain should be matched by parity in the services delivered. In addition to the public construction, this provided for universal health care, comprehensive social security, and "revolutionised access" to secondary and further education. The new welfare state contributed, in turn, to rising expectations; in the 1960s, a possible factor in new and growing protest over the Unionist government's record on civil and political rights.
The Troubles
Belfast has been the scene of various episodes of sectarian conflict between its Catholic and Protestant populations. These opposing groups in this conflict are now often termed republican and loyalist respectively, although they are also loosely referred to as "nationalist" and "unionist". The most recent example of this conflict was known as the Troubles – a civil conflict that raged from the late 1960s to 1998.
Belfast saw some of the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly in the 1970s, with rival paramilitary groups formed on both sides. Bombing, assassination and street violence formed a backdrop to life throughout the Troubles. In December 1971, 15 people, including two children, were killed when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) bombed McGurk's Bar, the greatest loss of life in a single incident in Belfast. Loyalist paramilitaries including the UVF and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) said that the killings they carried out were in retaliation for the IRA campaign. Most of their victims were Catholics with no links to the Provisional IRA. A particularly notorious group, based on the Shankill Road in the mid-1970s, became known as the Shankill Butchers. The Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs within the confines of Belfast city centre on 21 July 1972, on what is known as Bloody Friday, killing nine people. The British Army, first deployed on the streets in August 1969, was also responsible for civilian deaths. In the deadliest event, known as the Ballymurphy massacre, between 9 and 11 August 1971 members of the Parachute Regiment killed at least nine civilians. A 2021 coroner's report found that all those killed had been innocent and that the killings were "without justification".
During the 1970s and 1980s Belfast was one of the world's most dangerous cities. In all, over 1,600 people were killed in political violence in the city between 1969 and 2001.
During the Troubles the Europa Hotel suffered 36 bomb attacks becoming known as "the most bombed hotel in the world".
Peace lines
An enduring physical legacy of the conflict are the extensive "peace lines" (or "peace walls") that continue to separate loyalist from republican districts. Ranging in length from a few hundred metres to over , the security barriers have increased both in height and number since 1998. They divide communities that account for 14 of the 20 most deprived wards in Northern Ireland. In May 2013, the Northern Ireland Executive committed to the removal of all peace lines by mutual consent. As the target date of 2023 approaches, only a small number have been dismantled.
Governance
Belfast was granted borough status by James VI and I in 1613 and official city status by Queen Victoria in 1888. Since 1973 it has been a local government district under local administration by Belfast City Council. Belfast is represented in both the British House of Commons and in the Northern Ireland Assembly. For elections to the European Parliament, Belfast was within the Northern Ireland constituency.
Local government
Belfast City Council is the local council with responsibility for the city. The city's elected officials are the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Deputy Lord Mayor and High Sheriff who are elected from among 60 councillors. The first Lord Mayor of Belfast was Daniel Dixon, who was elected in 1892. The current Lord Mayor is Tina Black of Sinn Féin, while the Deputy Lord Mayor is Michelle Kelly of the Alliance Party. The Lord Mayor's duties include presiding over meetings of the council, receiving distinguished visitors to the city, representing and promoting the city on the national and international stage.
In 1997, unionists lost overall control of Belfast City Council for the first time in its history, with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland gaining the balance of power between nationalists and unionists. This position was confirmed in five subsequent council elections, with mayors from Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), both of whom are nationalist parties, and the cross-community Alliance Party regularly elected since. The first nationalist Lord Mayor of Belfast was Alban Maginness of the SDLP, in 1997.
Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster
As Northern Ireland's capital city, Belfast is host to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, the site of the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland. Belfast is divided into four Northern Ireland Assembly and UK parliamentary constituencies: Belfast North, Belfast West, Belfast South and Belfast East. All four extend beyond the city boundaries to include parts of Castlereagh, Lisburn and Newtownabbey districts. In the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections in 2022, Belfast elected 20 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), 5 from each constituency. Belfast elected 7 Sinn Féin, 5 DUP, 5 Alliance Party, 1 SDLP, 1 UUP and 1 PBPA MLAs. In the 2017 UK general election, Belfast elected one Member of Parliament (MP) from each constituency to the House of Commons at Westminster, London. This comprised 3 DUP and 1 Sinn Féin. In the 2019 UK general election, the DUP lost two of their seats in Belfast; to Sinn Féin in North Belfast and to the SDLP in South Belfast.
Geography
Belfast is at the western end of Belfast Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan giving it the ideal location for the shipbuilding industry that once made it famous. When the Titanic was built in Belfast in 1911–1912, Harland and Wolff had the largest shipyard in the world.
Belfast is situated on Northern Ireland's eastern coast at . A consequence of this northern latitude is that it both endures short winter days and enjoys long summer evenings. During the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, local sunset is before 16:00 while sunrise is around 08:45. This is balanced by the summer solstice in June, when the sun sets after 22:00 and rises before 05:00.
In 1994, a weir was built across the river by the Laganside Corporation to raise the average water level so that it would cover the unseemly mud flats which gave Belfast its name (). The area of Belfast Local Government District is .
The River Farset is also named after this silt deposit (from the Irish feirste meaning "sand spit"). Originally a more significant river than it is today, the Farset formed a dock on High Street until the mid-19th century. Bank Street in the city centre referred to the river bank and Bridge Street was named for the site of an early Farset bridge. Superseded by the River Lagan as the more important river in the city, the Farset now languishes in obscurity, under High Street. There are no less than twelve other minor rivers in and around Belfast, namely the Blackstaff, the Colin, the Connswater, the Cregagh, the Derriaghy, the Forth, the Knock, the Legoniel, the Loop, the Milewater, the Purdysburn and the Ravernet.
The city is flanked on the north and northwest by a series of hills, including Divis Mountain, Black Mountain and Cavehill, thought to be the inspiration for Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. When Swift was living at Lilliput Cottage near the bottom of Belfast's Limestone Road, he imagined that the Cavehill resembled the shape of a sleeping giant safeguarding the city. The shape of the giant's nose, known locally as Napoleon's Nose, is officially called McArt's Fort probably named after Art O'Neill, a 17th-century chieftain who controlled the area at that time. The Castlereagh Hills overlook the city on the southeast.
Climate
As with the vast majority of the rest of Ireland, Belfast has a temperate oceanic climate (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification), with a narrow range of temperatures and rainfall throughout the year. The climate of Belfast is significantly milder than most other locations in the world at a similar latitude, due to the warming influence of the Gulf Stream. There are currently five weather observing stations in the Belfast area: Helen's Bay, Stormont, Newforge, Castlereagh, and Ravenhill Road. Slightly further afield is Aldergrove Airport. The highest temperature recorded at any official weather station in the Belfast area was at Shaw's Bridge on 12 July 1983.
The city gets significant precipitation (greater than 1 mm) on 157 days in an average year with an average annual rainfall of , less than areas of northern England or most of Scotland, but higher than Dublin or the south-east coast of Ireland. As an urban and coastal area, Belfast typically gets snow on fewer than 10 days per year. The absolute maximum temperature at the weather station at Stormont is , set during July 1983. In an average year the warmest day will rise to a temperature of with a day of or above occurring roughly once every two in three years. The absolute minimum temperature at Stormont is , during January 1982, although in an average year the coldest night will fall no lower than with air frost being recorded on just 26 nights. The lowest temperature to occur in recent years was on 22 December 2010.
The nearest weather station for which sunshine data and longer term observations are available is Belfast International Airport (Aldergrove). Temperature extremes here have slightly more variability due to the more inland location. The average warmest day at Aldergrove for example will reach a temperature of , ( higher than Stormont) and 2.1 days should attain a temperature of or above in total. Conversely the coldest night of the year averages (or lower than Stormont) and 39 nights should register an air frost. Some 13 more frosty nights than Stormont. The minimum temperature at Aldergrove was , during December 2010.
Areas and districts
The townlands of Belfast are its oldest surviving land divisions and most pre-date the city. Belfast expanded very rapidly from being a market town to becoming an industrial city during the course of the 19th century. Because of this, it is less an agglomeration of villages and towns which have expanded into each other, than other comparable cities, such as Manchester or Birmingham. The city expanded to the natural barrier of the hills that surround it, overwhelming other settlements. Consequently, the arterial roads along which this expansion took place (such as the Falls Road or the Newtownards Road) are more significant in defining the districts of the city than nucleated settlements. Parts of Belfast are segregated by walls, commonly known as "peace lines", erected by the British Army after August 1969, and which still divide 14 districts in the inner city. In 2008 a process was proposed for the removal of the 'peace walls'. In June 2007, a £16 million programme was announced which will transform and redevelop streets and public spaces in the city centre. Major arterial roads (quality bus corridor) into the city include the Antrim Road, Shore Road, Holywood Road, Newtownards Road, Castlereagh Road, Cregagh Road, Ormeau Road, Malone Road, Lisburn Road, Falls Road, Springfield Road, Shankill Road, and Crumlin Road, Four Winds.
Belfast city centre is divided into two postcode districts, BT1 for the area lying north of the City Hall, and BT2 for the area to its south. The industrial estate and docklands BT3. The rest of the Belfast post town is divided in a broadly clockwise system from BT3 in the north-east round to BT15, with BT16 and BT17 further out to the east and west respectively. Although BT derives from Belfast, the BT postcode area extends across the whole of Northern Ireland.
Since 2001, boosted by increasing numbers of tourists, the city council has developed a number of cultural quarters. The Cathedral Quarter takes its name from St Anne's Cathedral (Church of Ireland) and has taken on the mantle of the city's key cultural locality. It hosts a yearly visual and performing arts festival.
Custom House Square is one of the city's main outdoor venues for free concerts and street entertainment. The Gaeltacht Quarter is an area around the Falls Road in west Belfast which promotes and encourages the use of the Irish language. The Queen's Quarter in south Belfast is named after Queen's University. The area has a large student population and hosts the annual Belfast International Arts Festival each autumn. It is home to Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum, which was reopened in 2009 after major redevelopment. The Golden Mile is the name given to the mile between Belfast City Hall and Queen's University. Taking in Dublin Road, Great Victoria Street, Shaftesbury Square and Bradbury Place, it contains some of the best bars and restaurants in the city. Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the nearby Lisburn Road has developed into the city's most exclusive shopping strip. Finally, the Titanic Quarter covers of reclaimed land adjacent to Belfast Harbour, formerly known as Queen's Island. Named after RMS Titanic, which was built here in 1912, work has begun which promises to transform some former shipyard land into "one of the largest waterfront developments in Europe". Plans include apartments, a riverside entertainment district, and a major Titanic-themed museum.
In its 2018 report on Best Places to Live in Britain, The Sunday Times named Ballyhackamore, "the brunch capital of Belfast", as the best place in Northern Ireland. The district of Ballyhackamore has even acquired the name "Ballysnackamore" due to the preponderance of dining establishments in the area.
Cityscape
Architecture
The architectural style of Belfast's public buildings range from a small set of Georgian buildings, many examples of Victorian, including the main Lanyon Building at Queen's University Belfast and the Linenhall Library, (both designed by Sir Charles Lanyon). There are also many examples of Edwardian, such as the City Hall, to modern, such as the Waterfront Hall.
The City Hall was finished in 1906 and was built to reflect Belfast's city status, granted by Queen Victoria in 1888. The Edwardian architectural style of Belfast City Hall influenced the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, India, and Durban City Hall in South Africa. The dome is high and figures above the door state "Hibernia encouraging and promoting the Commerce and Arts of the City".
Among the city's grandest buildings are two former banks: Ulster Bank in Waring Street (built in 1860) and Northern Bank, in nearby Donegall Street (built in 1769). The Royal Courts of Justice in Chichester Street are home to Northern Ireland's Supreme Court. Many of Belfast's oldest buildings are found in the Cathedral Quarter area, which is currently undergoing redevelopment as the city's main cultural and tourist area. Windsor House, high, has 23 floors and is the second tallest building (as distinct from structure) in Ireland. Work has started on the taller Obel Tower, which already surpasses the height of Windsor House in its unfinished state.
The ornately decorated Crown Liquor Saloon, designed by Joseph Anderson in 1876, in Great Victoria Street is one of only two pubs in the UK that are owned by the National Trust (the other is the George Inn, Southwark in London). It was made internationally famous as the setting for the classic film, Odd Man Out, starring James Mason. The restaurant panels in the Crown Bar were originally made for Britannic, the sister ship of the Titanic, built in Belfast.
The Harland and Wolff shipyard has two of the largest dry docks in Europe, where the giant cranes, Samson and Goliath stand out against Belfast's skyline.
Including the Waterfront Hall and the Odyssey Arena, Belfast has several other venues for performing arts. The architecture of the Grand Opera House has an oriental theme and was completed in 1895. It was bombed several times during the Troubles but has now been restored to its former glory. The Lyric Theatre, which re-opened on 1 May 2011 after undergoing a rebuilding programme and is the only full-time producing theatre in Northern Ireland, is where film star Liam Neeson began his career. The Ulster Hall (1859–1862) was originally designed for grand dances but is now used primarily as a concert and sporting venue. Lloyd George, Parnell and Patrick Pearse all attended political rallies there.
A legacy of the Troubles are the many "peace lines" or "peace walls" that still act as barriers to reinforce ethno-sectarian residential segregation in the city. In 2017, the Belfast Interface Project published a study entitled "Interface Barriers, Peacelines & Defensive Architecture" that identified 97 separate walls, barriers and interfaces in Belfast. A history of the development of these structures can be found at the Peacewall Archive.
Parks and gardens
Sitting at the mouth of the River Lagan where it becomes a deep and sheltered lough, Belfast is surrounded by mountains that create a micro-climate conducive to horticulture. From the Victorian Botanic Gardens in the heart of the city to the heights of Cave Hill Country Park, the great expanse of Lagan Valley Regional Park to Colin Glen, Belfast contains an abundance of parkland and forest parks.
Parks and gardens are an integral part of Belfast's heritage, and home to an abundance of local wildlife and popular places for a picnic, a stroll or a jog. Numerous events take place throughout including festivals such as Rose Week and special activities such as bird watching evenings and great beast hunts.
Belfast has over forty public parks. The Forest of Belfast is a partnership between government and local groups, set up in 1992 to manage and conserve the city's parks and open spaces. They have commissioned more than 30 public sculptures since 1993. In 2006, the City Council set aside £8 million to continue this work. The Belfast Naturalists' Field Club was founded in 1863 and is administered by National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland.
With an average of 670,000 visitors per year between 2007 and 2011, one of the most popular parks is Botanic Gardens in the Queen's Quarter. Built in the 1830s and designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, Botanic Gardens Palm House is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear and cast iron glasshouse. Other attractions in the park include the Tropical Ravine, a humid jungle glen built in 1889, rose gardens and public events ranging from live opera broadcasts to pop concerts. U2 played here in 1997. Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, to the south of the city centre, attracts thousands of visitors each year to its International Rose Garden. Rose Week in July each year features over 20,000 blooms. It has an area of of meadows, woodland and gardens and features a Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Garden, a Japanese garden, a walled garden, and the Golden Crown Fountain commissioned in 2002 as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
In 2008, Belfast was named a finalist in the Large City (200,001 and over) category of the RHS Britain in Bloom competition along with London Borough of Croydon and Sheffield.
Belfast Zoo is owned by Belfast City Council. The council spends £1.5 million every year on running and promoting the zoo, which is one of the few local government-funded zoos in the UK and Ireland. The zoo is one of the top visitor attractions in Northern Ireland, receiving more than 295,000 visitors a year. The majority of the animals are in danger in their natural habitat. The zoo houses more than 1,200 animals of 140 species including Asian elephants, Barbary lions, Malayan sun bears (one of the few in the United Kingdom), two species of penguin, a family of western lowland gorillas, a troop of common chimpanzees, a pair of red pandas, a pair of Goodfellow's tree-kangaroos and Francois' langurs. The zoo also carries out important conservation work and takes part in European and international breeding programmes which help to ensure the survival of many species under threat.
Demography
At the 2001 census, the population was 276,459, while 579,554 people lived in the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area.
This made it the fifteenth-largest city in the United Kingdom, but the eleventh-largest conurbation.
Belfast experienced a huge growth in population in the first half of the 20th century. This rise slowed and peaked around the start of the Troubles with the 1971 census showing almost 600,000 people in the Belfast Urban Area. Since then, the inner city numbers have dropped dramatically as people have moved to swell the Greater Belfast suburb population. The 2001 census population in the same Urban Area had fallen to 277,391 people, with 579,554 people living in the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area.
The 2001 census recorded 81,650 people from Catholic backgrounds and 79,650 people from Protestant backgrounds of working age living in Belfast. The population density in 2011 was 24.88 people/hectare (compared to 1.34 for the rest of Northern Ireland).
As with many cities, Belfast's inner city is currently characterised by the elderly, students and single young people, while families tend to live on the periphery. Socio-economic areas radiate out from the Central Business District, with a pronounced wedge of affluence extending out the Malone Road and Upper Malone Road to the south. An area of deprivation is found in the inner parts of the north and west of the city. The areas around the Falls Road, Ardoyne and New Lodge (Catholic nationalist) and the Shankill Road (Protestant loyalist) are among the ten most deprived wards in Northern Ireland.
Despite a period of relative peace, most areas and districts of Belfast still reflect the divided nature of Northern Ireland as a whole. Many areas are still highly segregated along ethnic, political and religious lines, especially in working-class neighbourhoods.
These zones – Catholic/republican on one side and Protestant/loyalist on the other – are invariably marked by flags, graffiti and murals. Segregation has been present throughout the history of Belfast but has been maintained and increased by each outbreak of violence in the city. This escalation in segregation, described as a "ratchet effect", has shown little sign of decreasing.
The highest levels of segregation in the city are in west Belfast with many areas greater than 90% Catholic. Opposite but comparatively high levels are seen in the predominantly Protestant east Belfast. Areas where segregated working-class areas meet are known as interface areas and sometimes marked by peace lines.
Ethnic minority communities have been in Belfast since the 1930s. The largest groups are Poles, Chinese and Indians.
Since the expansion of the European Union, numbers have been boosted by an influx of Eastern European immigrants. Census figures (2011) showed that Belfast has a total non-white population of 10,219 or 3.3%, while 18,420 or 6.6% of the population were born outside the UK and Ireland. Almost half of those born outside the UK and Ireland live in south Belfast, where they comprise 9.5% of the population. The majority of the estimated 5,000 Muslims and 200 Hindu families living in Northern Ireland live in the Greater Belfast area.
2021 Census
On Census Day (21 March 2021) the usually resident population of Belfast City Settlement was 293,298. Of these
47.93% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic faith and 36.45% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' denomination.
36.98% indicated that they had a British national identity, 39.35% had an Irish national identity and 27.49% had a Northern Irish national identity. Respondents could indicate more than one national identity
2011 Census
On Census Day (27 March 2011) the usually resident population of Belfast City Settlement was 280,138 accounting for 15.47% of the NI total.
On Census Day 27 March 2011, in Belfast City Settlement, considering the resident population:
96.43% were white (including Irish Traveller)
48.60% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic faith and 42.28% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' denomination.
43.15% indicated that they had a British national identity, 34.77% had an Irish national identity and 26.82% had a Northern Irish national identity.
Respondents could indicate more than one national identity
On Census Day 27 March 2011, in Belfast City Settlement, considering the population aged 3 years old and over:
13.66% had some knowledge of Irish.
5.26% had some knowledge of Ulster-Scots.
4.79% did not have English as their first language.
On Census Day 27 March 2011, considering the population aged 16 years old and over:
26.03% had a degree or higher qualification.
41.15% had no or low (Level 1*) qualifications.
Level 1 is 1–4 O Levels/CSE/GCSE (any grades) or equivalent
On Census Day 27 March 2011, considering the population aged 16 to 74 years old:
63.59% were economically active, 36.41% were economically inactive.
52.31% were in paid employment.
5.67% were unemployed, of these 43.56% were long-term unemployed.
Long-term unemployed are those who stated that they have not worked since 2009 or earlier
Economy
When the population of Belfast town began to grow in the 17th century, its economy was built on commerce. It provided a market for the surrounding countryside and the natural inlet of Belfast Lough gave the city its own port. The port supplied an avenue for trade with Great Britain and later Europe and North America. In the mid-17th century, Belfast exported beef, butter, hides, tallow and corn and it imported coal, cloth, wine, brandy, paper, timber and tobacco.
Around this time, the linen trade in Northern Ireland blossomed and by the middle of the 18th century, one-fifth of all the linen exported from Ireland was shipped from Belfast. The present city however is a product of the Industrial Revolution. It was not until industry transformed the linen and shipbuilding trades that the economy and the population boomed. By the turn of the 19th century, Belfast had transformed into the largest linen producing centre in the world, earning the city and its hinterlands the nickname "Linenopolis" during the Victorian Era and into the early part of the 20th century.
Belfast harbour was dredged in 1845 to provide deeper berths for larger ships. Donegall Quay was built out into the river as the harbour was developed further and trade flourished. The Harland and Wolff shipbuilding firm was created in 1861, and by the time the Titanic was built, in 1912, it had become the largest shipyard in the world.
Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company based in Belfast. It was the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world. The company began its association with Belfast in 1936, with Short & Harland Ltd, a venture jointly owned by Shorts and Harland and Wolff. Now known as Shorts Bombardier it works as an international aircraft manufacturer located near the Port of Belfast.
The rise of mass-produced and cotton clothing following World War I were some of the factors which led to the decline of Belfast's international linen trade. Like many British cities dependent on traditional heavy industry, Belfast suffered serious decline since the 1960s, exacerbated greatly in the 1970s and 1980s by the Troubles. More than 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since the 1970s. For several decades, Northern Ireland's fragile economy required significant public support from the British exchequer of up to £4 billion per year.
After the Troubles
The IRA ceasefire in 1994 and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 have given investors increased confidence to invest in Belfast. This has led to a period of sustained economic growth and large-scale redevelopment of the city centre. Developments include Victoria Square, the Cathedral Quarter, and the Laganside with the Odyssey complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall.
Other major developments include the regeneration of the Titanic Quarter, and the erection of the Obel Tower, a skyscraper set to be the tallest tower on the island.
Today, Belfast is Northern Ireland's educational and commercial hub. In February 2006, Belfast's unemployment rate stood at 4.2%, lower than both the Northern Ireland and the UK average of 5.5%. Over the past 10 years employment has grown by 16.4%, compared with 9.2% for the UK as a whole.
Northern Ireland's peace dividend has led to soaring property prices in the city. In 2007, Belfast saw house prices grow by 50%, the fastest rate of growth in the UK. In March 2007, the average house in Belfast cost £91,819, with the average in south Belfast being £141,000. In 2004, Belfast had the lowest owner occupation rate in Northern Ireland at 54%.
Peace has boosted the numbers of tourists coming to Belfast. There were 6.4 million visitors in 2005, which was a growth of 8.5% from 2004. The visitors spent £285.2 million, supporting more than 15,600 jobs. Visitor numbers rose by 6% to reach 6.8 million in 2006, with tourists spending £324 million, an increase of 15% on 2005. The city's two airports have helped make the city one of the most visited weekend destinations in Europe.
Belfast has been the fastest-growing economy of the thirty largest cities in the UK over the past decade, a new economy report by Howard Spencer has found. "That's because [of] the fundamentals of the UK economy and [because] people actually want to invest in the UK," he commented on that report.
BBC Radio 4's World reported furthermore that despite higher levels of corporation tax in the UK than in the Republic. There are "huge amounts" of foreign investment coming into the country.
The Times wrote about Belfast's growing economy: "According to the region's development agency, throughout the 1990s Northern Ireland had the fastest-growing regional economy in the UK, with GDP increasing 1 per cent per annum faster than the rest of the country. As with any modern economy, the service sector is vital to Northern Ireland's development and is enjoying excellent growth. In particular, the region has a booming tourist industry with record levels of visitors and tourist revenues and has established itself as a significant location for call centres."
Since the ending of the region's conflict tourism has boomed in Northern Ireland, greatly aided by low cost.
Der Spiegel, a German weekly magazine for politics and economy, titled Belfast as The New Celtic Tiger which is "open for business". , Northern Ireland had the UK's highest concentration of jobs in the financial technology (fintech) sector.
Infrastructure
Belfast saw the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, with nearly half of the total deaths in the conflict occurring in the city. However, since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, there has been significant urban regeneration in the city centre including Victoria Square, Queen's Island and Laganside as well as the Odyssey complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall. The city is served by two airports: The George Best Belfast City Airport adjacent to Belfast Lough and Belfast International Airport which is near Lough Neagh. Queen's University of Belfast is the main university in the city. The Ulster University also maintains a campus in the city, which concentrates on fine art, design and architecture.
Belfast is one of the constituent cities that makes up the Dublin-Belfast corridor region, which has a population of just under 3 million.
Utilities
Most of Belfast's water is supplied via the Aquarius pipeline from the Silent Valley Reservoir in County Down, created to collect water from the Mourne Mountains. The rest of the city's water is sourced from Lough Neagh, via Dunore Water Treatment Works in County Antrim. The citizens of Belfast pay for their water in their rates bill. Plans to bring in additional water tariffs have been deferred by devolution in May 2007. Belfast has approximately of sewers, which are currently being replaced in a project costing over £100 million and due for completion in 2009.
Power is provided from a number of power stations via NIE Networks Limited transmission lines. Phoenix Natural Gas Ltd. started supplying customers in Larne and Greater Belfast with natural gas in 1996 via the newly constructed Scotland-Northern Ireland pipeline. Rates in Belfast (and the rest of Northern Ireland) were reformed in April 2007. The discrete capital value system means rates bills are determined by the capital value of each domestic property as assessed by the Valuation and Lands Agency. The recent dramatic rise in house prices has made these reforms unpopular.
Health care
The Belfast Health & Social Care Trust is one of five trusts that were created on 1 April 2007 by the Department of Health. Belfast contains most of Northern Ireland's regional specialist centres. The Royal Victoria Hospital is an internationally renowned centre of excellence in trauma care and provides specialist trauma care for all of Northern Ireland. It also provides the city's specialist neurosurgical, ophthalmology, ENT, and dentistry services. The Belfast City Hospital is the regional specialist centre for haematology and is home to a cancer centre that rivals the best in the world. The Mary G McGeown Regional Nephrology Unit at the City Hospital is the kidney transplant centre and provides regional renal services for Northern Ireland.
Musgrave Park Hospital in south Belfast specialises in orthopaedics, rheumatology, sports medicine and rehabilitation. It is home to Northern Ireland's first Acquired Brain Injury Unit, costing £9 million and opened by Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in May 2006. Other hospitals in Belfast include the Mater Hospital in north Belfast and the Children's Hospital.
Transport
Belfast is a relatively car-dependent city by European standards, with an extensive road network including the M2 and M22 motorway route. A 2005 survey of how people travel in Northern Ireland showed that people in Belfast made 77% of all journeys by car, 11% by public transport and 6% on foot. It showed that Belfast has 0.70 cars per household compared to figures of 1.18 in the East and 1.14 in the West of Northern Ireland. A road improvement-scheme in Belfast began early in 2006, with the upgrading of two junctions along the Westlink dual-carriageway to grade-separated standard. The improvement scheme was completed five months ahead of schedule in February 2009, with the official opening taking place on 4 March 2009.
On 25 October 2012 the stage 2 report for the York Street intersection was approved and in December 2012 the planned upgrade moved into stage 3 of the development process. If successfully completing the necessary statutory procedures, work on a grade separated junction to connect the Westlink to the M2/M3 motorways is scheduled to take place between 2014 and 2018, creating a continuous link between the M1 and M2, the two main motorways in Northern Ireland.
Black taxis are common in the city, operating on a share basis in some areas. These are outnumbered by private hire taxis. Bus and rail public transport in Northern Ireland is operated by subsidiaries of Translink. Bus services in the city proper and the nearer suburbs are operated by Translink Metro, with services focusing on linking residential districts with the city centre on 12 quality bus corridors running along main radial roads,
More distant suburbs are served by Ulsterbus. Northern Ireland Railways provides suburban services along three lines running through Belfast's northern suburbs to Carrickfergus, Larne and Larne Harbour, eastwards towards Bangor and south-westwards towards Lisburn and Portadown. This service is known as the Belfast Suburban Rail system. Belfast is linked directly to Coleraine, Portrush and Derry. Belfast has a direct rail connection with Dublin called Enterprise which is operated jointly by NIR and Iarnród Éireann, the state railway company of the Republic of Ireland. There are no rail services to cities in other countries of the United Kingdom, due to the lack of a bridge or tunnel connecting Great Britain to the island of Ireland. There is, however, a combined ferry and rail ticket between Belfast and cities in Great Britain, which is referred to as SailRail.
In April 2008, the Department for Regional Development reported on a plan for a light-rail system, similar to that in Dublin. The consultants said Belfast does not have the population to support a light rail system, suggesting that investment in bus-based rapid transit would be preferable. The study found that bus-based rapid transit produces positive economic results, but light rail does not. The report by Atkins & KPMG, however, said there would be the option of migrating to light rail in the future should the demand increase.
The city has two airports: Belfast International Airport offering, domestic, European and international flights such as Orlando operated seasonally by Virgin Atlantic. The airport is located northwest of the city, near Lough Neagh, while the George Best Belfast City Airport, which is closer to the city centre by train from Sydenham on the Bangor Line, adjacent to Belfast Lough, offers UK domestic flights and a few European flights. In 2005, Belfast International Airport was the 11th busiest commercial airport in the UK, accounting for just over 2% of all UK terminal passengers while the George Best Belfast City Airport was the 16th busiest and had 1% of UK terminal passengers. The Belfast – Liverpool route is the busiest domestic flight route in the UK excluding London with 555,224 passengers in 2009. Over 2.2 million passengers flew between Belfast and London in 2009.
Belfast has a large port used for exporting and importing goods, and for passenger ferry services. Stena Line runs regular routes to Cairnryan in Scotland using its conventional vessels—with a crossing time of around 2 hours 15 minutes. Until 2011 the route went to Stranraer and used inter alia a HSS (High Speed Service) vessel—with a crossing time of around 90 minutes. Stena Line also operates a route to Liverpool. A seasonal sailing to Douglas, Isle of Man is operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.
The Glider bus service is a new form of transport in Belfast. Introduced in 2018, it is a bus rapid transit system linking East Belfast, West Belfast and the Titanic Quarter from the City Centre. Using articulated buses, the £90 million service saw a 17% increase in its first month in Belfast, with 30,000 more people using the Gliders every week. The service is being recognised as helping to modernise the city's public transport.
National Cycle Route 9 to Newry, which will eventually connect with Dublin, starts in Belfast.
Culture
Belfast's population is evenly split between its Protestant and Catholic residents. These two distinct cultural communities have both contributed significantly to the city's culture. Throughout the Troubles, Belfast artists continued to express themselves through poetry, art and music. In the period since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Belfast has begun a social, economic and cultural transformation giving it a growing international cultural reputation. In 2003, Belfast had an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 European Capital of Culture. The bid was run by an independent company, Imagine Belfast, who boasted that it would "make Belfast the meeting place of Europe's legends, where the meaning of history and belief find a home and a sanctuary from caricature, parody and oblivion." According to The Guardian the bid may have been undermined by the city's history and volatile politics.
In 2004–05, art and cultural events in Belfast were attended by 1.8 million people (400,000 more than the previous year). The same year, 80,000 people participated in culture and other arts activities, twice as many as in 2003–04. A combination of relative peace, international investment and an active promotion of arts and culture is attracting more tourists to Belfast than ever before. In 2004–05, 5.9 million people visited Belfast, a 10% increase from the previous year, and spent £262.5 million.
The Ulster Orchestra, based in Belfast, is Northern Ireland's only full-time symphony orchestra and is well renowned in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1966, it has existed in its present form since 1981, when the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra was disbanded. The music school of Queen's University is responsible for arranging a notable series of lunchtime and evening concerts, often given by renowned musicians which are usually given in The Harty Room at the university (University Square).
Musicians and bands who have written songs about or dedicated to Belfast include
U2, Van Morrison, Snow Patrol, Simple Minds, Elton John, Rogue Male, Katie Melua, Boney M, Paul Muldoon, Stiff Little Fingers, Nanci Griffith, Glenn Patterson, Orbital, James Taylor, Fun Boy Three, Spandau Ballet, the Police, Barnbrack, Gary Moore, Neon Neon, Toxic Waste, Energy Orchard, and Billy Bragg.
Belfast has a longstanding underground club scene which was established in the early 1980s.
Belfast has a high concentration of Irish-speakers. Like all areas of the island of Ireland outside of the Gaeltacht, the Irish language in Belfast is not that of an unbroken intergenerational transmission. However, the establishment of the Shaw's Road Gaeltacht community has inspired use of the language across Northern Ireland. The language is heavily promoted in the city and is particularly visible in the Falls Road area, where the signs on both the iconic black taxis and on the public buses are bilingual. Projects to promote the language in the city are funded by various sources, notably Foras na Gaeilge, an all-Ireland body funded by both the Irish and British governments. There are a number of Irish language Primary schools and one secondary school in Belfast. The provision of certain resources for these schools (for example, such as the provision of textbooks) is supported by the charitable organisation TACA.
In late August 2018, at least three groups were vying for the right to purchase the 5,500 RMS Titanic relics that were an asset of the bankrupt Premier Exhibitions. One of the offers was by a group including the National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland, with assistance by James Cameron. Oceanographer Robert Ballard said he favored this bid since it would ensure that the memorabilia would be permanently displayed in Belfast (where the Titanic was built) and in Greenwich. A decision as to the outcome was to be made by a United States district court judge.
Media
Belfast is the home of the Belfast Telegraph, Irish News, and The News Letter, the oldest English-language daily newspaper in the world still in publication. The Belfast Telegraph was bought by the Dublin-based Independent News & Media group in March 2000.
The city is the headquarters of BBC Northern Ireland, ITV station UTV and commercial radio stations Q Radio and U105. Two community radio stations, Blast 106 and Irish-language station Raidió Fáilte, broadcast to the city from west Belfast, as does Queen's Radio, a student-run radio station which broadcasts from Queen's University Students' Union.
One of Northern Ireland's two community TV stations, NvTv, is based in the Cathedral Quarter of the city. There are two independent cinemas in Belfast: the Queen's Film Theatre and the Strand Cinema, which host screenings during the Belfast Film Festival and the Belfast Festival at Queen's. Broadcasting only over the Internet is Homely Planet, the Cultural Radio Station for Northern Ireland, supporting community relations.
The city has become a popular film location; The Paint Hall at Harland and Wolff has become one of the UK Film Council's main studios. The facility comprises four stages of . Shows filmed at The Paint Hall include the film City of Ember (2008) and HBO's Game of Thrones series (beginning in late 2009).
In November 2011, Belfast became the smallest city to host the MTV Europe Music Awards. The event was hosted by Selena Gomez and celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Jessie J, Hayden Panettiere, and Lady Gaga travelled to Northern Ireland to attend the event, held in the Odyssey Arena.
Sports
Belfast has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports such as football, Gaelic games, rugby, cricket, and ice hockey. The Belfast Marathon is run annually on May Day, and attracted 20,000 participants in 2011.
The Northern Ireland national football team, ranked 59th as of October 2022 in the FIFA World Rankings, plays its home matches at Windsor Park. Football clubs active in Belfast include: Linfield, Glentoran, Crusaders, Cliftonville, Donegal Celtic, Harland & Wolff Welders, Dundela, Knockbreda, PSNI, Queen's University, Newington, Sport & Leisure and Brantwood.
Belfast was the home town of former Manchester United player George Best, the 1968 European Footballer of the Year, who died in November 2005. On the day he was buried in the city, 100,000 people lined the route from his home on the Cregagh Road to Roselawn cemetery. Since his death the City Airport was named after him and a trust has been set up to fund a memorial to him in the city centre.
Belfast is home to over twenty Gaelic football and hurling clubs. Casement Park in west Belfast, home to the Antrim county teams, has a capacity of 32,000 which makes it the second largest Gaelic Athletic Association ground in Ulster. In May 2020, the foundation of East Belfast GAA returned Gaelic Games to unionist East Belfast after decades of its absence in the area. The current club president is Irish-language enthusiast Linda Ervine who comes from a unionist background in the area. The team currently plays in the Down Senior County League.
The 1999 Heineken Cup champions Ulster Rugby play at Ravenhill Stadium in the south of the city. Belfast has four teams in rugby's All-Ireland League: Belfast Harlequins in Division 1B; and Instonians, Queen's University and Malone in Division 2A.
Belfast is home to the Stormont cricket ground since 1949 and was the venue for the Irish cricket team's first ever One Day International against England in 2006.
Belfast is home to one of the biggest ice hockey clubs in the United Kingdom, the Belfast Giants. The Giants were founded in 2000 and play their games at the 9,500 capacity SSE Arena, where crowds normally range from 4,000 to 7,000. Many ex-NHL players have featured on the Giants roster, none more famous than world superstar Theo Fleury. The Giants play in the 10-team professional Elite Ice Hockey League which is the top league in the United Kingdom. The Giants have been league champions 6 times, most recently in the 2021–22 season. The Belfast Giants are a huge brand in Northern Ireland and their increasing stature in the game led to the Belfast Giants playing the Boston Bruins of the NHL on 2 October 2010 at the SSE Arena in Belfast, losing the game 5–1.
Other significant sportspeople from Belfast include double world snooker champion Alex "Hurricane" Higgins and world champion boxers Wayne McCullough, Rinty Monaghan and Carl Frampton.
Leander ASC is a well known swimming club in Belfast. Belfast produced the Formula One racing stars John Watson who raced for five different teams during his career in the 1970s and 1980s and Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine.
Notable people
Academia and science
John Stewart Bell, physicist
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astrophysicist
John Boyd Dunlop, inventor
Lord Kelvin, physicist and engineer
Arts and media
Anthony Boyle, actor
Blu Hydrangea, Drag Queen
Sir Kenneth Branagh, actor
Gordon Burns, journalist, gameshow host, best known for The Krypton Factor
Ciaran Carson, writer
Frank Carson, comedian
Jamie Dornan, actor
Barry Douglas, musician
Candida Doyle, musician
James Galway, musician
Ciarán Hinds, actor
Eamonn Holmes, broadcaster
Brian Desmond Hurst, film director
Oliver Jeffers, artist
C. S. Lewis, author
Paula Malcomson, actress
Gerry McAvoy, musician and long time bass guitarist with Rory Gallagher
Tim McGarry, comedian and actor
Brian Moore, acclaimed novelist
Gary Moore, guitarist
Van Morrison, singer-songwriter
Doc Neeson, singer-songwriter
Patricia Quinn, actress
Roy Walker (comedian), gameshow host, best known for Catchphrase
Politics
Gerry Adams. politician
Lord Craigavon, former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
Abba Eban (1915–2002), Israeli diplomat and politician, and President of the Weizmann Institute of Science
Chaim Herzog, former President of Israel
Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland
Peter Robinson, former First Minister of Northern Ireland
Lord Trimble, former First Minister of Northern Ireland, Nobel Peace Prize winner
Sports
Paddy Barnes, boxer, Olympic Games Bronze Medalist
George Best, football player, Ballon D'or winner
Danny Blanchflower, football player and manager
Jackie Blanchflower, football player
Chris Brunt, football player
Ryan Burnett, boxer
Anthony Cacace, boxer
Craig Cathcart, football player
Michael Conlan, boxer
P. J. Conlon, baseball player
Killian Dain, professional wrestler
Mal Donaghy, football player
Corry Evans, football player
Jonny Evans, football player
Dave Finlay, professional wrestler
Carl Frampton, boxer
Craig Gilroy, rugby union player
Alex Higgins, snooker player
Paddy Jackson, rugby union player
Wayne McCullough, WBC World Champion Boxer, Olympic Games Silver Medalist
Alan McDonald, football player
Rory McIlroy, golfer
Sammy McIlroy, football player and manager
Eamon Magee, boxer
Brian Magee, boxer
Jim Magilton, football player and manager
Rinty Monaghan, World Flyweight boxing champion
Steve Morrow, football player and manager
Owen Nolan, hockey player, Olympic gold medalist
Lady Mary Peters, Olympic gold medalist athlete
Tommy Robb, Grand Prix motorcycle road racer
Anton Rogan, Football player
Pat Rice, football player and coach
Joe Swail, snooker player
Gary Wilson, cricketer
Other
Patrick Carlin, Victoria Cross recipient
Shaw Clifton, former General of The Salvation Army
Dame Rotha Johnston, entrepreneur
James Joseph Magennis, Victoria Cross recipient
Jonathan Simms, victim of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), noted for unprecedented survival rate of a decade with the disease
Rosemary Church, newsanchor
Education
Belfast has two universities. Queen's University Belfast was founded in 1845 and is a member of the Russell Group, an association of 24 leading research-intensive universities in the UK. It is one of the largest universities in the UK with 25,231 undergraduate and postgraduate students spread over 250 buildings, 120 of which are listed as being of architectural merit.
Ulster University, created in its current form in 1984, is a multi-centre university with a campus in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast. The Belfast campus has a specific focus on Art and Design and Architecture, and is currently undergoing major redevelopment. The Jordanstown campus, just from Belfast city centre concentrates on engineering, health and social science. The Coleraine campus, about from Belfast city centre concentrates on a broad range of subjects. Course provision is broad – biomedical sciences, environmental science and geography, psychology, business, the humanities and languages, film and journalism, travel and tourism, teacher training and computing are among the campus strengths. The Magee campus, about from Belfast city centre has many teaching strengths; including business, computing, creative technologies, nursing, Irish language and literature, social sciences, law, psychology, peace and conflict studies and the performing arts. The Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) Web Service receives funding from both universities and is a rich source of information and source material on the Troubles as well as society and politics in Northern Ireland.
Belfast Metropolitan College is a large further education college with three main campuses around the city, including several smaller buildings. Formerly known as Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, it specialises in vocational education. The college has over 53,000 students enrolled on full-time and part-time courses, making it one of the largest further education colleges in the UK and the largest in the island of Ireland.
The Belfast Education and Library Board was established in 1973 as the local council responsible for education, youth and library services within the city. In 2006, this board became part of the Education Authority for Northern Ireland. There are 184 primary, secondary and grammar schools in the city.
Tourism
Belfast is one of the most visited cities in the UK, and the second most visited on the island of Ireland. In 2008, 7.1 million tourists visited the city. Numerous tour bus companies and boat tours run there throughout the year, including tours based on the series Game of Thrones, which has had various filming locations around Northern Ireland.
Twin towns – sister cities
Belfast City Council takes part in the twinning scheme, and is twinned with the following sister cities:
Nashville, Tennessee, United States (since 1994)
Hefei, Anhui Province, China (since 2005)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States (since 2014)
Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China (since 2016)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Freedom of the City
The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the City of Belfast.
Individuals
Sir Kenneth Branagh: 30 January 2018.
Andrew Carnegie: 28 September 1910.
Sir Winston Churchill: 16 December 1955.
Bill Clinton, 9 April 2018
Sir John Jordan: 28 September 1910.
George J. Mitchell, 9 April 2018
Lady Mary Peters: 2 November 2012.
William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie: 1898, the first person to be awarded Freedom Of The City of Belfast.
Military units
The Royal Ulster Rifles: 6 February 1954.
The Royal Sussex Regiment: 1961.
Notes
References
Further reading
Beesley, S. and Wilde, J. 1997. Urban Flora of Belfast. Institute of Irish Studies & The Queen's University of Belfast.
Deane, C. Douglas. 1983. The Ulster Countryside. Century Books.
Gillespie, R. 2007. Early Belfast. Belfast Natural History & Philosophical Society in Association with Ulster Historical Foundation. .
Nesbitt, Noel. 1982. The Changing Face of Belfast. Ulster Museum, Belfast. Publication no. 183.
Pollock, V. and Parkhill, T. 1997. Belfast. National Museums of Northern Ireland.
Scott, Robert. 2004. Wild Belfast: On Safari in the City. Blackstaff Press. .
Walker, B.M. and Dixon, H. 1984. Early Photographs from the Lawrence Collection in Belfast Town 1864–1880. The Friar's Bush Press,
Walker, B.M. and Dixon, H. 1983. No Mean City: Belfast 1880–1914. .
Connolly, S.J. Ed. 2012. Belfast 400 People Places and History. Liverpool University Press.
McCracken, E. 1971. The Palm House and Botanic Garden, Belfast. Ulster Architectural Heritage Society.
McMahon, Sean. 2011. A Brief History of Belfast. The Brehon Press. Belfast.
Fulton, C. 2011. Coalbricks and Prefabs, Glimpses of Belfast in the 1950s. Thedoc Press.
O'Reilly, D. 2010. "Rivers of Belfast". Colourpoint Books.
Weatherall, Norman (text), and Evans, David (paintings), 2002, South Belfast Terrace and Villa. Cottage Publications.
External links
Belfast City Council
Capital cities in the United Kingdom
Cities in Northern Ireland
Districts of Northern Ireland, 1972–2015
Districts of Northern Ireland, 2015-present
Populated coastal places in the United Kingdom
Port cities and towns in Northern Ireland
Port cities and towns of the Irish Sea |
5048 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham%20Young | Brigham Young | Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his death in 1877. During his time as church president, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, west from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Salt Lake Valley. He founded Salt Lake City and served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also worked to establish the learning institutions that would later become the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. A polygamist, Young had at least 56 wives and 57 children. He instituted a ban prohibiting conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, and led the church in the Utah War against the United States.
Early life
Young was born on June 1, 1801, in Whitingham, Vermont. He was the ninth child of John Young and Abigail "Nabby" Howe. Young's father was a farmer, and when Young was three years old his family moved to upstate New York, settling in Chenango County. Young received little formal education, but his mother taught him how to read and write. At age twelve, he moved with his parents to the township of Genoa, close to Cayuga Lake. His mother died of tuberculosis in June 1815. Following her death, he moved with his father to Tyrone, New York. While there, Young's father remarried to a widow named Hannah Brown and sent Young off to learn a trade. Young moved to Auburn, New York, where he was an apprentice to John C. Jeffries. He worked as a carpenter, glazier, and painter. One of the homes that Young helped paint in Auburn belonged to Elijah Miller and later to William Seward, and is now a local museum. With the onset of the Panic of 1819, Jeffries dismissed Young from his apprenticeship, and Young moved to Port Byron, which was then called Bucksville. Young reported having a strict Puritan-style Christian upbringing. He used tobacco but did not drink alcohol. He refused to sign a temperance pledge, however, stating that "if I sign the temperance pledge I feel that I am bound, and I wish to do just right, without being bound to do it; I want my liberty."
Young married Miriam Angeline Works, whom he had met in Port Byron in October 1824. They first resided in a small house adjacent to a pail factory, which was Young's main place of employment at the time. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born on September 26, 1825. According to William Hayden, Young participated in the Bucksville Forensic and Oratorical Society. Young converted to the Reformed Methodist Church in 1824 after studying the Bible. Upon joining the Methodists, he insisted on being baptized by immersion rather than by their normal practice of sprinkling. In 1828, the family moved briefly to Oswego, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario, and in 1828 to Mendon, New York. Young's father, two brothers, and sister had already moved to Mendon. In Mendon, Young first became acquainted with Heber C. Kimball, an early member of the LDS Church. Young worked as a carpenter and joiner, and built and operated a saw mill.
Latter Day Saint conversion
By the time Young moved to Mendon in 1828, he had effectively left the Reformed Methodist Church and become a Christian seeker, unconvinced that he had found a church possessing the true authority of Jesus Christ. Sometime in 1830, Young was introduced to the Book of Mormon by way of a copy that his brother, Phineas Howe, had obtained from Samuel H. Smith. Young did not immediately accept the divine claims of the Book of Mormon. In 1831, five missionaries of the Latter Day Saint movement—Eleazer Miller, Elial Strong, Alpheus Gifford, Enos Curtis, and Daniel Bowen—came from the branch of the church in Columbia, Pennsylvania, to preach in Mendon. A key element of the teachings of this group in Young's eyes was their practicing of spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy. This was partly experienced when Young traveled with his wife, Miriam, and Heber C. Kimball to visit the branch of the church in Columbia. After meeting Joseph Smith, Young joined the Church of Christ in April 9, 1832. He was baptized by Eleazer Miller. Young's siblings and their spouses were baptized that year or the year afterwards. In April 1832, a branch of the church was organized in Mendon; eight of the fifteen families were Youngs. There, Young saw Alpheus Gifford speak in tongues, and in response, Young also spoke in tongues. Young and Kimball spent the summer following their baptism conducting missionary work in western New York, while Vilate Kimball cared for Young's family. After Miriam died of consumption, Vilate continued to care for Brigham's children while he, Heber, and Joseph Young traveled to visit Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio. During the visit, Brigham spoke in a tongue that Smith identified as the "Adamic language".
After visiting Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Brigham set out to preach with his brother Joseph in the winter of 1832–1833. Joseph had been a Reformed Methodist preacher and the two made a similar "preaching circuit" in eastern Canada. They described the Book of Mormon as the "stick of Joseph", mentioned in Ezekiel 37. Young continued to preach in eastern Canada in the spring and accompanied two Canadian converts to Kirtland in July 1833. Young and his two daughters moved to Kirtland along with the Kimball family later that summer. Here he became acquainted with Mary Ann Angell, a convert to the faith from Rhode Island, and the two were married in February 1834 and obtained a marriage certificate on March 31, 1834. In May 1834, Young became a member of Zion's Camp and traveled to Missouri. He returned to Kirtland with members of the camp in August. After his return to Kirtland, Young did carpentry, painting, and glazing work to earn money. He also worked on the Kirtland Temple and went to a grammar school. His third child and first son, Joseph A. Young, was born shortly after his return. Mary Ann, who was pregnant at the time, had provided for Young's two daughters and the children of her brother Solomon Angell and their friend Lorenzo Booth while Young was away with Zion's Camp.
Church service
At a conference on February 14, 1835, Brigham Young was named and ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. On May 4, 1835, Young and other apostles went on a mission to the east coast, specifically in Pennsylvania and New York. His call was to preach to the "remnants of Joseph", a term people in the church used to refer to indigenous people. In August 1835, Young and the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve issued a testimony in support of the divine origin of the Doctrine and Covenants. He oversaw the finishing of the Kirtland temple and spoke in tongues at its dedication in 1836. Shortly afterwards, Young went on another mission with his brother Joseph to New York and New England. On this mission, he visited the family of his aunt, Rhoda Howe Richards. They converted to the church, including his cousin Willard Richards. In August 1837, Young went on another mission to the eastern states. He then returned to Kirtland where he remained until dissenters, unhappy with the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society, forced him to flee the community in December 1837. He then stayed for a short time in Dublin, Indiana, with his brother Lorenzo before moving to Far West, Missouri, in 1838. He was later joined by his family and by other members of the church in Missouri. He became the oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when David Patten died after the Battle of Crooked River. When Joseph Smith arrived in Far West, he appointed Young, along with Thomas Marsh and David Patten, as "presidency pro tem" in Missouri.
Under Young's direction, the quorum organized the exodus of Latter Day Saints from Missouri to Illinois in 1838. Young also served a year-long mission to the United Kingdom. There, he showed a talent for organizing the church's work and maintaining good relationships with Joseph Smith and the other apostles. Under his leadership, members in the United Kingdom began publishing Millennial Star, a hymnal, and a new edition of the Book of Mormon. Young also served in various leadership and community organization roles among church members in Nauvoo. He joined the Nauvoo city council in 1841 and oversaw the first baptisms for the dead in the unfinished Nauvoo temple. He joined the Masons in Nauvoo on April 7, 1842, and participated in an early endowment ritual led by Joseph Smith that May and became part of the Anointed Quorum. Young and the other apostles directed the church's missionary work and the immigration of new converts from this point forward. Young served another mission to the Eastern seaboard.
During his time in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith introduced the doctrine of plural marriage among church leaders. Young performed the sealing ordinances for two of Joseph Smith's plural wives in early 1842. Young proposed marriage to Martha Brotherton, who was seventeen years old at the time and had recently immigrated from Manchester, England. Brotherton signed an affidavit saying that she had been locked in Smith's office for two days while Young and others tried to convince her to accept polygamy. The affidavit was created at John C. Bennett's request, after his excommunication and in conjunction with his distribution of false information combined with true information about the church's practice of polygamy. Brigham Young and William Smith discredited Brotherton's character, and Brotherton herself did not associate with the church afterwards. Young campaigned against Bennett's allegations that Joseph Smith practiced "spiritual wifery"; Young knew of Smith's hidden practice of polygamy. He also helped to convince Hyrum to accept polygamy. Young married Lucy Ann Decker in June 1842, making her his first plural wife. Young knew her father, Isaac Decker, in New York. Lucy was still married to William Seeley when Young married her. Young supported her and her two children while they lived in their own home in Nauvoo. Lucy and Young had seven children together. Young was one of the first men in Nauvoo to practice polygamy, and he married more women than any other polygamist while in Nauvoo. While in Nauvoo, he married Clarissa Decker, Clarissa Ross, Emily Dow Partidge, Louisa Beaman, Margaret Maria Alley, Emmeline Free, Margaret Piece, and Zina Diantha Huntington. These wives bore him children after they moved to Utah. He also married in Nauvoo, but did not have children with Augusta Adams Cobb, Susannah Snively, Eliza Bowker, Ellen A. Rockwood, and Namah K. J. Carter. Eight of Young's plural marriages in Nauvoo were to Joseph Smith's widows. Young traveled east with Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith from July to October 1843 on a mission to raise funds for the Nauvoo temple and its guesthouse. Young's six-year-old daughter Mary Ann died while he was on this mission. On November 22, 1843, Young and his wife Mary Ann received the second anointing, a ritual that assured them that their salvation and exaltation would occur. In March 1844, Brigham Young was an inaugural member of the Council of Fifty, which later organized the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo.
In 1844, Young traveled east again to solicit votes for Joseph Smith in his presidential campaign. In June 1844, while Young was away, Joseph Smith was killed by an armed mob who stormed the jail where he was awaiting trial for the charge of treason. Young did not learn of the assassination until early July. Several claimants to the role of church president emerged during the succession crisis that ensued. Sidney Rigdon, the senior surviving member of the church's First Presidency, argued there could be no successor to the deceased prophet and that he should stay Joseph's "spokesman" and become guardian of the church. Young argued that the church needed more than a spokesman and that the Twelve Apostles, not Rigdon, had the keys, powers, and "the fulness of the Priesthood", referring to the second anointing. Young claimed access to revelation to know God's choice of successor because of his position as an apostle. The majority in attendance voted that the Quorum of the Twelve was to lead the church. Many of Young's followers stated in reminiscent accounts (the earliest in 1850 and the latest in 1920) that when Young spoke to the congregation, he looked or sounded exactly like Smith, which they attributed to the power of God. Young began acting as the church's president afterwards, though he did not yet have a full presidency. He also led the Anointed Quorum. Not all church members followed Young. Rigdon became the president of a separate church organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and several other potential successors emerged to lead what became other denominations of the movement. Young led the church as president of the Quorum of the Twelve until December 5, 1847, when the quorum unanimously agreed to organize a new First Presidency with Young as president of the church. A church conference held in Iowa sustained Young and his First Presidency on December 27, 1847.
Before departing Nauvoo, Young focused on completing the Nauvoo temple. After the exterior was completed on December 10, 1845, members received their temple endowments day and night, and Young officiated many of these sessions. An estimated 5,000 members were endowed between December 10, 1845, and February 1846. With the repealing of Nauvoo's charter in January 1845, church members in Nauvoo lost their courts, police, and militia, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by mobs. Young instructed victims of anti-Mormon violence on the outskirts of Nauvoo to move to Nauvoo. Young negotiated with Stephen A. Douglas and agreed to lead church members out of Nauvoo in the spring in exchange for peace. Some Mormons counterfeited American and Mexican money, and a grand jury indicted Young and other church leaders in 1845. When officers arrived at the Nauvoo temple to arrest Young, he sent William Miller out in Young's hat and cloak. Miller was arrested but released when it was discovered he was not Brigham Young. Young himself condemned the counterfeiting. John Turner's biography states: "it remains unclear whether Young [...] had sanctioned the bogus-making operation". The indictment of Young and other leaders, combined with rumors that troops would prevent the Mormons from leaving, led Young to start their exodus in February 1846.
Migration west
Repeated conflict in Nauvoo led Young to relocate his group of Latter-day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, which was then part of Mexico. Young organized the journey that would take the Mormon pioneers to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, in 1846, before continuing on to the Salt Lake Valley. By the time Young arrived at the final destination, it had come under American control as a result of war with Mexico, although U.S. sovereignty would not be confirmed until 1848. Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, a date now recognized as Pioneer Day in Utah. Two days after their arrival, Young and the Twelve Apostles climbed the peak just north of the city and raised the American flag, calling it the "Ensign of Liberty".
Upon being asked why he chose for them to settle in the Salt Lake Valley, Young stated: "We have been kicked out of the frying-pan into the fire, out of the fire into the middle of the floor, and here we are and here we will stay. God has shown me that this is the spot to locate his people, and here is where they will prosper."
Among Young's first acts upon arriving in the valley were the naming of the city as "The City of the Great Salt Lake" and its organization into blocks of ten acres, each divided into eight equal-sized lots. On August 7, Young suggested that the members of the camp be re-baptized to signify a re-dedication to their beliefs and covenants. Young spent just over a month in the Valley recovering from mountain fever before returning to Winter Quarters on August 31. Young's expedition was one of the largest and one of the best organized westward treks, and he made various trips back and forth between the Salt Lake Valley and Winter Quarters to assist other companies in their journeys.
After three years of leading the church as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Young reorganized a new First Presidency and was sustained as the second president of the church on December 27, 1847, at Winter Quarters. Young named Heber C. Kimball as his first counselor and Willard Richards as his second. Young and his counselors were again sustained unanimously by church members at a church conference in Salt Lake City in September 1850.
Governor of Utah Territory
The Utah Territory was created by Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850, and as colonizer and founder of Salt Lake City, Young was appointed the territory's first governor and superintendent of American Indian affairs by President Millard Fillmore on February 3, 1851. He was sworn in by Justice Daniel H. Wells for a salary of $1,500 a year and named as superintendent of Indian Affairs for an additional $1,000. During his time as governor, Young directed the establishment of settlements throughout present-day Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California, and parts of southern Colorado and northern Mexico. Under his direction, the Mormons built roads, bridges, forts, and irrigation projects; established public welfare; organized a militia; issued a "selective extermination" order against male Timpanogos; and after a series of wars, eventually made peace with the Native Americans. Young was also one of the first to subscribe to Union Pacific stock, for the construction of the First transcontinental railroad. He also authorized the construction of the Utah Central railroad line, which connected Salt Lake City to the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad. Young organized the first Utah Territorial Legislature and established Fillmore as the territory's first capital.
Young established a gold mint in 1849 and called for the minting of coins using gold dust that had been accumulated from travelers during the Gold Rush. The mint was closed in 1861 by Alfred Cumming, gubernatorial successor to Young. Young also organized a board of regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley. It was established on February 28, 1850, as the University of Deseret; its name was eventually changed to the University of Utah. In 1849, Young arranged for a printing press to be brought to the Salt Lake Valley, which was later used to print the Deseret News periodical.
In 1851, Young and several federal officials—including territorial Secretary Broughton Harris—became unable to work cooperatively. Within months, Harris and the others departed their Utah appointments without replacements being named, and their posts remained unfilled for the next two years. These individuals later became known as the Runaway Officials of 1851.
Young supported slavery and its expansion into Utah and led the efforts to legalize and regulate slavery in the 1852 Act in Relation to Service, based on his beliefs on slavery. Young said in an 1852 speech, "In as much as we believe in the Bible... we must believe in slavery. This colored race have been subjected to severe curses... which they have brought upon themselves." Seven years later in 1859, Young stated in an interview with the New York Tribune that he considered slavery a "divine institution... not to be abolished".
In 1856, Young organized an efficient mail service known as the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company, which transported mail and passengers between Missouri and California. In 1858, following the events of the Utah War, he stepped down to his gubernatorial successor, Alfred Cumming.
LDS Church president
Young is the longest-serving president of the LDS Church to date, having served for 29 years.
Educational endeavors
During time as prophet and governor, Young encouraged bishops to establish grade schools for their congregations, which would be supported by volunteer work and tithing payments. Young viewed education as a process of learning how to make the Kingdom of God a reality on earth, and at the core of his "philosophy of education" was the belief that the church had within itself all that was necessary to save mankind materially, spiritually, and intellectually.
On October 16, 1875, Young deeded buildings and land in Provo, Utah, to a board of trustees for establishing an institution of learning, ostensibly as part of the University of Deseret. Young said, "I hope to see an Academy established in Provo ... at which the children of the Latter-day Saints can receive a good education unmixed with the pernicious atheistic influences that are found in so many of the higher schools of the country." The school broke off from the University of Deseret and became Brigham Young Academy in 1876 under the leadership of Karl G. Maeser, and was the precursor to Brigham Young University.
Within the church, Young reorganized the Relief Society for women in 1867 and created organizations for young women in 1869 and young men in 1875. The Young Women organization was first called the Retrenchment Association and was intended to promote the turning of young girls away from the costly and extravagant ways of the world. It later became known as the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association and was a charter member of the National Council of Women and International Council of Women.
Young also organized a committee to refine the Deseret alphabet—a phonetic alphabet that had been developed sometime between 1847 and 1854. At its prime, the alphabet was used in two Deseret News articles, two elementary readers, and in a translation of the Book of Mormon. By 1870, it had all but disappeared from use.
Temple building
Young was involved in temple building throughout his membership in the LDS Church, making it a priority during his time as church president. Under Smith's leadership, Young participated in the building of the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples. Just four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Young designated the location for the Salt Lake Temple; he presided over its groundbreaking years later on April 6, 1853. During his tenure, Young oversaw construction of the Salt Lake Tabernacle and announced plans to build the St. George (1871), Manti (1875), and Logan (1877) temples. He also provisioned the building of the Endowment House, a "temporary temple", which began to be used in 1855 to provide temple ordinances to church members while the Salt Lake Temple was under construction.
Teachings
The majority of Young's teachings are contained in the 19 volumes of transcribed and edited sermons in the Journal of Discourses. The LDS Church's Doctrine and Covenants contains one section from Young that has been canonized as scripture, added in 1876.
Polygamy
Though polygamy was practiced by Young's predecessor, Joseph Smith, the practice is often associated with Young. Some Latter Day Saint denominations, such as the Community of Christ, consider Young the "Father of Mormon Polygamy". In 1853, Young made the church's first official statement on the subject since the church had arrived in Utah. Young acknowledged that the doctrine was challenging for many women, but stated its necessity for creating large families, proclaiming: "But the first wife will say, 'It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;' then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children." Young believed that sexual desire was given by God to ensure the perpetuation of humankind and believed sex should be confined to marriage.
Adam-God doctrine and blood atonement
One of the more controversial teachings of Young during the Mormon Reformation was the Adam–God doctrine. According to Young, he was taught by Smith that Adam is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do". According to the doctrine, Adam was once a mortal man who became resurrected and exalted. From another planet, Adam brought Eve, one of his wives, with him to the earth, where they became mortal by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After bearing mortal children and establishing the human race, Adam and Eve returned to their heavenly thrones where Adam acts as the god of this world. Later, as Young is generally understood to have taught, Adam returned to the earth to become the biological father of Jesus. The LDS Church has since repudiated the Adam–God doctrine.
Young also taught the doctrine of blood atonement, in which the atonement of Jesus cannot redeem an eternal sin, which included apostasy, theft, fornication (but not sodomy), or adultery. Instead, those who committed such sins could partially atone for their sin by sacrificing their life in a way that sheds blood. The LDS Church has formally repudiated the doctrine as early as 1889 and multiple times since the days of Young.
Priesthood ban for black men
Young is generally considered to have instituted a church ban against conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, who had generally been treated equally to white men in this respect under Smith's presidency. After settling in Utah in 1848, Young announced the ban, which also forbade blacks from participating in Mormon temple rites such as the endowment or sealings. On many occasions, Young taught that blacks were denied the priesthood because they were "the seed of Cain". In 1863, Young stated: "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so." Young was also a vocal opponent of theories of human polygenesis, being a firm voice for stating that all humans were the product of one creation.
Throughout his time as prophet, Young went to great lengths to deny the assumption that he was the author of the practice of priesthood denial to black men, asserting instead that the Lord was. According to Young, the matter was beyond his personal control and was divinely determined rather than historically or personally as many assumed. Young taught that the day would come when black men would again have the priesthood, saying that after "all the other children of Adam have the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from the four-quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity."
These racial restrictions remained in place until 1978, when the policy was rescinded by church president Spencer W. Kimball, and the church subsequently "disavow[ed] theories advanced in the past" to explain this ban, essentially attributing the origins of the ban solely to Young.
Mormon Reformation
During 1856 and 1857, a period of renewed emphasis on spirituality within the church known as the Mormon Reformation took place under Young's direction. The Mormon Reformation called for a spiritual reawakening among members of the church and took place largely in the Utah Territory. Jedediah M. Grant, one of the key figures of the Reformation and one of Young's counselors, traveled throughout the Territory, preaching to Latter-day Saint communities and settlements with the goal of inspiring them to reject sin and turn towards spiritual things. As part of the Reformation, almost all "active" or involved LDS Church members were rebaptized as a symbol of their commitment. At a church meeting on September 21, 1856, Brigham Young stated: "We need a reformation in the midst of this people; we need a thorough reform." Large gatherings and meetings during this period were conducted by Young and Grant, and Young played a key role in the circulation of the Mormon Reformation with his emphasis on plural marriage, rebaptism, and passionate preaching and oration. It was during this period that the controversial doctrine of blood atonement was occasionally preached by Young, though it was repudiated in 1889 and never practiced by members of the church. The Reformation appeared to have ended completely by early 1858.
Conflicts
Shortly after the arrival of Young's pioneers, the new Latter-day Saint colonies were incorporated into the United States through the Mexican Cession. Young petitioned the U.S. Congress to create the State of Deseret. The Compromise of 1850 instead carved out Utah Territory, and Young was appointed governor. As governor and church president, Young directed both religious and economic matters. He encouraged independence and self-sufficiency. Many cities and towns in Utah, and some in neighboring states, were founded under Young's direction. Young's leadership style has been viewed as autocratic.
Utah War
When federal officials received reports of widespread and systematic obstruction of federal officials in Utah (most notably judges), U.S. President James Buchanan decided in early 1857 to install a non-Mormon governor. Buchanan accepted the reports of the Runaway Officials without any further investigation, and the new non-sectarian governor was appointed and sent to the new territory accompanied by 2,500 soldiers. When Young received word in July that federal troops were headed to Utah with his replacement, he called out his militia to ambush the federal force using delaying tactics. During the defense of Utah, now called the Utah War, Young held the U.S. Army at bay for a winter by taking their cattle and burning supply wagons. Young eventually reached a settlement with the aid of a peace commission and agreed to step down as governor. Buchanan later pardoned Young.
Mountain Meadows Massacre
The degree of Young's involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which took place in Washington County in 1857, is disputed. Leonard J. Arrington reports that Young received a rider at his office on the day of the massacre, and that when he learned of the contemplated attack by members of the church in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter directing that the Fancher party be allowed to pass through the territory unmolested. Young's letter reportedly arrived on September 13, 1857, two days after the massacre. As governor, Young had promised the federal government he would protect migrants passing through Utah Territory, but over 120 men, women, and children were killed in this incident. There is no debate concerning the involvement of individual Mormons from the surrounding communities by scholars. Only children under the age of seven, who were cared for by local Mormon families, survived, and the murdered members of the wagon train were left unburied. The remains of about 40 people were later found and buried, and U.S. Army officer James Henry Carleton had a large cross made from local trees, the transverse beam bearing the engraving, "Vengeance Is Mine, Saith The Lord: I Will Repay" and erected a cairn of rocks at the site. A large slab of granite was put up on which he had the following words engraved: "Here 120 men, women and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas." For two years, the monument stood as a memorial to those traveling the Spanish Trail through Mountain Meadow. According to Wilford Woodruff, Young brought an entourage to Mountain Meadows in 1861 and suggested that the monument instead read "Vengeance is mine and I have taken a little".
Death
Before his death in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1877, Young suffered from cholera morbus and inflammation of the bowels. It is believed that he died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. His last words were "Joseph! Joseph! Joseph!", invoking the name of the late Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. On September 2, 1877, Young's funeral was held in the Tabernacle with an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people in attendance. He is buried on the grounds of the Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument in the heart of Salt Lake City. A bronze marker was placed at the grave site June 10, 1938, by members of the Young Men and Young Women organizations, which he founded.
Business ventures and wealth
Young engaged in a vast assortment of commercial ventures by himself and in partnership with others. These included a wagon express company, a ferryboat company, a railroad, and the manufacturing of processed lumber, wool, sugar beets, iron, and liquor. Young achieved greatest success in real estate. He also tried to promote Mormon self-sufficiency by establishing collectivist communities, known as the United Order of Enoch.
Young was also involved in the organization of the Salt Lake Gas Works, the Salt Lake Water Works, an insurance company, a bank, and the ZCMI store in downtown Salt Lake City. In 1873, he announced that he would step down as president of the Deseret National Bank and of ZCMI, as well as from his role as trustee-in-trust for the church. He cited as his reason for this that he was ready to relieve himself from the burden of "secular affairs".
At the time of his death, Young was the wealthiest man in Utah, with an estimated personal fortune of $600,000 ().
Legacy
Impact
Young had many nicknames during his lifetime, among the most popular being "American Moses" (alternatively, "Modern Moses" or "Mormon Moses"), because, like the biblical figure, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, in an exodus through a desert, to what they saw as a promised land. Young was dubbed by his followers the "Lion of the Lord" for his bold personality and commonly was called "Brother Brigham" by Latter-day Saints.
A century after Young's death, historian Rodman W. Paul wrote,
He credited Young's leadership with helping to settle much of the American West:
Memorials to Young include a bronze statue in front of the Abraham O. Smoot Administration Building, Brigham Young University; a marble statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol, donated by the State of Utah in 1950; and a statue atop the This is the Place Monument in Salt Lake City.
Views of race and slavery
Young had a somewhat mixed view of slavery which historian John G. Turner called a "bundle of contradictions". In the 1840s, Young strove to keep aloof from nationwide political debates over slavery, avoiding committing to either antislavery or proslavery positions. In the early 1850s, he expressed some support for the antislavery "free soil" position in American politics, and in January 1852, he declared in a speech that "no property can or should be recognized as existing in slaves", suggesting opposition to the existence of slavery. However, two weeks later Young declared himself a "firm believer in slavery". Young believed in the racial superiority of white men. His manuscript history from January 5, 1852, which was published in the Deseret News, reads:The negro … should serve the seed of Abraham; he should not be a ruler, nor vote for men to rule over me nor my brethren. The Constitution of Deseret is silent upon this, we meant it should be so. The seed of Canaan cannot hold any office, civil or ecclesiastical. … The decree of God that Canaan should be a servant of servants unto his brethren (i.e., Shem and Japhet [sic]) is in full force. The day will come when the seed of Canaan will be redeemed and have all the blessings their brethren enjoy. Any person that mingles his seed with the seed of Canaan forfeits the right to rule and all the blessings of the Priesthood of God; and unless his blood were spilled and that of his offspring he nor they could not be saved until the posterity of Canaan are redeemed.On this topic, Young wrote: "They have not wisdom to act like white men." Young adopted the idea of the Curse of Ham—a racist interpretation of Genesis 9 which white proponents of slavery in antebellum America used to justify enslaving black people of African descent—and applied it liberally and literally. Young also predicted a future in which Chinese and Japanese people would immigrate to America. He averred that Chinese and Japanese immigrants would need to be governed by white men as they would have no understanding of government.
Family and descendants
Young was a polygamist, having at least fifty-six wives. The policy and practice of polygamy was difficult for many in the church to accept. Young stated that upon being taught about plural marriage by Joseph Smith: "It was the first time in my life that I desired the grave." By the time of his death, Young had fifty-seven children by sixteen of his wives; forty-six of his children reached adulthood.
Sources have varied on the number of Young's wives, as well as their ages. This is due to differences in what scholars have considered to be a "wife". There were fifty-six women who Young was sealed to during his lifetime. While the majority of the sealings were "for eternity", some were "for time only", meaning that Young was sealed to these women as a proxy for their previous husbands who had passed away. Researchers note that not all of the fifty-six marriages were conjugal. Young did not live with a number of his wives or publicly hold them out as wives, which has led to confusion on the number and their identities. Thirty-one of his wives were not connubial and had exchanged eternity-only vows with him.
Of Young's fifty-six wives, twenty-one had never been married before; seventeen were widows; six were divorced; six had living husbands; and the marital status of six others is unknown. Young built the Lion House, the Beehive House, the Gardo House, and the White House in downtown Salt Lake City to accommodate his sizable family. The Beehive House and the Lion House remain as prominent Salt Lake City landmarks. At the north end of the Beehive House was a family store, at which Young's wives and children had running accounts and could buy what they needed. In 1865, Karl Maeser began to privately tutor Young's fifty-six children and stopped when he was called on a mission to Germany in 1867.
At the time of Young's death, nineteen of his wives had predeceased him; he was divorced from ten, and twenty-three survived him. The status of four was unknown. A few of his wives served in administrative positions in the church, such as Zina Huntington and Eliza R. Snow. In his will, Young shared his estate with the sixteen surviving wives who had lived with him; the six surviving non-conjugal wives were not mentioned in the will.
Notable descendants
In 1902, 25 years after his death, The New York Times established that Young's direct descendants numbered more than 1,000. Some of Young's descendants have become leaders in the LDS Church, as well as prominent political and cultural figures.
Cultural references
In comics
Brigham Young appears at the end of the bande dessinée Le Fil qui chante, the last in the Lucky Luke series by René Goscinny.
In literature
The Scottish poet John Lyon, who was an intimate friend of Young, wrote Brigham the Bold in tribute to him after his death.
Florence Claxton's graphic novel, The Adventures of a Woman in Search of Her Rights (1872), satirizes a would-be emancipated woman whose failure to establish an independent career results in her marriage to Young before she wakes to discover she's been dreaming.
Arthur Conan Doyle based his first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, on Mormon history, mentioning Young by name. When asked to comment on the story, which had, "provoked the animosity of the Mormon faithful", Doyle noted, "all I said about the Danite Band and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that though it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history." Doyle's daughter stated: "You know father would be the first to admit that his first Sherlock Holmes novel was full of errors about the Mormons."
Mark Twain devoted a chapter and much of two appendices to Young in Roughing It. In the appendix, Twain describes Young as a theocratic "absolute monarch" defying the will of the U.S. government, and alleges using a dubious source that Young had ordered the Mountain Meadows massacre.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., talking about his fondness of trees, joked in his The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table: "I call all trees mine that I have put my wedding-ring on, and I have as many tree-wives as Brigham Young has human ones."
In movies
Young was played by Dean Jagger in the 1940 film Brigham Young. In the 1995 film The Avenging Angel, the role of Young was played by Charlton Heston. Brigham Young was also played by Terence Stamp in the 2007 film September Dawn.
In theater
In the 2011 musical The Book of Mormon, Young is portrayed as a tyrannical American regional warlord, cursed by God to have a clitoris for a nose—a parable cautioning against female genital mutilation. He encounters Joseph Smith and attempts to ambush his party of Mormons, but, rather than engaging with "the Clitoris Man", Smith shows mercy, rubbing one of the frogs that God has given him to have sex with to cure his AIDS on Young's face, curing his AIDS, and so moving him that he decides to convert to the faith. Later, after taking up the mantle of Mormon leader following Smith's death from dysentery, Young is among those visited by Jesus and told to have as much sex as they possibly can, to ensure the propagation of the Mormon faith.
Literary works
Since Young's death, a number of works have published collections of his discourses and sayings.
LDS Church publication number 35554
See also
Brigham Young (1940 film)
Brigham Young Winter Home and Office
This Is The Place Heritage Park
Ann Eliza Young
List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States
Notes and references
Sources
Bergera, Gary James, Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith
, republished online at .
. See also: The Mormon Prophet and His Harem.
External links
Arrington, Leonard J. (1985). Brigham Young: American Moses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Via Internet Archive.
Brigham Young biography at Joseph Smith Papers Project
Brigham Young Letters, MSS SC 890 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
Tanner Trust Books at University of Utah Digital Library, Marriott Library Special Collections
1801 births
1877 deaths
People from Whitingham, Vermont
People from Mendon, New York
American Freemasons
American general authorities (LDS Church)
American carpenters
American Mormon missionaries in the United Kingdom
American people of English descent
Converts to Mormonism from Methodism
Governors of Utah Territory
American Mormon missionaries in Canada
Mormon pioneers
Mountain Meadows Massacre
Politicians from Salt Lake City
Recipients of American presidential pardons
Richards–Young family
American city founders
19th-century Mormon missionaries
Presidents of the Church (LDS Church)
Apostles (LDS Church)
Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)
Apostles of the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)
People of the Utah War
Doctrine and Covenants people
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University and college founders
Harold B. Lee Library-related 19th century articles |
5052 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley | Bentley | Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North London, and became widely known for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930. Bentley has been a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1998 and consolidated under VW's premium brand arm Audi since 2022.
Prominent models extend from the historic sports-racing Bentley 4½ Litre and Bentley Speed Six; the more recent Bentley R Type Continental, Bentley Turbo R, and Bentley Arnage; to its current model line, including the Flying Spur, Continental GT, Bentayga and the Mulsanne—which are marketed worldwide, with China as its largest market as of November 2012.
Today most Bentley models are assembled at the company's Crewe factory, with a small number assembled at Volkswagen's Dresden factory, Germany, and with bodies for the Continental manufactured in Zwickau and for the Bentayga manufactured at the Volkswagen Bratislava Plant.
The joining and eventual separation of Bentley and Rolls-Royce followed a series of mergers and acquisitions, beginning with the 1931 purchase by Rolls-Royce of Bentley, then in receivership. In 1971, Rolls-Royce itself was forced into receivership and the UK government nationalised the company—splitting it into an aerospace company (Rolls-Royce Plc) and an automotive company (Rolls-Royce Motors Limited, including Bentley). Rolls-Royce Motors was subsequently sold to engineering conglomerate Vickers, and in 1998 Vickers sold Rolls-Royce to Volkswagen AG, including Bentley with its name and logos (but not the name "Rolls Royce").
History
Cricklewood (1919–1931)
Before World War I, Walter Owen Bentley and his brother, Horace Millner Bentley, sold French DFP cars in Cricklewood, North London, but W.O, as Walter was known, always wanted to design and build his own cars. At the DFP factory, in 1913, he noticed an aluminium paperweight and thought that aluminium might be a suitable replacement for cast iron to fabricate lighter pistons. The first Bentley aluminium pistons were fitted to Sopwith Camel aero engines during the First World War.
The same day that the Paris Peace Conference to end World War I started, Walter Owen ("W.O.") Bentley founded Bentley Motors Limited, on January 18, 1919 and registered Bentley Motors Ltd. in August 1919. In October he exhibited a car chassis (with a dummy engine) at the London Motor Show. Ex–Royal Flying Corps officer Clive Gallop designed an innovative four-valves-per-cylinder engine for the chassis. By December the engine was built and running. Delivery of the first cars was scheduled for June 1920, but development took longer than estimated so the date was extended to September 1921. The durability of the first Bentley cars earned widespread acclaim, and they competed in hill climbs and raced at Brooklands.
Bentley's first major event was the 1922 Indianapolis 500, a race dominated by specialized cars with Duesenberg racing chassis. They entered a modified road car driven by works driver Douglas Hawkes, accompanied by riding mechanic H. S. "Bertie" Browning. Hawkes completed the full and finished 13th with an average speed of after starting in 19th position. The team was then rushed back to England to compete in the 1922 RAC Tourist Trophy.
Captain Woolf Barnato
In an ironic reference to his heavyweight boxer's stature, Captain Woolf Barnato was nicknamed "Babe". In 1925, he acquired his first Bentley, a 3-litre. With this car, he won numerous Brooklands races. Just a year later, he acquired the Bentley business itself.
The Bentley enterprise was always underfunded, but inspired by the 1924 Le Mans win by John Duff and Frank Clement, Barnato agreed to finance Bentley's business. Barnato had incorporated Baromans Ltd in 1922, which existed as his finance and investment vehicle. Via Baromans, Barnato initially invested in excess of £100,000, saving the business and its workforce. A financial reorganisation of the original Bentley company was carried out and all existing creditors paid off for £75,000. Existing shares were devalued from £1 each to just 1 shilling, or 5% of their original value. Barnato held 149,500 of the new shares giving him control of the company and he became chairman. Barnato injected further cash into the business: £35,000 secured by debenture in July 1927; £40,000 in 1928; £25,000 in 1929. With renewed financial input, W. O. Bentley was able to design another generation of cars.
The Bentley Boys
The Bentley Boys were a group of British motoring enthusiasts that included Barnato, Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin, steeple chaser George Duller, aviator Glen Kidston, automotive journalist S.C.H. "Sammy" Davis, and Dudley Benjafield. The Bentley Boys favoured Bentley cars. Many were independently wealthy and many had a military background. They kept the marque's reputation for high performance alive; Bentley was noted for its four consecutive victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, from 1927 to 1930.
Birkin developed the 4½-litre, lightweight Blower Bentley at Welwyn Garden City in 1929 and produced five racing specials, starting with Bentley Blower No.1 which was optimised for the Brooklands racing circuit. Birkin overruled Bentley and put the model on the market before it was fully developed. As a result, it was unreliable.
During the March 1930 Blue Train Races, Barnato raised the stakes on Rover and its Rover Light Six, having raced and beaten Le Train Bleu for the first time, to better that record with his 6½-litre Bentley Speed Six on a bet of £100. He drove against the train from Cannes to Calais, then by ferry to Dover, and finally London, travelling on public highways, and won.
Barnato drove his H.J. Mulliner–bodied formal saloon in the race against the Blue Train. Two months later, on 21 May 1930, he took delivery of a Speed Six with streamlined fastback "sportsman coupé" by Gurney Nutting. Both cars became known as the "Blue Train Bentleys"; the latter is regularly mistaken for, or erroneously referred to as being, the car that raced the Blue Train, while in fact Barnato named it in memory of his race. A painting by Terence Cuneo depicts the Gurney Nutting coupé racing along a road parallel to the Blue Train, which scenario never occurred as the road and railway did not follow the same route.
Cricklewood Bentleys
1921–1929 3-litre
1926–1930 4½-litre & "Blower Bentley"
1926–1930 6½-litre
1928–1930 6½-litre Speed Six
1930–1931 8-litre
1931 4-litre
The original model was the three-litre, but as customers put heavier bodies on the chassis, a larger 4½-litre model followed. Perhaps the most iconic model of the period is the 4½-litre "Blower Bentley", with its distinctive supercharger projecting forward from the bottom of the grille. Uncharacteristically fragile for a Bentley it was not the racing workhorse the 6½-litre was, though in 1930 Birkin remarkably finished second in the French Grand Prix at Pau in a stripped-down racing version of the Blower Bentley, behind Philippe Etancelin in a Bugatti Type 35.
The 4½-litre model later became famous in popular media as the vehicle of choice of James Bond in the original novels, but this has been seen only briefly in the films. John Steed in the television series The Avengers also drove a Bentley.
The new eight-litre was such a success that when Barnato's money seemed to run out in 1931 and Napier was planning to buy Bentley's business, Rolls-Royce purchased Bentley Motors to prevent it from competing with their most expensive model, the Phantom II.
Performance at Le Mans
24 hours of Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance
1923 4th (private entry) (3-Litre)
1924 1st (3-Litre)
1925 did not finish
1926 did not finish
1927 1st 15th 17th (3-Litre)
1928 1st 5th (4½-litre)
1929 1st (Speed Six); 2nd 3rd 4th: (4½-litre)
1930 1st 2nd (Speed Six)
Bentley withdrew from motor racing just after winning at Le Mans in 1930, claiming that they had learned enough about speed and reliability.
Liquidation
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the resulting Great Depression throttled the demand for Bentley's expensive motor cars. In July 1931 two mortgage payments were due which neither the company nor Barnato, the guarantor, were able to meet. On 10 July 1931 a receiver was appointed.
Napier offered to buy Bentley with the purchase to be final in November 1931. Instead, British Central Equitable Trust made a winning sealed bid of £125,000. British Central Equitable Trust later proved to be a front for Rolls-Royce Limited. Not even Bentley himself knew the identity of the purchaser until the deal was completed.
Barnato received £42,000 for his shares in Bentley Motors. In 1934 he was appointed to the board of the new Bentley Motors (1931) Ltd. In the same year Bentley confirmed that it would continue racing.
Rolls-Royce (1931–1970)
Derby
Rolls-Royce took over the assets of Bentley Motors (1919) Ltd and formed a subsidiary, Bentley Motors (1931) Ltd. Rolls-Royce had acquired the Bentley showrooms in Cork Street, the service station at Kingsbury, the complex at Cricklewood and the services of Bentley himself. This last was disputed by Napier in court without success. Bentley had neglected to register their trademark so Rolls-Royce immediately did so. They also sold the Cricklewood factory in 1932. Production stopped for two years, before resuming at the Rolls-Royce works in Derby. Unhappy with his role at Rolls-Royce, when his contract expired at the end of April 1935 W. O. Bentley left to join Lagonda.
When the new Bentley 3½ litre appeared in 1933, it was a sporting variant of the Rolls-Royce 20/25, which disappointed some traditional customers yet was well received by many others. W. O. Bentley was reported as saying, "Taking all things into consideration, I would rather own this Bentley than any other car produced under that name". Rolls-Royce's advertisements for the Litre called it "the silent sports car", a slogan Rolls-Royce continued to use for Bentley cars until the 1950s.
All Bentleys produced from 1931 to 2004 used inherited or shared Rolls-Royce chassis, and adapted Rolls-Royce engines, and are described by critics as badge-engineered Rolls-Royces.
Derby Bentleys
1933–1937 3½-litre
1936–1939 4¼-litre
1939–1941 Mark V
1939 Mark V
Crewe
In preparation for war, Rolls-Royce and the British Government searched for a location for a shadow factory to ensure production of aero-engines. Crewe, with its excellent road and rail links, as well as being located in the northwest away from the aerial bombing starting in mainland Europe, was a logical choice. Crewe also had extensive open farming land. Construction of the factory started on a 60-acre area on the potato fields of Merrill's Farm in July 1938, with the first Rolls-Royce Merlin aero-engine rolling off the production line five months later. 25,000 Merlin engines were produced and at its peak, in 1943 during World War II, the factory employed 10,000 people. With the war in Europe over and the general move towards the then new jet engines, Rolls-Royce concentrated its aero-engine operations at Derby and moved motor car operations to Crewe.
Standard Steel saloons
Until some time after World War II, most high-end motorcar manufacturers like Bentley and Rolls-Royce did not supply complete cars. They sold rolling chassis, near-complete from the instrument panel forward. Each chassis was delivered to the coachbuilder of the buyer's choice. The biggest specialist car dealerships had coachbuilders build standard designs for them which were held in stock awaiting potential buyers.
To meet post-war demand, particularly UK Government pressure to export and earn overseas currency, Rolls-Royce developed an all-steel body using pressings made by Pressed Steel to create a "standard" ready-to-drive complete saloon car. The first steel-bodied model produced was the Bentley Mark VI: these started to emerge from the newly reconfigured Crewe factory early in 1946. Some years later, initially only for export, the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn was introduced, a standard steel Bentley but with a Rolls-Royce radiator grille for a small extra charge, and this convention continued.
Chassis remained available to coachbuilders until the end of production of the Bentley S3, which was replaced for October 1965 by the chassis-less monocoque construction T series.
Bentley Continental
The Continental fastback coupé was aimed at the UK market, most cars, 164 plus a prototype, being right-hand drive. The chassis was produced at the Crewe factory and shared many components with the standard R type. Other than the R-Type standard steel saloon, R-Type Continentals were delivered as rolling chassis to the coachbuilder of choice. Coachwork for most of these cars was completed by H. J. Mulliner & Co. who mainly built them in fastback coupe form. Other coachwork came from Park Ward (London) who built six, later including a drophead coupe version. Franay (Paris) built five, Graber (Wichtrach, Switzerland) built three, one of them later altered by Köng (Basel, Switzerland), and Pininfarina made one. James Young (London) built in 1954 a Sports Saloon for the owner of James Young's, James Barclay.
The early R Type Continental has essentially the same engine as the standard R Type, but with modified carburation, induction and exhaust manifolds along with higher gear ratios. After July 1954 the car was fitted with an engine, having now a larger bore of with a total displacement of . The compression ratio was raised to 7.25:1.
Crewe Rolls-Royce Bentleys
Standard-steel saloon
1946–1952 Mark VI
1952–1955 R Type
Continental
1952–1955 R Type Continental
S-series
1955–1959 S1 and Continental
1959–1962 S2 and Continental
1962–1965 S3 and Continental
T-series
1965–1977 T1
1977–1980 T2
1971–1984 Corniche
1975–1986 Camargue
Vickers (1970–1998)
The problems of Bentley's owner with Rolls-Royce aero engine development, the RB211, brought about the financial collapse of its business in 1970.
The motorcar division was made a separate business, Rolls-Royce Motors Limited, which remained independent until bought by Vickers plc in August 1980. By the 1970s and early 1980s Bentley sales had fallen badly; at one point less than 5% of combined production carried the Bentley badge. Under Vickers, Bentley set about regaining its high-performance heritage, typified by the 1980 Mulsanne. Bentley's restored sporting image created a renewed interest in the name and Bentley sales as a proportion of output began to rise. By 1986 the Bentley:Rolls-Royce ratio had reached 40:60; by 1991 it achieved parity.
Crewe Vickers Bentleys
1984–1995 Continental: convertible
1992–1995 Continental Turbo
1980–1992 Bentley Mulsanne
1984–1988 Mulsanne L: limousine
1982–1985 Mulsanne Turbo
1987–1992 Mulsanne S
1984–1992 Eight: basic model
1985–1995 Turbo R: turbocharged performance version
1991–2002 Continental R: turbocharged 2-door model
1994–1995 Continental S: intercooled
1996–2002 Continental T
1999–2003 Continental R Mulliner: performance model
1992–1998 Brooklands: improved Eight
1996–1998 Brooklands R: performance Brooklands
1994–1995 Turbo S: limited-edition sports model
1994–1995 Continental S: to order only version of Continental R with features of Turbo S incorporated
1995–1997 New Turbo R: updated 96MY Turbo R with revised bumpers, single front door glazing, new door mirrors, spare in trunk, engine cover, new seat design, auto lights, auto wipers etc.
1995–2003 Azure: convertible Continental R
1996–2002 Continental T: short-wheelbase performance model
1997–1998 Turbo RL: "new" Turbo R LWB (Long Wheel Base)
1997–1998 Bentley Turbo RT: replacement for the Turbo RL
1997–1998 RT Mulliner: Ultra exclusive performance model
Volkswagen (1998–present)
In October 1997, Vickers announced that it had decided to sell Rolls-Royce Motors. BMW AG seemed to be a logical purchaser because BMW already supplied engines and other components for Bentley and Rolls-Royce branded cars and because of BMW and Vickers joint efforts in building aircraft engines. BMW made a final offer of £340m, but was outbid by Volkswagen AG, which offered £430m. Volkswagen AG acquired the vehicle designs, model nameplates, production and administrative facilities, the Spirit of Ecstasy and Rolls-Royce grille shape trademarks, but not the rights to the use of the Rolls-Royce name or logo, which are owned by Rolls-Royce Holdings plc. In 1998, BMW started supplying components for the new range of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars—notably V8 engines for the Bentley Arnage and V12 engines for the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph, however, the supply contract allowed BMW to terminate its supply deal with Rolls-Royce with 12 months' notice, which would not be enough time for Volkswagen to re-engineer the cars.
BMW paid Rolls-Royce plc £40m to license the Rolls-Royce name and logo. After negotiations, BMW and Volkswagen AG agreed that, from 1998 to 2002, BMW would continue to supply engines and components and would allow Volkswagen temporary use of the Rolls-Royce name and logo. All BMW engine supply ended in 2003 with the end of Silver Seraph production.
From 1 January 2003 forward, Volkswagen AG would be the sole provider of cars with the "Bentley" marque. BMW established a new legal entity, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, and built a new administrative headquarters and production facility for Rolls-Royce branded vehicles in Goodwood, West Sussex, England.
Investment and company development
After acquiring the business, Volkswagen spent £500 million (about US$845 million) to modernise the Crewe factory and increase production capacity.
As of early 2010, there are about 3,500 working at Crewe, compared with about 1,500 in 1998 before being taken over by Volkswagen. It was reported that Volkswagen invested a total of nearly US$2 billion in Bentley and its revival. As a result of upgrading facilities at Crewe the bodywork now arrives fully painted at the Crewe facility for final assembly, with the parts coming from Germany—similarly Rolls-Royce body shells are painted and shipped to the UK for assembly only.
Demand had been so great that the factory at Crewe was unable to meet orders despite an installed capacity of approximately 9,500 vehicles per year; there was a waiting list of over a year for new cars to be delivered. Consequently, part of the production of the new Flying Spur, a four-door version of the Continental GT, was assigned to the Transparent Factory (Germany), where the Volkswagen Phaeton luxury car was also assembled. This arrangement ceased at the end of 2006 after around 1,000 cars, with all car production reverting to the Crewe plant.
Bentley presented Queen Elizabeth II with an official State Limousine in 2002 to celebrate her Golden Jubilee. Production of the two-door convertible Bentley Azure finished in 2003. It was replaced by a large luxury coupé powered by a W12 engine built in Crewe and named Bentley Continental GT.
It was confirmed in April 2005 a four-seat convertible Azure derived from the Arnage Drophead Coupé prototype would begin at Crewe in 2006. By the autumn of 2005, a convertible version of the successful Continental GT, the Continental GTC, was also presented in the autumn of 2005. These two models were launched in late 2006.
A limited run of a Zagato modified GT was also announced in March 2008, dubbed "GTZ".
A new version of the Bentley Continental was introduced at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show: The Continental Supersports. This new Bentley is a supercar combining extreme power with environmentally friendly FlexFuel technology, capable of using petrol (gasoline) and biofuel (E85 ethanol).
Bentley sales continued to increase, and in 2005 8,627 were sold worldwide, 3,654 in the United States. In 2007, the 10,000 cars-per-year threshold was broken for the first time with sales of 10,014. For 2007, a record profit of €155 million was also announced. Bentley reported a sale of about 7,600 units in 2008. However, its global sales plunged 50 percent to 4,616 vehicles in 2009 (with the U.S. deliveries dropped 49% to 1,433 vehicles) and it suffered an operating loss of €194 million, compared with an operating profit of €10 million in 2008. As a result of the slump in sales, production at Crewe was shut down during March and April 2009. Though vehicle sales increased by 11% to 5,117 in 2010, operating loss grew by 26% to €245 million. In Autumn 2010, workers at Crewe staged a series of protests over proposal of compulsory work on Fridays and mandatory overtime during the week.
Vehicle sales in 2011 rose 37% to 7,003 vehicles, with the new Continental GT accounting for over one-third of total sales. The current workforce is about 4,000 people.
The business earned a profit in 2011 after two years of losses as a result of the following sales results:
On 23 March 2020, Bentley announced to halt production due to COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, Bentley announced that it will cut around 1,000 (one quarter of 4,200) job places in the UK as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 3 November 2020, Bentley announced that all new cars sold will be electric by 2030. This announcement also follows after the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in February 2020 that he approved legislation that will ban and phase out fuel combustion vehicles (including Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid vehicles) from the UK by 2030 with hybrids being banned by 2035.
Deliveries, profits and staff
Sources Volkswagen AG Annual Reports and press releases
Bentley recorded a 31% rise in global sales in FY21 despite shutdowns caused by the global coronavirus pandemic.
Production
Sources Volkswagen AG Annual Reports
List of Bentley vehicles
Crewe Volkswagen Bentleys
Car models in current production
2016–present: Bentayga
2018–present: Continental GT (Gen 3)
2019–present: Flying Spur (Gen 3)
Car models formerly in production
1998–2009: Arnage
2003–2011: Continental GT
2005–2013: Continental Flying Spur (Gen 1)
2006–2009: Azure (Gen 2)
2008–2011: Bentley Brooklands (Gen 2)
2010–2020: Mulsanne
2011–2018: Continental GT (Gen 2)
2013–2019: Flying Spur (Gen 2)
Special edition car models
1999: Hunaudières Concept
2002: State Limousine
Motorsport
A Bentley Continental GT3 entered by the M-Sport factory team won the Silverstone round of the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series. This was Bentley's first official entry in a British race since the 1930 RAC Tourist Trophy.
See also
List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom
References
Bibliography
- Total pages: 406
External links
"Inside the Bentley factory"—Jorn Madslien, BBC News
1919 establishments in England
1931 mergers and acquisitions
1980 mergers and acquisitions
1998 mergers and acquisitions
Audi
British brands
British royal warrant holders
Companies based in Cheshire
Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers
Sports car manufacturers
Vehicle manufacture in London
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1919
Volkswagen Group
Car brands |
5131 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chordate | Chordate | A chordate ( ) is a deuterostomic animal belonging to the phylum Chordata ( ). All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five distinctive physical characteristics (synapomorphies) that distinguish them from other taxa. These five synapomorphies are a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, an endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal slits, and a post-anal tail. The name "chordate" comes from the first of these synapomorphies, the notochord, which plays a significant role in chordate body plan structuring and movements. Chordates are also bilaterally symmetric, have a coelom, possess an enclosed circulatory system, and exhibit metameric segmentation.
In addition to the morphological characteristics used to define chordates, analysis of genome sequences has identified two conserved signature indels (CSIs) in their proteins: cyclophilin-like protein and inner mitochondrial membrane protease ATP23, which are exclusively shared by all vertebrates, tunicates and cephalochordates. These CSIs provide molecular means to reliably distinguish chordates from all other metazoans.
Chordates are divided into three subphyla: Craniata or Vertebrata (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals); Tunicata or Urochordata (sea squirts, salps and relatives, and larvaceans); and Cephalochordata (lancelets). The Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores, which is sister to Cephalochordata (see diagram under Phylogeny). Extinct taxa such as Vetulicolia and Conodonta are Chordata, but their internal placement is less certain. Hemichordata (which includes the acorn worms) was previously considered a fourth chordate subphylum, but now is treated as a separate phylum: hemichordates and Echinodermata form the Ambulacraria, the sister phylum of the Chordates. The Chordata and Ambulacraria, together and possibly with the Xenacoelomorpha, are believed to form the superphylum Deuterostomia, although this has recently been called into doubt.
Chordate fossils have been found from as early as the Cambrian explosion, 539 million years ago. Cladistically (phylogenetically), vertebrates – chordates with the notochord replaced by a vertebral column during development – are a subgroup of the clade Craniata, which consists of chordates with a skull. Of the more than 81,000 living species of chordates, about half are ray-finned fishes that are members of the class Actinopterygii and the vast majority of the rest are tetrapods (mostly birds and mammals).
Anatomy
Chordates form a phylum of animals that are defined by having at some stage in their lives all of the following anatomical features:
A notochord, a stiff but elastic rod of glycoprotein wrapped in two collagen helices, which extends along the central axis of the body. Among members of the subphylum Vertebrata (vertebrates), the notochord gets replaced by hyaline cartilage or osseous tissue of the spine, and notochord remnants develop into the intervertebral discs, which allow adjacent spinal vertebrae to bend and twist relative to each other. In wholly aquatic species, this helps the animal swim efficiently by flexing its tail side-to-side.
A hollow dorsal nerve cord, also known as the neural tube, which develops into the spinal cord, the main communications trunk of the nervous system. In vertebrates, the rostral end of the neural tube enlarges into several vesicles, which give rise to the brain during embryonic development.
Pharyngeal slits. The pharynx is the part of the throat immediately behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, but in some other chordates they are part of a filter-feeding system that extracts food particles from ingested water. In tetrapods, they are only present during embryonic stages of the development.
A post-anal tail. A muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. In some chordates such as humans, this is only present in the embryonic stage.
An endostyle. This is a groove in the ventral wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus. It also stores iodine, and may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland.
There are soft constraints that separate chordates from other biological lineages, but are not part of the formal definition:
All chordates are deuterostomes. This means that, during the embryo development stage, the anus forms before the mouth.
All chordates are based on a bilateral body plan.
All chordates are coelomates, and have a fluid-filled body cavity called a coelom with a complete lining called peritoneum derived from mesoderm (see Brusca and Brusca).
Classification
The following schema is from the 2015 edition of Vertebrate Palaeontology. The invertebrate chordate classes are from Fishes of the World. While it is structured so as to reflect evolutionary relationships (similar to a cladogram), it also retains the traditional ranks used in Linnaean taxonomy.
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Cephalochordata (Acraniata) – (lancelets; 30 species)
Class Leptocardii (lancelets)
Clade Olfactores
Subphylum Tunicata (Urochordata) – (tunicates; 3,000 species)
Class Ascidiacea (sea squirts)
Class Thaliacea (salps, doliolids and pyrosomes)
Class Appendicularia (larvaceans)
Class Sorberacea
Subphylum Vertebrata (Craniata) (vertebrates – animals with backbones; 66,100+ species)
Superclass 'Agnatha' paraphyletic (jawless vertebrates; 100+ species)
Class Cyclostomata
Infraclass Myxinoidea or Myxini (hagfish; 65 species)
Infraclass Petromyzontida or Hyperoartia (lampreys)
Class †Conodonta
Class †Myllokunmingiida
Class †Pteraspidomorphi
Class †Thelodonti
Class †Anaspida
Class †Cephalaspidomorphi
Infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates)
Class †Placodermi (Paleozoic armoured forms; paraphyletic in relation to all other gnathostomes)
Class Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish; 900+ species)
Class †Acanthodii (Paleozoic "spiny sharks"; paraphyletic in relation to Chondrichthyes)
Class Osteichthyes (bony fish; 30,000+ species)
Subclass Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish; about 30,000 species)
Subclass Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish: 8 species)
Superclass Tetrapoda (four-limbed vertebrates; 35,100+ species) (The classification below follows Benton 2004, and uses a synthesis of rank-based Linnaean taxonomy and also reflects evolutionary relationships. Benton included the Superclass Tetrapoda in the Subclass Sarcopterygii in order to reflect the direct descent of tetrapods from lobe-finned fish, despite the former being assigned a higher taxonomic rank.)
Class Amphibia (amphibians; 8,100+ species)
Class Sauropsida (reptiles (including birds); 21,300+ species – 10,000+ species of birds and 11,300+ species of reptiles)
Class Synapsida (mammals; 5,700+ species)
Subphyla
Cephalochordata: Lancelets
Cephalochordates, one of the three subdivisions of chordates, are small, "vaguely fish-shaped" animals that lack brains, clearly defined heads and specialized sense organs. These burrowing filter-feeders compose the earliest-branching chordate sub-phylum.
Tunicata (Urochordata)
Most tunicates appear as adults in two major forms, known as "sea squirts" and salps, both of which are soft-bodied filter-feeders that lack the standard features of chordates. Sea squirts are sessile and consist mainly of water pumps and filter-feeding apparatus; salps float in mid-water, feeding on plankton, and have a two-generation cycle in which one generation is solitary and the next forms chain-like colonies. However, all tunicate larvae have the standard chordate features, including long, tadpole-like tails; they also have rudimentary brains, light sensors and tilt sensors. The third main group of tunicates, Appendicularia (also known as Larvacea), retain tadpole-like shapes and active swimming all their lives, and were for a long time regarded as larvae of sea squirts or salps. The etymology of the term Urochordata (Balfour 1881) is from the ancient Greek οὐρά (oura, "tail") + Latin chorda ("cord"), because the notochord is only found in the tail. The term Tunicata (Lamarck 1816) is recognised as having precedence and is now more commonly used.
Craniata (Vertebrata)
Craniates all have distinct skulls. They include the hagfish, which have no vertebrae. Michael J. Benton commented that "craniates are characterized by their heads, just as chordates, or possibly all deuterostomes, are by their tails".
Most craniates are vertebrates, in which the notochord is replaced by the vertebral column. These consist of a series of bony or cartilaginous cylindrical vertebrae, generally with neural arches that protect the spinal cord, and with projections that link the vertebrae. However hagfish have incomplete braincases and no vertebrae, and are therefore not regarded as vertebrates,
but as members of the craniates, the group from which vertebrates are thought to have evolved. However the cladistic exclusion of hagfish from the vertebrates is controversial, as they may be degenerate vertebrates who have lost their vertebral columns.
The position of lampreys is ambiguous. They have complete braincases and rudimentary vertebrae, and therefore may be regarded as vertebrates and true fish. However, molecular phylogenetics, which uses biochemical features to classify organisms, has produced both results that group them with vertebrates and others that group them with hagfish. If lampreys are more closely related to the hagfish than the other vertebrates, this would suggest that they form a clade, which has been named the Cyclostomata.
Phylogeny
Overview
There is still much ongoing differential (DNA sequence based) comparison research that is trying to separate out the simplest forms of chordates. As some lineages of the 90% of species that lack a backbone or notochord might have lost these structures over time, this complicates the classification of chordates. Some chordate lineages may only be found by DNA analysis, when there is no physical trace of any chordate-like structures.
Attempts to work out the evolutionary relationships of the chordates have produced several hypotheses. The current consensus is that chordates are monophyletic, meaning that the Chordata include all and only the descendants of a single common ancestor, which is itself a chordate, and that craniates' nearest relatives are tunicates. Recent identification of two conserved signature indels (CSIs) in the proteins cyclophilin-like protein and mitochondrial inner membrane protease ATP23, which are exclusively shared by all vertebrates, tunicates and cephalochordates also provide strong evidence of the monophyly of Chordata.
All of the earliest chordate fossils have been found in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna, and include two species that are regarded as fish, which implies that they are vertebrates. Because the fossil record of early chordates is poor, only molecular phylogenetics offers a reasonable prospect of dating their emergence. However, the use of molecular phylogenetics for dating evolutionary transitions is controversial.
It has also proved difficult to produce a detailed classification within the living chordates. Attempts to produce evolutionary "family trees" shows that many of the traditional classes are paraphyletic.
Diagram of the evolutionary relationships of chordates
While this has been well known since the 19th century, an insistence on only monophyletic taxa has resulted in vertebrate classification being in a state of flux.
The majority of animals more complex than jellyfish and other Cnidarians are split into two groups, the protostomes and deuterostomes, the latter of which contains chordates. It seems very likely the Kimberella was a member of the protostomes. If so, this means the protostome and deuterostome lineages must have split some time before Kimberella appeared—at least , and hence well before the start of the Cambrian . The Ediacaran fossil Ernietta, from about , may represent a deuterostome animal.
Fossils of one major deuterostome group, the echinoderms (whose modern members include starfish, sea urchins and crinoids), are quite common from the start of the Cambrian, . The Mid Cambrian fossil Rhabdotubus johanssoni has been interpreted as a pterobranch hemichordate. Opinions differ about whether the Chengjiang fauna fossil Yunnanozoon, from the earlier Cambrian, was a hemichordate or chordate. Another fossil, Haikouella lanceolata, also from the Chengjiang fauna, is interpreted as a chordate and possibly a craniate, as it shows signs of a heart, arteries, gill filaments, a tail, a neural chord with a brain at the front end, and possibly eyes—although it also had short tentacles round its mouth. Haikouichthys and Myllokunmingia, also from the Chengjiang fauna, are regarded as fish. Pikaia, discovered much earlier (1911) but from the Mid Cambrian Burgess Shale (505 Ma), is also regarded as a primitive chordate. On the other hand, fossils of early chordates are very rare, since invertebrate chordates have no bones or teeth, and only one has been reported for the rest of the Cambrian.
The evolutionary relationships between the chordate groups and between chordates as a whole and their closest deuterostome relatives have been debated since 1890. Studies based on anatomical, embryological, and paleontological data have produced different "family trees". Some closely linked chordates and hemichordates, but that idea is now rejected. Combining such analyses with data from a small set of ribosome RNA genes eliminated some older ideas, but opened up the possibility that tunicates (urochordates) are "basal deuterostomes", surviving members of the group from which echinoderms, hemichordates and chordates evolved. Some researchers believe that, within the chordates, craniates are most closely related to cephalochordates, but there are also reasons for regarding tunicates (urochordates) as craniates' closest relatives.
Since early chordates have left a poor fossil record, attempts have been made to calculate the key dates in their evolution by molecular phylogenetics techniques—by analyzing biochemical differences, mainly in RNA. One such study suggested that deuterostomes arose before and the earliest chordates around . However, molecular estimates of dates often disagree with each other and with the fossil record, and their assumption that the molecular clock runs at a known constant rate has been challenged.
Traditionally, Cephalochordata and Craniata were grouped into the proposed clade "Euchordata", which would have been the sister group to Tunicata/Urochordata. More recently, Cephalochordata has been thought of as a sister group to the "Olfactores", which includes the craniates and tunicates. The matter is not yet settled.
A specific relationship between Vertebrates and Tunicates is also strongly supported by two CSIs found in the proteins predicted exosome complex RRP44 and serine palmitoyltransferase, that are exclusively shared by species from these two subphyla but not Cephalochordates, indicating Vertebrates are more closely related to Tunicates than Cephalochordates.
Cladogram
Phylogenetic tree of the chordate phylum. Lines of the cladogram show probable evolutionary relationships between both extinct taxa, which are denoted with a dagger (†), and extant taxa. Relatives of vertebrates are invertebrates. The positions (relationships) of the lancelets, tunicates, and craniates/vertebrates are based on the following studies:
Closest nonchordate relatives
The closest relatives of the Chordates are believed to be the Hemichordates and Echinodermata, which together form the Ambulacraria.
The Chordata and Ambulacraria together form the superphylum Deuterostomia.
Hemichordates
Hemichordates ("half chordates") have some features similar to those of chordates: branchial openings that open into the pharynx and look rather like gill slits; stomochords, similar in composition to notochords, but running in a circle round the "collar", which is ahead of the mouth; and a dorsal nerve cord—but also a smaller ventral nerve cord.
There are two living groups of hemichordates. The solitary enteropneusts, commonly known as "acorn worms", have long proboscises and worm-like bodies with up to 200 branchial slits, are up to long, and burrow though seafloor sediments. Pterobranchs are colonial animals, often less than long individually, whose dwellings are interconnected. Each filter feeds by means of a pair of branched tentacles, and has a short, shield-shaped proboscis. The extinct graptolites, colonial animals whose fossils look like tiny hacksaw blades, lived in tubes similar to those of pterobranchs.
Echinoderms
Echinoderms differ from chordates and their other relatives in three conspicuous ways: they possess bilateral symmetry only as larvae – in adulthood they have radial symmetry, meaning that their body pattern is shaped like a wheel; they have tube feet; and their bodies are supported by skeletons made of calcite, a material not used by chordates. Their hard, calcified shells keep their bodies well protected from the environment, and these skeletons enclose their bodies, but are also covered by thin skins. The feet are powered by another unique feature of echinoderms, a water vascular system of canals that also functions as a "lung" and surrounded by muscles that act as pumps. Crinoids look rather like flowers, and use their feather-like arms to filter food particles out of the water; most live anchored to rocks, but a few can move very slowly. Other echinoderms are mobile and take a variety of body shapes, for example starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers.
History of name
Although the name Chordata is attributed to William Bateson (1885), it was already in prevalent use by 1880. Ernst Haeckel described a taxon comprising tunicates, cephalochordates, and vertebrates in 1866. Though he used the German vernacular form, it is allowed under the ICZN code because of its subsequent latinization.
See also
References
External links
Chordate on GlobalTwitcher.com
Chordate node at Tree Of Life
Chordate node at NCBI Taxonomy
Terreneuvian first appearances
Extant Cambrian first appearances
Taxa named by Ernst Haeckel |
5132 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlize%20Theron | Charlize Theron | Charlize Theron ( ; ; born 7 August 1975) is a South African and American actress and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actresses, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 2016, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Theron came to international prominence in the 1990s by playing the leading lady in the Hollywood films The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999). She received critical acclaim for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003), for which she won the Silver Bear and Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first South African to win an acting Oscar. She received another Academy Award nomination for playing a sexually abused woman seeking justice in the drama North Country (2005).
Theron has starred in several commercially successful action films, including The Italian Job (2003), Hancock (2008), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Prometheus (2012), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), Atomic Blonde (2017), The Old Guard (2020), F9 (2021) and Fast X (2023). She received praise for playing troubled women in Jason Reitman's comedy-dramas Young Adult (2011) and Tully (2018), and for portraying Megyn Kelly in the biographical drama Bombshell (2019), for which she received her third Academy Award nomination.
Since the early 2000s, Theron has ventured into film production with her company Denver and Delilah Productions. She has produced numerous films, in many of which she had a starring role, including The Burning Plain (2008), Dark Places (2015), and Long Shot (2019). Theron became an American citizen in 2007, while retaining her South African citizenship. She has been honoured with a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early life
Theron was born in Benoni, in Transvaal Province (Gauteng Province since 1994) of South Africa on 7 August 1975. She is the only child of road constructionists Gerda (née Maritz) and Charles Theron (27 November 1947 – 21 June 1991). The Second Boer War military leader Danie Theron was her great-grand-uncle. She is from an Afrikaner family, and her ancestry includes Dutch as well as French and German. Her French forebears were early Huguenots in South Africa.
She grew up on her parents' farm in Benoni, near Johannesburg. On 21 June 1991, Theron's father, an alcoholic, threatened both Charlize and her mother while drunk, physically attacking her mother and firing a gun at both of them. Theron's mother retrieved her own handgun, shot back and killed him. The shooting was legally adjudged to have been self-defense, and her mother faced no charges.
Theron attended Putfontein Primary School (Laerskool Putfontein), a period during which she has said she was not "fitting in". She was frequently unwell with jaundice throughout childhood and the antibiotics she was administered made her upper incisor milk teeth rot (they had to be surgically removed) and teeth did not grow until she was roughly ten years old. At 13, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg. She has said about her early life in her home country: “I grew up as an only child in South Africa, and there was turmoil in my family, but the surroundings were so great. I was usually barefoot in the dirt: no Game Boys, no computers, and we had sanctions, so there were no concerts. This meant you had to entertain yourself.”
Although Theron is fluent in English, her first language is Afrikaans.
Career
Early work (1991–1996)
Although seeing herself as a dancer, at age 16 Theron won a one-year modelling contract at a local competition in Salerno and moved with her mother to Milan, Italy. After Theron spent a year modelling throughout Europe, she and her mother moved to the United States, both New York City and Miami. In New York, she attended the Joffrey Ballet School, where she trained as a ballet dancer until a knee injury closed this career path. As Theron recalled in 2008:
In 1994, Theron flew to Los Angeles, on a one-way ticket her mother bought for her, intending to work in the film industry. During the initial months there, she lived in a motel with the $300 budget that her mother had given her; she continued receiving cheques from New York and lived "from paycheck to paycheck" to the point of stealing bread from a basket in a restaurant to survive. One day, she went to a Hollywood Boulevard bank to cash a few cheques, including one her mother had sent to help with the rent, but it was rejected because it was out-of-state and she was not an American citizen. Theron argued and pleaded with the bank teller until talent agent John Crosby, who was the next customer behind her, cashed it for her and gave her his business card.
Crosby introduced Theron to an acting school, and in 1995 she played her first non-speaking role in the horror film Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest. Her first speaking role was Helga Svelgen the hitwoman in 2 Days in the Valley (1996), but despite the film's mixed reviews, attention drew to Theron due to her beauty and the scene where she fought Teri Hatcher's character. Theron feared being typecast as characters similar to Helga and recalled being asked to repeat her performance in the film during auditions: "A lot of people were saying, 'You should just hit while the iron's hot' [...] But playing the same part over and over doesn't leave you with any longevity. And I knew it was going to be harder for me, because of what I look like, to branch out to different kinds of roles".
When auditioning for Showgirls, Theron was introduced to talent agent J. J. Harris by the co-casting director Johanna Ray. She recalled being surprised at how much faith Harris had in her potential and referred to Harris as her mentor. Harris would find scripts and films for Theron in a variety of genres and encouraged her to become a producer. She would be Theron's agent for over 15 years until Harris's death.
Breakthrough (1997–2002)
Larger roles in widely released Hollywood films followed, and her career expanded by the end of the 1990s. In the horror drama The Devil's Advocate (1997), which is credited to be her break-out film, Theron starred alongside Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino as the haunted wife of an unusually successful lawyer. She subsequently starred in the adventure film Mighty Joe Young (1998) as the friend and protector of a giant mountain gorilla, and in the drama The Cider House Rules (1999), as a woman who seeks an abortion in World War II-era Maine. While Mighty Joe Young flopped at the box office, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules were commercially successful. She was on the cover of the January 1999 issue of Vanity Fair as the "White Hot Venus". She appeared on the cover of the May 1999 issue of Playboy magazine, in photos taken several years earlier when she was an unknown model; Theron unsuccessfully sued the magazine for publishing them without her consent.
By the early 2000s, Theron continued to steadily take on roles in films such as Reindeer Games (2000), The Yards (2000), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), Men of Honor (2000), Sweet November (2001), The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), and Trapped (2002), all of which, despite achieving only limited commercial success, helped to establish her as an actress. On this period in her career, Theron remarked: "I kept finding myself in a place where directors would back me but studios didn't. [I began] a love affair with directors, the ones I really, truly admired. I found myself making really bad movies, too. Reindeer Games was not a good movie, but I did it because I loved [director] John Frankenheimer."
Worldwide recognition and critical success (2003–2008)
Theron starred as a safe and vault technician in the 2003 heist film The Italian Job, an American homage/remake of the 1969 British film of the same name, directed by F. Gary Gray and opposite Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton, Jason Statham, Seth Green, and Donald Sutherland. The film was a box office success, grossing US$176 million worldwide.
In Monster (2003), Theron portrayed serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a former prostitute who was executed in Florida in 2002 for killing six men (she was not tried for a seventh murder) in the late 1980s and early 1990s; film critic Roger Ebert felt that Theron gave "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema". For her portrayal, she was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 76th Academy Awards in February 2004, as well as the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Golden Globe Award. She is the first South African to win an Oscar for Best Actress. The Oscar win pushed her to The Hollywood Reporters 2006 list of highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, earning up to US$10 million for a film; she ranked seventh. AskMen named her the number one most desirable woman of 2003.
For her role as Swedish actress and singer Britt Ekland in the 2004 HBO film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Theron garnered Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In 2005, she portrayed Rita, the mentally challenged love interest of Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), on the third season of Fox's television series Arrested Development, and starred in the financially unsuccessful science fiction thriller Æon Flux; for her voice-over work in the Aeon Flux video game, she received a Spike Video Game Award for Best Performance by a Human Female.
In the critically acclaimed drama North Country (2005), Theron played a single mother and an iron mine worker experiencing sexual harassment. David Rooney of Variety wrote: "The film represents a confident next step for lead Charlize Theron. Though the challenges of following a career-redefining Oscar role have stymied actresses, Theron segues from Monster to a performance in many ways more accomplished [...] The strength of both the performance and character anchor the film firmly in the tradition of other dramas about working-class women leading the fight over industrial workplace issues, such as Norma Rae or Silkwood." Roger Ebert echoed the same sentiment, calling her "an actress who has the beauty of a fashion model but has found resources within herself for these powerful roles about unglamorous women in the world of men." For her performance, she received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress. Ms. magazine honoured her for this performance with a feature article in its Fall 2005 issue. On 30 September 2005, Theron received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2007, Theron played a police detective in the critically acclaimed crime film In the Valley of Elah, and produced and starred as a reckless, slatternly mother in the drama film Sleepwalking, alongside Nick Stahl and AnnaSophia Robb. The Christian Science Monitor praised the latter film, commenting that "Despite its deficiencies, and the inadequate screen time allotted to Theron (who's quite good), Sleepwalking has a core of feeling". In 2008, Theron starred as a woman who faced a traumatic childhood in the drama The Burning Plain, directed by Guillermo Arriaga and opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Kim Basinger, and played the ex-wife of an alcoholic superhero alongside Will Smith in the superhero film Hancock. The Burning Plain found a limited release in US theatres, but grossed $5,267,917 outside the US. Hancock made US$624.3 million worldwide. Also in 2008, Theron was named the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of the Year, and was asked to be a UN Messenger of Peace by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Career hiatus and fluctuations (2009–2016)
Her film releases in 2009 were the post-apocalyptic drama The Road, in which she briefly appears in flashbacks, and the animated film Astro Boy, providing her voice for a character. On 4 December 2009, Theron co-presented the draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, accompanied by several other celebrities of South African nationality or ancestry. During rehearsals she drew an Ireland ball instead of France as a joke at the expense of FIFA, referring to Thierry Henry's handball controversy in the play-off match between France and Ireland. The stunt alarmed FIFA enough for it to fear she might do it again in front of a live global audience.
Following a two-year hiatus from films, Theron returned to the spotlight in 2011 with the black comedy Young Adult. Directed by Jason Reitman, the film earned critical acclaim, particularly for her performance as a depressed divorced, alcoholic 37-year-old ghostwriter. Richard Roeper awarded the film an A grade, stating "Charlize Theron delivers one of the most impressive performances of the year". She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and several other awards. Roger Ebert called her one of the best actors working today.
In 2019, Theron spoke about her method of working on roles. Creating a physical identity together with the emotional part of the character, she said, is "a great tool set that adds on to everything else you were already doing as an actor. It's a case-by-case thing, but there is, to me, this beautiful thing that happens when you can get both sides: the exterior and interior. It's a really powerful dynamic". When preparing for a role, "I almost treat it like studying. I will find space where I am alone, where I can be focused, where there's nobody in my house, and I can really just sit down and study and play and look at my face and hear my voice and walk around and be a fucking idiot and my dogs are the only ones who are seeing that".
In 2012, Theron took on the role of villain in two big-budgeted films. She played Evil Queen Ravenna, Snow White's evil stepmother, in Snow White and the Huntsman, opposite Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth, and appeared as a crew member with a hidden agenda in Ridley Scott's Prometheus. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle found Snow White and the Huntsman to be "[a] slow, boring film that has no charm and is highlighted only by a handful of special effects and Charlize Theron's truly evil queen", while The Hollywood Reporter writer Todd McCarthy, describing her role in Prometheus, asserted: "Theron is in ice goddess mode here, with the emphasis on ice [...] but perfect for the role all the same". Both films were major box office hits, grossing around US$400 million internationally each. The following year, Vulture/NYMag named her the 68th Most Valuable Star in Hollywood saying: "We're just happy that Theron can stay on the list in a year when she didn't come out with anything [...] any actress who's got that kind of skill, beauty, and ferocity ought to have a permanent place in Hollywood". On 10 May 2014, Theron hosted Saturday Night Live on NBC. In 2014, Theron took on the role of the wife of an infamous outlaw in the western comedy film A Million Ways to Die in the West, directed by Seth MacFarlane, which was met with mediocre reviews and moderate box office returns.
In 2015, Theron played the sole survivor of the massacre of her family in the film adaptation of the Gillian Flynn novel Dark Places, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, in which she had a producer credit, and starred as Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), opposite Tom Hardy. Mad Max received widespread critical acclaim, with praise going towards Theron for the dominant nature taken by her character. The film made US$378.4 million worldwide. She next reprised her role as Queen Ravenna in the 2016 film The Huntsman: Winter's War, a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, which was a critical and commercial failure. In 2016, Theron starred as a physician and activist working in West Africa in the little-seen romantic drama The Last Face, with Sean Penn, provided her voice for the 3D stop-motion fantasy film Kubo and the Two Strings, and produced the independent drama Brain on Fire. That year, Time named her in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
Resurgence (2017–present)
In 2017, Theron starred in The Fate of the Furious as the cyberterrorist Cipher, the main antagonist of the entire franchise, and played a spy on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 in Atomic Blonde, an adaptation of the graphic novel The Coldest City, directed by David Leitch. The Fate of The Furious had a worldwide gross of US$1.2 billion. and Atomic Blonde was described by Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times as "a slick vehicle for the magnetic, badass charms of Charlize Theron, who is now officially an A-list action star on the strength of this film and Mad Max: Fury Road". In the black comedy Tully (2018), directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody, Theron played an overwhelmed mother of three. The film was acclaimed by critics, who concluded it "delves into the modern parenthood experience with an admirably deft blend of humor and raw honesty, brought to life by an outstanding performance by Charlize Theron". She played the president of a pharmaceutical in the crime film Gringo and produced the biographical war drama film A Private War, both released in 2018.
In 2019, Theron produced and starred in the romantic comedy film Long Shot, opposite Seth Rogen and directed by Jonathan Levine, portraying a U.S. Secretary of State who reconnects with a journalist she used to babysit. The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest in March 2019, and was released on 3 May 2019, to positive reviews from film critics. Theron next starred as Megyn Kelly in the drama Bombshell, which she co-produced. Directed by Jay Roach, the film revolves around the sexual harassment allegations made against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes by former female employees. For her work in the film, Theron was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, and BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. That same year, Forbes ranked her as the ninth highest-paid actress in the world, with an annual income of $23 million. In 2020, she produced and starred opposite KiKi Layne in The Old Guard, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. The following year, she reprised her role as Cipher in F9, originally set for release on 22 May 2020, before its delay to June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Upon the film's release in May 2022, it was revealed that Theron would be portraying the character Clea in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), beginning with her debut in the mid-credits scene of the superhero film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She played Lady Lesso in the fantasy Netflix film The School for Good and Evil (2022). The actress makes a cameo in Season 3 opener of The Boys as an actress playing Stormfront.
In 2023, Theron executive produced Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York, a documentary series revolving around a serial killer preying upon gay men for HBO.
Other ventures
Activism
The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) was created in 2007 by Theron, who the following year was named a UN Messenger of Peace, in an effort to support African youth in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The project is committed to supporting community-engaged organizations that address the key drivers of the disease. Although the geographic scope of CTAOP is Sub-Saharan Africa, the primary concentration has mostly been Charlize's home country of South Africa. By November 2017, CTAOP had raised more than $6.3 million to support African organizations working on the ground.
In 2008, Theron was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In his citation, Ban Ki-Moon said of Theron "You have consistently dedicated yourself to improving the lives of women and children in South Africa, and to preventing and stopping violence against women and girls". She recorded a public service announcement in 2014 as part of their Stop Rape Now program.
In December 2009, CTAOP and Toms Shoes partnered to create a limited edition unisex shoe. The shoe was made from vegan materials and inspired by the African baobab tree, the silhouette of which was embroidered on blue and orange canvas. Ten thousand pairs were given to destitute children, and a portion of the proceeds went to CTAOP.
In 2020, CTAOP partnered with Parfums Christian Dior to create Dior Stands With Women, an initiative that includes Cara Delevingne, Yalitza Aparicio, Leona Bloom, Paloma Elsesser, and others, to encourage women to be assertive by documenting their journey, challenges and accomplishments.
Theron is involved in women's rights organizations and has marched in pro-choice rallies.
Theron is a supporter of same-sex marriage and attended a march and rally to support that in Fresno, California, on 30 May 2009. She publicly stated that she refused to get married until same sex marriage became legal in the United States, saying: "I don't want to get married because right now the institution of marriage feels very one-sided, and I want to live in a country where we all have equal rights. I think it would be exactly the same if we were married, but for me to go through that kind of ceremony, because I have so many friends who are gays and lesbians who would so badly want to get married, that I wouldn't be able to sleep with myself". Theron further elaborated on her stance in a June 2011 interview on Piers Morgan Tonight. She stated: "I do have a problem with the fact that our government hasn't stepped up enough to make this federal, to make [gay marriage] legal. I think everybody has that right".
In March 2014, CTAOP was among the charities that benefited from the annual Fame and Philanthropy fundraising event on the night of the 86th Academy Awards. Theron was an honoured guest along with Halle Berry and keynote speaker James Cameron.
In 2015, Theron signed an open letter which One Campaign had been collecting signatures for; the letter was addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, urging them to focus on women as they serve as the head of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa respectively, which will start to set the priorities in development funding before a main UN summit in September 2015 that will establish new development goals for the generation. In August 2017, she visited South Africa with Trevor Noah and made a donation to the South African charity Life Choices. In 2018, she gave a speech about AIDS prevention at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, organized by the International AIDS Society.
Since 2008, Theron has been named a United Nations Messenger of Peace.
On 22 June 2022, it was announced that Theron and Sheryl Lee Ralph would receive the Elizabeth Taylor Commitment to End AIDS Award for their commitment to raising awareness of HIV at the Elizabeth Taylor Ball to End AIDS fundraising gala.
Endorsements
Having signed a deal with John Galliano in 2004, Theron replaced Estonian model Tiiu Kuik as the spokeswoman in the J'Adore advertisements by Christian Dior. In 2018, she appeared in a new advertisement for Dior J'adore. From October 2005 to December 2006, Theron earned US$3 million for the use of her image in a worldwide print media advertising campaign for Raymond Weil watches. In February 2006, she and her production company were sued by Weil for breach of contract. The lawsuit was settled on 4 November 2008. In 2018, Theron joined Brad Pitt, Daniel Wu and Adam Driver as brand ambassadors for Breitling, dubbed the Breitling Cinema Squad.
Personal life
In 2007, Theron became a naturalised citizen of the United States, while retaining her South African citizenship.
Theron has adopted two children: a daughter in March 2012 and another daughter in July 2015. She has been interested in adoption since childhood, when she became aware of orphanages and the overflowing numbers of children in them. In April 2019, Theron revealed that Jackson, then seven years old, is a transgender girl. She said of her daughters, "They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide".
She is inspired by actresses Susan Sarandon and Sigourney Weaver. She has described her admiration for Tom Hanks as a "love affair" and watched many of his films throughout her youth. Hollywood actors were not featured in magazines in South Africa so she did not know how famous he was until she moved to the United States, which has been inferred as a factor of her "down-to-earth" attitude to fame. After filming for That Thing You Do! finished, Theron got Hanks' autograph on her script. She later presented him his Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2020, in which Hanks revealed that he had a mutual admiration for Theron's career since the day he met her.
Theron said in 2018 that she went to therapy in her thirties because of anger, discovering that it was due to her frustration growing up during South Africa's apartheid, which ended when she was 15.
Theron is a longtime fan of the English band Depeche Mode, and was the presenter for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2020.
Relationships
Theron's first public relationship was with actor Craig Bierko, whom she dated from 1995 to 1997.
Theron was in a three-year relationship with singer Stephan Jenkins until October 2001. Some of Third Eye Blind's third album, Out of the Vein, explores the emotions Jenkins experienced as a result of their breakup.
Theron began a relationship with Irish actor Stuart Townsend in 2001 after meeting him on the set of Trapped. The couple lived together in Los Angeles and Ireland. The couple split up in late 2009.
In December 2013, Theron began dating American actor Sean Penn. The relationship ended in June 2015.
Health concerns
Theron often quips that she has more injuries on sets that are not action films; however, while filming Æon Flux in Berlin, Theron suffered a herniated disc in her neck, caused by a fall while filming a series of back handsprings. It required her to wear a neck brace for a month. Her thumb ligament tore during filming of The Old Guard when her thumb caught in another actor's jacket during a fight scene, which required three operations and six months in a thumb brace. During the filming of Atomic Blonde she broke teeth from clenching her jaw, and had dental surgery to remove them: "I had the removal and I had to put a donor bone in there to heal until I came back, and then I had another surgery to put a metal screw in there."
Outside of action films, she had a herniated disk in her lower back as she filmed Tully and suffered from a depression-like state, which she theorized was the result of the processed food she had to eat for her character's post-natal body. In July 2009, she was diagnosed with a serious stomach virus, thought to be contracted while overseas. While filming The Road, Theron injured her vocal cords while screaming during the labour scenes. When promoting Long Shot, she revealed that she laughed so hard at Borat that her neck locked for five days. She added that on the set of Long Shot she "ended up in the ER" after knocking her head against a bench behind her when she was putting on knee pads.
Filmography and accolades
As of early 2020, Theron's film work has earned her 100 award nominations and 39 wins.
References
External links
(Verified Twitter account)
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1975 births
20th-century American actresses
20th-century South African actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century South African actresses
Afrikaner people
American abortion-rights activists
American female models
American film actresses
American film producers
American people of Afrikaner descent
American people of Dutch descent
American people of French descent
American people of German descent
American television actresses
American voice actresses
American women film producers
American women's rights activists
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
HIV/AIDS activists
Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead winners
Living people
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
People from Benoni
Silver Bear for Best Actress winners
South African emigrants to the United States
South African female models
South African film actresses
South African film producers
South African humanitarians
South African people of Dutch descent
South African people of French descent
South African people of German descent
South African television actresses
South African voice actresses
South African women activists
South African women's rights activists
United Nations Messengers of Peace |
5134 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess | Chess | Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as (Chinese chess) and (Japanese chess). The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga, in seventh century India. The rules of chess as they are known today emerged in Europe at the end of the 15th century, with standardization and universal acceptance by the end of the 19th century. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games played by millions of people worldwide.
Chess is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. At the start, each player controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. White moves first, followed by Black. The game is won by checkmating the opponent's king, i.e. threatening it with inescapable capture. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw.
Organized chess arose in the 19th century. Chess competition today is governed internationally by FIDE (the International Chess Federation). The first universally recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; Ding Liren is the current World Champion. A huge body of chess theory has developed since the game's inception. Aspects of art are found in chess composition, and chess in its turn influenced Western culture and the arts, and has connections with other fields such as mathematics, computer science, and psychology.
One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine. In 1997, Deep Blue became the first computer to beat the reigning World Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov. Today's chess engines are significantly stronger than the best human players and have deeply influenced the development of chess theory; however, chess is not a solved game.
Rules
The rules of chess are published by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs; "International Chess Federation"), chess's world governing body, in its Handbook. Rules published by national governing bodies, or by unaffiliated chess organizations, commercial publishers, etc., may differ in some details. FIDE's rules were most recently revised in 2023.
Setup
Chess sets come in a wide variety of styles. The Staunton pattern is the most common, and is usually required for competition. Chess pieces are divided into two sets, usually light and dark colored, referred to as white and black, regardless of the actual color or design. The players of the sets are referred to as White and Black, respectively. Each set consists of sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns.
The game is played on a square board of eight rows (called ) and eight columns (called ). By convention, the 64 squares alternate in color and are referred to as and squares; common colors for chessboards are white and brown, or white and green.
The pieces are set out as shown in the diagram and photo. Thus, on White's first rank, from left to right, the pieces are placed as follows: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. Eight pawns are placed on the second rank. Black's position mirrors White's, with an equivalent piece on the same file. The board is placed with a light square at the right-hand corner nearest to each player. The correct positions of the king and queen may be remembered by the phrase "queen on her own color" (i.e. the white queen begins on a light square, and the black queen on a dark square).
In competitive games, the piece colors are allocated to players by the organizers; in informal games, the colors are usually decided randomly, for example by a coin toss, or by one player concealing a white pawn in one hand and a black pawn in the other, and having the opponent choose.
Movement
White moves first, after which players alternate turns, moving one piece per turn (except for castling, when two pieces are moved). A piece is moved to either an unoccupied square or one occupied by an opponent's piece, which is captured and removed from play. With the sole exception of en passant, all pieces capture by moving to the square that the opponent's piece occupies. Moving is compulsory; a player may not skip a turn, even when having to move is detrimental.
Each piece has its own way of moving. In the diagrams, crosses mark the squares to which the piece can move if there are no intervening piece(s) of either color (except the knight, which leaps over any intervening pieces). All pieces except the pawn can capture an enemy piece if it is on a square to which they could move if the square were unoccupied.
The king moves one square in any direction. There is also a special move called that involves moving the king and a rook. The king is the most valuable piece—attacks on the king must be immediately countered, and if this is impossible, the game is immediately lost (see Check and checkmate below).
A rook can move any number of squares along a rank or file, but cannot leap over other pieces. Along with the king, a rook is involved during the king's castling move.
A bishop can move any number of squares diagonally, but cannot leap over other pieces.
A queen combines the power of a rook and bishop and can move any number of squares along a rank, file, or diagonal, but cannot leap over other pieces.
A knight moves to any of the closest squares that are not on the same rank, file, or diagonal. (Thus the move forms an "L"-shape: two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically.) The knight is the only piece that can leap over other pieces.
A pawn can move forward to the unoccupied square immediately in front of it on the same file, or on its first move it can advance two squares along the same file, provided both squares are unoccupied (black dots in the diagram). A pawn can capture an opponent's piece on a square diagonally in front of it by moving to that square (black crosses). It can capture a piece while advancing along the same file. A pawn has two special moves: the en passant capture and promotion.
Check and checkmate
When a king is under immediate attack, it is said to be in check. A move in response to a check is legal only if it results in a position where the king is no longer in check. There are three ways to counter a check:
Capture the checking piece.
Interpose a piece between the checking piece and the king (which is possible only if the attacking piece is a queen, rook, or bishop and there is a square between it and the king).
Move the king to a square where it is not under attack.
Castling is not a permissible response to a check.
The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there is no legal way to get it out of check. It is never legal for a player to make a move that puts or leaves the player's own king in check. In casual games, it is common to announce "check" when putting the opponent's king in check, but this is not required by the rules of chess and is usually not done in tournaments.
Castling
Once per game, each king can make a move known as . Castling consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook of the same color on the same rank, and then placing the rook on the square that the king crossed.
Castling is permissible if the following conditions are met:
Neither the king nor the rook has previously moved during the game.
There are no pieces between the king and the rook.
The king is not in check and does not pass through or finish on a square attacked by an enemy piece.
Castling is still permitted if the rook is under attack, or if the rook crosses an attacked square.
En passant
When a pawn makes a two-step advance from its starting position and there is an opponent's pawn on a square next to the destination square on an adjacent file, then the opponent's pawn can capture it en passant ("in passing"), moving to the square the pawn passed over. This can be done only on the turn immediately following the enemy pawn's two-square advance; otherwise, the right to do so is forfeited. For example, in the animated diagram, the black pawn advances two squares from g7 to g5, and the white pawn on f5 can take it en passant on g6 (but only immediately after the black pawn's advance).
Promotion
When a pawn advances to its eighth rank, as part of the move, it is and must be exchanged for the player's choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. Usually, the pawn is chosen to be promoted to a queen, but in some cases, another piece is chosen; this is called underpromotion. In the animated diagram, the pawn on c7 can be advanced to the eighth rank and be promoted. There is no restriction on the piece promoted to, so it is possible to have more pieces of the same type than at the start of the game (e.g., two or more queens). If the required piece is not available (e.g. a second queen) an inverted rook is sometimes used as a substitute, but this is not recognized in FIDE-sanctioned games.
End of the game
Win
A game can be won in the following ways:
Checkmate: The king is in check and the player has no legal move. (See check and checkmate above.)
Resignation: A player may resign, conceding the game to the opponent. If, however, the opponent has no way of checkmating the resigned player, this is a draw under FIDE Laws. Most tournament players consider it good etiquette to resign in a hopeless position.
Win on time: In games with a time control, a player wins if the opponent runs out of time, even if the opponent has a superior position, as long as the player has a theoretical possibility to checkmate the opponent were the game to continue.
Forfeit: A player who cheats, violates the rules, or violates the rules of conduct specified for the particular tournament can be forfeited. Occasionally, both players are forfeited.
Draw
There are several ways a game can end in a draw:
Stalemate: If the player to move has no legal move, but is not in check, the position is a stalemate, and the game is drawn.
Dead position: If neither player is able to checkmate the other by any legal sequence of moves, the game is drawn. For example, if only the kings are on the board, all other pieces having been captured, checkmate is impossible, and the game is drawn by this rule. On the other hand, if both players still have a knight, there is a highly unlikely yet theoretical possibility of checkmate, so this rule does not apply. The dead position rule supersedes the previous rule which referred to "insufficient material", extending it to include other positions where checkmate is impossible, such as blocked pawn endings where the pawns cannot be attacked.
Draw by agreement: In tournament chess, draws are most commonly reached by mutual agreement between the players. The correct procedure is to verbally offer the draw, make a move, then start the opponent's clock. Traditionally, players have been allowed to agree to a draw at any point in the game, occasionally even without playing a move. More recently efforts have been made to discourage short draws, for example by forbidding draw offers before move thirty.
Threefold repetition: This most commonly occurs when neither side is able to avoid repeating moves without incurring a disadvantage. In this situation, either player can claim a draw; this requires the players to keep a valid written record of the game so that the claim can be verified by the arbiter if challenged. The three occurrences of the position need not occur on consecutive moves for a claim to be valid. The addition of the fivefold repetition rule in 2014 requires the arbiter to intervene immediately and declare the game a draw after five occurrences of the same position, consecutive or otherwise, without requiring a claim by either player. FIDE rules make no mention of perpetual check; this is merely a specific type of draw by threefold repetition.
Fifty-move rule: If during the previous 50 moves no pawn has been moved and no capture has been made, either player can claim a draw. The addition of the seventy-five-move rule in 2014 requires the arbiter to intervene and immediately declare the game drawn after 75 moves without a pawn move or capture, without requiring a claim by either player. There are several known endgames where it is possible to force a mate but it requires more than 50 moves before a pawn move or capture is made; examples include some endgames with two knights against a pawn and some pawnless endgames such as queen against two bishops. Historically, FIDE has sometimes revised the fifty-move rule to make exceptions for these endgames, but these have since been repealed. Some correspondence chess organizations do not enforce the fifty-move rule.
Draw on time: In games with a time control, the game is drawn if a player is out of time and no sequence of legal moves would allow the opponent to checkmate the player.
Draw by resignation: Under FIDE Laws, a game is drawn if a player resigns and no sequence of legal moves would allow the opponent to checkmate that player.
Time control
In competition, chess games are played with a time control. If a player's time runs out before the game is completed, the game is automatically lost (provided the opponent has to deliver checkmate). The duration of a game ranges from long (or "classical") games, which can take up to seven hours (even longer if adjournments are permitted), to bullet chess (under 3 minutes per player for the entire game). Intermediate between these are rapid chess games, lasting between one and two hours per game, a popular time control in amateur weekend tournaments.
Time is controlled using a chess clock that has two displays, one for each player's remaining time. Analog chess clocks have been largely replaced by digital clocks, which allow for time controls with increments.
Time controls are also enforced in correspondence chess competitions. A typical time control is 50 days for every 10 moves.
Notation
Historically, many different notation systems have been used to record chess moves; the standard system today is short-form algebraic notation. In this system, each square is uniquely identified by a set of coordinates, – for the files followed by – for the ranks. The usual format is
– –
The pieces are identified by their initials. In English, these are (king), (queen), (rook), (bishop), and (knight; N is used to avoid confusion with king). For example, Qg5 means "queen moves to the g-file, 5th rank" (that is, to the square g5). Different initials may be used for other languages. In chess literature, figurine algebraic notation (FAN) is frequently used to aid understanding independent of language.
To resolve ambiguities, an additional letter or number is added to indicate the file or rank from which the piece moved (e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3"; R1e2 means "rook on the first rank moves to e2"). For pawns, no letter initial is used; so e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4".
If the piece makes a capture, "x" is usually inserted before the destination square. Thus Bxf3 means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used to identify the pawn making the capture, for example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures the piece on d5). Ranks may be omitted if unambiguous, for example, exd (pawn on the e-file captures a piece somewhere on the d-file). A minority of publications use ":" to indicate a capture, and some omit the capture symbol altogether. In its most abbreviated form, exd5 may be rendered simply as ed. An en passant capture may optionally be marked with the notation "e.p."
If a pawn moves to its last rank, achieving promotion, the piece chosen is indicated after the move (for example, e1=Q or e1Q). Castling is indicated by the special notations 0-0 (or O-O) for castling and 0-0-0 (or O-O-O) for castling. A move that places the opponent's king in check usually has the notation "+" added. There are no specific notations for discovered check or double check. Checkmate can be indicated by "#". At the end of the game, "1–0" means White won, "0–1" means Black won, and "½–½" indicates a draw.
Chess moves can be annotated with punctuation marks and other symbols. For example: "!" indicates a good move; "!!" an excellent move; "?" a mistake; "??" a blunder; "!?" an interesting move that may not be best; or "?!" a dubious move not easily refuted.
For example, one variation of a simple trap known as the Scholar's mate (see animated diagram) can be recorded:
1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Qxf7
Variants of algebraic notation include long algebraic, in which both the departure and destination square are indicated; abbreviated algebraic, in which capture signs, check signs, and ranks of pawn captures may be omitted; and Figurine Algebraic Notation, used in chess publications for universal readability regardless of language.
Portable Game Notation (PGN) is a text-based file format for recording chess games, based on short form English algebraic notation with a small amount of markup. PGN files (suffix .pgn) can be processed by most chess software, as well as being easily readable by humans.
Until about 1980, the majority of English language chess publications used descriptive notation, in which files are identified by the initial letter of the piece that occupies the first rank at the beginning of the game. In descriptive notation, the common opening move 1.e4 is rendered as "1.P-K4" ("pawn to king four"). Another system is ICCF numeric notation, recognized by the International Correspondence Chess Federation though its use is in decline.
In tournament games, players are normally required to keep a (record of the game). For this purpose, only algebraic notation is recognized in FIDE-sanctioned events; game scores recorded in a different notation system may not be used as evidence in the event of a dispute.
Chess in public spaces
Chess is often played casually in public spaces such as parks and town squares.
Organized competition
Tournaments and matches
Contemporary chess is an organized sport with structured international and national leagues, tournaments, and congresses. Thousands of chess tournaments, matches, and festivals are held around the world every year catering to players of all levels.
Tournaments with a small number of players may use the round-robin format, in which every player plays one game against every other player. For a large number of players, the Swiss system may be used, in which each player is paired against an opponent who has the same (or as similar as possible) score in each round. In either case, a player's score is usually calculated as 1 point for each game won and one-half point for each game drawn. Variations such as "football scoring" (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw) may be used by tournament organizers, but ratings are always calculated on the basis of standard scoring. A player's score may be reported as total score out of games played (e.g. 5½/8), points for versus points against (e.g. 5½–2½), or by number of wins, losses and draws (e.g. +4−1=3).
The term "match" refers not to an individual game, but to either a series of games between two players, or a team competition in which each player of one team plays one game against a player of the other team.
Governance
Chess's international governing body is usually known by its French acronym FIDE (pronounced FEE-day) (French: Fédération internationale des échecs), or International Chess Federation. FIDE's membership consists of the national chess organizations of over 180 countries; there are also several associate members, including various supra-national organizations, the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA), International Committee of Chess for the Deaf (ICCD), and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA). FIDE is recognized as a sports governing body by the International Olympic Committee, but chess has never been part of the Olympic Games.
FIDE's most visible activity is organizing the World Chess Championship, a role it assumed in 1948. The current World Champion is Ding Liren of China. The reigning Women's World Champion is Ju Wenjun from China.
Other competitions for individuals include the World Junior Chess Championship, the European Individual Chess Championship, the tournaments for the World Championship qualification cycle, and the various national championships. Invitation-only tournaments regularly attract the world's strongest players. Examples include Spain's Linares event, Monte Carlo's Melody Amber tournament, the Dortmund Sparkassen meeting, Sofia's M-tel Masters, and Wijk aan Zee's Tata Steel tournament.
Regular team chess events include the Chess Olympiad and the European Team Chess Championship.
The World Chess Solving Championship and World Correspondence Chess Championships include both team and individual events; these are held independently of FIDE.
Titles and rankings
In order to rank players, FIDE, ICCF, and most national chess organizations use the Elo rating system developed by Arpad Elo. An average club player has a rating of about 1500; the highest FIDE rating of all time, 2882, was achieved by Magnus Carlsen on the March 2014 FIDE rating list.
Players may be awarded lifetime titles by FIDE:
Grandmaster (GM; sometimes or IGM is used) is awarded to world-class chess masters. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Before FIDE will confer the title on a player, the player must have an Elo rating of at least 2500 at one time and three results of a prescribed standard (called norms) in tournaments involving other grandmasters, including some from countries other than the applicant's. There are other milestones a player can achieve to attain the title, such as winning the World Junior Championship.
International Master (IM). The conditions are similar to GM, but less demanding. The minimum rating for the IM title is 2400.
FIDE Master (FM). The usual way for a player to qualify for the FIDE Master title is by achieving a FIDE rating of 2300 or more.
Candidate Master (CM). Similar to FM, but with a FIDE rating of at least 2200.
The above titles are open to both men and women. There are also separate women-only titles; Woman Grandmaster (WGM), Woman International Master (WIM), Woman FIDE Master (WFM) and Woman Candidate Master (WCM). These require a performance level approximately 200 Elo rating points below the similarly named open titles, and their continued existence has sometimes been controversial. Beginning with Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978, a number of women have earned the open GM title: 40 .
FIDE also awards titles for arbiters and trainers. International titles are also awarded to composers and solvers of chess problems and to correspondence chess players (by the International Correspondence Chess Federation). National chess organizations may also award titles.
Theory
Chess has an extensive literature. In 1913, the chess historian H.J.R. Murray estimated the total number of books, magazines, and chess columns in newspapers to be about 5,000. B.H. Wood estimated the number, as of 1949, to be about 20,000. David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld write that, "Since then there has been a steady increase year by year of the number of new chess publications. No one knows how many have been printed." Significant public chess libraries include the John G. White Chess and Checkers Collection at Cleveland Public Library, with over 32,000 chess books and over 6,000 bound volumes of chess periodicals; and the Chess & Draughts collection at the National Library of the Netherlands, with about 30,000 books.
Chess theory usually divides the game of chess into three phases with different sets of strategies: the opening, typically the first 10 to 20 moves, when players move their pieces to useful positions for the coming battle; the middlegame; and last the endgame, when most of the pieces are gone, kings typically take a more active part in the struggle, and pawn promotion is often decisive.
is concerned with finding the best moves in the initial phase of the game. There are dozens of different openings, and hundreds of variants. The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants.
is usually divided into chess tactics and chess strategy. Chess strategy concentrates on setting and achieving long-term positional advantages during the game – for example, where to place different pieces – while tactics concerns immediate maneuver. These two aspects of the gameplay cannot be completely separated, because strategic goals are mostly achieved through tactics, while the tactical opportunities are based on the previous strategy of play.
is concerned with positions where there are only a few pieces left. These positions are categorized according to the pieces, for example "King and pawn" endings or "Rook versus minor piece" endings.
Opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a game (the "opening moves"). Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian Defense. They are catalogued in reference works such as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. There are dozens of different openings, varying widely in character from quiet (for example, the Réti Opening) to very aggressive (the Latvian Gambit). In some opening lines, the exact sequence considered best for both sides has been worked out to more than 30 moves. Professional players spend years studying openings and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues to evolve.
The fundamental strategic aims of most openings are similar:
Development: This is the technique of placing the pieces (particularly bishops and knights) on useful squares where they will have an optimal impact on the game.
Control of the : Control of the central squares allows pieces to be moved to any part of the board relatively easily, and can also have a cramping effect on the opponent.
King safety: It is critical to keep the king safe from dangerous possibilities. A correctly timed castling can often enhance this.
Pawn structure: Players strive to avoid the creation of pawn weaknesses such as isolated, doubled, or backward pawns, and pawn islands – and to force such weaknesses in the opponent's position.
Most players and theoreticians consider that White, by virtue of the first move, begins the game with a small advantage. This initially gives White the initiative. Black usually strives to neutralize White's advantage and achieve , or to develop in an unbalanced position.
Middlegame
The middlegame is the part of the game that starts after the opening. There is no clear line between the opening and the middlegame, but typically the middlegame will start when most pieces have been developed. (Similarly, there is no clear transition from the middlegame to the endgame; see start of the endgame.) Because the opening theory has ended, players have to form plans based on the features of the position, and at the same time take into account the tactical possibilities of the position. The middlegame is the phase in which most combinations occur. Combinations are a series of tactical moves executed to achieve some gain. Middlegame combinations are often connected with an attack against the opponent's king. Some typical patterns have their own names; for example, the Boden's Mate or the Lasker–Bauer combination.
Specific plans or strategic themes will often arise from particular groups of openings that result in a specific type of pawn structure. An example is the , which is the attack of queenside pawns against an opponent who has more pawns on the queenside. The study of openings is therefore connected to the preparation of plans that are typical of the resulting middlegames.
Another important strategic question in the middlegame is whether and how to reduce material and transition into an endgame (i.e. ). Minor material advantages can generally be transformed into victory only in an endgame, and therefore the stronger side must choose an appropriate way to achieve an ending. Not every reduction of material is good for this purpose; for example, if one side keeps a light-squared bishop and the opponent has a dark-squared one, the transformation into a bishops and pawns ending is usually advantageous for the weaker side only, because an endgame with bishops on opposite colors is likely to be a draw, even with an advantage of a pawn, or sometimes even with a two-pawn advantage.
Tactics
In chess, tactics in general concentrate on short-term actions – so short-term that they can be calculated in advance by a human player or a computer. The possible depth of calculation depends on the player's ability. In positions with many possibilities on both sides, a deep calculation is more difficult and may not be practical, while in positions with a limited number of variations, strong players can calculate long sequences of moves.
Theoreticians describe many elementary tactical methods and typical maneuvers, for example: pins, forks, skewers, batteries, discovered attacks (especially discovered checks), zwischenzugs, deflections, decoys, sacrifices, underminings, overloadings, and interferences. Simple one-move or two-move tactical actions – threats, exchanges of , and double attacks – can be combined into more complicated sequences of tactical maneuvers that are often forced from the point of view of one or both players. A forced variation that involves a sacrifice and usually results in a tangible gain is called a . Brilliant combinations – such as those in the Immortal Game – are considered beautiful and are admired by chess lovers. A common type of chess exercise, aimed at developing players' skills, is a position where a decisive combination is available and the challenge is to find it.
Strategy
Chess strategy is concerned with the evaluation of chess positions and with setting up goals and long-term plans for future play. During the evaluation, players must take into account numerous factors such as the value of the pieces on the board, control of the center and centralization, the pawn structure, king safety, and the control of key squares or groups of squares (for example, diagonals, open files, and dark or light squares).
The most basic step in evaluating a position is to count the total value of pieces of both sides. The point values used for this purpose are based on experience; usually, pawns are considered worth one point, knights and bishops about three points each, rooks about five points (the value difference between a rook and a bishop or knight being known as the exchange), and queens about nine points. The king is more valuable than all of the other pieces combined, since its checkmate loses the game. But in practical terms, in the endgame, the king as a fighting piece is generally more powerful than a bishop or knight but less powerful than a rook. These basic values are then modified by other factors like position of the piece (e.g. advanced pawns are usually more valuable than those on their initial squares), coordination between pieces (e.g. a pair of bishops usually coordinate better than a bishop and a knight), or the type of position (e.g. knights are generally better in with many pawns while bishops are more powerful in ).
Another important factor in the evaluation of chess positions is (sometimes known as the ): the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. Since pawns are the least mobile of the pieces, pawn structure is relatively static and largely determines the strategic nature of the position. Weaknesses in pawn structure include isolated, doubled, or backward pawns and ; once created, they are often permanent. Care must therefore be taken to avoid these weaknesses unless they are compensated by another valuable asset (for example, by the possibility of developing an attack).
Endgame
The endgame (also or ) is the stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. There are three main strategic differences between earlier stages of the game and the endgame:
Pawns become more important. Endgames often revolve around endeavors to promote a pawn by advancing it to the furthest .
The king, which requires safeguarding from attack during the middlegame, emerges as a strong piece in the endgame. It is often brought to the where it can protect its own pawns, attack enemy pawns, and hinder moves of the opponent's king.
Zugzwang, a situation in which the player who is to move is forced to incur a disadvantage, is often a factor in endgames but rarely in other stages of the game. In the example diagram, either side having the move is in zugzwang: Black to move must play 1...Kb7 allowing White to promote the pawn after 2.Kd7; White to move must permit a draw, either by 1.Kc6 stalemate or by losing the pawn after any other legal move.
Endgames can be classified according to the type of pieces remaining on the board. Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces and can checkmate the opposing king, with the pieces working together with their king. For example, king and pawn endgames involve only kings and pawns on one or both sides, and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other more complicated endings are classified according to pieces on the board other than kings, such as "rook and pawn versus rook" endgames.
History
Origins
Texts referring to the origins of chess date from the beginning of the seventh century. Three are written in Pahlavi (Middle Persian) and one, the Harshacharita, is in Sanskrit. One of these texts, the Chatrang-namak, represents one of the earliest written accounts of chess. The narrator Bozorgmehr explains that Chatrang, "Chess" in Pahlavi, was introduced to Persia by 'Dewasarm, a great ruler of India' during the reign of Khosrow I:
The oldest known chess manual was in Arabic and dates to about 840, written by al-Adli ar-Rumi (800–870), a renowned Arab chess player, titled Kitab ash-shatranj (The Book of Chess). This is a lost manuscript, but is referenced in later works. Here also, al-Adli attributes the origins of Persian chess to India, along with the eighth-century collection of fables Kalīla wa-Dimna. By the 20th century, a substantial consensus developed regarding chess's origins in northwest India in the early seventh century. More recently, this consensus has been the subject of further scrutiny.
The early forms of chess in India were known as (), literally "four divisions" [of the military] – infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariotry – represented by pieces that would later evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively. Chaturanga was played on an 8×8 uncheckered board, called . Thence it spread eastward and westward along the Silk Road. The earliest evidence of chess is found in nearby Sasanian Persia around 600 A.D., where the game came to be known by the name (). Chatrang was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia (633–51), where it was then named (; ), with the pieces largely retaining their Persian names. In Spanish, "shatranj" was rendered as ajedrez ("al-shatranj"), in Portuguese as xadrez, and in Greek as ζατρίκιον (zatrikion, which comes directly from the Persian chatrang), but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persian shāh ("king"), from which the English words "check" and "chess" descend. The word "checkmate" is derived from the Persian shāh māt ("the king is dead").
Xiangqi is the form of chess best known in China. The eastern migration of chess, into China and Southeast Asia, has even less documentation than its migration west, making it largely conjectured. The word () was used in China to refer to a game from 569 A.D. at the latest, but it has not been proven if this game was or was not directly related to chess.
The first reference to Chinese chess appears in a book entitled Xuánguaì Lù (; "Record of the Mysterious and Strange"), dating to about 800. A minority view holds that Western chess arose from xiàngqí or one of its predecessors. Chess historians Jean-Louis Cazaux and Rick Knowlton contend that xiangqi's intrinsic characteristics make it easier to construct an evolutionary path from China to India/Persia than the opposite direction.
The oldest archaeological chess artifacts – ivory pieces – were excavated in ancient Afrasiab, today's Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, Central Asia, and date to about 760, with some of them possibly being older. Remarkably, almost all findings of the oldest pieces come from along the Silk Road, from the former regions of the Tarim Basin (today's Xinjiang in China), Transoxiana, Sogdiana, Bactria, Gandhara, to Iran on one end and to India through Kashmir on the other.
The game reached Western Europe and Russia via at least three routes, the earliest being in the ninth century. By the year 1000, it had spread throughout both the Muslim Iberia and Latin Europe. A Latin poem called Versus de scachis ("Verses on Chess") dated to the late 10th century, has been preserved at Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland.
1200–1700: Origins of the modern game
The game of chess was then played and known in all European countries. A famous 13th-century Spanish manuscript covering chess, backgammon, and dice is known as the , which is the earliest European treatise on chess as well as being the oldest document on European tables games. The rules were fundamentally similar to those of the Arabic shatranj. The differences were mostly in the use of a checkered board instead of a plain monochrome board used by Arabs and the habit of allowing some or all pawns to make an initial double step. In some regions, the queen, which had replaced the wazir, or the king could also make an initial two-square leap under some conditions.
Around 1200, the rules of shatranj started to be modified in Europe, culminating, several major changes later, in the emergence of modern chess practically as it is known today. A major change was the modern piece movement rules, which began to appear in intellectual circles in Valencia, Spain, around 1475, which established the foundations and brought it very close to current chess. These new rules then were quickly adopted in Italy and Southern France before diffusing into the rest of Europe. Pawns gained the ability to advance two squares on their first move, while bishops and queens acquired their modern movement powers. The queen replaced the earlier vizier chess piece toward the end of the 10th century and by the 15th century had become the most powerful piece; in light of that, modern chess was often referred to at the time as "Queen's Chess" or "Mad Queen Chess". Castling, derived from the "king's leap", usually in combination with a pawn or rook move to bring the king to safety, was introduced. These new rules quickly spread throughout Western Europe.
Writings about chess theory began to appear in the late 15th century. An anonymous treatise on chess of 1490 with the first part containing some openings and the second 30 endgames is deposited in the library of the University of Göttingen. The book El Libro dels jochs partitis dels schachs en nombre de 100 was written by Francesc Vicent in Segorbe in 1495, but no copy of this work has survived. The Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez (Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess) by Spanish churchman Luis Ramírez de Lucena was published in Salamanca in 1497. Lucena and later masters like Portuguese Pedro Damiano, Italians Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona, Giulio Cesare Polerio and Gioachino Greco, and Spanish bishop Ruy López de Segura developed elements of opening theory and started to analyze simple endgames.
1700–1873: Romantic era
In the 18th century, the center of European chess life moved from Southern Europe to mainland France. The two most important French masters were François-André Danican Philidor, a musician by profession, who discovered the importance of pawns for chess strategy, and later Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, who won a famous series of matches against Irish master Alexander McDonnell in 1834. Centers of chess activity in this period were coffee houses in major European cities like Café de la Régence in Paris and Simpson's Divan in London.
At the same time, the intellectual movement of romanticism had had a far-reaching impact on chess, with aesthetics and tactical beauty being held in higher regard than objective soundness and strategic planning. As a result, virtually all games began with the Open Game, and it was considered unsportsmanlike to decline gambits that invited tactical play such as the King's Gambit and the Evans Gambit. This chess philosophy is known as Romantic chess, and a sharp, tactical style consistent with the principles of chess romanticism was predominant until the late 19th century.
The rules concerning stalemate were finalized in the early 19th century. Also in the 19th century, the convention that White moves first was established (formerly either White or Black could move first). Finally, the rules around castling and en passant captures were standardized – variations in these rules persisted in Italy until the late 19th century. The resulting standard game is sometimes referred to as or , particularly in Asia where other games of the chess family such as xiangqi are prevalent. Since the 19th century, the only rule changes, such as the establishment of the correct procedure for claiming a draw by repetition, have been technical in nature.
As the 19th century progressed, chess organization developed quickly. Many chess clubs, chess books, and chess journals appeared. There were correspondence matches between cities; for example, the London Chess Club played against the Edinburgh Chess Club in 1824. Chess problems became a regular part of 19th-century newspapers; Bernhard Horwitz, Josef Kling, and Samuel Loyd composed some of the most influential problems. In 1843, von der Lasa published his and Bilguer's Handbuch des Schachspiels (Handbook of Chess), the first comprehensive manual of chess theory.
The first modern chess tournament was organized by Howard Staunton, a leading English chess player, and was held in London in 1851. It was won by the German Adolf Anderssen, who was hailed as the leading chess master. His brilliant, energetic attacking style was typical for the time. Sparkling games like Anderssen's Immortal Game and Evergreen Game or Morphy's "Opera Game" were regarded as the highest possible summit of the art of chess.
Deeper insight into the nature of chess came with the American Paul Morphy, an extraordinary chess prodigy. Morphy won against all important competitors (except Staunton, who refused to play), including Anderssen, during his short chess career between 1857 and 1863. Morphy's success stemmed from a combination of brilliant attacks and sound strategy; he intuitively knew how to prepare attacks.
1873–1945: Birth of a sport
Prague-born Wilhelm Steinitz laid the foundations for a scientific approach to the game, the art of breaking a position down into components and preparing correct plans. In addition to his theoretical achievements, Steinitz founded an important tradition: his triumph over the leading German master Johannes Zukertort in 1886 is regarded as the first official World Chess Championship. This win marked a stylistic transition at the highest levels of chess from an attacking, tactical style predominant in the Romantic era to a more positional, strategic style introduced to the chess world by Steinitz. Steinitz lost his crown in 1894 to a much younger player, the German mathematician Emanuel Lasker, who maintained this title for 27 years, the longest tenure of any world champion.
After the end of the 19th century, the number of master tournaments and matches held annually quickly grew. The first Olympiad was held in Paris in 1924, and FIDE was founded initially for the purpose of organizing that event. In 1927, the Women's World Chess Championship was established; the first to hold the title was Czech-English master Vera Menchik.
A prodigy from Cuba, José Raúl Capablanca, known for his skill in endgames, won the World Championship from Lasker in 1921. Capablanca was undefeated in tournament play for eight years, from 1916 to 1924. His successor (1927) was the Russian-French Alexander Alekhine, a strong attacking player who died as the world champion in 1946. Alekhine briefly lost the title to Dutch player Max Euwe in 1935 and regained it two years later.
In the interwar period, chess was revolutionized by the new theoretical school of so-called hypermodernists like Aron Nimzowitsch and Richard Réti. They advocated controlling the of the board with distant pieces rather than with pawns, thus inviting opponents to occupy the center with pawns, which become objects of attack.
1945–1990: Post-World War II era
After the death of Alekhine, a new World Champion was sought. FIDE, which has controlled the title since then, ran a tournament of elite players. The winner of the 1948 tournament was Russian Mikhail Botvinnik. In 1950, FIDE established a system of titles, conferring the titles of Grandmaster and International Master on 27 players. (Some sources state that, in 1914, the title of chess Grandmaster was first formally conferred by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, and Marshall, but this is a disputed claim.)
Botvinnik started an era of Soviet dominance in the chess world, which mainly through the Soviet government's politically inspired efforts to demonstrate intellectual superiority over the West stood almost uninterrupted for more than a half-century. Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion, American Bobby Fischer (champion 1972–1975). Botvinnik also revolutionized opening theory. Previously, Black strove for equality, attempting to neutralize White's first-move advantage. As Black, Botvinnik strove for the initiative from the beginning. In the previous informal system of World Championships, the current champion decided which challenger he would play for the title and the challenger was forced to seek sponsors for the match. FIDE set up a new system of qualifying tournaments and matches. The world's strongest players were seeded into Interzonal tournaments, where they were joined by players who had qualified from Zonal tournaments. The leading finishers in these Interzonals would go through the "Candidates" stage, which was initially a tournament, and later a series of knockout matches. The winner of the Candidates would then play the reigning champion for the title. A champion defeated in a match had a right to play a rematch a year later. This system operated on a three-year cycle. Botvinnik participated in championship matches over a period of fifteen years. He won the world championship tournament in 1948 and retained the title in tied matches in 1951 and 1954. In 1957, he lost to Vasily Smyslov, but regained the title in a rematch in 1958. In 1960, he lost the title to the 23-year-old Latvian prodigy Mikhail Tal, an accomplished tactician and attacking player who is widely regarded as one of the most creative players ever, hence his nickname "the magician from Riga". Botvinnik again regained the title in a rematch in 1961.
Following the 1961 event, FIDE abolished the automatic right of a deposed champion to a rematch, and the next champion, Armenian Tigran Petrosian, a player renowned for his defensive and positional skills, held the title for two cycles, 1963–1969. His successor, Boris Spassky from Russia (champion 1969–1972), won games in both positional and sharp tactical style. The next championship, the so-called Match of the Century, saw the first non-Soviet challenger since World War II, American Bobby Fischer. Fischer defeated his opponents in the Candidates matches by unheard-of margins, and convincingly defeated Spassky for the world championship. The match was followed closely by news media of the day, leading to a surge in popularity for chess; it also held significant political importance at the height of the Cold War, with the match being seen by both sides as a microcosm of the conflict between East and West. In 1975, however, Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet Anatoly Karpov when he was unable to reach agreement on conditions with FIDE, and Karpov obtained the title by default. Fischer modernized many aspects of chess, especially by extensively preparing openings.
Karpov defended his title twice against Viktor Korchnoi and dominated the 1970s and early 1980s with a string of tournament successes. In the 1984 World Chess Championship, Karpov faced his toughest challenge to date, the young Garry Kasparov from Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan. The match was aborted in controversial circumstances after 5 months and 48 games with Karpov leading by 5 wins to 3, but evidently exhausted; many commentators believed Kasparov, who had won the last two games, would have won the match had it continued. Kasparov won the 1985 rematch. Kasparov and Karpov contested three further closely fought matches in 1986, 1987 and 1990, Kasparov winning them all. Kasparov became the dominant figure of world chess from the mid-1980s until his retirement from competition in 2005.
Beginnings of chess technology
Chess-playing computer programs (later known as chess engines) began to appear in the 1960s. In 1970, the first major computer chess tournament, the North American Computer Chess Championship, was held, followed in 1974 by the first World Computer Chess Championship. In the late 1970s, dedicated home chess computers such as Fidelity Electronics' Chess Challenger became commercially available, as well as software to run on home computers. The overall standard of computer chess was low, however, until the 1990s.
The first endgame tablebases, which provided perfect play for relatively simple endgames such as king and rook versus king and bishop, appeared in the late 1970s. This set a precedent to the complete six- and seven-piece tablebases that became available in the 2000s and 2010s respectively.
The first commercial chess database, a collection of chess games searchable by move and position, was introduced by the German company ChessBase in 1987. Databases containing millions of chess games have since had a profound effect on opening theory and other areas of chess research.
Digital chess clocks were invented in 1973, though they did not become commonplace until the 1990s. Digital clocks allow for time controls involving increments and delays.
1990–present: Rise of computers and online chess
Technology
The Internet enabled online chess as a new medium of playing, with chess servers allowing users to play other people from different parts of the world in real time. The first such server, known as Internet Chess Server or ICS, was developed at the University of Utah in 1992. ICS formed the basis for the first commercial chess server, the Internet Chess Club, which was launched in 1995, and for other early chess servers such as FICS (Free Internet Chess Server). Since then, many other platforms have appeared, and online chess began to rival over-the-board chess in popularity. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the isolation ensuing from quarantines imposed in many places around the world, combined with the success of the popular Netflix show The Queen's Gambit and other factors such as the popularity of online tournaments (notably PogChamps) and chess Twitch streamers, resulted in a surge of popularity not only for online chess, but for the game of chess in general; this phenomenon has been referred to in the media as the 2020 online chess boom.
Computer chess has also seen major advances. By the 1990s, chess engines could consistently defeat most amateurs, and in 1997 Deep Blue defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match, starting an era of computer dominance at the highest level of chess. In the 2010s, engines significantly stronger than even the best human players became accessible for free on a number of PC and mobile platforms, and free engine analysis became a commonplace feature on internet chess servers. An adverse effect of the easy availability of engine analysis on hand-held devices and personal computers has been the rise of computer cheating, which has grown to be a major concern in both over-the-board and online chess. In 2017, AlphaZero – a neural network also capable of playing shogi and Go – was introduced. Since then, many chess engines based on neural network evaluation have been written, the best of which have surpassed the traditional "brute-force" engines. AlphaZero also introduced many novel ideas and ways of playing the game, which affected the style of play at the top level.
As endgame tablebases developed, they began to provide perfect play in endgame positions in which the game-theoretical outcome was previously unknown, such as positions with king, queen and pawn against king and queen. In 1991, Lewis Stiller published a tablebase for select six-piece endgames, and by 2005, following the publication of Nalimov tablebases, all six-piece endgame positions were solved. In 2012, Lomonosov tablebases were published which solved all seven-piece endgame positions. Use of tablebases enhances the performance of chess engines by providing definitive results in some branches of analysis.
Technological progress made in the 1990s and the 21st century has influenced the way that chess is studied at all levels, as well as the state of chess as a spectator sport.
Previously, preparation at the professional level required an extensive chess library and several subscriptions to publications such as Chess Informant to keep up with opening developments and study opponents' games. Today, preparation at the professional level involves the use of databases containing millions of games, and engines to analyze different opening variations and prepare novelties. A number of online learning resources are also available for players of all levels, such as online courses, tactics trainers, and video lessons.
Since the late 1990s, it has been possible to follow major international chess events online, the players' moves being relayed in real time. Sensory boards have been developed to enable automatic transmission of moves. Chess players will frequently run engines while watching these games, allowing them to quickly identify mistakes by the players and spot tactical opportunities. While in the past the moves have been relayed live, today chess organizers will often impose a half-hour delay as an anti-cheating measure. In the mid-to-late 2010s – and especially following the 2020 online boom – it became commonplace for supergrandmasters, such as Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen, to livestream chess content on platforms such as Twitch. Also following the boom, online chess started being viewed as an esport, with esport teams signing chess players for the first time in 2020.
Growth
Organized chess even for young children has become common. FIDE holds world championships for age levels down to 8 years old. The largest tournaments, in number of players, are those held for children.
The number of grandmasters and other chess professionals has also grown in the modern era. Kenneth Regan and Guy Haworth conducted research involving comparison of move choices by players of different levels and from different periods with the analysis of strong chess engines; they concluded that the increase in the number of grandmasters and higher Elo ratings of the top players reflect an actual increase in the average standard of play, rather than "rating inflation" or "title inflation".
Professional chess
In 1993, Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short broke ties with FIDE to organize their own match for the World Championship and formed a competing Professional Chess Association (PCA). From then until 2006, there were two simultaneous World Championships and respective World Champions: the PCA or "classical" champions extending the Steinitzian tradition in which the current champion plays a challenger in a series of games, and the other following FIDE's new format of many players competing in a large knockout tournament to determine the champion. Kasparov lost his PCA title in 2000 to Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. Due to the complicated state of world chess politics and difficulties obtaining commercial sponsorships, Kasparov was never able to challenge for the title again. Despite this, he continued to dominate in top level tournaments and remained the world's highest rated player until his retirement from competitive chess in 2005.
The World Chess Championship 2006, in which Kramnik beat the FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov, reunified the titles and made Kramnik the undisputed World Chess Champion. In September 2007, he lost the title to Viswanathan Anand of India, who won the championship tournament in Mexico City. Anand defended his title in the revenge match of 2008, 2010 and 2012. Magnus Carlsen defeated Anand in the 2013 World Chess Championship, and defended his title in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2021. After the 2021 match, he announced that he would not defend his title a fifth time, so the 2023 World Chess Championship was played between the winner and runner-up of the Candidates Tournament 2022: respectively, Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and Ding Liren of China. Ding beat Nepomniachtchi, making him the current World Chess Champion.
Connections
Arts and humanities
In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, chess was a part of noble culture; it was used to teach war strategy and was dubbed the "King's Game". Gentlemen are "to be meanly seene in the play at Chestes", says the overview at the beginning of Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier (1528, English 1561 by Sir Thomas Hoby), but chess should not be a gentleman's main passion. Castiglione explains it further:
And what say you to the game at chestes? It is an honest kynde of enterteynmente and wittie, quoth Syr Friderick. But me think it hath a fault, whiche is, that a man may be to couning at it, for who ever will be excellent in the playe of chestes, I beleave he must beestowe much tyme about it, and applie it with so much study, that a man may assoone learne some noble scyence, or compase any other matter of importaunce, and yet in the ende in beestowing all that laboure, he knoweth no more but a game. Therfore in this I beleave there happeneth a very rare thing, namely, that the meane is more commendable, then the excellency.
Some of the elaborate chess sets used by the aristocracy at least partially survive, such as the Lewis chessmen.
Chess was often used as a basis of sermons on morality. An example is Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium sive super ludo scacchorum ('Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess'), written by an Italian Dominican friar Jacobus de Cessolis . This book was one of the most popular of the Middle Ages. The work was translated into many other languages (the first printed edition was published at Utrecht in 1473) and was the basis for William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse (1474), one of the first books printed in English. Different chess pieces were used as metaphors for different classes of people, and human duties were derived from the rules of the game or from visual properties of the chess pieces:
The knyght ought to be made alle armed upon an hors in suche wyse that he haue an helme on his heed and a spere in his ryght hande/ and coueryd wyth his sheld/ a swerde and a mace on his lyft syde/ Cladd wyth an hawberk and plates to fore his breste/ legge harnoys on his legges/ Spores on his heelis on his handes his gauntelettes/ his hors well broken and taught and apte to bataylle and couerid with his armes/ whan the knyghtes ben maad they ben bayned or bathed/ that is the signe that they shold lede a newe lyf and newe maners/ also they wake alle the nyght in prayers and orysons vnto god that he wylle gyue hem grace that they may gete that thynge that they may not gete by nature/ The kynge or prynce gyrdeth a boute them a swerde in signe/ that they shold abyde and kepe hym of whom they take theyr dispenses and dignyte.
Known in the circles of clerics, students, and merchants, chess entered into the popular culture of the Middle Ages. An example is the 209th song of Carmina Burana from the 13th century, which starts with the names of chess pieces, Roch, pedites, regina... The game of chess, at times, has been discouraged by various religious authorities in Middle Ages: Jewish, Catholic and Orthodox. Some Muslim authorities prohibited it even recently, for example Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 and Abdul-Aziz ash-Sheikh even later.
During the Age of Enlightenment, chess was viewed as a means of self-improvement. Benjamin Franklin, in his article "The Morals of Chess" (1750), wrote:
The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn:
I. Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action ...
II. Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action: – the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations ...
III. Caution, not to make our moves too hastily ...
Chess was occasionally criticized in the 19th century as a waste of time.
Chess is taught to children in schools around the world today. Many schools host chess clubs, and there are many scholastic tournaments specifically for children. Tournaments are held regularly in many countries, hosted by organizations such as the United States Chess Federation and the National Scholastic Chess Foundation.
Chess is many times depicted in the arts; significant works where chess plays a key role range from Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess to Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, to Vladimir Nabokov's The Defense, to The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig. Chess has also featured in film classics such as Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, Satyajit Ray's The Chess Players, and Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death.
Chess is also present in contemporary popular culture. For example, the characters in Star Trek play a futuristic version of the game called "Federation Tri-Dimensional Chess" and "Wizard's Chess" is played in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter.
Mathematics
The game structure and nature of chess are related to several branches of mathematics. Many combinatorical and topological problems connected to chess, such as the knight's tour and the eight queens puzzle, have been known for hundreds of years.
The number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be with a 95% confidence level, with a game-tree complexity of approximately 10123. The game-tree complexity of chess was first calculated by Claude Shannon as 10120, a number known as the Shannon number. An average position typically has thirty to forty possible moves, but there may be as few as zero (in the case of checkmate or stalemate) or (in a constructed position) as many as 218.
In 1913, Ernst Zermelo used chess as a basis for his theory of game strategies, which is considered one of the predecessors of game theory. Zermelo's theorem states that it is possible to solve chess, i.e. to determine with certainty the outcome of a perfectly played game (either White can force a win, or Black can force a win, or both sides can force at least a draw). With 1043 legal positions in chess, however, it will take an impossibly long time to compute a perfect strategy with any feasible technology.
Psychology
There is an extensive scientific literature on chess psychology. Alfred Binet and others showed that knowledge and verbal, rather than visuospatial, ability lies at the core of expertise. In his doctoral thesis, Adriaan de Groot showed that chess masters can rapidly perceive the key features of a position. According to de Groot, this perception, made possible by years of practice and study, is more important than the sheer ability to anticipate moves. De Groot showed that chess masters can memorize positions shown for a few seconds almost perfectly. The ability to memorize does not alone account for chess-playing skill, since masters and novices, when faced with random arrangements of chess pieces, had equivalent recall (about six positions in each case). Rather, it is the ability to recognize patterns, which are then memorized, which distinguished the skilled players from the novices. When the positions of the pieces were taken from an actual game, the masters had almost total positional recall.
More recent research has focused on chess as mental training; the respective roles of knowledge and look-ahead search; brain imaging studies of chess masters and novices; blindfold chess; the role of personality and intelligence in chess skill; gender differences; and computational models of chess expertise. The role of practice and talent in the development of chess and other domains of expertise has led to much empirical investigation. Ericsson and colleagues have argued that deliberate practice is sufficient for reaching high levels of expertise in chess. Recent research, however, fails to replicate their results and indicates that factors other than practice are also important.
For example, Fernand Gobet and colleagues have shown that stronger players started playing chess at a young age and that experts born in the Northern Hemisphere are more likely to have been born in late winter and early spring. Compared to the general population, chess players are more likely to be non-right-handed, though they found no correlation between handedness and skill.
A relationship between chess skill and intelligence has long been discussed in scientific literature as well as in popular culture. Academic studies that investigate the relationship date back at least to 1927. Although one meta-analysis and most children studies find a positive correlation between general cognitive ability and chess skill, adult studies show mixed results.
Composition
Chess composition is the art of creating chess problems (also called chess compositions). The creator is known as a chess composer. There are many types of chess problems; the two most important are:
White to move first and checkmate Black within a specified number of moves, against any defense. These are often referred to as "mate in " – for example "mate in three" (a ); two- and three-move problems are the most common. These usually involve positions that would be highly unlikely to occur in an actual game, and are intended to illustrate a particular , usually requiring a surprising or counterintuitive move. Themes associated with chess problems occasionally appear in actual games, when they are referred to as "problem-like" moves.
orthodox problems where the stipulation is that White to play must win or draw. The majority of studies are endgame positions.
Fairy chess is a branch of chess problem composition involving altered rules, such as the use of unconventional pieces or boards, or unusual stipulations such as reflexmates.
Tournaments for composition and solving of chess problems are organized by the World Federation for Chess Composition, which works cooperatively with but independent of FIDE. The WFCC awards titles for composing and solving chess problems.
Online chess
Online chess is chess that is played over the internet, allowing players to play against each other in real time. This is done through the use of Internet chess servers, which pair up individual players based on their rating using an Elo or similar rating system. Online chess saw a spike in growth during the quarantines of the COVID-19 pandemic. This can be attributed to both isolation and the popularity of Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit, which was released in October 2020. Chess app downloads on the App Store and Google Play Store rose by 63% after the show debuted. Chess.com saw more than twice as many account registrations in November as it had in previous months, and the number of games played monthly on Lichess doubled as well. There was also a demographic shift in players, with female registration on Chess.com shifting from 22% to 27% of new players. GM Maurice Ashley said "A boom is taking place in chess like we have never seen maybe since the Bobby Fischer days", attributing the growth to an increased desire to do something constructive during the pandemic. USCF Women's Program Director Jennifer Shahade stated that chess works well on the internet, since pieces do not need to be reset and matchmaking is virtually instant.
Computer chess
The idea of creating a chess-playing machine dates to the 18th century; around 1769, the chess-playing automaton called The Turk became famous before being exposed as a hoax. Serious trials based on automata, such as El Ajedrecista, were too complex and limited to be useful.
Since the advent of the digital computer in the 1950s, chess enthusiasts, computer engineers, and computer scientists have built, with increasing degrees of seriousness and success, chess-playing machines and computer programs. The groundbreaking paper on computer chess, "Programming a Computer for Playing Chess", was published in 1950 by Claude Shannon. He wrote:
The chess machine is an ideal one to start with, since: (1) the problem is sharply defined both in allowed operations (the moves) and in the ultimate goal (checkmate); (2) it is neither so simple as to be trivial nor too difficult for satisfactory solution; (3) chess is generally considered to require "thinking" for skillful play; a solution of this problem will force us either to admit the possibility of a mechanized thinking or to further restrict our concept of "thinking"; (4) the discrete structure of chess fits well into the digital nature of
modern computers.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) held the first major chess tournament for computers, the North American Computer Chess Championship, in September 1970. CHESS 3.0, a chess program from Northwestern University, won the championship. The first World Computer Chess Championship, held in 1974, was won by the Soviet program Kaissa. At first considered only a curiosity, the best chess playing programs have become extremely strong. In 1997, a computer won a chess match using classical time controls against a reigning World Champion for the first time: IBM's Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov 3½–2½ (it scored two wins, one loss, and three draws). There was some controversy over the match, and human–computer matches were relatively close over the next few years, until convincing computer victories in 2005 and in 2006.
In 2009, a mobile phone won a category 6 tournament with a performance rating of 2898: chess engine Hiarcs 13 running on the mobile phone HTC Touch HD won the Copa Mercosur tournament with nine wins and one draw. The best chess programs are now able to consistently beat the strongest human players, to the extent that human–computer matches no longer attract interest from chess players or the media. While the World Computer Chess Championship still exists, the Top Chess Engine Championship (TCEC) is widely regarded as the unofficial world championship for chess engines. The current champion is Stockfish.
With huge databases of past games and high analytical ability, computers can help players to learn chess and prepare for matches. Internet Chess Servers allow people to find and play opponents worldwide. The presence of computers and modern communication tools have raised concerns regarding cheating during games.
Variants
There are more than two thousand published chess variants, games with similar but different rules. Most of them are of relatively recent origin. They include:
direct predecessors of chess, such as chaturanga and shatranj;
traditional national or regional games that share common ancestors with Western chess such as xiangqi (Chinese chess), shogi (Japanese chess), janggi (Korean chess), ouk chatrang (Cambodian chess), makruk (Thai chess), sittuyin (Burmese chess), and shatar (Mongolian chess);
modern variations employing different rules (e.g. Losing chess or Chess960), different forces (e.g. Dunsany's Chess), non-standard pieces (e.g. Grand Chess), and different board geometries (e.g. hexagonal chess or Infinite chess);
In the context of chess variants, chess is commonly referred to as , , , , and .
See also
Glossary of chess
Glossary of chess problems
List of World Chess Championships
Women in chess
Notes
References
Bibliography
Further reading
(see the included supplement, "How Do You Play Chess")
External links
International organizations
FIDE – World Chess Federation
ICCF – International Correspondence Chess Federation
News
Chessbase news
The Week in Chess
History
Chesshistory.com
Abstract strategy games
Individual sports
Indian inventions
Traditional board games
Partially solved games
Games related to chaturanga |
5142 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie%20Chaplin | Charlie Chaplin | Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financiallyhe was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to the United States. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and attracted a large fan base. He directed his own films and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the world's best-known figures.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length film was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). He initially refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. His first sound film was The Great Dictator (1940), which satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, and some members of the press and public were scandalised by his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the U.S. and settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. He received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work. He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked on lists of the greatest films.
Biography
1889–1913: early years
Background and childhood hardship
Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (née Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr. His paternal grandmother came from the Smith family, who belonged to Romani people. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His parents had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal guardian of Hannah's first son, Sydney John Hill. At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son, George Wheeler Dryden, fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for thirty years.
Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington. Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, but Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children.
In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum; she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then severely alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver.
Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydneywho had joined the Navy two years earlierreturned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928.
Young performer
Between his time in the poor schools and his mother succumbing to mental illness, Chaplin began to perform on stage. He later recalled making his first amateur appearance at the age of five years, when he took over from Hannah one night in Aldershot. This was an isolated occurrence, but by the time he was nine Chaplin had, with his mother's encouragement, grown interested in performing. He later wrote: "[she] imbued me with the feeling that I had some sort of talent". Through his father's connections, Chaplin became a member of the Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing troupe, with whom he toured English music halls throughout 1899 and 1900. Chaplin worked hard, and the act was popular with audiences, but he was not satisfied with dancing and wished to form a comedy act.
In the years Chaplin was touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads, his mother ensured that he still attended school but, by the age of 13, he had abandoned education. He supported himself with a range of jobs, while nursing his ambition to become an actor. At 14, shortly after his mother's relapse, he registered with a theatrical agency in London's West End. The manager sensed potential in Chaplin, who was promptly given his first role as a newsboy in Harry Arthur Saintsbury's Jim, a Romance of Cockayne. It opened in July 1903, but the show was unsuccessful and closed after two weeks. Chaplin's comic performance, however, was singled out for praise in many of the reviews.
Saintsbury secured a role for Chaplin in Charles Frohman's production of Sherlock Holmes, where he played Billy the pageboy in three nationwide tours. His performance was so well received that he was called to London to play the role alongside William Gillette, the original Holmes. "It was like tidings from heaven", Chaplin recalled. At 16 years old, Chaplin starred in the play's West End production at the Duke of York's Theatre from October to December 1905. He completed one final tour of Sherlock Holmes in early 1906, before leaving the play after more than two-and-a-half years.
Stage comedy and vaudeville
Chaplin soon found work with a new company and went on tour with his brother, who was also pursuing an acting career, in a comedy sketch called Repairs. In May 1906, Chaplin joined the juvenile act Casey's Circus, where he developed popular burlesque pieces and was soon the star of the show. By the time the act finished touring in July 1907, the 18-year-old had become an accomplished comedic performer. He struggled to find more work, however, and a brief attempt at a solo act was a failure.
Meanwhile, Sydney Chaplin had joined Fred Karno's prestigious comedy company in 1906 and, by 1908, he was one of their key performers. In February, he managed to secure a two-week trial for his younger brother. Karno was initially wary, and considered Chaplin a "pale, puny, sullen-looking youngster" who "looked much too shy to do any good in the theatre". However, the teenager made an impact on his first night at the London Coliseum and he was quickly signed to a contract. Chaplin began by playing a series of minor parts, eventually progressing to starring roles in 1909. In April 1910, he was given the lead in a new sketch, Jimmy the Fearless. It was a big success, and Chaplin received considerable press attention.
Karno selected his new star to join the section of the company, one that also included Stan Laurel, that toured North America's vaudeville circuit. The young comedian headed the show and impressed reviewers, being described as "one of the best pantomime artists ever seen here". His most successful role was a drunk called the "Inebriate Swell", which drew him significant recognition. The tour lasted 21 months, and the troupe returned to England in June 1912. Chaplin recalled that he "had a disquieting feeling of sinking back into a depressing commonplaceness" and was, therefore, delighted when a new tour began in October.
1914–1917: entering films
Keystone
Six months into the second American tour, Chaplin was invited to join the New York Motion Picture Company. A representative who had seen his performances thought he could replace Fred Mace, a star of their Keystone Studios who intended to leave. Chaplin thought the Keystone comedies "a crude mélange of rough and rumble", but liked the idea of working in films and rationalised: "Besides, it would mean a new life." He met with the company and signed a $150-per-week contract in September 1913. Chaplin arrived in Los Angeles in early December, and began working for the Keystone studio on 5January 1914.
Chaplin's boss was Mack Sennett, who initially expressed concern that the 24-year-old looked too young. He was not used in a picture until late January, during which time Chaplin attempted to learn the processes of filmmaking. The one-reeler Making a Living marked his film acting debut and was released on 2February 1914. Chaplin strongly disliked the picture, but one review picked him out as "a comedian of the first water". For his second appearance in front of the camera, Chaplin selected the costume with which he became identified. He described the process in his autobiography:
The film was Mabel's Strange Predicament, but "the Tramp" character, as it became known, debuted to audiences in Kid Auto Races at Veniceshot later than Mabel's Strange Predicament but released two days earlier on 7February 1914. Chaplin adopted the character as his screen persona and attempted to make suggestions for the films he appeared in. These ideas were dismissed by his directors. During the filming of his 11th picture, Mabel at the Wheel, he clashed with director Mabel Normand and was almost released from his contract. Sennett kept him on, however, when he received orders from exhibitors for more Chaplin films. Sennett also allowed Chaplin to direct his next film himself after Chaplin promised to pay $1,500 ($ in dollars) if the film was unsuccessful.
Caught in the Rain, issued 4May 1914, was Chaplin's directorial debut and was highly successful. Thereafter he directed almost every short film in which he appeared for Keystone, at the rate of approximately one per week, a period which he later remembered as the most exciting time of his career. Chaplin's films introduced a slower form of comedy than the typical Keystone farce, and he developed a large fan base. In November 1914, he had a supporting role in the first feature length comedy film, Tillie's Punctured Romance, directed by Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, which was a commercial success and increased his popularity. When Chaplin's contract came up for renewal at the end of the year, he asked for $1,000 a week, an amount Sennett refused as he thought it was too large.
Essanay
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company of Chicago sent Chaplin an offer of $1,250 a week with a signing bonus of $10,000. He joined the studio in late December 1914, where he began forming a stock company of regular players, actors he worked with again and again, including Ben Turpin, Leo White, Bud Jamison, Paddy McGuire, Fred Goodwins, and Billy Armstrong. He soon recruited a leading lady, Edna Purviance, whom Chaplin met in a café and hired on account of her beauty. She went on to appear in 35 films with Chaplin over eight years; the pair also formed a romantic relationship that lasted until 1917.
Chaplin asserted a high level of control over his pictures and started to put more time and care into each film. There was a month-long interval between the release of his second production, A Night Out, and his third, The Champion. The final seven of Chaplin's 14 Essanay films were all produced at this slower pace. Chaplin also began to alter his screen persona, which had attracted some criticism at Keystone for its "mean, crude, and brutish" nature. The character became more gentle and romantic; The Tramp (April 1915) was considered a particular turning point in his development. The use of pathos was developed further with The Bank, in which Chaplin created a sad ending. Robinson notes that this was an innovation in comedy films, and marked the time when serious critics began to appreciate Chaplin's work. At Essanay, writes film scholar Simon Louvish, Chaplin "found the themes and the settings that would define the Tramp's world".
During 1915, Chaplin became a cultural phenomenon. Shops were stocked with Chaplin merchandise, he was featured in cartoons and comic strips, and several songs were written about him. In July, a journalist for Motion Picture Magazine wrote that "Chaplinitis" had spread across America. As his fame grew worldwide, he became the film industry's first international star. When the Essanay contract ended in December 1915, Chaplin, fully aware of his popularity, requested a $150,000 signing bonus from his next studio. He received several offers, including Universal, Fox, and Vitagraph, the best of which came from the Mutual Film Corporation at $10,000 a week.
Mutual
A contract was negotiated with Mutual that amounted to $670,000 a year, which Robinson says made Chaplinat 26 years oldone of the highest-paid people in the world. The high salary shocked the public and was widely reported in the press. John R. Freuler, the studio president, explained: "We can afford to pay Mr. Chaplin this large sum annually because the public wants Chaplin and will pay for him."
Mutual gave Chaplin his own Los Angeles studio to work in, which opened in March 1916. He added two key members to his stock company, Albert Austin and Eric Campbell, and produced a series of elaborate two-reelers: The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., and The Count. For The Pawnshop, he recruited the actor Henry Bergman, who was to work with Chaplin for 30 years. Behind the Screen and The Rink completed Chaplin's releases for 1916. The Mutual contract stipulated that he release a two-reel film every four weeks, which he had managed to achieve. With the new year, however, Chaplin began to demand more time. He made only four more films for Mutual over the first ten months of 1917: Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant, and The Adventurer. With their careful construction, these films are considered by Chaplin scholars to be among his finest work. Later in life, Chaplin referred to his Mutual years as the happiest period of his career. However, Chaplin also felt that those films became increasingly formulaic over the period of the contract, and he was increasingly dissatisfied with the working conditions encouraging that.
Chaplin was attacked in the British media for not fighting in the First World War. He defended himself, claiming that he would fight for Britain if called and had registered for the American draft, but he was not summoned by either country. Despite this criticism, Chaplin was a favourite with the troops, and his popularity continued to grow worldwide. Harper's Weekly reported that the name of Charlie Chaplin was "a part of the common language of almost every country", and that the Tramp image was "universally familiar". In 1917, professional Chaplin imitators were so widespread that he took legal action, and it was reported that nine out of ten men who attended costume parties, did so dressed as the Tramp. The same year, a study by the Boston Society for Psychical Research concluded that Chaplin was "an American obsession". The actress Minnie Maddern Fiske wrote that "a constantly increasing body of cultured, artistic people are beginning to regard the young English buffoon, Charles Chaplin, as an extraordinary artist, as well as a comic genius".
1918–1922: First National
In January 1918, Chaplin was visited by leading British singer and comedian Harry Lauder, and the two acted in a short film together.
Mutual was patient with Chaplin's decreased rate of output, and the contract ended amicably. With his aforementioned concern about the declining quality of his films because of contract scheduling stipulations, Chaplin's primary concern in finding a new distributor was independence; Sydney Chaplin, then his business manager, told the press, "Charlie [must] be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing [films] the way he wants... It is quality, not quantity, we are after." In June 1917, Chaplin signed to complete eight films for First National Exhibitors' Circuit in return for $1million. He chose to build his own studio, situated on five acres of land off Sunset Boulevard, with production facilities of the highest order. It was completed in January 1918, and Chaplin was given freedom over the making of his pictures.
A Dog's Life, released April 1918, was the first film under the new contract. In it, Chaplin demonstrated his increasing concern with story construction and his treatment of the Tramp as "a sort of Pierrot". The film was described by Louis Delluc as "cinema's first total work of art". Chaplin then embarked on the Third Liberty Bond campaign, touring the United States for one month to raise money for the Allies of the First World War. He also produced a short propaganda film at his own expense, donated to the government for fund-raising, called The Bond. Chaplin's next release was war-based, placing the Tramp in the trenches for Shoulder Arms. Associates warned him against making a comedy about the war but, as he later recalled: "Dangerous or not, the idea excited me." He spent four months filming the picture, which was released in October 1918 with great success.
United Artists, Mildred Harris, and The Kid
After the release of Shoulder Arms, Chaplin requested more money from First National, which was refused. Frustrated with their lack of concern for quality, and worried about rumours of a possible merger between the company and Famous Players–Lasky, Chaplin joined forces with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith to form a new distribution company, United Artists, in January 1919. The arrangement was revolutionary in the film industry, as it enabled the four partnersall creative artiststo personally fund their pictures and have complete control. Chaplin was eager to start with the new company and offered to buy out his contract with First National. They refused and insisted that he complete the final six films owed.
Before the creation of United Artists, Chaplin married for the first time. The 16-year-old actress Mildred Harris had revealed that she was pregnant with his child, and in September 1918, he married her quietly in Los Angeles to avoid controversy. Soon after, the pregnancy was found to be false. Chaplin was unhappy with the union and, feeling that marriage stunted his creativity, struggled over the production of his film Sunnyside. Harris was by then legitimately pregnant, and on 7July 1919, gave birth to a son. Norman Spencer Chaplin was born malformed and died three days later. The marriage ended in April 1920, with Chaplin explaining in his autobiography that they were "irreconcilably mismated".
Losing the child, plus his own childhood experiences, are thought to have influenced Chaplin's next film, which turned the Tramp into the caretaker of a young boy. For this new venture, Chaplin also wished to do more than comedy and, according to Louvish, "make his mark on a changed world". Filming on The Kid began in August 1919, with four-year-old Jackie Coogan his co-star. The Kid was in production for nine months until May 1920 and, at 68 minutes, it was Chaplin's longest picture to date. Dealing with issues of poverty and parent–child separation, The Kid was one of the earliest films to combine comedy and drama. It was released in January 1921 with instant success, and, by 1924, had been screened in over 50 countries.
Chaplin spent five months on his next film, the two-reeler The Idle Class. Work on the picture was for a time delayed by more turmoil in his personal life. First National had on 12 April announced Chaplin's engagement to the actress May Collins, whom he had hired to be his secretary at the studio. By early June, however, Chaplin "suddenly decided he could scarcely stand to be in the same room" as Collins, but instead of breaking off the engagement directly, he "stopped coming in to work, sending word that he was suffering from a bad case of influenza, which May knew to be a lie."
Ultimately work on the film resumed, and following its September 1921 release, Chaplin chose to return to England for the first time in almost a decade. He wrote a book about his journey, titled My Wonderful Visit. He then worked to fulfil his First National contract, releasing Pay Day in February 1922. The Pilgrim, his final short film, was delayed by distribution disagreements with the studio and released a year later.
1923–1938: silent features
A Woman of Paris and The Gold Rush
Having fulfilled his First National contract, Chaplin was free to make his first picture as an independent producer. In November 1922, he began filming A Woman of Paris, a romantic drama about ill-fated lovers. Chaplin intended it to be a star-making vehicle for Edna Purviance, and did not appear in the picture himself other than in a brief, uncredited cameo. He wished the film to have a realistic feel and directed his cast to give restrained performances. In real life, he explained, "men and women try to hide their emotions rather than seek to express them". A Woman of Paris premiered in September 1923 and was acclaimed for its innovative, subtle approach. The public, however, seemed to have little interest in a Chaplin film without Chaplin, and it was a box office disappointment. The filmmaker was hurt by this failurehe had long wanted to produce a dramatic film and was proud of the resultand soon withdrew A Woman of Paris from circulation.
Chaplin returned to comedy for his next project. Setting his standards high, he told himself "This next film must be an epic! The Greatest!" Inspired by a photograph of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, and later the story of the Donner Party of 1846–1847, he made what Geoffrey Macnab calls "an epic comedy out of grim subject matter". In The Gold Rush, the Tramp is a lonely prospector fighting adversity and looking for love. With Georgia Hale as his leading lady, Chaplin began filming the picture in February 1924. Its elaborate production, costing almost $1million, included location shooting in the Truckee mountains in Nevada with 600 extras, extravagant sets, and special effects. The last scene was shot in May 1925 after 15 months of filming.
Chaplin felt The Gold Rush was the best film he had made. It opened in August 1925 and became one of the highest-grossing films of the silent era with a U.S. box-office of $5million. The comedy contains some of Chaplin's most famous sequences, such as the Tramp eating his shoe and the "Dance of the Rolls". Macnab has called it "the quintessential Chaplin film". Chaplin stated at its release, "This is the picture that I want to be remembered by".
Lita Grey and The Circus
While making The Gold Rush, Chaplin married for the second time. Mirroring the circumstances of his first union, Lita Grey was a teenage actress, originally set to star in the film, whose surprise announcement of pregnancy forced Chaplin into marriage. She was 16 and he was 35, meaning Chaplin could have been charged with statutory rape under California law. He therefore arranged a discreet marriage in Mexico on 25 November 1924. They originally met during her childhood and she had previously appeared in his works The Kid and The Idle Class. Their first son, Charles Spencer Chaplin III, was born on 5May 1925, followed by Sydney Earl Chaplin on 30 March 1926. On 6 July 1925, Chaplin became the first movie star to be featured on a Time magazine cover.
It was an unhappy marriage, and Chaplin spent long hours at the studio to avoid seeing his wife. In November 1926, Grey took the children and left the family home. A bitter divorce followed, in which Grey's applicationaccusing Chaplin of infidelity, abuse, and of harbouring "perverted sexual desires"was leaked to the press. Chaplin was reported to be in a state of nervous breakdown, as the story became headline news and groups formed across America calling for his films to be banned. Eager to end the case without further scandal, Chaplin's lawyers agreed to a cash settlement of $600,000the largest awarded by American courts at that time. His fan base was strong enough to survive the incident, and it was soon forgotten, but Chaplin was deeply affected by it. Less than five months after the divorce, Chaplin and Grey's former butler Don Solovich was murdered in Utah, and articles speculated about connections between Chaplin and the murder.
Before the divorce suit was filed, Chaplin had begun work on a new film, The Circus. He built a story around the idea of walking a tightrope while besieged by monkeys, and turned the Tramp into the accidental star of a circus. Filming was suspended for ten months while he dealt with the divorce scandal, and it was generally a trouble-ridden production. Finally completed in October 1927, The Circus was released in January 1928 to a positive reception. At the 1st Academy Awards, Chaplin was given a special trophy "For versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus". Despite its success, he permanently associated the film with the stress of its production; Chaplin omitted The Circus from his autobiography, and struggled to work on it when he recorded the score in his later years.
City Lights
By the time The Circus was released, Hollywood had witnessed the introduction of sound films. Chaplin was cynical about this new medium and the technical shortcomings it presented, believing that "talkies" lacked the artistry of silent films. He was also hesitant to change the formula that had brought him such success, and feared that giving the Tramp a voice would limit his international appeal. He, therefore, rejected the new Hollywood craze and began work on a new silent film. Chaplin was nonetheless anxious about this decision and remained so throughout the film's production.
When filming began at the end of 1928, Chaplin had been working on the story for almost a year. City Lights followed the Tramp's love for a blind flower girl (played by Virginia Cherrill) and his efforts to raise money for her sight-saving operation. It was a challenging production that lasted 21 months, with Chaplin later confessing that he "had worked himself into a neurotic state of wanting perfection". One advantage Chaplin found in sound technology was the opportunity to record a musical score for the film, which he composed himself.
Chaplin finished editing City Lights in December 1930, by which time silent films were an anachronism. A preview before an unsuspecting public audience was not a success, but a showing for the press produced positive reviews. One journalist wrote, "Nobody in the world but Charlie Chaplin could have done it. He is the only person that has that peculiar something called 'audience appeal' in sufficient quality to defy the popular penchant for movies that talk." Given its general release in January 1931, City Lights proved to be a popular and financial success, eventually grossing over $3million. The British Film Institute called it Chaplin's finest accomplishment, and the critic James Agee hails the closing scene as "the greatest piece of acting and the highest moment in movies". City Lights became Chaplin's personal favourite of his films and remained so throughout his life.
Travels, Paulette Goddard, and Modern Times
City Lights had been a success, but Chaplin was unsure if he could make another picture without dialogue. He remained convinced that sound would not work in his films, but was also "obsessed by a depressing fear of being old-fashioned". In this state of uncertainty, early in 1931, the comedian decided to take a holiday and ended up travelling for 16 months. He spent months travelling Western Europe, including extended stays in France and Switzerland, and spontaneously decided to visit Japan. The day after he arrived in Japan, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by ultra-nationalists in the May 15 Incident. The group's original plan had been to provoke a war with the United States by assassinating Chaplin at a welcome reception organised by the prime minister, but the plan had been foiled due to delayed public announcement of the event's date.
In his autobiography, Chaplin recalled that on his return to Los Angeles, "I was confused and without plan, restless and conscious of an extreme loneliness". He briefly considered retiring and moving to China. Chaplin's loneliness was relieved when he met 21-year-old actress Paulette Goddard in July 1932, and the pair began a relationship. He was not ready to commit to a film, however, and focused on writing a serial about his travels (published in Woman's Home Companion). The trip had been a stimulating experience for Chaplin, including meetings with several prominent thinkers, and he became increasingly interested in world affairs. The state of labour in America troubled him, and he feared that capitalism and machinery in the workplace would increase unemployment levels. It was these concerns that stimulated Chaplin to develop his new film.
Modern Times was announced by Chaplin as "a satire on certain phases of our industrial life". Featuring the Tramp and Goddard as they endure the Great Depression, it took ten and a half months to film. Chaplin intended to use spoken dialogue but changed his mind during rehearsals. Like its predecessor, Modern Times employed sound effects but almost no speaking. Chaplin's performance of a gibberish song did, however, give the Tramp a voice for the only time on film. After recording the music, Chaplin released Modern Times in February 1936. It was his first feature in 15 years to adopt political references and social realism, a factor that attracted considerable press coverage despite Chaplin's attempts to downplay the issue. The film earned less at the box-office than his previous features and received mixed reviews, as some viewers disliked the politicising. Today, Modern Times is seen by the British Film Institute as one of Chaplin's "great features", while David Robinson says it shows the filmmaker at "his unrivalled peak as a creator of visual comedy".
Following the release of Modern Times, Chaplin left with Goddard for a trip to the Far East. Chaplin, Goddard, and a Japanese servant named Yonnemori arrived in Saigon at 8:30 am on 13 April 1936, where they stayed at the Continental hotel before going on a trip to visit multiple locations in French Indochina. After Saigon they visited Phnom Penh to view Angkor Wat, returning to Saigon to go to Da Lat, followed by Huế, arriving in Đà Nẵng at 23 April where he visited the Marble Mountains and the Henri Parmentier Museum. On 29 April they arrived in Hanoi (the capital city of French Indochina) where they stayed at the Métropole hotel. In the afternoon of 5 May they visited the popular tourist destination Hạ Long Bay, after visiting Hạ Long Bay the couple left from Hải Phòng to Hong Kong on board of a ship named the Canton. The couple had refused to comment on the nature of their relationship, and it was not known whether they were married or not. Sometime later, Chaplin revealed that they married in Canton during this trip. By 1938, the couple had drifted apart, as both focused heavily on their work, although Goddard was again his leading lady in his next feature film, The Great Dictator. She eventually divorced Chaplin in Mexico in 1942, citing incompatibility and separation for more than a year.
1939–1952: controversies and fading popularity
The Great Dictator
The 1940s saw Chaplin face a series of controversies, both in his work and in his personal life, which changed his fortunes and severely affected his popularity in the United States. The first of these was his growing boldness in expressing his political beliefs. Deeply disturbed by the surge of militaristic nationalism in 1930s world politics, Chaplin found that he could not keep these issues out of his work. Parallels between himself and Adolf Hitler had been widely noted: the pair were born four days apart, both had risen from poverty to world prominence, and Hitler wore the same moustache style as Chaplin. It was this physical resemblance that supplied the plot for Chaplin's next film, The Great Dictator, which directly satirised Hitler and attacked fascism.
Chaplin spent two years developing the script and began filming in September 1939, six days after Britain declared war on Germany. He had submitted to using spoken dialogue, partly out of acceptance that he had no other choice, but also because he recognised it as a better method for delivering a political message. Making a comedy about Hitler was seen as highly controversial, but Chaplin's financial independence allowed him to take the risk. "I was determined to go ahead", he later wrote, "for Hitler must be laughed at." Chaplin replaced the Tramp (while wearing similar attire) with "A Jewish Barber", a reference to the Nazi Party's belief that he was Jewish. In a dual performance, he also played the dictator "Adenoid Hynkel", a parody of Hitler.
The Great Dictator spent a year in production and was released in October 1940. The film generated a vast amount of publicity, with a critic for The New York Times calling it "the most eagerly awaited picture of the year", and it was one of the biggest money-makers of the era. The ending was unpopular, however, and generated controversy. Chaplin concluded the film with a five-minute speech in which he abandoned his barber character, looked directly into the camera, and pleaded against war and fascism. Charles J. Maland has identified this overt preaching as triggering a decline in Chaplin's popularity, and writes, "Henceforth, no movie fan would ever be able to separate the dimension of politics from [his] star image". Nevertheless, both Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt liked the film, which they saw at private screenings before its release. Roosevelt subsequently invited Chaplin to read the film's final speech over the radio during his January 1941 inauguration, with the speech becoming a "hit" of the celebration. Chaplin was often invited to other patriotic functions to read the speech to audiences during the years of the war. The Great Dictator received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
Legal troubles and Oona O'Neill
In the mid-1940s, Chaplin was involved in a series of trials that occupied most of his time and significantly affected his public image. The troubles stemmed from his affair with an aspiring actress named Joan Barry, with whom he was involved intermittently between June 1941 and the autumn of 1942. Barry, who displayed obsessive behaviour and was twice arrested after they separated, reappeared the following year and announced that she was pregnant with Chaplin's child. As Chaplin denied the claim, Barry filed a paternity suit against him.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover, who had long been suspicious of Chaplin's political leanings, used the opportunity to generate negative publicity about him. As part of a smear campaign to damage Chaplin's image, the FBI named him in four indictments related to the Barry case. Most serious of these was an alleged violation of the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of women across state boundaries for sexual purposes. Historian Otto Friedrich called this an "absurd prosecution" of an "ancient statute", yet if Chaplin was found guilty, he faced 23 years in jail. Three charges lacked sufficient evidence to proceed to court, but the Mann Act trial began on 21 March 1944. Chaplin was acquitted two weeks later, on4 April. The case was frequently headline news, with Newsweek calling it the "biggest public relations scandal since the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial in 1921".
Barry's child, Carol Ann, was born in October 1943, and the paternity suit went to court in December 1944. After two arduous trials, in which the prosecuting lawyer accused him of "moral turpitude", Chaplin was declared to be the father. Evidence from blood tests that indicated otherwise were not admissible, and the judge ordered Chaplin to pay child support until Carol Ann turned 21. Media coverage of the suit was influenced by the FBI, which fed information to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and Chaplin was portrayed in an overwhelmingly critical light.
The controversy surrounding Chaplin increased whentwo weeks after the paternity suit was filedit was announced that he had married his newest protégée, 18-year-old Oona O'Neill, the daughter of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Chaplin, then 54, had been introduced to her by a film agent seven months earlier. In his autobiography, Chaplin described meeting O'Neill as "the happiest event of my life", and claimed to have found "perfect love". Chaplin's son, Charles III, reported that Oona "worshipped" his father. The couple remained married until Chaplin's death, and had eight children over 18 years: Geraldine Leigh (b. July 1944), Michael John (b. March 1946), Josephine Hannah (b. March 1949), Victoria Agnes (b. May 1951), Eugene Anthony (b. August 1953), Jane Cecil (b. May 1957), Annette Emily (b. December 1959), and Christopher James (b. July 1962).
Monsieur Verdoux and communist accusations
Chaplin claimed that the Barry trials had "crippled [his] creativeness", and it was some time before he began working again. In April 1946, he finally began filming a project that had been in development since 1942. Monsieur Verdoux was a black comedy, the story of a French bank clerk, Verdoux (Chaplin), who loses his job and begins marrying and murdering wealthy widows to support his family. Chaplin's inspiration for the project came from Orson Welles, who wanted him to star in a film about the French serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. Chaplin decided that the concept would "make a wonderful comedy", and paid Welles $5,000 for the idea.
Chaplin again vocalised his political views in Monsieur Verdoux, criticising capitalism and arguing that the world encourages mass killing through wars and weapons of mass destruction. Because of this, the film met with controversy when it was released in April 1947; Chaplin was booed at the premiere, and there were calls for a boycott. Monsieur Verdoux was the first Chaplin release that failed both critically and commercially in the United States. It was more successful abroad, and Chaplin's screenplay was nominated at the Academy Awards. He was proud of the film, writing in his autobiography, "Monsieur Verdoux is the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made."
The negative reaction to Monsieur Verdoux was largely the result of changes in Chaplin's public image. Along with the damage of the Joan Barry scandal, he was publicly accused of being a communist. His political activity had heightened during World War II, when he campaigned for the opening of a Second Front to help the Soviet Union and supported various Soviet–American friendship groups. He was also friendly with several suspected communists, and attended functions given by Soviet diplomats in Los Angeles. In the political climate of 1940s America, such activities meant Chaplin was considered, as Larcher writes, "dangerously progressive and amoral". The FBI wanted him out of the country, and launched an official investigation in early 1947.
Chaplin denied being a communist, instead calling himself a "peacemonger", but felt the government's effort to suppress the ideology was an unacceptable infringement of civil liberties. Unwilling to be quiet about the issue, he openly protested against the trials of Communist Party members and the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Chaplin received a subpoena to appear before HUAC but was not called to testify. As his activities were widely reported in the press, and Cold War fears grew, questions were raised over his failure to take American citizenship. Calls were made for him to be deported; in one extreme and widely published example, Representative John E. Rankin, who helped establish HUAC, told Congress in June 1947: "[Chaplin's] very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America. [If he is deported]... his loathsome pictures can be kept from before the eyes of the American youth. He should be deported and gotten rid of at once."
In 2003, declassified British archives belonging to the British Foreign Office revealed that George Orwell secretly accused Chaplin of being a secret communist and a friend of the USSR in the Orwell's list document. Chaplin's name was one of 35 that Orwell gave to the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret British Cold War propaganda department which worked closely with the CIA. Chaplin was not the only actor in America whom Orwell accused of being a secret communist. He also described American civil-rights leader and actor Paul Robeson as being "anti-white".
Limelight and banning from the United States
Although Chaplin remained politically active in the years following the failure of Monsieur Verdoux, his next film, about a forgotten music hall comedian and a young ballerina in Edwardian London, was devoid of political themes. Limelight was heavily autobiographical, alluding not only to Chaplin's childhood and the lives of his parents, but also to his loss of popularity in the United States. The cast included various members of his family, including his five oldest children and his half-brother, Wheeler Dryden.
Filming began in November 1951, by which time Chaplin had spent three years working on the story. He aimed for a more serious tone than any of his previous films, regularly using the word "melancholy" when explaining his plans to his co-star Claire Bloom. Limelight featured a cameo appearance from Buster Keaton, whom Chaplin cast as his stage partner in a pantomime scene. This marked the only time the comedians worked together in a feature film.
Chaplin decided to hold the world premiere of Limelight in London, since it was the setting of the film. As he left Los Angeles, he expressed a premonition that he would not be returning. At New York, he boarded the with his family on 18 September 1952. The next day, United States Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit and stated that he would have to submit to an interview concerning his political views and moral behaviour to re-enter the US. Although McGranery told the press that he had "a pretty good case against Chaplin", Maland has concluded, on the basis of the FBI files that were released in the 1980s, that the US government had no real evidence to prevent Chaplin's re-entry. It is likely that he would have gained entry if he had applied for it. However, when Chaplin received a cablegram informing him of the news, he privately decided to cut his ties with the United States:
Because all of his property remained in America, Chaplin refrained from saying anything negative about the incident to the press. The scandal attracted vast attention, but Chaplin and his film were warmly received in Europe. In America, the hostility towards him continued, and, although it received some positive reviews, Limelight was subjected to a wide-scale boycott. Reflecting on this, Maland writes that Chaplin's fall, from an "unprecedented" level of popularity, "may be the most dramatic in the history of stardom in America".
1953–1977: European years
Move to Switzerland and A King in New York
Chaplin did not attempt to return to the United States after his re-entry permit was revoked, and instead sent his wife to settle his affairs. The couple decided to settle in Switzerland and, in January 1953, the family moved into their permanent home: Manoir de Ban, a estate overlooking Lake Geneva in Corsier-sur-Vevey. Chaplin put his Beverly Hills house and studio up for sale in March, and surrendered his re-entry permit in April. The next year, his wife renounced her US citizenship and became a British citizen. Chaplin severed the last of his professional ties with the United States in 1955, when he sold the remainder of his stock in United Artists, which had been in financial difficulty since the early 1940s.
Chaplin remained a controversial figure throughout the 1950s, especially after he was awarded the International Peace Prize by the communist-led World Peace Council, and after his meetings with Zhou Enlai and Nikita Khrushchev. He began developing his first European film, A King in New York, in 1954. Casting himself as an exiled king who seeks asylum in the United States, Chaplin included several of his recent experiences in the screenplay. His son, Michael, was cast as a boy whose parents are targeted by the FBI, while Chaplin's character faces accusations of communism. The political satire parodied HUAC and attacked elements of 1950s cultureincluding consumerism, plastic surgery, and wide-screen cinema. In a review, the playwright John Osborne called it Chaplin's "most bitter" and "most openly personal" film. In a 1957 interview, when asked to clarify his political views, Chaplin stated "As for politics, I am an anarchist. I hate government and rulesand fetters... People must be free."
Chaplin founded a new production company, Attica, and used Shepperton Studios for the shooting. Filming in England proved a difficult experience, as he was used to his own Hollywood studio and familiar crew, and no longer had limitless production time. According to Robinson, this had an effect on the quality of the film. A King in New York was released in September 1957, and received mixed reviews. Chaplin banned American journalists from its Paris première and decided not to release the film in the United States. This severely limited its revenue, although it achieved moderate commercial success in Europe. A King in New York was not shown in America until 1973.
Final works and renewed appreciation
In the last two decades of his career, Chaplin concentrated on re-editing and scoring his old films for re-release, along with securing their ownership and distribution rights. In an interview he gave in 1959, the year of his 70th birthday, Chaplin stated that there was still "room for the Little Man in the atomic age". The first of these re-releases was The Chaplin Revue (1959), which included new versions of A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, and The Pilgrim.
In America, the political atmosphere began to change and attention was once again directed to Chaplin's films instead of his views. In July 1962, the New York Times published an editorial stating, "We do not believe the Republic would be in danger if yesterday's unforgotten little tramp were allowed to amble down the gangplank of a steamer or plane in an American port". The same month, Chaplin was invested with the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the universities of Oxford and Durham. In November 1963, the Plaza Theater in New York started a year-long series of Chaplin's films, including Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight, which gained excellent reviews from American critics. September 1964 saw the release of Chaplin's memoir, My Autobiography, which he had been working on since 1957. The 500-page book became a worldwide best-seller. It focused on his early years and personal life, and was criticised for lacking information on his film career.
Shortly after the publication of his memoirs, Chaplin began work on A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), a romantic comedy based on a script he had written for Paulette Goddard in the 1930s. Set on an ocean liner, it starred Marlon Brando as an American ambassador and Sophia Loren as a stowaway found in his cabin. The film differed from Chaplin's earlier productions in several aspects. It was his first to use Technicolor and the widescreen format, while he concentrated on directing and appeared on-screen only in a cameo role as a seasick steward. He also signed a deal with Universal Pictures and appointed his assistant, Jerome Epstein, as the producer. Chaplin was paid $600,000 director's fee as well as a percentage of the gross receipts. A Countess from Hong Kong premiered in January 1967, to unfavourable reviews, and was a box-office failure. Chaplin was deeply hurt by the negative reaction to the film, which turned out to be his last.
Chaplin had a series of minor strokes in the late 1960s, which marked the beginning of a slow decline in his health. Despite the setbacks, he was soon writing a new film script, The Freak, a story of a winged girl found in South America, which he intended as a starring vehicle for his daughter, Victoria. His fragile health prevented the project from being realised. In the early 1970s, Chaplin concentrated on re-releasing his old films, including The Kid and The Circus. In 1971, he was made a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour at the Cannes Film Festival. The following year, he was honoured with a special award by the Venice Film Festival.
In 1972, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an Honorary Award, which Robinson sees as a sign that America "wanted to make amends". Chaplin was initially hesitant about accepting but decided to return to the US for the first time in 20 years. The visit attracted a large amount of press coverage and, at the Academy Awards gala, he was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the academy's history. Visibly emotional, Chaplin accepted his award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century".
Although Chaplin still had plans for future film projects, by the mid-1970s he was very frail. He experienced several further strokes, which made it difficult for him to communicate, and he had to use a wheelchair. His final projects were compiling a pictorial autobiography, My Life in Pictures (1974) and scoring A Woman of Paris for re-release in 1976. He also appeared in a documentary about his life, The Gentleman Tramp (1975), directed by Richard Patterson. In the 1975 New Year Honours, Chaplin was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, though he was too weak to kneel and received the honour in his wheelchair.
Death
By October 1977, Chaplin's health had declined to the point that he needed constant care. In the early morning of Christmas Day 1977, Chaplin died at home after having a stroke in his sleep. He was 88 years old. The funeral, on 27 December, was a small and private Anglican ceremony, according to his wishes. Chaplin was interred in the Corsier-sur-Vevey cemetery. Among the film industry's tributes, director René Clair wrote, "He was a monument of the cinema, of all countries and all times... the most beautiful gift the cinema made to us." Actor Bob Hope declared, "We were lucky to have lived in his time." Chaplin left more than $100 million to his widow.
On 1 March 1978, Chaplin's coffin was dug up and stolen from its grave by Roman Wardas and Gantcho Ganev. The body was held for ransom in an attempt to extort money from his widow, Oona Chaplin. The pair were caught in a large police operation in May, and Chaplin's coffin was found buried in a field in the nearby village of Noville. It was re-interred in the Corsier cemetery in a reinforced concrete vault.
Filmmaking
Influences
Chaplin believed his first influence to be his mother, who entertained him as a child by sitting at the window and mimicking passers-by: "it was through watching her that I learned not only how to express emotions with my hands and face, but also how to observe and study people." Chaplin's early years in music hall allowed him to see stage comedians at work; he also attended the Christmas pantomimes at Drury Lane, where he studied the art of clowning through performers like Dan Leno. Chaplin's years with the Fred Karno company had a formative effect on him as an actor and filmmaker. Simon Louvish writes that the company was his "training ground", and it was here that Chaplin learned to vary the pace of his comedy. The concept of mixing pathos with slapstick was learnt from Karno, who also used elements of absurdity that became familiar in Chaplin's gags. From the film industry, Chaplin drew upon the work of the French comedian Max Linder, whose films he greatly admired. In developing the Tramp costume and persona, he was likely inspired by the American vaudeville scene, where tramp characters were common.
Method
Chaplin never spoke more than cursorily about his filmmaking methods, claiming such a thing would be tantamount to a magician spoiling his own illusion. Little was known about his working process throughout his lifetime, but research from film historiansparticularly the findings of Kevin Brownlow and David Gill that were presented in the three-part documentary Unknown Chaplin (1983)has since revealed his unique working method.
Until he began making spoken dialogue films with The Great Dictator (1940), Chaplin never shot from a completed script. Many of his early films began with only a vague premise, for example "Charlie enters a health spa" or "Charlie works in a pawn shop". He then had sets constructed and worked with his stock company to improvise gags and "business" using them, almost always working the ideas out on film. As ideas were accepted and discarded, a narrative structure would emerge, frequently requiring Chaplin to reshoot an already-completed scene that might have otherwise contradicted the story. From A Woman of Paris (1923) onward Chaplin began the filming process with a prepared plot, but Robinson writes that every film up to Modern Times (1936) "went through many metamorphoses and permutations before the story took its final form".
Producing films in this manner meant Chaplin took longer to complete his pictures than almost any other filmmaker at the time. If he was out of ideas, he often took a break from the shoot, which could last for days, while keeping the studio ready for when inspiration returned. Delaying the process further was Chaplin's rigorous perfectionism. According to his friend Ivor Montagu, "nothing but perfection would be right" for the filmmaker. Because he personally funded his films, Chaplin was at liberty to strive for this goal and shoot as many takes as he wished. The number was often excessive, for instance 53 takes for every finished take in The Kid (1921). For The Immigrant (1917), a 20-minute short, Chaplin shot 40,000 feet of filmenough for a feature-length.
Describing his working method as "sheer perseverance to the point of madness", Chaplin would be completely consumed by the production of a picture. Robinson writes that even in Chaplin's later years, his work continued "to take precedence over everything and everyone else". The combination of story improvisation and relentless perfectionismwhich resulted in days of effort and thousands of feet of film being wasted, all at enormous expenseoften proved taxing for Chaplin who, in frustration, would lash out at his actors and crew.
Chaplin exercised complete control over his pictures, to the extent that he would act out the other roles for his cast, expecting them to imitate him exactly. He personally edited all of his films, trawling through the large amounts of footage to create the exact picture he wanted. As a result of his complete independence, he was identified by the film historian Andrew Sarris as one of the first auteur filmmakers. Chaplin did receive help from his long-time cinematographer Roland Totheroh, brother Sydney Chaplin, and various assistant directors such as Harry Crocker and Charles Reisner.
Style and themes
While Chaplin's comedic style is broadly defined as slapstick, it is considered restrained and intelligent, with the film historian Philip Kemp describing his work as a mix of "deft, balletic physical comedy and thoughtful, situation-based gags". Chaplin diverged from conventional slapstick by slowing the pace and exhausting each scene of its comic potential, with more focus on developing the viewer's relationship to the characters. Unlike conventional slapstick comedies, Robinson states that the comic moments in Chaplin's films centre on the Tramp's attitude to the things happening to him: the humour does not come from the Tramp bumping into a tree, but from his lifting his hat to the tree in apology. Dan Kamin writes that Chaplin's "quirky mannerisms" and "serious demeanour in the midst of slapstick action" are other key aspects of his comedy, while the surreal transformation of objects and the employment of in-camera trickery are also common features. His signature style consisted of gestural idiosyncrasies like askew derby hat, drooping shoulders, deflated chest and dangling arms and tilted back pelvis to enrich the comic persona of his 'tramp' character. His shabby but neat clothing and incessant grooming behaviour along with his geometrical walk and movement gave his onscreen characters a puppet-like quality.
Chaplin's silent films typically follow the Tramp's efforts to survive in a hostile world. The character lives in poverty and is frequently treated badly, but remains kind and upbeat; defying his social position, he strives to be seen as a gentleman. As Chaplin said in 1925, "The whole point of the Little Fellow is that no matter how down on his ass he is, no matter how well the jackals succeed in tearing him apart, he's still a man of dignity." The Tramp defies authority figures and "gives as good as he gets", leading Robinson and Louvish to see him as a representative for the underprivilegedan "everyman turned heroic saviour". Hansmeyer notes that several of Chaplin's films end with "the homeless and lonely Tramp [walking] optimistically... into the sunset... to continue his journey."
The infusion of pathos is a well-known aspect of Chaplin's work, and Larcher notes his reputation for "[inducing] laughter and tears". Sentimentality in his films comes from a variety of sources, with Louvish pinpointing "personal failure, society's strictures, economic disaster, and the elements". Chaplin sometimes drew on tragic events when creating his films, as in the case of The Gold Rush (1925), which was inspired by the fate of the Donner Party. Constance B. Kuriyama has identified serious underlying themes in the early comedies, such as greed (The Gold Rush) and loss (The Kid). Chaplin also touched on controversial issues: immigration (The Immigrant, 1917); illegitimacy (The Kid, 1921); and drug use (Easy Street, 1917). He often explored these topics ironically, making comedy out of suffering.
Social commentary was a feature of Chaplin's films from early in his career, as he portrayed the underdog in a sympathetic light and highlighted the difficulties of the poor. Later, as he developed a keen interest in economics and felt obliged to publicise his views, Chaplin began incorporating overtly political messages into his films. Modern Times (1936) depicted factory workers in dismal conditions, The Great Dictator (1940) parodied Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and ended in a speech against nationalism, Monsieur Verdoux (1947) criticised war and capitalism, and A King in New York (1957) attacked McCarthyism.
Several of Chaplin's films incorporate autobiographical elements, and the psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that Chaplin "always plays only himself as he was in his dismal youth". The Kid is thought to reflect Chaplin's childhood trauma of being sent into an orphanage, the main characters in Limelight (1952) contain elements from the lives of his parents, and A King in New York references Chaplin's experiences of being shunned by the United States. Many of his sets, especially in street scenes, bear a strong similarity to Kennington, where he grew up. Stephen M. Weissman has argued that Chaplin's problematic relationship with his mentally ill mother was often reflected in his female characters and the Tramp's desire to save them.
Regarding the structure of Chaplin's films, the scholar Gerald Mast sees them as consisting of sketches tied together by the same theme and setting, rather than having a tightly unified storyline. Visually, his films are simple and economic, with scenes portrayed as if set on a stage. His approach to filming was described by the art director Eugène Lourié: "Chaplin did not think in 'artistic' images when he was shooting. He believed that action is the main thing. The camera is there to photograph the actors". In his autobiography, Chaplin wrote, "Simplicity is best... pompous effects slow up action, are boring and unpleasant... The camera should not intrude." This approach has prompted criticism, since the 1940s, for being "old fashioned", while the film scholar Donald McCaffrey sees it as an indication that Chaplin never completely understood film as a medium. Kamin, however, comments that Chaplin's comedic talent would not be enough to remain funny on screen if he did not have an "ability to conceive and direct scenes specifically for the film medium".
Composing
Chaplin developed a passion for music as a child and taught himself to play the piano, violin, and cello. He considered the musical accompaniment of a film to be important, and from A Woman of Paris onwards he took an increasing interest in this area. With the advent of sound technology, Chaplin began using a synchronised orchestral soundtrackcomposed by himselffor City Lights (1931). He thereafter composed the scores for all of his films, and from the late 1950s to his death, he scored all of his silent features and some of his short films.
As Chaplin was not a trained musician, he could not read sheet music and needed the help of professional composers, such as David Raksin, Raymond Rasch and Eric James, when creating his scores. Musical directors were employed to oversee the recording process, such as Alfred Newman for City Lights. Although some critics have claimed that credit for his film music should be given to the composers who worked with him, Raksinwho worked with Chaplin on Modern Timesstressed Chaplin's creative position and active participation in the composing process. This process, which could take months, would start with Chaplin describing to the composer(s) exactly what he wanted and singing or playing tunes he had improvised on the piano. These tunes were then developed further in a close collaboration among the composer(s) and Chaplin. According to film historian Jeffrey Vance, "although he relied upon associates to arrange varied and complex instrumentation, the musical imperative is his, and not a note in a Chaplin musical score was placed there without his assent."
Chaplin's compositions produced three popular songs. "Smile", composed originally for Modern Times (1936) and later set to lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, was a hit for Nat King Cole in 1954. For Limelight, Chaplin composed "Terry's Theme", which was popularised by Jimmy Young as "Eternally" (1952). Finally, "This Is My Song", performed by Petula Clark for A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), reached number one on the UK and other European charts. Chaplin also received his only competitive Oscar for his composition work, as the Limelight theme won an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1973 following the film's re-release.
Legacy
In 1998, the film critic Andrew Sarris called Chaplin "arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema, certainly its most extraordinary performer and probably still its most universal icon". He is described by the British Film Institute as "a towering figure in world culture", and was included in Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Important People of the 20th Century" for the "laughter [he brought] to millions" and because he "more or less invented global recognizability and helped turn an industry into an art". In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin as the 10th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
The image of the Tramp has become a part of cultural history; according to Simon Louvish, the character is recognisable to people who have never seen a Chaplin film, and in places where his films are never shown. The critic Leonard Maltin has written of the "unique" and "indelible" nature of the Tramp, and argued that no other comedian matched his "worldwide impact". Praising the character, Richard Schickel suggests that Chaplin's films with the Tramp contain the most "eloquent, richly comedic expressions of the human spirit" in movie history. Memorabilia connected to the character still fetches large sums in auctions: in 2006 a bowler hat and a bamboo cane that were part of the Tramp's costume were bought for $140,000 in a Los Angeles auction.
As a filmmaker, Chaplin is considered a pioneer and one of the most influential figures of the early twentieth century. He is often credited as one of the medium's first artists. Film historian Mark Cousins has written that Chaplin "changed not only the imagery of cinema, but also its sociology and grammar" and claims that Chaplin was as important to the development of comedy as a genre as D.W. Griffith was to drama. He was the first to popularise feature-length comedy and to slow down the pace of action, adding pathos and subtlety to it. Although his work is mostly classified as slapstick, Chaplin's drama A Woman of Paris (1923) was a major influence on Ernst Lubitsch's film The Marriage Circle (1924) and thus played a part in the development of "sophisticated comedy". According to David Robinson, Chaplin's innovations were "rapidly assimilated to become part of the common practice of film craft". Filmmakers who cited Chaplin as an influence include Federico Fellini (who called Chaplin "a sort of Adam, from whom we are all descended"), Jacques Tati ("Without him I would never have made a film"), René Clair ("He inspired practically every filmmaker"), François Truffaut ("My religion is cinema. I believe in Charlie Chaplin…"), Michael Powell, Billy Wilder, Vittorio De Sica, and Richard Attenborough. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky praised Chaplin as "the only person to have gone down into cinematic history without any shadow of a doubt. The films he left behind can never grow old." Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray said about Chaplin "If there is any name which can be said to symbolize cinemait is Charlie Chaplin… I am sure Chaplin's name will survive even if the cinema ceases to exist as a medium of artistic expression. Chaplin is truly immortal." French auteur Jean Renoir's favourite filmmaker was Chaplin.
Chaplin also strongly influenced the work of later comedians. Marcel Marceau said he was inspired to become a mime artist after watching Chaplin, while the actor Raj Kapoor based his screen persona on the Tramp. Mark Cousins has also detected Chaplin's comedic style in the French character Monsieur Hulot and the Italian character Totò. In other fields, Chaplin helped inspire the cartoon characters Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, and was an influence on the Dada art movement. As one of the founding members of United Artists, Chaplin also had a role in the development of the film industry. Gerald Mast has written that although UA never became a major company like MGM or Paramount Pictures, the idea that directors could produce their own films was "years ahead of its time".
In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll ranked Chaplin at No. 5 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time. In the 21st century, several of Chaplin's films are still regarded as classics and among the greatest ever made. The 2012 Sight & Sound poll, which compiles "top ten" ballots from film critics and directors to determine each group's most acclaimed films,
saw City Lights rank among the critics' top 50, Modern Times inside the top 100, and The Great Dictator and The Gold Rush placed in the top 250. The top 100 films as voted on by directors included Modern Times at number 22, City Lights at number 30, and The Gold Rush at number 91. Every one of Chaplin's features received a vote. Chaplin was ranked at No. 35 on Empire magazine's "Top 40 Greatest Directors of All-Time" list in 2005. In 2007, the American Film Institute named City Lights the 11th greatest American film of all time, while The Gold Rush and Modern Times again ranked in the top 100. Books about Chaplin continue to be published regularly, and he is a popular subject for media scholars and film archivists. Many of Chaplin's film have had a DVD and Blu-ray release.
Chaplin's legacy is managed on behalf of his children by the Chaplin office, located in Paris. The office represents Association Chaplin, founded by some of his children "to protect the name, image and moral rights" to his body of work, Roy Export SAS, which owns the copyright to most of his films made after 1918, and Bubbles Incorporated S.A., which owns the copyrights to his image and name. Their central archive is held at the archives of Montreux, Switzerland and scanned versions of its contents, including 83,630 images, 118 scripts, 976 manuscripts, 7,756 letters, and thousands of other documents, are available for research purposes at the Chaplin Research Centre at the Cineteca di Bologna. The photographic archive, which includes approximately 10,000 photographs from Chaplin's life and career, is kept at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland. The British Film Institute has also established the Charles Chaplin Research Foundation, and the first international Charles Chaplin Conference was held in London in July 2005. Elements for many of Chaplin's films are held by the Academy Film Archive as part of the Roy Export Chaplin Collection.
Commemoration and tributes
Chaplin's final home, Manoir de Ban in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, has been converted into a museum named "Chaplin's World". It opened on 17 April 2016 after fifteen years of development, and is described by Reuters as "an interactive museum showcasing the life and works of Charlie Chaplin". On the 128th anniversary of his birth, a record-setting 662 people dressed as the Tramp in an event organised by the museum. Previously, the Museum of the Moving Image in London held a permanent display on Chaplin, and hosted a dedicated exhibition to his life and career in 1988. The London Film Museum hosted an exhibition called Charlie ChaplinThe Great Londoner, from 2010 until 2013.
In London, a statue of Chaplin as the Tramp, sculpted by John Doubleday and unveiled in 1981, is located in Leicester Square. The city also includes a road named after him in central London, "Charlie Chaplin Walk", which is the location of the BFI IMAX. There are nine blue plaques memorialising Chaplin in London, Hampshire, and Yorkshire. In Canning Town, East London, the Gandhi Chaplin Memorial Garden, opened by Chaplin's granddaughter Oona Chaplin in 2015, commemorates the meeting between Chaplin and Mahatma Gandhi at a local house in 1931. The Swiss town of Vevey named a park in his honour in 1980 and erected a statue there in 1982. In 2011, two large murals depicting Chaplin on two 14-storey buildings were also unveiled in Vevey. Chaplin has also been honoured by the Irish town of Waterville, where he spent several summers with his family in the 1960s. A statue was erected in 1998; since 2011, the town has been host to the annual Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival, which was founded to celebrate Chaplin's legacy and to showcase new comic talent.
In other tributes, a minor planet, 3623 Chaplin (discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina in 1981) is named after him. Throughout the 1980s, the Tramp image was used by IBM to advertise their personal computers. Chaplin's 100th birthday anniversary in 1989 was marked with several events around the world, and on 15 April 2011, a day before his 122nd birthday, Google celebrated him with a special Google Doodle video on its global and other country-wide homepages.
Characterisations
Chaplin is the subject of a biographical film, Chaplin (1992) directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role, with Geraldine Chaplin playing Hannah Chaplin. He is also a character in the historical drama film The Cat's Meow (2001), played by Eddie Izzard, and in the made-for-television movie The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), played by Clive Revill. A television series about Chaplin's childhood, Young Charlie Chaplin, ran on PBS in 1989, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program. The French film The Price of Fame (2014) is a fictionalised account of the robbery of Chaplin's grave. Tommy Steele in Search of Charlie Chaplin investigated Chaplin's roots in south-east London.
Chaplin's life has also been the subject of several stage productions. Two musicals, Little Tramp and Chaplin, were produced in the early 1990s. In 2006, Thomas Meehan and Christopher Curtis created another musical, Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin, which was first performed at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2010. It was adapted for Broadway two years later, re-titled ChaplinA Musical. Chaplin was portrayed by Robert McClure in both productions. In 2013, two plays about Chaplin premiered in Finland: Chaplin at the Svenska Teatern, and Kulkuri (The Tramp) at the Tampere Workers' Theatre.
Chaplin has also been characterised in literary fiction. He is the protagonist of Robert Coover's short story "Charlie in the House of Rue" (1980; reprinted in Coover's 1987 collection A Night at the Movies), and of Glen David Gold's Sunnyside (2009), a historical novel set in the First World War period. A day in Chaplin's life in 1909 is dramatised in the chapter titled "Modern Times" in Alan Moore's Jerusalem (2016), a novel set in the author's home town of Northampton, England.
Awards and recognition
Chaplin received many awards and honours, especially later in life. In the 1975 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). He was also awarded honorary Doctor of Letters degrees by the University of Oxford and the University of Durham in 1962. In 1965, he and Ingmar Bergman were joint winners of the Erasmus Prize and, in 1971, he was appointed a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French government.
From the film industry, Chaplin received a special Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1972, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lincoln Center Film Society the same year. The latter has since been presented annually to filmmakers as The Chaplin Award. Chaplin was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1972, having been previously excluded because of his political beliefs.
Chaplin received three Academy Awards: an Honorary Award for "versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing, and producing The Circus" in 1929, a second Honorary Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, and a Best Score award in 1973 for Limelight (shared with Ray Rasch and Larry Russell). He was further nominated in the Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture (as producer) categories for The Great Dictator, and received another Best Original Screenplay nomination for Monsieur Verdoux. In 1976, Chaplin was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940).
Filmography
Directed features:
The Kid (1921)
A Woman of Paris (1923)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Circus (1928)
City Lights (1931)
Modern Times (1936)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Limelight (1952)
A King in New York (1957)
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
Written works
Notes
References
Citations
Works cited
External links
by Association Chaplin
Chaplin's World Museum at the Manoir de Ban, Switzerland
Works
Papers
The Charlie Chaplin professional and personal Archive at Cineteca di Bologna, Italy
Chaplin's file at the Federal Bureau of Investigation website
Data
Charlie Chaplin at Virtual History: Film history of the 20th century
https://www.allmovie.com/artist/charlie-chaplin-vn15908196
1889 births
1977 deaths
19th-century English people
20th-century British male musicians
20th-century English screenwriters
20th-century English businesspeople
20th-century English comedians
20th-century English male actors
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Actors awarded knighthoods
British anti-capitalists
Articles containing video clips
BAFTA fellows
Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
British anti-fascists
British film production company founders
British male comedy actors
British mimes
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5166 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen | Copenhagen | Copenhagen ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of around 650,000 in the municipality and 1.4 million in the urban area. The city is on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the Øresund strait. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road.
Originally a Viking fishing village established in the 10th century in the vicinity of what is now Gammel Strand, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. From the 17th century, it became a regional centre of power with its institutions, defences, and armed forces. During the Renaissance the city was the de facto capital of the Kalmar Union and the seat of monarchy, governing most of the present day Nordic region in a union with Sweden and Norway ruled by the Danish monarch serving as the head of state. The city flourished as the cultural and economic centre of Scandinavia under the union for over 120 years, from the 15th century until the early 16th century when Sweden left the union through a rebellion. After a plague outbreak and fire in the 18th century, the city underwent redevelopment. This included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding cultural institutions including the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After disasters in the early 19th century when Horatio Nelson attacked the Dano-Norwegian fleet and bombarded the city, rebuilding during the Danish Golden Age brought a Neoclassical look to Copenhagen's architecture. After the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing and businesses along the five urban railway routes emanating from the city centre.
Since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure. The city is the cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark; it is one of the major financial centres of Northern Europe with the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Copenhagen's economy has developed rapidly in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology, pharmaceuticals and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has increasingly integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö, forming the Øresund Region. With several bridges connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterised by parks, promenades, and waterfronts. Copenhagen's landmarks such as Tivoli Gardens, The Little Mermaid statue, the Amalienborg and Christiansborg palaces, Rosenborg Castle, Frederik's Church, Børsen and many museums, restaurants and nightclubs are significant tourist attractions.
Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen Business School and the IT University of Copenhagen. The University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the football clubs F.C. Copenhagen and Brøndby IF. The annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world.
Movia is the public mass transit company serving all of eastern Denmark, except Bornholm. The Copenhagen Metro, launched in 2002, serves central Copenhagen. Additionally, the Copenhagen S-train, the Lokaltog (private railway), and the Coast Line network serve and connect central Copenhagen to outlying boroughs. Serving roughly 2.5 million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the busiest airport in the Nordic countries.
Etymology
Copenhagen's name ( in Danish), reflects its origin as a harbour and a place of commerce. The original designation in Old Norse, from which Danish descends, was (cf. modern Icelandic: , ), meaning 'merchants' harbour'. By the time Old Danish was spoken, the capital was called , with the current name deriving from centuries of subsequent regular sound change.
The English cognates of the original name would be "chapman's haven". The English chapman, German , Dutch , Swedish , Danish , and Icelandic share a derivation from Latin , meaning 'tradesman'. However, the English term for the city was adapted from its Low German name, . Copenhagen's Swedish name is , a direct translation of the mutually intelligible Danish name.
The city's Latin name is Hafnia.
History
Early history
Although the earliest historical records of Copenhagen are from the end of the 12th century, recent archaeological finds in connection with work on the city's metropolitan rail system revealed the remains of a large merchant's mansion near today's Kongens Nytorv from . Excavations in Pilestræde have also led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century. The remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen.
These finds indicate that Copenhagen's origins as a city go back at least to the 11th century. Substantial discoveries of flint tools in the area provide evidence of human settlements dating to the Stone Age. Many historians believe the town dates to the late Viking Age, and was possibly founded by Sweyn I Forkbeard.
The natural harbour and good herring stocks seem to have attracted fishermen and merchants to the area on a seasonal basis from the 11th century and more permanently in the 13th century. The first habitations were probably centred on Gammel Strand (literally 'old shore') in the 11th century or even earlier.
The earliest written mention of the town was in the 12th century when Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum referred to it as , meaning 'Merchants' Harbour' or, in the Danish of the time, . Traditionally, Copenhagen's founding has been dated to Bishop Absalon's construction of a modest fortress on the little island of Slotsholmen in 1167 where Christiansborg Palace stands today. The construction of the fortress was in response to attacks by Wendish pirates who plagued the coastline during the 12th century. Defensive ramparts and moats were completed and by 1177 St. Clemens Church had been built. Attacks by the Wends continued, and after the original fortress was eventually destroyed by the marauders, islanders replaced it with Copenhagen Castle.
Middle Ages
In 1186, a letter from Pope Urban III states that the castle of Hafn (Copenhagen) and its surrounding lands, including the town of Hafn, were given to Absalon, Bishop of Roskilde 1158–1191 and Archbishop of Lund 1177–1201, by King Valdemar I. On Absalon's death, the property was to come into the ownership of the Bishopric of Roskilde. Around 1200, the Church of Our Lady was constructed on higher ground to the northeast of the town, which began to develop around it.
As the town became more prominent, it was repeatedly attacked by the Hanseatic League, and in 1368 successfully invaded during the Second Danish-Hanseatic War. As the fishing industry thrived in Copenhagen, particularly in the trade of herring, the city began expanding to the north of Slotsholmen. In 1254, it received a charter as a city under Bishop Jakob Erlandsen who garnered support from the local fishing merchants against the king by granting them special privileges. In the mid 1330s, the first land assessment of the city was published.
With the establishment of the Kalmar Union (1397–1523) between Denmark, Norway and Sweden, by about 1416 Copenhagen had emerged as the capital of Denmark when Eric of Pomerania moved his seat to Copenhagen Castle. The University of Copenhagen was inaugurated on 1 June 1479 by King Christian I, following approval from Pope Sixtus IV. This makes it the oldest university in Denmark and one of the oldest in Europe. Originally controlled by the Catholic Church, the university's role in society was forced to change during the Reformation in Denmark in the late 1530s.
16th and 17th centuries
In disputes prior to the Reformation of 1536, the city which had been faithful to Christian II, who was Catholic, was successfully besieged in 1523 by the forces of Frederik I, who supported Lutheranism. Copenhagen's defences were reinforced with a series of towers along the city wall. After an extended siege from July 1535 to July 1536, during which the city supported Christian II's alliance with Malmö and Lübeck, it was finally forced to capitulate to Christian III. During the second half of the century, the city prospered from increased trade across the Baltic supported by Dutch shipping. Christoffer Valkendorff, a high-ranking statesman, defended the city's interests and contributed to its development. The Netherlands had also become primarily Protestant, as were northern German states.
During the reign of Christian IV between 1588 and 1648, Copenhagen had dramatic growth as a city. On his initiative at the beginning of the 17th century, two important buildings were completed on Slotsholmen: the Tøjhus Arsenal and Børsen, the stock exchange. To foster international trade, the East India Company was founded in 1616. To the east of the city, inspired by Dutch planning, the king developed the district of Christianshavn with canals and ramparts. It was initially intended to be a fortified trading centre but ultimately became part of Copenhagen. Christian IV also sponsored an array of ambitious building projects including Rosenborg Slot and the Rundetårn. In 1658–1659, the city withstood a siege by the Swedes under Charles X and successfully repelled a major assault.
By 1661, Copenhagen had asserted its position as capital of Denmark and Norway. All the major institutions were located there, as was the fleet and most of the army. The defences were further enhanced with the completion of the Citadel in 1664 and the extension of Christianshavns Vold with its bastions in 1692, leading to the creation of a new base for the fleet at Nyholm.
18th century
Copenhagen lost around 22,000 of its population of 65,000 to the plague in 1711. The city was also struck by two major fires that destroyed much of its infrastructure. The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 was the largest in the history of Copenhagen. It began on the evening of 20 October, and continued to burn until the morning of 23 October, destroying approximately 28% of the city, leaving some 20% of the population homeless. No less than 47% of the medieval section of the city was completely lost. Along with the 1795 fire, it is the main reason that few traces of the old town can be found in the modern city.
A substantial amount of rebuilding followed. In 1733, work began on the royal residence of Christiansborg Palace which was completed in 1745. In 1749, development of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden was initiated. Designed by Nicolai Eigtved in the Rococo style, its centre contained the mansions which now form Amalienborg Palace. Major extensions to the naval base of Holmen were undertaken while the city's cultural importance was enhanced with the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
In the second half of the 18th century, Copenhagen benefited from Denmark's neutrality during the wars between Europe's main powers, allowing it to play an important role in trade between the states around the Baltic Sea. After Christiansborg was destroyed by fire in 1794 and another fire caused serious damage to the city in 1795, work began on the classical Copenhagen landmark of Højbro Plads while Nytorv and Gammel Torv were converged.
19th century
On 2 April 1801, a British fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker attacked and defeated the neutral Danish-Norwegian fleet anchored near Copenhagen. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson led the main attack. He famously disobeyed Parker's order to withdraw, destroying many of the Dano-Norwegian ships before a truce was agreed. Copenhagen is often considered to be Nelson's hardest-fought battle, surpassing even the heavy fighting at Trafalgar. It was during this battle that Lord Nelson was said to have "put the telescope to the blind eye" in order not to see Admiral Parker's signal to cease fire.
The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) (16 August – 5 September 1807) was from a British point of view a preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population to yet again seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet. But from a Danish point of view, the battle was a terror bombardment on their capital. Particularly notable was the use of incendiary Congreve rockets (containing phosphorus, which cannot be extinguished with water) that randomly hit the city. Few houses with straw roofs remained after the bombardment. The largest church, Vor frue kirke, was destroyed by the sea artillery. Several historians consider this battle the first terror attack against a major European city in modern times.
The British landed 30,000 men, they surrounded Copenhagen and the attack continued for the next three days, killing some 2,000 civilians and destroying most of the city. The devastation was so great because Copenhagen relied on an old defence-line whose limited range could not reach the British ships and their longer-range artillery.
Despite the disasters of the early 19th century, Copenhagen experienced a period of intense cultural creativity known as the Danish Golden Age. Painting prospered under C.W. Eckersberg and his students while C.F. Hansen and Gottlieb Bindesbøll brought a Neoclassical look to the city's architecture. In the early 1850s, the ramparts of the city were opened to allow new housing to be built around The Lakes () that bordered the old defences to the west. By the 1880s, the districts of Nørrebro and Vesterbro developed to accommodate those who came from the provinces to participate in the city's industrialization. This dramatic increase of space was long overdue, as not only were the old ramparts out of date as a defence system but bad sanitation in the old city had to be overcome. From 1886, the west rampart (Vestvolden) was flattened, allowing major extensions to the harbour leading to the establishment of the Freeport of Copenhagen 1892–94. Electricity came in 1892 with electric trams in 1897. The spread of housing to areas outside the old ramparts brought about a huge increase in the population. In 1840, Copenhagen was inhabited by approximately 120,000 people. By 1901, it had some 400,000 inhabitants.
20th century
By the beginning of the 20th century, Copenhagen had become a thriving industrial and administrative city. With its new city hall and railway station, its centre was drawn towards the west. New housing developments grew up in Brønshøj and Valby while Frederiksberg became an enclave within the city of Copenhagen. The northern part of Amager and Valby were also incorporated into the City of Copenhagen in 1901–02.
As a result of Denmark's neutrality in the First World War, Copenhagen prospered from trade with both Britain and Germany while the city's defences were kept fully manned by some 40,000 soldiers for the duration of the war.
In the 1920s there were serious shortages of goods and housing. Plans were drawn up to demolish the old part of Christianshavn and to get rid of the worst of the city's slum areas. However, it was not until the 1930s that substantial housing developments ensued, with the demolition of one side of Christianhavn's Torvegade to build five large blocks of flats.
World War II
In Denmark during World War II, Copenhagen was occupied by German troops along with the rest of the country from 9 April 1940 until 4 May 1945. German leader Adolf Hitler hoped that Denmark would be "a model protectorate" and initially the Nazi authorities sought to arrive at an understanding with the Danish government. The 1943 Danish parliamentary election was also allowed to take place, with only the Communist Party excluded. But in August 1943, after the government's collaboration with the occupation forces collapsed, several ships were sunk in Copenhagen Harbor by the Royal Danish Navy to prevent their use by the Germans. Around that time the Nazis started to arrest Jews, although most managed to escape to Sweden.
In 1945 Ole Lippman, leader of the Danish section of the Special Operations Executive, invited the British Royal Air Force to assist their operations by attacking Nazi headquarters in Copenhagen. Accordingly, air vice-marshal Sir Basil Embry drew up plans for a spectacular precision attack on the Sicherheitsdienst and Gestapo building, the former offices of the Shell Oil Company. Political prisoners were kept in the attic to prevent an air raid, so the RAF had to bomb the lower levels of the building.
The attack, known as "Operation Carthage", came on 22 March 1945, in three small waves. In the first wave, all six planes (carrying one bomb each) hit their target, but one of the aircraft crashed near Frederiksberg Girls School. Because of this crash, four of the planes in the two following waves assumed the school was the military target and aimed their bombs at the school, leading to the death of 123 civilians (of which 87 were schoolchildren). However, 18 of the 26 political prisoners in the Shell Building managed to escape while the Gestapo archives were completely destroyed.
On 8 May 1945 Copenhagen was officially liberated by British troops commanded by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery who supervised the surrender of 30,000 Germans situated around the capital.
Post-war decades
Shortly after the end of the war, an innovative urban development project known as the Finger Plan was introduced in 1947, encouraging the creation of new housing and businesses interspersed with large green areas along five "fingers" stretching out from the city centre along the S-train routes. With the expansion of the welfare state and women entering the work force, schools, nurseries, sports facilities and hospitals were established across the city. As a result of student unrest in the late 1960s, the former Bådsmandsstræde Barracks in Christianshavn was occupied, leading to the establishment of Freetown Christiania in September 1971.
Motor traffic in the city grew significantly and in 1972 the trams were replaced by buses. From the 1960s, on the initiative of the young architect Jan Gehl, pedestrian streets and cycle tracks were created in the city centre. Activity in the port of Copenhagen declined with the closure of the Holmen Naval Base. Copenhagen Airport underwent considerable expansion, becoming a hub for the Nordic countries. In the 1990s, large-scale housing developments were realised in the harbour area and in the west of Amager. The national library's Black Diamond building on the waterfront was completed in 1999.
Gallery
21st century
Since the summer of 2000, Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö have been connected by the Øresund Bridge, which carries rail and road traffic. As a result, Copenhagen has become the centre of a larger metropolitan area spanning both nations. The bridge has brought about considerable changes in the public transport system and has led to the extensive redevelopment of Amager. The city's service and trade sectors have developed while a number of banking and financial institutions have been established. Educational institutions have also gained importance, especially the University of Copenhagen with its 35,000 students. Another important development for the city has been the Copenhagen Metro, the railway system which opened in 2002 with additions until 2007, transporting some 54 million passengers by 2011.
On the cultural front, the Copenhagen Opera House, a gift to the city from the shipping magnate Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller on behalf of the A.P. Møller foundation, was completed in 2004. In December 2009 Copenhagen gained international prominence when it hosted the worldwide climate meeting COP15.
On 3 July 2022, three people were killed in a shooting at Field's mall in Copenhagen. Police chief inspector Søren Thomassen announced the arrest of a 22-year-old man and said that the police cannot rule out an act of terrorism.
Geography
Copenhagen is part of the Øresund Region, which consists of Zealand, Lolland-Falster and Bornholm in Denmark and Scania in Sweden. It is located on the eastern shore of the island of Zealand, partly on the island of Amager and on a number of natural and artificial islets between the two. Copenhagen faces the Øresund to the east, the strait of water that separates Denmark from Sweden, and which connects the North Sea with the Baltic Sea. The Swedish city of Malmö and the town of Landskrona lie on the Swedish side of the sound directly across from Copenhagen. By road, Copenhagen is northwest of Malmö, Sweden, northeast of Næstved, northeast of Odense, east of Esbjerg and southeast of Aarhus by sea and road via Sjællands Odde.
The city centre lies in the area originally defined by the old ramparts, which are still referred to as the Fortification Ring (Fæstningsringen) and kept as a partial green band around it. Then come the late-19th- and early-20th-century residential neighbourhoods of Østerbro, Nørrebro, Vesterbro and Amagerbro. The outlying areas of Kongens Enghave, Valby, Vigerslev, Vanløse, Brønshøj, Utterslev and Sundby followed from 1920 to 1960. They consist mainly of residential housing and apartments often enhanced with parks and greenery.
Topography
The central area of the city consists of relatively low-lying flat ground formed by moraines from the last ice age while the hilly areas to the north and west frequently rise to above sea level. The slopes of Valby and Brønshøj reach heights of over , divided by valleys running from the northeast to the southwest. Close to the centre are the Copenhagen lakes of Sortedams Sø, Peblinge Sø and Sankt Jørgens Sø.
Copenhagen rests on a subsoil of flint-layered limestone deposited in the Danian period some 60 to 66 million years ago. Some greensand from the Selandian is also present. There are a few faults in the area, the most important of which is the Carlsberg fault which runs northwest to southeast through the centre of the city. During the last ice age, glaciers eroded the surface leaving a layer of moraines up to thick.
Geologically, Copenhagen lies in the northern part of Denmark where the land is rising because of post-glacial rebound.
Beaches
Amager Strandpark, which opened in 2005, is a long artificial island, with a total of of beaches. It is located just 15 minutes by bicycle or a few minutes by metro from the city centre. In Klampenborg, about from downtown Copenhagen, is Bellevue Beach. It is long and has both lifeguards and freshwater showers on the beach.
The beaches are supplemented by a system of Harbour Baths along the Copenhagen waterfront. The first and most popular of these is located at Islands Brygge, literally meaning Iceland's Quay, and has won international acclaim for its design.
Climate
Copenhagen is in the oceanic climate zone (Köppen: Cfb). Its weather is subject to low-pressure systems from the Atlantic which result in unstable conditions throughout the year. Apart from slightly higher rainfall from July to September, precipitation is moderate. While snowfall occurs mainly from late December to early March, there can also be rain, with average temperatures around the freezing point.
June is the sunniest month of the year with an average of about eight hours of sunshine a day. July is the warmest month with an average daytime high of 21 °C. By contrast, the average hours of sunshine are less than two per day in November and only one and a half per day from December to February. In the spring, it gets warmer again with four to six hours of sunshine per day from March to May. February is the driest month of the year. Exceptional weather conditions can bring as much as 50 cm of snow to Copenhagen in a 24-hour period during the winter months while summer temperatures have been known to rise to heights of .
Because of Copenhagen's northern latitude, the number of daylight hours varies considerably between summer and winter. On the summer solstice, the sun rises at 04:26 and sets at 21:58, providing 17 hours 32 minutes of daylight. On the winter solstice, it rises at 08:37 and sets at 15:39 with 7 hours and 1 minute of daylight. There is therefore a difference of 10 hours and 31 minutes in the length of days and nights between the summer and winter solstices.
Administration
According to Statistics Denmark, the urban area of Copenhagen () consists of the municipalities of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Albertslund, Brøndby, Gentofte, Gladsaxe, Glostrup, Herlev, Hvidovre, Lyngby-Taarbæk, Rødovre, Tårnby and Vallensbæk as well as parts of Ballerup, Rudersdal and Furesø municipalities, along with the cities of Ishøj and Greve Strand. They are located in the Capital Region (). Municipalities are responsible for a wide variety of public services, which include land-use planning, environmental planning, public housing, management and maintenance of local roads, and social security. Municipal administration is also conducted by a mayor, a council, and an executive.
Copenhagen Municipality is by far the largest municipality, with the historic city at its core. The seat of Copenhagen's municipal council is the Copenhagen City Hall (), which is situated on City Hall Square. The second largest municipality is Frederiksberg, an enclave within Copenhagen Municipality.
Copenhagen Municipality is divided into ten districts (bydele): Indre By, Østerbro, Nørrebro, Vesterbro/Kongens Enghave, Valby, Vanløse, Brønshøj-Husum, Bispebjerg, Amager Øst, and Amager Vest. Neighbourhoods of Copenhagen include Slotsholmen, Frederiksstaden, Islands Brygge, Holmen, Christiania, Carlsberg, Sluseholmen, Sydhavn, Amagerbro, Ørestad, Nordhavnen, Bellahøj, Brønshøj, Ryparken, and Vigerslev.
Law and order
Most of Denmark's top legal courts and institutions are based in Copenhagen. A modern-style court of justice, Hof- og Stadsretten, was introduced in Denmark, specifically for Copenhagen, by Johann Friedrich Struensee in 1771. Now known as the City Court of Copenhagen (), it is the largest of the 24 city courts in Denmark with jurisdiction over the municipalities of Copenhagen, Dragør and Tårnby. With its 42 judges, it has a Probate Division, an Enforcement Division and a Registration and Notorial Acts Division while bankruptcy is handled by the Maritime and Commercial Court of Copenhagen. Established in 1862, the Maritime and Commercial Court () also hears commercial cases including those relating to trade marks, marketing practices and competition for the whole of Denmark. Denmark's Supreme Court (), located in Christiansborg Palace on Prins Jørgens Gård in the centre of Copenhagen, is the country's final court of appeal. Handling civil and criminal cases from the subordinate courts, it has two chambers which each hear all types of cases.
The Danish National Police and Copenhagen Police headquarters is situated in the Neoclassical-inspired Politigården building built in 1918–1924 under architects Hack Kampmann and Holger Alfred Jacobsen. The building also contains administration, management, emergency department and radio service offices.
The Copenhagen Fire Department forms the largest municipal fire brigade in Denmark with some 500 fire and ambulance personnel, 150 administration and service workers, and 35 workers in prevention. The brigade began as the Copenhagen Royal Fire Brigade on 9 July 1687 under King Christian V. After the passing of the Copenhagen Fire Act on 18 May 1868, on 1 August 1870 the Copenhagen Fire Brigade became a municipal institution in its own right. The fire department has its headquarters in the Copenhagen Central Fire Station which was designed by Ludvig Fenger in the Historicist style and inaugurated in 1892.
Environmental planning
Copenhagen is recognised as one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world. As a result of its commitment to high environmental standards, Copenhagen has been praised for its green economy, ranked as the top green city for the second time in the 2014 Global Green Economy Index (GGEI). In 2001 a large offshore wind farm was built just off the coast of Copenhagen at Middelgrunden. It produces about 4% of the city's energy. Years of substantial investment in sewage treatment have improved water quality in the harbour to an extent that the inner harbour can be used for swimming with facilities at a number of locations.
Copenhagen aims to be carbon-neutral by 2025. Commercial and residential buildings are to reduce electricity consumption by 20 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, and total heat consumption is to fall by 20 per cent by 2025. Renewable energy features such as solar panels are becoming increasingly common in the newest buildings in Copenhagen. District heating will be carbon-neutral by 2025, by waste incineration and biomass. New buildings must now be constructed according to Low Energy Class ratings and in 2020 near net-zero energy buildings. By 2025, 75% of trips should be made on foot, by bike, or by using public transit. The city plans that 20–30% of cars will run on electricity or biofuel by 2025. The investment is estimated at $472 million public funds and $4.78 billion private funds.
The city's urban planning authorities continue to take full account of these priorities. Special attention is given both to climate issues and efforts to ensure maximum application of low-energy standards. Priorities include sustainable drainage systems, recycling rainwater, green roofs and efficient waste management solutions. In city planning, streets and squares are to be designed to encourage cycling and walking rather than driving. Further, the city administration is working with smart city initiatives to improve how data and technology can be used to implement new solutions that support the transition toward a carbon-neutral economy. These solutions support operations covered by the city administration to improve e.g. public health, district heating, urban mobility and waste management systems. Smart city operations in Copenhagen are maintained by Copenhagen Solutions Lab, the city's official smart-city development unit under the Technical and Environmental Administration.
Demographics and society
Copenhagen is the most populous city in Denmark and one of the most populous in the Nordic countries. For statistical purposes, Statistics Denmark considers the City of Copenhagen () to consist of the Municipality of Copenhagen plus three adjacent municipalities: Dragør, Frederiksberg, and Tårnby. Their combined population stands at 763,908 ().
The Municipality of Copenhagen is by far the most populous in the country and one of the most populous Nordic municipalities with 644,431 inhabitants (as of 2022). There was a demographic boom in the 1990s and first decades of the 21st century, largely due to immigration to Denmark. According to figures from the first quarter of 2022, 73.7% of the municipality's population was of Danish descent, defined as having at least one parent who was born in Denmark and has Danish citizenship. Much of the remaining 26.3% were of a foreign background, defined as immigrants (20.3%) or descendants of recent immigrants (6%). There are no official statistics on ethnic groups. The adjacent table shows the most common countries of origin of Copenhagen residents. Largest foreign groups are Pakistanis (1.3%), Turks (1.2%), Iraqis (1.1%), Germans (1.0%) and Poles (1.0%).
According to Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen's urban area has a larger population of 1,280,371 (). The urban area consists of the municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg plus 16 of the 20 municipalities of the former counties Copenhagen and Roskilde, though five of them only partially. Metropolitan Copenhagen has a total of 2,016,285 inhabitants (). The area of Metropolitan Copenhagen is defined by the Finger Plan. Since the opening of the Øresund Bridge in 2000, commuting between Zealand and Scania in Sweden has increased rapidly, leading to a wider, integrated area. Known as the Øresund Region, it has 4.1 million inhabitants—of whom 2.7 million (August 2021) live in the Danish part of the region.
Religion
A majority (56.9%) of those living in Copenhagen are members of the Lutheran Church of Denmark which is 0.6% lower than one year earlier according to 2019 figures. The National Cathedral, the Church of Our Lady, is one of the dozens of churches in Copenhagen. There are also several other Christian communities in the city, of which the largest is Roman Catholic.
Foreign migration to Copenhagen, rising over the last three decades, has contributed to increasing religious diversity; the Grand Mosque of Copenhagen, the first in Denmark, opened in 2014. Islam is the second largest religion in Copenhagen, accounting for approximately 10% of the population. While there are no official statistics, a significant portion of the estimated 175,000–200,000 Muslims in the country live in the Copenhagen urban area, with the highest concentration in Nørrebro and the Vestegnen. There are also some 7,000 Jews in Denmark, most of them in the Copenhagen area where there are several synagogues. It has a membership of 1,800 members. There is a long history of Jews in the city, and the first synagogue in Copenhagen was built in 1684. Today, the history of the Jews of Denmark can be explored at the Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen.
Quality of living
For a number of years, Copenhagen has ranked high in international surveys for its quality of life. Its stable economy together with its education services and level of social safety make it attractive for locals and visitors alike. Although it is one of the world's most expensive cities, it is also one of the most liveable with its public transport, facilities for cyclists and its environmental policies. In elevating Copenhagen to "most liveable city" in 2013, Monocle pointed to its open spaces, increasing activity on the streets, city planning in favour of cyclists and pedestrians, and features to encourage inhabitants to enjoy city life with an emphasis on community, culture and cuisine. Other sources have ranked Copenhagen high for its business environment, accessibility, restaurants and environmental planning. However, Copenhagen ranks only 39th for student friendliness in 2012. Despite a top score for quality of living, its scores were low for employer activity and affordability.
Economy
Copenhagen is the major economic and financial centre of Denmark. The city's economy is based largely on services and commerce. Statistics for 2010 show that the vast majority of the 350,000 workers in Copenhagen are employed in the service sector, especially transport and communications, trade, and finance, while less than 10,000 work in the manufacturing industries. The public sector workforce is around 110,000, including education and healthcare. From 2006 to 2011, the economy grew by 2.5% in Copenhagen, while it fell by some 4% in the rest of Denmark. In 2017, the wider Capital Region of Denmark had a gross domestic product (GDP) of €120 billion, and the 15th largest GDP per capita of regions in the European Union.
As of Copenhagen Green Economy Leader Report made by London School of Economics and Political Science - Copenhagen is widely recognised as a leader in the global green economy. The Copenhagen region accounts for almost 40% of Denmark’s output and has enjoyed long-term stable growth. At a national level, Danish GDP per capita is ranked among the top 10 countries in the world. At the same time, the city’s growth has been delivered while improving environmental performance and transitioning to a low-carbon economy.
Several financial institutions and banks have headquarters in Copenhagen, including Alm. Brand, Danske Bank, Nykredit and Nordea Bank Danmark. The Copenhagen Stock Exchange (CSE) was founded in 1620 and is now owned by Nasdaq, Inc. Copenhagen is also home to a number of international companies including A.P. Møller-Mærsk, Novo Nordisk, Carlsberg and Novozymes. City authorities have encouraged the development of business clusters in several innovative sectors, which include information technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, clean technology and smart city solutions.
Life science is a key sector with extensive research and development activities. Medicon Valley is a leading bi-national life sciences cluster in Europe, spanning the Øresund Region. Copenhagen is rich in companies and institutions with a focus on research and development within the field of biotechnology, and the Medicon Valley initiative aims to strengthen this position and to promote cooperation between companies and academia. Many major Danish companies like Novo Nordisk and Lundbeck, both of which are among the 50 largest pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the world, are located in this business cluster.
Shipping is another important sector with Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, having their world headquarters in Copenhagen. The city has an industrial harbour, Copenhagen Port. Following decades of stagnation, it has experienced a resurgence since 1990 following a merger with Malmö harbour. Both ports are operated by Copenhagen Malmö Port (CMP). The central location in the Øresund Region allows the ports to act as a hub for freight that is transported onward to the Baltic countries. CMP annually receives about 8,000 ships and handled some 148,000 TEU in 2012.
Copenhagen has some of the highest gross wages in the world. High taxes mean that wages are reduced after mandatory deduction. A beneficial researcher scheme with low taxation of foreign specialists has made Denmark an attractive location for foreign labour. It is however also among the most expensive cities in Europe.
Denmark's Flexicurity model features some of the most flexible hiring and firing legislation in Europe, providing attractive conditions for foreign investment and international companies looking to locate in Copenhagen. In Dansk Industri's 2013 survey of employment factors in the ninety-six municipalities of Denmark, Copenhagen came in first place for educational qualifications and for the development of private companies in recent years, but fell to 86th place in local companies' assessment of the employment climate. The survey revealed considerable dissatisfaction in the level of dialogue companies enjoyed with the municipal authorities.
In this dynamic business environment, commercial properties play a pivotal role. Companies often rely on specialized real estate platforms like Lokalebasen A/S to find suitable commercial spaces tailored to their needs. Copenhagen, as a thriving business hub, boasts a diverse range of business centers and offices. From modern co-working spaces to prestigious corporate offices, the city offers a plethora of options for businesses looking to establish their presence. These business centers are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, high-speed internet, meeting rooms, and other amenities essential for smooth business operations.
Tourism
Tourism is a major contributor to Copenhagen's economy, attracting visitors due to the city's harbour, cultural attractions and award-winning restaurants. Since 2009, Copenhagen has been one of the fastest growing metropolitan destinations in Europe. Hotel capacity in the city is growing significantly. From 2009 to 2013, it experienced a 42% growth in international bed nights (total number of nights spent by tourists), tallying a rise of nearly 70% for Chinese visitors. The total number of bed nights in the Capital Region surpassed 9 million in 2013, while international bed nights reached 5 million.
In 2010, it is estimated that city break tourism contributed to DKK 2 billion in turnover. However, 2010 was an exceptional year for city break tourism and turnover increased with 29% in that one year. 680,000 cruise passengers visited the port in 2015. In 2019 Copenhagen was ranked first among Lonely Planet's top ten cities to visit. In October 2021, Copenhagen was shortlisted for the European Commission's 2022 European Capital of Smart Tourism award along with Bordeaux, Dublin, Florence, Ljubljana, Palma de Mallorca and Valencia.
Cityscape
The city's appearance today is shaped by the key role it has played as a regional centre for centuries. Copenhagen has a multitude of districts, each with its distinctive character and representing its own period. Other distinctive features of Copenhagen include the abundance of water, its many parks, and the bicycle paths that line most streets.
Architecture
The oldest section of Copenhagen's inner city is often referred to as (the medieval city). However, the city's most distinctive district is Frederiksstaden, developed during the reign of Frederick V. It has the Amalienborg Palace at its centre and is dominated by the dome of Frederik's Church (or the Marble Church) and several elegant 18th-century Rococo mansions. The inner city includes Slotsholmen, a little island on which Christiansborg Palace stands and Christianshavn with its canals. Børsen on Slotsholmen and Frederiksborg Palace in Hillerød are prominent examples of the Dutch Renaissance style in Copenhagen. Around the historical city centre lies a band of congenial residential boroughs (Vesterbro, Inner Nørrebro, Inner Østerbro) dating mainly from late 19th century. They were built outside the old ramparts when the city was finally allowed to expand beyond its fortifications.
Sometimes referred to as "the City of Spires", Copenhagen is known for its horizontal skyline, broken only by the spires and towers of its churches and castles. Most characteristic of all is the Baroque spire of the Church of Our Saviour with its narrowing external spiral stairway that visitors can climb to the top. Other important spires are those of Christiansborg Palace, the City Hall and the former Church of St. Nikolaj that now houses a modern art venue. Not quite so high are the Renaissance spires of Rosenborg Castle and the "dragon spire" of Christian IV's former stock exchange, so named because it resembles the intertwined tails of four dragons.
Copenhagen is recognised globally as an exemplar of best practice urban planning. Its thriving mixed use city centre is defined by striking contemporary architecture, engaging public spaces and an abundance of human activity. These design outcomes have been deliberately achieved through careful replanning in the second half of the 20th century.
Recent years have seen a boom in modern architecture in Copenhagen both for Danish architecture and for works by international architects. For a few hundred years, virtually no foreign architects had worked in Copenhagen, but since the turn of the millennium the city and its immediate surroundings have seen buildings and projects designed by top international architects. British design magazine Monocle named Copenhagen the World's best design city 2008.
Copenhagen's urban development in the first half of the 20th century was heavily influenced by industrialisation. After World War II, Copenhagen Municipality adopted Fordism and repurposed its medieval centre to facilitate private automobile infrastructure in response to innovations in transport, trade and communication. Copenhagen's spatial planning in this time frame was characterised by the separation of land uses: an approach which requires residents to travel by car to access facilities of different uses.
The boom in urban development and modern architecture has brought some changes to the city's skyline. A political majority has decided to keep the historical centre free of high-rise buildings, but several areas will see or have already seen massive urban development. Ørestad now has seen most of the recent development. Located near Copenhagen Airport, it currently boasts one of the largest malls in Scandinavia and a variety of office and residential buildings as well as the IT University and a high school.
Parks, gardens and zoo
Copenhagen is a green city with many parks, both large and small. King's Garden (), the garden of Rosenborg Castle, is the oldest and most frequented of them all. It was Christian IV who first developed its landscaping in 1606. Every year it sees more than 2.5 million visitors and in the summer months it is packed with sunbathers, picnickers and ballplayers. It serves as a sculpture garden with both a permanent display and temporary exhibits during the summer months. Also located in the city centre are the Botanical Gardens noted for their large complex of 19th-century greenhouses donated by Carlsberg founder J. C. Jacobsen. Fælledparken at is the largest park in Copenhagen.
It is popular for sports fixtures and hosts several annual events including a free opera concert at the opening of the opera season, other open-air concerts, carnival and Labour Day celebrations, and the Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix, a race for antique cars. A historical green space in the northeastern part of the city is Kastellet, a well-preserved Renaissance citadel that now serves mainly as a park. Another popular park is the Frederiksberg Gardens, a 32-hectare romantic landscape park. It houses a colony of tame grey herons and other waterfowl. The park offers views of the elephants and the elephant house designed by world-famous British architect Norman Foster of the adjacent Copenhagen Zoo. Langelinie, a park and promenade along the inner Øresund coast, is home to one of Copenhagen's most-visited tourist attractions, the Little Mermaid statue.
In Copenhagen, many cemeteries double as parks, though only for the more quiet activities such as sunbathing, reading and meditation. Assistens Cemetery, the burial place of Hans Christian Andersen, is an important green space for the district of Inner Nørrebro and a Copenhagen institution. The lesser known Vestre Kirkegaard is the largest cemetery in Denmark () and offers a maze of dense groves, open lawns, winding paths, hedges, overgrown tombs, monuments, tree-lined avenues, lakes and other garden features.
It is official municipal policy in Copenhagen that by 2015 all citizens must be able to reach a park or beach on foot in less than 15 minutes. In line with this policy, several new parks, including the innovative Superkilen in the Nørrebro district, have been completed or are under development in areas lacking green spaces.
Landmarks by district
Indre By
The historic centre of the city, Indre By or the Inner City, features many of Copenhagen's most popular monuments and attractions. The area known as Frederiksstaden, developed by Frederik V in the second half of the 18th century in the Rococo style, has the four mansions of Amalienborg, the royal residence, and the wide-domed Marble Church at its centre. Directly across the water from Amalienborg, the 21st-century Copenhagen Opera House stands on the island of Holmen. To the south of Frederiksstaden, the Nyhavn canal is lined with colourful houses from the 17th and 18th centuries, many now with lively restaurants and bars. The canal runs from the harbour front to the spacious square of Kongens Nytorv which was laid out by Christian V in 1670. Important buildings include Charlottenborg Palace, famous for its art exhibitions, the Thott Palace (now the French embassy), the Royal Danish Theatre and the Hotel D'Angleterre, dated to 1755. Other landmarks in Indre By include the parliament building of Christiansborg, the City Hall and Rundetårn, originally an observatory. There are also several museums in the area including Thorvaldsen Museum dedicated to the 18th-century sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Closed to traffic since 1964, Strøget, one of the world's oldest and longest pedestrian streets, runs the from Rådhuspladsen to Kongens Nytorv. With its speciality shops, cafés, restaurants, and buskers, it is always full of life and includes the old squares of Gammel Torv and Amagertorv, each with a fountain. Rosenborg Castle on Øster Voldgade was built by Christian IV in 1606 as a summer residence in the Renaissance style. It houses the Danish crown jewels and crown regalia, the coronation throne and tapestries illustrating Christian V's victories in the Scanian War.
Christianshavn
Christianshavn lies to the southeast of Indre By on the other side of the harbour. The area was developed by Christian IV in the early 17th century. Impressed by the city of Amsterdam, he employed Dutch architects to create canals within its ramparts which are still well preserved today. The canals themselves, branching off the central Christianshavn Canal and lined with house boats and pleasure craft are one of the area's attractions. Another interesting feature is Freetown Christiania, a fairly large area which was initially occupied by squatters during student unrest in 1971. Today it still maintains a measure of autonomy. The inhabitants openly sell drugs on "Pusher Street" as well as their arts and crafts. Other buildings of interest in Christianshavn include the Church of Our Saviour with its spiralling steeple and the magnificent Rococo Christian's Church. Once a warehouse, the North Atlantic House now displays culture from Iceland and Greenland and houses the Noma restaurant, known for its Nordic cuisine.
Vesterbro
Vesterbro, to the southwest of Indre By, begins with the Tivoli Gardens, the city's top tourist attraction with its fairground atmosphere, its Pantomime Theatre, its Concert Hall and its many rides and restaurants. The Carlsberg neighbourhood has some interesting vestiges of the old brewery of the same name including the Elephant Gate and the Ny Carlsberg Brewhouse. The Tycho Brahe Planetarium is located on the edge of Skt. Jørgens Sø, one of the Copenhagen lakes. Halmtorvet, the old hay market behind the Central Station, is an increasingly popular area with its cafés and restaurants. The former cattle market Øksnehallen has been converted into a modern exhibition centre for art and photography. Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, built by Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen for the airline Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) between 1956 and 1960 was once the tallest hotel in Denmark with a height of and the city's only skyscraper until 1969. Completed in 1908, Det Ny Teater (the New Theatre) located in a passage between Vesterbrogade and Gammel Kongevej has become a popular venue for musicals since its reopening in 1994, attracting the largest audiences in the country.
Nørrebro
Nørrebro to the northwest of the city centre has recently developed from a working-class district into a colourful cosmopolitan area with antique shops, non-Danish food stores and restaurants. Much of the activity is centred on Sankt Hans Torv and around Rantzausgade. Copenhagen's historic cemetery, Assistens Kirkegård halfway up Nørrebrogade, is the resting place of many famous figures including Søren Kierkegaard, Niels Bohr, and Hans Christian Andersen but is also used by locals as a park and recreation area.
Østerbro
Just north of the city centre, Østerbro is an upper middle-class district with a number of fine mansions, some now serving as embassies. The district stretches from Nørrebro to the waterfront where The Little Mermaid statue can be seen from the promenade known as Langelinie. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, it was created by Edvard Eriksen and unveiled in 1913. Not far from the Little Mermaid, the old Citadel (Kastellet) can be seen. Built by Christian IV, it is one of northern Europe's best preserved fortifications. There is also a windmill in the area. The large Gefion Fountain () designed by Anders Bundgaard and completed in 1908 stands close to the southeast corner of Kastellet. Its figures illustrate a Nordic legend.
Frederiksberg
Frederiksberg, a separate municipality within the urban area of Copenhagen, lies to the west of Nørrebro and Indre By and north of Vesterbro. Its landmarks include Copenhagen Zoo founded in 1869 with over 250 species from all over the world and Frederiksberg Palace built as a summer residence by Frederick IV who was inspired by Italian architecture. Now a military academy, it overlooks the extensive landscaped Frederiksberg Gardens with its follies, waterfalls, lakes and decorative buildings. The wide tree-lined avenue of Frederiksberg Allé connecting Vesterbrogade with the Frederiksberg Gardens has long been associated with theatres and entertainment. While a number of the earlier theatres are now closed, the Betty Nansen Theatre and Aveny-T are still active.
Amagerbro
Amagerbro (also known as Sønderbro) is the district located immediately south-east of Christianshavn at northernmost Amager. The old city moats and their surrounding parks constitute a clear border between these districts. The main street is Amagerbrogade which after the harbour bridge Langebro, is an extension of H. C. Andersens Boulevard and has a number of various stores and shops as well as restaurants and pubs. Amagerbro was built up during the two first decades of the twentieth century and is the city's southernmost block built area with typically 4–7 floors. Further south follows the Sundbyøster and Sundbyvester districts.
Other districts
Not far from Copenhagen Airport on the Kastrup coast, The Blue Planet completed in March 2013 now houses the national aquarium. With its 53 aquariums, it is the largest facility of its kind in Scandinavia. Grundtvig's Church, located in the northern suburb of Bispebjerg, was designed by P.V. Jensen Klint and completed in 1940. A rare example of Expressionist church architecture, its striking west façade is reminiscent of a church organ.
Culture
Apart from being the national capital, Copenhagen also serves as the cultural hub of Denmark and one of the major hubs in wider Scandinavia. Since the late 1990s, it has undergone a transformation from a modest Scandinavian capital into a metropolitan city of international appeal, in the same league as cities such as Barcelona and Amsterdam. This is a result of huge investments in infrastructure and culture as well as the work of successful new Danish architects, designers and chefs. Copenhagen Fashion Week, the second largest fashion event in Northern Europe after London Fashion Week, takes place every year in February and August.
Museums
Copenhagen has a wide array of museums of international standing. The National Museum, , is Denmark's largest museum of archaeology and cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures alike. Denmark's National Gallery () is the national art museum with collections dating from the 12th century to the present. In addition to Danish painters, artists represented in the collections include Rubens, Rembrandt, Picasso, Braque, Léger, Matisse, Emil Nolde, Olafur Eliasson, Elmgreen & Dragset, Superflex, and Jens Haaning.
Another important Copenhagen art museum is the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek founded by second generation Carlsberg philanthropist Carl Jacobsen and built around his personal collections. Its main focus is classical Egyptian, Roman and Greek sculptures and antiquities and a collection of Rodin sculptures, the largest outside France. Besides its sculpture collections, the museum also holds a comprehensive collection of paintings of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters such as Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec as well as works by the Danish Golden Age painters.
Louisiana is a Museum of Modern Art situated on the coast just north of Copenhagen. It is located in the middle of a sculpture garden on a cliff overlooking Øresund. Its collection of over 3,000 items includes works by Picasso, Giacometti and Dubuffet. The Danish Design Museum is housed in the 18th-century former Frederiks Hospital and displays Danish design as well as international design and crafts.
Other museums include: the Thorvaldsens Museum, dedicated to the oeuvre of romantic Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen who lived and worked in Rome; the Cisternerne museum, an exhibition space for contemporary art, located in former cisterns that come complete with stalactites formed by the changing water levels; and the Ordrupgaard Museum, located just north of Copenhagen, which features 19th-century French and Danish art and is noted for its works by Paul Gauguin.
Entertainment and performing arts
The new Copenhagen Concert Hall opened in January 2009. Designed by Jean Nouvel, it has four halls with the main auditorium seating 1,800 people. It serves as the home of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and along with the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles is the most expensive concert hall ever built. Another important venue for classical music is the Tivoli Concert Hall located in the Tivoli Gardens. Designed by Henning Larsen, the Copenhagen Opera House () opened in 2005. It is among the most modern opera houses in the world. The Royal Danish Theatre also stages opera in addition to its drama productions. It is also home to the Royal Danish Ballet. Founded in 1748 along with the theatre, it is one of the oldest ballet troupes in Europe, and is noted for its Bournonville style of ballet.
Copenhagen has a significant jazz scene that has existed for many years. It developed when a number of American jazz musicians such as Ben Webster, Thad Jones, Richard Boone, Ernie Wilkins, Kenny Drew, Ed Thigpen, Bob Rockwell, Dexter Gordon, and others such as rock guitarist Link Wray came to live in Copenhagen during the 1960s. Every year in early July, Copenhagen's streets, squares, parks as well as cafés and concert halls fill up with big and small jazz concerts during the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. One of Europe's top jazz festivals, the annual event features around 900 concerts at 100 venues with over 200,000 guests from Denmark and around the world.
The largest venue for popular music in Copenhagen is Vega in the Vesterbro district. It was chosen as "best concert venue in Europe" by international music magazine Live. The venue has three concert halls: the great hall, Store Vega, accommodates audiences of 1,550, the middle hall, Lille Vega, has space for 500 and Ideal Bar Live has a capacity of 250. Every September since 2006, the Festival of Endless Gratitude (FOEG) has taken place in Copenhagen. This festival focuses on indie counterculture, experimental pop music and left field music combined with visual arts exhibitions.
For free entertainment one can stroll along Strøget, especially between Nytorv and Højbro Plads, which in the late afternoon and evening is a bit like an impromptu three-ring circus with musicians, magicians, jugglers and other street performers.
Literature
Most of Denmarks's major publishing houses are based in Copenhagen. These include the book publishers Gyldendal and Akademisk Forlag and newspaper publishers Berlingske and Politiken (the latter also publishing books). Many of the most important contributors to Danish literature such as Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) with his fairy tales, the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) and playwright Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754) spent much of their lives in Copenhagen. Novels set in Copenhagen include Baby (1973) by Kirsten Thorup, The Copenhagen Connection (1982) by Barbara Mertz, Number the Stars (1989) by Lois Lowry, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (1992) and Borderliners (1993) by Peter Høeg, Music and Silence (1999) by Rose Tremain, The Danish Girl (2000) by David Ebershoff, and Sharpe's Prey (2001) by Bernard Cornwell. Michael Frayn's 1998 play Copenhagen about the meeting between the physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in 1941 is also set in the city. On 15–18 August 1973, an oral literature conference took place in Copenhagen as part of the 9th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.
The Royal Library, belonging to the University of Copenhagen, is the largest library in the Nordic countries with an almost complete collection of all printed Danish books since 1482. Founded in 1648, the Royal Library is located at four sites in the city, the main one being on the Slotsholmen waterfront. Copenhagen's public library network has over 20 outlets, the largest being the Central Library () on Krystalgade in the inner city.
Art
Copenhagen has a wide selection of art museums and galleries displaying both historic works and more modern contributions. They include , i.e. the Danish national art gallery, in the Østre Anlæg park, and the adjacent Hirschsprung Collection specialising in the 19th and early 20th century. Kunsthal Charlottenborg in the city centre exhibits national and international contemporary art. Den Frie Udstilling near the Østerport Station exhibits paintings created and selected by contemporary artists themselves rather than by the official authorities. The Arken Museum of Modern Art is located in southwestern Ishøj. Among artists who have painted scenes of Copenhagen are Martinus Rørbye (1803–1848), Christen Købke (1810–1848) and the prolific Paul Gustav Fischer (1860–1934).
A number of notable sculptures can be seen in the city. In addition to The Little Mermaid on the waterfront, there are two historic equestrian statues in the city centre: Jacques Saly's Frederik V on Horseback (1771) in Amalienborg Square and the statue of Christian V on Kongens Nytorv created by Abraham-César Lamoureux in 1688 who was inspired by the statue of Louis XIII in Paris. Rosenborg Castle Gardens contains several sculptures and monuments including August Saabye's Hans Christian Andersen, Aksel Hansen's Echo, and Vilhelm Bissen's Dowager Queen Caroline Amalie.
Copenhagen is believed to have invented the photomarathon photography competition, which has been held in the City each year since 1989.
Cuisine
, Copenhagen has 15 Michelin-starred restaurants, the most of any Scandinavian city. The city is increasingly recognized internationally as a gourmet destination. These include Den Røde Cottage, Formel B Restaurant, Grønbech & Churchill, Søllerød Kro, Kadeau, Kiin Kiin (Denmark's first Michelin-starred Asian gourmet restaurant), the French restaurant Kong Hans Kælder, Relæ, Restaurant AOC with two Stars, and Noma (short for Danish: nordisk mad, English: Nordic food) as well as Geranium with three. Noma was ranked as the Best Restaurant in the World by Restaurant in 2010, 2011, 2012, and again in 2014, sparking interest in the New Nordic Cuisine.
Apart from the selection of upmarket restaurants, Copenhagen offers a great variety of Danish, ethnic and experimental restaurants. It is possible to find modest eateries serving open sandwiches, known as smørrebrød – a traditional, Danish lunch dish; however, most restaurants serve international dishes. Danish pastry can be sampled from any of numerous bakeries found in all parts of the city. The Copenhagen Bakers' Association (Danish: ) dates back to the 1290s and Denmark's oldest confectioner's shop still operating, Conditori La Glace, was founded in 1870 in Skoubogade by Nicolaus Henningsen, a trained master baker from Flensburg.
Copenhagen has long been associated with beer. Carlsberg beer has been brewed at the brewery's premises on the border between the Vesterbro and Valby districts since 1847 and has long been almost synonymous with Danish beer production. However, recent years have seen an explosive growth in the number of microbreweries so that Denmark today has more than 100 breweries, many of which are located in Copenhagen. Some like Nørrebro Bryghus also act as brewpubs where it is also possible to eat on the premises.
Nightlife and festivals
Copenhagen has one of the highest number of restaurants and bars per capita in the world. The nightclubs and bars stay open until 5 or 6 in the morning, some even longer. Denmark has a very liberal alcohol culture and a strong tradition for beer breweries, although binge drinking is frowned upon and the Danish Police take driving under the influence very seriously. Inner city areas such as Istedgade and Enghave Plads in Vesterbro, Sankt Hans Torv in Nørrebro and certain places in Frederiksberg are especially noted for their nightlife. Notable nightclubs include Bakken Kbh, ARCH (previously ZEN), Jolene, The Jane, Chateau Motel, KB3, At Dolores (previously Sunday Club), Rust, Vega Nightclub, Culture Box and Gefährlich, which also serves as a bar, café, restaurant, and art gallery.
Copenhagen has several recurring community festivals, mainly in the summer. Copenhagen Carnival has taken place every year since 1982 during the Whitsun Holiday in Fælledparken and around the city with the participation of 120 bands, 2,000 dancers and 100,000 spectators. Since 2010, the old B&W Shipyard at Refshaleøen in the harbour has been the location for Copenhell, a heavy metal rock music festival. Copenhagen Pride is a LGBT pride festival taking place every year in August. The Pride has a series of different activities all over Copenhagen, but it is at the City Hall Square that most of the celebration takes place. During the Pride the square is renamed Pride Square. Copenhagen Distortion has emerged to be one of the biggest street festivals in Europe with 100,000 people joining to parties in the beginning of June every year.
Amusement parks
Copenhagen has the oldest and third-oldest amusement parks in the world.
Dyrehavsbakken, a fair-ground and pleasure-park established in 1583, is located in Klampenborg just north of Copenhagen in a forested area known as Dyrehaven. Created as an amusement park complete with rides, games and restaurants by Christian IV, it is the oldest surviving amusement park in the world. Pierrot (), a nitwit dressed in white with a scarlet grin wearing a boat-like hat while entertaining children, remains one of the park's key attractions. In Danish, Dyrehavsbakken is often abbreviated as . There is no entrance fee to pay and Klampenborg Station on the C-line, is situated nearby.
The Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park and pleasure garden located in central Copenhagen between the City Hall Square and the Central Station. It opened in 1843, making it the third-oldest amusement park in the world, the second being Wurstelprater in Vienna. Among its rides are the oldest still operating rollercoaster from 1915 and the oldest ferris wheel still in use, opened in 1943. Tivoli Gardens also serves as a venue for various performing arts and as an active part of the cultural scene in Copenhagen.
Education
Copenhagen has over 94,000 students enrolled in its largest universities and institutions: University of Copenhagen (38,867 students), Copenhagen Business School (20,000 students), Metropolitan University College and University College Capital (10,000 students each), Technical University of Denmark (7,000 students), KEA (c. 4,500 students), IT University of Copenhagen (2,000 students) and the Copenhagen campus of Aalborg University (2,300 students).
The University of Copenhagen is Denmark's oldest university founded in 1479. It attracts some 1,500 international and exchange students every year. The Academic Ranking of World Universities placed it 30th in the world in 2016.
The Technical University of Denmark is located in Lyngby in the northern outskirts of Copenhagen. In 2013, it was ranked as one of the leading technical universities in Northern Europe. The IT University is Denmark's youngest university, a mono-faculty institution focusing on technical, societal and business aspects of information technology.
The Danish Academy of Fine Arts has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years. It includes the historic School of Visual Arts, and has in later years come to include a School of Architecture, a School of Design and a School of Conservation. Copenhagen Business School (CBS) is an EQUIS-accredited business school located in Frederiksberg.
There are also branches of both University College Capital and Metropolitan University College inside and outside Copenhagen.
Sport
The city has a variety of sporting teams. The major football teams are the historically successful FC København and Brøndby. FC København plays at Parken in Østerbro. Formed in 1992, it is a merger of two older Copenhagen clubs, B 1903 (from the inner suburb Gentofte) and KB (from Frederiksberg). Brøndby plays at Brøndby Stadion in the inner suburb of Brøndbyvester. BK Frem is based in the southern part of Copenhagen (Sydhavnen, Valby). Other teams of more significant stature are FC Nordsjælland (from suburban Farum), Fremad Amager, B93, AB, Lyngby and Hvidovre IF.
Copenhagen has several handball teams—a sport which is particularly popular in Denmark. Of clubs playing in the "highest" leagues, there are Ajax, Ydun, and HIK (Hellerup). The København Håndbold women's club has recently been established. Copenhagen also has ice hockey teams, of which three play in the top league, Rødovre Mighty Bulls, Herlev Eagles and Hvidovre Ligahockey all inner suburban clubs. Copenhagen Ice Skating Club founded in 1869 is the oldest ice hockey team in Denmark but is no longer in the top league.
Rugby union is also played in the Danish capital with teams such as CSR-Nanok, Copenhagen Business School Sport Rugby, Frederiksberg RK, Exiles RUFC and Rugbyklubben Speed. Rugby league is now played in Copenhagen, with the national team playing out of Gentofte Stadion. The Danish Australian Football League, based in Copenhagen is the largest Australian rules football competition outside of the English-speaking world.
Copenhagen Marathon, Copenhagen's annual marathon event, was established in 1980.
Round Christiansborg Open Water Swim Race is a open water swimming competition taking place each year in late August. This amateur event is combined with a Danish championship. In 2009 the event included a FINA World Cup competition in the morning. Copenhagen hosted the 2011 UCI Road World Championships in September 2011, taking advantage of its bicycle-friendly infrastructure. It was the first time that Denmark had hosted the event since 1956, when it was also held in Copenhagen.
Transport
Airport
The greater Copenhagen area has a very well established transportation infrastructure making it a hub in Northern Europe. Copenhagen Airport, opened in 1925, is Scandinavia's largest airport, located in Kastrup on the island of Amager. It is connected to the city centre by metro and main line railway services. October 2013 was a record month with 2.2 million passengers, and November 2013 figures reveal that the number of passengers is increasing by some 3% annually, about 50% more than the European average.
Road, rail and ferry
Copenhagen has an extensive road network including motorways connecting the city to other parts of Denmark and to Sweden over the Øresund Bridge. The car is still the most popular form of transport within the city itself, representing two-thirds of all distances travelled. This can however lead to serious congestion in rush hour traffic. The Øresund train links Copenhagen with Malmö 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Copenhagen is also served by a daily ferry connection to Oslo in Norway. In 2012, Copenhagen Harbour handled 372 cruise ships and 840,000 passengers.
The Copenhagen S-Train, Copenhagen Metro and the regional train networks are used by about half of the city's passengers, the remainder using bus services. Nørreport Station near the city centre serves passengers travelling by main-line rail, S-train, regional train, metro and bus. Some 750,000 passengers make use of public transport facilities every day. Copenhagen Central Station is the hub of the DSB railway network serving Denmark and international destinations.
The Copenhagen Metro expanded radically with the opening of the City Circle Line (M3) on 29 September 2019. The new line connects all inner boroughs of the city by metro, including the Central Station, and opens up 17 new stations for Copenhageners. On 28 March 2020, the Nordhavn extension of the Harbour Line (M4) opened. Running from Copenhagen Central Station, the new extension is a branch line of M3 Cityring to Østerport. The M4 Sydhavn branch is expected to open in 2024. The new metro lines are part of the city's strategy to transform mobility towards sustainable modes of transport such as public transport and cycling as opposed to automobility.
Copenhagen is cited by urban planners for its exemplary integration of public transport and urban development. In implementing its Finger Plan, Copenhagen is considered the world's first example of a transit metropolis, and areas around S-Train stations like Ballerup and Brøndby Strand are among the earliest examples of transit-oriented development.
Cycling
Copenhagen has been rated as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world since 2015, with bicycles outnumbering its inhabitants. In 2012 some 36% of all working or studying city-dwellers cycled to work, school, or university. With 1.27 million km covered every working day by Copenhagen's cyclists (including both residents and commuters), and 75% of Copenhageners cycling throughout the year. The city's bicycle paths are extensive and well used, boasting of cycle lanes not shared with cars or pedestrians, and sometimes have their own signal systems – giving the cyclists a lead of a couple of seconds to accelerate.
Healthcare
Promoting health is an important issue for Copenhagen's municipal authorities. Central to its sustainability mission is its "Long Live Copenhagen" () scheme in which it has the goal of increasing the life expectancy of citizens, improving quality of life through better standards of health, and encouraging more productive lives and equal opportunities. The city has targets to encourage people to exercise regularly and to reduce the number who smoke and consume alcohol.
Copenhagen University Hospital forms a conglomerate of several hospitals in Region Hovedstaden and Region Sjælland, together with the faculty of health sciences at the University of Copenhagen; Rigshospitalet and Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen belong to this group of university hospitals. Rigshospitalet began operating in March 1757 as Frederiks Hospital, and became state-owned in 1903. With 1,120 beds, Rigshospitalet has responsibility for 65,000 inpatients and approximately 420,000 outpatients annually. It seeks to be the number one specialist hospital in the country, with an extensive team of researchers into cancer treatment, surgery and radiotherapy. In addition to its 8,000 personnel, the hospital has training and hosting functions. It benefits from the presence of in-service students of medicine and other healthcare sciences, as well as scientists working under a variety of research grants. The hospital became internationally famous as the location of Lars von Trier's television horror mini-series The Kingdom. Bispebjerg Hospital was built in 1913, and serves about 400,000 people in the Greater Copenhagen area, with some 3,000 employees. Other large hospitals in the city include Amager Hospital (1997), Herlev Hospital (1976), Hvidovre Hospital (1970), and Gentofte Hospital (1927).
Media
Many Danish media corporations are located in Copenhagen. DR, the major Danish public service broadcasting corporation consolidated its activities in a new headquarters, DR Byen, in 2006 and 2007. Similarly TV2, which is based in Odense, has concentrated its Copenhagen activities in a modern media house in Teglholmen. The two national daily newspapers Politiken and Berlingske and the two tabloids and BT are based in Copenhagen. Kristeligt Dagblad is based in Copenhagen and is published six days a week. Other important media corporations include Aller Media which is the largest publisher of weekly and monthly magazines in Scandinavia, the Egmont media group and Gyldendal, the largest Danish publisher of books.
Copenhagen has a large film and television industry. Nordisk Film, established in Valby, Copenhagen in 1906 is the oldest continuously operating film production company in the world. In 1992 it merged with the Egmont media group and currently runs the 17-screen Palads Cinema in Copenhagen. Filmbyen (movie city), located in a former military camp in the suburb of Hvidovre, houses several movie companies and studios. Zentropa is a film company, co-owned by Danish director Lars von Trier. He is behind several international movie productions as well and founded the Dogme Movement. CPH:PIX is Copenhagen's international feature film festival, established in 2009 as a fusion of the 20-year-old NatFilm Festival and the four-year-old CIFF. The CPH:PIX festival takes place in mid-April. CPH:DOX is Copenhagen's international documentary film festival, every year in November. In addition to a documentary film programme of over 100 films, CPH:DOX includes a wide event programme with dozens of events, concerts, exhibitions and parties all over town.
Twin towns – sister cities
Copenhagen is twinned with:
Beijing, China
Marseille, France
Reykjavik, Iceland
Kyiv, Ukraine
Honorary citizens
People awarded the honorary citizenship of Copenhagen are:
While honorary citizenship is no longer granted in Copenhagen, three people have been awarded the title of honorary Copenhageners (æreskøbenhavnere).
See also
:Category: People from Copenhagen
2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen
Architecture in Copenhagen
Carlsberg Fault zone, a concealed tectonic formation that runs across the city
Copenhagen Climate Council
List of urban areas in Denmark by population
Outline of Denmark
Ports of the Baltic Sea
Footnotes
Citations
Copenhagen City - Driving in Denmark
References
Further reading
External links
VisitCopenhagen.dk – Official VisitCopenhagen tourism website
Capitals in Europe
Cities and towns in the Capital Region of Denmark
Municipal seats in the Capital Region of Denmark
Municipal seats of Denmark
Populated places established in the 11th century
Port cities and towns in Denmark
Port cities and towns of the Baltic Sea
Port cities and towns of the Øresund |
5170 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combinatorics | Combinatorics | Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many applications ranging from logic to statistical physics and from evolutionary biology to computer science.
Combinatorics is well known for the breadth of the problems it tackles. Combinatorial problems arise in many areas of pure mathematics, notably in algebra, probability theory, topology, and geometry, as well as in its many application areas. Many combinatorial questions have historically been considered in isolation, giving an ad hoc solution to a problem arising in some mathematical context. In the later twentieth century, however, powerful and general theoretical methods were developed, making combinatorics into an independent branch of mathematics in its own right. One of the oldest and most accessible parts of combinatorics is graph theory, which by itself has numerous natural connections to other areas. Combinatorics is used frequently in computer science to obtain formulas and estimates in the analysis of algorithms.
A mathematician who studies combinatorics is called a .
Definition
The full scope of combinatorics is not universally agreed upon. According to H.J. Ryser, a definition of the subject is difficult because it crosses so many mathematical subdivisions. Insofar as an area can be described by the types of problems it addresses, combinatorics is involved with:
the enumeration (counting) of specified structures, sometimes referred to as arrangements or configurations in a very general sense, associated with finite systems,
the existence of such structures that satisfy certain given criteria,
the construction of these structures, perhaps in many ways, and
optimization: finding the "best" structure or solution among several possibilities, be it the "largest", "smallest" or satisfying some other optimality criterion.
Leon Mirsky has said: "combinatorics is a range of linked studies which have something in common and yet diverge widely in their objectives, their methods, and the degree of coherence they have attained." One way to define combinatorics is, perhaps, to describe its subdivisions with their problems and techniques. This is the approach that is used below. However, there are also purely historical reasons for including or not including some topics under the combinatorics umbrella. Although primarily concerned with finite systems, some combinatorial questions and techniques can be extended to an infinite (specifically, countable) but discrete setting.
History
Basic combinatorial concepts and enumerative results appeared throughout the ancient world. Indian physician Sushruta asserts in Sushruta Samhita that 63 combinations can be made out of 6 different tastes, taken one at a time, two at a time, etc., thus computing all 26 − 1 possibilities. Greek historian Plutarch discusses an argument between Chrysippus (3rd century BCE) and Hipparchus (2nd century BCE) of a rather delicate enumerative problem, which was later shown to be related to Schröder–Hipparchus numbers. Earlier, in the Ostomachion, Archimedes (3rd century BCE) may have considered the number of configurations of a tiling puzzle, while combinatorial interests possibly were present in lost works by Apollonius.
In the Middle Ages, combinatorics continued to be studied, largely outside of the European civilization. The Indian mathematician Mahāvīra () provided formulae for the number of permutations and combinations, and these formulas may have been familiar to Indian mathematicians as early as the 6th century CE. The philosopher and astronomer Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra () established the symmetry of binomial coefficients, while a closed formula was obtained later by the talmudist and mathematician Levi ben Gerson (better known as Gersonides), in 1321.
The arithmetical triangle—a graphical diagram showing relationships among the binomial coefficients—was presented by mathematicians in treatises dating as far back as the 10th century, and would eventually become known as Pascal's triangle. Later, in Medieval England, campanology provided examples of what is now known as Hamiltonian cycles in certain Cayley graphs on permutations.
During the Renaissance, together with the rest of mathematics and the sciences, combinatorics enjoyed a rebirth. Works of Pascal, Newton, Jacob Bernoulli and Euler became foundational in the emerging field. In modern times, the works of J.J. Sylvester (late 19th century) and Percy MacMahon (early 20th century) helped lay the foundation for enumerative and algebraic combinatorics. Graph theory also enjoyed an increase of interest at the same time, especially in connection with the four color problem.
In the second half of the 20th century, combinatorics enjoyed a rapid growth, which led to establishment of dozens of new journals and conferences in the subject. In part, the growth was spurred by new connections and applications to other fields, ranging from algebra to probability, from functional analysis to number theory, etc. These connections shed the boundaries between combinatorics and parts of mathematics and theoretical computer science, but at the same time led to a partial fragmentation of the field.
Approaches and subfields of combinatorics
Enumerative combinatorics
Enumerative combinatorics is the most classical area of combinatorics and concentrates on counting the number of certain combinatorial objects. Although counting the number of elements in a set is a rather broad mathematical problem, many of the problems that arise in applications have a relatively simple combinatorial description. Fibonacci numbers is the basic example of a problem in enumerative combinatorics. The twelvefold way provides a unified framework for counting permutations, combinations and partitions.
Analytic combinatorics
Analytic combinatorics concerns the enumeration of combinatorial structures using tools from complex analysis and probability theory. In contrast with enumerative combinatorics, which uses explicit combinatorial formulae and generating functions to describe the results, analytic combinatorics aims at obtaining asymptotic formulae.
Partition theory
Partition theory studies various enumeration and asymptotic problems related to integer partitions, and is closely related to q-series, special functions and orthogonal polynomials. Originally a part of number theory and analysis, it is now considered a part of combinatorics or an independent field. It incorporates the bijective approach and various tools in analysis and analytic number theory and has connections with statistical mechanics. Partitions can be graphically visualized with Young diagrams or Ferrers diagrams. They occur in a number of branches of mathematics and physics, including the study of symmetric polynomials and of the symmetric group and in group representation theory in general.
Graph theory
Graphs are fundamental objects in combinatorics. Considerations of graph theory range from enumeration (e.g., the number of graphs on n vertices with k edges) to existing structures (e.g., Hamiltonian cycles) to algebraic representations (e.g., given a graph G and two numbers x and y, does the Tutte polynomial TG(x,y) have a combinatorial interpretation?). Although there are very strong connections between graph theory and combinatorics, they are sometimes thought of as separate subjects. While combinatorial methods apply to many graph theory problems, the two disciplines are generally used to seek solutions to different types of problems.
Design theory
Design theory is a study of combinatorial designs, which are collections of subsets with certain intersection properties. Block designs are combinatorial designs of a special type. This area is one of the oldest parts of combinatorics, such as in Kirkman's schoolgirl problem proposed in 1850. The solution of the problem is a special case of a Steiner system, which systems play an important role in the classification of finite simple groups. The area has further connections to coding theory and geometric combinatorics.
Combinatorial design theory can be applied to the area of design of experiments. Some of the basic theory of combinatorial designs originated in the statistician Ronald Fisher's work on the design of biological experiments. Modern applications are also found in a wide gamut of areas including finite geometry, tournament scheduling, lotteries, mathematical chemistry, mathematical biology, algorithm design and analysis, networking, group testing and cryptography.
Finite geometry
Finite geometry is the study of geometric systems having only a finite number of points. Structures analogous to those found in continuous geometries (Euclidean plane, real projective space, etc.) but defined combinatorially are the main items studied. This area provides a rich source of examples for design theory. It should not be confused with discrete geometry (combinatorial geometry).
Order theory
Order theory is the study of partially ordered sets, both finite and infinite. It provides a formal framework for describing statements such as "this is less than that" or "this precedes that". Various examples of partial orders appear in algebra, geometry, number theory and throughout combinatorics and graph theory. Notable classes and examples of partial orders include lattices and Boolean algebras.
Matroid theory
Matroid theory abstracts part of geometry. It studies the properties of sets (usually, finite sets) of vectors in a vector space that do not depend on the particular coefficients in a linear dependence relation. Not only the structure but also enumerative properties belong to matroid theory. Matroid theory was introduced by Hassler Whitney and studied as a part of order theory. It is now an independent field of study with a number of connections with other parts of combinatorics.
Extremal combinatorics
Extremal combinatorics studies how large or how small a collection of finite objects (numbers, graphs, vectors, sets, etc.) can be, if it has to satisfy certain restrictions. Much of extremal combinatorics concerns classes of set systems; this is called extremal set theory. For instance, in an n-element set, what is the largest number of k-element subsets that can pairwise intersect one another? What is the largest number of subsets of which none contains any other? The latter question is answered by Sperner's theorem, which gave rise to much of extremal set theory.
The types of questions addressed in this case are about the largest possible graph which satisfies certain properties. For example, the largest triangle-free graph on 2n vertices is a complete bipartite graph Kn,n. Often it is too hard even to find the extremal answer f(n) exactly and one can only give an asymptotic estimate.
Ramsey theory is another part of extremal combinatorics. It states that any sufficiently large configuration will contain some sort of order. It is an advanced generalization of the pigeonhole principle.
Probabilistic combinatorics
In probabilistic combinatorics, the questions are of the following type: what is the probability of a certain property for a random discrete object, such as a random graph? For instance, what is the average number of triangles in a random graph? Probabilistic methods are also used to determine the existence of combinatorial objects with certain prescribed properties (for which explicit examples might be difficult to find) by observing that the probability of randomly selecting an object with those properties is greater than 0. This approach (often referred to as the probabilistic method) proved highly effective in applications to extremal combinatorics and graph theory. A closely related area is the study of finite Markov chains, especially on combinatorial objects. Here again probabilistic tools are used to estimate the mixing time.
Often associated with Paul Erdős, who did the pioneering work on the subject, probabilistic combinatorics was traditionally viewed as a set of tools to study problems in other parts of combinatorics. The area recently grew to become an independent field of combinatorics.
Algebraic combinatorics
Algebraic combinatorics is an area of mathematics that employs methods of abstract algebra, notably group theory and representation theory, in various combinatorial contexts and, conversely, applies combinatorial techniques to problems in algebra. Algebraic combinatorics has come to be seen more expansively as an area of mathematics where the interaction of combinatorial and algebraic methods is particularly strong and significant. Thus the combinatorial topics may be enumerative in nature or involve matroids, polytopes, partially ordered sets, or finite geometries. On the algebraic side, besides group and representation theory, lattice theory and commutative algebra are common.
Combinatorics on words
Combinatorics on words deals with formal languages. It arose independently within several branches of mathematics, including number theory, group theory and probability. It has applications to enumerative combinatorics, fractal analysis, theoretical computer science, automata theory, and linguistics. While many applications are new, the classical Chomsky–Schützenberger hierarchy of classes of formal grammars is perhaps the best-known result in the field.
Geometric combinatorics
Geometric combinatorics is related to convex and discrete geometry. It asks, for example, how many faces of each dimension a convex polytope can have. Metric properties of polytopes play an important role as well, e.g. the Cauchy theorem on the rigidity of convex polytopes. Special polytopes are also considered, such as permutohedra, associahedra and Birkhoff polytopes. Combinatorial geometry is a historical name for discrete geometry.
It includes a number of subareas such as polyhedral combinatorics (the study of faces of convex polyhedra), convex geometry (the study of convex sets, in particular combinatorics of their intersections), and discrete geometry, which in turn has many applications to computational geometry. The study of regular polytopes, Archimedean solids, and kissing numbers is also a part of geometric combinatorics. Special polytopes are also considered, such as the permutohedron, associahedron and Birkhoff polytope.
Topological combinatorics
Combinatorial analogs of concepts and methods in topology are used to study graph coloring, fair division, partitions, partially ordered sets, decision trees, necklace problems and discrete Morse theory. It should not be confused with combinatorial topology which is an older name for algebraic topology.
Arithmetic combinatorics
Arithmetic combinatorics arose out of the interplay between number theory, combinatorics, ergodic theory, and harmonic analysis. It is about combinatorial estimates associated with arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). Additive number theory (sometimes also called additive combinatorics) refers to the special case when only the operations of addition and subtraction are involved. One important technique in arithmetic combinatorics is the ergodic theory of dynamical systems.
Infinitary combinatorics
Infinitary combinatorics, or combinatorial set theory, is an extension of ideas in combinatorics to infinite sets. It is a part of set theory, an area of mathematical logic, but uses tools and ideas from both set theory and extremal combinatorics. Some of the things studied include continuous graphs and trees, extensions of Ramsey's theorem, and Martin's axiom. Recent developments concern combinatorics of the continuum and combinatorics on successors of singular cardinals.
Gian-Carlo Rota used the name continuous combinatorics to describe geometric probability, since there are many analogies between counting and measure.
Related fields
Combinatorial optimization
Combinatorial optimization is the study of optimization on discrete and combinatorial objects. It started as a part of combinatorics and graph theory, but is now viewed as a branch of applied mathematics and computer science, related to operations research, algorithm theory and computational complexity theory.
Coding theory
Coding theory started as a part of design theory with early combinatorial constructions of error-correcting codes. The main idea of the subject is to design efficient and reliable methods of data transmission. It is now a large field of study, part of information theory.
Discrete and computational geometry
Discrete geometry (also called combinatorial geometry) also began as a part of combinatorics, with early results on convex polytopes and kissing numbers. With the emergence of applications of discrete geometry to computational geometry, these two fields partially merged and became a separate field of study. There remain many connections with geometric and topological combinatorics, which themselves can be viewed as outgrowths of the early discrete geometry.
Combinatorics and dynamical systems
Combinatorial aspects of dynamical systems is another emerging field. Here dynamical systems can be defined on combinatorial objects. See for example
graph dynamical system.
Combinatorics and physics
There are increasing interactions between combinatorics and physics, particularly statistical physics. Examples include an exact solution of the Ising model, and a connection between the Potts model on one hand, and the chromatic and Tutte polynomials on the other hand.
See also
Combinatorial biology
Combinatorial chemistry
Combinatorial data analysis
Combinatorial game theory
Combinatorial group theory
Discrete mathematics
List of combinatorics topics
Phylogenetics
Polynomial method in combinatorics
Notes
References
Björner, Anders; and Stanley, Richard P.; (2010); A Combinatorial Miscellany
Bóna, Miklós; (2011); A Walk Through Combinatorics (3rd ed.).
Graham, Ronald L.; Groetschel, Martin; and Lovász, László; eds. (1996); Handbook of Combinatorics, Volumes 1 and 2. Amsterdam, NL, and Cambridge, MA: Elsevier (North-Holland) and MIT Press.
Lindner, Charles C.; and Rodger, Christopher A.; eds. (1997); Design Theory, CRC-Press. .
Stanley, Richard P. (1997, 1999); Enumerative Combinatorics, Volumes 1 and 2, Cambridge University Press.
van Lint, Jacobus H.; and Wilson, Richard M.; (2001); A Course in Combinatorics, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press.
External links
Combinatorial Analysis – an article in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
Combinatorics, a MathWorld article with many references.
Combinatorics, from a MathPages.com portal.
The Hyperbook of Combinatorics, a collection of math articles links.
The Two Cultures of Mathematics by W.T. Gowers, article on problem solving vs theory building.
"Glossary of Terms in Combinatorics"
List of Combinatorics Software and Databases |
5176 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus | Calculus | Calculus is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations.
It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus; the former concerns instantaneous rates of change, and the slopes of curves, while the latter concerns accumulation of quantities, and areas under or between curves. These two branches are related to each other by the fundamental theorem of calculus, and they make use of the fundamental notions of convergence of infinite sequences and infinite series to a well-defined limit.
Infinitesimal calculus was developed independently in the late 17th century by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Later work, including codifying the idea of limits, put these developments on a more solid conceptual footing. Today, calculus has widespread uses in science, engineering, and social science.
Etymology
In mathematics education, calculus denotes courses of elementary mathematical analysis, which are mainly devoted to the study of functions and limits. The word calculus is Latin for "small pebble" (the diminutive of calx, meaning "stone"), a meaning which still persists in medicine. Because such pebbles were used for counting out distances, tallying votes, and doing abacus arithmetic, the word came to mean a method of computation. In this sense, it was used in English at least as early as 1672, several years before the publications of Leibniz and Newton.
In addition to differential calculus and integral calculus, the term is also used for naming specific methods of calculation and related theories that seek to model a particular concept in terms of mathematics. Examples of this convention include propositional calculus, Ricci calculus, calculus of variations, lambda calculus, and process calculus. Furthermore, the term "calculus" has variously been applied in ethics and philosophy, for such systems as Bentham's felicific calculus, and the ethical calculus.
History
Modern calculus was developed in 17th-century Europe by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (independently of each other, first publishing around the same time) but elements of it first appeared in ancient Egypt and later Greece, then in China and the Middle East, and still later again in medieval Europe and India.
Ancient precursors
Egypt
Calculations of volume and area, one goal of integral calculus, can be found in the Egyptian Moscow papyrus ( BC), but the formulae are simple instructions, with no indication as to how they were obtained.
Greece
Laying the foundations for integral calculus and foreshadowing the concept of the limit, ancient Greek mathematician Eudoxus of Cnidus ( – 337 BC) developed the method of exhaustion to prove the formulas for cone and pyramid volumes.
During the Hellenistic period, this method was further developed by Archimedes ( – ), who combined it with a concept of the indivisibles—a precursor to infinitesimals—allowing him to solve several problems now treated by integral calculus. In The Method of Mechanical Theorems he describes, for example, calculating the center of gravity of a solid hemisphere, the center of gravity of a frustum of a circular paraboloid, and the area of a region bounded by a parabola and one of its secant lines.
China
The method of exhaustion was later discovered independently in China by Liu Hui in the 3rd century AD to find the area of a circle. In the 5th century AD, Zu Gengzhi, son of Zu Chongzhi, established a method that would later be called Cavalieri's principle to find the volume of a sphere.
Medieval
Middle East
In the Middle East, Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, Latinized as Alhazen ( AD) derived a formula for the sum of fourth powers. He used the results to carry out what would now be called an integration of this function, where the formulae for the sums of integral squares and fourth powers allowed him to calculate the volume of a paraboloid.
India
Evidence suggests Bhaskara was acquainted with some ideas of differential calculus. Bhaskara also goes deeper into the 'differential calculus' and suggests the differential coefficient vanishes at an extremum value of the function, indicating knowledge of the concept of 'infinitesimals'. There is evidence of an early form of Rolle's theorem in his work. The modern formulation of Rolle's theorem states that if , then for some with .In this astronomical work, he gave one procedure that looked like a precursor to infinitesimal methods. In terms that is if then that is a derivative of sine although he did not develop the notion on derivative.
In the 14th century, Indian mathematicians gave a non-rigorous method, resembling differentiation, applicable to some trigonometric functions. Madhava of Sangamagrama and the Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics thereby stated components of calculus. A complete theory encompassing these components is now well known in the Western world as the Taylor series or infinite series approximations. According to Victor J. Katz they were not able to "combine many differing ideas under the two unifying themes of the derivative and the integral, show the connection between the two, and turn calculus into the great problem-solving tool we have today".
Modern
Johannes Kepler's work Stereometrica Doliorum formed the basis of integral calculus. Kepler developed a method to calculate the area of an ellipse by adding up the lengths of many radii drawn from a focus of the ellipse.
Significant work was a treatise, the origin being Kepler's methods, written by Bonaventura Cavalieri, who argued that volumes and areas should be computed as the sums of the volumes and areas of infinitesimally thin cross-sections. The ideas were similar to Archimedes' in The Method, but this treatise is believed to have been lost in the 13th century and was only rediscovered in the early 20th century, and so would have been unknown to Cavalieri. Cavalieri's work was not well respected since his methods could lead to erroneous results, and the infinitesimal quantities he introduced were disreputable at first.
The formal study of calculus brought together Cavalieri's infinitesimals with the calculus of finite differences developed in Europe at around the same time. Pierre de Fermat, claiming that he borrowed from Diophantus, introduced the concept of adequality, which represented equality up to an infinitesimal error term. The combination was achieved by John Wallis, Isaac Barrow, and James Gregory, the latter two proving predecessors to the second fundamental theorem of calculus around 1670.
The product rule and chain rule, the notions of higher derivatives and Taylor series, and of analytic functions were used by Isaac Newton in an idiosyncratic notation which he applied to solve problems of mathematical physics. In his works, Newton rephrased his ideas to suit the mathematical idiom of the time, replacing calculations with infinitesimals by equivalent geometrical arguments which were considered beyond reproach. He used the methods of calculus to solve the problem of planetary motion, the shape of the surface of a rotating fluid, the oblateness of the earth, the motion of a weight sliding on a cycloid, and many other problems discussed in his Principia Mathematica (1687). In other work, he developed series expansions for functions, including fractional and irrational powers, and it was clear that he understood the principles of the Taylor series. He did not publish all these discoveries, and at this time infinitesimal methods were still considered disreputable.
These ideas were arranged into a true calculus of infinitesimals by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who was originally accused of plagiarism by Newton. He is now regarded as an independent inventor of and contributor to calculus. His contribution was to provide a clear set of rules for working with infinitesimal quantities, allowing the computation of second and higher derivatives, and providing the product rule and chain rule, in their differential and integral forms. Unlike Newton, Leibniz put painstaking effort into his choices of notation.
Today, Leibniz and Newton are usually both given credit for independently inventing and developing calculus. Newton was the first to apply calculus to general physics. Leibniz developed much of the notation used in calculus today. The basic insights that both Newton and Leibniz provided were the laws of differentiation and integration, emphasizing that differentiation and integration are inverse processes, second and higher derivatives, and the notion of an approximating polynomial series.
When Newton and Leibniz first published their results, there was great controversy over which mathematician (and therefore which country) deserved credit. Newton derived his results first (later to be published in his Method of Fluxions), but Leibniz published his "Nova Methodus pro Maximis et Minimis" first. Newton claimed Leibniz stole ideas from his unpublished notes, which Newton had shared with a few members of the Royal Society. This controversy divided English-speaking mathematicians from continental European mathematicians for many years, to the detriment of English mathematics. A careful examination of the papers of Leibniz and Newton shows that they arrived at their results independently, with Leibniz starting first with integration and Newton with differentiation. It is Leibniz, however, who gave the new discipline its name. Newton called his calculus "the science of fluxions", a term that endured in English schools into the 19th century. The first complete treatise on calculus to be written in English and use the Leibniz notation was not published until 1815.
Since the time of Leibniz and Newton, many mathematicians have contributed to the continuing development of calculus. One of the first and most complete works on both infinitesimal and integral calculus was written in 1748 by Maria Gaetana Agnesi.
Foundations
In calculus, foundations refers to the rigorous development of the subject from axioms and definitions. In early calculus, the use of infinitesimal quantities was thought unrigorous and was fiercely criticized by several authors, most notably Michel Rolle and Bishop Berkeley. Berkeley famously described infinitesimals as the ghosts of departed quantities in his book The Analyst in 1734. Working out a rigorous foundation for calculus occupied mathematicians for much of the century following Newton and Leibniz, and is still to some extent an active area of research today.
Several mathematicians, including Maclaurin, tried to prove the soundness of using infinitesimals, but it would not be until 150 years later when, due to the work of Cauchy and Weierstrass, a way was finally found to avoid mere "notions" of infinitely small quantities. The foundations of differential and integral calculus had been laid. In Cauchy's Cours d'Analyse, we find a broad range of foundational approaches, including a definition of continuity in terms of infinitesimals, and a (somewhat imprecise) prototype of an (ε, δ)-definition of limit in the definition of differentiation. In his work Weierstrass formalized the concept of limit and eliminated infinitesimals (although his definition can validate nilsquare infinitesimals). Following the work of Weierstrass, it eventually became common to base calculus on limits instead of infinitesimal quantities, though the subject is still occasionally called "infinitesimal calculus". Bernhard Riemann used these ideas to give a precise definition of the integral. It was also during this period that the ideas of calculus were generalized to the complex plane with the development of complex analysis.
In modern mathematics, the foundations of calculus are included in the field of real analysis, which contains full definitions and proofs of the theorems of calculus. The reach of calculus has also been greatly extended. Henri Lebesgue invented measure theory, based on earlier developments by Émile Borel, and used it to define integrals of all but the most pathological functions. Laurent Schwartz introduced distributions, which can be used to take the derivative of any function whatsoever.
Limits are not the only rigorous approach to the foundation of calculus. Another way is to use Abraham Robinson's non-standard analysis. Robinson's approach, developed in the 1960s, uses technical machinery from mathematical logic to augment the real number system with infinitesimal and infinite numbers, as in the original Newton-Leibniz conception. The resulting numbers are called hyperreal numbers, and they can be used to give a Leibniz-like development of the usual rules of calculus. There is also smooth infinitesimal analysis, which differs from non-standard analysis in that it mandates neglecting higher-power infinitesimals during derivations. Based on the ideas of F. W. Lawvere and employing the methods of category theory, smooth infinitesimal analysis views all functions as being continuous and incapable of being expressed in terms of discrete entities. One aspect of this formulation is that the law of excluded middle does not hold. The law of excluded middle is also rejected in constructive mathematics, a branch of mathematics that insists that proofs of the existence of a number, function, or other mathematical object should give a construction of the object. Reformulations of calculus in a constructive framework are generally part of the subject of constructive analysis.
Significance
While many of the ideas of calculus had been developed earlier in Greece, China, India, Iraq, Persia, and Japan, the use of calculus began in Europe, during the 17th century, when Newton and Leibniz built on the work of earlier mathematicians to introduce its basic principles. The Hungarian polymath John von Neumann wrote of this work,
Applications of differential calculus include computations involving velocity and acceleration, the slope of a curve, and optimization. Applications of integral calculus include computations involving area, volume, arc length, center of mass, work, and pressure. More advanced applications include power series and Fourier series.
Calculus is also used to gain a more precise understanding of the nature of space, time, and motion. For centuries, mathematicians and philosophers wrestled with paradoxes involving division by zero or sums of infinitely many numbers. These questions arise in the study of motion and area. The ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea gave several famous examples of such paradoxes. Calculus provides tools, especially the limit and the infinite series, that resolve the paradoxes.
Principles
Limits and infinitesimals
Calculus is usually developed by working with very small quantities. Historically, the first method of doing so was by infinitesimals. These are objects which can be treated like real numbers but which are, in some sense, "infinitely small". For example, an infinitesimal number could be greater than 0, but less than any number in the sequence 1, 1/2, 1/3, ... and thus less than any positive real number. From this point of view, calculus is a collection of techniques for manipulating infinitesimals. The symbols and were taken to be infinitesimal, and the derivative was their ratio.
The infinitesimal approach fell out of favor in the 19th century because it was difficult to make the notion of an infinitesimal precise. In the late 19th century, infinitesimals were replaced within academia by the epsilon, delta approach to limits. Limits describe the behavior of a function at a certain input in terms of its values at nearby inputs. They capture small-scale behavior using the intrinsic structure of the real number system (as a metric space with the least-upper-bound property). In this treatment, calculus is a collection of techniques for manipulating certain limits. Infinitesimals get replaced by sequences of smaller and smaller numbers, and the infinitely small behavior of a function is found by taking the limiting behavior for these sequences. Limits were thought to provide a more rigorous foundation for calculus, and for this reason, they became the standard approach during the 20th century. However, the infinitesimal concept was revived in the 20th century with the introduction of non-standard analysis and smooth infinitesimal analysis, which provided solid foundations for the manipulation of infinitesimals.
Differential calculus
Differential calculus is the study of the definition, properties, and applications of the derivative of a function. The process of finding the derivative is called differentiation. Given a function and a point in the domain, the derivative at that point is a way of encoding the small-scale behavior of the function near that point. By finding the derivative of a function at every point in its domain, it is possible to produce a new function, called the derivative function or just the derivative of the original function. In formal terms, the derivative is a linear operator which takes a function as its input and produces a second function as its output. This is more abstract than many of the processes studied in elementary algebra, where functions usually input a number and output another number. For example, if the doubling function is given the input three, then it outputs six, and if the squaring function is given the input three, then it outputs nine. The derivative, however, can take the squaring function as an input. This means that the derivative takes all the information of the squaring function—such as that two is sent to four, three is sent to nine, four is sent to sixteen, and so on—and uses this information to produce another function. The function produced by differentiating the squaring function turns out to be the doubling function.
In more explicit terms the "doubling function" may be denoted by and the "squaring function" by . The "derivative" now takes the function , defined by the expression "", as an input, that is all the information—such as that two is sent to four, three is sent to nine, four is sent to sixteen, and so on—and uses this information to output another function, the function , as will turn out.
In Lagrange's notation, the symbol for a derivative is an apostrophe-like mark called a prime. Thus, the derivative of a function called is denoted by , pronounced "f prime" or "f dash". For instance, if is the squaring function, then is its derivative (the doubling function from above).
If the input of the function represents time, then the derivative represents change concerning time. For example, if is a function that takes time as input and gives the position of a ball at that time as output, then the derivative of is how the position is changing in time, that is, it is the velocity of the ball.
If a function is linear (that is if the graph of the function is a straight line), then the function can be written as , where is the independent variable, is the dependent variable, is the y-intercept, and:
This gives an exact value for the slope of a straight line. If the graph of the function is not a straight line, however, then the change in divided by the change in varies. Derivatives give an exact meaning to the notion of change in output concerning change in input. To be concrete, let be a function, and fix a point in the domain of . is a point on the graph of the function. If is a number close to zero, then is a number close to . Therefore, is close to . The slope between these two points is
This expression is called a difference quotient. A line through two points on a curve is called a secant line, so is the slope of the secant line between and . The second line is only an approximation to the behavior of the function at the point because it does not account for what happens between and . It is not possible to discover the behavior at by setting to zero because this would require dividing by zero, which is undefined. The derivative is defined by taking the limit as tends to zero, meaning that it considers the behavior of for all small values of and extracts a consistent value for the case when equals zero:
Geometrically, the derivative is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of at . The tangent line is a limit of secant lines just as the derivative is a limit of difference quotients. For this reason, the derivative is sometimes called the slope of the function .
Here is a particular example, the derivative of the squaring function at the input 3. Let be the squaring function.
The slope of the tangent line to the squaring function at the point (3, 9) is 6, that is to say, it is going up six times as fast as it is going to the right. The limit process just described can be performed for any point in the domain of the squaring function. This defines the derivative function of the squaring function or just the derivative of the squaring function for short. A computation similar to the one above shows that the derivative of the squaring function is the doubling function.
Leibniz notation
A common notation, introduced by Leibniz, for the derivative in the example above is
In an approach based on limits, the symbol is to be interpreted not as the quotient of two numbers but as a shorthand for the limit computed above. Leibniz, however, did intend it to represent the quotient of two infinitesimally small numbers, being the infinitesimally small change in caused by an infinitesimally small change applied to . We can also think of as a differentiation operator, which takes a function as an input and gives another function, the derivative, as the output. For example:
In this usage, the in the denominator is read as "with respect to ". Another example of correct notation could be:
Even when calculus is developed using limits rather than infinitesimals, it is common to manipulate symbols like and as if they were real numbers; although it is possible to avoid such manipulations, they are sometimes notationally convenient in expressing operations such as the total derivative.
Integral calculus
Integral calculus is the study of the definitions, properties, and applications of two related concepts, the indefinite integral and the definite integral. The process of finding the value of an integral is called integration. The indefinite integral, also known as the antiderivative, is the inverse operation to the derivative. is an indefinite integral of when is a derivative of . (This use of lower- and upper-case letters for a function and its indefinite integral is common in calculus.) The definite integral inputs a function and outputs a number, which gives the algebraic sum of areas between the graph of the input and the x-axis. The technical definition of the definite integral involves the limit of a sum of areas of rectangles, called a Riemann sum.
A motivating example is the distance traveled in a given time. If the speed is constant, only multiplication is needed:
But if the speed changes, a more powerful method of finding the distance is necessary. One such method is to approximate the distance traveled by breaking up the time into many short intervals of time, then multiplying the time elapsed in each interval by one of the speeds in that interval, and then taking the sum (a Riemann sum) of the approximate distance traveled in each interval. The basic idea is that if only a short time elapses, then the speed will stay more or less the same. However, a Riemann sum only gives an approximation of the distance traveled. We must take the limit of all such Riemann sums to find the exact distance traveled.
When velocity is constant, the total distance traveled over the given time interval can be computed by multiplying velocity and time. For example, traveling a steady 50 mph for 3 hours results in a total distance of 150 miles. Plotting the velocity as a function of time yields a rectangle with a height equal to the velocity and a width equal to the time elapsed. Therefore, the product of velocity and time also calculates the rectangular area under the (constant) velocity curve. This connection between the area under a curve and the distance traveled can be extended to any irregularly shaped region exhibiting a fluctuating velocity over a given period. If represents speed as it varies over time, the distance traveled between the times represented by and is the area of the region between and the -axis, between and .
To approximate that area, an intuitive method would be to divide up the distance between and into several equal segments, the length of each segment represented by the symbol . For each small segment, we can choose one value of the function . Call that value . Then the area of the rectangle with base and height gives the distance (time multiplied by speed ) traveled in that segment. Associated with each segment is the average value of the function above it, . The sum of all such rectangles gives an approximation of the area between the axis and the curve, which is an approximation of the total distance traveled. A smaller value for will give more rectangles and in most cases a better approximation, but for an exact answer, we need to take a limit as approaches zero.
The symbol of integration is , an elongated S chosen to suggest summation. The definite integral is written as:
and is read "the integral from a to b of f-of-x with respect to x." The Leibniz notation is intended to suggest dividing the area under the curve into an infinite number of rectangles so that their width becomes the infinitesimally small .
The indefinite integral, or antiderivative, is written:
Functions differing by only a constant have the same derivative, and it can be shown that the antiderivative of a given function is a family of functions differing only by a constant. Since the derivative of the function , where is any constant, is , the antiderivative of the latter is given by:
The unspecified constant present in the indefinite integral or antiderivative is known as the constant of integration.
Fundamental theorem
The fundamental theorem of calculus states that differentiation and integration are inverse operations. More precisely, it relates the values of antiderivatives to definite integrals. Because it is usually easier to compute an antiderivative than to apply the definition of a definite integral, the fundamental theorem of calculus provides a practical way of computing definite integrals. It can also be interpreted as a precise statement of the fact that differentiation is the inverse of integration.
The fundamental theorem of calculus states: If a function is continuous on the interval and if is a function whose derivative is on the interval , then
Furthermore, for every in the interval ,
This realization, made by both Newton and Leibniz, was key to the proliferation of analytic results after their work became known. (The extent to which Newton and Leibniz were influenced by immediate predecessors, and particularly what Leibniz may have learned from the work of Isaac Barrow, is difficult to determine because of the priority dispute between them.) The fundamental theorem provides an algebraic method of computing many definite integrals—without performing limit processes—by finding formulae for antiderivatives. It is also a prototype solution of a differential equation. Differential equations relate an unknown function to its derivatives and are ubiquitous in the sciences.
Applications
Calculus is used in every branch of the physical sciences, actuarial science, computer science, statistics, engineering, economics, business, medicine, demography, and in other fields wherever a problem can be mathematically modeled and an optimal solution is desired. It allows one to go from (non-constant) rates of change to the total change or vice versa, and many times in studying a problem we know one and are trying to find the other. Calculus can be used in conjunction with other mathematical disciplines. For example, it can be used with linear algebra to find the "best fit" linear approximation for a set of points in a domain. Or, it can be used in probability theory to determine the expectation value of a continuous random variable given a probability density function. In analytic geometry, the study of graphs of functions, calculus is used to find high points and low points (maxima and minima), slope, concavity and inflection points. Calculus is also used to find approximate solutions to equations; in practice, it is the standard way to solve differential equations and do root finding in most applications. Examples are methods such as Newton's method, fixed point iteration, and linear approximation. For instance, spacecraft use a variation of the Euler method to approximate curved courses within zero gravity environments.
Physics makes particular use of calculus; all concepts in classical mechanics and electromagnetism are related through calculus. The mass of an object of known density, the moment of inertia of objects, and the potential energies due to gravitational and electromagnetic forces can all be found by the use of calculus. An example of the use of calculus in mechanics is Newton's second law of motion, which states that the derivative of an object's momentum concerning time equals the net force upon it. Alternatively, Newton's second law can be expressed by saying that the net force equals the object's mass times it's acceleration, which is the time derivative of velocity and thus the second time derivative of spatial position. Starting from knowing how an object is accelerating, we use calculus to derive its path.
Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism and Einstein's theory of general relativity are also expressed in the language of differential calculus. Chemistry also uses calculus in determining reaction rates and in studying radioactive decay. In biology, population dynamics starts with reproduction and death rates to model population changes.
Green's theorem, which gives the relationship between a line integral around a simple closed curve C and a double integral over the plane region D bounded by C, is applied in an instrument known as a planimeter, which is used to calculate the area of a flat surface on a drawing. For example, it can be used to calculate the amount of area taken up by an irregularly shaped flower bed or swimming pool when designing the layout of a piece of property.
In the realm of medicine, calculus can be used to find the optimal branching angle of a blood vessel to maximize flow. Calculus can be applied to understand how quickly a drug is eliminated from a body or how quickly a cancerous tumor grows.
In economics, calculus allows for the determination of maximal profit by providing a way to easily calculate both marginal cost and marginal revenue.
See also
Glossary of calculus
List of calculus topics
List of derivatives and integrals in alternative calculi
List of differentiation identities
Publications in calculus
Table of integrals
Notes
References
Further reading
Uses synthetic differential geometry and nilpotent infinitesimals.
Keisler, H.J. (2000). Elementary Calculus: An Approach Using Infinitesimals. Retrieved 29 August 2010 from http://www.math.wisc.edu/~keisler/calc.html
External links
Calculus Made Easy (1914) by Silvanus P. Thompson Full text in PDF
Calculus.org: The Calculus page at University of California, Davis – contains resources and links to other sites
Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics: Calculus & Analysis
The Role of Calculus in College Mathematics from ERICDigests.org
OpenCourseWare Calculus from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Infinitesimal Calculus – an article on its historical development, in Encyclopedia of Mathematics, ed. Michiel Hazewinkel.
Calculus training materials at imomath.com
The Excursion of Calculus, 1772 |
5177 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication | Communication | Communication is usually understood to be the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not only transmits meaning but also creates it. Models of communication are simplified overviews of its main components and their interactions. Many models include the idea that a source uses a coding system to express information in the form of a message. The message is sent through a channel to a receiver who has to decode it to understand it. The main field of inquiry investigating communication is called communication studies.
A common way to classify communication is by whether information is exchanged between humans, members of other species, or non-living entities such as computers. For human communication, a central contrast is between verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication involves the exchange of messages in linguistic form, including spoken and written messages as well as sign language. Non-verbal communication happens without the use of a linguistic system, for example, using body language, touch, and facial expressions. Another distinction is between interpersonal communication, which happens between distinct persons, and intrapersonal communication, which is communication with oneself. Communicative competence is the ability to communicate well and applies to the skills of formulating messages and understanding them.
Non-human forms of communication include animal and plant communication. Researchers in this field often refine their definition of communicative behavior by including the criteria that observable responses are present and that the participants benefit from the exchange. Animal communication is used in areas like courtship and mating, parent-offspring relations, navigation, and self-defense. Communication through chemicals is particularly important for the relatively immobile plants. For example, maple trees release so-called volatile organic compounds into the air to warn other plants of a herbivore attack. Most communication takes place between members of the same species. The reason is that its purpose is usually some form of cooperation, which is not as common between different species. Interspecies communication happens mainly in cases of symbiotic relationships. For instance, many flowers use symmetrical shapes and distinctive colors to signal to insects where nectar is located. Humans engage in interspecies communication when interacting with pets.
Human communication has a long history and how people exchange information has changed over time. These changes were usually triggered by the development of new communication technologies. Examples are the invention of writing systems, the development of mass printing, the use of radio and television, and the invention of the internet. The technological advances also led to new forms of communication, such as the exchange of data between computers.
Definitions
The word "" has its root in the Latin verb "", which means "to share" or "to make common". Communication is usually understood as the transmission of information: a message is conveyed from a sender to a receiver using some medium, such as sound, written signs, bodily movements, or electricity. Sender and receiver are often distinct individuals but it is also possible for an individual to communicate with themselves. In some cases, sender and receiver are not individuals but groups like organizations, social classes, or nations. In a different sense, the term "communication" refers to the message that is being communicated or to the field of inquiry studying communicational phenomena.
The precise characterization of communication is disputed. Many scholars have raised doubts that any single definition can capture the term accurately. These difficulties come from the fact that the term is applied to diverse phenomena in different contexts, often with slightly different meanings. The issue of the right definition affects the research process on many levels. This includes issues like which empirical phenomena are observed, how they are categorized, which hypotheses and laws are formulated as well as how systematic theories based on these steps are articulated.
Some definitions are broad and encompass unconscious and non-human behavior. Under a broad definition, many animals communicate within their own species and flowers communicate by signaling the location of nectar to bees through their colors and shapes. Other definitions restrict communication to conscious interactions among human beings. Some approaches focus on the use of symbols and signs while others stress the role of understanding, interaction, power, or transmission of ideas. Various characterizations see the communicator's intent to send a message as a central component. In this view, the transmission of information is not sufficient for communication if it happens unintentionally. A version of this view is given by philosopher Paul Grice, who identifies communication with actions that aim to make the recipient aware of the communicator's intention. One question in this regard is whether only successful transmissions of information should be regarded as communication. For example, distortion may interfere with and change the actual message from what was originally intended. A closely related problem is whether acts of deliberate deception constitute communication.
According to a broad definition by literary critic I. A. Richards, communication happens when one mind acts upon its environment to transmit its own experience to another mind. Another interpretation is given by communication theorists Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, who characterize communication as a transmission of information brought about by the interaction of several components, such as a source, a message, an encoder, a channel, a decoder, and a receiver. The transmission view is rejected by transactional and constitutive views, which hold that communication is not just about the transmission of information but also about the creation of meaning. Transactional and constitutive perspectives hold that communication shapes the participant's experience by conceptualizing the world and making sense of their environment and themselves. Researchers studying animal and plant communication focus less on meaning-making. Instead, they often define communicative behavior as having other features, such as playing a beneficial role in survival and reproduction, or having an observable response.
Models of communication
Models of communication are conceptual representations of the process of communication. Their goal is to provide a simplified overview of its main components. This makes it easier for researchers to formulate hypotheses, apply communication-related concepts to real-world cases, and test predictions. Due to their simplified presentation, they may lack the conceptual complexity needed for a comprehensive understanding of all the essential aspects of communication. They are usually presented visually in the form of diagrams showing the basic components and their interaction.
Models of communication are often categorized based on their intended applications and how they conceptualize communication. Some models are general in the sense that they are intended for all forms of communication. Specialized models aim to describe specific forms, such as models of mass communication.
One influential way to classify communication is to distinguish between linear transmission, interaction, and transaction models. Linear transmission models focus on how a sender transmits information to a receiver. They are linear because this flow of information only goes in a single direction. This view is rejected by interaction models, which include a feedback loop. Feedback is needed to describe many forms of communication, such as a conversation, where the listener may respond to a speaker by expressing their opinion or by asking for clarification. Interaction models represent the process as a form of two-way communication in which the communicators take turns sending and receiving messages. Transaction models further refine this picture by allowing representations of sending and responding at the same time. This modification is needed to describe how the listener can give feedback in a face-to-face conversation while the other person is talking. Examples are non-verbal feedback through body posture and facial expression. Transaction models also hold that meaning is produced during communication and does not exist independently of it.
All the early models, developed in the middle of the 20th century, are linear transmission models. Lasswell's model, for example, is based on five fundamental questions: "Who?", "Says what?", "In which channel?", "To whom?", and "With what effect?". The goal of these questions is to identify the basic components involved in the communicative process: the sender, the message, the channel, the receiver, and the effect. Lasswell's model was initially only conceived as a model of mass communication, but it has been applied to other fields as well. Some communication theorists, like Richard Braddock, have expanded it by including additional questions, like "Under what circumstances?" and "For what purpose?".
The Shannon–Weaver model is another influential linear transmission model. It is based on the idea that a source creates a message, which is then translated into a signal by a transmitter. Noise may interfere with and distort the signal. Once the signal reaches the receiver, it is translated back into a message and made available to the destination. For a landline telephone call, the person calling is the source and their telephone is the transmitter. The transmitter translates the message into an electrical signal that travels through the wire, which acts as the channel. The person taking the call is the destination and their telephone is the receiver. The Shannon–Weaver model includes an in-depth discussion of how noise can distort the signal and how successful communication can be achieved despite noise. This can happen by making the message partially redundant so that decoding is possible nonetheless. Other influential linear transmission models include Gerbner's model and Berlo's model.
The earliest interaction model was developed by communication theorist Wilbur Schramm. He states that communication starts when a source has an idea and expresses it in the form of a message. This process is called encoding and happens using a code, i.e. a sign system that is able to express the idea, for instance, through visual or auditory signs. The message is sent to a destination, who has to decode and interpret it to understand it. In response, they formulate their own idea, encode it into a message, and send it back as a form of feedback. Another innovation of Schramm's model is that previous experience is necessary to be able to encode and decode messages. For communication to be successful, the fields of experience of source and destination have to overlap.
The first transactional model was proposed by communication theorist Dean Barnlund in 1970. He understands communication as "the production of meaning, rather than the production of messages". Its goal is to decrease uncertainty and arrive at a shared understanding. This happens in response to external and internal cues. Decoding is the process of ascribing meaning to them and encoding consists in producing new behavioral cues as a response.
Human
There are many forms of human communication. A central distinction is whether language is used, as in the contrast between verbal and non-verbal communication. A further distinction concerns whether one communicates with others or with oneself, as in the contrast between interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. Forms of human communication are also categorized by their channel or the medium used to transmit messages. The field studying human communication is known as anthroposemiotics.
Verbal
Verbal communication is the exchange of messages in linguistic form, i.e., by means of language. In colloquial usage, verbal communication is sometimes restricted to oral communication and may exclude writing and sign language. However, in academic discourse, the term is usually used in a wider sense, encompassing any form of linguistic communication, whether through speech, writing, or gestures. Some of the challenges in distinguishing verbal from non-verbal communication come from the difficulties in defining what exactly language means. Language is usually understood as a conventional system of symbols and rules used for communication. Such systems are based on a set of simple units of meaning that can be combined to express more complex ideas. The rules for combining the units into compound expressions are called grammar. Words are combined to form sentences.
One hallmark of human language, in contrast to animal communication, lies in its complexity and expressive power. Human language can be used to refer not just to concrete objects in the here-and-now but also to spatially and temporally distant objects and to abstract ideas. Humans have a natural tendency to acquire their native language in childhood. They are also able to learn other languages later in life as second languages. However, this process is less intuitive and often does not result in the same level of linguistic competence. The academic discipline studying language is called linguistics. Its subfields include semantics (the study of meaning), morphology (the study of word formation), syntax (the study of sentence structure), pragmatics (the study of language use), and phonetics (the study of basic sounds).
A central contrast among languages is between natural and artificial or constructed languages. Natural languages, like English, Spanish, and Japanese, developed naturally and for the most part unplanned in the course of history. Artificial languages, like Esperanto, Quenya, C++, and the language of first-order logic, are purposefully designed from the ground up. Most everyday verbal communication happens using natural languages. Central forms of verbal communication are speech and writing together with their counterparts of listening and reading. Spoken languages use sounds to produce signs and transmit meaning while for writing, the signs are physically inscribed on a surface. Sign languages, like American Sign Language and Nicaraguan Sign Language, are another form of verbal communication. They rely on visual means, mostly by using gestures with hands and arms, to form sentences and convey meaning.
Verbal communication serves various functions. One key function is to exchange information, i.e. an attempt by the speaker to make the audience aware of something, usually of an external event. But language can also be used to express the speaker's feelings and attitudes. A closely related role is to establish and maintain social relations with other people. Verbal communication is also utilized to coordinate one's behavior with others and influence them. In some cases, language is not employed for an external purpose but only for entertainment or personal enjoyment. Verbal communication further helps individuals conceptualize the world around them and themselves. This affects how perceptions of external events are interpreted, how things are categorized, and how ideas are organized and related to each other.
Non-verbal
Non-verbal communication is the exchange of information through non-linguistic modes, like facial expressions, gestures, and postures. However, not every form of non-verbal behavior constitutes non-verbal communication. Some theorists, like Judee Burgoon, hold that it depends on the existence of a socially shared coding system that is used to interpret the meaning of non-verbal behavior. Non-verbal communication has many functions. It frequently contains information about emotions, attitudes, personality, interpersonal relations, and private thoughts.
Non-verbal communication often happens unintentionally and unconsciously, like sweating or blushing, but there are also conscious intentional forms, like shaking hands or raising a thumb. It often happens simultaneously with verbal communication and helps optimize the exchange through emphasis and illustration or by adding additional information. Non-verbal cues can clarify the intent behind a verbal message. Using multiple modalities of communication in this way usually makes communication more effective if the messages of each modality are consistent. However, in some cases different modalities can contain conflicting messages. For example, a person may verbally agree with a statement but press their lips together, thereby indicating disagreement non-verbally.
There are many forms of non-verbal communication. They include kinesics, proxemics, haptics, paralanguage, chronemics, and physical appearance. Kinesics studies the role of bodily behavior in conveying information. It is commonly referred to as body language, even though it is, strictly speaking, not a language but rather non-verbal communication. It includes many forms, like gestures, postures, walking styles, and dance. Facial expressions, like laughing, smiling, and frowning, all belong to kinesics and are expressive and flexible forms of communication. Oculesics is another subcategory of kinesics in regard to the eyes. It covers questions like how eye contact, gaze, blink rate, and pupil dilation form part of communication. Some kinesic patterns are inborn and involuntary, like blinking, while others are learned and voluntary, like giving a military salute.
Proxemics studies how personal space is used in communication. The distance between the speakers reflects their degree of familiarity and intimacy with each other as well as their social status. Haptics examines how information is conveyed using touching behavior, like handshakes, holding hands, kissing, or slapping. Meanings linked to haptics include care, concern, anger, and violence. For instance, handshaking is often seen as a symbol of equality and fairness, while refusing to shake hands can indicate aggressiveness. Kissing is another form often used to show affection and erotic closeness.
Paralanguage, also known as vocalics, encompasses non-verbal elements in speech that convey information. Paralanguage is often used to express the feelings and emotions that the speaker has but does not explicitly stated in the verbal part of the message. It is not concerned with the words used but with how they are expressed. This includes elements like articulation, lip control, rhythm, intensity, pitch, fluency, and loudness. For example, saying something loudly and in a high pitch conveys a different meaning on the non-verbal level than whispering the same words. Paralanguage is mainly concerned with spoken language but also includes aspects of written language, like the use of colors and fonts as well as spatial arrangement in paragraphs and tables. Non-linguistic sounds may also convey information; crying indicates that an infant is distressed, and babbling conveys information about infant health and well-being.
Chronemics concerns the use of time, such as what messages are sent by being on time versus late for a meeting. The physical appearance of the communicator, such as height, weight, hair, skin color, gender, clothing, tattooing, and piercing, also carries information. Appearance is an important factor for first impressions but is more limited as a mode of communication since it is less changeable. Some forms of non-verbal communication happen using such artifacts as drums, smoke, batons, traffic lights, and flags.
Traditionally, most research focused on verbal communication. However, this paradigm began to shift in the 1950s when research interest in non-verbal communication increased and emphasized its influence. For example, many judgments about the nature and behavior of other people are based on non-verbal cues. It is further present in almost every communicative act to some extent and certain parts of it are universally understood. These considerations have prompted some communication theorists, like Ray Birdwhistell, to claim that the majority of ideas and information is conveyed this way. It has also been suggested that human communication is at its core non-verbal and that words can only acquire meaning because of non-verbal communication. The earliest forms of human communication, such as crying and babbling, are non-verbal. Non-verbal communication is studied in various fields besides communication studies, like linguistics, semiotics, anthropology, and social psychology.
Interpersonal
Interpersonal communication is communication between distinct people. Its typical form is dyadic communication, i.e. between two people, but it can also refer to communication within groups. It can be planned or unplanned and occurs in many forms, like when greeting someone, during salary negotiations, or when making a phone call. Some communication theorists, like Virginia M. McDermott, understand interpersonal communication as a fuzzy concept that manifests in degrees. In this view, an exchange varies in how interpersonal it is based on several factors. It depends on how many people are present, and whether it happens face-to-face rather than through telephone or email. A further factor concerns the relation between the communicators: group communication and mass communication are less typical forms of interpersonal communication and some theorists treat them as distinct types.
Interpersonal communication can be synchronous or asynchronous. For asynchronous communication, the parties take turns in sending and receiving messages. This occurs when exchanging letters or emails. For synchronous communication, both parties send messages at the same time. This happens when one person is talking while the other person sends non-verbal messages in response signaling whether they agree with what is being said. Some communication theorists, like Sarah Trenholm and Arthur Jensen, distinguish between content messages and relational messages. Content messages express the speaker's feelings toward the topic of discussion. Relational messages, on the other hand, demonstrate the speaker's feelings toward their relation with the other participants.
Various theories of the function of interpersonal communication have been proposed. Some focus on how it helps people make sense of their world and create society. Others hold that its primary purpose is to understand why other people act the way they do and to adjust one's behavior accordingly. A closely related approach is to focus on information and see interpersonal communication as an attempt to reduce uncertainty about others and external events. Other explanations understand it in terms of the needs it satisfies. This includes the needs of belonging somewhere, being included, being liked, maintaining relationships, and influencing the behavior of others. On a practical level, interpersonal communication is used to coordinate one's actions with the actions of others to get things done. Research on interpersonal communication includes topics like how people build, maintain, and dissolve relationships through communication. Other questions are why people choose one message rather than another and what effects these messages have on the communicators and their relation. A further topic is how to predict whether two people would like each other.
Intrapersonal
Intrapersonal communication is communication with oneself. In some cases this manifests externally, like when engaged in a monologue, taking notes, highlighting a passage, and writing a diary or a shopping list. But many forms of intrapersonal communication happen internally in the form of an inner exchange with oneself, like when thinking about something or daydreaming. Closely related to intrapersonal communication is communication that takes place within an organism below the personal level, such as exchange of information between organs or cells.
Intrapersonal communication can be triggered by internal and external stimuli. It may happen in the form of articulating a phrase before expressing it externally. Other forms are to make plans for the future and to attempt to process emotions to calm oneself down in stressful situations. It can help regulate one's own mental activity and outward behavior as well as internalize cultural norms and ways of thinking. External forms of intrapersonal communication can aid one's memory. This happens, for example, when making a shopping list. Another use is to unravel difficult problems, as when solving a complex mathematical equation line by line. New knowledge can also be internalized this way, like when repeating new vocabulary to oneself. Because of these functions, intrapersonal communication can be understood as "an exceptionally powerful and pervasive tool for thinking."
Based on its role in self-regulation, some theorists have suggested that intrapersonal communication is more basic than interpersonal communication. Young children sometimes use egocentric speech while playing in an attempt to direct their own behavior. In this view, interpersonal communication only develops later when the child moves from their early egocentric perspective to a more social perspective. A different explanation holds that interpersonal communication is more basic since it is first used by parents to regulate what their child does. Once the child has learned this, they can apply the same technique to themselves to get more control over their own behavior.
Channels
For communication to be successful, the message has to travel from the sender to the receiver. The channel is the way this is accomplished. It is not concerned with the meaning of the message but only with the technical means of how the meaning is conveyed. Channels are often understood in terms of the senses used to perceive the message, i.e. hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, and tasting. But in the widest sense, channels encompass any form of transmission, including technological means like books, cables, radio waves, telephones, or television. Naturally transmitted messages usually fade rapidly whereas some messages using artificial channels have a much longer lifespan, as in the case of books or sculptures.
The physical characteristics of a channel have an impact on the code and cues that can be used to express information. For example, typical telephone calls are restricted to the use of verbal language and paralanguage but exclude facial expressions. It is often possible to translate messages from one code into another to make them available to a different channel. An example is writing down a spoken message or expressing it using sign language.
The transmission of information can occur through multiple channels at once. For example, face-to-face communication often combines the auditory channel to convey verbal information with the visual channel to transmit non-verbal information using gestures and facial expressions. Employing multiple channels can enhance the effectiveness of communication by helping the receiver better understand the subject matter. The choice of channels often matters since the receiver's ability to understand may vary depending on the chosen channel. For instance, a teacher may decide to present some information orally and other information visually, depending on the content and the student's preferred learning style.
Communicative competence
Communicative competence is the ability to communicate effectively or to choose the appropriate communicative behavior in a given situation. It concerns what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. It further includes the ability to receive and understand messages. Competence is often contrasted with performance since competence can be present even if it is not exercised, while performance consists in the realization of this competence. However, some theorists reject a stark contrast and hold that performance is the observable part and is used to infer competence in relation to future performances.
Two central components of communicative competence are effectiveness and appropriateness. Effectiveness is the degree to which the speaker achieves their desired outcomes or the degree to which preferred alternatives are realized. This means that whether a communicative behavior is effective does not just depend on the actual outcome but also on the speaker's intention, i.e. whether this outcome was what they intended to achieve. Because of this, some theorists additionally require that the speaker be able to give an explanation of why they engaged in one behavior rather than another. Effectiveness is closely related to efficiency, the difference being that effectiveness is about achieving goals while efficiency is about using few resources (such as time, effort, and money) in the process.
Appropriateness means that the communicative behavior meets social standards and expectations. Communication theorist Brian H. Spitzberg defines it as "the perceived legitimacy or acceptability of behavior or enactments in a given context". This means that the speaker is aware of the social and cultural context in order to adapt and express the message in a way that is considered acceptable in the given situation. For example, to bid farewell to their teacher, a student may use the expression "Goodbye, sir" but not the expression "I gotta split, man", which they may use when talking to a peer. To be both effective and appropriate means to achieve one's preferred outcomes in a way that follows social standards and expectations. Some definitions of communicative competence put their main emphasis on either effectiveness or appropriateness while others combine both features.
Many additional components of communicative competence have been suggested, such as empathy, control, flexibility, sensitivity, and knowledge. It is often discussed in terms of the individual skills employed in the process, i.e. the specific behavioral components that make up communicative competence. Message production skills include reading and writing. They are correlated with the reception skills of listening and reading. There are both verbal and non-verbal communication skills. For example, verbal communication skills involve the proper understanding of a language, including its phonology, orthography, syntax, lexicon, and semantics.
Many aspects of human life depend on successful communication, from ensuring basic necessities of survival to building and maintaining relationships. Communicative competence is a key factor regarding whether a person is able to reach their goals in social life, like having a successful career and finding a suitable spouse. Because of this, it can have a large impact on the individual's well-being. The lack of communicative competence can cause problems both on the individual and the societal level, including professional, academic, and health problems.
Barriers to effective communication can distort the message. They may result in failed communication and cause undesirable effects. This can happen if the message is poorly expressed because it uses terms with which the receiver is not familiar, or because it is not relevant to the receiver's needs, or because it contains too little or too much information. Distraction, selective perception, and lack of attention to feedback may also be responsible. Noise is another negative factor. It concerns influences that interfere with the message on its way to the receiver and distort it. Crackling sounds during a telephone call are one form of noise. Ambiguous expressions can also inhibit effective communication and make it necessary to disambiguate between possible interpretations to discern the sender's intention. These interpretations depend also on the cultural background of the participants. Significant cultural differences constitute an additional obstacle and make it more likely that messages are misinterpreted.
Other species
Besides human communication, there are many other forms of communication found in the animal kingdom and among plants. They are studied in fields like biocommunication and biosemiotics. There are additional obstacles in this area for judging whether communication has taken place between two individuals. Acoustic signals are often easy to notice and analyze for scientists, but it is more difficult to judge whether tactile or chemical changes should be understood as communicative signals rather than as other biological processes.
For this reason, researchers often use slightly altered definitions of communication to facilitate their work. A common assumption in this regard comes from evolutionary biology and holds that communication should somehow benefit the communicators in terms of natural selection. The biologists Rumsaïs Blatrix and Veronika Mayer define communication as "the exchange of information between individuals, wherein both the signaller and receiver may expect to benefit from the exchange". According to this view, the sender benefits by influencing the receiver's behavior and the receiver benefits by responding to the signal. These benefits should exist on average but not necessarily in every single case. This way, deceptive signaling can also be understood as a form of communication. One problem with the evolutionary approach is that it is often difficult to assess the impact of such behavior on natural selection. Another common pragmatic constraint is to hold that it is necessary to observe a response by the receiver following the signal when judging whether communication has occurred.
Animals
Animal communication is the process of giving and taking information among animals. The field studying animal communication is called zoosemiotics. There are many parallels to human communication. One is that humans and many animals express sympathy by synchronizing their movements and postures. Nonetheless, there are also significant differences, like the fact that humans also engage in verbal communication, which uses language, while animal communication is restricted to non-verbal (ie. non-linguistic) communication. Some theorists have tried to distinguish human from animal communication based on the claim that animal communication lacks a referential function and is thus not able to refer to external phenomena. However, various observations seem to contradict this view, such as the warning signals in response to different types of predators used by vervet monkeys, Gunnison's prairie dogs, and red squirrels. A further approach is to draw the distinction based on the complexity of human language, especially its almost limitless ability to combine basic units of meaning into more complex meaning structures. One view states that recursion sets human language apart from all non-human communicative systems. Another difference is that human communication is frequently linked to the conscious intention to send information, which is often not discernable for animal communication. Despite these differences, some theorists use the term "animal language" to refer to certain communicative patterns in animal behavior that have similarities with human language.
Animal communication can take a variety of forms, including visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory communication. Visual communication happens in the form of movements, gestures, facial expressions, and colors. Examples are movements seen during mating rituals, the colors of birds, and the rhythmic light of fireflies. Auditory communication takes place through vocalizations by species like birds, primates, and dogs. Auditory signals are frequently used to alert and warn. Lower-order living systems often have simple response patterns to auditory messages, reacting either by approach or avoidance. More complex response patterns are observed for higher animals, which may use different signals for different types of predators and responses. For example, some primates use one set of signals for airborne predators and another for land predators. Tactile communication occurs through touch, vibration, stroking, rubbing, and pressure. It is especially relevant for parent-young relations, courtship, social greetings, and defense. Olfactory and gustatory communication happen chemically through smells and tastes, respectively.
There are large differences between species concerning what functions communication plays, how much it is realized, and the behavior used to communicate. Common functions include the fields of courtship and mating, parent-offspring relations, social relations, navigation, self-defense, and territoriality. One part of courtship and mating consists in identifying and attracting potential mates. This can happen through various means. Grasshoppers and crickets communicate acoustically by using songs, moths rely on chemical means by releasing pheromones, and fireflies send visual messages by flashing light. For some species, the offspring depends on the parent for its survival. One central function of parent-offspring communication is to recognize each other. In some cases, the parents are also able to guide the offspring's behavior.
Social animals, like chimpanzees, bonobos, wolves, and dogs, engage in various forms of communication to express their feelings and build relations. Communication can aid navigation by helping animals move through their environment in a purposeful way, e.g. to locate food, avoid enemies, and follow other animals. In bats, this happens through echolocation, i.e. by sending auditory signals and processing the information from the echoes. Bees are another often-discussed case in this respect since they perform a type of dance to indicate to other bees where flowers are located. In regard to self-defense, communication is used to warn others and to assess whether a costly fight can be avoided. Another function of communication is to mark and claim territories used for food and mating. For example, some male birds claim a hedge or part of a meadow by using songs to keep other males away and attract females.
Two competing theories in the study of animal communication are nature theory and nurture theory. Their conflict concerns to what extent animal communication is programmed into the genes as a form of adaptation rather than learned from previous experience as a form of conditioning. To the degree that it is learned, it usually happens through imprinting, i.e. as a form of learning that only occurs in a certain phase and is then mostly irreversible.
Plants, fungi, and bacteria
Plant communication refers to plant processes involving the sending and receiving of information. The field studying plant communication is called phytosemiotics. This field poses additional difficulties for researchers since plants are different from humans and other animals in that they lack a central nervous system and have rigid cell walls. These walls restrict movement and usually prevent plants from sending and receiving signals that depend on rapid movement. However, there are some similarities since plants face many of the same challenges as animals. For example, they need to find resources, avoid predators and pathogens, find mates, and ensure that their offspring survive. Many of the evolutionary responses to these challenges are analogous to those in animals but are implemented using different means. One crucial difference is that chemical communication is much more prominent in the plant kingdom in contrast to the importance of visual and auditory communication for animals.
In plants, the term behavior is usually not defined in terms of physical movement, as is the case for animals, but as a biochemical response to a stimulus. This response has to be short relative to the plant's lifespan. Communication is a special form of behavior that involves conveying information from a sender to a receiver. It is distinguished from other types of behavior, like defensive reactions and mere sensing. Like in the field of animal communication, plant communication researchers often require as additional criteria that there is some form of response in the receiver and that the communicative behavior is beneficial to sender and receiver. Biologist Richard Karban distinguishes three steps of plant communication: the emission of a cue by a sender, the perception of the cue by a receiver, and the receiver's response. For plant communication, it is not relevant to what extent the emission of a cue is intentional. However, it should be possible for the receiver to ignore the signal. This criterion can be used to distinguish a response to a signal from a defense mechanism against an unwanted change like intense heat.
Plant communication happens in various forms. It includes communication within plants, i.e. within plant cells and between plant cells, between plants of the same or related species, and between plants and non-plant organisms, especially in the root zone. A prominent form of communication is airborne and happens through volatile organic compounds (VOCs). For example, maple trees release VOCs when they are attacked by a herbivore to warn neighboring plants, which then react accordingly by adjusting their defenses. Another form of plant-to-plant communication happens through mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi form underground networks, colloquially referred to as the Wood-Wide Web, and connect the roots of different plants. The plants use the network to send messages to each other, specifically to warn other plants of a pest attack and to help prepare their defenses.
Communication can also be observed for fungi and bacteria. Some fungal species communicate by releasing pheromones into the external environment. For instance, they are used to promote sexual interaction in several aquatic fungal species. One form of communication between bacteria is called quorum sensing. It happens by releasing hormone-like molecules, which other bacteria detect and respond to. This process is used to monitor the environment for other bacteria and to coordinate population-wide responses, for example, by sensing the density of bacteria and regulating gene expression accordingly. Other possible responses include the induction of bioluminescence and the formation of biofilms.
Interspecies
Most communication happens between members within a species as intraspecies communication. This is because the purpose of communication is usually some form of cooperation. Cooperation happens mostly within a species while different species are often in conflict with each other by competing over resources. However, there are also some forms of interspecies communication. This occurs especially for symbiotic relations and significantly less for parasitic or predator-prey relations.
Interspecies communication plays a key role for plants that depend on external agents for reproduction. For example, flowers need insects for pollination and provide resources like nectar and other rewards in return. They use communication to signal their benefits and attract visitors by using distinctive colors and symmetrical shapes to stand out from their surroundings. This form of advertisement is necessary since flowers compete with each other for visitors. Many fruit-bearing plants rely on plant-to-animal communication to disperse their seeds and move them to a favorable location. This happens by providing nutritious fruits to animals. The seeds are eaten together with the fruit and are later excreted at a different location. Communication makes animals aware of where the fruits are and whether they are ripe. For many fruits, this happens through their color: they have an inconspicuous green color until they ripen and take on a new color that stands in visual contrast to the environment. Another example of interspecies communication is found in the ant-plant relation. It concerns, for instance, the selection of seeds by ants for their ant gardens and the pruning of exogenous vegetation as well as plant protection by ants.
Some animal species also engage in interspecies communication, like apes, whales, dolphins, elephants, and dogs. For example, different species of monkeys use common signals to cooperate when threatened by a common predator. Humans engage in interspecies communication when interacting with pets. For instance, acoustic signals play a central role in communication with dogs. Dogs can learn to react to various commands, like "sit" and "come". They can even be trained to respond to short syntactic combinations, like "bring X" or "put X in a box". They also react to the pitch and frequency of the human voice to detect emotions, dominance, and uncertainty. Dogs use a range of behavioral patters to convey their emotions to humans, for example, in regard to aggressiveness, fearfulness, and playfulness.
Computer
Computer communication concerns the exchange of data between computers and similar devices. For this to be possible, the devices have to be connected through a transmission system that forms a network between them. A transmitter is needed to send messages and a receiver is needed to receive them. A personal computer may use a modem as a transmitter to send information to a server through the public telephone network as the transmission system. The server may use a modem as its receiver. To transmit the data, it has to be converted into an electric signal. Communication channels used for transmission are either analog or digital and are characterized by features like bandwidth and latency.
There are many forms of computer networks. The most commonly discussed ones are LANs and WANs. LAN stands for local area network, which is a computer network within a limited area, usually with a distance of less than one kilometer. This is the case when connecting two computers within a home or an office building. LANs can be set up using a wired connection, like Ethernet, or a wireless connection, like Wi-Fi. WANs, on the other hand, are wide area networks that span large geographical regions, like the internet. Their networks are more complex and may use several intermediate connection nodes to transfer information between endpoints. Further types of computer networks include PANs (personal area networks), CANs (campus area networks), and MANs (metropolitan area networks).
For computer communication to be successful, the involved devices have to follow a common set of conventions governing their exchange. These conventions are known as the communication protocol. They concern various aspects of the exchange, like the format of messages and how to respond to transmission errors. They also cover how the two systems are synchronized, for example, how the receiver identifies the start and end of a signal. Based on the flow of informations, systems are categorized as simplex, half-duplex, and full-duplex. For simplex systems, signals flow only in one direction from the sender to the receiver, like in radio, cable television, and screens displaying arrivals and departures at airports. Half-duplex systems allow two-way exchanges but signals can only flow in one direction at a time, like walkie-talkies and police radios. In the case of full-duplex systems, signals can flow in both directions at the same time, like regular telephone and internet. In either case, it is often important for successful communication that the connection is secure to ensure that the transmitted data reaches only the intended destination and is not intercepted by an unauthorized third party. This can be achieved by using cryptography, which changes the format of the transmitted information to make it unintelligible to potential interceptors.
Human-computer communication is a closely related field that concerns topics like how humans interact with computers and how data in the form of inputs and outputs is exchanged. This happens through a user interface, which includes the hardware used to interact with the computer, like a mouse, a keyboard, and a monitor, as well as the software used in the process. On the software side, most early user interfaces were command-line interfaces in which the user must type a command to interact with the computer. Most modern user interfaces are graphical user interfaces, like Microsoft Windows and macOS. They involve graphical elements through which the user can interact with the computer, like icons representing files and folders as well as buttons used to trigger commands. They are usually much easier to use for non-experts. One aim when designing user interfaces is to simplify the interaction with computers. This helps make them more user-friendly and accessible to a wider audience while also increasing productivity.
Communication studies
Communication studies, also referred to as communication science, is the academic discipline studying communication. It is closely related to semiotics, with one difference being that communication studies focuses more on technical questions of how messages are sent, received, and processed. Semiotics, on the other hand, tackles more abstract questions in relation to meaning and how signs acquire it. Communication studies covers a wide area overlapping with many other disciplines, such as biology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, linguistics, media studies, and journalism.
Many contributions in the field of communication studies focus on developing models and theories of communication. Models of communication aim to give a simplified overview of the main components involved in communication. Theories of communication try to provide conceptual frameworks to accurately present communication in all its complexity. Some theories focus on communication as a practical art of discourse while others explore the roles of signs, experience, information processing, and the goal of building a social order through coordinated interaction. Communication studies is also interested in the functions and effects of communication. It covers issues like how communication satisfies physiological and psychological needs, helps build relationships, and assists in gathering information about the environment, other individuals, and oneself. A further topic concerns the question of how communication systems change over time and how these changes correlate with other societal changes. A related topic focuses on psychological principles underlying those changes and the effects they have on how people exchange ideas.
Communication was studied as early as Ancient Greece. Early influential theories were created by Plato and Aristotle, who stressed public speaking and the understanding of rhetoric. According to Aristotle, for example, the goal of communication is to persuade the audience. The field of communication studies only became a separate research discipline in the 20th century, especially starting in the 1940s. The development of new communication technologies, such as telephone, radio, newspapers, television, and the internet, has had a big impact on communication and communication studies.
Today, communication studies is a wide discipline. Some works in it try to provide a general characterization of communication in the widest sense. Others attempt to give a precise analysis of one specific form of communication. Communication studies includes many subfields. Some focus on wide topics like interpersonal communication, intrapersonal communication, verbal communication, and non-verbal communication. Others investigate communication within a specific area. Organizational communication concerns communication between members of organizations such as corporations, nonprofits, or small businesses. Central in this regard is the coordination of the behavior of the different members as well as the interaction with customers and the general public. Closely related terms are business communication, corporate communication, and professional communication. The main element of marketing communication is advertising but it also encompasses other communication activities aimed at advancing the organization's objective to its audiences, like public relations. Political communication covers topics like electoral campaigns to influence voters and legislative communication, like letters to a congress or committee documents. Specific emphasis is often given to propaganda and the role of mass media.
Intercultural communication is relevant to both organizational and political communication since they often involve attempts to exchange messages between communicators from different cultural backgrounds. The cultural background affects how messages are formulated and interpreted and can be the cause of misunderstandings. It is also relevant for development communication, which is about the use of communication for assisting in development, like aid given by first-world countries to third-world countries. Health communication concerns communication in the field of healthcare and health promotion efforts. One of its topics is how healthcare providers, like doctors and nurses, should communicate with their patients.
History
Communication history studies how communicative processes evolved and interacted with society, culture, and technology. Human communication has a long history and the way people communicate has changed considerably over time. Many of these changes were triggered by the development of new communication technologies and had various effects on how people exchanged ideas. New communication technologies usually require new skills that people need to learn to use them effectively.
In the academic literature, the history of communication is usually divided into ages based on the dominant form of communication in that age. The number of ages and the precise periodization are disputed. They usually include ages for speaking, writing, and print as well as electronic mass communication and the internet. According to communication theorist Marshall Poe, the dominant media for each age can be characterized in relation to several factors. They include the amount of information a medium can store, how long it persists, how much time it takes to transmit it, and how costly it is to use the medium. Poe argues that subsequent ages usually involve some form of improvement of one or more of the factors.
According to some scientific estimates, language developed around 40,000 years ago while others consider it to be much older. Before this time, human communication resembled animal communication and happened through a combination of grunts, cries, gestures, and facial expressions. Language helped early humans to organize themselves and plan ahead more efficiently. In early societies, spoken language was the primary form of communication. Most knowledge was passed on through it, often in the form of stories or wise sayings. This form does not produce stable knowledge since it depends on imperfect human memory. Because of this, many details differ from one telling to the next and are presented differently by distinct storytellers. As people started to settle and form agricultural communities, societies grew and there was an increased need for stable records of ownership of land and commercial transactions. This triggered the invention of writing, which is able to solve many problems that arose from using exclusively oral communication. It is much more efficient at preserving knowledge and passing it on between generations since it does not depend on human memory. Before the invention of writing, certain forms of proto-writing had already developed. Proto-writing encompasses long-lasting visible marks used to store information, like decorations on pottery items, knots in a cord to track goods, or seals to mark property.
Most early written communication happened through pictograms. Pictograms are graphical symbols that convey meaning by visually resembling real-world objects. The use of basic pictographic symbols to represent things like farming produce was common in ancient cultures and began around 9000 BCE. The first complex writing system including pictograms was developed around 3500 BCE by the Sumerians and is called cuneiform. Pictograms are still in use today, like no-smoking signs and the symbols of male and female figures on bathroom doors. A significant disadvantage of pictographic writing systems is that they need a large amount of symbols to refer to all the objects one wants to talk about. This problem was solved by the development of other writing systems. For example, the symbols of alphabetic writing systems do not stand for regular objects. Instead, they relate to the sounds used in spoken language. Other types of early writing systems include logographic and ideographic writing systems. A drawback of many early forms of writing, like the clay tablets used for cuneiform, was that they were not very portable. This made it difficult to transport the texts from one location to another to share information. This changed with the invention of papyrus by the Egyptians around 2500 BCE and was further improved later by the development of parchment and paper.
Until the 1400s, almost all written communication required writing by hand. Because of this, the spread of written communication within society was still rather limited since copying books by hand was costly. The introduction and popularization of mass printing in the middle of the 15th century by Johann Gutenberg resulted in rapid changes. Mass printing quickly increased the circulation of written media and also led to the dissemination of new forms of written documents, like newspapers and pamphlets. One side effect was that the augmented availability of written documents significantly improved the general literacy of the population. This development served as the foundation for revolutions in various fields, including science, politics, and religion.
Scientific discoveries in the 19th and 20th centuries caused many further developments in the history of communication. They include the invention of telegraphs and telephones, which made it even easier and faster to transmit information from one location to another without the need to transport written documents. These communication forms were initially limited to cable connections, which had to be established first. Later developments found ways of wireless transmission using radio signals. They made it possible to reach wide audiences and radio soon became one of the central forms of mass communication. Various innovations in the field of photography enabled the recording of images on film, which led to the development of cinema and television. The reach of wireless communication was further enhanced with the development of satellites, which made it possible to broadcast radio and television signals to stations all over the world. This way, information could be shared almost instantly everywhere around the globe. The development of the internet constitutes a further milestone in the history of communication. It made it easier than ever before for people to exchange ideas, collaborate, and access information from anywhere in the world by using a variety of means, such as websites, e-mail, social media, and video conferences.
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Communication
Main topic articles |
5178 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classics | Classics | Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics also includes Greco-Roman philosophy, history, archaeology, anthropology, art, mythology and society as secondary subjects.
In Western civilization, the study of the Greek and Roman classics was traditionally considered to be the foundation of the humanities and has traditionally been the cornerstone of a typical elite European education.
Etymology
The word classics is derived from the Latin adjective classicus, meaning "belonging to the highest class of citizens." The word was originally used to describe the members of the Patricians, the highest class in ancient Rome. By the 2nd century AD the word was used in literary criticism to describe writers of the highest quality. For example, Aulus Gellius, in his Attic Nights, contrasts "classicus" and "proletarius" writers. By the 6th century AD, the word had acquired a second meaning, referring to pupils at a school. Thus, the two modern meanings of the word, referring both to literature considered to be of the highest quality and the standard texts used as part of a curriculum, were both derived from Roman use.
History
Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, classics and education were tightly intertwined; according to Jan Ziolkowski, there is no era in history in which the link was tighter. Medieval education taught students to imitate earlier classical models, and Latin continued to be the language of scholarship and culture, despite the increasing difference between literary Latin and the vernacular languages of Europe during the period.
While Latin was hugely influential, according to thirteenth-century English philosopher Roger Bacon, "there are not four men in Latin Christendom who are acquainted with the Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic grammars." Greek was rarely studied in the West, and Greek literature was known almost solely in Latin translation. The works of even major Greek authors such as Hesiod, whose names continued to be known by educated Europeans, along with most of Plato, were unavailable in Christian Europe. Some were rediscovered through Arabic translations; a School of Translators was set up in the border city of Toledo, Spain, to translate from Arabic into Latin.
Along with the unavailability of Greek authors, there were other differences between the classical canon known today and the works valued in the Middle Ages. Catullus, for instance, was almost entirely unknown in the medieval period. The popularity of different authors also waxed and waned throughout the period: Lucretius, popular during the Carolingian period, was barely read in the twelfth century, while for Quintilian the reverse is true.
Renaissance
The Renaissance led to the increasing study of both ancient literature and ancient history, as well as a revival of classical styles of Latin. From the 14th century, first in Italy and then increasingly across Europe, Renaissance Humanism, an intellectual movement that "advocated the study and imitation of classical antiquity", developed. Humanism saw a reform in education in Europe, introducing a wider range of Latin authors as well as bringing back the study of Greek language and literature to Western Europe. This reintroduction was initiated by Petrarch (1304–1374) and Boccaccio (1313–1375) who commissioned a Calabrian scholar to translate the Homeric poems. This humanist educational reform spread from Italy, in Catholic countries as it was adopted by the Jesuits, and in countries that became Protestant such as England, Germany, and the Low Countries, in order to ensure that future clerics were able to study the New Testament in the original language.
Neoclassicism
The late 17th and 18th centuries are the period in Western European literary history which is most associated with the classical tradition, as writers consciously adapted classical models. Classical models were so highly prized that the plays of William Shakespeare were rewritten along neoclassical lines, and these "improved" versions were performed throughout the 18th century. In the United States, the nation's Founders were strongly influenced by the classics, and they looked in particular to the Roman Republic for their form of government.
From the beginning of the 18th century, the study of Greek became increasingly important relative to that of Latin.
In this period Johann Winckelmann's claims for the superiority of the Greek visual arts influenced a shift in aesthetic judgements, while in the literary sphere, G.E. Lessing "returned Homer to the centre of artistic achievement".
In the United Kingdom, the study of Greek in schools began in the late 18th century. The poet Walter Savage Landor claimed to have been one of the first English schoolboys to write in Greek during his time at Rugby School. In the United States, philhellenism began to emerge in the 1830s, with a turn "from a love of Rome and a focus on classical grammar to a new focus on Greece and the totality of its society, art, and culture.".
19th century
The 19th century saw the influence of the classical world, and the value of a classical education, decline, especially in the United States, where the subject was often criticised for its elitism. By the 19th century, little new literature was still being written in Latin – a practice which had continued as late as the 18th century – and a command of Latin declined in importance. Correspondingly, classical education from the 19th century onwards began to increasingly de-emphasise the importance of the ability to write and speak Latin. In the United Kingdom this process took longer than elsewhere. Composition continued to be the dominant classical skill in England until the 1870s, when new areas within the discipline began to increase in popularity.
In the same decade came the first challenges to the requirement of Greek at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, though it would not be finally abolished for another 50 years.
Though the influence of classics as the dominant mode of education in Europe and North America was in decline in the 19th century, the discipline was rapidly evolving in the same period. Classical scholarship was becoming more systematic and scientific, especially with the "new philology" created at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. Its scope was also broadening: it was during the 19th century that ancient history and classical archaeology began to be seen as part of classics, rather than separate disciplines.
20th century to present
During the 20th century, the study of classics became less common. In England, for instance, Oxford and Cambridge universities stopped requiring students to have qualifications in Greek in 1920, and in Latin at the end of the 1950s. When the National Curriculum was introduced in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 1988, it did not mention the classics. By 2003, only about 10% of state schools in Britain offered any classical subjects to their students at all. In 2016, AQA, the largest exam board for A-Levels and GCSEs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, announced that it would be scrapping A-Level subjects in Classical Civilisation, Archaeology, and Art History. This left just one out of five exam boards in England which still offered Classical Civilisation as a subject. The decision was immediately denounced by archaeologists and historians, with Natalie Haynes of the Guardian stating that the loss of the A-Level would deprive state school students, 93% of all students, the opportunity to study classics while making it once again the exclusive purview of wealthy private-school students.
However, the study of classics has not declined as fast elsewhere in Europe. In 2009, a review of Meeting the Challenge, a collection of conference papers about the teaching of Latin in Europe, noted that though there is opposition to the teaching of Latin in Italy, it is nonetheless still compulsory in most secondary schools. The same can be said in the case of France or Greece, too. Indeed, Ancient Greek is one of the compulsory subjects in Greek secondary education, whereas in France, Latin is one of the optional subjects that can be chosen in a majority of middle schools and high schools. Ancient Greek is also still being taught, but not as much as Latin.
Sub-disciplines
One of the most notable characteristics of the modern study of classics is the diversity of the field. Although traditionally focused on ancient Greece and Rome, the study now encompasses the entire ancient Mediterranean world, thus expanding the studies to Northern Africa as well as parts of the Middle East.
Philology
Philology is the study of language preserved in written sources; classical philology is thus concerned with understanding any texts from the classical period written in the classical languages of Latin and Greek.
The roots of classical philology lie in the Renaissance, as humanist intellectuals attempted to return to the Latin of the classical period, especially of Cicero, and as scholars attempted to produce more accurate editions of ancient texts. Some of the principles of philology still used today were developed during this period, for instance, the observation that if a manuscript could be shown to be a copy of an earlier extant manuscript, then it provides no further evidence of the original text, was made as early as 1489 by Angelo Poliziano. Other philological tools took longer to be developed: the first statement, for instance, of the principle that a more difficult reading should be preferred over a simpler one, was in 1697 by Jean Le Clerc.
The modern discipline of classical philology began in Germany at the turn of the nineteenth century. It was during this period that scientific principles of philology began to be put together into a coherent whole, in order to provide a set of rules by which scholars could determine which manuscripts were most accurate. This "new philology", as it was known, centered around the construction of a genealogy of manuscripts, with which a hypothetical common ancestor, closer to the original text than any existing manuscript, could be reconstructed.
Archaeology
Classical archaeology is the oldest branch of archaeology, with its roots going back to J.J. Winckelmann's work on Herculaneum in the 1760s. It was not until the last decades of the 19th century, however, that classical archaeology became part of the tradition of Western classical scholarship. It was included as part of Cambridge University's Classical Tripos for the first time after the reforms of the 1880s, though it did not become part of Oxford's Greats until much later.
The second half of the 19th century saw Schliemann's excavations of Troy and Mycenae; the first excavations at Olympia and Delos; and Arthur Evans' work in Crete, particularly on Knossos. This period also saw the foundation of important archaeological associations (e.g. the Archaeological Institute of America in 1879), including many foreign archaeological institutes in Athens and Rome (the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1881, British School at Athens in 1886, American Academy in Rome in 1895, and British School at Rome in 1900).
More recently, classical archaeology has taken little part in the theoretical changes in the rest of the discipline, largely ignoring the popularity of "New Archaeology", which emphasized the development of general laws derived from studying material culture, in the 1960s. New Archaeology is still criticized by traditional minded scholars of classical archaeology despite a wide acceptance of its basic techniques.
Art history
Some art historians focus their study on the development of art in the classical world. Indeed, the art and architecture of Ancient Rome and Greece is very well regarded and remains at the heart of much of our art today. For example, Ancient Greek architecture gave us the Classical Orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Parthenon is still the architectural symbol of the classical world.
Greek sculpture is well known and we know the names of several Ancient Greek artists: for example, Phidias.
Ancient history
With philology, archaeology, and art history, scholars seek understanding of the history and culture of a civilization, through critical study of the extant literary and physical artefacts, in order to compose and establish a continual historic narrative of the Ancient World and its peoples. The task is difficult due to a dearth of physical evidence: for example, Sparta was a leading Greek city-state, yet little evidence of it survives to study, and what is available comes from Athens, Sparta's principal rival; likewise, the Roman Empire destroyed most evidence (cultural artefacts) of earlier, conquered civilizations, such as that of the Etruscans.
Philosophy
The English word "philosophy" comes from the Greek word φιλοσοφία, meaning "love of wisdom", probably coined by Pythagoras. Along with the word itself, the discipline of philosophy as we know it today has its roots in ancient Greek thought, and according to Martin West "philosophy as we understand it is a Greek creation". Ancient philosophy was traditionally divided into three branches: logic, physics, and ethics. However, not all of the works of ancient philosophers fit neatly into one of these three branches. For instance, Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics have been traditionally classified in the West as "ethics", but in the Arabic world were grouped with logic; in reality, they do not fit neatly into either category.
From the last decade of the eighteenth century, scholars of ancient philosophy began to study the discipline historically. Previously, works on ancient philosophy had been unconcerned with chronological sequence and with reconstructing the reasoning of ancient thinkers; with what Wolfgang-Ranier Mann calls "New Philosophy", this changed.
Reception studies
Another discipline within the classics is "reception studies", which developed in the 1960s at the University of Konstanz.
Reception studies is concerned with how students of classical texts have understood and interpreted them.
As such, reception studies is interested in a two-way interaction between reader and text, taking place within a historical context.
Though the idea of an "aesthetics of reception" was first put forward by Hans Robert Jauss in 1967, the principles of reception theory go back much earlier than this.
As early as 1920, T. S. Eliot wrote that "the past [is] altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past"; Charles Martindale describes this as a "cardinal principle" for many versions of modern reception theory.
Classical Greece
Ancient Greece was the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period, beginning in the eighth century BC, to the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC. The Classical period, during the fifth and fourth centuries BC, has traditionally been considered the height of Greek civilisation. The Classical period of Greek history is generally considered to have begun with the first and second Persian invasions of Greece at the start of the Greco-Persian wars, and to have ended with the death of Alexander the Great.
Classical Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe; thus Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western civilization.
Language
Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic ( to 6th centuries BC), Classical ( to 4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic ( century BC to 6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine ("common") or Biblical Greek, and its late period mutates imperceptibly into Medieval Greek. Koine is regarded as a separate historical stage of its own, although in its earlier form it closely resembles Classical Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classical and earlier periods included several regional dialects.
Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of classical Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to the vocabulary of English and many other European languages, and has been a standard subject of study in Western educational institutions since the Renaissance. Latinized forms of Ancient Greek roots are used in many of the scientific names of species and in other scientific terminology.
Literature
The earliest surviving works of Greek literature are epic poetry. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are the earliest to survive to us today, probably composed in the eighth century BC. These early epics were oral compositions, created without the use of writing.
Around the same time that the Homeric epics were composed, the Greek alphabet was introduced; the earliest surviving inscriptions date from around 750 BC.
European drama was invented in ancient Greece. Traditionally this was attributed to Thespis, around the middle of the sixth century BC, though the earliest surviving work of Greek drama is Aeschylus' tragedy The Persians, which dates to 472 BC. Early Greek tragedy was performed by a chorus and two actors, but by the end of Aeschylus' life, a third actor had been introduced, either by him or by Sophocles. The last surviving Greek tragedies are the Bacchae of Euripides and Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, both from the end of the fifth century BC.
Surviving Greek comedy begins later than tragedy; the earliest surviving work, Aristophanes' Acharnians, comes from 425 BC. However, comedy dates back as early as 486 BC, when the Dionysia added a competition for comedy to the much earlier competition for tragedy. The comedy of the fifth century is known as Old Comedy, and it comes down to us solely in the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, along with a few fragments. Sixty years after the end of Aristophanes' career, the next author of comedies to have any substantial body of work survive is Menander, whose style is known as New Comedy.
Two historians flourished during Greece's classical age: Herodotus and Thucydides. Herodotus is commonly called the father of history, and his "History" contains the first truly literary use of prose in Western literature. Of the two, Thucydides was the more careful historian. His critical use of sources, inclusion of documents, and laborious research made his History of the Peloponnesian War a significant influence on later generations of historians. The greatest achievement of the 4th century was in philosophy. There were many Greek philosophers, but three names tower above the rest: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. These have had a profound influence on Western society.
Mythology and religion
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece and its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.
Greek religion encompassed the collection of beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These different groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Greek religions or "cults" in the plural, though most of them shared similarities. Also, the Greek religion extended out of Greece and out to neighbouring islands.
Many Greek people recognized the major gods and goddesses: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Athena, Hermes, Demeter, Hestia and Hera; though philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to posit a transcendent single deity. Different cities often worshipped the same deities, sometimes with epithets that distinguished them and specified their local nature.
Philosophy
The earliest surviving philosophy from ancient Greece dates back to the 6th century BC, when according to Aristotle Thales of Miletus was considered to have been the first Greek philosopher. Other influential pre-Socratic philosophers include Pythagoras and Heraclitus. The most famous and significant figures in classical Athenian philosophy, from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BC, are Socrates, his student Plato, and Aristotle, who studied at Plato's Academy before founding his own school, known as the Lyceum. Later Greek schools of philosophy, including the Cynics, Stoics, and Epicureans, continued to be influential after the Roman annexation of Greece, and into the post-Classical world.
Greek philosophy dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, and logic, as well as disciplines which are not today thought of as part of philosophy, such as biology and rhetoric.
Classical Rome
Language
The language of ancient Rome was Latin, a member of the Italic family of languages. The earliest surviving inscription in Latin comes from the 7th century BC, on a brooch from Palestrina. Latin from between this point and the early 1st century BC is known as Old Latin. Most surviving Latin literature is Classical Latin, from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD. Latin then evolved into Late Latin, in use during the late antique period. Late Latin survived long after the end of classical antiquity, and was finally replaced by written Romance languages around the 9th century AD. Along with literary forms of Latin, there existed various vernacular dialects, generally known as Vulgar Latin, in use throughout antiquity. These are mainly preserved in sources such as graffiti and the Vindolanda tablets.
Literature
Latin literature seems to have started in 240 BC, when a Roman audience saw a play adapted from the Greek by Livius Andronicus. Andronicus also translated Homer's Odyssey into an Saturnian verse. The poets Ennius, Accius, and Patruvius followed. Their work survives only in fragments; the earliest Latin authors whose work we have full examples of are the playwrights Plautus and Terence. Much of the best known and most highly thought of Latin literature comes from the classical period, with poets such as Virgil, Horace, and Ovid; historians such as Julius Caesar and Tacitus; orators such as Cicero; and philosophers such as Seneca the Younger and Lucretius. Late Latin authors include many Christian writers such as Lactantius, Tertullian and Ambrose; non-Christian authors, such as the historian Ammianus Marcellinus, are also preserved.
History
According to legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC; in reality, there had been a settlement on the site since around 1000 BC, when the Palatine Hill was settled. The city was originally ruled by kings, first Roman, and then Etruscanaccording to Roman tradition, the first Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, ruled from 616 BC. Over the course of the 6th century BC, the city expanded its influence over the entirety of Latium. Around the end of the 6th century – traditionally in 510 BCthe kings of Rome were driven out, and the city became a republic.
Around 387 BC, Rome was sacked by the Gauls following the Battle of the Allia. It soon recovered from this humiliating defeat, however, and in 381 the inhabitants of Tusculum in Latium were made Roman citizens. This was the first time Roman citizenship was extended in this way. Rome went on to expand its area of influence, until by 269 the entirety of the Italian peninsula was under Roman rule. Soon afterwards, in 264, the First Punic War began; it lasted until 241. The Second Punic War began in 218, and by the end of that year, the Carthaginian general Hannibal had invaded Italy. The war saw Rome's worst defeat to that point at Cannae; the largest army Rome had yet put into the field was wiped out, and one of the two consuls leading it was killed. However, Rome continued to fight, annexing much of Spain and eventually defeating Carthage, ending her position as a major power and securing Roman preeminence in the Western Mediterranean.
Legacy of the classical world
The classical languages of the Ancient Mediterranean world influenced every European language, imparting to each a learned vocabulary of international application. Thus, Latin grew from a highly developed cultural product of the Golden and Silver eras of Latin literature to become the international lingua franca in matters diplomatic, scientific, philosophic and religious, until the 17th century. Long before this, Latin had evolved into the Romance languages and Ancient Greek into Modern Greek and its dialects. In the specialised science and technology vocabularies, the influence of Latin and Greek is notable. Ecclesiastical Latin, the Roman Catholic Church's official language, remains a living legacy of the classical world in the contemporary world.
Latin had an impact far beyond the classical world. It continued to be the pre-eminent language for serious writings in Europe long after the fall of the Roman empire. The modern Romance languages (Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Galician, Romanian, Spanish) all derive from Latin. Latin is still seen as a foundational aspect of European culture.
The legacy of the classical world is not confined to the influence of classical languages. The Roman empire was taken as a model by later European empires, such as the Spanish and British empires. Classical art has been taken as a model in later periods – medieval Romanesque architecture and Enlightenment-era neoclassical literature were both influenced by classical models, to take but two examples, while James Joyce's Ulysses is one of the most influential works of twentieth-century literature.
See also
Classical tradition
Great Books of the Western World
Neoclassicism
Outline of classical studies
Outline of ancient Greece
Outline of ancient Rome
References
Citations
Sources
Works cited
Further reading
General
Art and archaeology
History, Greek
History, Roman
Literature
Philology
Philosophy
External links
Electronic Resources for Classicists by the University of California, Irvine.
Perseus Project website at Tufts University
Alpheios Project website
Ancient Greece studies
Humanities
Ancient Roman studies |
5180 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry | Chemistry | Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science under natural sciences that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, properties, behavior and the changes they undergo during a reaction with other substances. Chemistry also addresses the nature of chemical bonds in chemical compounds.
In the scope of its subject, chemistry occupies an intermediate position between physics and biology. It is sometimes called the central science because it provides a foundation for understanding both basic and applied scientific disciplines at a fundamental level. For example, chemistry explains aspects of plant growth (botany), the formation of igneous rocks (geology), how atmospheric ozone is formed and how environmental pollutants are degraded (ecology), the properties of the soil on the moon (cosmochemistry), how medications work (pharmacology), and how to collect DNA evidence at a crime scene (forensics).
Chemistry is a study that has existed since ancient times. Over this time frame, it has evolved, and now chemistry encompasses various areas of specialisation, or subdisciplines, that continue to increase in number and interrelate to create further interdisciplinary fields of study. The applications of various fields of chemistry are used frequently for economic purposes in the chemical industry.
Etymology
The word chemistry comes from a modification during the Renaissance of the word alchemy, which referred to an earlier set of practices that encompassed elements of chemistry, metallurgy, philosophy, astrology, astronomy, mysticism, and medicine. Alchemy is often associated with the quest to turn lead or other base metals into gold, though alchemists were also interested in many of the questions of modern chemistry.
The modern word alchemy in turn is derived from the Arabic word (). This may have Egyptian origins since is derived from the Ancient Greek , which is in turn derived from the word , which is the ancient name of Egypt in the Egyptian language. Alternately, may derive from 'cast together'.
Modern principles
The current model of atomic structure is the quantum mechanical model. Traditional chemistry starts with the study of elementary particles, atoms, molecules, substances, metals, crystals and other aggregates of matter. Matter can be studied in solid, liquid, gas and plasma states, in isolation or in combination. The interactions, reactions and transformations that are studied in chemistry are usually the result of interactions between atoms, leading to rearrangements of the chemical bonds which hold atoms together. Such behaviors are studied in a chemistry laboratory.
The chemistry laboratory stereotypically uses various forms of laboratory glassware. However glassware is not central to chemistry, and a great deal of experimental (as well as applied/industrial) chemistry is done without it.
A chemical reaction is a transformation of some substances into one or more different substances. The basis of such a chemical transformation is the rearrangement of electrons in the chemical bonds between atoms. It can be symbolically depicted through a chemical equation, which usually involves atoms as subjects. The number of atoms on the left and the right in the equation for a chemical transformation is equal. (When the number of atoms on either side is unequal, the transformation is referred to as a nuclear reaction or radioactive decay.) The type of chemical reactions a substance may undergo and the energy changes that may accompany it are constrained by certain basic rules, known as chemical laws.
Energy and entropy considerations are invariably important in almost all chemical studies. Chemical substances are classified in terms of their structure, phase, as well as their chemical compositions. They can be analyzed using the tools of chemical analysis, e.g. spectroscopy and chromatography. Scientists engaged in chemical research are known as chemists. Most chemists specialize in one or more sub-disciplines. Several concepts are essential for the study of chemistry; some of them are:
Matter
In chemistry, matter is defined as anything that has rest mass and volume (it takes up space) and is made up of particles. The particles that make up matter have rest mass as well – not all particles have rest mass, such as the photon. Matter can be a pure chemical substance or a mixture of substances.
Atom
The atom is the basic unit of chemistry. It consists of a dense core called the atomic nucleus surrounded by a space occupied by an electron cloud. The nucleus is made up of positively charged protons and uncharged neutrons (together called nucleons), while the electron cloud consists of negatively charged electrons which orbit the nucleus. In a neutral atom, the negatively charged electrons balance out the positive charge of the protons. The nucleus is dense; the mass of a nucleon is approximately 1,836 times that of an electron, yet the radius of an atom is about 10,000 times that of its nucleus.
The atom is also the smallest entity that can be envisaged to retain the chemical properties of the element, such as electronegativity, ionization potential, preferred oxidation state(s), coordination number, and preferred types of bonds to form (e.g., metallic, ionic, covalent).
Element
A chemical element is a pure substance which is composed of a single type of atom, characterized by its particular number of protons in the nuclei of its atoms, known as the atomic number and represented by the symbol Z. The mass number is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. Although all the nuclei of all atoms belonging to one element will have the same atomic number, they may not necessarily have the same mass number; atoms of an element which have different mass numbers are known as isotopes. For example, all atoms with 6 protons in their nuclei are atoms of the chemical element carbon, but atoms of carbon may have mass numbers of 12 or 13.
The standard presentation of the chemical elements is in the periodic table, which orders elements by atomic number. The periodic table is arranged in groups, or columns, and periods, or rows. The periodic table is useful in identifying periodic trends.
Compound
A compound is a pure chemical substance composed of more than one element. The properties of a compound bear little similarity to those of its elements. The standard nomenclature of compounds is set by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Organic compounds are named according to the organic nomenclature system. The names for inorganic compounds are created according to the inorganic nomenclature system. When a compound has more than one component, then they are divided into two classes, the electropositive and the electronegative components. In addition the Chemical Abstracts Service has devised a method to index chemical substances. In this scheme each chemical substance is identifiable by a number known as its CAS registry number.
Molecule
A molecule is the smallest indivisible portion of a pure chemical substance that has its unique set of chemical properties, that is, its potential to undergo a certain set of chemical reactions with other substances. However, this definition only works well for substances that are composed of molecules, which is not true of many substances (see below). Molecules are typically a set of atoms bound together by covalent bonds, such that the structure is electrically neutral and all valence electrons are paired with other electrons either in bonds or in lone pairs.
Thus, molecules exist as electrically neutral units, unlike ions. When this rule is broken, giving the "molecule" a charge, the result is sometimes named a molecular ion or a polyatomic ion. However, the discrete and separate nature of the molecular concept usually requires that molecular ions be present only in well-separated form, such as a directed beam in a vacuum in a mass spectrometer. Charged polyatomic collections residing in solids (for example, common sulfate or nitrate ions) are generally not considered "molecules" in chemistry. Some molecules contain one or more unpaired electrons, creating radicals. Most radicals are comparatively reactive, but some, such as nitric oxide (NO) can be stable.
The "inert" or noble gas elements (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon) are composed of lone atoms as their smallest discrete unit, but the other isolated chemical elements consist of either molecules or networks of atoms bonded to each other in some way. Identifiable molecules compose familiar substances such as water, air, and many organic compounds like alcohol, sugar, gasoline, and the various pharmaceuticals.
However, not all substances or chemical compounds consist of discrete molecules, and indeed most of the solid substances that make up the solid crust, mantle, and core of the Earth are chemical compounds without molecules. These other types of substances, such as ionic compounds and network solids, are organized in such a way as to lack the existence of identifiable molecules per se. Instead, these substances are discussed in terms of formula units or unit cells as the smallest repeating structure within the substance. Examples of such substances are mineral salts (such as table salt), solids like carbon and diamond, metals, and familiar silica and silicate minerals such as quartz and granite.
One of the main characteristics of a molecule is its geometry often called its structure. While the structure of diatomic, triatomic or tetra-atomic molecules may be trivial, (linear, angular pyramidal etc.) the structure of polyatomic molecules, that are constituted of more than six atoms (of several elements) can be crucial for its chemical nature.
Substance and mixture
A chemical substance is a kind of matter with a definite composition and set of properties. A collection of substances is called a mixture. Examples of mixtures are air and alloys.
Mole and amount of substance
The mole is a unit of measurement that denotes an amount of substance (also called chemical amount). One mole is defined to contain exactly particles (atoms, molecules, ions, or electrons), where the number of particles per mole is known as the Avogadro constant. Molar concentration is the amount of a particular substance per volume of solution, and is commonly reported in mol/dm3.
Phase
In addition to the specific chemical properties that distinguish different chemical classifications, chemicals can exist in several phases. For the most part, the chemical classifications are independent of these bulk phase classifications; however, some more exotic phases are incompatible with certain chemical properties. A phase is a set of states of a chemical system that have similar bulk structural properties, over a range of conditions, such as pressure or temperature.
Physical properties, such as density and refractive index tend to fall within values characteristic of the phase. The phase of matter is defined by the phase transition, which is when energy put into or taken out of the system goes into rearranging the structure of the system, instead of changing the bulk conditions.
Sometimes the distinction between phases can be continuous instead of having a discrete boundary' in this case the matter is considered to be in a supercritical state. When three states meet based on the conditions, it is known as a triple point and since this is invariant, it is a convenient way to define a set of conditions.
The most familiar examples of phases are solids, liquids, and gases. Many substances exhibit multiple solid phases. For example, there are three phases of solid iron (alpha, gamma, and delta) that vary based on temperature and pressure. A principal difference between solid phases is the crystal structure, or arrangement, of the atoms. Another phase commonly encountered in the study of chemistry is the aqueous phase, which is the state of substances dissolved in aqueous solution (that is, in water).
Less familiar phases include plasmas, Bose–Einstein condensates and fermionic condensates and the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases of magnetic materials. While most familiar phases deal with three-dimensional systems, it is also possible to define analogs in two-dimensional systems, which has received attention for its relevance to systems in biology.
Bonding
Atoms sticking together in molecules or crystals are said to be bonded with one another. A chemical bond may be visualized as the multipole balance between the positive charges in the nuclei and the negative charges oscillating about them. More than simple attraction and repulsion, the energies and distributions characterize the availability of an electron to bond to another atom.
The chemical bond can be a covalent bond, an ionic bond, a hydrogen bond or just because of Van der Waals force. Each of these kinds of bonds is ascribed to some potential. These potentials create the interactions which hold atoms together in molecules or crystals. In many simple compounds, valence bond theory, the Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion model (VSEPR), and the concept of oxidation number can be used to explain molecular structure and composition.
An ionic bond is formed when a metal loses one or more of its electrons, becoming a positively charged cation, and the electrons are then gained by the non-metal atom, becoming a negatively charged anion. The two oppositely charged ions attract one another, and the ionic bond is the electrostatic force of attraction between them. For example, sodium (Na), a metal, loses one electron to become an Na+ cation while chlorine (Cl), a non-metal, gains this electron to become Cl−. The ions are held together due to electrostatic attraction, and that compound sodium chloride (NaCl), or common table salt, is formed.
In a covalent bond, one or more pairs of valence electrons are shared by two atoms: the resulting electrically neutral group of bonded atoms is termed a molecule. Atoms will share valence electrons in such a way as to create a noble gas electron configuration (eight electrons in their outermost shell) for each atom. Atoms that tend to combine in such a way that they each have eight electrons in their valence shell are said to follow the octet rule. However, some elements like hydrogen and lithium need only two electrons in their outermost shell to attain this stable configuration; these atoms are said to follow the duet rule, and in this way they are reaching the electron configuration of the noble gas helium, which has two electrons in its outer shell.
Similarly, theories from classical physics can be used to predict many ionic structures. With more complicated compounds, such as metal complexes, valence bond theory is less applicable and alternative approaches, such as the molecular orbital theory, are generally used. See diagram on electronic orbitals.
Energy
In the context of chemistry, energy is an attribute of a substance as a consequence of its atomic, molecular or aggregate structure. Since a chemical transformation is accompanied by a change in one or more of these kinds of structures, it is invariably accompanied by an increase or decrease of energy of the substances involved. Some energy is transferred between the surroundings and the reactants of the reaction in the form of heat or light; thus the products of a reaction may have more or less energy than the reactants.
A reaction is said to be exergonic if the final state is lower on the energy scale than the initial state; in the case of endergonic reactions the situation is the reverse. A reaction is said to be exothermic if the reaction releases heat to the surroundings; in the case of endothermic reactions, the reaction absorbs heat from the surroundings.
Chemical reactions are invariably not possible unless the reactants surmount an energy barrier known as the activation energy. The speed of a chemical reaction (at given temperature T) is related to the activation energy E, by the Boltzmann's population factor – that is the probability of a molecule to have energy greater than or equal to E at the given temperature T. This exponential dependence of a reaction rate on temperature is known as the Arrhenius equation.
The activation energy necessary for a chemical reaction to occur can be in the form of heat, light, electricity or mechanical force in the form of ultrasound.
A related concept free energy, which also incorporates entropy considerations, is a very useful means for predicting the feasibility of a reaction and determining the state of equilibrium of a chemical reaction, in chemical thermodynamics. A reaction is feasible only if the total change in the Gibbs free energy is negative, ; if it is equal to zero the chemical reaction is said to be at equilibrium.
There exist only limited possible states of energy for electrons, atoms and molecules. These are determined by the rules of quantum mechanics, which require quantization of energy of a bound system. The atoms/molecules in a higher energy state are said to be excited. The molecules/atoms of substance in an excited energy state are often much more reactive; that is, more amenable to chemical reactions.
The phase of a substance is invariably determined by its energy and the energy of its surroundings. When the intermolecular forces of a substance are such that the energy of the surroundings is not sufficient to overcome them, it occurs in a more ordered phase like liquid or solid as is the case with water (H2O); a liquid at room temperature because its molecules are bound by hydrogen bonds. Whereas hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a gas at room temperature and standard pressure, as its molecules are bound by weaker dipole-dipole interactions.
The transfer of energy from one chemical substance to another depends on the size of energy quanta emitted from one substance. However, heat energy is often transferred more easily from almost any substance to another because the phonons responsible for vibrational and rotational energy levels in a substance have much less energy than photons invoked for the electronic energy transfer. Thus, because vibrational and rotational energy levels are more closely spaced than electronic energy levels, heat is more easily transferred between substances relative to light or other forms of electronic energy. For example, ultraviolet electromagnetic radiation is not transferred with as much efficacy from one substance to another as thermal or electrical energy.
The existence of characteristic energy levels for different chemical substances is useful for their identification by the analysis of spectral lines. Different kinds of spectra are often used in chemical spectroscopy, e.g. IR, microwave, NMR, ESR, etc. Spectroscopy is also used to identify the composition of remote objects – like stars and distant galaxies – by analyzing their radiation spectra.
The term chemical energy is often used to indicate the potential of a chemical substance to undergo a transformation through a chemical reaction or to transform other chemical substances.
Reaction
When a chemical substance is transformed as a result of its interaction with another substance or with energy, a chemical reaction is said to have occurred. A chemical reaction is therefore a concept related to the "reaction" of a substance when it comes in close contact with another, whether as a mixture or a solution; exposure to some form of energy, or both. It results in some energy exchange between the constituents of the reaction as well as with the system environment, which may be designed vessels—often laboratory glassware.
Chemical reactions can result in the formation or dissociation of molecules, that is, molecules breaking apart to form two or more molecules or rearrangement of atoms within or across molecules. Chemical reactions usually involve the making or breaking of chemical bonds. Oxidation, reduction, dissociation, acid–base neutralization and molecular rearrangement are some examples of common chemical reactions.
A chemical reaction can be symbolically depicted through a chemical equation. While in a non-nuclear chemical reaction the number and kind of atoms on both sides of the equation are equal, for a nuclear reaction this holds true only for the nuclear particles viz. protons and neutrons.
The sequence of steps in which the reorganization of chemical bonds may be taking place in the course of a chemical reaction is called its mechanism. A chemical reaction can be envisioned to take place in a number of steps, each of which may have a different speed. Many reaction intermediates with variable stability can thus be envisaged during the course of a reaction. Reaction mechanisms are proposed to explain the kinetics and the relative product mix of a reaction. Many physical chemists specialize in exploring and proposing the mechanisms of various chemical reactions. Several empirical rules, like the Woodward–Hoffmann rules often come in handy while proposing a mechanism for a chemical reaction.
According to the IUPAC gold book, a chemical reaction is "a process that results in the interconversion of chemical species." Accordingly, a chemical reaction may be an elementary reaction or a stepwise reaction. An additional caveat is made, in that this definition includes cases where the interconversion of conformers is experimentally observable. Such detectable chemical reactions normally involve sets of molecular entities as indicated by this definition, but it is often conceptually convenient to use the term also for changes involving single molecular entities (i.e. 'microscopic chemical events').
Ions and salts
An ion is a charged species, an atom or a molecule, that has lost or gained one or more electrons. When an atom loses an electron and thus has more protons than electrons, the atom is a positively charged ion or cation. When an atom gains an electron and thus has more electrons than protons, the atom is a negatively charged ion or anion. Cations and anions can form a crystalline lattice of neutral salts, such as the Na+ and Cl− ions forming sodium chloride, or NaCl. Examples of polyatomic ions that do not split up during acid–base reactions are hydroxide (OH−) and phosphate (PO43−).
Plasma is composed of gaseous matter that has been completely ionized, usually through high temperature.
Acidity and basicity
A substance can often be classified as an acid or a base. There are several different theories which explain acid–base behavior. The simplest is Arrhenius theory, which states that acid is a substance that produces hydronium ions when it is dissolved in water, and a base is one that produces hydroxide ions when dissolved in water. According to Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, acids are substances that donate a positive hydrogen ion to another substance in a chemical reaction; by extension, a base is the substance which receives that hydrogen ion.
A third common theory is Lewis acid–base theory, which is based on the formation of new chemical bonds. Lewis theory explains that an acid is a substance which is capable of accepting a pair of electrons from another substance during the process of bond formation, while a base is a substance which can provide a pair of electrons to form a new bond. There are several other ways in which a substance may be classified as an acid or a base, as is evident in the history of this concept.
Acid strength is commonly measured by two methods. One measurement, based on the Arrhenius definition of acidity, is pH, which is a measurement of the hydronium ion concentration in a solution, as expressed on a negative logarithmic scale. Thus, solutions that have a low pH have a high hydronium ion concentration and can be said to be more acidic. The other measurement, based on the Brønsted–Lowry definition, is the acid dissociation constant (Ka), which measures the relative ability of a substance to act as an acid under the Brønsted–Lowry definition of an acid. That is, substances with a higher Ka are more likely to donate hydrogen ions in chemical reactions than those with lower Ka values.
Redox
Redox (-) reactions include all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation state changed by either gaining electrons (reduction) or losing electrons (oxidation). Substances that have the ability to oxidize other substances are said to be oxidative and are known as oxidizing agents, oxidants or oxidizers. An oxidant removes electrons from another substance. Similarly, substances that have the ability to reduce other substances are said to be reductive and are known as reducing agents, reductants, or reducers.
A reductant transfers electrons to another substance and is thus oxidized itself. And because it "donates" electrons it is also called an electron donor. Oxidation and reduction properly refer to a change in oxidation number—the actual transfer of electrons may never occur. Thus, oxidation is better defined as an increase in oxidation number, and reduction as a decrease in oxidation number.
Equilibrium
Although the concept of equilibrium is widely used across sciences, in the context of chemistry, it arises whenever a number of different states of the chemical composition are possible, as for example, in a mixture of several chemical compounds that can react with one another, or when a substance can be present in more than one kind of phase.
A system of chemical substances at equilibrium, even though having an unchanging composition, is most often not static; molecules of the substances continue to react with one another thus giving rise to a dynamic equilibrium. Thus the concept describes the state in which the parameters such as chemical composition remain unchanged over time.
Chemical laws
Chemical reactions are governed by certain laws, which have become fundamental concepts in chemistry. Some of them are:
Avogadro's law
Beer–Lambert law
Boyle's law (1662, relating pressure and volume)
Charles's law (1787, relating volume and temperature)
Fick's laws of diffusion
Gay-Lussac's law (1809, relating pressure and temperature)
Le Chatelier's principle
Henry's law
Hess's law
Law of conservation of energy leads to the important concepts of equilibrium, thermodynamics, and kinetics.
Law of conservation of mass continues to be conserved in isolated systems, even in modern physics. However, special relativity shows that due to mass–energy equivalence, whenever non-material "energy" (heat, light, kinetic energy) is removed from a non-isolated system, some mass will be lost with it. High energy losses result in loss of weighable amounts of mass, an important topic in nuclear chemistry.
Law of definite composition, although in many systems (notably biomacromolecules and minerals) the ratios tend to require large numbers, and are frequently represented as a fraction.
Law of multiple proportions
Raoult's law
History
The history of chemistry spans a period from very old times to the present. Since several millennia BC, civilizations were using technologies that would eventually form the basis of the various branches of chemistry. Examples include extracting metals from ores, making pottery and glazes, fermenting beer and wine, extracting chemicals from plants for medicine and perfume, rendering fat into soap, making glass, and making alloys like bronze.
Chemistry was preceded by its protoscience, alchemy, which operated a non-scientific approach to understanding the constituents of matter and their interactions. Despite being unsuccessful in explaining the nature of matter and its transformations, alchemists set the stage for modern chemistry by performing experiments and recording the results. Robert Boyle, although skeptical of elements and convinced of alchemy, played a key part in elevating the "sacred art" as an independent, fundamental and philosophical discipline in his work The Sceptical Chymist (1661).
While both alchemy and chemistry are concerned with matter and its transformations, the crucial difference was given by the scientific method that chemists employed in their work. Chemistry, as a body of knowledge distinct from alchemy, became an established science with the work of Antoine Lavoisier, who developed a law of conservation of mass that demanded careful measurement and quantitative observations of chemical phenomena. The history of chemistry afterwards is intertwined with the history of thermodynamics, especially through the work of Willard Gibbs.
Definition
The definition of chemistry has changed over time, as new discoveries and theories add to the functionality of the science. The term "chymistry", in the view of noted scientist Robert Boyle in 1661, meant the subject of the material principles of mixed bodies. In 1663, the chemist Christopher Glaser described "chymistry" as a scientific art, by which one learns to dissolve bodies, and draw from them the different substances on their composition, and how to unite them again, and exalt them to a higher perfection.
The 1730 definition of the word "chemistry", as used by Georg Ernst Stahl, meant the art of resolving mixed, compound, or aggregate bodies into their principles; and of composing such bodies from those principles. In 1837, Jean-Baptiste Dumas considered the word "chemistry" to refer to the science concerned with the laws and effects of molecular forces. This definition further evolved until, in 1947, it came to mean the science of substances: their structure, their properties, and the reactions that change them into other substances – a characterization accepted by Linus Pauling. More recently, in 1998, Professor Raymond Chang broadened the definition of "chemistry" to mean the study of matter and the changes it undergoes.
Background
Early civilizations, such as the Egyptians Babylonians and Indians amassed practical knowledge concerning the arts of metallurgy, pottery and dyes, but did not develop a systematic theory.
A basic chemical hypothesis first emerged in Classical Greece with the theory of four elements as propounded definitively by Aristotle stating that fire, air, earth and water were the fundamental elements from which everything is formed as a combination. Greek atomism dates back to 440 BC, arising in works by philosophers such as Democritus and Epicurus. In 50 BCE, the Roman philosopher Lucretius expanded upon the theory in his poem De rerum natura (On The Nature of Things). Unlike modern concepts of science, Greek atomism was purely philosophical in nature, with little concern for empirical observations and no concern for chemical experiments.
An early form of the idea of conservation of mass is the notion that "Nothing comes from nothing" in Ancient Greek philosophy, which can be found in Empedocles (approx. 4th century BC): "For it is impossible for anything to come to be from what is not, and it cannot be brought about or heard of that what is should be utterly destroyed." and Epicurus (3rd century BC), who, describing the nature of the Universe, wrote that "the totality of things was always such as it is now, and always will be".
In the Hellenistic world the art of alchemy first proliferated, mingling magic and occultism into the study of natural substances with the ultimate goal of transmuting elements into gold and discovering the elixir of eternal life. Work, particularly the development of distillation, continued in the early Byzantine period with the most famous practitioner being the 4th century Greek-Egyptian Zosimos of Panopolis. Alchemy continued to be developed and practised throughout the Arab world after the Muslim conquests, and from there, and from the Byzantine remnants, diffused into medieval and Renaissance Europe through Latin translations.
The Arabic works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan introduced a systematic classification of chemical substances, and provided instructions for deriving an inorganic compound (sal ammoniac or ammonium chloride) from organic substances (such as plants, blood, and hair) by chemical means. Some Arabic Jabirian works (e.g., the "Book of Mercy", and the "Book of Seventy") were later translated into Latin under the Latinized name "Geber", and in 13th-century Europe an anonymous writer, usually referred to as pseudo-Geber, started to produce alchemical and metallurgical writings under this name. Later influential Muslim philosophers, such as Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī and Avicenna disputed the theories of alchemy, particularly the theory of the transmutation of metals.
Under the influence of the new empirical methods propounded by Sir Francis Bacon and others, a group of chemists at Oxford, Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke and John Mayow began to reshape the old alchemical traditions into a scientific discipline. Boyle in particular questioned some commonly held chemical theories and argued for chemical practitioners to be more "philosophical" and less commercially focused in The Sceptical Chemyst. He formulated Boyle's law, rejected the classical "four elements" and proposed a mechanistic alternative of atoms and chemical reactions that could be subject to rigorous experiment.
In the following decades, many important discoveries were made, such as the nature of 'air' which was discovered to be composed of many different gases. The Scottish chemist Joseph Black and the Flemish Jan Baptist van Helmont discovered carbon dioxide, or what Black called 'fixed air' in 1754; Henry Cavendish discovered hydrogen and elucidated its properties and Joseph Priestley and, independently, Carl Wilhelm Scheele isolated pure oxygen. The theory of phlogiston (a substance at the root of all combustion) was propounded by the German Georg Ernst Stahl in the early 18th century and was only overturned by the end of the century by the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, the chemical analogue of Newton in physics. Lavoisier did more than any other to establish the new science on proper theoretical footing, by elucidating the principle of conservation of mass and developing a new system of chemical nomenclature used to this day.
English scientist John Dalton proposed the modern theory of atoms; that all substances are composed of indivisible 'atoms' of matter and that different atoms have varying atomic weights.
The development of the electrochemical theory of chemical combinations occurred in the early 19th century as the result of the work of two scientists in particular, Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Humphry Davy, made possible by the prior invention of the voltaic pile by Alessandro Volta. Davy discovered nine new elements including the alkali metals by extracting them from their oxides with electric current.
British William Prout first proposed ordering all the elements by their atomic weight as all atoms had a weight that was an exact multiple of the atomic weight of hydrogen. J.A.R. Newlands devised an early table of elements, which was then developed into the modern periodic table of elements in the 1860s by Dmitri Mendeleev and independently by several other scientists including Julius Lothar Meyer. The inert gases, later called the noble gases were discovered by William Ramsay in collaboration with Lord Rayleigh at the end of the century, thereby filling in the basic structure of the table.
At the turn of the twentieth century the theoretical underpinnings of chemistry were finally understood due to a series of remarkable discoveries that succeeded in probing and discovering the very nature of the internal structure of atoms. In 1897, J.J. Thomson of the University of Cambridge discovered the electron and soon after the French scientist Becquerel as well as the couple Pierre and Marie Curie investigated the phenomenon of radioactivity. In a series of pioneering scattering experiments Ernest Rutherford at the University of Manchester discovered the internal structure of the atom and the existence of the proton, classified and explained the different types of radioactivity and successfully transmuted the first element by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles.
His work on atomic structure was improved on by his students, the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, the Englishman Henry Moseley and the German Otto Hahn, who went on to father the emerging nuclear chemistry and discovered nuclear fission. The electronic theory of chemical bonds and molecular orbitals was developed by the American scientists Linus Pauling and Gilbert N. Lewis.
The year 2011 was declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Chemistry. It was an initiative of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and involves chemical societies, academics, and institutions worldwide and relied on individual initiatives to organize local and regional activities.
Organic chemistry was developed by Justus von Liebig and others, following Friedrich Wöhler's synthesis of urea. Other crucial 19th century advances were; an understanding of valence bonding (Edward Frankland in 1852) and the application of thermodynamics to chemistry (J. W. Gibbs and Svante Arrhenius in the 1870s).
Practice
Subdisciplines
Chemistry is typically divided into several major sub-disciplines. There are also several main cross-disciplinary and more specialized fields of chemistry.
Analytical chemistry is the analysis of material samples to gain an understanding of their chemical composition and structure. Analytical chemistry incorporates standardized experimental methods in chemistry. These methods may be used in all subdisciplines of chemistry, excluding purely theoretical chemistry.
Biochemistry is the study of the chemicals, chemical reactions and interactions that take place in living organisms. Biochemistry and organic chemistry are closely related, as in medicinal chemistry or neurochemistry. Biochemistry is also associated with molecular biology and genetics.
Inorganic chemistry is the study of the properties and reactions of inorganic compounds. The distinction between organic and inorganic disciplines is not absolute and there is much overlap, most importantly in the sub-discipline of organometallic chemistry.
Materials chemistry is the preparation, characterization, and understanding of substances with a useful function. The field is a new breadth of study in graduate programs, and it integrates elements from all classical areas of chemistry with a focus on fundamental issues that are unique to materials. Primary systems of study include the chemistry of condensed phases (solids, liquids, polymers) and interfaces between different phases.
Neurochemistry is the study of neurochemicals; including transmitters, peptides, proteins, lipids, sugars, and nucleic acids; their interactions, and the roles they play in forming, maintaining, and modifying the nervous system.
Nuclear chemistry is the study of how subatomic particles come together and make nuclei. Modern transmutation is a large component of nuclear chemistry, and the table of nuclides is an important result and tool for this field.
Organic chemistry is the study of the structure, properties, composition, mechanisms, and reactions of organic compounds. An organic compound is defined as any compound based on a carbon skeleton.
Physical chemistry is the study of the physical and fundamental basis of chemical systems and processes. In particular, the energetics and dynamics of such systems and processes are of interest to physical chemists. Important areas of study include chemical thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, electrochemistry, statistical mechanics, spectroscopy, and more recently, astrochemistry. Physical chemistry has large overlap with molecular physics. Physical chemistry involves the use of infinitesimal calculus in deriving equations. It is usually associated with quantum chemistry and theoretical chemistry. Physical chemistry is a distinct discipline from chemical physics, but again, there is very strong overlap.
Theoretical chemistry is the study of chemistry via fundamental theoretical reasoning (usually within mathematics or physics). In particular the application of quantum mechanics to chemistry is called quantum chemistry. Since the end of the Second World War, the development of computers has allowed a systematic development of computational chemistry, which is the art of developing and applying computer programs for solving chemical problems. Theoretical chemistry has large overlap with (theoretical and experimental) condensed matter physics and molecular physics.
Others subdivisions include electrochemistry, femtochemistry, flavor chemistry, flow chemistry, immunohistochemistry, hydrogenation chemistry, mathematical chemistry, molecular mechanics, natural product chemistry, organometallic chemistry, petrochemistry, photochemistry, physical organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, radiochemistry, sonochemistry, supramolecular chemistry, synthetic chemistry, and many others.
Interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinary fields include agrochemistry, astrochemistry (and cosmochemistry), atmospheric chemistry, chemical engineering, chemical biology, chemo-informatics, environmental chemistry, geochemistry, green chemistry, immunochemistry, marine chemistry, materials science, mechanochemistry, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology, nanotechnology, oenology, pharmacology, phytochemistry, solid-state chemistry, surface science, thermochemistry, and many others.
Industry
The chemical industry represents an important economic activity worldwide. The global top 50 chemical producers in 2013 had sales of US$980.5 billion with a profit margin of 10.3%.
Professional societies
American Chemical Society
American Society for Neurochemistry
Chemical Institute of Canada
Chemical Society of Peru
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
Royal Australian Chemical Institute
Royal Netherlands Chemical Society
Royal Society of Chemistry
Society of Chemical Industry
World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists
List of chemistry societies
See also
Comparison of software for molecular mechanics modeling
Glossary of chemistry terms
International Year of Chemistry
List of chemists
List of compounds
List of important publications in chemistry
List of unsolved problems in chemistry
Outline of chemistry
Periodic systems of small molecules
Philosophy of chemistry
Science tourism
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Popular reading
Atkins, P.W. Galileo's Finger (Oxford University Press)
Atkins, P.W. Atkins' Molecules (Cambridge University Press)
Kean, Sam. The Disappearing Spoon – and Other True Tales from the Periodic Table (Black Swan) London, 2010
Levi, Primo The Periodic Table (Penguin Books) [1975] translated from the Italian by Raymond Rosenthal (1984)
Stwertka, A. A Guide to the Elements (Oxford University Press)
Introductory undergraduate textbooks
Atkins, P.W., Overton, T., Rourke, J., Weller, M. and Armstrong, F. Shriver and Atkins Inorganic Chemistry (4th ed.) 2006 (Oxford University Press)
Chang, Raymond. Chemistry 6th ed. Boston: James M. Smith, 1998. .
Voet and Voet. Biochemistry (Wiley)
Advanced undergraduate-level or graduate textbooks
Atkins, P. W. Physical Chemistry (Oxford University Press)
Atkins, P. W. et al. Molecular Quantum Mechanics (Oxford University Press)
McWeeny, R. Coulson's Valence (Oxford Science Publications)
Pauling, L. The Nature of the chemical bond (Cornell University Press)
Pauling, L., and Wilson, E.B. Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry (Dover Publications)
Smart and Moore. Solid State Chemistry: An Introduction (Chapman and Hall)
Stephenson, G. Mathematical Methods for Science Students (Longman)
External links
General Chemistry principles, patterns and applications. |
5188 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central%20Europe | Central Europe | Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern Europe. The concept of "Central Europe" emerged in Germany and Austria in the 19th century as "Mitteleuropa". Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in this region also share certain historical and cultural similarities.
The region comprises most of the former territories of the Holy Roman Empire and those of the two neighboring kingdoms of Poland and Hungary. At its height, the Ottoman Empire controlled the vast majority of the Kingdom of Hungary, engulfing southern parts of present-day Slovakia. By the 18th century, the Habsburg monarchy extended its dominion to include Hungary and parts of Poland, at which point the monarchy also reigned over the territories of Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, alongside parts of Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
The countries that make up Central Europe have historically been, and in some cases continue to be, divided into either Eastern or Western Europe. After World War II, Central Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain into two parts, the capitalist Western Bloc and the communist Eastern Bloc, although Switzerland, Yugoslavia, and Austria declared neutrality. The Berlin Wall was one of the most visible symbols of this division. Respectively, countries in Central Europe have historical, cultural and geopolitical ties with these wider regions of Europe.
Central Europe began a "strategic awakening" in the late 20th and early 21st century, with initiatives such as Central European Defence Cooperation, the Central European Initiative, Centrope, and the Visegrád Four Group. This awakening was triggered by writers and other intellectuals, who recognized the societal paralysis of decaying dictatorships and felt compelled to speak up against Soviet oppression.
All of the Central European countries are considered to be of "very high human development" by the Human Development Index, with Switzerland and Germany having the highest index values. However, some Central European countries, namely Poland and Hungary, are still considered having "emerging market and developing economies" by the IMF.
Historical perspective
Middle Ages and early modern period
Elements of cultural unity for Northwestern, Southwestern and Central Europe were Catholicism and Latin. However Eastern Europe, which remained Eastern Orthodox, was dominated by Byzantine cultural influence; after the East–West Schism in 1054, Eastern Europe developed cultural unity and resistance to Catholic (and later also Protestant) Western Europe within the framework of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Church Slavonic language, and the Cyrillic alphabet.
According to Hungarian historian Jenő Szűcs, the foundations of Central European history at the end of the first millennium were in close connection with Western European development. Szűcs argued that between the 11th and 15th centuries, not only Christianization and its cultural consequences were implemented, but well-defined social features emerged in Central Europe based on Western characteristics. The keyword of Western social development after the turn of the millennium was the spread of Magdeburg rights in some cities and towns of Western Europe. These began to spread in the middle of the 13th century in Central European countries, bringing about self-governments of towns and counties.
In 1335, the Kings of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary met in the castle of Visegrád and agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce, inspiring the post-Cold War Visegrád Group.
Before World War I
The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century, but it developed further and became an object of intensive interest towards the 20th century. However, the very first concept mixed science, politics and economy – it was strictly connected with the aspirations of German states to dominate a part of European continent called Mitteleuropa. At the Frankfurt Parliament, which was established in the wake of the March Revolution of 1848, there were multiple competing ideas for the integration of German-speaking areas, including the mitteleuropäische Lösung (Central European Solution) propagated by Austria, which sought to merge the smaller German-speaking states with the multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire, but was opposed by Prussia and others. An imperialistic idea of Mitteleuropa also became popular in the German Empire established in 1871, which experienced intensive economic growth. The term was used when the Union of German Railway Administrations (which had members in the German Empire and Austria-Hungary) established the Mitteleuropäische Eisenbahn-Zeit (Central European Railway Time) time zone, which was applied by the railways from 1 June 1891 and was later widely adopted in civilian life, thus the time zone name shortened to the present-day Central European Time.
The German term denoting Central Europe was so fashionable that other languages started referring to it when indicating territories from Rhine to Vistula, or even Dnieper, and from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans. An example of this vision of Central Europe may be seen in Joseph Partsch's book of 1903.
On 21 January 1904, Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein (Central European Economic Association) was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany and Austria–Hungary (with eventual extension to Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands) as its main aim. Another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic and cultural domination. The "bible" of the concept was Friedrich Naumann's book Mitteleuropa in which he called for an economic federation to be established after World War I. Naumann's idea was that the federation would have at its centre Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire but would also include all European nations outside the Triple Entente. The concept failed after the German defeat in World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era.
Interwar period
According to Emmanuel de Martonne, in 1927 the Central European countries included: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Switzerland. The author uses both Human and Physical Geographical features to define Central Europe, but he doesn't take into account the legal development or the social, cultural, economic, infrastructural developments in these countries.
The interwar period (1918–1938) brought a new geopolitical system, as well as economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took on a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part – the countries that have (re)appeared on the map of Europe: Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. Central Europe ceased to be the area of German aspiration to lead or dominate and became a territory of various integration movements aiming at resolving political, economic and national problems of "new" states, being a way to face German and Soviet pressures. However, the conflict of interests was too big and neither Little Entente nor Intermarium (Międzymorze) ideas succeeded. These matters were not helped by the fact that Czechoslovakia appeared alone as the only multicultural, democratic, and liberal state among its neighbors. The events preceding World War II in Europe—including the so-called Western betrayal/ Munich Agreement were very much enabled by the rising nationalism and ethnocentrism that typified that time period.
The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe. Before World War I, it embraced mainly German states (Germany, Austria), non-German territories being an area of intended German penetration and domination – German leadership position was to be the natural result of economic dominance. After the war, the Eastern part of Central Europe was placed at the centre of the concept. At that time the scientists took an interest in the idea: the International Historical Congress in Brussels in 1923 was committed to Central Europe, and the 1933 Congress continued the discussions.
The avant-garde movements of Central Europe were an essential part of modernism's evolution, reaching its peak throughout the continent during the 1920s. The Sourcebook of Central European avantgards (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) contains primary documents of the avant-gardes in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, and Poland from 1910 to 1930. The manifestos and magazines of Central European radical art circles are well known to Western scholars and are being taught at primary universities of their kind in the western world.
Mitteleuropa
With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire around 1800, there was a consolidation of power among the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns as the two major states in the area. They had much in common and occasionally cooperated in various channels, but more often competed. One approach in the various attempts at cooperation, was the conception of a set of supposed common features and interests, and this idea led to the first discussions of a Mitteleuropa in the mid-nineteenth century, as espoused by Friedrich List and Karl Ludwig Bruck. These were mostly based on economic issues.
Mitteleuropa may refer to a historical concept, or to a contemporary German definition of Central Europe. As a historical concept, the German term Mitteleuropa (or alternatively its literal translation into English, Middle Europe) is an ambiguous German concept. It is sometimes used in English to refer to an area somewhat larger than most conceptions of 'Central Europe'; it refers to territories under Germanic cultural hegemony until World War I (encompassing Austria–Hungary and Germany in their pre-war formations but usually excluding the Baltic countries north of East Prussia). According to Fritz Fischer Mitteleuropa was a scheme in the era of the Reich of 1871–1918 by which the old imperial elites had allegedly sought to build a system of German economic, military and political domination from the northern seas to the Near East and from the Low Countries through the steppes of Russia to the Caucasus. Later on, professor Fritz Epstein argued the threat of a Slavic "Drang nach Westen" (Western expansion) had been a major factor in the emergence of a Mitteleuropa ideology before the Reich of 1871 ever came into being.
In Germany the connotation was also sometimes linked to the pre-war German provinces east of the Oder-Neisse line.
The term "Mitteleuropa" conjures up negative historical associations among some elderly people, although the Germans have not played an exclusively negative role in the region. Most Central European Jews embraced the enlightened German humanistic culture of the 19th century. German-speaking Jews from turn of the 20th century Vienna, Budapest and Prague became representatives of what many consider to be Central European culture at its best, though the Nazi version of "Mitteleuropa" destroyed this kind of culture instead. However, the term "Mitteleuropa" is now widely used again in German education and media without negative meaning, especially since the end of communism. In fact, many people from the new states of Germany do not identify themselves as being part of Western Europe and therefore prefer the term "Mitteleuropa".
Central Europe during World War II
During World War II, Central Europe was largely occupied by Nazi Germany. Many areas were a battle area and were devastated. The mass murder of the Jews depopulated many of their centuries-old settlement areas or settled other people there and their culture was wiped out. Both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin diametrically opposed the centuries-old Habsburg principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages and tried to assert their own ideologies and power interests in Central Europe. There were various Allied plans for state order in Central Europe for post-war. While Stalin tried to get as many states under his control as possible, Winston Churchill preferred a Central European Danube Confederation to counter these countries against Germany and Russia. There were also plans to add Bavaria and Württemberg to an enlarged Austria. There were also various resistance movements around Otto von Habsburg that pursued this goal. The group around the Austrian priest Heinrich Maier also planned in this direction, which also successfully helped the Allies to wage war by, among other things, forwarding production sites and plans for V-2 rockets, Tiger tanks and aircraft to the USA. So Otto von Habsburg also tried to detach Hungary from its grasp by Nazi Germany and the USSR. There were various considerations to prevent German power in Europe after the war. Churchill's idea of reaching the area around Vienna and Budapest before the Russians via an operation from the Adriatic had not been approved by the Western Allied chiefs of staff. As a result of the military situation at the end of the war, Stalin's plans prevailed and much of Central Europe came under Russian control.
Central Europe behind the Iron Curtain
Following World War II, large parts of Europe that were culturally and historically Western became part of the Eastern Bloc. Czech author Milan Kundera (emigrant to France) thus wrote in 1984 about the "Tragedy of Central Europe" in the New York Review of Books. The boundary between the two blocks was called the Iron Curtain. Consequently, the English term Central Europe was increasingly applied only to the westernmost former Warsaw Pact countries (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary) to specify them as communist states that were culturally tied to Western Europe. This usage continued after the end of the Warsaw Pact when these countries started to undergo transition.
The post-World War II period brought blocking of research on Central Europe in the Eastern Bloc countries, as its every result proved the dissimilarity of Central Europe, which was inconsistent with the Stalinist doctrine. On the other hand, the topic became popular in Western Europe and the United States, much of the research being carried out by immigrants from Central Europe. Following the Fall of Communism, publicists and historians in Central Europe, especially the anti-communist opposition, returned to their research.
According to Karl A. Sinnhuber (Central Europe: Mitteleuropa: Europe Centrale: An Analysis of a Geographical Term) most Central European states were unable to preserve their political independence and became Soviet satellites. Besides Switzerland and Austria, only the marginal European states of Cyprus, Finland, Malta, Sweden and Yugoslavia preserved their political sovereignty to a certain degree, being left out of any military alliances in Europe.
The opening of the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer an East Germany and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. After the picnic, which was based on an idea by Otto von Habsburg to test the reaction of the USSR and Mikhail Gorbachev to an opening of the border, tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans set off for Hungary. The leadership of the GDR in East Berlin did not dare to completely block the borders of their own country and the USSR did not respond at all.
This broke the bracket of the Eastern Bloc and Central Europe subsequently became free from communism.
Roles
According to American professor Ronald Tiersky, the 1991 summit held in Visegrád, Hungary and attended by the Polish, Hungarian and Czechoslovak presidents was hailed at the time as a major breakthrough in Central European cooperation, but the Visegrád Group became a vehicle for coordinating Central Europe's road to the European Union, while development of closer ties within the region languished.
American professor Peter J. Katzenstein described Central Europe as a way station in a Europeanization process that marks the transformation process of the Visegrád Group countries in different, though comparable ways. According to him, in Germany's contemporary public discourse "Central European identity" refers to the civilizational divide between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. He says there is no precise, uncontestable way to decide whether Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, or Bulgaria are parts of Central Europe.
Definitions
The issue of how to name and define the Central European area is subject to debates. Very often, the definition depends on the nationality and historical perspective of its author. The concept of "Central Europe" appeared in the 19th century. First, it was understood as a contact zone between the two main European regions of modern times – the Southern (Mediterranean and Catholic) and the Northern (Baltic and Protestant) areas. However, under the influenced of great power rivalry since the late 19th century, the term was redefined along the geopolitical divisions of Europe. Throughout the 20th century, thinkers portrayed "Central Europe" either as a separate region or a buffer zone between the Western and Eastern Europe, but disagreed either it was historically or culturally gravitating more towards the East or the West. The most recent wave of literature underlines the ties between Central and Western Europe.
In the early nineteenth century, the terms "Middle" or "Central" Europe (known as "Mitteleuropa" in German and "Europe centrale" in French) were introduced in geographical scholarship in both German and French languages. At first, these terms were linked to the regions spanning from the Pyrenees to the Danube, which, according to German authors, could be united under German authority. However, after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, the French began to exclude France from this area, and later the Germans also adopted this perspective by the end of World War I.
The concept of "Central" or "Middle Europe," understood as a region with strong German influence, lost a significant part of its popularity after WWI and was completely dismissed after WWII. Two defeats of Germany in the world wars, but also such Cold War realties as the division of Germany, together with the Communist-led isolation of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary from the Western world as well as an almost complete disappearance of German-speaking communities in these countries, turned the concept of "Central/Middle Europe" into an anachronism. On the other side, the non-German areas of Central Europe were reconceptualised as belonging to the expanded "Eastern Europe," primarily associated with the Soviet sphere of influence in the late 1940s–1980s. Unsurprisingly, this geographical framework lost its attraction after the end of the Cold War. Instead Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and other post-Communist countries rather re-identified themselves in the 1990s as "Central European." But avoiding the stained wording of "Middle Europe," more strongly associated with the German-past of the region, this reinvented and reduced notion of "Central Europe" now straightforwardly excludes Germany. Altogether, if the original term "Central Europe" comprised areas from the Pyrenees to the Carpathians, it excluded France since 1870/1918, and Germany since 1918/1945, reducing its coverage chiefly to Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary and to some their eastern and southern neighbours.
Academic
The main proposed regional definitions, gathered by Polish historian Jerzy Kłoczowski, include:
West-Central and East-Central Europe – this conception, presented in 1950, distinguishes two regions in Central Europe: German West-Centre, with imperial tradition of the Reich, and the East-Centre covered by variety of nations from Finland to Greece, placed between great empires of Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union.
Central Europe as the area of cultural heritage of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth – Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian historians, in cooperation (since 1990) with Polish historians, insist on the importance of the concept.
Central Europe as a region connected to the Western civilisation since the foundation of the local states and churches, including countries such as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kingdom of Croatia, Holy Roman Empire, later German Empire and the Habsburg monarchy, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Crown of Bohemia. Central Europe understood in this way borders on Russia and South-Eastern Europe, but the exact frontier of the region is difficult to determine.
Central Europe as the area of cultural heritage of the Habsburg Empire (later Austria-Hungary) – a concept which is popular in regions along the river Danube: Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia, large parts of Croatia, Romania and Serbia, also smaller parts of Poland and Ukraine. In Hungary, the narrowing of Central Europe into former Habsburg lands is not popular.
A concept underlining the links connecting Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine with Russia and treating the Russian Empire together with the whole Slavic Orthodox population as one entity – this position is taken by the Russian historiography.
A concept putting the accent on links with the West, especially from the 19th century and the grand period of liberation and formation of Nation-states – this idea is represented by the South-Eastern states, which prefer the enlarged concept of the "East Centre" expressing their links with Western culture.
Former University of Vienna professor Lonnie R. Johnson points out criteria to distinguish Central Europe from Western, Eastern and Southeast Europe:
One criterion for defining Central Europe is the frontiers of medieval empires and kingdoms that largely correspond to the religious frontiers between the Catholic West and the Orthodox East. The pagans of Central Europe were converted to Catholicism while in Southeastern and Eastern Europe they were brought into the fold of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Multinational empires were a characteristic of Central Europe. Hungary and Poland, small and medium-size states today, were empires during their early histories. The historical Kingdom of Hungary was until 1918 three times larger than Hungary is today, while Poland was the largest state in Europe in the 16th century. Both these kingdoms housed a wide variety of different peoples.
He also thinks that Central Europe is a dynamic historical concept, not a static spatial one. For example, Lithuania, a fair share of Belarus and western Ukraine are in Eastern Europe today, but years ago they were in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Johnson's study on Central Europe received acclaim and positive reviews in the scientific community. However, according to Romanian researcher Maria Bucur this very ambitious project suffers from the weaknesses imposed by its scope (almost 1600 years of history).
Encyclopedias, gazetteers, dictionaries
The Columbia Encyclopedia defines Central Europe as: Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The World Factbook uses a similar definition and adds also Slovenia. Encarta Encyclopedia and Encyclopædia Britannica do not clearly define the region, but Encarta places the same countries into Central Europe in its individual articles on countries, adding Slovenia in "south central Europe".
The German Encyclopaedia Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon (Meyers Big Pocket Encyclopedia), 1999, defines Central Europe as the central part of Europe with no precise borders to the East and West. The term is mostly used to denominate the territory between the Schelde to Vistula and from the Danube to the Moravian Gate. Usually the countries considered to be Central European are Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland.
According to Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon, Central Europe is a part of Europe composed of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Switzerland, and northern marginal regions of Italy and Yugoslavia (northern states – Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia), as well as northeastern France.
The German (Standing Committee on Geographical Names), which develops and recommends rules for the uniform use of geographical names, proposes two sets of boundaries. The first follows international borders of current countries. The second subdivides and includes some countries based on cultural criteria. In comparison to some other definitions, it is broader, including Luxembourg, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and in the second sense, parts of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Italy, and France.
Geographical
There is no general agreement either on what geographic area constitutes Central Europe, nor on how to further subdivide it geographically.
At times, the term "Central Europe" denotes a geographic definition as the Danube region in the heart of the continent, including the language and culture areas which are today included in the states of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and usually also Austria and Germany, but never Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union towards the Ural mountains.
Governmental and standards organisations
The terminology EU11 countries refer the Central, Eastern and Baltic European member states which accessed in 2004 and after: in 2004 Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia; in 2007 Bulgaria, Romania; and in 2013 Croatia.
Map gallery
States
The choice of states that make up Central Europe is an ongoing source of controversy. Although views on which countries belong to Central Europe are vastly varied, according to many sources (see section Definitions) the region includes some or all of the states listed in the sections below:
Austria
Czech Republic
Germany
Hungary
Liechtenstein
Poland
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland
Depending on the context, Central European countries are sometimes not seen as a specific group, but sorted as either Eastern or Western European countries. In this case, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are often placed in Western Europe while Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia are placed in Eastern Europe.
Furthermore, Slovenia and Hungary are sometimes incorporated in definitions of Southeast Europe, a region with which they share historical, cultural and geopolitical ties.
Other countries and regions
Some sources also add regions of neighbouring countries for historical reasons (the former Austro-Hungarian and German Empires, and modern Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), or based on geographical and/or cultural reasons:
Croatia (alternatively placed in Southeast Europe)
Romania (Transylvania, along with Banat, Crișana, Maramureș, Bukovina and Muntenia along with Oltenia)
Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast)
Serbia (primarily Vojvodina and Northern Belgrade)
Ukraine (Transcarpathia, Galicia and Northern Bukovina)
Luxembourg
The three Baltic Countries (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia), geographically in Northern Europe, have been considered part of Central Europe in the German tradition of the term, Mitteleuropa. Benelux countries are generally considered a part of Western Europe, rather than Central Europe. Nevertheless, they are occasionally mentioned in the Central European context due to cultural, historical and linguistic ties.
Italy (South Tyrol, Trentino, Trieste and Gorizia, Friuli, Lombardy, and Veneto or all of Northern Italy)
France (Alsace, Franconian Lorraine, occasionally the whole of Lorraine, Franche-Comté, the Ardennes and Savoy)
Belgium (the Ardennes)
Geography
Geography defines Central Europe's natural borders with the neighbouring regions to the north across the Baltic Sea, namely Northern Europe (or Scandinavia), and to the south across the Alps, the Apennine peninsula (or Italy), and the Balkan peninsula across the Soča–Krka–Sava–Danube line. The borders to Western Europe and Eastern Europe are geographically less defined, and for this reason the cultural and historical boundaries migrate more easily west–east than south–north. The river Rhine, which runs south–north through Western Germany, is an exception.
Southwards, the Pannonian Plain is bounded by the rivers Sava and Danube – and their respective floodplains. The Pannonian Plain stretches over the following countries: Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, and touches borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine ("peri- Pannonian states").
As the southeastern division of the Eastern Alps, the Dinaric Alps extend for 650 kilometres along the coast of the Adriatic Sea (northwest-southeast), from the Julian Alps in the northwest down to the Šar-Korab massif, north–south. According to the Freie Universität Berlin, this mountain chain is classified as South Central European. The city of Trieste in this area, for example, expressly sees itself as a città mitteleuropea. This is particularly because it lies at the interface between the Latin, Slavic, Germanic, Greek and Jewish culture on the one hand and the geographical area of the Mediterranean and the Alps on the other. A geographical and cultural assignment is made.
The Central European flora region stretches from Central France (the Massif Central) to Central Romania (Carpathians) and Southern Scandinavia.
Demography
Central Europe is one of the continent's most populous regions. It includes countries of varied sizes, ranging from tiny Liechtenstein to Germany, the second largest European country by population. Demographic figures for countries entirely located within notion of Central Europe ("the core countries") number around 165 million people, out of which around 82 million are residents of Germany. Other populations include: Poland with around 38.5 million residents, Czech Republic at 10.5 million, Hungary at 10 million, Austria with 8.8 million, Switzerland with 8.5 million, Slovakia at 5.4 million, Slovenia with 2.1 million and Liechtenstein at a bit less than 40,000.
If the countries which are occasionally included in Central Europe were counted in, partially or in whole – Croatia (4.3 million), Romania (20 million), Lithuania (2.9 million), Latvia (2 million), Estonia (1.3 million), Serbia (7.1 million) – it would contribute to the rise of between 25 and 35 million, depending on whether regional or integral approach was used. If smaller, western and eastern historical parts of Central Europe would be included in the demographic corpus, further 20 million people of different nationalities would also be added in the overall count, it would surpass the 200 million people figure.
Economy
Currencies
Currently, the members of the Eurozone include Austria, Croatia, Germany, Luxembourg, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland use their own currencies (Czech koruna, Hungarian forint, Polish złoty), but are obliged to adopt the Euro. Switzerland uses its own currency (Swiss franc), as does Serbia (Serbian dinar) and Romania (Romanian leu).
Human Development Index
In 2018, Switzerland topped the HDI list among Central European countries, also ranking No. 2 in the world. Serbia rounded out the list at No. 11 (67 world).
Globalisation
The index of globalization in Central European countries (2016 data):
Switzerland topped this list as well (#1 world).
Prosperity Index
Legatum Prosperity Index demonstrates an average and high level of prosperity in Central Europe (2018 data). Switzerland topped the index (#4 world).
Corruption
Most countries in Central Europe tend to score above the average in the Corruption Perceptions Index (2018 data), led by Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
Rail
Central Europe contains the continent's earliest railway systems, whose greatest expansion was recorded in Austro-Hungarian and German territories between 1860-1870s. By the mid-19th century Berlin, Vienna, and Buda/Pest were focal points for network lines connecting industrial areas of Saxony, Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia and Lower Austria with the Baltic (Kiel, Szczecin) and Adriatic (Rijeka, Trieste). Rail infrastructure in Central Europe remains the densest in the world. Railway density, with total length of lines operated (km) per 1,000 km2, is the highest in the Czech Republic (198.6), Poland (121.0), Slovenia (108.0), Germany (105.5), Hungary (98.7), Serbia (49.2), Slovakia (73.9) and Croatia (72.5).
River transport and canals
Before the first railroads appeared in the 1840s, river transport constituted the main means of communication and trade. Earliest canals included Plauen Canal (1745), Finow Canal, and also Bega Canal (1710) which connected Timișoara to Novi Sad and Belgrade via Danube. The most significant achievement in this regard was the facilitation of navigability on Danube from the Black sea to Ulm in the 19th century.
The economies of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland tend to demonstrate high complexity. Industrialisation reached Central Europe relatively early: the Czech lands by 1797, Luxembourg and Germany by 1860, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland by 1870, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia by 1880.
Agriculture
Central European countries are some of the most significant food producers in the world. Germany is the world's largest hops producer with 34.27% share in 2010, third producer of rye and barley, 5th rapeseed producer, sixth largest milk producer, and fifth largest potato producer. Poland is the world's largest triticale producer, second largest producer of raspberries, currants, third largest of rye, the fifth apple and buckwheat producer, and seventh largest producer of potatoes. Czech Republic is world's fourth largest hops producer and 8th producer of triticale. Hungary is world's fifth hops and seventh largest triticale producer. Serbia is world's second largest producer of plums and second largest of raspberries. Slovenia is world's sixth hops producer.
Business
Central European business has a regional organisation, Central European Business Association (CEBA), founded in 1996 in New York as a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting business opportunities within Central Europe and supporting the advancement of professionals in America with a Central European background.
Tourism
Central European countries, especially Austria, Croatia, Germany and Switzerland are some of the most competitive tourism destinations.
Education
Languages
Various languages are taught in Central Europe, with certain languages being more popular in different countries.
Education performance
Student performance has varied across Central Europe, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment. In the 2012 study, countries scored medium, below or over the average scores in three fields studied.
Higher education
Universities
The first university established east of France and north of the Alps was in Prague in 1348 by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The Charles University was modeled upon the University of Paris and initially included the faculty of law, medicine, philosophy, and theology.
Central European University
In 1991, Ernest Gellner proposed the establishment of a truly Central European institution of higher learning in Prague (1991–1995). Eventually, the Central European University (CEU) project was taken on and financially supported by the Hungarian philanthropist George Soros, who had provided an endowment of US$880 million, making the university one of the wealthiest in Europe. Over its 30-year history CEU has become one of the most internationally diverse and recognisable universities in the world. For example, as of 2019, 1217 students were enrolled in the university, of which 962 were international students, making the student body the fourth most international in the world. CEU offers highly selective programs with a student to faculty ratio of 7:1. In 2021, the admission rate into its programs was 13%. CEU has thus become a leading global university in Europe promoting a distinctively Central European perspective while emphasizing academic rigor, applied research, and academic honesty and integrity. CEU is a founding member of CIVICCA, a group of prestigious European higher education institutions in the social sciences, humanities, business management and public policy, such as Sciences Po (France), The London School of Economics and Political Science (UK), Bocconi University (Italy) and the Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden). In 2019, Central European University leadership announced their preparatory work on moving CEU to Vienna due to legal constraints against academic freedom in Hungary.
Culture and society
Research
Research centres of Central European literature include Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Purdue University, and Central European Studies Programme (CESP), Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Architecture
Religion
Central European countries are mostly Catholic (Austria, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) or historically both Catholic and Protestant, (the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland). Large Protestant groups include Lutheran, Calvinist, and the Unity of the Brethren affiliates. Significant populations of Eastern Catholicism and Old Catholicism are also prevalent throughout Central Europe.
Central Europe has been the center of the Protestant movement for centuries, with the majority of Protestants suppressed and annihilated during the Counterreformation.
Historically, people in Bohemia in today's Czech Republic were one of the very first Protestants in Europe. As a result of the Thirty Years' War following the Bohemian Revolt, many Czechs were either killed, executed (see for Old Town Square execution), forcibly turned into Roman Catholics, or emigrated to Scandinavia and the Low Countries. In the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War, the number of inhabitants in the Kingdom of Bohemia decreased from three million to only 800,000 due to multiple factors, including devastating ongoing battles such as the significant Battle of White Mountain and the Battle of Prague (1648). However, in recent years, most Czechs report as overwhelmingly non-religious, with some describing themselves as Catholic (10.3%).
Before the Holocaust (1941–45), there was also a sizeable Ashkenazi Jewish community in the region, numbering approximately 16.7 million people.
Currently, a number of Central European countries present themselves as more secular or non-religious, including a atheists, undeclared, and non-religious people. For example, people in the Czech Republic report the following figures (non-religious 34.2% and undeclared 45.2%), meanwhile persons in Germany (non-religious 38%), and Slovenia (atheist 14.7%), Luxembourg (23.4% non-religious), Switzerland (20.1%), Hungary (27.2% undeclared, 16.7% "non-religious" and 1.5% atheists), Slovakia (atheists and non-religious 13.4%, "not specified" 10.6%) Austria (19.7% of "other or none"), Liechtenstein (10.6% with no religion), Croatia (4%) and Poland (3% of non-believers/agnostics and 1% of undeclared).
Cuisine
Central European cuisine has evolved through centuries due to social and political change. Most countries share many dishes. The most popular dishes typical to Central Europe are sausages and cheeses, where the earliest evidence of cheesemaking in the archaeological record dates back to 5,500 BCE (Kuyavia region, Poland). Other foods widely associated with Central Europe are goulash and beer. The list of countries by beer consumption per capita is led by the Czech Republic, followed by Germany and Austria. Poland comes 5th, Croatia 7th and Slovenia 13th.
Human rights
Generally, the countries in the region are progressive on the issue of human rights: death penalty is illegal in all of them, corporal punishment is outlawed in most of them and people of both genders can vote in elections. However, Central European countries are divided on the subject of same-sex marriage and abortion. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland also have a history of participation in the CIA's extraordinary rendition and detention program, according to the Open Society Foundations.
Literature
Regional writing tradition revolves around the turbulent history of the region, as well as its cultural diversity. Its existence is sometimes challenged. Specific courses on Central European literature are taught at Stanford University, Harvard University and Jagiellonian University The as well as cultural magazines dedicated to regional literature. Angelus Central European Literature Award is an award worth 150,000.00 PLN (about $50,000 or £30,000) for writers originating from the region. Likewise, the Vilenica International Literary Prize is awarded to a Central European author for "outstanding achievements in the field of literature and essay writing".
Media
Sport
There is a number of Central European Sport events and leagues. They include:
Central European Tour Miskolc GP (Hungary)*
Central European Tour Budapest GP (Hungary)
2008 Central Europe Rally (Romania and Hungary)*
2023 Central Europe Rally (Germany, Austria and Czech Republic)
Central European Football League (Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey)
Central European International Cup (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and Yugoslavia; 1927–1960)
Central Europe Throwdown*
Football is one of the most popular sports. Countries of Central Europe hosted several major competitions. Germany hosted two FIFA World Cups (1974 and 2006) and the UEFA Euro 1988. Yugoslavia hosted the UEFA Euro 1976 before the competition expanded to 8 teams. Recently, the 2008 and 2012 UEFA European Championships were held in Austria & Switzerland and Poland & Ukraine respectively. The UEFA Euro 2024 will be hosted by Germany.
Politics
Organisations
Central Europe is a birthplace of regional political organisations:
Visegrád Group
Central European Defence Cooperation
Three Seas Initiative
Centrope
Central European Initiative
Middleeuropean Initiative
Central European Free Trade Agreement
Democracy Index
Central Europe is a home to some of world's oldest democracies. However, most of them have been impacted by totalitarianism, particularly Fascism and Nazism. Germany and Italy occupied all Central European countries, except Switzerland. In all occupied countries, the Axis powers suspended democracy and installed puppet regimes loyal to the occupation forces. Also, they forced conquered countries to apply racial laws and formed military forces for helping German and Italian struggle against Communists. After World War II, almost the whole of Central Europe (the Eastern and Middle part) had been transformed into communist states, most of which had been occupied and later allied with the Soviet Union, often against their will through forged referendum (e.g., Polish people's referendum in 1946) or force (northeast Germany, Poland, Hungary et alia). Nevertheless, these experiences have been dealt in most of them. Most of Central European countries score very highly in the Democracy Index.
Global Peace Index
In spite of its turbulent history, Central Europe is currently one of world's safest regions. Most Central European countries are in top 20%.
Central European Time
The time zone used in most parts of the European Union is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. Countries using CET include:
Hungary
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Germany
Austria
Poland (1893)
Serbia (1884)
Slovenia
Switzerland
Liechtenstein
In popular culture
Central Europe is mentioned in the 35th episode of Lovejoy, entitled "The Prague Sun", filmed in 1992. While walking over the well-regarded and renowned Charles Bridge in Prague, the main character, Lovejoy, says: "I've never been to Prague before. Well, it is one of the great unspoiled cities in Central Europe. Notice: I said: 'Central', not 'Eastern'! The Czechs are a bit funny about that, they think of Eastern Europeans as turnip heads."
Wes Anderson's Oscar-winning film The Grand Budapest Hotel depicts a fictional grand hotel located somewhere in Central Europe which is in actuality modeled on the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. The film is a celebration of the 1920s and 1930s Central Europe with its artistic splendor and societal sensibilities.
See also
Central and Eastern Europe
Central European Initiative
Central European Time (CET)
Central European University
East-Central Europe
Eurovoc
Geographical midpoint of Europe
Life zones of central Europe
Międzymorze (Intermarum)
Mitteleuropa
References
Citations
General and cited references
Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
Further reading
Ágh, Attila. Declining Democracy in East-Central Europe: The Divide in the EU and Emerging Hard Populism (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019).
Baldersheim, Harald, ed. Local democracy and the processes of transformation in East-Central Europe (Routledge, 2019).
Centre of Central European Studies, Agrarianism in Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries (2013) online review.
Gardner, Hall, ed. Central and South-central Europe in Transition (Praeger, 2000)
Lederer, David. Early Modern Central European History (2011) online review by Linnéa Rowlatt
'Mapping Central Europe' in hidden europe, 5, pp. 14–15 (November 2005)
External links
Journal of East Central Europe
Central European Political Science Association's journal "Politics in Central Europe"
CEU Political Science Journal (PSJ)
Central European Journal of International and Security Studies
Central European Political Studies Review
The Centrope region
Maps of Europe and European countries
CENTRAL EUROPE 2020
Central Europe Economy
UNHCR Office for Central Europe
Regions of Europe |
5192 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography%20of%20Canada | Geography of Canada | Canada has a vast geography that occupies much of the continent of North America, sharing a land border with the contiguous United States to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean. Greenland is to the northeast with a shared border on Hans Island. To the southeast Canada shares a maritime boundary with France's overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the last vestige of New France. By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia. By land area alone, however, Canada ranks fourth, the difference being due to it having the world's largest proportion of fresh water lakes. Of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories, only two are landlocked (Alberta and Saskatchewan) while the other eleven all directly border one of three oceans.
Canada is home to the world's northernmost settlement, Canadian Forces Station Alert, on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island—latitude 82.5°N—which lies from the North Pole. Much of the Canadian Arctic is covered by ice and permafrost. Canada has the longest coastline in the world, with a total length of ; additionally, its border with the United States is the world's longest land border, stretching . Three of Canada's Arctic islands, Baffin Island, Victoria Island and Ellesmere Island, are among the ten largest in the world.
Canada can be divided into seven physiographic regions: the Canadian Shield, the interior plains, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands, the Appalachian region, the Western Cordillera, Hudson Bay Lowlands and the Arctic Archipelago. Canada is also divided into fifteen terrestrial and five marine ecozones, encompassing over 80,000 classified species of life. Since the end of the last glacial period, Canada has consisted of eight distinct forest regions, including extensive boreal forest on the Canadian Shield; 42 percent of the land acreage of Canada is covered by forests (approximately 8 percent of the world's forested land), made up mostly of spruce, poplar and pine. Canada has over 2,000,000 lakes—563 greater than —which is more than any other country, containing much of the world's fresh water. There are also freshwater glaciers in the Canadian Rockies, the Coast Mountains and the Arctic Cordillera. A recent global remote sensing analysis also suggested that there were 6,477 km2 of tidal flats in Canada, making it the 5th ranked country in terms of how much tidal flat occurs there. Protected areas of Canada and National Wildlife Areas have been established to preserve ecosystems.
Canada is geologically active, having many earthquakes and potentially active volcanoes, notably the Mount Meager massif, Mount Garibaldi, Mount Cayley, and the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada range from Arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.
Physiography
Canada covers and a panoply of various geoclimatic regions, of which there are seven main regions. Canada also encompasses vast maritime terrain, with the world's longest coastline of . The physical geography of Canada is widely varied. Boreal forests prevail throughout the country, ice is prominent in northerly Arctic regions and through the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and the relatively flat Canadian Prairies in the southwest facilitate productive agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population.
The National Topographic System is used by Natural Resources Canada for providing general purpose topographic maps of the country. The maps provide details on landforms and terrain, lakes and rivers, forested areas, administrative zones, populated areas, roads and railways, as well as other man-made features. These maps are used by all levels of government and industry for forest fire and flood control (as well as other environmental issues), depiction of crop areas, right-of-way, real estate planning, development of natural resources and highway planning.
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian mountain range extends from Alabama in southern United States through the Gaspé Peninsula and the Atlantic Provinces, creating rolling hills indented by river valleys. It also runs through parts of southern Quebec.
The Appalachian Mountains (more specifically the Chic-Choc, Notre Dame, and Long Range Mountains) are an old and eroded range of mountains, approximately 380 million years in age. Notable mountains in the Appalachians include Mount Jacques-Cartier (Quebec, ), Mount Carleton (New Brunswick, ), The Cabox (Newfoundland, ). Parts of the Appalachians are home to a rich endemic flora and fauna and are considered to have been nunataks during the last glaciation era.
Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands
Canadian Shield
The northeastern part of Alberta, northern parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, all of Labrador and the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, eastern mainland Northwest Territories, most of Nunavut's mainland and, of its Arctic Archipelago, Baffin Island and significant bands through Somerset, Southampton, Devon and Ellesmere islands are located on a vast rock base known as the Canadian Shield. The Shield mostly consists of eroded hilly terrain and contains many lakes and important rivers used for hydroelectric production, particularly in northern Quebec and Ontario. The Shield also encloses an area of wetlands around the Hudson Bay. Some particular regions of the Shield are referred to as mountain ranges, including the Torngat and Laurentian Mountains.
The Shield cannot support intensive agriculture, although there is subsistence agriculture and small dairy farms in many of the river valleys and around the abundant lakes, particularly in the southern regions. Boreal forest covers much of the shield, with a mix of conifers that provide valuable timber resources in areas such as the Central Canadian Shield forests ecoregion that covers much of Northern Ontario.
The Canadian Shield is known for its vast mineral reserves such as emeralds, diamonds and copper, and is there also called the "mineral house".
Canadian Interior Plains
Canadian Arctic
While the largest part of the Canadian Arctic is composed of seemingly endless permafrost and tundra north of the tree line, it encompasses geological regions of varying types: the Arctic Cordillera (with the British Empire Range and the United States Range on Ellesmere Island) contains the northernmost mountain system in the world. The Arctic Lowlands and Hudson Bay lowlands comprise a substantial part of the geographic region often designated as the Canadian Shield (in contrast to the sole geologic area). The ground in the Arctic is mostly composed of permafrost, making construction difficult and often hazardous, and agriculture virtually impossible.
The Arctic, when defined as everything north of the tree line, covers most of Nunavut and the northernmost parts of Northwest Territories, Yukon, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Labrador. The archipelago consists of 36,563 islands, of which 94 are classified as major islands, being larger than , and cover a total area of .
Western Cordillera
The Coast Mountains in British Columbia run from the lower Fraser River and the Fraser Canyon northwestward, separating the Interior Plateau from the Pacific Ocean. Its southeastern end is separated from the North Cascades by the Fraser Lowland, where nearly a third of Western Canada's population reside.
The coastal flank of the Coast Mountains is characterized by an intense network of fjords and associated islands, very similar to the Norwegian coastline in Northern Europe; while their inland side transitions to the high plateau with dryland valleys notable for a series of large alpine lakes similar to those in southern Switzerland, beginning in deep mountains and ending in flatland. They are subdivided in three main groups, the Pacific Ranges between the Fraser River and Bella Coola, the Kitimat Ranges from there northwards to the Nass River, and the Boundary Ranges from there to the mountain terminus in Yukon at Champagne Pass and Chilkat Pass northwest of Haines, Alaska. The Saint Elias Mountains lie to their west and northwest, while the Yukon Ranges and Yukon Basin lie to their north. On the inland side of the Boundary Ranges are the Tahltan and Tagish Highlands and also the Skeena Mountains, part of the Interior Mountains system, which also extend southwards on the inland side of the Kitimat Ranges.
The terrain of the main spine of the Coast Mountains is typified by heavy glaciation, including several very large icefields of varying elevation. Of the three subdivisions, the Pacific Ranges are the highest and are crowned by Mount Waddington, while the Boundary Ranges contain the largest icefields, the Juneau Icefield being the largest. The Kitimat Ranges are lower and less glacier-covered than either of the other two groupings, but are extremely rugged and dense.
The Coast Mountains are made of igneous and metamorphic rock from an episode of arc volcanism related to subduction of the Kula and Farallon Plates during the Laramide orogeny about 100 million years ago. The widespread granite forming the Coast Mountains formed when magma intruded and cooled at depth beneath volcanoes of the Coast Range Arc whereas the metamorphic formed when intruding magma heated the surrounding rock to produce schist.
The Insular Mountains extend from Vancouver Island in the south to the Haida Gwaii in the north on the British Columbia Coast. It contains two main mountain ranges, the Vancouver Island Ranges on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Mountains on Haida Gwaii.
Hudson Bay Lowlands
Extreme points
The northernmost point of land within the boundaries of Canada is Cape Columbia, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut . The northernmost point of the Canadian mainland is Zenith Point on Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut . The southernmost point is Middle Island, in Lake Erie, Ontario (41°41′N 82°40′W); the southernmost water point lies just south of the island, on the Ontario–Ohio border (41°40′35″N). The southernmost point of the Canadian mainland is Point Pelee, Ontario . The lowest point is sea level at 0 m, whilst the highest point is Mount Logan, Yukon, at 5,959 m / 19,550 ft .
The westernmost point is Boundary Peak 187 (60°18′22.929″N 141°00′7.128″W) at the southern end of the Yukon–Alaska border, which roughly follows 141°W but leans very slightly east as it goes North . The easternmost point is Cape Spear, Newfoundland (47°31′N 52°37′W) . The easternmost point of the Canadian mainland is Elijah Point, Cape St. Charles, Labrador (52°13′N 55°37′W) .
The Canadian pole of inaccessibility is allegedly near Jackfish River, Alberta (59°2′N 112°49′W). The furthest straight-line distance that can be travelled to Canadian points of land is between the southwest tip of Kluane National Park and Reserve (next to Mount Saint Elias) and Cripple Cove, Newfoundland (near Cape Race) at a distance of .
Climatology
Climate varies widely from region to region. Winters can be harsh in many parts of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces, which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near , but can drop below with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground for almost six months of the year, while in parts of the north snow can persist year-round. Coastal British Columbia has a temperate climate, with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coasts, average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s °C (70s °F), while between the coasts, the average summer high temperature ranges from , with temperatures in some interior locations occasionally exceeding .
Much of Northern Canada is covered by ice and permafrost; however, the future of the permafrost is uncertain because the Arctic has been warming at three times the global average as a result of climate change in Canada. Canada's annual average temperature over land has warmed by , with changes ranging from in various regions, since 1948. The rate of warming has been higher across the North and in the Prairies. In the southern regions of Canada, air pollution from both Canada and the United States—caused by metal smelting, burning coal to power utilities, and vehicle emissions—has resulted in acid rain, which has severely impacted waterways, forest growth and agricultural productivity in Canada.
Biogeography
Canada is divided into fifteen major terrestrial and five marine ecozones, that are further subdivided into 53 ecoprovinces, 194 ecoregions, and 1,027 ecodistricts. These eco-areas encompass over 80,000 classified species of Canadian wildlife, with an equal number yet to be formally recognized or discovered. Due to pollution, loss of biodiversity, over-exploitation of commercial species, invasive species, and habitat loss, there are currently more than 800 wild life species at risk of being lost.
Canada's major biomes are the tundra, boreal forest, grassland, and temperate deciduous forest. British Columbia contains several smaller biomes, including; mountain forest which extends to Alberta, and a small temperate rainforest along the Pacific coast, the semi arid desert located in the Okanagan and alpine tundra in the higher mountainous regions.
Over half of Canada's landscape is intact and relatively free of human development. Approximately half of Canada is covered by forest, totaling around . The boreal forest of Canada is considered to be the largest intact forest on earth, with around undisturbed by roads, cities or industry. The Canadian Arctic tundra is the second-largest vegetation region in the country consisting of dwarf shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses and lichens.
Approximately 12.1 percent of the nation's landmass and freshwater are conservation areas, including 11.4 percent designated as protected areas. Approximately 13.8 percent of its territorial waters are conserved, including 8.9 percent designated as protected areas.
Palaeogeography
Hydrography
Canada holds vast reserves of water: its rivers discharge nearly 7% of the world's renewable water supply, Canada has over 2,000,000 lakes—563 greater than —which is more than any other country and has the third largest amount of glacier water. Canada is also home to about twenty five percent (134.6 million ha) of the world's wetlands that support a vast array of local ecosystems.
Canada's waterways host forty-seven rivers of at least in length, with the two longest being the Mackenzie River, that begins at Great Slave Lake and ends in the Arctic Ocean, with its drainage basin covering a large part of northwestern Canada, and the Saint Lawrence River, which drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf of St. Lawrence ending in the Atlantic Ocean. The Mackenzie, including its tributaries is over in length and lies within the second largest drainage basin of North America, while the St. Lawrence in length, drains the world's largest system of freshwater lakes.
The Atlantic watershed drains the entirety of the Atlantic provinces (parts of the Quebec-Labrador border are fixed at the Atlantic Ocean-Arctic Ocean continental divide), most of inhabited Quebec and large parts of southern Ontario. It is mostly drained by the economically important St. Lawrence River and its tributaries, notably the Saguenay, Manicouagan, and Ottawa rivers. The Great Lakes and Lake Nipigon are also drained by the St. Lawrence. The Churchill River and Saint John River are other important elements of the Atlantic watershed in Canada.
The Hudson Bay watershed drains over a third of Canada. It covers Manitoba, northern Ontario and Quebec, most of Saskatchewan, southern Alberta, southwestern Nunavut, and the southern half of Baffin Island. This basin is most important in fighting drought in the prairies and producing hydroelectricity, especially in Manitoba, northern Ontario and Quebec. Major elements of this watershed include Lake Winnipeg, Nelson River, the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers, Assiniboine River, and Nettilling Lake on Baffin Island. Wollaston Lake lies on the boundary between the Hudson Bay and Arctic Ocean watersheds and drains into both. It is the largest lake in the world that naturally drains in two directions.
The continental divide in the Rockies separates the Pacific watershed in British Columbia and Yukon from the Arctic and Hudson Bay watersheds. This watershed irrigates the agriculturally important areas of inner British Columbia (such as the Okanagan and Kootenay valleys), and is used to produce hydroelectricity. Major elements are the Yukon, Columbia and Fraser rivers.
The northern parts of Alberta, Manitoba, and British Columbia, most of Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and parts of Yukon are drained by the Arctic watershed. This watershed has been little used for hydroelectricity, with the exception of the Mackenzie River. The Peace, Athabasca and Liard Rivers, as well as Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake (respectively the largest and second largest lakes wholly enclosed by Canada) are significant elements of the Arctic watershed. Each of these elements eventually merges with the Mackenzie, thereby draining the vast majority of the Arctic watershed.
The southernmost part of Alberta drains into the Gulf of Mexico through the Milk River and its tributaries. The Milk River originates in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, then flows into Alberta, then returns into the United States, where it is drained by the Missouri River. A small area of southwestern Saskatchewan is drained by Battle Creek, which empties into the Milk River.
Natural resources
Canada's abundance of natural resources is reflected in their continued importance in the economy of Canada. Major resource-based industries are fisheries, forestry, agriculture, petroleum products and mining.
The fisheries industry has historically been one of Canada's strongest. Unmatched cod stocks on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland launched this industry in the 16th century. Today these stocks are nearly depleted, and their conservation has become a preoccupation of the Atlantic Provinces. On the West Coast, tuna stocks are now restricted. The less depleted (but still greatly diminished) salmon population continues to drive a strong fisheries industry. Canada claims of territorial sea, a contiguous zone of , an exclusive economic zone of with and a continental shelf of or to the edge of the continental margin.
Five per cent of Canada's land area is arable, none of which is for permanent crops. Three per cent of Canada's land area is covered by permanent pastures. Canada has of irrigated land (1993 estimate). Agricultural regions in Canada include the Canadian Prairies, the Lower Mainland and various regions within the Interior of British Columbia, the St. Lawrence Basin and the Canadian Maritimes. Main crops in Canada include flax, oats, wheat, maize, barley, sugar beets and rye in the prairies; flax and maize in Western Ontario; Oats and potatoes in the Maritimes. Fruit and vegetables are grown primarily in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Southwestern Ontario, the Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, along the south coast of Georgian Bay and in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Cattle and sheep are raised in the valleys and plateaus of British Columbia. Cattle, sheep and hogs are raised on the prairies, cattle and hogs in Western Ontario, sheep and hogs in Quebec, and sheep in the Maritimes. There are significant dairy regions in central Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, the St. Lawrence Valley, northeastern Ontario, southwestern Ontario, the Red River valley of Manitoba and the valleys in the British Columbia Interior, on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland.
Fossil fuels are a more recently developed resource in Canada, with oil and gas being extracted from deposits in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin since the mid-1900s. While Canada's crude oil deposits are fewer, technological developments in recent decades have opened up oil production in Alberta's Oil Sands to the point where Canada now has some of the largest reserves of oil in the world. In other forms, Canadian industry has a long history of extracting large coal and natural gas reserves.
Canada's mineral resources are diverse and extensive. Across the Canadian Shield and in the north there are large iron, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, and uranium reserves. Large diamond concentrations have been recently developed in the Arctic, making Canada one of the world's largest producers. Throughout the Shield there are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and best known, is Sudbury, Ontario. Sudbury is an exception to the normal process of forming minerals in the Shield since there is significant evidence that the Sudbury Basin is an ancient meteorite impact crater. The nearby, but less known Temagami Magnetic Anomaly has striking similarities to the Sudbury Basin. Its magnetic anomalies are very similar to the Sudbury Basin, and so it could be a second metal-rich impact crater. The Shield is also covered by vast boreal forests that support an important logging industry.
Canada's many rivers have afforded extensive development of hydroelectric power. Extensively developed in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Labrador, the many dams have long provided a clean, dependable source of energy.
Environmental issues
Air pollution and resulting acid rain severely affects lakes and damages forests. Metal smelting, coal-burning utilities, and vehicle emissions impact agricultural and forest productivity. Ocean waters are also becoming contaminated by agricultural, industrial, mining, and forestry activities.
Global climate change and the warming of the polar region will likely cause significant changes to the environment, including loss of the polar bear, the exploration for resource then the extraction of these resources and an alternative transport route to the Panama Canal through the Northwest Passage.
Canada is currently warming at twice the global average, and this is effectively irreversible.
Political geography
Canada is divided into ten provinces and three territories. According to Statistics Canada, 72.0 percent of the population is concentrated within of the nation's southern border with the United States, 70.0% live south of the 49th parallel, and over 60 percent of the population lives along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River between Windsor, Ontario, and Quebec City. This leaves the vast majority of Canada's territory as sparsely populated wilderness; Canada's population density is , among the lowest in the world. Despite this, 79.7 percent of Canada's population resides in urban areas, where population densities are increasing.
Canada shares with the U.S. the world's longest binational border at ; are with Alaska. The Danish island dependency of Greenland lies to Canada's northeast, separated from the Canadian Arctic islands by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. As of June 14, 2022, Canada shares a land border with Greenland on Hans Island. The French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon lie off the southern coast of Newfoundland in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and have a maritime territorial enclave within Canada's exclusive economic zone.
Canada's geographic proximity to the United States has historically bound the two countries together in the political world as well. Canada's position between the Soviet Union (now Russia) and the U.S. was strategically important during the Cold War since the route over the North Pole and Canada was the fastest route by air between the two countries and the most direct route for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Since the end of the Cold War, there has been growing speculation that Canada's Arctic maritime claims may become increasingly important if global warming melts the ice enough to open the Northwest Passage.
See also
Atlas of Canada
Canadian Geographic
Canadian Rockies
Extreme points of North America
List of highest points of Canadian provinces and territories
National Parks of Canada
List of Ultras of Canada
Mountain peaks of Canada
Temperature in Canada
References
Further reading
External links
Government of Canada – The Atlas of Canada
Canadian Geographic – The Canadian Atlas Online
Cartography of Canada – The Canadian Map Online
Canada. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. |
5194 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics%20of%20Canada | Politics of Canada | The politics of Canada function within a framework of parliamentary democracy and a federal system of parliamentary government with strong democratic traditions. Canada is a constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch is head of state. In practice, the executive powers are directed by the Cabinet, a committee of ministers of the Crown responsible to the elected House of Commons of Canada and chosen and headed by the Prime Minister of Canada.
Canada is described as a "full democracy", with a tradition of liberalism, and an egalitarian, moderate political ideology. Extremism has never been prominent in Canadian politics. The traditional "brokerage" model of Canadian politics leaves little room for ideology. Peace, order, and good government, alongside an Implied Bill of Rights, are founding principles of the Canadian government. An emphasis on social justice has been a distinguishing element of Canada's political culture. Canada has placed emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusiveness for all its people.
The country has a multi-party system in which many of its legislative practices derive from the unwritten conventions of and precedents set by the Westminster parliament of the United Kingdom. The two dominant political parties in Canada have historically been the current Liberal Party of Canada and the Conservative Party of Canada (as well as its numerous predecessors). Parties like the New Democratic Party, the Quebec nationalist Bloc Québécois and the Green Party of Canada have grown in prominence, exerting their own influence to the political process.
Canada has evolved variations: party discipline in Canada is stronger than in the United Kingdom, and more parliamentary votes are considered motions of confidence, which tends to diminish the role of non-Cabinet members of parliament (MPs). Such members, in the government caucus, and junior or lower-profile members of opposition caucuses, are known as backbenchers. Backbenchers can, however, exert their influence by sitting in parliamentary committees, like the Public Accounts Committee or the National Defence Committee.
Context
Canada's governmental structure was originally established by the British Parliament through the British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), but the federal model and division of powers were devised by Canadian politicians. Particularly after World War I, citizens of the self-governing Dominions, such as Canada, began to develop a strong sense of identity, and, in the Balfour Declaration of 1926, the British government and the governments of the six Dominions jointly agreed that the Dominions had full autonomy within the British Commonwealth.
In 1931, after further consultations and agreements between the British government and the governments of the Dominions, the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, giving legal recognition to the autonomy of Canada and other Dominions. However, Canadian politicians were unable to obtain consensus on a process for amending the constitution, which was therefore not affected by the Statute of Westminster, meaning amendments to Canada's constitution continued to require the approval of the British parliament until that date. Similarly, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain continued to make the final decision on criminal appeals until 1933 and on civil appeals until 1949. It was not until 1982, with the Patriation of the Constitution, that the role of the British Parliament was ended.
Political culture
Canada's egalitarian approach to governance has emphasized social welfare, economic freedom, and multiculturalism, which is based on selective economic migrants, social integration, and suppression of far-right politics, that has wide public and political support. Its broad range of constituent nationalities and policies that promote a "just society" are constitutionally protected. Individual rights, equality and inclusiveness (social equality) have risen to the forefront of political and legal importance for most Canadians, as demonstrated through support for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a relatively free economy, and social liberal attitudes toward women's rights (like pregnancy termination), homosexuality, euthanasia or cannabis use. There is also a sense of collective responsibility in Canadian political culture, as is demonstrated in general support for universal health care, multiculturalism, evolution, gun control, foreign aid, and other social programs.
At the federal level, Canada has been dominated by two relatively centrist parties practising brokerage politics", the centre-left leaning Liberal Party of Canada and the centre-right leaning Conservative Party of Canada (or its predecessors). "The traditional brokerage model of Canadian politics leaves little
room for ideology" as the Canadian catch-all party system requires support from a broad spectrum of voters. The historically predominant Liberals position themselves at the centre of the political scale, with the Conservatives sitting on the right and the New Democratic Party occupying the left. Five parties had representatives elected to the federal parliament in the 2021 election: the Liberal Party who currently form the government, the Conservative Party who are the Official Opposition, the New Democratic Party, the Bloc Québécois, and the Green Party of Canada.
Governmental organization
Type of government Westminster style federal parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy.
Administrative divisions Ten provinces and three territories*: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories*, Nova Scotia, Nunavut*, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon*.
Constitution Westminster system, based on unwritten conventions and written legislation.
Legal system English common law for all matters within federal jurisdiction and in all provinces and territories except Quebec, which is based on the civil law, based on the Custom of Paris in pre-revolutionary France as set out in the Civil Code of Quebec; accepts compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction, with reservations.
Suffrage Citizens aged 18 years or older. Only two adult citizens in Canada cannot vote: the Chief Electoral Officer, and the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer. The Governor General is eligible to vote, but abstains due to constitutional convention.
Monarchy
Head of state Charles III, King of Canada (since September 8, 2022).
Viceroy Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada (since July 26, 2021).
Executive power
Head of government Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada (since November 4, 2015).
Cabinet Ministers (usually around thirty) chosen by the prime minister and appointed by the governor general to lead various ministries and agencies, generally with regional representation. Traditionally most, if not all, cabinet ministers will be members of the leader's own party in the House of Commons or Senate (see Cabinet of Canada); however this is not legally or constitutionally mandated, and occasionally, the prime minister will appoint a cabinet minister from another party.
Elections The monarchy is hereditary. The governor general is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister for a non-specific term, though it is traditionally approximately five years. Following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons is usually designated by the governor general to become Prime Minister.
Legislative power
The bicameral Parliament of Canada consists of three parts: the monarch, the Senate, and the House of Commons.
Currently, the Senate, which is frequently described as providing regional representation, has 105 members appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister to serve until age 75. It was created with equal representation from the three regions of Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes (originally New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, expanded in 1873 to include Prince Edward Island). In 1915, a new Western division was created, with six senators from each of the four western provinces, so that each of the four regions had 24 seats in the Senate. When Newfoundland and Labrador joined Confederation in 1949, it was not included in an existing region and was assigned six seats. Each of the three territories has one seat. It is not based on representation-by-population. The normal number of senators can be exceeded by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, as long as the additional senators are distributed equally with regard to region (up to a total of eight additional Senators). This power of additional appointment has only been used once, when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney petitioned Queen Elizabeth II to add eight seats to the Senate so as to ensure the passage of the Goods and Services Tax legislation.
The House of Commons currently has 338 members elected in single-member districts in a plurality voting system (first past the post), meaning that members must attain only a plurality (the most votes of any candidate) rather than a majority. The electoral districts are also known as ridings.
Mandates cannot exceed five years; an election must occur by the end of this time. This fixed mandate has been exceeded only once, when Prime Minister Robert Borden perceived the need to do so during World War I. A constitutional amendment was passed, extending the life of the Parliament by one year, by the unanimous consent of the House of Commons. The size of the House and apportionment of seats to each province is revised after every census, conducted every five years, and is based on population changes and approximately on representation-by-population.
Elections and government formation
Canadians vote for the election of their local member of parliament (MP) only. A vote is cast directly for a candidate. The candidate in each riding who receives a plurality of votes (first-past-the-post system) is elected. An MP need not be a member of any political party: such MPs are known as independents. When a number of MPs share political opinions they may form a body known as a political party.
The Canada Elections Act defines a political party as "an organization one of whose fundamental purposes is to participate in public affairs by endorsing one or more of its members as candidates and supporting their election." Forming and registering a federal political party are two different things. There is no legislation regulating the formation of federal political parties. Elections Canada cannot dictate how a federal political party should be formed or how its legal, internal and financial structures should be established.
Most parties elect their leaders in instant-runoff elections to ensure that the winner receives more than 50% of the votes. Normally the party leader stands as a candidate to be an MP during an election. This happens at leadership conventions. Canada's parliamentary system empowers political parties and their party leaders. Where one party gets a majority of the seats in the House of Commons, that party is said to have a "majority government." Through party discipline, the party leader, who is elected in only one riding, exercises a great deal of control over the cabinet and the parliament.
Historically, the prime minister and senators are selected by the Governor General as a representative of the King, though in modern practice the monarch's duties are ceremonial. Consequently, the prime minister, while technically selected by the Governor General, is for all practical purposes selected by the party with the majority of seats. That is, the party that gets the most seats normally forms the government, with that party's leader becoming prime minister. The prime minister is not directly elected by the general population, although the prime minister is almost always directly elected as an MP within his or her constituency.
Often the most popular party in an election takes a majority of the seats, even if it did not receive a majority of the vote. However, as there are usually three or more political parties represented in parliament, often no party takes a majority of the seats. A minority government occurs when the party that holds the most seats in the House of Commons holds fewer seats than the opposition parties combined. In this scenario, the party leader whose party has the most seats in the House is selected by the governor general to lead the government; however, for the government to survive and to pass laws, the leader chosen must have the support of the majority of the House, meaning they need the support of the elected members of at least one other party. This can be done on a case-by-case basis, through a coalition government (which has never been done in Canadian history) or through a confidence-and-supply agreement (such as the one the Liberals and the NDP signed in 2022).
Federal-provincial relations
As a federation, the existence and powers of the federal government and the ten provinces are guaranteed by the Constitution. The Constitution Act, 1867 sets out the basic constitutional structure of the federal government and the provinces. The powers of the federal Parliament and the provinces can only be changed by constitutional amendments passed by the federal and provincial governments. The Crown is the formal head of state of the federal government and each of the ten provinces, but rarely has any political role. The governments are led by the representatives of the people: elected by all Canadians, at the federal level, and by the Canadian citizens of each provinces, at the provincial level.
Federal-provincial (or intergovernmental, formerly Dominion-provincial) relations is a regular issue in Canadian politics: Quebec wishes to preserve and strengthen its distinctive nature, western provinces desire more control over their abundant natural resources, especially energy reserves; industrialized Central Canada is concerned with its manufacturing base, and the Atlantic provinces strive to escape from being less affluent than the rest of the country.
In order to ensure that social programs such as health care and education are funded consistently throughout Canada, the "have-not" (poorer) provinces receive a proportionately greater share of federal "transfer (equalization) payments" than the richer, or "have", provinces do; this has been somewhat controversial. The richer provinces often favour freezing transfer payments, or rebalancing the system in their favour, based on the claim that they already pay more in taxes than they receive in federal government services, and the poorer provinces often favour an increase on the basis that the amount of money they receive is not sufficient for their existing needs.
Particularly in the past decade, critics have argued that the federal government's exercise of its unlimited constitutional spending power has contributed to strained federal-provincial relations. This power allows the federal government to influence provincial policies, by offering funding in areas that the federal government cannot itself regulate. The federal spending power is not expressly set out in the Constitution Act, 1867; however, in the words of the Court of Appeal for Ontario the power "can be inferred" from s. 91(1A), "the public debt and property".
A prime example of an exercise of the spending power is the Canada Health Act, which is a conditional grant of money to the provinces. Regulation of health services is, under the Constitution, a provincial responsibility. However, by making the funding available to the provinces under the Canada Health Act contingent upon delivery of services according to federal standards, the federal government has the ability to influence health care delivery.
Quebec and Canadian politics
Except for three short-lived transitional or minority governments, prime ministers from Quebec led Canada continuously from 1968 to early 2006. People from Quebec led both Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments in this period.
Monarchs, governors general, and prime ministers are now expected to be at least functional, if not fluent, in both English and French. In selecting leaders, political parties give preference to candidates who are fluently bilingual.
By law, three of the nine positions on the Supreme Court of Canada must be held by judges from Quebec. This representation makes sure that at least three judges have sufficient experience with the civil law system to treat cases involving Quebec laws.
National unity
Canada has a long and storied history of secessionist movements (see Secessionist movements of Canada). National unity has been a major issue in Canada since the forced union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1840.
The predominant and lingering issue concerning Canadian national unity has been the ongoing conflict between the French-speaking majority in Quebec and the English-speaking majority in the rest of Canada. Quebec's continued demands for recognition of its "distinct society" through special political status has led to attempts for constitutional reform, most notably with the failed attempts to amend the constitution through the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord (the latter of which was rejected through a national referendum).
Since the Quiet Revolution, sovereigntist sentiments in Quebec have been variably stoked by the patriation of the Canadian constitution in 1982 (without Quebec's consent) and by the failed attempts at constitutional reform. Two provincial referendums, in 1980 and 1995, rejected proposals for sovereignty with majorities of 60% and 50.6% respectively. Given the narrow federalist victory in 1995, a reference was made by the Chrétien government to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1998 regarding the legality of unilateral provincial secession. The court decided that a unilateral declaration of secession would be unconstitutional. This resulted in the passage of the Clarity Act in 2000.
The Bloc Québécois, a sovereigntist party which runs candidates exclusively in Quebec, was started by a group of MPs who left the Progressive Conservative (PC) party (along with several disaffected Liberal MPs), and first put forward candidates in the 1993 federal election. With the collapse of the PCs in that election, the Bloc and Liberals were seen as the only two viable parties in Quebec. Thus, prior to the 2006 election, any gain by one party came at the expense of the other, regardless of whether national unity was really at issue. The Bloc, then, benefited (with a significant increase in seat total) from the impressions of corruption that surrounded the Liberal Party in the lead-up to the 2004 election. However, the newly unified Conservative party re-emerged as a viable party in Quebec by winning 10 seats in the 2006 election. In the 2011 election, the New Democratic Party succeeded in winning 59 of Quebec's 75 seats, successfully reducing the number of seats of every other party substantially. The NDP surge nearly destroyed the Bloc, reducing them to 4 seats, far below the minimum requirement of 12 seats for Official party status.
Newfoundland and Labrador is also a problem regarding national unity. As the Dominion of Newfoundland was a self-governing country equal to Canada until 1949, there are large, though unco-ordinated, feelings of Newfoundland nationalism and anti-Canadian sentiment among much of the population. This is due in part to the perception of chronic federal mismanagement of the fisheries, forced resettlement away from isolated settlements in the 1960s, the government of Quebec still drawing inaccurate political maps whereby they take parts of Labrador, and to the perception that mainland Canadians look down upon Newfoundlanders. In 2004, the Newfoundland and Labrador First Party contested provincial elections and in 2008 in federal ridings within the province. In 2004, then-premier Danny Williams ordered all federal flags removed from government buildings as a result of lost offshore revenues to equalization clawbacks. On December 23, 2004, premier Williams made this statement to reporters in St. John's,
Western alienation is another national-unity-related concept that enters into Canadian politics. Residents of the four western provinces, particularly Alberta, have often been unhappy with a lack of influence and a perceived lack of understanding when residents of Central Canada consider "national" issues. While this is seen to play itself out through many avenues (media, commerce, and so on.), in politics, it has given rise to a number of political parties whose base constituency is in western Canada. These include the United Farmers of Alberta, who first won federal seats in 1917, the Progressives (1921), the Social Credit Party (1935), the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (1935), the Reconstruction Party (1935), New Democracy (1940) and most recently the Reform Party (1989).
The Reform Party's slogan "The West Wants In" was echoed by commentators when, after a successful merger with the PCs, the successor party to both parties, the Conservative Party won the 2006 election. Led by Stephen Harper, who is an MP from Alberta, the electoral victory was said to have made "The West IS In" a reality. However, regardless of specific electoral successes or failures, the concept of western alienation continues to be important in Canadian politics, particularly on a provincial level, where opposing the federal government is a common tactic for provincial politicians. For example, in 2001, a group of prominent Albertans produced the Alberta Agenda, urging Alberta to take steps to make full use of its constitutional powers, much as Quebec has done.
Political conditions
Canada is considered by most sources to be a very stable democracy. In 2006, The Economist ranked Canada the third-most democratic nation in its Democracy Index, ahead of all other nations in the Americas and ahead of every nation more populous than itself. In 2008, Canada was ranked World No. 11 and again ahead of all countries more populous and ahead of other states in the Americas.
More recently, with the existence of strong third parties and first-past-the-post elections amongst other factors, Canada on a federal and provincial level has experienced huge swings in seat shares, where third parties (eg NDP, Reform) end up (usually briefly) replacing the Liberals, the Progressive Conservatives or the Conservatives as the main opposition or even the government and leaving them as a rump. Such examples federally include the 1993 federal election with the collapse of the Progressive Conservatives, and the 2011 election leaving the Liberal Party a (temporary) rump along with Bloc Québécois. Other examples include the changes of fortune for the Alberta NDP during the province's 2015 and 2019 elections, and possibly the 2018 Quebec elections with the rise of Coalition Avenir Québec taking government from the Liberals and Parti Québécois.
On a provincial level, in the legislatures of western provinces the NDP often is the left-leaning main party instead of that province's Liberal Party branch, the latter generally being a rump or smaller than the NDP. The other main party (right of the NDP) is either the Progressive Conservatives or their successor, or the Saskatchewan Party in Saskatchewan.
Party systems
According to recent scholars, there have been four party systems in [Canada] at the federal level since Confederation, each with its own distinctive pattern of social support, patronage relationships, leadership styles, and electoral strategies. Political scientists disagree on the names and precise boundaries of the eras, however. Steve Patten identifies four party systems in Canada's political history
Clarkson (2005) shows how the Liberal Party has dominated all the party systems, using different approaches. It began with a "clientelistic approach" under Laurier, which evolved into a "brokerage" system of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s under Mackenzie King. The 1950s saw the emergence of a "pan-Canadian system", which lasted until the 1990s. The 1993 election — categorized by Clarkson as an electoral "earthquake" which "fragmented" the party system, saw the emergence of regional politics within a four party-system, whereby various groups championed regional issues and concerns. Clarkson concludes that the inherent bias built into the first-past-the-post system, has chiefly benefited the Liberals.
Party funding
The rules governing the funding of parties are designed to ensure reliance on personal contributions. Personal donations to federal parties and campaigns benefit from tax credits, although the amount of tax relief depends on the amount given. Also only people paying income taxes receive any benefit from this.
The rules are based on the belief that union or business funding should not be allowed to have as much impact on federal election funding as these are not contributions from citizens and are not evenly spread out between parties. The new rules stated that a party had to receive 2% of the vote nationwide in order to receive the general federal funding for parties. Each vote garnered a certain dollar amount for a party (approximately $1.75) in future funding. For the initial disbursement, approximations were made based on previous elections. The NDP received more votes than expected (its national share of the vote went up) while the new Conservative Party of Canada received fewer votes than had been estimated and was asked to refund the difference. Quebec was the first province to implement a similar system of funding many years before the changes to funding of federal parties.
Federal funds are disbursed quarterly to parties, beginning at the start of 2005. For the moment, this disbursement delay leaves the NDP and the Green Party in a better position to fight an election, since they rely more on individual contributors than federal funds. The Green Party now receives federal funds, since it for the first time received a sufficient share of the vote in the 2004 election.
In 2007, news emerged of a funding loophole that "could cumulatively exceed the legal limit by more than $60,000", through anonymous recurrent donations of $200 to every riding of a party from corporations or unions. At the time, for each individual, the legal annual donation limit was $1,100 for each party, $1,100 combined total for each party's associations, and in an election year, an additional $1,100 combined total for each party's candidates. All three limits increase on 1 April every year based on the inflation rate.
Two of the biggest federal political parties in Canada experienced a drop in donations in 2020, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the global economy.
Political parties, leaders and status
Ordered by number of elected representatives in the House of Commons
Liberal Party: Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
Conservative Party: Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Official Opposition
Bloc Québécois: Yves-François Blanchet
New Democratic Party: Jagmeet Singh
Green Party: Elizabeth May
Leaders' debates
Leaders' debates in Canada consist of two debates, one English and one French, both produced by a consortium of Canada's five major television broadcasters (CBC/SRC, CTV, Global and TVA) and usually consist of the leaders of all parties with representation in the House of Commons.
These debates air on the networks of the producing consortium as well as the public affairs and parliamentary channel CPAC and the American public affairs network C-SPAN.
Judiciary
The highest court in Canada is the Supreme Court of Canada and is the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system. The court is composed of nine judges: eight Puisne Justices and the Chief Justice of Canada. Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada are appointed by the Governor-in-Council. The Supreme Court Act limits eligibility for appointment to persons who have been judges of a superior court, or members of the bar for ten or more years. Members of the bar or superior judge of Quebec, by law, must hold three of the nine positions on the Supreme Court of Canada.
Government departments and structure
The Canadian government operates the public service using departments, smaller agencies (for example, commissions, tribunals, and boards), and crown corporations. There are two types of departments: central agencies such as Finance, Privy Council Office, and Treasury Board Secretariat have an organizing and oversight role for the entire public service; line departments are departments that perform tasks in a specific area or field, such as the departments of Agriculture, Environment, or Defence.
Significant departments include Finance, Revenue, Human Resources and Skills Development, National Defence, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and Foreign Affairs/International Trade.
Scholar Peter Aucoin, writing about the Canadian Westminster system, raised concerns in the early 2000s about the centralization of power; an increased number, role and influence of partisan-political staff; personal-politicization of appointments to the senior public service; and the assumption that the public service is promiscuously partisan for the government of the day.
Immigration
In 1967, Canada established a point-based system to determine if immigrants should be eligible to enter the country, using meritorious qualities such as the applicant's ability to speak both French and English, their level of education, and other details that may be expected of someone raised in Canada. This system was considered ground-breaking at the time since prior systems were slanted on the basis of ethnicity. However, many foreign nationals still found it challenging to secure work after emigrating, resulting in a higher unemployment rate amongst the immigrant population. After winning power at the 2006 federal election, the Conservative Party sought to curb this issue by placing weight on whether or not the applicant has a standing job offer in Canada. The change has been a source of some contention as opponents argue that businesses use this change to suppress wages, with corporate owners leveraging the knowledge that an immigrant should hold a job to successfully complete the immigration process.
Elections
Elections
House of Commons: direct plurality representation (last election held October 21, 2019)
Senate: appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister
Election results
See also
Conservatism in Canada
Constitutional debate in Canada
Fair Vote Canada
Federal political financing in Canada
Liberalism in Canada
List of Canadian federal electoral districts
List of Canadian federal general elections
List of Canadian political scandals
List of political parties in Canada
Populism in Canada
Republicanism in Canada
Socialism in Canada
Notes
References
Further reading
Argyle, Ray. Turning Points: The Campaigns That Changed Canada - 2011 and Before (2011) 440pp excerpt and text search ch. 1
Hyde, Anthony (1997). Promises, Promises: Breaking Faith in Canadian Politics. Toronto: Viking. viii, 218 p.
Pammett, Jon H., and Christopher Dornan, eds. The Canadian Federal Election of 2011 (2011) excerpt and text search; 386pp; essays by experts
Political thought
Katherine Fierlbeck, Political Thought in Canada: An Intellectual History, Broadview Press, 2006
Ian McKay, Rebels, Reds, Radicals: Rethinking Canada's Left History, Between the Lines, 2006
External links
Canada Newsnet (formerly PoliWonk) - Extensive Canadian Politics news and resources
Canadian-Politics.com Comprehensive overview of politics in Canada
CBC Digital Archives – Scandals, Boondoggles and White Elephants
CBC Digital Archives – Campaigning for Canada
Canadian Governments Compared
Canadian Politics Online Digital Textbook
Political history of Canada
Westminster system |
5195 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy%20of%20Canada | Economy of Canada | The economy of Canada is a highly developed mixed economy, with the world's tenth-largest economy , and a nominal GDP of approximately . Canada is one of the world's largest trading nations, with a highly globalized economy. In 2021, Canadian trade in goods and services reached $2.016 trillion. Canada's exports totalled over $637 billion, while its imported goods were worth over $631 billion, of which approximately $391 billion originated from the United States. In 2018, Canada had a trade deficit in goods of $22 billion and a trade deficit in services of $25 billion. The Toronto Stock Exchange is the tenth-largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, listing over 1,500 companies with a combined market capitalization of over .
Canada has a strong cooperative banking sector, with the world's highest per-capita membership in credit unions. It ranks low in the Corruption Perceptions Index (14th in 2023) and "is widely regarded as among the least corrupt countries of the world". It ranks high in the Global Competitiveness Report (14th in 2019) and Global Innovation Indexes (15th in 2022). Canada's economy ranks above most Western nations on The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom and experiences a relatively low level of income disparity. The country's average household disposable income per capita is "well above" the OECD average. Canada ranks among the lowest of the most developed countries for housing affordability and foreign direct investment.
Since the early 20th century, the growth of Canada's manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy to an urbanized, industrial one. Like many other developed countries, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three-quarters of the country's workforce. Among developed countries, Canada has an unusually important primary sector, of which the forestry and petroleum industries are the most prominent components. Many towns in northern Canada, where agriculture is difficult, are sustained by nearby mines or sources of timber.
Canada's economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Automotive Products Trade Agreement of 1965 opened Canada's borders to trade in the automobile manufacturing industry. In the 1970s, concerns over energy self-sufficiency and foreign ownership in the manufacturing sectors prompted the federal government to enact the National Energy Program (NEP) and the Foreign Investment Review Agency (FIRA). The government abolished the NEP in the 1980s and changed the name of FIRA to Investment Canada to encourage foreign investment. The Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA) of 1988 eliminated tariffs between the two countries, while the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) expanded the free-trade zone to include Mexico in 1994 (later replaced by the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement). As of 2023, Canada is a signatory to 15 free trade agreements with 51 different countries.
Canada is one of the few developed nations that are net exporters of energy. Atlantic Canada possess vast offshore deposits of natural gas, and Alberta hosts the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world. The vast Athabasca oil sands and other oil reserves give Canada 13 percent of global oil reserves, constituting the world's third or fourth-largest. Canada is additionally one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products; the Canadian Prairies are one of the most important global producers of wheat, canola, and other grains. The country is a leading exporter of zinc, uranium, gold, nickel, platinoids, aluminum, steel, iron ore, coking coal, lead, copper, molybdenum, cobalt, and cadmium. Canada has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. The fishing industry is also a key contributor to the economy.
Overview
With the exception of a few island nations in the Caribbean, Canada is the only major North American country to use the parliamentary system of government. As a result, Canada has developed its own social and political institutions, distinct from most other countries in the world. Though the Canadian economy is closely integrated with the American economy, it has developed unique economic institutions.
The Canadian economic system generally combines elements of private enterprise and public enterprise. Many aspects of public enterprise, most notably the development of an extensive social welfare system to redress social and economic inequities, were adopted after the end of World War II in 1945.
Approximately 89% of Canada's land is Crown land. Canada has one of the highest levels of economic freedom in the world. Today Canada closely resembles the U.S. in its market-oriented economic system and pattern of production. As of 2019, Canada has 56 companies in the Forbes Global 2000 list, ranking ninth just behind South Korea and ahead of Saudi Arabia.
International trade makes up a large part of the Canadian economy, particularly of its natural resources. In 2009, agriculture, energy, forestry and mining exports accounted for about 58% of Canada's total exports. Machinery, equipment, automotive products and other manufactures accounted for a further 38% of exports in 2009. In 2009, exports accounted for about 30% of Canada's GDP. The United States is by far its largest trading partner, accounting for about 73% of exports and 63% of imports as of 2009. Canada's combined exports and imports ranked 8th among all nations in 2006.
About 4% of Canadians are directly employed in primary resource fields, and they account for 6.2% of GDP. They are still paramount in many parts of the country. Many, if not most, towns in northern Canada, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada is a world leader in the production of many natural resources such as gold, nickel, uranium, diamonds, lead, and in recent years, crude petroleum, which, with the world's second-largest oil reserves, is taking an increasingly prominent position in natural resources extraction. Several of Canada's largest companies are based in natural resource industries, such as Encana, Cameco, Goldcorp, and Barrick Gold. The vast majority of these products are exported, mainly to the United States. There are also many secondary and service industries that are directly linked to primary ones. For instance one of Canada's largest manufacturing industries is the pulp and paper sector, which is directly linked to the logging business.
The reliance on natural resources has several effects on the Canadian economy and Canadian society. While manufacturing and service industries are easy to standardize, natural resources vary greatly by region. This ensures that differing economic structures developed in each region of Canada, contributing to Canada's strong regionalism. At the same time the vast majority of these resources are exported, integrating Canada closely into the international economy. Howlett and Ramesh argue that the inherent instability of such industries also contributes to greater government intervention in the economy, to reduce the social impact of market changes.
Natural resource industries also raise important questions of sustainability. Despite many decades as a leading producer, there is little risk of depletion. Large discoveries continue to be made, such as the massive nickel find at Voisey's Bay. Moreover, the far north remains largely undeveloped as producers await higher prices or new technologies as many operations in this region are not yet cost effective. In recent decades Canadians have become less willing to accept the environmental destruction associated with exploiting natural resources. High wages and Aboriginal land claims have also curbed expansion. Instead, many Canadian companies have focused their exploration, exploitation and expansion activities overseas where prices are lower and governments more amenable. Canadian companies are increasingly playing important roles in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
The depletion of renewable resources has raised concerns in recent years. After decades of escalating overutilization the cod fishery all but collapsed in the 1990s, and the Pacific salmon industry also suffered greatly. The logging industry, after many years of activism, has in recent years moved to a more sustainable model, or to other countries.
Measuring productivity
Productivity measures are key indicators of economic performance and a key source of economic growth and competitiveness. OECD's Compendium of Productivity Indicators, published annually, presents a broad overview of productivity levels and growth in member nations, highlighting key measurement issues. It analyses the role of "productivity as the main driver of economic growth and convergence" and the "contributions of labour, capital and MFP in driving economic growth". According to the definition above "MFP is often interpreted as the contribution to economic growth made by factors such as technical and organisational innovation". Measures of productivity include the gross domestic product (GDP) and total factor productivity.
Multifactor productivity
Another productivity measure, used by OECD, is the long-term trend in multifactor productivity (MFP) also known as total factor productivity (TFP). This indicator assesses an economy's "underlying productive capacity ('potential output'), itself an important measure of the growth possibilities of economies and of inflationary pressures". MFP measures the residual growth that cannot be explained by the rate of change in the services of labour, capital and intermediate outputs, and is often interpreted as the contribution to economic growth made by factors such as technical and organisational innovation.
According to OECD's annual economic survey of Canada in June 2012, Canada has experienced weak growth of multi-factor productivity (MFP) and has been declining further since 2002. One of the ways MFP growth is raised is by boosting innovation and Canada's innovation indicators such as business R&D and patenting rates were poor. Raising MFP growth is "needed to sustain rising living standards, especially as the population ages".
Since 2010 productivity growth has picked up, almost entirely driven by above average multifactor productivity growth. However, productivity on the whole still lags behind the upper half of OECD countries such as the United States. Canada's productivity is now around the median OECD productivity, close to that of Australia. More can be done to increase productivity, such as increasing the productivity of capital through improving the capital stock to output ratio and capital quality. This could be achieved through the liberalization of internal trade barriers, as suggested in the OECD's latest Canadian economic survey.
Bank of Canada
The mandate of the central bank—the Bank of Canada is to conduct monetary policy that "preserves the value of money by keeping inflation low and stable".
Monetary Policy Report
The Bank of Canada issues its bank rate announcement through its Monetary Policy Report which is released eight times a year. The Bank of Canada, a federal crown corporation, has the responsibility of Canada's monetary system. Under the inflation-targeting monetary policy that has been the cornerstone of Canada's monetary and fiscal policy since the early 1990s, the Bank of Canada sets an inflation target The inflation target was set at 2 per cent, which is the midpoint of an inflation range of 1 to 3 per cent. They established a set of inflation-reduction targets to keep inflation "low, stable and predictable" and to foster "confidence in the value of money", contribute to Canada's sustained growth, employment gains and improved standard of living.
In a January 9, 2019 statement on the release of the Monetary Policy Report, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen S. Poloz summarized major events since the October report, such as "negative economic consequences" of the US-led trade war with China. In response to the ongoing trade war "bond yields have fallen, yield curves have flattened even more and stock markets have repriced significantly" in "global financial markets". In Canada, low oil prices will impact Canada's "macroeconomic outlook". Canada's housing sector is not stabilizing as quickly as anticipated.
Inflation targeting
During the period that John Crow was Governor of the Bank of Canada—1987 to 1994— there was a worldwide recession and the bank rate rose to around 14% and unemployment topped 11%. Although since that time inflation-targeting has been adopted by "most advanced-world central banks", in 1991 it was innovative and Canada was an early adopter when the then-Finance Minister Michael Wilson approved the Bank of Canada's first inflation-targeting in the 1991 federal budget. The inflation target was set at 2 per cent. Inflation is measured by the total consumer price index (CPI). In 2011 the Government of Canada and the Bank of Canada extended Canada's inflation-control target to December 31, 2016. The Bank of Canada uses three unconventional instruments to achieve the inflation target: "a conditional statement on the future path of the policy rate", quantitative easing, and credit easing.
As a result, interest rates and inflation eventually came down along with the value of the Canadian dollar. From 1991 to 2011 the inflation-targeting regime kept "price gains fairly reliable".
Following the Financial crisis of 2007–08 the narrow focus of inflation-targeting as a means of providing stable growth in the Canadian economy was questioned. By 2011, the then-Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney argued that the central bank's mandate would allow for a more flexible inflation-targeting in specific situations where he would consider taking longer "than the typical six to eight quarters to return inflation to 2 per cent".
On July 15, 2015, the Bank of Canada announced that it was lowering its target for the overnight rate by another one-quarter percentage point, to 0.5 per cent "to try to stimulate an economy that appears to have failed to rebound meaningfully from the oil shock woes that dragged it into decline in the first quarter". According to the Bank of Canada announcement, in the first quarter of 2015, the total Consumer price index (CPI) inflation was about 1 per cent. This reflects "year-over-year price declines for consumer energy products". Core inflation in the first quarter of 2015 was about 2 per cent with an underlying trend in inflation at about 1.5 to 1.7 per cent.
In response to the Bank of Canada's July 15, 2015 rate adjustment, Prime Minister Stephen Harper explained that the economy was "being dragged down by forces beyond Canadian borders such as global oil prices, the European debt crisis, and China's economic slowdown" which has made the global economy "fragile".
The Chinese stock market had lost about US$3 trillion of wealth by July 2015 when panicked investors sold stocks, which created declines in the commodities markets, which in turn negatively impacted resource-producing countries like Canada.
The Bank's main priority has been to keep inflation at a moderate level. As part of that strategy, interest rates were kept at a low level for almost seven years. Since September 2010, the key interest rate (overnight rate) was 0.5%. In mid 2017, inflation remained below the Bank's 2% target, (at 1.6%) mostly because of reductions in the cost of energy, food and automobiles; as well, the economy was in a continuing spurt with a predicted GDP growth of 2.8 percent by year end. Early on July 12, 2017, the bank issued a statement that the benchmark rate would be increased to 0.75%.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, critics have pointed out that the Bank of Canada’s inflation-targeting has had unintended consequences, such as fuelling an increase in home prices and contributing to wealth inequalities by supporting higher equity values.
Key industries
In 2020, the Canadian economy had the following relative weighting by the industry as a percentage value of GDP:
Service sector
The service sector in Canada is vast and multifaceted, employing about three quarters of Canadians and accounting for 70% of GDP. The largest employer is the retail sector, employing almost 12% of Canadians. The retail industry is concentrated mainly in a small number of chain stores clustered together in shopping malls. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of big-box stores, such as Wal-Mart (of the United States), Real Canadian Superstore, and Best Buy (of the United States). This has led to fewer workers in this sector and the migration of retail jobs to the suburbs.
The second-largest portion of the service sector is the business service, and it employs only a slightly smaller percentage of the population. This includes the financial services, real estate, and communications industries. This portion of the economy has been rapidly growing in recent years. It is largely concentrated in the major urban centres, especially Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver (see Banking in Canada).
The education and health sectors are two of Canada's largest, but both are primarily under the influence of the government. The health care industry has been quickly growing and is the third-largest in Canada. Its rapid growth has led to problems for governments who must find money to fund it.
Canada has an important high tech industry, and a burgeoning film, television, and entertainment industry creating content for local and international consumption (see Media in Canada). Tourism is of ever increasing importance, with the vast majority of international visitors coming from the United States. Casino gaming is currently the fastest-growing component of the Canadian tourism industry, contributing $5 billion in profits for Canadian governments and employing 41,000 Canadians as of 2001.
Manufacturing
The general pattern of development for wealthy nations was a transition from a raw material production-based economy to a manufacturing-based economy and then to a service-based economy. At its World War II peak in 1944, Canada's manufacturing sector accounted for 29% of GDP, declining to 10.37% in 2017. Canada has not suffered as greatly as most other rich, industrialized nations from the pains of the relative decline in the importance of manufacturing since the 1960s. A 2009 study by Statistics Canada also found that, while manufacturing declined as a relative percentage of GDP from 24.3% in the 1960s to 15.6% in 2005, manufacturing volumes between 1961 and 2005 kept pace with the overall growth in the volume index of GDP. Manufacturing in Canada was especially hit hard by the financial crisis of 2007–08. As of 2017, manufacturing accounts for 10% of Canada's GDP, a relative decline of more than 5% of GDP since 2005.
Central Canada is home to branch plants to all the major American and Japanese automobile makers and many parts factories owned by Canadian firms such as Magna International and Linamar Corporation.
Steel
Canada was the world's nineteenth-largest steel exporter in 2018. In year-to-date 2019 (through March), further referred to as YTD 2019, Canada exported 1.39 million metric tons of steel, a 22 percent decrease from 1.79 million metric tons in YTD 2018. Based on available data, Canada's exports represented about 1.5 percent of all steel exported globally in 2017. By volume, Canada's 2018 steel exports represented just over one-tenth the volume of the world's largest exporter, China. In value terms, steel represented 1.4 percent of the total goods Canada exported in 2018. The growth in exports in the decade since 2009 has been 29%. The largest producers in 2018 were ArcelorMittal, Essar Steel Algoma, and the first of those alone accounted for roughly half of Canadian steel production through its two subsidiaries. The top two markets for Canada's exports were its NAFTA partners, and by themselves accounted for 92 percent of exports by volume. Canada sent 83 percent of its steel exports to the United States in YTD 2019. The gap between domestic demand and domestic production increased to −2.4 million metric tons, up from −0.2 million metric tons in YTD 2018. In YTD 2019, exports as a share of production decreased to 41.6 percent from 53 percent in YTD 2018.
In 2017, heavy industry accounted for 10.2% of Canada's Greenhouse gas emissions.
Mining
Canada is one of the largest producers of metals (as of 2019):
In 2019, the country was also the 4th largest world producer of sulfur; the world's 7th largest producer of molybdenum; the 7th worldwide producer of cobalt; the 8th largest world producer of lithium; the 8th largest world producer of zinc; the 13th largest world producer of gypsum; the 14th worldwide producer of antimony; the world's 10th largest producer of graphite; in addition to being the 6th largest world producer of salt. It was the 2nd largest producer in the world of uranium in 2018.
Energy
Canada has access to cheap sources of energy because of its geography. This has enabled the creation of several important industries, such as the large aluminum industries in British Columbia and Quebec. Canada is also one of the world's highest per capita consumers of energy.
Electricity
The electricity sector in Canada has played a significant role in the economic and political life of the country since the late 19th century. The sector is organized along provincial and territorial lines. In a majority of provinces, large government-owned integrated public utilities play a leading role in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. Ontario and Alberta have created electricity markets in the last decade in order to increase investment and competition in this sector of the economy. In 2017, the electricity sector accounted for 10% of total national greenhouse gas emissions. Canada has substantial electricity trade with the neighbouring United States amounting to 72 TWh exports and 10 TWh imports in 2017.
Hydroelectricity accounted for 59% of all electric generation in Canada in 2016, making Canada the world's second-largest producer of hydroelectricity after China. Since 1960, large hydroelectric projects, especially in Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador, have significantly increased the country's generation capacity.
The second-largest single source of power (15% of the total) is nuclear power, with several plants in Ontario generating more than half of that province's electricity and one generator in New Brunswick. This makes Canada the world's sixth-largest electricity producer generated by nuclear power, producing 95 TWh in 2017.
Fossil fuels provide 19% of Canadian electric power, about half as coal (9% of the total), and the remainder a mix of natural gas and oil. Only five provinces use coal for electricity generation. Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia rely on coal for nearly half of their generation, while other provinces and territories use little or none. Alberta and Saskatchewan also use a substantial amount of natural gas. Remote communities, including all of Nunavut and much of the Northwest Territories, produce most of their electricity from diesel generators at high economic and environmental costs. The federal government has set up initiatives to reduce dependence on diesel-fired electricity.
Non-hydro renewables are a fast-growing portion of the total, at 7% in 2016.
Oil and gas
Canada possesses extensive oil and gas resources centered in Alberta, and the Northern Territories but is also present in neighboring British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The vast Athabasca oil sands give Canada the world's third-largest reserves of oil after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to USGS. The oil and gas industry represents 27% of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions, an increase of 84% since 1990, mostly due to the development of the oil sands.
Historically, an important issue in Canadian politics is the interplay between the oil and energy industry in Western Canada and the industrial heartland of Southern Ontario. Foreign investment in Western oil projects has fueled Canada's rising dollar. This has raised the price of Ontario's manufacturing exports and made them less competitive, a problem similar to the decline of the manufacturing sector in the Netherlands.
The National Energy Policy of the early 1980s attempted to make Canada oil-sufficient and to ensure equal supply and price of oil in all parts of Canada, especially for the eastern manufacturing base. This policy proved deeply divisive as it forced Alberta to sell low-priced oil to eastern Canada. The policy was eliminated 5 years after it was first announced amid a collapse of oil prices in 1985. The new Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had campaigned against the policy in the 1984 Canadian federal election. One of the most controversial sections of the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement of 1988 was a promise that Canada would never charge the United States more for energy than fellow Canadians.
Agriculture
Canada is also one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products, particularly wheat and other grains. Canada is a major exporter of agricultural products, to the United States and Asia. As with all other developed nations, the proportion of the population and GDP devoted to agriculture fell dramatically over the 20th century. The agriculture and agri-food manufacturing sector created $49.0 billion to Canada's GDP in 2015, accounting for 2.6% of total GDP. This sector also accounts for 8.4% of Canada's Greenhouse gas emissions.
The Canadian agriculture industry receives significant government subsidies and support as with other developed nations. However, Canada has strongly supported reducing market influencing subsidies through the World Trade Organization. In 2000, Canada spent approximately CDN$4.6 billion on support for the industry. $2.32 billion was classified under the WTO designation of "green box" license, meaning it did not directly influence the market, such as money for research or disaster relief. All but $848.2 million were subsidies worth less than 5% of the value of the crops they were provided for.
Free-trade agreements
Free-trade agreements in force
Source:
Canada–Israel Free Trade Agreement (Entered into force January 1, 1997, modernization ongoing)
Canada–Chile Free Trade Agreement (Entered into force July 5, 1997)
Canada–Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement (Entered into force November 1, 2002, modernization ongoing)
Canada–European Free Trade Association Free Trade Agreement (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein; entered into force July 1, 2009)
Canada–Peru Free Trade Agreement (Entered into force August 1, 2009)
Canada–Colombia Free Trade Agreement (Signed November 21, 2008, entered into force August 15, 2011; Canada's ratification of this FTA had been dependent upon Colombia's ratification of the "Agreement Concerning Annual Reports on Human Rights and Free Trade Between Canada and the Republic of Colombia" signed on May 27, 2010)
Canada–Jordan Free Trade Agreement (Signed on June 28, 2009, entered into force October 1, 2012)
Canada–Panama Free Trade Agreement (Signed on May 14, 2010, entered into force April 1, 2013)
Canada–South Korea Free Trade Agreement (Signed on March 11, 2014, entered into force January 1, 2015)
Canada–Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (Signed 11 July 2016, entered into force August 1, 2017)
Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with EU (signed 30 October 2016, entered into force 21 September 2017)
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (signed March 8, 2018, entered into force December 30, 2018)
Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (signed November 30, 2018, entered into force July 1, 2020)
Canada–UK Trade Continuity Agreement (signed 9 December 2020, entered into force 1 April 2021)
Free-trade agreements no longer in force
Source:
Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement (signed October 12, 1987, entered into force January 1, 1989, later superseded by NAFTA)
Trans-Pacific Partnership (concluded October 5, 2015, superseded by CPTPP)
North American Free Trade Agreement (entered into force January 1, 1994, later superseded by CUSMA)
Ongoing free-trade agreements negotiations
Source:
Canada is negotiating bilateral FTAs with the following countries respectively trade blocs:
Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador
Dominican Republic
India
Japan
Morocco
Singapore
Andean Community (FTA's are already in force with Peru and Colombia)
Canada has been involved in negotiations to create the following regional trade blocks:
Canada and Central American Free Trade Agreement
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
Political issues
Canada–United States trade relations
Canada and the United States share a common trading relationship. Canada's job market continues to perform well along with the US, reaching a 30-year low in the unemployment rate in December 2006, following 14 consecutive years of employment growth.
The United States is by far Canada's largest trading partner, with more than $1.7 billion CAD in trade per day in 2005. In 2009, 73% of Canada's exports went to the United States, and 63% of Canada's imports were from the United States. Trade with Canada makes up 23% of the United States' exports and 17% of its imports. By comparison, in 2005 this was more than U.S. trade with all countries in the European Union combined, and well over twice U.S. trade with all the countries of Latin America combined. Just the two-way trade that crosses the Ambassador Bridge between Michigan and Ontario equals all U.S. exports to Japan. Canada's importance to the United States is not just a border-state phenomenon: Canada is the leading export market for 35 of 50 U.S. states, and is the United States' largest foreign supplier of energy.
Bilateral trade increased by 52% between 1989, when the U.S.–Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) went into effect, and 1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) superseded it. Trade has since increased by 40%. NAFTA continues the FTA's moves toward reducing trade barriers and establishing agreed-upon trade rules. It also resolves some long-standing bilateral irritants and liberalizes rules in several areas, including agriculture, services, energy, financial services, investment, and government procurement. NAFTA forms the largest trading area in the world, embracing the 405 million people of the three North American countries.
The largest component of U.S.–Canada trade is in the commodity sector.
The U.S. is Canada's largest agricultural export market, taking well over half of all Canadian food exports. Nearly two-thirds of Canada's forest products, including pulp and paper, are exported to the United States; 72% of Canada's total newsprint production also is exported to the U.S.
At $73.6 billion in 2004, U.S.-Canada trade in energy is the largest U.S. energy trading relationship, with the overwhelming majority ($66.7 billion) being exports from Canada. The primary components of U.S. energy trade with Canada are petroleum, natural gas, and electricity. Canada is the United States' largest oil supplier and the fifth-largest energy producing country in the world. Canada provides about 16% of U.S. oil imports and 14% of total U.S. consumption of natural gas. The United States and Canada's national electricity grids are linked, and both countries share hydropower facilities on the western borders.
While most of U.S.-Canada trade flows smoothly, there are occasionally bilateral trade disputes, particularly in the agricultural and cultural fields. Usually these issues are resolved through bilateral consultative forums or referral to World Trade Organization (WTO) or NAFTA dispute resolution. In May 1999, the U.S. and Canadian governments negotiated an agreement on magazines that provides increased access for the U.S. publishing industry to the Canadian market. The United States and Canada also have resolved several major issues involving fisheries. By common agreement, the two countries submitted a Gulf of Maine boundary dispute to the International Court of Justice in 1981; both accepted the court's October 12, 1984 ruling which demarcated the territorial sea boundary. A current issue between the United States and Canada is the ongoing softwood lumber dispute, as the U.S. alleges that Canada unfairly subsidizes its forestry industry.
In 1990, the United States and Canada signed a bilateral Fisheries Enforcement Agreement, which has served to deter illegal fishing activity and reduce the risk of injury during fisheries enforcement incidents. The U.S. and Canada signed a Pacific Salmon Agreement in June 1999 that settled differences over implementation of the 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty for the next decade.
Canada and the United States signed an aviation agreement during Bill Clinton's visit to Canada in February 1995, and air traffic between the two countries has increased dramatically as a result. The two countries also share in operation of the St. Lawrence Seaway, connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.
The U.S. remains Canada's largest foreign investor and the most popular destination for Canadian foreign investments. In 2018, the stock of U.S. direct investment in Canada totaled $406 billion, while the stock of Canadian investment in the U.S. totaled $595 billion, or 46% of the overall CDIA stock for 2018. This made Canada the second largest investing country in the U.S. for 2018 US investments are primarily directed at Canada's mining and smelting industries, petroleum, chemicals, the manufacture of machinery and transportation equipment, and finance, while Canadian investment in the United States is concentrated in manufacturing, wholesale trade, real estate, petroleum, finance, insurance and other services.
Debt
Canadian government debt
Canadian government debt, also called Canada's public debt, is the liabilities of the government sector. For 2019 (the fiscal year ending 31 March 2020), total financial liabilities or gross debt was $2434 billion for the consolidated Canadian general government (federal, provincial, territorial, and local governments combined). This corresponds to 105.3% as a ratio of GDP (GDP was $2311 billion). Of the $2434 billion, $1146 billion or 47% was federal (central) government liabilities (49.6% as a ratio of GDP). Provincial government liabilities comprise most of the remaining liabilities.
Household debt
Household debt, the amount of money that all adults in the household owe financial institutions, includes consumer debt and mortgage loans. In March 2015, the International Monetary Fund reported that Canada's high household debt was one of two vulnerable domestic areas in Canada's economy; the second is its overheated housing market.
According to Statistics Canada, total household credit as of July 2019 was CAD$2.2 trillion. According to Philip Cross of the Fraser Institute, in May 2015, while the Canadian household debt-to-income ratio is similar to that in the US, however lending standards in Canada are tighter than those in the United States to protect against high-risk borrowers taking out unsustainable debt.
Mergers and acquisitions
Since 1985, 63,755 deals in- and outbound Canada have been announced, with an overall value of US$3.7 billion. Almost 50% of the targets of Canadian companies (outbound deals) have a parent company in the US. Inbound deals are 82% percent from the US.
Here is a list of the biggest deals in Canadian history:
Raw data
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2021 (with IMF staff estimates for 2022–2027). Inflation below 5% is in green.
Unemployment rate
Export trade
Export trade from Canada measured in US dollars. In 2021, Canada exported US$503.4 billion.
That dollar amount reflects a 19.5% gain since 2017 and a 29.1% increase from 2020 to 2021.
Import trade
Import trade in 2017 measured in US dollars.
See also
Canada's Global Markets Action Plan
Comparison of Canadian and American economies
Economy of Alberta
Economy of Ontario
Economy of Quebec
Economy of Saskatchewan
History of the petroleum industry in Canada
List of Median household income of cities in Canada
List of Commonwealth of Nations countries by GDP
List of Canadian provinces and territories by gross domestic product
Notes
References
Further reading
Howlett, Michael and M. Ramesh. Political Economy of Canada: An Introduction. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1992.
Wallace, Iain, A Geography of the Canadian Economy. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2002.
External links
Statistics Canada
Department of Finance Canada
Bank of Canada
Canada – OECD
Canada profile at the CIA World Factbook
Canada profile at The World Bank
Canada Exports and Imports
Canada
Canada |
5199 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%E2%80%93United%20States%20relations | Canada–United States relations | Relations between Canada and the United States are extraordinarily positive and extensive. The two countries consider themselves among the "closest [of] allies".
Both countries are culturally a part of the Anglosphere and compose a part of the broader Western World. Starting with the American Revolution, when Loyalists were resettled in Canada, a vocal element in Canada has warned against American dominance or annexation. The War of 1812 saw invasions across the border in both directions, but the war ended with unchanged borders. The border was demilitarized, as was the Great Lakes region. The British ceased aiding Native American attacks on the United States, and the United States never again attempted to invade Canada. Apart from minor unsuccessful raids, it has remained peaceful. As Britain decided to disengage, fears of an American takeover played a role in the Canadian Confederation (1867), and Canada's rejection of free trade (1911). Military collaboration was close during World War II and continued throughout the Cold War, bilaterally through NORAD and multilaterally through NATO. A high volume of trade and migration continues between the two nations, as well as a heavy overlapping of popular and elite culture; a dynamic that has generated closer ties, especially after the signing of the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement in 1988 and the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.
Canada and the United States share the longest border () between any two nations in the world, and also have significant military interoperability. Recent difficulties have included repeated trade disputes, environmental concerns, Canadian concern for the future of oil exports, the issue of illegal immigration and the threat of terrorism. Trade has continued to expand, especially following the 1988 FTA, the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the 2020 United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), which has progressively merged the two economies. Co-operation on many fronts, such as the ease of the flow of goods, services, and people across borders are to be even more extended, as well as the establishment of joint border inspection agencies, relocation of U.S. food inspectors agents to Canadian plants and vice versa, greater sharing of intelligence, and harmonizing regulations on everything from food to manufactured goods, thus further increasing the American-Canadian assemblage.
Both Americans and Canadians have generally ranked each other as one of their respective "favorite nations".
History
Colonial wars
Before the British conquest of French Canada in 1760, there had been a series of wars between the British and the French that were fought out in the colonies as well as in Europe and the high seas. In general, the British heavily relied on American colonial militia units, while the French heavily relied on their First Nation allies. The Iroquois Nation were important allies of the British. Much of the fighting involved ambushes and small-scale warfare in the villages along the border between New England and Quebec. The New England colonies had a much larger population than Quebec, so major invasions came from south to north. The First Nation allies, only loosely controlled by the French, repeatedly raided New England villages to kidnap women and children, and torture and kill the men. Those who survived were brought up as Francophone Catholics. The tension along the border was exacerbated by religion, the French Catholics and English Protestants had a deep mutual distrust. There was a naval dimension as well, involving privateers attacking enemy merchant ships.
England seized Quebec from 1629 to 1632, and Acadia in 1613 and again from 1654 to 1670; These territories were returned to France by the peace treaties. The major wars were (to use American names), King William's War (1689–1697); Queen Anne's War (1702–1713); King George's War (1744–1748), and the French and Indian War (1755–1763). In Canada, as in Europe, this era is known as the Seven Years' War.
New England soldiers and sailors were critical to the successful British campaign to capture the French fortress of Louisbourg in 1745, and (after it had been returned by treaty) to capture it again in 1758.
American Revolutionary War
At the outset of the American Revolutionary War, the American revolutionaries hoped the French Canadians in Quebec and the Colonists in Nova Scotia would join their rebellion and they were pre-approved for joining the United States in the Articles of Confederation.
When northeastern Quebec was invaded, thousands joined the American cause and formed regiments that fought during the war; however most remained neutral and some joined the British effort. Britain advised the French Canadians that the British Empire already enshrined their rights in the Quebec Act, which the American colonies had viewed as one of the Intolerable Acts. The American invasion was a fiasco and Britain tightened its grip on its northern possessions; in 1777, a major British invasion into New York led to the surrender of the entire British army at Saratoga and led France to enter the war as an ally of the U.S. The French Canadians largely ignored France's appeals for solidarity.
The American forces had much better success in southwestern Quebec, owing to the leadership of Virginia militia leader George Rogers Clark. In 1778, 200 men under Clark, supplied and supported mainly by Virginia, came down the Ohio River near Louisville, Kentucky, marched across southern Illinois, and then captured Kaskaskia without loss of life. From there, part of his men took Vincennes, but was soon lost to British Lieutenant Colonel Henry Hamilton, the commander at Fort Detroit. It was later retaken by Clark in the Siege of Fort Vincennes in February 1779. Roughly half of Clark's militia in the theater were Canadien volunteers sympathetic to the American cause.
In the end, America won its independence and the Treaty of Paris compelled Britain to cede parts of southwestern Canada to them. Following America's independence, Canada became a refuge for about an estimated 70,000 or 15% of Loyalists who either wanted to leave the U.S. or were compelled by Patriot reprisals to do so. Among the original Loyalists, there were 3,500 free African Americans. Most went to Nova Scotia and in 1792, 1,200 migrated to Sierra Leone. About 2,000 black slaves were brought in by Loyalist owners; they remained slaves in Canada until the Empire abolished slavery in 1833. Around 85% of the loyalists remained in the new United States and became American citizens.
War of 1812
The Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, called for British forces to vacate all their forts south of the Great Lakes border. Britain refused to do so, citing failure of the United States to provide financial restitution for Loyalists who had lost property in the war. The Jay Treaty in 1795 with Great Britain resolved that lingering issue and the British departed the forts. Thomas Jefferson saw the nearby British presence as a threat to the United States, and so he opposed the Jay Treaty, and it became one of the major political issues in the United States at the time. Thousands of Americans immigrated to Upper Canada (Ontario) from 1785 to 1812 to obtain cheaper land and better tax rates prevalent in that province; despite expectations that they would be loyal to the U.S. if a war broke out, in the event they were largely non-political.
Tensions mounted again after 1805, erupting into the War of 1812, when the United States declared war on Britain. The Americans were angered by British harassment of U.S. ships on the high seas and seizure of 6,000 sailors from American ships, severe restrictions against neutral American trade with France, and British support for hostile Native American tribes in Ohio and territories the U.S. had gained in 1783. American "honor" was an implicit issue. While the Americans could not hope to defeat the Royal Navy and control the seas, they could call on an army much larger than the British garrison in Canada, and so a land invasion of Canada was proposed as the most advantageous means of attacking the British Empire. Americans on the western frontier also hoped an invasion would bring an end to British support of Native American resistance to American expansion, typified by Tecumseh's coalition of tribes. Americans may also have wanted to acquire Canada.
Once war broke out, the American strategy was to seize Canada. There was some hope that settlers in western Canada—most of them recent immigrants from the U.S.—would welcome the chance to overthrow their British rulers. However, the American invasions were defeated primarily by British regulars with support from Native Americans and Upper Canada militia. Aided by the large Royal Navy, a series of British raids on the American coast were highly successful, culminating with an attack on Washington that resulted in the British burning of the White House, the Capitol, and other public buildings. At the end of the war, Britain's American Indian allies had largely been defeated, and the Americans controlled a strip of Western Ontario centered on Fort Malden. However, Britain held much of Maine, and, with the support of their remaining American Indian allies, huge areas of the Old Northwest, including Wisconsin and much of Michigan and Illinois. With the surrender of Napoleon in 1814, Britain ended naval policies that angered Americans; with the defeat of the Indian tribes, the threat to American expansion was ended. The upshot was both the United States and Canada asserted their sovereignty, Canada remained under British rule, and London and Washington had nothing more to fight over. The war was ended by the Treaty of Ghent, which took effect in February 1815. A series of postwar agreements further stabilized peaceful relations along the Canada–US border. Canada reduced American immigration for fear of undue American influence, and built up the Anglican Church of Canada as a counterweight to the largely American Methodist and Baptist churches.
In later years, Anglophone Canadians, especially in Ontario, viewed the War of 1812 as a heroic and successful resistance against invasion and as a victory that defined them as a people. The myth that the Canadian militia had defeated the invasion almost single-handed, known logically as the "militia myth", became highly prevalent after the war, having been propounded by John Strachan, Anglican Bishop of York.
Post War of 1812 and mid-19th century
In the aftermath of the War of 1812, pro-British conservatives led by Anglican Bishop John Strachan took control in Ontario ("Upper Canada") and promoted the Anglican religion as opposed to the more republican Methodist and Baptist churches. A small interlocking elite, known as the Family Compact took full political control. Democracy, as practiced in the US, was ridiculed. The policies had the desired effect of deterring immigration from the United States. Revolts in favor of democracy in Ontario and Quebec ("Lower Canada") in 1837 were suppressed; many of the leaders fled to the US. The American policy was to largely ignore the rebellions, and indeed ignore Canada generally in favor of westward expansion of the American Frontier.
The Webster–Ashburton Treaty formalized the U.S.–Canada border in Maine, averting the Aroostook War. During the Manifest Destiny era, the "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight" agenda called for U.S. annexation of what became Western Canada; the U.S. and Britain instead agreed to a boundary of the 49th parallel. As harsher fugitive slave laws were passed, Canada became a destination for slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad.
American Civil War
During the American Civil War, the British Empire was neutral. About 40,000 Canadians volunteered for the Union Army—many already lived in the U.S., and a few for the Confederate Army. However, hundreds of Americans who were called up in the draft fled to Canada.
Several events caused strained relations between the British Empire and the United States, over the former's unofficial role in supporting the Confederacy. Blockade runners loaded with arms came from Britain and made use of Canadian ports in the Maritimes to break through the Union blockade to deliver the weaponry to the Confederacy in exchange for cotton. Attacks were made on American merchant shipping by British-built Confederate warships such as CSS Alabama. On December 7, 1863, pro-Confederate Canadian sympathizers hijacked an American steamer and killed a crew member off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts then used the steamer, originally intended as a blockade runner, to flee back to the Maritimes where they were later able to escape justice for murder and piracy. Confederate Secret Service agents also used Canada as a base to attack American border towns, such as St. Albans, Vermont on October 19, 1864, where they killed an American citizen, robbed three banks of over US$200,000, then escaped to Canada where they were arrested but then released by a Canadian court to widespread American anger. Many Americans suspected – falsely – that the Canadian government knew of the raid ahead of time. American Secretary of State William H. Seward let the British government know that "it is impossible to consider those proceedings as either legal, just or friendly towards the United States."
Alabama claims
Americans were angry at Britain's perceived support for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Some leaders demanded a huge payment, on the premise that British involvement had lengthened the war by two years, a claim confirmed by post-Civil War historians and scholars. Senator Charles Sumner, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, originally wanted to ask for $2 billion in war reparations, or alternatively the ceding of all of Canada to the United States.
When American Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the Alaska Purchase with Russia in 1867, he intended it as the first step in a comprehensive plan to gain control of the entire northwest Pacific Coast. Seward was a firm believer in Manifest Destiny, primarily for its commercial advantages to the U.S. Seward expected British Columbia to seek annexation to the U.S. and thought Britain might accept this in exchange for the Alabama claims. Soon other elements endorsed annexation, Their plan was to annex British Columbia, Red River Colony (Manitoba), and Nova Scotia, in exchange for dropping the damage claims. The idea reached a peak in the spring and summer of 1870, with American expansionists, Canadian separatists, and Pro-American Englishmen seemingly combining forces. The plan was dropped for multiple reasons. London continued to stall, American commercial and financial groups pressed Washington for a quick settlement of the dispute on a cash basis, growing Canadian nationalist sentiment in British Columbia called for staying inside the British Empire, Congress became preoccupied with Reconstruction, and most Americans showed little interest in territorial expansion.
The "Alabama Claims" dispute went to international arbitration. In one of the first major cases of arbitration, the tribunal in 1872 rejected the American claims for damages relating to the British blockade running but ordered Britain to pay $15.5 million only for damages caused by British-built Confederate ships. Britain paid and the episode ended in peaceful relations.
Late 19th century
Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867 in internal affairs while Britain retained control of diplomacy and of defence policy. Prior to Confederation, there was an Oregon boundary dispute in which the Americans claimed the 54th degree latitude. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 largely resolved the issue, splitting the disputed territory – the northern half became British Columbia, and the southern half eventually formed the states of Washington and Oregon.
Strained relations with America continued, however, due to a series of small-scale armed incursions called the "Fenian raids" conducted by Irish-American Civil War veterans across the border from 1866 to 1871 in an attempt to trade Canada for Irish independence. The American government, angry at Canadian tolerance of Confederate raiders during the American Civil War of 1861–1865, moved very slowly to disarm the Fenians. The Fenian raids were small-scale attacks carried out by the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish Republican organization based among Irish Catholics in the United States. Targets included British Army forts, customs posts and other locations near the border. The raids were small, unsuccessful episodes in 1866, and again from 1870 to 1871. They aimed to bring pressure on Great Britain to withdraw from Ireland. None of these raids achieved their aims and all were quickly defeated by local Canadian forces.
The British government, in charge of diplomatic relations, protested cautiously, as Anglo-American relations were tense. Much of the tension was relieved as the Fenians faded away and in 1872 by the settlement of the Alabama Claims, when Britain paid the U.S. $15.5 million for war losses caused by warships built in Britain and sold to the Confederacy.
Disputes over ocean boundaries on Georges Bank and over fishing, whaling, and sealing rights in the Pacific were settled by international arbitration, setting an important precedent.
Early 20th century
Alaska boundary
A short-lived controversy was the Alaska boundary dispute, settled in favor of the United States in 1903. The issue was unimportant until the Klondike Gold Rush brought tens of thousands of men to Canada's Yukon, and they had to arrive through American ports. Canada needed its port and claimed that it had a legal right to a port near the present American town of Haines, Alaska. It would provide an all-Canadian route to the rich goldfields. The dispute was settled by arbitration, and the British delegate voted with the Americans—to the astonishment and disgust of Canadians who suddenly realized that Britain considered its relations with the United States paramount compared to those with Canada. The arbitration validated the status quo, but made Canada angry at London.
1907 saw a minor controversy over USS Nashville sailing into the Great Lakes via Canada without Canadian permission. To head off future embarrassments, in 1909 the two sides signed the International Boundary Waters Treaty and the International Joint Commission was established to manage the Great Lakes and keep them disarmed. It was amended in World War II to allow the building and training of warships.
Free trade rejected
Anti-Americanism reached a shrill peak in 1911 in Canada. The Liberal government in 1911 negotiated a Reciprocity treaty with the U.S. that would lower trade barriers. Canadian manufacturing interests were alarmed that free trade would allow the bigger and more efficient American factories to take their markets. The Conservatives made it a central campaign issue in the 1911 election, warning that it would be a "sell out" to the United States with economic annexation a special danger. The Conservative slogan was "No truck or trade with the Yankees", as they appealed to Canadian nationalism and nostalgia for the British Empire to win a major victory.
World War I
British Canadians were annoyed in 1914–16 when the United States insisted on neutrality and seemed to profit heavily while Canada was sacrificing its wealth and its youth. However when the US finally declared war on Germany in April 1917, there was swift cooperation and friendly coordination, as one historian reports: Official co-operation between Canada and the United States—the pooling of grain, fuel, power, and transportation resources, the underwriting of a Canadian loan by bankers of New York—produced a good effect on the public mind. Canadian recruiting detachments were welcomed in the United States, while a reciprocal agreement was ratified to facilitate the return of draft-evaders. A Canadian War Mission was established at Washington, and in many other ways the activities of the two countries were coordinated for efficiency. Immigration regulations were relaxed and thousands of American farmhands crossed the border to assist in harvesting Canadian crops. Officially and publicly, at least, the two nations were on better terms than ever before in their history, and on the American side, this attitude extended through almost all classes of society.
Post-First World War
Canada demanded and received permission from London to send its own delegation to the Versailles Peace Talks in 1919, with the proviso that it sign the treaty under the British Empire. Canada subsequently took responsibility for its own foreign and military affairs in the 1920s. Its first ambassador to the United States, Vincent Massey, was named in 1927. The United States' first ambassador to Canada was William Phillips. Canada became an active member of the British Commonwealth, the League of Nations, and the World Court, none of which included the U.S.
In July 1923, as part of his Pacific Northwest tour and a week before his death, US President Warren Harding visited Vancouver, making him the first head of state of the United States to visit confederated Canada. The then Premier of British Columbia, John Oliver, and then mayor of Vancouver, Charles Tisdall, hosted a lunch in his honor at the Hotel Vancouver. Over 50,000 people heard Harding speak in Stanley Park. A monument to Harding designed by Charles Marega was unveiled in Stanley Park in 1925.
Relations with the United States were cordial until 1930 when Canada vehemently protested the new Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act by which the U.S. raised tariffs (taxes) on products imported from Canada. Canada retaliated with higher tariffs of its own against American products and moved toward more trade within the British Commonwealth. U.S.–Canadian trade fell 75% as the Great Depression dragged both countries down.
Down to the 1920s, the war and naval departments of both nations designed hypothetical war game scenarios on paper with the other as an enemy. These were routine training exercises; the departments were never told to get ready for a real war. In 1921, Canada developed Defence Scheme No. 1 for an attack on American cities and for forestalling an invasion by the United States until British reinforcements arrived. Through the later 1920s and 1930s, the United States Army War College developed a plan for a war with the British Empire waged largely on North American territory, in War Plan Red.
Herbert Hoover meeting in 1927 with British Ambassador Sir Esme Howard agreed on the "absurdity of contemplating the possibility of war between the United States and the British Empire".
In 1938, as the roots of World War II were set in motion, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt gave a public speech at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, declaring that the United States would not sit idly by if another power tried to dominate Canada. Diplomats saw it as a clear warning to Germany not to attack Canada.
Second World War
The two nations cooperated closely in World War II, as both nations saw new levels of prosperity and a determination to defeat the Axis powers. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and President Franklin D. Roosevelt were determined not to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors. They met in August 1940 at Ogdensburg, issuing a declaration calling for close cooperation, and formed the Permanent Joint Board on Defense (PJBD).
King sought to raise Canada's international visibility by hosting the August 1943 Quadrant conference in Quebec on military and political strategy; he was a gracious host but was kept out of the important meetings by Winston Churchill and Roosevelt.
Canada allowed the construction of the Alaska Highway and participated in the building of the atomic bomb. 49,000 Americans joined the RCAF (Canadian) or RAF (British) air forces through the Clayton Knight Committee, which had Roosevelt's permission to recruit in the U.S. in 1940–42.
American attempts in the mid-1930s to integrate British Columbia into a united West Coast military command had aroused Canadian opposition. Fearing a Japanese invasion of Canada's vulnerable British Columbia Coast, American officials urged the creation of a united military command for an eastern Pacific Ocean theater of war. Canadian leaders feared American imperialism and the loss of autonomy more than a Japanese invasion. In 1941, Canadians successfully argued within the PJBD for mutual cooperation rather than the unified command for the West Coast.
Newfoundland
The United States built large military bases in Newfoundland during World War II. At the time it was a British crown colony, having lost dominion status. The American spending ended the depression and brought new prosperity; Newfoundland's business community sought closer ties with the United States as expressed by the Economic Union Party. Ottawa took notice and wanted Newfoundland to join Canada, which it did after hotly contested referendums. There was little demand in the United States for the acquisition of Newfoundland, so the United States did not protest the British decision not to allow an American option on the Newfoundland referendum.
Cold War
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, working closely with his Foreign Minister Louis St. Laurent, handled foreign relations 1945–48 in a cautious fashion. Canada donated money to the United Kingdom to help it rebuild; was elected to the UN Security Council; and helped design NATO. However, Mackenzie King rejected free trade with the United States, and decided not to play a role in the Berlin airlift. Canada had been actively involved in the League of Nations, primarily because it could act separately from Britain. It played a modest role in the postwar formation of the United Nations, as well as the International Monetary Fund. It played a somewhat larger role in 1947 in designing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
After the mid-20th century onwards, Canada and the United States became extremely close partners. Canada was a close ally of the United States during the Cold War.
Vietnam War resisters
While Canada openly accepted draft evaders and later deserters from the United States, there was never a serious international dispute due to Canada's actions, while Sweden's acceptance was heavily criticized by the United States. The issue of accepting American exiles became a local political debate in Canada that focused on Canada's sovereignty in its immigration law. The United States did not become involved because American politicians viewed Canada as a geographically close ally not worth disturbing.
Nixon Shock 1971
The United States had become Canada's largest market, and after the war, the Canadian economy became dependent on smooth trade flows with the United States so much that in 1971 when the United States enacted the "Nixon Shock" economic policies (including a 10% tariff on all imports) it put the Canadian government into a panic. Washington refused to exempt Canada from its 1971 New Economic Policy, so Trudeau saw a solution in closer economic ties with Europe. Trudeau proposed a "Third Option" policy of diversifying Canada's trade and downgrading the importance of the American market. In a 1972 speech in Ottawa, Nixon declared the "special relationship" between Canada and the United States dead.
Relations deteriorated on many points in the Nixon years (1969–74), including trade disputes, defense agreements, energy, fishing, the environment, cultural imperialism, and foreign policy. They changed for the better when Trudeau and President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) found a better rapport. The late 1970s saw a more sympathetic American attitude toward Canadian political and economic needs, the pardoning of draft evaders who had moved to Canada, and the passing of old such as the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War. Canada more than ever welcomed American investments during "the stagflation" that hurt both nations.
1990s
The main issues in Canada–U.S. relations in the 1990s focused on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed in 1994. It created a common market that by 2014 was worth $19 trillion, encompassed 470 million people, and had created millions of jobs. Wilson says, "Few dispute that NAFTA has produced large and measurable gains for Canadian consumers, workers, and businesses". However, he adds, "NAFTA has fallen well short of expectations."
Migration history
From the 1750s to the 21st century, there has been an extensive mingling of the Canadian and American populations, with large movements in both directions.
New England Yankees settled large parts of Nova Scotia before 1775 and were neutral during the American Revolution. At the end of the American Revolution, about 75,000 United Empire Loyalists moved out of the new United States to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the lands of Quebec, east and south of Montreal. From 1790 to 1812 many farmers moved from New York and New England into Upper Canada (mostly to Niagara, and the north shore of Lake Ontario). In the mid and late 19th century gold rushes attracted American prospectors, mostly to British Columbia after the Cariboo Gold Rush, Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, and later to the Yukon Territory. In the early 20th century, the opening of land blocks in the Prairie Provinces attracted many farmers from the American Midwest. Many Mennonites immigrated from Pennsylvania and formed their own colonies. In the 1890s some Mormons went north to form communities in Alberta after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejected plural marriage. The 1960s saw the arrival of about 50,000 draft-dodgers who opposed the Vietnam War.<ref>Renee Kasinsky, "Refugees from Militarism: Draft Age Americans in Canada (1976)</ref>
Canada was a way-station through which immigrants from other lands stopped for a while, ultimately heading to the U.S. In 1851–1951, 7.1 million people arrived in Canada (mostly from Continental Europe), and 6.6 million left Canada, most of them to the U.S. After 1850, the pace of industrialization and urbanization was much faster in the United States, drawing a wide range of immigrants from the North. By 1870, 1/6 of all the people born in Canada had moved to the United States, with the highest concentrations in New England, which was the destination of Francophone emigrants from Quebec and Anglophone emigrants from the Maritimes. It was common for people to move back and forth across the border, such as seasonal lumberjacks, entrepreneurs looking for larger markets, and families looking for jobs in the textile mills that paid much higher wages than in Canada.
The southward migration slacked off after 1890, as Canadian industry began a growth spurt. By then, the American frontier was closing, and thousands of farmers looking for fresh land moved from the United States north into the Prairie Provinces. The net result of the flows was that in 1901 there were 128,000 American-born residents in Canada (3.5% of the Canadian population) and 1.18 million Canadian-born residents in the United States (1.6% of the U.S. population).
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, about 900,000 French Canadians moved to the U.S., with 395,000 residents there in 1900. Two-thirds went to mill towns in New England, where they formed distinctive ethnic communities. By the late 20th century, most had abandoned the French language (see New England French), but most kept the Catholic religion. About twice as many English Canadians came to the U.S., but they did not form distinctive ethnic settlements.
Relations between political executives
The executive of each country is represented differently. The President of the United States serves as both the head of state and head of government, and his "administration" is the executive, while the Prime Minister of Canada is head of government only, and his or her "government" or "ministry" directs the executive.
W. L. Mackenzie King and Franklin D. Roosevelt (October 1935 – April 1945)
In 1940, W.L. Mackenzie King and Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a defense pact, known as the Ogdensburg Agreement. King hosted conferences for Churchill and Roosevelt, but did not participate in the talks.
Louis St. Laurent and Harry S. Truman (November 1948 – January 1953)
Prime Minister Laurent and President Truman were both anti-communist during the early years of the Cold War.
John G. Diefenbaker and Dwight Eisenhower (June 1957 – January 1961)
President Dwight Eisenhower (1952–1961) took pains to foster good relations with Progressive Conservative John Diefenbaker (1957–1963). That led to approval of plans to join together in NORAD, an integrated air defence system, in mid-1957. Relations with President John Kennedy were much less cordial. Diefenbaker opposed apartheid in the South Africa and helped force it out of the Commonwealth of Nations. His indecision on whether to accept Bomarc nuclear missiles from the United States led to his government's downfall.
John G. Diefenbaker and John F. Kennedy (January 1961 – April 1963)
Diefenbaker and President John F. Kennedy did not get along well personally. This was evident in Diefenbaker's response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, where he was slow to support the United States. However, Diefenbaker's Minister of Defence went behind Diefenbaker's back and did send Canada's military to high alert given Canada's legal treaty obligations, and in order to try and appease Kennedy.
Lester B. Pearson and Lyndon B. Johnson (November 1963 – April 1968)
In 1965, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson gave a speech in Philadelphia criticizing American involvement in the Vietnam War. This infuriated Lyndon B. Johnson, who gave him a harsh talk, saying "You don't come here and piss on my rug".
Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan (September 1984 – January 1989)
Relations between Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan were famously close. This relationship resulted in negotiations for the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement, and the U.S.–Canada Air Quality Agreement to reduce acid-rain-causing emissions, both major policy goals of Mulroney, that would be finalized under the presidency of George H. W. Bush. Mulroney delivered eulogies at the funerals of both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
Jean Chrétien and Bill Clinton (November 1993 – January 2001)
Although Jean Chrétien was wary of appearing too close to President Bill Clinton, both men had a passion for golf. During a news conference with Prime Minister Chrétien in April 1997, President Clinton quipped "I don't know if any two world leaders have played golf together more than we have, but we meant to break a record". Their governments had many small trade quarrels over the Canadian content of American magazines, softwood lumber, and so on, but on the whole were quite friendly. Both leaders had run on reforming or abolishing NAFTA, but the agreement went ahead with the addition of environmental and labor side agreements. Crucially, the Clinton administration lent rhetorical support to Canadian unity during the 1995 referendum in Quebec on separation from Canada.
Jean Chrétien and George W. Bush (January 2001 – December 2003)
Relations between Chrétien and George W. Bush were strained throughout their overlapping times in office. Canada offered its full assistance to the U.S. as the September 11 attacks were unfolding. One tangible show of support was Operation Yellow Ribbon, in which more than 200 U.S.-bound flights were diverted to Canada after the U.S. shut down their airspace. Later, however, Chrétien publicly mused that U.S. foreign policy might be part of the "root causes" of terrorism. Some Americans criticized his "smug moralism", and Chrétien's public refusal to support the 2003 Iraq war was met with negative responses in the United States, especially among conservatives.
Stephen Harper and George W. Bush (February 2006 – January 2009)
Stephen Harper and George W. Bush were thought to share warm personal relations and also close ties between their administrations. Because Bush was so unpopular among liberals in Canada (particularly in the media), this was underplayed by the Harper government.
Shortly after being congratulated by Bush for his victory in February 2006, Harper rebuked U.S. ambassador to Canada David Wilkins for criticizing the Conservatives' plans to assert Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean waters with military force.
Stephen Harper and Barack Obama (January 2009 – November 2015)
President Barack Obama's first international trip was to Canada on February 19, 2009, thereby sending a strong message of peace and cooperation. With the exception of Canadian lobbying against "Buy American" provisions in the U.S. stimulus package, relations between the two administrations were smooth.
They also held friendly bets on hockey games during the Winter Olympic season. In the 2010 Winter Olympics hosted by Canada in Vancouver, Canada defeated the US in both gold medal matches, entitling Stephen Harper to receive a case of Molson Canadian beer from Barack Obama; in reverse, if Canada had lost, Harper would have provided a case of Yuengling beer to Obama. During the 2014 Winter Olympics, alongside U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry & Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird, Stephen Harper was given a case of Samuel Adams beer by Obama for the Canadian gold medal victory over the US in women's hockey, and the semi-final victory over the US in men's hockey.
Canada–United States Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) (2011)
On February 4, 2011, Harper and Obama issued a "Declaration on a Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness" and announced the creation of the Canada–United States Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) "to increase regulatory transparency and coordination between the two countries."
Health Canada and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the RCC mandate, undertook the "first of its kind" initiative by selecting "as its first area of alignment common cold indications for certain over-the-counter antihistamine ingredients (GC January 10, 2013)".
On December 7, 2011, Harper flew to Washington, met with Obama and signed an agreement to implement the joint action plans that had been developed since the initial meeting in February. The plans called on both countries to spend more on border infrastructure, share more information on people who cross the border, and acknowledge more of each other's safety and security inspection on third-country traffic. An editorial in The Globe and Mail praised the agreement for giving Canada the ability to track whether failed refugee claimants have left Canada via the U.S. and for eliminating "duplicated baggage screenings on connecting flights". The agreement is not a legally binding treaty, and relies on the political will and ability of the executives of both governments to implement the terms of the agreement. These types of executive agreements are routine—on both sides of the Canada–U.S. border.
Justin Trudeau and Barack Obama (November 2015 – January 2017)
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first met formally at the APEC summit meeting in Manila, Philippines in November 2015, nearly a week after the latter was sworn into the office. Both leaders expressed eagerness for increased cooperation and coordination between the two countries during the course of Trudeau's government with Trudeau promising an "enhanced Canada–U.S. partnership".
On November 6, 2015, Obama announced the U.S. State Department's rejection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the fourth phase of the Keystone oil pipeline system running between Canada and the United States, to which Trudeau expressed disappointment but said that the rejection would not damage Canada–U.S. relations and would instead provide a "fresh start" to strengthening ties through cooperation and coordination, saying that "the Canada–U.S. relationship is much bigger than any one project." Obama has since praised Trudeau's efforts to prioritize the reduction of climate change, calling it "extraordinarily helpful" to establish a worldwide consensus on addressing the issue.
Although Trudeau has told Obama his plans to withdraw Canada's McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet jets assisting in the American-led intervention against ISIL, Trudeau said that Canada will still "do more than its part" in combating the terrorist group by increasing the number of Canadian special forces members training and fighting on ground in Iraq and Syria.
Trudeau visited the White House for an official visit and state dinner on March 10, 2016. Trudeau and Obama were reported to have shared warm personal relations during the visit, making humorous remarks about which country was better at hockey and which country had better beer. Obama complimented Trudeau's 2015 election campaign for its "message of hope and change" and "positive and optimistic vision". Obama and Trudeau also held "productive" discussions on climate change and relations between the two countries, and Trudeau invited Obama to speak in the Canadian parliament in Ottawa later in the year.
Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump (January 2017 – January 2021)
Following the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Trudeau congratulated him and invited him to visit Canada at the "earliest opportunity". Prime Minister Trudeau and President Trump formally met for the first time at the White House on February 13, 2017, nearly a month after Trump was sworn into the office. Trump has ruffled relations with Canada with tariffs on softwood lumber. Diafiltered Milk was brought up by Trump as an area that needed negotiating.
In 2018, Trump and Trudeau negotiated the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), a free trade agreement concluded between Canada, Mexico, and the United States that succeeded the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement has been characterized as "NAFTA 2.0", or "New NAFTA", since many provisions from NAFTA were incorporated and its changes were seen as largely incremental. On July 1, 2020, the USMCA entered into force in all member states.
In June 2018, after Trudeau explained that Canadians would not be "pushed around" by the Trump tariffs on Canada's aluminum and steel, Trump labelled Trudeau as "dishonest" and "meek", and accused Trudeau of making "false statements", although it is unclear which statements Trump was referring to. Trump's adviser on trade, Peter Navarro, said that there was a "special place in hell" for Trudeau as he employed "bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door ... that comes right from Air Force One." Days later, Trump said that Trudeau's comments are "going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada".
In June 2019, the U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said the US "view Canada's claim that the waters of the Northwest Passage are internal waters of Canada as inconsistent with international law".
Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden (January 2021 – present)
Following the victory of Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Trudeau congratulated him on his successful victory; indicating a significant improvement in Canada–U.S. relationships, which had been strained in the years prior during the Presidency of Donald Trump.
On January 22, 2021, Biden and Trudeau held their first phone call. Trudeau was the first foreign leader to receive a phone call from Biden as President.
On February 23, 2021, Biden and Trudeau held their first bilateral meeting. Although virtual, the bilateral meeting was Biden's first as President. The two leaders discussed "COVID-19, economic recovery, climate change, and refugees and migration" among other subjects.
Military and security
The Canadian military, like forces of other NATO countries, fought alongside the United States in most major conflicts since World War II, including the Korean War, the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, and most recently the war in Afghanistan. The main exceptions to this were the Canadian government's opposition to the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, which caused some brief diplomatic tensions. Despite these issues, military relations have remained close.
American defense arrangements with Canada are more extensive than with any other country. The Permanent Joint Board of Defense, established in 1940, provides policy-level consultation on bilateral defense matters. The United States and Canada share North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mutual security commitments. In addition, American and Canadian military forces have cooperated since 1958 on continental air defense within the framework of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Canadian forces have provided indirect support for the American invasion of Iraq that began in 2003. Moreover, interoperability with the American armed forces has been a guiding principle of Canadian military force structuring and doctrine since the end of the Cold War. Canadian navy frigates, for instance, integrate seamlessly into American carrier battle groups.
In commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812 ambassadors from Canada and the US, and naval officers from both countries gathered at the Pritzker Military Library on August 17, 2012, for a panel discussion on Canada-US relations with emphasis on national security-related matters. Also as part of the commemoration, the navies of both countries sailed together throughout the Great Lakes region.
According to Canadian and U.S. officials, a U.S. fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over Canada on 23 February 2023 on the orders of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The operation was coordinated by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a joint U.S.-Canadian air defense organization. Prime Minister Trudeau said investigators were looking for debris. This decision was made following the conversation between Biden and Trudeau.
The foreign policies of the countries have been closely aligned, yet ultimately independent, since the Cold War. There is also debate on whether the Northwest Passage is in international waters or under Canadian sovereignty.
Iran hostage crisis
During the 1979 revolution, protesters invaded the US embassy and took many hostages. Six Americans evaded capture and were sheltered by the British and Canadian diplomatic missions. After a US military operation to get them out of Iran failed, Canadian diplomat Ken Taylor, Secretary of State for External Affairs Flora MacDonald, and Prime Minister Joe Clark decided to smuggle the six Americans out of Iran on an international flight by using Canadian passports. An Order in Council was made to issue multiple official copies of Canadian passports with fake identities to the American diplomats in the Canadian sanctuary. The passports contained forged Iranian visas prepared by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
War in Afghanistan
Canada's elite JTF2 unit joined American special forces in Afghanistan shortly after the al-Qaida attacks on September 11, 2001. Canadian forces joined the multinational coalition in Operation Anaconda in January 2002. On April 18, 2002, an American pilot bombed Canadian forces involved in a training exercise, killing four and wounding eight Canadians. A joint American-Canadian inquiry determined the cause of the incident to be pilot error, in which the pilot interpreted ground fire as an attack; the pilot ignored orders that he felt were "second-guessing" his field tactical decision. Canadian forces assumed a six-month command rotation of the International Security Assistance Force in 2003; in 2005, Canadians assumed operational command of the multi-national Brigade in Kandahar, with 2,300 troops, and supervises the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, where al-Qaida forces are most active. Canada has also deployed naval forces in the Persian Gulf since 1991 in support of the UN Gulf Multinational Interdiction Force.
The Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. maintains a public relations website named CanadianAlly.com, which is intended "to give American citizens a better sense of the scope of Canada's role in North American and Global Security and the War on Terror".
The New Democratic Party and some recent Liberal leadership candidates have expressed opposition to Canada's expanded role in the Afghan conflict on the ground that it is inconsistent with Canada's historic role (since the Second World War) of peacekeeping operations.
2003 Invasion of Iraq
According to contemporary polls, 71% of Canadians were opposed to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Many Canadians, and the former Liberal Cabinet headed by Paul Martin (as well as many Americans such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama), made a policy distinction between conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, unlike the Bush Doctrine, which linked these together in a "Global war on terror".
Responding to ISIS/Daesh
Canada has been involved in international responses to the threats from Daesh/ISIS/ISIL in Syria and Iraq, and is a member of the Global Coalition to Counter Daesh. In October 2016, Foreign Affairs Minister Dion and National Defence Minister Sajjan met the U.S. special envoy for this coalition. The Americans thanked Canada "for the role of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in providing training and assistance to Iraqi security forces, as well as the CAF's role in improving essential capacity-building capabilities with regional forces".
Illicit drugs
In 2003, the American government became concerned when members of the Canadian government announced plans to decriminalize marijuana. David Murray, an assistant to U.S. Drug Czar John P. Walters, said in a CBC interview that, "We would have to respond. We would be forced to respond." However, the election of the Conservative Party in early 2006 halted the liberalization of marijuana laws until the Liberal Party of Canada legalised recreational cannabis use in 2018.
A 2007 joint report by American and Canadian officials on cross-border drug smuggling indicated that, despite their best efforts, "drug trafficking still occurs in significant quantities in both directions across the border. The principal illicit substances smuggled across our shared border are MDMA (Ecstasy), cocaine, and marijuana." The report indicated that Canada was a major producer of Ecstasy and marijuana for the U.S. market, while the U.S. was a transit country for cocaine entering Canada.
Trade
Canada and the United States have the world's second largest trading relationship, with huge quantities of goods and people flowing across the border each year. Since the 1987 Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement, there have been no tariffs on most goods passed between the two countries.
In the course of the softwood lumber dispute, the U.S. has placed tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber because of what it argues is an unfair Canadian government subsidy, a claim that Canada disputes. The dispute has cycled through several agreements and arbitration cases. Other notable disputes include the Canadian Wheat Board, and Canadian cultural protectionism in cultural industries such as magazines, radio, and television. Canadians have been criticized about such things as the ban on beef since a case of Mad Cow disease was discovered in 2003 in cows from the United States (and a few subsequent cases) and the high American agricultural subsidies. Concerns in Canada also run high over aspects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) such as Chapter 11.
Environmental issues
A principal instrument of this cooperation is the International Joint Commission (IJC), established as part of the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to resolve differences and promote international cooperation on boundary waters. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1972 is another historic example of joint cooperation in controlling trans-border water pollution. However, there have been some disputes. Most recently, the Devil's Lake Outlet, a project instituted by North Dakota, has angered Manitobans who fear that their water may soon become polluted as a result of this project.
Beginning in 1986, the Canadian government of Brian Mulroney began pressing the Reagan administration for an "Acid Rain Treaty" in order to do something about U.S. industrial air pollution causing acid rain in Canada. The Reagan administration was hesitant, and questioned the science behind Mulroney's claims. However, Mulroney was able to prevail. The product was the signing and ratification of the Air Quality Agreement of 1991 by the first Bush administration. Under that treaty, the two governments consult semi-annually on trans-border air pollution, which has demonstrably reduced acid rain, and they have since signed an annex to the treaty dealing with ground level ozone in 2000. Despite this, trans-border air pollution remains an issue, particularly in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence watershed during the summer. The main source of this trans-border pollution results from coal-fired power stations, most of them located in the Midwestern United States. As part of the negotiations to create NAFTA, Canada and the U.S. signed, along with Mexico, the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation that created the Commission for Environmental Cooperation that monitors environmental issues across the continent, publishing the North American Environmental Atlas as one aspect of its monitoring duties.
Currently neither of the countries' governments support the Kyoto Protocol, which set out time scheduled curbing of greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike the United States, Canada has ratified the agreement. Yet after ratification, due to internal political conflict within Canada, the Canadian government does not enforce the Kyoto Protocol, and has received criticism from environmental groups and from other governments for its climate change positions. In January 2011, the Canadian minister of the environment, Peter Kent, explicitly stated that the policy of his government with regards to greenhouse gas emissions reductions is to wait for the United States to act first, and then try to harmonize with that action – a position that has been condemned by environmentalists and Canadian nationalists, and as well as scientists and government think-tanks.
With large freshwater supplies in Canada and long-term concern about water scarcity in parts of the United States, water export availability or restriction has been identified as an issue of possible future contention between the countries.
Newfoundland fisheries dispute
The United States and Britain had a long-standing dispute about the rights of Americans fishing in the waters near Newfoundland. Before 1776, there was no question that American fishermen, mostly from Massachusetts, had rights to use the waters off Newfoundland. In the peace treaty negotiations of 1783, the Americans insisted on a statement of these rights. However, France, an American ally, disputed the American position because France had its own specified rights in the area and wanted them to be exclusive. The Treaty of Paris (1783) gave the Americans not rights, but rather "liberties" to fish within the territorial waters of British North America and to dry fish on certain coasts.
After the War of 1812, the Convention of 1818 between the United States and Britain specified exactly what liberties were involved. Canadian and Newfoundland fishermen contested these liberties in the 1830s and 1840s. The Canadian–American Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, and the Treaty of Washington of 1871 spelled-out the liberties in more detail. However the Treaty of Washington expired in 1885, and there was a continuous round of disputes over jurisdictions and liberties. Britain and the United States sent the issue to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 1909. It produced a compromise settlement that permanently ended the problems.
Common memberships
Canada and the United States both hold membership in a number of multinational organizations, including:
Arctic Council
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Canadian Hockey League (CHL)
CONCACAF
FIBA
FIFA
Food and Agriculture Organization
G7
G-10
G-20 major economies
International Chamber of Commerce
International Development Association
International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
International Olympic Committee (IOC)
Interpol
Major League Baseball (MLB)
Major League Soccer (MLS)
National Basketball Association (NBA)
National Hockey League (NHL)
National Lacrosse League (NLL)
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
North American Numbering Plan
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Organization of American States
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America
UKUSA Community
United Nations (UN)
UNESCO
World Bowling
World Health Organization (WHO)
World Trade Organization (WTO)
World Bank
World Rugby
Territorial disputes
The two countries have had a number of territorial disputes throughout their histories. Current maritime territorial disputes between the two countries include the Beaufort Sea, Dixon Entrance, Strait of Juan de Fuca, San Juan Islands, Machias Seal Island, and North Rock. Additionally, the United States is one of several countries that contends the Northwest Passage is international waters; whereas the Canadian government asserts it forms Canadian Internal Waters. The Inside Passage is also disputed as international waters by the United States.
Historical boundary disputes include the Aroostook War at the Maine–New Brunswick border; the Oregon boundary dispute at the present day British Columbia–Washington border; and the Alaska Boundary Dispute at the Alaska–British Columbia border. The Maine–New Brunswick boundary dispute was resolved through the Webster–Ashburton Treaty in 1842, the Oregon boundary dispute through the Oregon Treaty of 1846, and the Alaska boundary dispute through arbitration in 1903.
Northwest Passage
A long-simmering dispute between Canada and the U.S. involves the issue of Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Passage (the sea passages in the Arctic). Canada's assertion that the Northwest Passage represents internal (territorial) waters has been challenged by other countries, especially the U.S., which argue that these waters constitute an international strait (international waters). Canadians were alarmed when Americans drove the reinforced oil tanker through the Northwest Passage in 1969, followed by the icebreaker Polar Sea in 1985, which actually resulted in a minor diplomatic incident. In 1970, the Canadian parliament enacted the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, which asserts Canadian regulatory control over pollution within a 100-mile zone. In response, the United States in 1970 stated, "We cannot accept the assertion of a Canadian claim that the Arctic waters are internal waters of Canada. ... Such acceptance would jeopardize the freedom of navigation essential for United States naval activities worldwide." A compromise of sorts was reached in 1988, by an agreement on "Arctic Cooperation", which pledges that voyages of American icebreakers "will be undertaken with the consent of the Government of Canada". However the agreement did not alter either country's basic legal position. Paul Cellucci, the American ambassador to Canada, in 2005 suggested to Washington that it should recognize the straits as belonging to Canada. His advice was rejected and Harper took opposite positions. The U.S. opposes Harper's proposed plan to deploy military icebreakers in the Arctic to detect interlopers and assert Canadian sovereignty over those waters.
Views of presidents and prime ministers
Presidents and prime ministers typically make formal or informal statements that indicate the diplomatic policy of their administration. Diplomats and journalists at the time—and historians since—dissect the nuances and tone to detect the warmth or coolness of the relationship.
Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, speaking at the beginning of the 1891 election (fought mostly over Canadian free trade with the United States), arguing against closer trade relations with the U.S. stated "As for myself, my course is clear. A British subject I was born—a British subject I will die. With my utmost effort, with my latest breath, will I oppose the 'veiled treason' which attempts by sordid means and mercenary proffers to lure our people from their allegiance." (February 3, 1891.)
Canada's first Prime Minister also said:
Prime Minister John Sparrow Thompson, angry at failed trade talks in 1888, privately complained to his wife, Lady Thompson, that "These Yankee politicians are the lowest race of thieves in existence."
After the World War II years of close military and economic cooperation, President Harry S. Truman said in 1947 that "Canada and the United States have reached the point where we can no longer think of each other as 'foreign' countries."
President John F. Kennedy told Parliament in Ottawa in May 1961 that "Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder."
President Lyndon Johnson helped open Expo '67 with an upbeat theme, saying that "We of the United States consider ourselves blessed. We have much to give thanks for. But the gift of providence we cherish most is that we were given as our neighbours on this wonderful continent the people and the nation of Canada." Remarks at Expo '67, Montreal, May 25, 1967.
Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau famously said that being America's neighbour "is like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast, if one can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."J. L. Granatstein and Robert Bothwell, Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy (1991) p. 51
Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, sharply at odds with the U.S. over Cold War policy, warned at a press conference in 1971 that the overwhelming American presence posed "a danger to our national identity from a cultural, economic and perhaps even military point of view."
President Richard Nixon, in a speech to Parliament in 1972 was angry at Trudeau, declared that the "special relationship" between Canada and the United States was dead. "It is time for us to recognize", he stated, "that we have very separate identities; that we have significant differences; and that nobody's interests are furthered when these realities are obscured."
In late 2001, President George W. Bush did not mention Canada during a speech in which he thanked a list of countries who had assisted in responding to the events of September 11, although Canada had provided military, financial, and other support. Ten years later, David Frum, one of President Bush's speechwriters, stated that it was an unintentional omission.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a statement congratulating Barack Obama on his inauguration, stated that "The United States remains Canada's most important ally, closest friend and largest trading partner and I look forward to working with President Obama and his administration as we build on this special relationship."
President Barack Obama, speaking in Ottawa at his first official international visit on February 19, 2009, said, "I love this country. We could not have a better friend and ally."
Public opinion
Today there remain cross-border cultural ties and according to Gallup's annual public opinion polls, Canada has consistently been Americans' favorite nation, with 96% of Americans viewing Canada favorably in 2012.Americans Give Record-High Ratings to Several U.S. Allies Gallup As of spring 2013, 64% of Canadians had a favorable view of the U.S. and 81% expressed confidence in then-US President Obama to do the right thing in international matters. According to the same poll, 30% viewed the U.S. negatively. In addition, according to Spring 2017 Global Attitudes Survey, 43% of Canadians view the U.S. positively, while 51% hold a negative view. More recently, however, a poll in January 2018 showed Canadians' approval of U.S. leadership dropped by over 40 percentage points under President Donald Trump, in line with the view of residents of many other U.S. allied and neutral countries. Since then, Canadian opinion of the U.S. has improved significantly, following an international rebound in the U.S image abroad following the transition as President of the United States from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, with 61% of Canadians having a favorable opinion of the United States in 2021.
Anti-Americanism
Since the arrival of the Loyalists as refugees from the American Revolution in the 1780s, historians have identified a constant theme of Canadian fear of the United States and of "Americanization" or a cultural takeover. In the War of 1812, for example, the enthusiastic response by French militia to defend Lower Canada reflected, according to Heidler and Heidler (2004), "the fear of Americanization". Scholars have traced this attitude over time in Ontario and Quebec.
Canadian intellectuals who wrote about the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century identified America as the world center of modernity, and deplored it. Anti-American Canadians (who admired the British Empire) explained that Canada had narrowly escaped American conquest with its rejection of tradition, its worship of "progress" and technology, and its mass culture; they explained that Canada was much better because of its commitment to orderly government and societal harmony. There were a few ardent defenders of the nation to the south, notably liberal and socialist intellectuals such as F. R. Scott and Jean-Charles Harvey (1891–1967).
Looking at television, Collins (1990) finds that it is in Anglophone Canada that fear of cultural Americanization is most powerful, for there the attractions of the U.S. are strongest. Meren (2009) argues that after 1945, the emergence of Quebec nationalism and the desire to preserve French-Canadian cultural heritage led to growing anxiety regarding American cultural imperialism and Americanization. In 2006 surveys showed that 60 percent of Québécois had a fear of Americanization, while other surveys showed they preferred their current situation to that of the Americans in the realms of health care, quality of life as seniors, environmental quality, poverty, educational system, racism and standard of living. While agreeing that job opportunities are greater in America, 89 percent disagreed with the notion that they would rather be in the United States, and they were more likely to feel closer to English Canadians than to Americans. However, there is evidence that the elites and Quebec are much less fearful of Americanization, and much more open to economic integration than the general public.
The history has been traced in detail by a leading Canadian historian J.L. Granatstein in Yankee Go Home: Canadians and Anti-Americanism (1997). Current studies report the phenomenon persists. Two scholars report, "Anti-Americanism is alive and well in Canada today, strengthened by, among other things, disputes related to NAFTA, American involvement in the Middle East, and the ever-increasing Americanization of Canadian culture." Jamie Glazov writes, "More than anything else, Diefenbaker became the tragic victim of Canadian anti-Americanism, a sentiment the prime minister had fully embraced by 1962. [He was] unable to imagine himself (or his foreign policy) without enemies." Historian J. M. Bumsted says, "In its most extreme form, Canadian suspicion of the United States has led to outbreaks of overt anti-Americanism, usually spilling over against American residents in Canada." John R. Wennersten writes, "But at the heart of Canadian anti-Americanism lies a cultural bitterness that takes an American expatriate unaware. Canadians fear the American media's influence on their culture and talk critically about how Americans are exporting a culture of violence in its television programming and movies." However Kim Nossal points out that the Canadian variety is much milder than anti-Americanism in some other countries. By contrast Americans show very little knowledge or interest one way or the other regarding Canadian affairs. Canadian historian Frank Underhill, quoting Canadian playwright Merrill Denison summed it up: "Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, whereas Canadians are malevolently informed about the United States."
Canadian public opinion on U.S. presidents
United States President George W. Bush was "deeply disliked" by a majority of Canadians according to the Arizona Daily Sun. A 2004 poll found that more than two thirds of Canadians favoured Democrat John Kerry over Bush in the 2004 presidential election, with Bush's lowest approval ratings in Canada being in the province of Quebec where just 11% of the population supported him. Canadian public opinion of Barack Obama was significantly more positive. A 2012 poll found that 65% of Canadians would vote for Obama in the 2012 presidential election "if they could" while only 9% of Canadians would vote for his Republican opponent Mitt Romney. The same study found that 61% of Canadians felt that the Obama administration had been "good" for America, while only 12% felt it had been "bad". Similarly, a Pew Research poll conducted in June 2016 found that 83% of Canadians were "confident in Obama to do the right thing regarding world affairs". The study also found that a majority of members of all three major Canadian political parties supported Obama, and also found that Obama had slightly higher approval ratings in Canada in 2012 than he did in 2008. John Ibbitson of The Globe and Mail stated in 2012 that Canadians generally supported Democratic presidents over Republican presidents, citing how President Richard Nixon was "never liked" in Canada and that Canadians generally did not approve of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's friendship with President Ronald Reagan.
A November 2016 poll found 82% of Canadians preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. A January 2017 poll found that 66% of Canadians "disapproved" of Donald Trump, with 23% approving of him and 11% being "unsure". The poll also found that only 18% of Canadians believed Trump's presidency would have a positive impact on Canada, while 63% believed it would have a negative effect. A July 2019 poll found 79% of Canadians preferred Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders over Trump. A Pew Research poll released in June 2021, showed that Canadian opinion of American president Joe Biden is much more favorable than his predecessor Donald Trump, with 77% approving of his leadership and having confidence in him to do the right thing.
Resident diplomatic missions
Resident diplomatic missions of Canada in the United States
Washington, D.C. (Embassy)
Atlanta (Consulate-General)
Boston (Consulate-General)
Chicago (Consulate-General)
Dallas (Consulate-General)
Denver (Consulate-General)
Detroit (Consulate-General)
Los Angeles (Consulate-General)
Miami (Consulate-General)
Minneapolis (Consulate-General)
New York City (Consulate-General)
San Francisco (Consulate-General)
Seattle (Consulate-General)
Houston (Trade Office)
Palo Alto (Trade Office)
San Diego (Trade Office)
Resident diplomatic missions of the United States in Canada
Ottawa (Embassy)
Calgary (Consulate-General)
Halifax (Consulate-General)
Montreal (Consulate-General)
Quebec City (Consulate-General)
Toronto (Consulate-General)
Vancouver (Consulate-General)
Winnipeg (Consulate)
See also
American Canadians
Canada–United States border
Canada–United States sports rivalries
Canadian Americans
Canadian nationalism, in which autonomy from and contrast with the United States is a major issue
Comparison of Canadian and American economies
Comparison of the Canadian and American healthcare systems
Foreign relations of Canada
Foreign relations of the United States
History of homeland security in the United States
North Atlantic triangle
Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America
United Kingdom–United States relations
List of ambassadors of Canada to the United States
List of ambassadors of the United States to Canada
References
Cited sources
Further reading
Azzi, Stephen. Reconcilable Differences: A History of Canada–US Relations (Oxford University Press, 2014)
Behiels, Michael D. and Reginald C. Stuart, eds. Transnationalism: Canada–United States History into the Twenty-First Century (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010) 312 pp. online 2012 review
Bothwell, Robert. Your Country, My Country: A Unified History of the United States and Canada (2015), 400 pages; traces relations, shared values, and differences across the centuries
Boyko, John. Cold fire: Kennedy's northern front (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2016)
Congressional Research Service. Canada–U.S. Relations (Congressional Research Service, 2021) 2021 Report, by an agency of the U.S. Congress; Updated February 10, 2021
Clarkson, Stephen. Uncle Sam and Us: Globalization, Neoconservatism and the Canadian State (University of Toronto Press, 2002)
Doran, Charles F., and James Patrick Sewell, "Anti-Americanism in Canada", Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 497, Anti-Americanism: Origins and Context (May 1988), pp. 105–119 in JSTOR
Dunning, William Archibald. The British Empire and the United States (1914) online celebratory study by leading American scholar.
Dyment, David "Doing the Continental: A New Canadian-American Relationship" (Dundurn Press, 2010)
Engler, Yves
Granatstein, J. L. Yankee Go Home: Canadians and Anti-Americanism (1997)
Granatstein, J. L. and Norman Hillmer, For Better or for Worse: Canada and the United States to the 1990s (1991)
Gravelle, Timothy B. "Partisanship, Border Proximity, and Canadian Attitudes toward North American Integration." International Journal of Public Opinion Research (2014) 26#4 pp: 453–474.
Gravelle, Timothy B. "Love Thy Neighbo (u) r? Political Attitudes, Proximity and the Mutual Perceptions of the Canadian and American Publics". Canadian Journal of Political Science (2014) 47#1 pp: 135–157.
Greaves, Wilfrid. "Democracy, Donald Trump, and the Canada-US Security Environment". (NAADSN – North American and Arctic Defense Security Network, 2020). online
Hale, Geoffrey. So Near Yet So Far: The Public and Hidden Worlds of Canada-US Relations (University of British Columbia Press, 2012); 352 pages focus on 2001–2011
Hillmer, Norman, and Philippe Lagassé, eds. Justin Trudeau and Canadian foreign policy (Springer, 2018) online.
Holland, Kenneth. "The Canada–United States defence relationship: a partnership for the twenty-first century". Canadian Foreign Policy Journal ahead-of-print (2015): 1–6. online
Holmes, Ken. "The Canadian Cognitive Bias and its Influence on Canada/US Relations". International Social Science Review (2015) 90#1 online.
Holmes, John W. "Canadian External Policies since 1945" "International Journal" 18#2 (1963) 137-147. https://doi.org/10.1177/002070206301800201 online
Holmes, John W. "Impact of Domestic Political Factors on Canadian-American Relations: Canada", International Organization, Vol. 28, No. 4, Canada and the United States: Transnational and Transgovernmental Relations (Autumn, 1974), pp. 611–635 in JSTOR
Innes, Hugh, ed. Americanization: Issues for the Seventies (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1972). ; re 1970s
Keenleyside, Hugh Ll. Canada and the United States (1929) online
Lennox, Patrick. At Home and Abroad: The Canada-U.S. Relationship and Canada's Place in the World (University of British Columbia Press; 2010) 192 pages; the post–World War II period.
Little, John Michael. "Canada Discovered: Continentalist Perceptions of the Roosevelt Administration, 1939–1945", PhD dissertation. Dissertation Abstracts International, 1978, Vol. 38 Issue 9, p5696-5697
Lumsden, Ian, ed. The Americanization of Canada, ed. for the University League for Social Reform (U of Toronto Press, 1970).
McInnis, Edgard W. The Unguarded Frontier: A History of American-Canadian Relations (1942) online; well-regarded older study
MacKenzie, Scott A. "But There Was No War: The Impossibility of a United States Invasion of Canada after the Civil War" American Review of Canadian Studies (2017): online
McKercher, Asa. Camelot and Canada: Canadian-American Relations in the Kennedy Era (Oxford UP, 2016). xii, 298 pp. 1960-1963.
Molloy, Patricia. Canada/US and Other Unfriendly Relations: Before and After 9/11 (Palgrave Macmillan; 2012) 192 pages; essays on various "myths"
Mount, Graeme S. and Edelgard Mahant. Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American Policies toward Canada during the Cold War (1999)
Mount, Graeme S. and Edelgard Mahant. ''''An Introduction to Canadian-American Relations (2nd ed.1989)
Myers, Phillip E. Dissolving Tensions: Rapprochement and Resolution in British-American-Canadian Relations in the Treaty of Washington Era, 1865–1914 (Kent State UP, 2015). x, 326 pp.
Pacheco, Daniela Pereira. "Politics on Twitter: a comparison between Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau". (ICSCP 2020). online
Paltiel, Jeremy. "Canada's middle-power ambivalence: The palimpsest of US power under the Chinese shadow". in America's Allies and the Decline of US Hegemony (Routledge, 2019) pp. 126–140.
Pederson, William D. ed. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt (2011) pp 517–41, covers FDR's policies
Stoett, Peter J. "Fairweather Friends? Canada–United States Environmental Relations in the Days of Trump and the Era of Climate Change". in Canada–US Relations (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019) pp. 105–123.
Stuart, Reginald C. Dispersed Relations: Americans and Canadians in Upper North America (2007) excerpt and text search
Tagg, James. "'And, We Burned down the White House, Too': American History, Canadian Undergraduates, and Nationalism", The History Teacher, 37#3 (May 2004), pp. 309–334 in JSTOR
Tansill, C. C. Canadian-American Relations, 1875–1911 (1943)
Thompson, John Herd, and Stephen J. Randall. Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies (4th ed. McGill-Queen's UP, 2008), 387pp, the standard scholarly survey
Wrong, Hume, and John W. Holmes. "The Canada–United States Relationship 1927/1951". International Journal 31#3 (1976): 529–45. The Canada–United States Relationship 1927/1951 online
Trade and tariffs
Ciuriak, Dan, How U.S. Trade Policy Has Changed Under President Donald Trump – Perceptions From Canada (SSRN, March 29, 2019). online or How U.S. Trade Policy Has Changed Under President Donald Trump – Perceptions From Canada
Georges, Patrick. "Canada's Trade Policy Options under Donald Trump: NAFTA's rules of origin, Canada US security perimeter, and Canada's geographical trade diversification opportunities". (Working Paper #1707E Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, 2017). online
Grey, Earl. The Commercial Policy of the British Colonies and the McKinley Tariff (London: Macmillan, 1892). online
Lawder, Robert H. Commerce between the United States & Canada, Observations on Reciprocity and the McKinley Tariff (Toronto: Monetary Times Printing, 1892). online
Muirhead, Bruce. "From Special Relationship to Third Option: Canada, the U.S., and the Nixon Shock", American Review of Canadian Studies, Vol. 34, 2004
Palen, Marc-William. "Protection, federation and union: The global impact of the McKinley tariff upon the British Empire, 1890–94". Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 38.3 (2010): 395–418 online.
Rioux, Hubert. "Canada First vs. America First: Economic Nationalism and the Evolution of Canada–US Trade Relations". European Review of International Studies 6.3 (2019): 30–56. online
Primary sources
Gallagher, Connell. "The Senator George D. Aiken Papers: Sources for the Study of Canadian-American Relations, 1930–1974". Archivaria 1#21 (1985) pp. 176–79 online.
Riddell, Walter A. ed. Documents on Canadian Foreign Policy, 1917–1939 Oxford University Press, 1962 806 pages of documents
External links
History of Canada – U.S. relations
Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Canada
Canadian Association of New York
Canada and the United States, by Stephen Azzi and J.L. Granatstein
Canadian-American Relations, by John English
A New North American Neighborhood: The Alaskan Boundary Question and Canadian American Relations, 1898–1913 Manuscript at Dartmouth College Library
United States
Bilateral relations of the United States |
5211 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity | Christianity | Christianity () is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories. They believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in Christianity) and chronicled in the New Testament.
Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches, and doctrinally diverse concerning justification and the nature of salvation, ecclesiology, ordination, and Christology. The creeds of various Christian denominations generally hold in common Jesus as the Son of God—the Logos incarnated—who ministered, suffered, and died on a cross, but rose from the dead for the salvation of humankind; and referred to as the gospel, meaning the "good news". The four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe Jesus's life and teachings, with the Old Testament as the gospels' respected background.
Christianity began in the 1st century after the birth of Jesus as a Judaic sect with Hellenistic influence, in the Roman province of Judea. The disciples of Jesus spread their faith around the Eastern Mediterranean area, despite significant persecution. The inclusion of Gentiles led Christianity to slowly separate from Judaism (2nd century). Emperor Constantine the Great decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (313), later convening the Council of Nicaea (325) where Early Christianity was consolidated into what would become the State church of the Roman Empire (380). The Church of the East and Oriental Orthodoxy both split over differences in Christology (5th century), while the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism (1054). Protestantism split into numerous denominations from the Catholic Church in the Reformation era (16th century). Following the Age of Discovery (15th–17th century), Christianity expanded throughout the world via missionary work, extensive trade and colonialism. Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization, particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The six major branches of Christianity are Roman Catholicism (1.3 billion people), Protestantism (800 million), Eastern Orthodoxy (220 million), Oriental Orthodoxy (60 million), Restorationism (35 million), and the Church of the East (600 thousand). Smaller church communities number in the thousands despite efforts toward unity (ecumenism). In the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion even with a decline in adherence, with about 70% of that population identifying as Christian. Christianity is growing in Africa and Asia, the world's most populous continents. Christians remain greatly persecuted in many regions of the world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia, and South Asia.
Etymology
Early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as 'The Way' (), probably coming from Isaiah 40:3, "prepare the way of the Lord". According to Acts 11:26, the term "Christian" (, ), meaning "followers of Christ" in reference to Jesus's disciples, was first used in the city of Antioch by the non-Jewish inhabitants there. The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity/Christianism" (, ) was by Ignatius of Antioch around 100 AD.
Beliefs
While Christians worldwide share basic convictions, there are differences of interpretations and opinions of the Bible and sacred traditions on which Christianity is based.
Creeds
Concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were later expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. "Jesus is Lord" is the earliest creed of Christianity and continues to be used, as with the World Council of Churches.
The Apostles' Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical churches of Western Christian tradition, including the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Western Rite Orthodoxy. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists.
This particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator. Each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was apparently used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Its points include:
Belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit
The death, descent into hell, resurrection and ascension of Christ
The holiness of the Church and the communion of saints
Christ's second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful
The Nicene Creed was formulated, largely in response to Arianism, at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 respectively, and ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the First Council of Ephesus in 431.
The Chalcedonian Definition, or Creed of Chalcedon, developed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, though rejected by the Oriental Orthodox, taught Christ "to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably": one divine and one human, and that both natures, while perfect in themselves, are nevertheless also perfectly united into one person.
The Athanasian Creed, received in the Western Church as having the same status as the Nicene and Chalcedonian, says: "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance".
Most Christians (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Protestant alike) accept the use of creeds and subscribe to at least one of the creeds mentioned above.
Certain Evangelical Protestants, though not all of them, reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even while agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, and the Churches of Christ.
Jesus
The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah (Christ). Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity and hold that Jesus's coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept. The core Christian belief is that through belief in and acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, sinful humans can be reconciled to God, and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life.
While there have been many theological disputes over the nature of Jesus over the earliest centuries of Christian history, generally, Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnate and "true God and true man" (or both fully divine and fully human). Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin. As fully God, he rose to life again. According to the New Testament, he rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will ultimately return to fulfill the rest of the Messianic prophecy, including the resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment, and the final establishment of the Kingdom of God.
According to the canonical gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary. Little of Jesus's childhood is recorded in the canonical gospels, although infancy gospels were popular in antiquity. In comparison, his adulthood, especially the week before his death, is well documented in the gospels contained within the New Testament, because that part of his life is believed to be most important. The biblical accounts of Jesus's ministry include: his baptism, miracles, preaching, teaching, and deeds.
Death and resurrection
Christians consider the resurrection of Jesus to be the cornerstone of their faith (see 1 Corinthians 15) and the most important event in history. Among Christian beliefs, the death and resurrection of Jesus are two core events on which much of Christian doctrine and theology is based. According to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified, died a physical death, was buried within a tomb, and rose from the dead three days later.
The New Testament mentions several post-resurrection appearances of Jesus on different occasions to his twelve apostles and disciples, including "more than five hundred brethren at once", before Jesus's ascension to heaven. Jesus's death and resurrection are commemorated by Christians in all worship services, with special emphasis during Holy Week, which includes Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The death and resurrection of Jesus are usually considered the most important events in Christian theology, partly because they demonstrate that Jesus has power over life and death and therefore has the authority and power to give people eternal life.
Christian churches accept and teach the New Testament account of the resurrection of Jesus with very few exceptions. Some modern scholars use the belief of Jesus's followers in the resurrection as a point of departure for establishing the continuity of the historical Jesus and the proclamation of the early church. Some liberal Christians do not accept a literal bodily resurrection, seeing the story as richly symbolic and spiritually nourishing myth. Arguments over death and resurrection claims occur at many religious debates and interfaith dialogues. Paul the Apostle, an early Christian convert and missionary, wrote, "If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless".
Salvation
Paul the Apostle, like Jews and Roman pagans of his time, believed that sacrifice can bring about new kinship ties, purity, and eternal life. For Paul, the necessary sacrifice was the death of Jesus: Gentiles who are "Christ's" are, like Israel, descendants of Abraham and "heirs according to the promise" The God who raised Jesus from the dead would also give new life to the "mortal bodies" of Gentile Christians, who had become with Israel, the "children of God", and were therefore no longer "in the flesh".
Modern Christian churches tend to be much more concerned with how humanity can be saved from a universal condition of sin and death than the question of how both Jews and Gentiles can be in God's family. According to Eastern Orthodox theology, based upon their understanding of the atonement as put forward by Irenaeus' recapitulation theory, Jesus' death is a ransom. This restores the relation with God, who is loving and reaches out to humanity, and offers the possibility of theosis c.q. divinization, becoming the kind of humans God wants humanity to be. According to Catholic doctrine, Jesus' death satisfies the wrath of God, aroused by the offense to God's honor caused by human's sinfulness. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation does not occur without faithfulness on the part of Christians; converts must live in accordance with principles of love and ordinarily must be baptized. In Protestant theology, Jesus' death is regarded as a substitutionary penalty carried by Jesus, for the debt that has to be paid by humankind when it broke God's moral law.
Christians differ in their views on the extent to which individuals' salvation is pre-ordained by God. Reformed theology places distinctive emphasis on grace by teaching that individuals are completely incapable of self-redemption, but that sanctifying grace is irresistible. In contrast Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Arminian Protestants believe that the exercise of free will is necessary to have faith in Jesus.
Trinity
Trinity refers to the teaching that the one God comprises three distinct, eternally co-existing persons: the Father, the Son (incarnate in Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. Together, these three persons are sometimes called the Godhead, although there is no single term in use in Scripture to denote the unified Godhead. In the words of the Athanasian Creed, an early statement of Christian belief, "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God". They are distinct from another: the Father has no source, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Though distinct, the three persons cannot be divided from one another in being or in operation. While some Christians also believe that God appeared as the Father in the Old Testament, it is agreed that he appeared as the Son in the New Testament and will still continue to manifest as the Holy Spirit in the present. But still, God still existed as three persons in each of these times. However, traditionally there is a belief that it was the Son who appeared in the Old Testament because, for example, when the Trinity is depicted in art, the Son typically has the distinctive appearance, a cruciform halo identifying Christ, and in depictions of the Garden of Eden, this looks forward to an Incarnation yet to occur. In some Early Christian sarcophagi, the Logos is distinguished with a beard, "which allows him to appear ancient, even pre-existent".
The Trinity is an essential doctrine of mainstream Christianity. From earlier than the times of the Nicene Creed (325) Christianity advocated the triune mystery-nature of God as a normative profession of faith. According to Roger E. Olson and Christopher Hall, through prayer, meditation, study and practice, the Christian community concluded "that God must exist as both a unity and trinity", codifying this in ecumenical council at the end of the 4th century.
According to this doctrine, God is not divided in the sense that each person has a third of the whole; rather, each person is considered to be fully God (see Perichoresis). The distinction lies in their relations, the Father being unbegotten; the Son being begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and (in Western Christian theology) from the Son. Regardless of this apparent difference, the three "persons" are each eternal and omnipotent. Other Christian religions including Unitarian Universalism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormonism, do not share those views on the Trinity.
The Greek word trias is first seen in this sense in the works of Theophilus of Antioch; his text reads: "of the Trinity, of God, and of His Word, and of His Wisdom". The term may have been in use before this time; its Latin equivalent, trinitas, appears afterwards with an explicit reference to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in Tertullian. In the following century, the word was in general use. It is found in many passages of Origen.
Trinitarianism
Trinitarianism denotes Christians who believe in the concept of the Trinity. Almost all Christian denominations and churches hold Trinitarian beliefs. Although the words "Trinity" and "Triune" do not appear in the Bible, beginning in the 3rd century theologians developed the term and concept to facilitate apprehension of the New Testament teachings of God as being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since that time, Christian theologians have been careful to emphasize that Trinity does not imply that there are three gods (the antitrinitarian heresy of Tritheism), nor that each hypostasis of the Trinity is one-third of an infinite God (partialism), nor that the Son and the Holy Spirit are beings created by and subordinate to the Father (Arianism). Rather, the Trinity is defined as one God in three persons.
Nontrinitarianism
Nontrinitarianism (or antitrinitarianism) refers to theology that rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. Various nontrinitarian views, such as adoptionism or modalism, existed in early Christianity, leading to disputes about Christology. Nontrinitarianism reappeared in the Gnosticism of the Cathars between the 11th and 13th centuries, among groups with Unitarian theology in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, in the 18th-century Enlightenment, among Restorationist groups arising during the Second Great Awakening of the 19th century, and most recently, in Oneness Pentecostal churches.
Eschatology
The end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world, broadly speaking, is Christian eschatology; the study of the destiny of humans as it is revealed in the Bible. The major issues in Christian eschatology are the Tribulation, death and the afterlife, (mainly for Evangelical groups) the Millennium and the following Rapture, the Second Coming of Jesus, Resurrection of the Dead, Heaven, (for liturgical branches) Purgatory, and Hell, the Last Judgment, the end of the world, and the New Heavens and New Earth.
Christians believe that the second coming of Christ will occur at the end of time, after a period of severe persecution (the Great Tribulation). All who have died will be resurrected bodily from the dead for the Last Judgment. Jesus will fully establish the Kingdom of God in fulfillment of scriptural prophecies.
Death and afterlife
Most Christians believe that human beings experience divine judgment and are rewarded either with eternal life or eternal damnation. This includes the general judgement at the resurrection of the dead as well as the belief (held by Catholics, Orthodox and most Protestants) in a judgment particular to the individual soul upon physical death.
In the Catholic branch of Christianity, those who die in a state of grace, i.e., without any mortal sin separating them from God, but are still imperfectly purified from the effects of sin, undergo purification through the intermediate state of purgatory to achieve the holiness necessary for entrance into God's presence. Those who have attained this goal are called saints (Latin sanctus, "holy").
Some Christian groups, such as Seventh-day Adventists, hold to mortalism, the belief that the human soul is not naturally immortal, and is unconscious during the intermediate state between bodily death and resurrection. These Christians also hold to Annihilationism, the belief that subsequent to the final judgement, the wicked will cease to exist rather than suffer everlasting torment. Jehovah's Witnesses hold to a similar view.
Practices
Depending on the specific denomination of Christianity, practices may include baptism, the Eucharist (Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper), prayer (including the Lord's Prayer), confession, confirmation, burial rites, marriage rites and the religious education of children. Most denominations have ordained clergy who lead regular communal worship services.
Christian rites, rituals, and ceremonies are not celebrated in one single sacred language. Many ritualistic Christian churches make a distinction between sacred language, liturgical language and vernacular language. The three important languages in the early Christian era were: Latin, Greek and Syriac.
Communal worship
Services of worship typically follow a pattern or form known as liturgy. Justin Martyr described 2nd-century Christian liturgy in his First Apology () to Emperor Antoninus Pius, and his description remains relevant to the basic structure of Christian liturgical worship:
Thus, as Justin described, Christians assemble for communal worship typically on Sunday, the day of the resurrection, though other liturgical practices often occur outside this setting. Scripture readings are drawn from the Old and New Testaments, but especially the gospels. Instruction is given based on these readings, in the form of a sermon or homily. There are a variety of congregational prayers, including thanksgiving, confession, and intercession, which occur throughout the service and take a variety of forms including recited, responsive, silent, or sung. Psalms, hymns, worship songs, and other church music may be sung. Services can be varied for special events like significant feast days.
Nearly all forms of worship incorporate the Eucharist, which consists of a meal. It is reenacted in accordance with Jesus' instruction at the Last Supper that his followers do in remembrance of him as when he gave his disciples bread, saying, "This is my body", and gave them wine saying, "This is my blood". In the early church, Christians and those yet to complete initiation would separate for the Eucharistic part of the service. Some denominations such as Confessional Lutheran churches continue to practice 'closed communion'. They offer communion to those who are already united in that denomination or sometimes individual church. Catholics further restrict participation to their members who are not in a state of mortal sin. Many other churches, such as Anglican Communion and the Methodist Churches (such as the Free Methodist Church and United Methodist Church), practice 'open communion' since they view communion as a means to unity, rather than an end, and invite all believing Christians to participate.
Sacraments or ordinances
In Christian belief and practice, a sacrament is a rite, instituted by Christ, that confers grace, constituting a sacred mystery. The term is derived from the Latin word sacramentum, which was used to translate the Greek word for mystery. Views concerning both which rites are sacramental, and what it means for an act to be a sacrament, vary among Christian denominations and traditions.
The most conventional functional definition of a sacrament is that it is an outward sign, instituted by Christ, that conveys an inward, spiritual grace through Christ. The two most widely accepted sacraments are Baptism and the Eucharist; however, the majority of Christians also recognize five additional sacraments: Confirmation (Chrismation in the Eastern tradition), Holy Orders (or ordination), Penance (or Confession), Anointing of the Sick, and Matrimony (see Christian views on marriage).
Taken together, these are the Seven Sacraments as recognized by churches in the High Church tradition—notably Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Independent Catholic, Old Catholic, many Anglicans, and some Lutherans. Most other denominations and traditions typically affirm only Baptism and Eucharist as sacraments, while some Protestant groups, such as the Quakers, reject sacramental theology. Certain denominations of Christianity, such as Anabaptists, use the term "ordinances" to refer to rites instituted by Jesus for Christians to observe. Seven ordinances have been taught in many Conservative Mennonite Anabaptist churches, which include "baptism, communion, footwashing, marriage, anointing with oil, the holy kiss, and the prayer covering".
In addition to this, the Church of the East has two additional sacraments in place of the traditional sacraments of Matrimony and the Anointing of the Sick. These include Holy Leaven (Melka) and the sign of the cross.
Liturgical calendar
Catholics, Eastern Christians, Lutherans, Anglicans and other traditional Protestant communities frame worship around the liturgical year. The liturgical cycle divides the year into a series of seasons, each with their theological emphases, and modes of prayer, which can be signified by different ways of decorating churches, colors of paraments and vestments for clergy, scriptural readings, themes for preaching and even different traditions and practices often observed personally or in the home.
Western Christian liturgical calendars are based on the cycle of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, and Eastern Christians use analogous calendars based on the cycle of their respective rites. Calendars set aside holy days, such as solemnities which commemorate an event in the life of Jesus, Mary, or the saints, and periods of fasting, such as Lent and other pious events such as memoria, or lesser festivals commemorating saints. Christian groups that do not follow a liturgical tradition often retain certain celebrations, such as Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost: these are the celebrations of Christ's birth, resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, respectively. A few denominations such as Quaker Christians make no use of a liturgical calendar.
Symbols
Most Christian denominations have not generally practiced aniconism, the avoidance or prohibition of devotional images, even if early Jewish Christians, invoking the Decalogue's prohibition of idolatry, avoided figures in their symbols.
The cross, today one of the most widely recognized symbols, was used by Christians from the earliest times. Tertullian, in his book De Corona, tells how it was already a tradition for Christians to trace the sign of the cross on their foreheads. Although the cross was known to the early Christians, the crucifix did not appear in use until the 5th century.
Among the earliest Christian symbols, that of the fish or Ichthys seems to have ranked first in importance, as seen on monumental sources such as tombs from the first decades of the 2nd century. Its popularity seemingly arose from the Greek word ichthys (fish) forming an acrostic for the Greek phrase Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ), (Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior), a concise summary of Christian faith.
Other major Christian symbols include the chi-rho monogram, the dove and olive branch (symbolic of the Holy Spirit), the sacrificial lamb (representing Christ's sacrifice), the vine (symbolizing the connection of the Christian with Christ) and many others. These all derive from passages of the New Testament.
Baptism
Baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which a person is admitted to membership of the Church. Beliefs on baptism vary among denominations. Differences occur firstly on whether the act has any spiritual significance. Some, such as the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, as well as Lutherans and Anglicans, hold to the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, which affirms that baptism creates or strengthens a person's faith, and is intimately linked to salvation. Baptists and Plymouth Brethren view baptism as a purely symbolic act, an external public declaration of the inward change which has taken place in the person, but not as spiritually efficacious. Secondly, there are differences of opinion on the methodology (or mode) of the act. These modes are: by immersion; if immersion is total, by submersion; by affusion (pouring); and by aspersion (sprinkling). Those who hold the first view may also adhere to the tradition of infant baptism; the Orthodox Churches all practice infant baptism and always baptize by total immersion repeated three times in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Lutheran Church and the Catholic Church also practice infant baptism, usually by affusion, and using the Trinitarian formula. Anabaptist Christians practice believer's baptism, in which an adult chooses to receive the ordinance after making a decision to follow Jesus. Anabaptist denominations such as the Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites use pouring as the mode to administer believer's baptism, whereas Anabaptists of the Schwarzenau Brethren and River Brethren traditions baptize by immersion.
Prayer
In the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer, which has been seen as a model for Christian prayer. The injunction for Christians to pray the Lord's prayer thrice daily was given in the Didache and came to be recited by Christians at 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm.
In the second century Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus instructed Christians to pray at seven fixed prayer times: "on rising, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight" and "the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day, being hours associated with Christ's Passion". Prayer positions, including kneeling, standing, and prostrations have been used for these seven fixed prayer times since the days of the early Church. Breviaries such as the Shehimo and Agpeya are used by Oriental Orthodox Christians to pray these canonical hours while facing in the eastward direction of prayer.
The Apostolic Tradition directed that the sign of the cross be used by Christians during the minor exorcism of baptism, during ablutions before praying at fixed prayer times, and in times of temptation.
Intercessory prayer is prayer offered for the benefit of other people. There are many intercessory prayers recorded in the Bible, including prayers of the Apostle Peter on behalf of sick persons and by prophets of the Old Testament in favor of other people. In the Epistle of James, no distinction is made between the intercessory prayer offered by ordinary believers and the prominent Old Testament prophet Elijah. The effectiveness of prayer in Christianity derives from the power of God rather than the status of the one praying.
The ancient church, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, developed a tradition of asking for the intercession of (deceased) saints, and this remains the practice of most Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, and some Lutheran and Anglican churches. Apart from certain sectors within the latter two denominations, other Churches of the Protestant Reformation, however, rejected prayer to the saints, largely on the basis of the sole mediatorship of Christ. The reformer Huldrych Zwingli admitted that he had offered prayers to the saints until his reading of the Bible convinced him that this was idolatrous.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God". The Book of Common Prayer in the Anglican tradition is a guide which provides a set order for services, containing set prayers, scripture readings, and hymns or sung Psalms. Frequently in Western Christianity, when praying, the hands are placed palms together and forward as in the feudal commendation ceremony. At other times the older orans posture may be used, with palms up and elbows in.
Scriptures
Christianity, like other religions, has adherents whose beliefs and biblical interpretations vary. Christianity regards the biblical canon, the Old Testament and the New Testament, as the inspired word of God. The traditional view of inspiration is that God worked through human authors so that what they produced was what God wished to communicate. The Greek word referring to inspiration in is theopneustos, which literally means "God-breathed".
Some believe that divine inspiration makes present Bibles inerrant. Others claim inerrancy for the Bible in its original manuscripts, although none of those are extant. Still others maintain that only a particular translation is inerrant, such as the King James Version. Another closely related view is biblical infallibility or limited inerrancy, which affirms that the Bible is free of error as a guide to salvation, but may include errors on matters such as history, geography, or science.
The canon of the Old Testament accepted by Protestant churches, which is only the Tanakh (the canon of the Hebrew Bible), is shorter than that accepted by the Orthodox and Catholic churches which also include the deuterocanonical books which appear in the Septuagint, the Orthodox canon being slightly larger than the Catholic; Protestants regard the latter as apocryphal, important historical documents which help to inform the understanding of words, grammar, and syntax used in the historical period of their conception. Some versions of the Bible include a separate Apocrypha section between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament, originally written in Koine Greek, contains 27 books which are agreed upon by all major churches.
Some denominations have additional canonical holy scriptures beyond the Bible, including the standard works of the Latter Day Saints movement and Divine Principle in the Unification Church.
Catholic interpretation
In antiquity, two schools of exegesis developed in Alexandria and Antioch. The Alexandrian interpretation, exemplified by Origen, tended to read Scripture allegorically, while the Antiochene interpretation adhered to the literal sense, holding that other meanings (called theoria) could only be accepted if based on the literal meaning.
Catholic theology distinguishes two senses of scripture: the literal and the spiritual.
The literal sense of understanding scripture is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture. The spiritual sense is further subdivided into:
The allegorical sense, which includes typology. An example would be the parting of the Red Sea being understood as a "type" (sign) of baptism.
The moral sense, which understands the scripture to contain some ethical teaching.
The anagogical sense, which applies to eschatology, eternity and the consummation of the world.
Regarding exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation, Catholic theology holds:
The injunction that all other senses of sacred scripture are based on the literal
That the historicity of the Gospels must be absolutely and constantly held
That scripture must be read within the "living Tradition of the whole Church" and
That "the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome".
Protestant interpretation
Qualities of Scripture
Many Protestant Christians, such as Lutherans and the Reformed, believe in the doctrine of sola scriptura—that the Bible is a self-sufficient revelation, the final authority on all Christian doctrine, and revealed all truth necessary for salvation; other Protestant Christians, such as Methodists and Anglicans, affirm the doctrine of prima scriptura which teaches that Scripture is the primary source for Christian doctrine, but that "tradition, experience, and reason" can nurture the Christian religion as long as they are in harmony with the Bible. Protestants characteristically believe that ordinary believers may reach an adequate understanding of Scripture because Scripture itself is clear in its meaning (or "perspicuous"). Martin Luther believed that without God's help, Scripture would be "enveloped in darkness". He advocated for "one definite and simple understanding of Scripture". John Calvin wrote, "all who refuse not to follow the Holy Spirit as their guide, find in the Scripture a clear light". Related to this is "efficacy", that Scripture is able to lead people to faith; and "sufficiency", that the Scriptures contain everything that one needs to know to obtain salvation and to live a Christian life.
Original intended meaning of Scripture
Protestants stress the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture, the historical-grammatical method. The historical-grammatical method or grammatico-historical method is an effort in Biblical hermeneutics to find the intended original meaning in the text. This original intended meaning of the text is drawn out through examination of the passage in light of the grammatical and syntactical aspects, the historical background, the literary genre, as well as theological (canonical) considerations. The historical-grammatical method distinguishes between the one original meaning and the significance of the text. The significance of the text includes the ensuing use of the text or application. The original passage is seen as having only a single meaning or sense. As Milton S. Terry said: "A fundamental principle in grammatico-historical exposition is that the words and sentences can have but one significance in one and the same connection. The moment we neglect this principle we drift out upon a sea of uncertainty and conjecture". Technically speaking, the grammatical-historical method of interpretation is distinct from the determination of the passage's significance in light of that interpretation. Taken together, both define the term (Biblical) hermeneutics.
Some Protestant interpreters make use of typology.
History
Early Christianity
Apostolic Age
Christianity developed during the 1st century AD as a Jewish Christian sect with Hellenistic influence of Second Temple Judaism. An early Jewish Christian community was founded in Jerusalem under the leadership of the Pillars of the Church, namely James the Just, the brother of Jesus, Peter, and John.
Jewish Christianity soon attracted Gentile God-fearers, posing a problem for its Jewish religious outlook, which insisted on close observance of the Jewish commandments. Paul the Apostle solved this by insisting that salvation by faith in Christ, and participation in his death and resurrection by their baptism, sufficed. At first he persecuted the early Christians, but after a conversion experience he preached to the gentiles, and is regarded as having had a formative effect on the emerging Christian identity as separate from Judaism. Eventually, his departure from Jewish customs would result in the establishment of Christianity as an independent religion.
Ante-Nicene period
This formative period was followed by the early bishops, whom Christians consider the successors of Christ's apostles. From the year 150, Christian teachers began to produce theological and apologetic works aimed at defending the faith. These authors are known as the Church Fathers, and the study of them is called patristics. Notable early Fathers include Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria and Origen.
Persecution of Christians occurred intermittently and on a small scale by both Jewish and Roman authorities, with Roman action starting at the time of the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. Examples of early executions under Jewish authority reported in the New Testament include the deaths of Saint Stephen and James, son of Zebedee. The Decian persecution was the first empire-wide conflict, when the edict of Decius in 250 AD required everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods. The Diocletianic Persecution beginning in 303 AD was also particularly severe. Roman persecution ended in 313 AD with the Edict of Milan.
While Proto-orthodox Christianity was becoming dominant, heterodox sects also existed at the same time, which held radically different beliefs. Gnostic Christianity developed a duotheistic doctrine based on illusion and enlightenment rather than forgiveness of sin. With only a few scriptures overlapping with the developing orthodox canon, most Gnostic texts and Gnostic gospels were eventually considered heretical and suppressed by mainstream Christians. A gradual splitting off of Gentile Christianity left Jewish Christians continuing to follow the Law of Moses, including practices such as circumcision. By the fifth century, they and the Jewish–Christian gospels would be largely suppressed by the dominant sects in both Judaism and Christianity.
Spread and acceptance in Roman Empire
Christianity spread to Aramaic-speaking peoples along the Mediterranean coast and also to the inland parts of the Roman Empire and beyond that into the Parthian Empire and the later Sasanian Empire, including Mesopotamia, which was dominated at different times and to varying extents by these empires. The presence of Christianity in Africa began in the middle of the 1st century in Egypt and by the end of the 2nd century in the region around Carthage. Mark the Evangelist is claimed to have started the Church of Alexandria in about 43 AD; various later churches claim this as their own legacy, including the Coptic Orthodox Church. Important Africans who influenced the early development of Christianity include Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Cyprian, Athanasius, and Augustine of Hippo.
King Tiridates III made Christianity the state religion in Armenia between 301 and 314, thus Armenia became the first officially Christian state. It was not an entirely new religion in Armenia, having penetrated into the country from at least the third century, but it may have been present even earlier.
Constantine I was exposed to Christianity in his youth, and throughout his life his support for the religion grew, culminating in baptism on his deathbed. During his reign, state-sanctioned persecution of Christians was ended with the Edict of Toleration in 311 and the Edict of Milan in 313. At that point, Christianity was still a minority belief, comprising perhaps only 5% of the Roman population. Influenced by his adviser Mardonius, Constantine's nephew Julian unsuccessfully tried to suppress Christianity. On 27 February 380, Theodosius I, Gratian, and Valentinian II established Nicene Christianity as the State church of the Roman Empire. As soon as it became connected to the state, Christianity grew wealthy; the Church solicited donations from the rich and could now own land.
Constantine was also instrumental in the convocation of the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which sought to address Arianism and formulated the Nicene Creed, which is still used by in Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and many other Protestant churches. Nicaea was the first of a series of ecumenical councils, which formally defined critical elements of the theology of the Church, notably concerning Christology. The Church of the East did not accept the third and following ecumenical councils and is still separate today by its successors (Assyrian Church of the East).
In terms of prosperity and cultural life, the Byzantine Empire was one of the peaks in Christian history and Christian civilization, and Constantinople remained the leading city of the Christian world in size, wealth, and culture. There was a renewed interest in classical Greek philosophy, as well as an increase in literary output in vernacular Greek. Byzantine art and literature held a preeminent place in Europe, and the cultural impact of Byzantine art on the West during this period was enormous and of long-lasting significance. The later rise of Islam in North Africa reduced the size and numbers of Christian congregations, leaving in large numbers only the Coptic Church in Egypt, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in the Horn of Africa and the Nubian Church in the Sudan (Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia).
Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
With the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the papacy became a political player, first visible in Pope Leo's diplomatic dealings with Huns and Vandals. The church also entered into a long period of missionary activity and expansion among the various tribes. While Arianists instituted the death penalty for practicing pagans (see the Massacre of Verden, for example), what would later become Catholicism also spread among the Hungarians, the Germanic, the Celtic, the Baltic and some Slavic peoples.
Around 500, Christianity was thoroughly integrated into Byzantine and Kingdom of Italy culture and Benedict of Nursia set out his Monastic Rule, establishing a system of regulations for the foundation and running of monasteries. Monasticism became a powerful force throughout Europe, and gave rise to many early centers of learning, most famously in Ireland, Scotland, and Gaul, contributing to the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century.
In the 7th century, Muslims conquered Syria (including Jerusalem), North Africa, and Spain, converting some of the Christian population to Islam, and placing the rest under a separate legal status. Part of the Muslims' success was due to the exhaustion of the Byzantine Empire in its decades long conflict with Persia. Beginning in the 8th century, with the rise of Carolingian leaders, the Papacy sought greater political support in the Frankish Kingdom.
The Middle Ages brought about major changes within the church. Pope Gregory the Great dramatically reformed the ecclesiastical structure and administration. In the early 8th century, iconoclasm became a divisive issue, when it was sponsored by the Byzantine emperors. The Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787) finally pronounced in favor of icons. In the early 10th century, Western Christian monasticism was further rejuvenated through the leadership of the great Benedictine monastery of Cluny.
High and Late Middle Ages
In the West, from the 11th century onward, some older cathedral schools became universities (see, for example, University of Oxford, University of Paris and University of Bologna). Previously, higher education had been the domain of Christian cathedral schools or monastic schools (Scholae monasticae), led by monks and nuns. Evidence of such schools dates back to the 6th century AD. These new universities expanded the curriculum to include academic programs for clerics, lawyers, civil servants, and physicians. The university is generally regarded as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting.
Accompanying the rise of the "new towns" throughout Europe, mendicant orders were founded, bringing the consecrated religious life out of the monastery and into the new urban setting. The two principal mendicant movements were the Franciscans and the Dominicans, founded by Francis of Assisi and Dominic, respectively. Both orders made significant contributions to the development of the great universities of Europe. Another new order was the Cistercians, whose large, isolated monasteries spearheaded the settlement of former wilderness areas. In this period, church building and ecclesiastical architecture reached new heights, culminating in the orders of Romanesque and Gothic architecture and the building of the great European cathedrals.
Christian nationalism emerged during this era in which Christians felt the impulse to recover lands in which Christianity had historically flourished. From 1095 under the pontificate of Urban II, the First Crusade was launched. These were a series of military campaigns in the Holy Land and elsewhere, initiated in response to pleas from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I for aid against Turkish expansion. The Crusades ultimately failed to stifle Islamic aggression and even contributed to Christian enmity with the sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.
The Christian Church experienced internal conflict between the 7th and 13th centuries that resulted in a schism between the Latin Church of Western Christianity branch, the now-Catholic Church, and an Eastern, largely Greek, branch (the Eastern Orthodox Church). The two sides disagreed on a number of administrative, liturgical and doctrinal issues, most prominently Eastern Orthodox opposition to papal supremacy. The Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439) attempted to reunite the churches, but in both cases, the Eastern Orthodox refused to implement the decisions, and the two principal churches remain in schism to the present day. However, the Catholic Church has achieved union with various smaller eastern churches.
In the thirteenth century, a new emphasis on Jesus' suffering, exemplified by the Franciscans' preaching, had the consequence of turning worshippers' attention towards Jews, on whom Christians had placed the blame for Jesus' death. Christianity's limited tolerance of Jews was not new—Augustine of Hippo said that Jews should not be allowed to enjoy the citizenship that Christians took for granted—but the growing antipathy towards Jews was a factor that led to the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290, the first of many such expulsions in Europe.
Beginning around 1184, following the crusade against Cathar heresy, various institutions, broadly referred to as the Inquisition, were established with the aim of suppressing heresy and securing religious and doctrinal unity within Christianity through conversion and prosecution.
Modern era
Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation
The 15th-century Renaissance brought about a renewed interest in ancient and classical learning. During the Reformation, Martin Luther posted the Ninety-five Theses 1517 against the sale of indulgences. Printed copies soon spread throughout Europe. In 1521 the Edict of Worms condemned and excommunicated Luther and his followers, resulting in the schism of the Western Christendom into several branches.
Other reformers like Zwingli, Oecolampadius, Calvin, Knox, and Arminius further criticized Catholic teaching and worship. These challenges developed into the movement called Protestantism, which repudiated the primacy of the pope, the role of tradition, the seven sacraments, and other doctrines and practices. The Reformation in England began in 1534, when King Henry VIII had himself declared head of the Church of England. Beginning in 1536, the monasteries throughout England, Wales and Ireland were dissolved.
Thomas Müntzer, Andreas Karlstadt and other theologians perceived both the Catholic Church and the confessions of the Magisterial Reformation as corrupted. Their activity brought about the Radical Reformation, which gave birth to various Anabaptist denominations.
Partly in response to the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church engaged in a substantial process of reform and renewal, known as the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reform. The Council of Trent clarified and reasserted Catholic doctrine. During the following centuries, competition between Catholicism and Protestantism became deeply entangled with political struggles among European states.
Meanwhile, the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 brought about a new wave of missionary activity. Partly from missionary zeal, but under the impetus of colonial expansion by the European powers, Christianity spread to the Americas, Oceania, East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Throughout Europe, the division caused by the Reformation led to outbreaks of religious violence and the establishment of separate state churches in Europe. Lutheranism spread into the northern, central, and eastern parts of present-day Germany, Livonia, and Scandinavia. Anglicanism was established in England in 1534. Calvinism and its varieties, such as Presbyterianism, were introduced in Scotland, the Netherlands, Hungary, Switzerland, and France. Arminianism gained followers in the Netherlands and Frisia. Ultimately, these differences led to the outbreak of conflicts in which religion played a key factor. The Thirty Years' War, the English Civil War, and the French Wars of Religion are prominent examples. These events intensified the Christian debate on persecution and toleration.
In the revival of neoplatonism Renaissance humanists did not reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the greatest works of the Renaissance were devoted to it, and the Catholic Church patronized many works of Renaissance art. Much, if not most, of the new art was commissioned by or in dedication to the Church. Some scholars and historians attribute Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution. Many well-known historical figures who influenced Western science considered themselves Christian such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle.
Post-Enlightenment
In the era known as the Great Divergence, when in the West, the Age of Enlightenment and the scientific revolution brought about great societal changes, Christianity was confronted with various forms of skepticism and with certain modern political ideologies, such as versions of socialism and liberalism. Events ranged from mere anti-clericalism to violent outbursts against Christianity, such as the dechristianization of France during the French Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, and certain Marxist movements, especially the Russian Revolution and the persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union under state atheism.
Especially pressing in Europe was the formation of nation states after the Napoleonic era. In all European countries, different Christian denominations found themselves in competition to greater or lesser extents with each other and with the state. Variables were the relative sizes of the denominations and the religious, political, and ideological orientation of the states. Urs Altermatt of the University of Fribourg, looking specifically at Catholicism in Europe, identifies four models for the European nations. In traditionally Catholic-majority countries such as Belgium, Spain, and Austria, to some extent, religious and national communities are more or less identical. Cultural symbiosis and separation are found in Poland, the Republic of Ireland, and Switzerland, all countries with competing denominations. Competition is found in Germany, the Netherlands, and again Switzerland, all countries with minority Catholic populations, which to a greater or lesser extent identified with the nation. Finally, separation between religion (again, specifically Catholicism) and the state is found to a great degree in France and Italy, countries where the state actively opposed itself to the authority of the Catholic Church.
The combined factors of the formation of nation states and ultramontanism, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, but also in England to a much lesser extent, often forced Catholic churches, organizations, and believers to choose between the national demands of the state and the authority of the Church, specifically the papacy. This conflict came to a head in the First Vatican Council, and in Germany would lead directly to the Kulturkampf.
Christian commitment in Europe dropped as modernity and secularism came into their own, particularly in the Czech Republic and Estonia, while religious commitments in America have been generally high in comparison to Europe. Changes in worldwide Christianity over the last century have been significant, since 1900, Christianity has spread rapidly in the Global South and Third World countries. The late 20th century has shown the shift of Christian adherence to the Third World and the Southern Hemisphere in general, with the West no longer the chief standard bearer of Christianity. Approximately 7 to 10% of Arabs are Christians, most prevalent in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.
Demographics
With around 2.4 billion adherents according to a 2020 estimation by Pew Research Center, split into three main branches of Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox, Christianity is the world's largest religion. High birth rates and conversions in the global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growth. The Christian share of the world's population has stood at around 33% for the last hundred years, which means that one in three persons on Earth are Christians. This masks a major shift in the demographics of Christianity; large increases in the developing world have been accompanied by substantial declines in the developed world, mainly in Western Europe and North America. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center study, within the next four decades, Christianity will remain the largest religion; and by 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion.
According to some scholars, Christianity ranks at first place in net gains through religious conversion. As a percentage of Christians, the Catholic Church and Orthodoxy (both Eastern and Oriental) are declining in some parts of the world (though Catholicism is growing in Asia, in Africa, vibrant in Eastern Europe, etc.), while Protestants and other Christians are on the rise in the developing world. The so-called popular Protestantism is one of the fastest growing religious categories in the world. Nevertheless, Catholicism will also continue to grow to 1.63 billion by 2050, according to Todd Johnson of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. Africa alone, by 2015, will be home to 230 million African Catholics. And if in 2018, the U.N. projects that Africa's population will reach 4.5 billion by 2100 (not 2 billion as predicted in 2004), Catholicism will indeed grow, as will other religious groups. According to Pew Research Center, Africa is expected to be home to 1.1 billion African Christians by 2050.
In 2010, 87% of the world's Christian population lived in countries where Christians are in the majority, while 13% of the world's Christian population lived in countries where Christians are in the minority. Christianity is the predominant religion in Europe, the Americas, Oceania, and Sub-Saharan Africa. There are also large Christian communities in other parts of the world, such as Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. In Asia, it is the dominant religion in Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, East Timor, and the Philippines. However, it is declining in some areas including the northern and western United States, some areas in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), northern Europe (including Great Britain, Scandinavia and other places), France, Germany, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, and some parts of Asia (especially the Middle East, due to the Christian emigration, and Macau).
The Christian population is not decreasing in Brazil, the southern United States, and the province of Alberta, Canada, but the percentage is decreasing. Since the fall of communism, the proportion of Christians has been stable or even increased in the Central and Eastern European countries. Christianity is growing rapidly in both numbers and percentage in China, other Asian countries, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, North Africa (Maghreb), Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and Oceania.
Despite a decline in adherence in the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion in the region, with about 70% of that population identifying as Christian. Christianity remains the largest religion in Western Europe, where 71% of Western Europeans identified themselves as Christian in 2018. A 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that 76% of Europeans, 73% in Oceania and about 86% in the Americas (90% in Latin America and 77% in North America) identified themselves as Christians. By 2010 about 157 countries and territories in the world had Christian majorities.
There are many charismatic movements that have become well established over large parts of the world, especially Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Since 1900, primarily due to conversion, Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America. From 1960 to 2000, the global growth of the number of reported Evangelical Protestants grew three times the world's population rate, and twice that of Islam. According to the historian Geoffrey Blainey from the University of Melbourne, since the 1960s there has been a substantial increase in the number of conversions from Islam to Christianity, mostly to the Evangelical and Pentecostal forms.
A study conducted by St. Mary's University estimated about 10.2 million Muslim converts to Christianity in 2015; according to the study significant numbers of Muslim converts to Christianity can be found in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Central Asia (including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries), Indonesia, Malaysia, the Middle East (including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other countries), North Africa (including Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia), Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Western World (including Albania, Belgium, France, Germany, Kosovo, the Netherlands, Russia, Scandinavia, United Kingdom, the United States, and other western countries). It is also reported that Christianity is popular among people of different backgrounds in Africa and Asia; according to a report by the Singapore Management University, more people in Southeast Asia are converting to Christianity, many of them young and having a university degree. According to scholar Juliette Koning and Heidi Dahles of there is a "rapid expansion" of Christianity in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea. According to scholar Terence Chong from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, since the 1980s Christianity is expanding in China, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam.
In most countries in the developed world, church attendance among people who continue to identify themselves as Christians has been falling over the last few decades. Some sources view this as part of a drift away from traditional membership institutions, while others link it to signs of a decline in belief in the importance of religion in general. Europe's Christian population, though in decline, still constitutes the largest geographical component of the religion. According to data from the 2012 European Social Survey, around a third of European Christians say they attend services once a month or more. Conversely, according to the World Values Survey, about more than two-thirds of Latin American Christians, and about 90% of African Christians (in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe) said they attended church regularly. According to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center, Christians in Africa and Latin America and the United States have high levels of commitment to their faith.
Christianity, in one form or another, is the sole state religion of the following nations: Argentina (Catholic), Costa Rica (Catholic), the Kingdom of Denmark (Lutheran), England (Anglican), Greece (Greek Orthodox), Iceland (Lutheran), Liechtenstein (Catholic), Malta (Catholic), Monaco (Catholic), Norway (Lutheran), Samoa, Tonga (Methodist), Tuvalu (Reformed), and Vatican City (Catholic).
There are numerous other countries, such as Cyprus, which although do not have an established church, still give official recognition and support to a specific Christian denomination.
Churches and denominations
Christianity can be taxonomically divided into six main groups: Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Church of the East, and Restorationism. A broader distinction that is sometimes drawn is between Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity, which has its origins in the East–West Schism (Great Schism) of the 11th century. Recently, neither Western nor Eastern World Christianity has also stood out, for example, in African-initiated churches. However, there are other present and historical Christian groups that do not fit neatly into one of these primary categories.
There is a diversity of doctrines and liturgical practices among groups calling themselves Christian. These groups may vary ecclesiologically in their views on a classification of Christian denominations. The Nicene Creed (325), however, is typically accepted as authoritative by most Christians, including the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and major Protestant, such as Lutheran and Anglican denominations.
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church consists of those particular Churches, headed by bishops, in communion with the pope, the bishop of Rome, as its highest authority in matters of faith, morality, and church governance. Like Eastern Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church, through apostolic succession, traces its origins to the Christian community founded by Jesus Christ. Catholics maintain that the "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church" founded by Jesus subsists fully in the Catholic Church, but also acknowledges other Christian churches and communities and works towards reconciliation among all Christians. The Catholic faith is detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Of its seven sacraments, the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest, the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven, honoured in dogmas and devotions. Its teaching includes Divine Mercy, sanctification through faith and evangelization of the Gospel as well as Catholic social teaching, which emphasises voluntary support for the sick, the poor, and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church operates thousands of Catholic schools, universities, hospitals, and orphanages around the world, and is the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world. Among its other social services are numerous charitable and humanitarian organizations.
Canon law () is the system of laws and legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regulate its external organisation and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the church. The canon law of the Latin Church was the first modern Western legal system, and is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West. while the distinctive traditions of Eastern Catholic canon law govern the 23 Eastern Catholic particular churches sui iuris.
As the world's oldest and largest continuously functioning international institution, it has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization. The 2,834 sees are grouped into 24 particular autonomous Churches (the largest of which being the Latin Church), each with its own distinct traditions regarding the liturgy and the administering of sacraments. With more than 1.1 billion baptized members, the Catholic Church is the largest Christian church and represents 50.1% of all Christians as well as 16.7% of the world's population. Catholics live all over the world through missions, diaspora, and conversions.
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church consists of those churches in communion with the patriarchal sees of the East, such as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Like the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church also traces its heritage to the foundation of Christianity through apostolic succession and has an episcopal structure, though the autonomy of its component parts is emphasized, and most of them are national churches.
Eastern Orthodox theology is based on holy tradition which incorporates the dogmatic decrees of the seven Ecumenical Councils, the Scriptures, and the teaching of the Church Fathers. The church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission, and that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles. It maintains that it practises the original Christian faith, as passed down by holy tradition. Its patriarchates, reminiscent of the pentarchy, and other autocephalous and autonomous churches reflect a variety of hierarchical organisation. It recognises seven major sacraments, of which the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in synaxis. The church teaches that through consecration invoked by a priest, the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the God-bearer, honoured in devotions.
Eastern Orthodoxy is the second largest single denomination in Christianity, with an estimated 230 million adherents, although Protestants collectively outnumber them, substantially. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the Near East. The majority of Eastern Orthodox Christians live mainly in Southeast and Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Georgia, and parts of the Caucasus region, Siberia, and the Russian Far East. Over half of Eastern Orthodox Christians follow the Russian Orthodox Church, while the vast majority live within Russia. There are also communities in the former Byzantine regions of Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and in the Middle East. Eastern Orthodox communities are also present in many other parts of the world, particularly North America, Western Europe, and Australia, formed through diaspora, conversions, and missionary activity.
Oriental Orthodoxy
The Oriental Orthodox Churches (also called "Old Oriental" churches) are those eastern churches that recognize the first three ecumenical councils—Nicaea, Constantinople, and Ephesus—but reject the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon and instead espouse a Miaphysite christology.
The Oriental Orthodox communion consists of six groups: Syriac Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Eritrean Orthodox, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (India), and Armenian Apostolic churches. These six churches, while being in communion with each other, are completely independent hierarchically. These churches are generally not in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church, with whom they are in dialogue for erecting a communion. Together, they have about 62 million members worldwide.
As some of the oldest religious institutions in the world, the Oriental Orthodox Churches have played a prominent role in the history and culture of Armenia, Egypt, Turkey, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and parts of the Middle East and India. An Eastern Christian body of autocephalous churches, its bishops are equal by virtue of episcopal ordination, and its doctrines can be summarized in that the churches recognize the validity of only the first three ecumenical councils.
Some Oriental Orthodox Churches such as the Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Eritrean Orthodox, places a heavier emphasis on Old Testament teachings than one might find in other Christian denominations, and its followers adhere to certain practices: following dietary rules that are similar to Jewish Kashrut, require that their male members undergo circumcision, and observes ritual purification.
Church of the East
The Church of the East, which was part of the Great Church, shared communion with those in the Roman Empire until the Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorius in 431. Continuing as a dhimmi community under the Sunni Caliphate after the Muslim conquest of Persia (633–654), the Church of the East played a major role in the history of Christianity in Asia. Between the 9th and 14th centuries, it represented the world's largest Christian denomination in terms of geographical extent. It established dioceses and communities stretching from the Mediterranean Sea and today's Iraq and Iran, to India (the Saint Thomas Syrian Christians of Kerala), the Mongol kingdoms in Central Asia, and China during the Tang dynasty (7th–9th centuries). In the 13th and 14th centuries, the church experienced a final period of expansion under the Mongol Empire, where influential Church of the East clergy sat in the Mongol court.
The Assyrian Church of the East, with an unbroken patriarchate established in the 17th century, is an independent Eastern Christian denomination which claims continuity from the Church of the East—in parallel to the Catholic patriarchate established in the 16th century that evolved into the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Pope. It is an Eastern Christian church that follows the traditional christology and ecclesiology of the historical Church of the East. Largely aniconic and not in communion with any other church, it belongs to the eastern branch of Syriac Christianity, and uses the East Syriac Rite in its liturgy.
Its main spoken language is Syriac, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic, and the majority of its adherents are ethnic Assyrians, mostly living in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, India (Chaldean Syrian Church), and in the Assyrian diaspora. It is officially headquartered in the city of Erbil in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, and its original area also spreads into south-eastern Turkey and north-western Iran, corresponding to ancient Assyria. Its hierarchy is composed of metropolitan bishops and diocesan bishops, while lower clergy consists of priests and deacons, who serve in dioceses (eparchies) and parishes throughout the Middle East, India, North America, Oceania, and Europe (including the Caucasus and Russia).
The Ancient Church of the East distinguished itself from the Assyrian Church of the East in 1964. It is one of the Assyrian churches that claim continuity with the historical Church of the East, one of the oldest Christian churches in Mesopotamia. It is officially headquartered in the city of Baghdad, Iraq. The majority of its adherents are ethnic Assyrians.
Protestantism
In 1521, the Edict of Worms condemned Martin Luther and officially banned citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas. This split within the Roman Catholic church is now called the Reformation. Prominent Reformers included Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Calvin. The 1529 Protestation at Speyer against being excommunicated gave this party the name Protestantism. Luther's primary theological heirs are known as Lutherans. Zwingli and Calvin's heirs are far broader denominationally and are referred to as the Reformed tradition. Protestants have developed their own culture, with major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, and many other fields.
The Anglican churches descended from the Church of England and organized in the Anglican Communion. Some, but not all Anglicans consider themselves both Protestant and Catholic.
Since the Anglican, Lutheran, and the Reformed branches of Protestantism originated for the most part in cooperation with the government, these movements are termed the "Magisterial Reformation". On the other hand, groups such as the Anabaptists, who often do not consider themselves to be Protestant, originated in the Radical Reformation, which though sometimes protected under Acts of Toleration, do not trace their history back to any state church. They are further distinguished by their rejection of infant baptism; they believe in baptism only of adult believers—credobaptism (Anabaptists include the Amish, Apostolic, Bruderhof, Mennonites, Hutterites, River Brethren and Schwarzenau Brethren groups.)
The term Protestant also refers to any churches which formed later, with either the Magisterial or Radical traditions. In the 18th century, for example, Methodism grew out of Anglican minister John Wesley's evangelical revival movement. Several Pentecostal and non-denominational churches, which emphasize the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, in turn grew out of Methodism. Because Methodists, Pentecostals and other evangelicals stress "accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior", which comes from Wesley's emphasis of the New Birth, they often refer to themselves as being born-again.
Protestantism is the second largest major group of Christians after Catholicism by number of followers, although the Eastern Orthodox Church is larger than any single Protestant denomination. Estimates vary, mainly over the question of which denominations to classify as Protestant. Yet, the total number of Protestant Christians is generally estimated between 800 million and 1 billion, corresponding to nearly 40% of the world's Christians. The majority of Protestants are members of just a handful of denominational families, i.e. Adventists, Anglicans, Baptists, Reformed (Calvinists), Lutherans, Methodists, Moravians/Hussites, and Pentecostals. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, neo-charismatic, independent, and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity.
Some groups of individuals who hold basic Protestant tenets identify themselves as "Christians" or "born-again Christians". They typically distance themselves from the confessionalism and creedalism of other Christian communities by calling themselves "non-denominational" or "evangelical". Often founded by individual pastors, they have little affiliation with historic denominations.
Restorationism
The Second Great Awakening, a period of religious revival that occurred in the United States during the early 1800s, saw the development of a number of unrelated churches. They generally saw themselves as restoring the original church of Jesus Christ rather than reforming one of the existing churches. A common belief held by Restorationists was that the other divisions of Christianity had introduced doctrinal defects into Christianity, which was known as the Great Apostasy. In Asia, is a known restorationist religion that was established during the early 1900s.
Some of the churches originating during this period are historically connected to early 19th-century camp meetings in the Midwest and upstate New York. One of the largest churches produced from the movement is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. American Millennialism and Adventism, which arose from Evangelical Protestantism, influenced the Jehovah's Witnesses movement and, as a reaction specifically to William Miller, the Seventh-day Adventists. Others, including the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, Churches of Christ, and the Christian churches and churches of Christ, have their roots in the contemporaneous Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, which was centered in Kentucky and Tennessee. Other groups originating in this time period include the Christadelphians and the previously mentioned Latter Day Saints movement. While the churches originating in the Second Great Awakening have some superficial similarities, their doctrine and practices vary significantly.
Other
Within Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Transylvania, Hungary, Romania, and the United Kingdom, Unitarian Churches emerged from the Reformed tradition in the 16th century; the Unitarian Church of Transylvania is an example of such a denomination that arose in this era. They adopted the Anabaptist doctrine of credobaptism.
Various smaller Independent Catholic communities, such as the Old Catholic Church, include the word Catholic in their title, and arguably have more or less liturgical practices in common with the Catholic Church but are no longer in full communion with the Holy See.
Spiritual Christians, such as the Doukhobors and Molokans, broke from the Russian Orthodox Church and maintain close association with Mennonites and Quakers due to similar religious practices; all of these groups are furthermore collectively considered to be peace churches due to their belief in pacifism.
Messianic Judaism (or the Messianic Movement) is the name of a Christian movement comprising a number of streams, whose members may consider themselves Jewish. The movement originated in the 1960s and 1970s, and it blends elements of religious Jewish practice with evangelical Christianity. Messianic Judaism affirms Christian creeds such as the messiahship and divinity of "Yeshua" (the Hebrew name of Jesus) and the Triune Nature of God, while also adhering to some Jewish dietary laws and customs.
Esoteric Christians, such as The Christian Community, regard Christianity as a mystery religion and profess the existence and possession of certain esoteric doctrines or practices, hidden from the public and accessible only to a narrow circle of "enlightened", "initiated", or highly educated people.
Nondenominational Christianity or non-denominational Christianity consists of churches which typically distance themselves from the confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian communities by not formally aligning with a specific Christian denomination. Nondenominational Christianity first arose in the 18th century through the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, with followers organizing themselves as "Christians" and "Disciples of Christ", but many typically adhere to evangelical Christianity.
Cultural influence
The history of the Christendom spans about 1,700 years and includes a variety of socio-political developments, as well as advances in the arts, architecture, literature, science, philosophy, and technology. Since the spread of Christianity from the Levant to Europe and North Africa during the early Roman Empire, Christendom has been divided in the pre-existing Greek East and Latin West. Consequently, different versions of the Christian cultures arose with their own rites and practices, centred around the cities of Rome (Western Christianity) and Carthage, whose communities were called Western or Latin Christendom, and Constantinople (Eastern Christianity), Antioch (Syriac Christianity), Kerala (Indian Christianity) and Alexandria (Coptic Christianity), whose communities were called Eastern or Oriental Christendom. The Byzantine Empire was one of the peaks in Christian history and Eastern Christian civilization. From the 11th to 13th centuries, Latin Christendom rose to the central role of the Western world.
The Bible has had a profound influence on Western civilization and on cultures around the globe; it has contributed to the formation of Western law, art, texts, and education. With a literary tradition spanning two millennia, the Bible is one of the most influential works ever written. From practices of personal hygiene to philosophy and ethics, the Bible has directly and indirectly influenced politics and law, war and peace, sexual morals, marriage and family life, toilet etiquette, letters and learning, the arts, economics, social justice, medical care and more.
Christians have made a myriad of contributions to human progress in a broad and diverse range of fields, including philosophy, science and technology, medicine, fine arts and architecture, politics, literatures, music, and business. According to 100 Years of Nobel Prizes a review of the Nobel Prizes award between 1901 and 2000 reveals that (65.4%) of Nobel Prizes Laureates, have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference.
Outside the Western world, Christianity has had an influence on various cultures, such as in Africa, the Near East, Middle East, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Eastern Christian scientists and scholars of the medieval Islamic world (particularly Jacobite and Nestorian Christians) contributed to the Arab Islamic civilization during the reign of the Ummayyads and the Abbasids, by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterwards, to Arabic. They also excelled in philosophy, science, theology, and medicine. Scholars and intellectuals agree Christians in the Middle East have made significant contributions to Arab and Islamic civilization since the introduction of Islam, and they have had a significant impact contributing the culture of the Mashriq, Turkey, and Iran.
Influence on Western culture
Western culture, throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture, and a large portion of the population of the Western Hemisphere can be described as practicing or nominal Christians. The notion of "Europe" and the "Western World" has been intimately connected with the concept of "Christianity and Christendom". Many historians even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity.
Though Western culture contained several polytheistic religions during its early years under the Greek and Roman Empires, as the centralized Roman power waned, the dominance of the Catholic Church was the only consistent force in Western Europe. Until the Age of Enlightenment, Christian culture guided the course of philosophy, literature, art, music and science. Christian disciplines of the respective arts have subsequently developed into Christian philosophy, Christian art, Christian music, Christian literature, and so on.
Christianity has had a significant impact on education, as the church created the bases of the Western system of education, and was the sponsor of founding universities in the Western world, as the university is generally regarded as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting. Historically, Christianity has often been a patron of science and medicine; many Catholic clergy, Jesuits in particular, have been active in the sciences throughout history and have made significant contributions to the development of science. Some scholars state that Christianity contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution. Protestantism also has had an important influence on science. According to the Merton Thesis, there was a positive correlation between the rise of English Puritanism and German Pietism on the one hand, and early experimental science on the other.
The civilizing influence of Christianity includes social welfare, contribution to the medical and health care, founding hospitals, economics (as the Protestant work ethic), architecture, literature, personal hygiene (ablution), and family life. Historically, extended families were the basic family unit in the Christian culture and countries.
Cultural Christians are secular people with a Christian heritage who may not believe in the religious claims of Christianity, but who retain an affinity for the popular culture, art, music, and so on related to the religion.
Postchristianity is the term for the decline of Christianity, particularly in Europe, Canada, Australia, and to a minor degree the Southern Cone, in the 20th and 21st centuries, considered in terms of postmodernism. It refers to the loss of Christianity's monopoly on values and world view in historically Christian societies.
Ecumenism
Christian groups and denominations have long expressed ideals of being reconciled, and in the 20th century, Christian ecumenism advanced in two ways. One way was greater cooperation between groups, such as the World Evangelical Alliance founded in 1846 in London or the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of Protestants in 1910, the Justice, Peace and Creation Commission of the World Council of Churches founded in 1948 by Protestant and Orthodox churches, and similar national councils like the National Council of Churches in Australia, which includes Catholics.
The other way was an institutional union with united churches, a practice that can be traced back to unions between Lutherans and Calvinists in early 19th-century Germany. Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches united in 1925 to form the United Church of Canada, and in 1977 to form the Uniting Church in Australia. The Church of South India was formed in 1947 by the union of Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian churches.
The Christian Flag is an ecumenical flag designed in the early 20th century to represent all of Christianity and Christendom.
The ecumenical, monastic Taizé Community is notable for being composed of more than one hundred brothers from Protestant and Catholic traditions. The community emphasizes the reconciliation of all denominations and its main church, located in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, France, is named the "Church of Reconciliation". The community is internationally known, attracting over 100,000 young pilgrims annually.
Steps towards reconciliation on a global level were taken in 1965 by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, mutually revoking the excommunications that marked their Great Schism in 1054; the Anglican Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) working towards full communion between those churches since 1970; and some Lutheran and Catholic churches signing the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999 to address conflicts at the root of the Protestant Reformation. In 2006, the World Methodist Council, representing all Methodist denominations, adopted the declaration.
Criticism, persecution, and apologetics
Criticism
Criticism of Christianity and Christians goes back to the Apostolic Age, with the New Testament recording friction between the followers of Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes (e.g., and ). In the 2nd century, Christianity was criticized by the Jews on various grounds, e.g., that the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible could not have been fulfilled by Jesus, given that he did not have a successful life. Additionally, a sacrifice to remove sins in advance, for everyone or as a human being, did not fit the Jewish sacrifice ritual; furthermore, God in Judaism is said to judge people on their deeds instead of their beliefs. One of the first comprehensive attacks on Christianity came from the Greek philosopher Celsus, who wrote The True Word, a polemic criticizing Christians as being unprofitable members of society. In response, the church father Origen published his treatise Contra Celsum, or Against Celsus, a seminal work of Christian apologetics, which systematically addressed Celsus's criticisms and helped bring Christianity a level of academic respectability.
By the 3rd century, criticism of Christianity had mounted. Wild rumors about Christians were widely circulated, claiming that they were atheists and that, as part of their rituals, they devoured human infants and engaged in incestuous orgies. The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry wrote the fifteen-volume Adversus Christianos as a comprehensive attack on Christianity, in part building on the teachings of Plotinus.
By the 12th century, the Mishneh Torah (i.e., Rabbi Moses Maimonides) was criticizing Christianity on the grounds of idol worship, in that Christians attributed divinity to Jesus, who had a physical body. In the 19th century, Nietzsche began to write a series of polemics on the "unnatural" teachings of Christianity (e.g. sexual abstinence), and continued his criticism of Christianity to the end of his life. In the 20th century, the philosopher Bertrand Russell expressed his criticism of Christianity in Why I Am Not a Christian, formulating his rejection of Christianity in the setting of logical arguments.
Criticism of Christianity continues to date, e.g. Jewish and Muslim theologians criticize the doctrine of the Trinity held by most Christians, stating that this doctrine in effect assumes that there are three gods, running against the basic tenet of monotheism. New Testament scholar Robert M. Price has outlined the possibility that some Bible stories are based partly on myth in The Christ Myth Theory and its problems.
Persecution
Christians are one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world, especially in the Middle-East, North Africa and South and East Asia. In 2017, Open Doors estimated approximately 260 million Christians are subjected annually to "high, very high, or extreme persecution" with North Korea considered the most hazardous nation for Christians. In 2019, a report commissioned by the United Kingdom's Secretary of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to investigate global persecution of Christians found persecution has increased, and is highest in the Middle East, North Africa, India, China, North Korea, and Latin America, among others, and that it is global and not limited to Islamic states. This investigation found that approximately 80% of persecuted believers worldwide are Christians.
Apologetics
Christian apologetics aims to present a rational basis for Christianity. The word "apologetic" (Greek: ἀπολογητικός apologētikos) comes from the Greek verb ἀπολογέομαι apologeomai, meaning "(I) speak in defense of". Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle. The philosopher Thomas Aquinas presented five arguments for God's existence in the Summa Theologica, while his Summa contra Gentiles was a major apologetic work. Another famous apologist, G. K. Chesterton, wrote in the early twentieth century about the benefits of religion and, specifically, Christianity. Famous for his use of paradox, Chesterton explained that while Christianity had the most mysteries, it was the most practical religion. He pointed to the advance of Christian civilizations as proof of its practicality. The physicist and priest John Polkinghorne, in his Questions of Truth, discusses the subject of religion and science, a topic that other Christian apologists such as Ravi Zacharias, John Lennox, and William Lane Craig have engaged, with the latter two men opining that the inflationary Big Bang model is evidence for the existence of God. Creationist apologetics is apologetics that aims to defend creationism.
See also
Outline of Christianity
Christian atheism
Christianity and Islam
Christianity and Judaism
Christianity and politics
Christian mythology
Christianisation
One true church
Prophets of Christianity
Notes
References
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Norman, Edward. The Roman Catholic Church, An Illustrated History. University of California (2007)
Olson, Roger E., The Mosaic of Christian Belief. InterVarsity Press (2002). .
Orlandis, Jose, A Short History of the Catholic Church. Scepter Publishers (1993)
Otten, Herman J. Baal or God? Liberalism or Christianity, Fantasy vs. Truth: Beliefs and Practices of the Churches of the World Today.... Second ed. New Haven, Mo.: Lutheran News, 1988.
Pelikan, Jaroslav; Hotchkiss, Valerie (ed.) Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition. Yale University Press (2003). .
Putnam, Robert D. Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society. Oxford University Press (2002).
Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Oxford History of the Crusades. New York: Oxford University Press, (1999).
Schama, Simon. A History of Britain. Hyperion (2000). .
Servetus, Michael. Restoration of Christianity. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press (2007).
Simon, Edith. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. Time-Life Books (1966). .
Spitz, Lewis. The Protestant Reformation. Concordia Publishing House (2003). .
Spurgeon, Charles. A Defense of Calvinism.
Sykes, Stephen; Booty, John; Knight, Jonathan. The Study of Anglicanism. Augsburg Fortress Publishers (1998). .
Talbott, Thomas. Three Pictures of God in Western Theology (1995).
Ustorf, Werner. "A missiological postscript", in: McLeod, Hugh; Ustorf, Werner (ed.). The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750–2000. Cambridge University Press (2003).
Walsh, Chad. Campus Gods on Trial. Rev. and enl. ed. New York: Macmillan Co., 1962, t.p. 1964. xiv, [4], 154 p.
Further reading
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (Viking; 2010) 1,161 pp.; survey by leading historian
Roper, J.C., Bp. (1923), et al.. Faith in God, in series, Layman's Library of Practical Religion, Church of England in Canada, vol. 2. Toronto, Ont.: Musson Book Co. N.B.: The series statement is given in the more extended form which appears on the book's front cover.
Wills, Garry, "A Wild and Indecent Book" (review of David Bentley Hart, The New Testament: A Translation, Yale University Press, 577 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXV, no. 2 (8 February 2018), pp. 34–35. Discusses some pitfalls in interpreting and translating the New Testament.
External links
"Christianity". Encyclopædia Britannica
Religion & Ethics – Christianity A number of introductory articles on Christianity from the BBC
1st-century establishments
1st-century introductions
Abrahamic religions
Monotheistic religions
Western culture |
5213 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing | Computing | Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, engineering, mathematical, technological and social aspects. Major computing disciplines include computer engineering, computer science, cybersecurity, data science, information systems, information technology, digital art and software engineering.
The term computing is also synonymous with counting and calculating. In earlier times, it was used in reference to the action performed by mechanical computing machines, and before that, to human computers.
History
The history of computing is longer than the history of computing hardware and includes the history of methods intended for pen and paper (or for chalk and slate) with or without the aid of tables. Computing is intimately tied to the representation of numbers, though mathematical concepts necessary for computing existed before numeral systems. The earliest known tool for use in computation is the abacus, and it is thought to have been invented in Babylon circa between 2700–2300 BC. Abaci, of a more modern design, are still used as calculation tools today.
The first recorded proposal for using digital electronics in computing was the 1931 paper "The Use of Thyratrons for High Speed Automatic Counting of Physical Phenomena" by C. E. Wynn-Williams. Claude Shannon's 1938 paper "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits" then introduced the idea of using electronics for Boolean algebraic operations.
The concept of a field-effect transistor was proposed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, while working under William Shockley at Bell Labs, built the first working transistor, the point-contact transistor, in 1947. In 1953, the University of Manchester built the first transistorized computer, the Manchester Baby. However, early junction transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to mass-produce, which limited them to a number of specialised applications. The metal–oxide–silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET, or MOS transistor) was invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959. The MOSFET made it possible to build high-density integrated circuits, leading to what is known as the computer revolution or microcomputer revolution.
Computer
A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions called a computer program. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute the instructions. The same program in its human-readable source code form, enables a programmer to study and develop a sequence of steps known as an algorithm. Because the instructions can be carried out in different types of computers, a single set of source instructions converts to machine instructions according to the CPU type.
The execution process carries out the instructions in a computer program. Instructions express the computations performed by the computer. They trigger sequences of simple actions on the executing machine. Those actions produce effects according to the semantics of the instructions.
Computer hardware
Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, including central processing unit, memory and input/output. Computational logic and computer architecture are key topics in the field of computer hardware.
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data, which provides instructions to a computer. Software refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of the computer. It is a set of programs, procedures, algorithms, as well as its documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system. Program software performs the function of the program it implements, either by directly providing instructions to the computer hardware or by serving as input to another piece of software. The term was coined to contrast with the old term hardware (meaning physical devices). In contrast to hardware, software is intangible.
Software is also sometimes used in a more narrow sense, meaning application software only.
System software
System software, or systems software, is computer software designed to operate and control computer hardware, and to provide a platform for running application software. System software includes operating systems, utility software, device drivers, window systems, and firmware. Frequently used development tools such as compilers, linkers, and debuggers are classified as system software. System software and middleware manage and integrate a computer's capabilities, but typically do not directly apply them in the performance of tasks that benefit the user, unlike application software.
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an app, is computer software designed to help the user perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with documents. Apps may be bundled with the computer and its system software, or may be published separately. Some users are satisfied with the bundled apps and need never install additional applications. The system software manages the hardware and serves the application, which in turn serves the user.
Application software applies the power of a particular computing platform or system software to a particular purpose. Some apps, such as Microsoft Office, are developed in multiple versions for several different platforms; others have narrower requirements and are generally referred to by the platform they run on. For example, a geography application for Windows or an Android application for education or Linux gaming. Applications that run only on one platform and increase the desirability of that platform due to the popularity of the application, known as killer applications.
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information. When at least one process in one device is able to send or receive data to or from at least one process residing in a remote device, the two devices are said to be in a network. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics such as the medium used to transport the data, communications protocol used, scale, topology, and organizational scope.
Communications protocols define the rules and data formats for exchanging information in a computer network, and provide the basis for network programming. One well-known communications protocol is Ethernet, a hardware and link layer standard that is ubiquitous in local area networks. Another common protocol is the Internet Protocol Suite, which defines a set of protocols for internetworking, i.e. for data communication between multiple networks, host-to-host data transfer, and application-specific data transmission formats.
Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of electrical engineering, telecommunications, computer science, information technology or computer engineering, since it relies upon the theoretical and practical application of these disciplines.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users. This includes millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, ranging in scope from local to global. These networks are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web and the infrastructure to support email.
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code and documentation of computer programs. This source code is written in a programming language, which is an artificial language that is often more restrictive than natural languages, but easily translated by the computer. Programming is used to invoke some desired behavior (customization) from the machine.
Writing high-quality source code requires knowledge of both the computer science domain and the domain in which the application will be used. The highest-quality software is thus often developed by a team of domain experts, each a specialist in some area of development. However, the term programmer may apply to a range of program quality, from hacker to open source contributor to professional. It is also possible for a single programmer to do most or all of the computer programming needed to generate the proof of concept to launch a new killer application.
Computer programmer
A programmer, computer programmer, or coder is a person who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to programming may also be known as a programmer analyst. A programmer's primary computer language (C, C++, Java, Lisp, Python etc.) is often prefixed to the above titles, and those who work in a web environment often prefix their titles with Web. The term programmer can be used to refer to a software developer, software engineer, computer scientist, or software analyst. However, members of these professions typically possess other software engineering skills, beyond programming.
Computer industry
The computer industry is made up of businesses involved in developing computer software, designing computer hardware and computer networking infrastructures, manufacturing computer components and providing information technology services, including system administration and maintenance.
The software industry includes businesses engaged in development, maintenance and publication of software. The industry also includes software services, such as training, documentation, and consulting.
Sub-disciplines of computing
Computer engineering
Computer engineering is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering (or electrical engineering), software design, and hardware-software integration, rather than just software engineering or electronic engineering. Computer engineers are involved in many hardware and software aspects of computing, from the design of individual microprocessors, personal computers, and supercomputers, to circuit design. This field of engineering includes not only the design of hardware within its own domain, but also the interactions between hardware and the context in which it operates.
Software engineering
Software engineering (SE) is the application of a systematic, disciplined and quantifiable approach to the design, development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches. That is, the application of engineering to software. It is the act of using insights to conceive, model and scale a solution to a problem. The first reference to the term is the 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference, and was intended to provoke thought regarding the perceived software crisis at the time. Software development, a widely used and more generic term, does not necessarily subsume the engineering paradigm. The generally accepted concepts of Software Engineering as an engineering discipline have been specified in the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK). The SWEBOK has become an internationally accepted standard in ISO/IEC TR 19759:2015.
Computer science
Computer science or computing science (abbreviated CS or Comp Sci) is the scientific and practical approach to computation and its applications. A computer scientist specializes in the theory of computation and the design of computational systems.
Its subfields can be divided into practical techniques for its implementation and application in computer systems, and purely theoretical areas. Some, such as computational complexity theory, which studies fundamental properties of computational problems, are highly abstract, while others, such as computer graphics, emphasize real-world applications. Others focus on the challenges in implementing computations. For example, programming language theory studies approaches to the description of computations, while the study of computer programming investigates the use of programming languages and complex systems. The field of human–computer interaction focuses on the challenges in making computers and computations useful, usable, and universally accessible to humans.
Cybersecurity
The field of cybersecurity pertains to the protection of computer systems and networks. This includes information and data privacy, preventing disruption of IT services and prevention of theft of and damage to hardware, software and data.
Data science
Data science is a field that uses scientific and computing tools to extract information and insights from data, driven by the increasing volume and availability of data. Data mining, big data, statistics and machine learning are all interwoven with data science.
Information systems
Information systems (IS) is the study of complementary networks of hardware and software (see information technology) that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data. The ACM's Computing Careers describes IS as:
The study of IS bridges business and computer science, using the theoretical foundations of information and computation to study various business models and related algorithmic processes within a computer science discipline. The field of Computer Information Systems (CIS) studies computers and algorithmic processes, including their principles, their software and hardware designs, their applications, and their impact on society while IS emphasizes functionality over design.
Information technology
Information technology (IT) is the application of computers and telecommunications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks, but also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones. Several industries are associated with information technology, including computer hardware, software, electronics, semiconductors, internet, telecom equipment, e-commerce and computer services.
Research and emerging technologies
DNA-based computing and quantum computing are areas of active research for both computing hardware and software, such as the development of quantum algorithms. Potential infrastructure for future technologies includes DNA origami on photolithography and quantum antennae for transferring information between ion traps. By 2011, researchers had entangled 14 qubits. Fast digital circuits, including those based on Josephson junctions and rapid single flux quantum technology, are becoming more nearly realizable with the discovery of nanoscale superconductors.
Fiber-optic and photonic (optical) devices, which already have been used to transport data over long distances, are starting to be used by data centers, along with CPU and semiconductor memory components. This allows the separation of RAM from CPU by optical interconnects. IBM has created an integrated circuit with both electronic and optical information processing in one chip. This is denoted CMOS-integrated nanophotonics (CINP). One benefit of optical interconnects is that motherboards, which formerly required a certain kind of system on a chip (SoC), can now move formerly dedicated memory and network controllers off the motherboards, spreading the controllers out onto the rack. This allows standardization of backplane interconnects and motherboards for multiple types of SoCs, which allows more timely upgrades of CPUs.
Another field of research is spintronics. Spintronics can provide computing power and storage, without heat buildup. Some research is being done on hybrid chips, which combine photonics and spintronics. There is also research ongoing on combining plasmonics, photonics, and electronics.
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is a model that allows for the use of computing resources, such as servers or applications, without the need for interaction between the owner of these resources and the end user. It is typically offered as a service, making it an example of Software as a Service, Platforms as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service, depending on the functionality offered. Key characteristics include on-demand access, broad network access, and the capability of rapid scaling. It allows individual users or small business to benefit from economies of scale.
One area of interest in this field is its potential to support energy efficiency. Allowing thousands of instances of computation to occur on one single machine instead of thousands of individual machines could help save energy. It could also ease the transition to renewable energy source, since it would suffice to power one server farm with renewable energy, rather than millions of homes and offices.
However, this centralized computing model poses several challenges, especially in security and privacy. Current legislation does not sufficiently protect users from companies mishandling their data on company servers. This suggests potential for further legislative regulations on cloud computing and tech companies.
Quantum computing
Quantum computing is an area of research that brings together the disciplines of computer science, information theory, and quantum physics. While the idea of information as part of physics is relatively new, there appears to be a strong tie between information theory and quantum mechanics. Whereas traditional computing operates on a binary system of ones and zeros, quantum computing uses qubits. Qubits are capable of being in a superposition, i.e. in both states of one and zero, simultaneously. Thus, the value of the qubit is not between 1 and 0, but changes depending on when it is measured. This trait of qubits is known as quantum entanglement, and is the core idea of quantum computing that allows quantum computers to do large scale computations. Quantum computing is often used for scientific research in cases where traditional computers do not have the computing power to do the necessary calculations, such in molecular modeling. Large molecules and their reactions are far too complex for traditional computers to calculate, but the computational power of quantum computers could provide a tool to perform such calculations.
See also
Artificial intelligence
Computational thinking
Creative computing
Electronic data processing
Enthusiast computing
Index of history of computing articles
Instruction set architecture
Lehmer sieve
List of computer term etymologies
Mobile computing
Scientific computing
References
External links
FOLDOC: the Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing |
5216 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer%20language | Khmer language | Khmer (; , UNGEGN: ) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Khmer people, and the official and national language of Cambodia. Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through Hinduism and Buddhism. It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon–Khmer family, predating Mon and Vietnamese, due to Old Khmer being the language of the historical empires of Chenla, Angkor and, presumably, their earlier predecessor state, Funan.
The vast majority of Khmer speakers speak Central Khmer, the dialect of the central plain where the Khmer are most heavily concentrated. Within Cambodia, regional accents exist in remote areas but these are regarded as varieties of Central Khmer. Two exceptions are the speech of the capital, Phnom Penh, and that of the Khmer Khe in Stung Treng province, both of which differ sufficiently enough from Central Khmer to be considered separate dialects of Khmer.
Outside of Cambodia, three distinct dialects are spoken by ethnic Khmers native to areas that were historically part of the Khmer Empire. The Northern Khmer dialect is spoken by over a million Khmers in the southern regions of Northeast Thailand and is treated by some linguists as a separate language. Khmer Krom, or Southern Khmer, is the first language of the Khmer of Vietnam, while the Khmer living in the remote Cardamom Mountains speak a very conservative dialect that still displays features of the Middle Khmer language.
Khmer is primarily an analytic, isolating language. There are no inflections, conjugations or case endings. Instead, particles and auxiliary words are used to indicate grammatical relationships. General word order is subject–verb–object, and modifiers follow the word they modify. Classifiers appear after numbers when used to count nouns, though not always so consistently as in languages like Chinese. In spoken Khmer, topic-comment structure is common, and the perceived social relation between participants determines which sets of vocabulary, such as pronouns and honorifics, are proper.
Khmer differs from neighboring languages such as Burmese, Thai, Lao, and Vietnamese in that it is not a tonal language. Words are stressed on the final syllable, hence many words conform to the typical Mon–Khmer pattern of a stressed syllable preceded by a minor syllable. The language has been written in the Khmer script, an abugida descended from the Brahmi script via the southern Indian Pallava script, since at least the 7th century. The script's form and use has evolved over the centuries; its modern features include subscripted versions of consonants used to write clusters and a division of consonants into two series with different inherent vowels.
Classification
Khmer is a member of the Austroasiatic language family, the autochthonous family in an area that stretches from the Malay Peninsula through Southeast Asia to East India. Austroasiatic, which also includes Mon, Vietnamese and Munda, has been studied since 1856 and was first proposed as a language family in 1907. Despite the amount of research, there is still doubt about the internal relationship of the languages of Austroasiatic.
Diffloth places Khmer in an eastern branch of the Mon-Khmer languages. In these classification schemes Khmer's closest genetic relatives are the Bahnaric and Pearic languages. More recent classifications doubt the validity of the Mon-Khmer sub-grouping and place the Khmer language as its own branch of Austroasiatic equidistant from the other 12 branches of the family.
Geographic distribution and dialects
Khmer is spoken by some 13 million people in Cambodia, where it is the official language. It is also a second language for most of the minority groups and indigenous hill tribes there. Additionally there are a million speakers of Khmer native to southern Vietnam (1999 census) and 1.4 million in northeast Thailand (2006).
Khmer dialects, although mutually intelligible, are sometimes quite marked. Notable variations are found in speakers from Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital city), the rural Battambang area, the areas of Northeast Thailand adjacent to Cambodia such as Surin province, the Cardamom Mountains, and southern Vietnam. The dialects form a continuum running roughly north to south. Standard Cambodian Khmer is mutually intelligible with the others but a Khmer Krom speaker from Vietnam, for instance, may have great difficulty communicating with a Khmer native of Sisaket Province in Thailand.
The following is a classification scheme showing the development of the modern Khmer dialects.
Middle Khmer
Cardamom (Western) Khmer
Central Khmer
Surin (Northern) Khmer
Standard Khmer and related dialects (including Khmer Krom)
Standard Khmer, or Central Khmer, the language as taught in Cambodian schools and used by the media, is based on the dialect spoken throughout the Central Plain, a region encompassed by the northwest and central provinces.
Northern Khmer (called in Khmer) refers to the dialects spoken by many in several border provinces of present-day northeast Thailand. After the fall of the Khmer Empire in the early 15th century, the Dongrek Mountains served as a natural border leaving the Khmer north of the mountains under the sphere of influence of the Kingdom of Lan Xang. The conquests of Cambodia by Naresuan the Great for Ayutthaya furthered their political and economic isolation from Cambodia proper, leading to a dialect that developed relatively independently from the midpoint of the Middle Khmer period.
This has resulted in a distinct accent influenced by the surrounding tonal languages Lao and Thai, lexical differences, and phonemic differences in both vowels and distribution of consonants. Syllable-final , which has become silent in other dialects of Khmer, is still pronounced in Northern Khmer. Some linguists classify Northern Khmer as a separate but closely related language rather than a dialect.
Western Khmer, also called Cardamom Khmer or Chanthaburi Khmer, is spoken by a very small, isolated population in the Cardamom mountain range extending from western Cambodia into eastern Central Thailand. Although little studied, this variety is unique in that it maintains a definite system of vocal register that has all but disappeared in other dialects of modern Khmer.
Phnom Penh Khmer is spoken in the capital and surrounding areas. This dialect is characterized by merging or complete elision of syllables, which speakers from other regions consider a "relaxed" pronunciation. For instance, "Phnom Penh" is sometimes shortened to "m'Penh". Another characteristic of Phnom Penh speech is observed in words with an "r" either as an initial consonant or as the second member of a consonant cluster (as in the English word "bread"). The "r", trilled or flapped in other dialects, is either pronounced as a uvular trill or not pronounced at all.
This alters the quality of any preceding consonant, causing a harder, more emphasized pronunciation. Another unique result is that the syllable is spoken with a low-rising or "dipping" tone much like the "hỏi" tone in Vietnamese. For example, some people pronounce ('fish') as : the is dropped and the vowel begins by dipping much lower in tone than standard speech and then rises, effectively doubling its length. Another example is the word ('study'), which is pronounced , with the uvular "r" and the same intonation described above.
Khmer Krom or Southern Khmer is spoken by the indigenous Khmer population of the Mekong Delta, formerly controlled by the Khmer Empire but part of Vietnam since 1698. Khmers are persecuted by the Vietnamese government for using their native language and, since the 1950s, have been forced to take Vietnamese names. Consequently, very little research has been published regarding this dialect. It has been generally influenced by Vietnamese for three centuries and accordingly displays a pronounced accent, tendency toward monosyllabic words and lexical differences from Standard Khmer.
Khmer Khe is spoken in the Se San, Srepok and Sekong river valleys of Sesan and Siem Pang districts in Stung Treng Province. Following the decline of Angkor, the Khmer abandoned their northern territories, which the Lao then settled. In the 17th century, Chey Chetha XI led a Khmer force into Stung Treng to retake the area. The Khmer Khe living in this area of Stung Treng in modern times are presumed to be the descendants of this group. Their dialect is thought to resemble that of pre-modern Siem Reap.
Historical periods
Linguistic study of the Khmer language divides its history into four periods one of which, the Old Khmer period, is subdivided into pre-Angkorian and Angkorian. Pre-Angkorian Khmer is the Old Khmer language from 600 CE through 800. Angkorian Khmer is the language as it was spoken in the Khmer Empire from the 9th century until the 13th century.
The following centuries saw changes in morphology, phonology and lexicon. The language of this transition period, from about the 14th to 18th centuries, is referred to as Middle Khmer and saw borrowings from Thai in the literary register. Modern Khmer is dated from the 19th century to today.
The following table shows the conventionally accepted historical stages of Khmer.
Just as modern Khmer was emerging from the transitional period represented by Middle Khmer, Cambodia fell under the influence of French colonialism. Thailand, which had for centuries claimed suzerainty over Cambodia and controlled succession to the Cambodian throne, began losing its influence on the language. In 1887 Cambodia was fully integrated into French Indochina, which brought in a French-speaking aristocracy. This led to French becoming the language of higher education and the intellectual class. By 1907, the French had wrested over half of modern-day Cambodia, including the north and northwest where Thai had been the prestige language, back from Thai control and reintegrated it into the country.
Many native scholars in the early 20th century, led by a monk named Chuon Nath, resisted the French and Thai influences on their language. Forming the government sponsored Cultural Committee to define and standardize the modern language, they championed Khmerization, purging of foreign elements, reviving affixation, and the use of Old Khmer roots and historical Pali and Sanskrit to coin new words for modern ideas. Opponents, led by Keng Vannsak, who embraced "total Khmerization" by denouncing the reversion to classical languages and favoring the use of contemporary colloquial Khmer for neologisms, and Ieu Koeus, who favored borrowing from Thai, were also influential.
Koeus later joined the Cultural Committee and supported Nath. Nath's views and prolific work won out and he is credited with cultivating modern Khmer-language identity and culture, overseeing the translation of the entire Pali Buddhist canon into Khmer. He also created the modern Khmer language dictionary that is still in use today, helping preserve Khmer during the French colonial period.
Phonology
The phonological system described here is the inventory of sounds of the standard spoken language, represented using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
Consonants
The voiceless plosives may occur with or without aspiration (as vs. , etc.); this difference is contrastive before a vowel. However, the aspirated sounds in that position may be analyzed as sequences of two phonemes: . This analysis is supported by the fact that infixes can be inserted between the stop and the aspiration; for example ('big') becomes ('size') with a nominalizing infix. When one of these plosives occurs initially before another consonant, aspiration is no longer contrastive and can be regarded as mere phonetic detail: slight aspiration is expected when the following consonant is not one of (or if the initial plosive is ).
The voiced plosives are pronounced as implosives by most speakers, but this feature is weak in educated speech, where they become .
In syllable-final position, and approach and respectively. The stops are unaspirated and have no audible release when occurring as syllable finals.
In addition, the consonants , , and occur occasionally in recent loan words in the speech of Cambodians familiar with French and other languages.
Vowels
Various authors have proposed slightly different analyses of the Khmer vowel system. This may be in part because of the wide degree of variation in pronunciation between individual speakers, even within a dialectal region. The description below follows Huffman (1970). The number of vowel nuclei and their values vary between dialects; differences exist even between the Standard Khmer system and that of the Battambang dialect on which the standard is based.
In addition, some diphthongs and triphthongs are analyzed as a vowel nucleus plus a semivowel ( or ) coda because they cannot be followed by a final consonant. These include: (with short monophthongs) , , , , ; (with long monophthongs) , ; (with long diphthongs) , , , , and .
Syllable structure
A Khmer syllable begins with a single consonant, or else with a cluster of two, or rarely three, consonants. The only possible clusters of three consonants at the start of a syllable are , and (with aspirated consonants analyzed as two-consonant sequences) . There are 85 possible two-consonant clusters (including [pʰ] etc. analyzed as /ph/ etc.). All the clusters are shown in the following table, phonetically, i.e. superscript ʰ can mark either contrastive or non-contrastive aspiration (see above).
Slight vowel epenthesis occurs in the clusters consisting of a plosive followed by , in those beginning , and in the cluster .
After the initial consonant or consonant cluster comes the syllabic nucleus, which is one of the vowels listed above. This vowel may end the syllable or may be followed by a coda, which is a single consonant. If the syllable is stressed and the vowel is short, there must be a final consonant. All consonant sounds except and the aspirates can appear as the coda (although final /r/ is heard in some dialects, most notably in Northern Khmer).
A minor syllable (unstressed syllable preceding the main syllable of a word) has a structure of CV-, CrV-, CVN- or CrVN- (where C is a consonant, V a vowel, and N a nasal consonant). The vowels in such syllables are usually short; in conversation they may be reduced to , although in careful or formal speech, including on television and radio, they are clearly articulated. An example of such a word is mɔnuh, mɔnɨh, mĕəʾnuh ('person'), pronounced , or more casually .
Stress
Stress in Khmer falls on the final syllable of a word. Because of this predictable pattern, stress is non-phonemic in Khmer (it does not distinguish different meanings).
Most Khmer words consist of either one or two syllables. In most native disyllabic words, the first syllable is a minor (fully unstressed) syllable. Such words have been described as sesquisyllabic (i.e. as having one-and-a-half syllables). There are also some disyllabic words in which the first syllable does not behave as a minor syllable, but takes secondary stress. Most such words are compounds, but some are single morphemes (generally loanwords). An example is ('language'), pronounced .
Words with three or more syllables, if they are not compounds, are mostly loanwords, usually derived from Pali, Sanskrit, or more recently, French. They are nonetheless adapted to Khmer stress patterns. Primary stress falls on the final syllable, with secondary stress on every second syllable from the end. Thus in a three-syllable word, the first syllable has secondary stress; in a four-syllable word, the second syllable has secondary stress; in a five-syllable word, the first and third syllables have secondary stress, and so on. Long polysyllables are not often used in conversation.
Compounds, however, preserve the stress patterns of the constituent words. Thus , the name of a kind of cookie (literally 'bird's nest'), is pronounced , with secondary stress on the second rather than the first syllable, because it is composed of the words ('nest') and ('bird').
Phonation and tone
Khmer once had a phonation distinction in its vowels, but this now survives only in the most archaic dialect (Western Khmer). The distinction arose historically when vowels after Old Khmer voiced consonants became breathy voiced and diphthongized; for example became . When consonant voicing was lost, the distinction was maintained by the vowel (); later the phonation disappeared as well (). These processes explain the origin of what are now called a-series and o-series consonants in the Khmer script.
Although most Cambodian dialects are not tonal, the colloquial Phnom Penh dialect has developed a tonal contrast (level versus peaking tone) as a by-product of the elision of .
Intonation
Intonation often conveys semantic context in Khmer, as in distinguishing declarative statements, questions and exclamations. The available grammatical means of making such distinctions are not always used, or may be ambiguous; for example, the final interrogative particle can also serve as an emphasizing (or in some cases negating) particle.
The intonation pattern of a typical Khmer declarative phrase is a steady rise throughout followed by an abrupt drop on the last syllable.
('I don't want it')
Other intonation contours signify a different type of phrase such as the "full doubt" interrogative, similar to yes–no questions in English. Full doubt interrogatives remain fairly even in tone throughout, but rise sharply towards the end.
('do you want to go to Siem Reap?')
Exclamatory phrases follow the typical steadily rising pattern, but rise sharply on the last syllable instead of falling.
('this book is expensive!')
Grammar
Khmer is primarily an analytic language with no inflection. Syntactic relations are mainly determined by word order. Old and Middle Khmer used particles to mark grammatical categories and many of these have survived in Modern Khmer but are used sparingly, mostly in literary or formal language. Khmer makes extensive use of auxiliary verbs, "directionals" and serial verb construction. Colloquial Khmer is a zero copula language, instead preferring predicative adjectives (and even predicative nouns) unless using a copula for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity in more complex sentences. Basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), although subjects are often dropped; prepositions are used rather than postpositions.
Topic-Comment constructions are common and the language is generally head-initial (modifiers follow the words they modify). Some grammatical processes are still not fully understood by western scholars. For example, it is not clear if certain features of Khmer grammar, such as actor nominalization, should be treated as a morphological process or a purely syntactic device, and some derivational morphology seems "purely decorative" and performs no known syntactic work.
Lexical categories have been hard to define in Khmer. Henri Maspero, an early scholar of Khmer, claimed the language had no parts of speech, while a later scholar, Judith Jacob, posited four parts of speech and innumerable particles. John Haiman, on the other hand, identifies "a couple dozen" parts of speech in Khmer with the caveat that Khmer words have the freedom to perform a variety of syntactic functions depending on such factors as word order, relevant particles, location within a clause, intonation and context. Some of the more important lexical categories and their function are demonstrated in the following example sentence taken from a hospital brochure:
Morphology
Modern Khmer is an isolating language, which means that it uses little productive morphology. There is some derivation by means of prefixes and infixes, but this is a remnant of Old Khmer and not always productive in the modern language. Khmer morphology is evidence of a historical process through which the language was, at some point in the past, changed from being an agglutinative language to adopting an isolating typology. Affixed forms are lexicalized and cannot be used productively to form new words. Below are some of the most common affixes with examples as given by Huffman.
Compounding in Khmer is a common derivational process that takes two forms, coordinate compounds and repetitive compounds. Coordinate compounds join two unbound morphemes (independent words) of similar meaning to form a compound signifying a concept more general than either word alone. Coordinate compounds join either two nouns or two verbs. Repetitive compounds, one of the most productive derivational features of Khmer, use reduplication of an entire word to derive words whose meaning depends on the class of the reduplicated word. A repetitive compound of a noun indicates plurality or generality while that of an adjectival verb could mean either an intensification or plurality.
Coordinate compounds:
{| style="width:25%;"
| || + || || ⇒ ||
|-
| "father" || || "mother" || ⇒ || "parents"
|}
{| style="width:25%;"
| || + || || ⇒ ||
|-
| "to transport" || || "to bring" || ⇒ || "to lead"
|}
Repetitive compounds:
{| style="width:40%;"
| || ⇒ || || || || ⇒ ||
|-
| "fast" || || "very fast, quickly" || || "women" || || "women, women in general"
|}
Nouns and pronouns
Khmer nouns do not inflect for grammatical gender or singular/plural. There are no articles, but indefiniteness is often expressed by the word for "one" ( ) following the noun as in ( "a dog"). Plurality can be marked by postnominal particles, numerals, or reduplication of a following adjective, which, although similar to intensification, is usually not ambiguous due to context.
{|
|
|style="width:20%; text-align: center"| or
|
|style="width:20%; text-align: center"| or
|
|}
Classifying particles are used after numerals, but are not always obligatory as they are in Thai or Chinese, for example, and are often dropped in colloquial speech. Khmer nouns are divided into two groups: mass nouns, which take classifiers; and specific, nouns, which do not. The overwhelming majority are mass nouns.
Possession is colloquially expressed by word order. The possessor is placed after the thing that is possessed. Alternatively, in more complex sentences or when emphasis is required, a possessive construction using the word (, "property, object") may be employed. In formal and literary contexts, the possessive particle () is used:
{|
|
| style="width:20%; text-align: center" | or
|
| style="width:20%; text-align: center" | or
|
|}
Pronouns are subject to a complicated system of social register, the choice of pronoun depending on the perceived relationships between speaker, audience and referent (see Social registers below). Khmer exhibits pronoun avoidance, so kinship terms, nicknames and proper names are often used instead of pronouns (including for the first person) among intimates. Subject pronouns are frequently dropped in colloquial conversation.
Adjectives, verbs and verb phrases may be made into nouns by the use of nominalization particles. Three of the more common particles used to create nouns are , , and . These particles are prefixed most often to verbs to form abstract nouns. The latter, derived from Sanskrit, also occurs as a suffix in fixed forms borrowed from Sanskrit and Pali such as ("health") from ("to be healthy").
{|
|
| style="width:20%; text-align: center" |
|
| style="width:20%; text-align: center" |
|
|}
Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives, demonstratives and numerals follow the noun they modify. Adverbs likewise follow the verb. Morphologically, adjectives and adverbs are not distinguished, with many words often serving either function. Adjectives are also employed as verbs as Khmer sentences rarely use a copula.
Degrees of comparison are constructed syntactically. Comparatives are expressed using the word : "A X [B]" (A is more X [than B]). The most common way to express superlatives is with : "A X " (A is the most X). Intensity is also expressed syntactically, similar to other languages of the region, by reduplication or with the use of intensifiers.
{|
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| style="width:15%; text-align: center" |
|
| style="width:15%; text-align: center" |
|
|}
Verbs
As is typical of most East Asian languages, Khmer verbs do not inflect at all; tense, aspect and mood can be expressed using auxiliary verbs, particles (such as , placed before a verb to express continuous aspect) and adverbs (such as "yesterday", "earlier", "tomorrow"), or may be understood from context. Serial verb construction is quite common.
Khmer verbs are a relatively open class and can be divided into two types, main verbs and auxiliary verbs. Huffman defined a Khmer verb as "any word that can be (negated)", and further divided main verbs into three classes.
Transitive verbs are verbs that may be followed by a direct object:
{|
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| style="width:20%; text-align: center" |
|
|}
Intransitive verbs are verbs that can not be followed by an object:
{|
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| style="width:20%; text-align: center" |
|
|}
Adjectival verbs are a word class that has no equivalent in English. When modifying a noun or verb, they function as adjectives or adverbs, respectively, but they may also be used as main verbs equivalent to English "be + adjective".
{|
!
| style="width:20%; text-align: center" |
!
| style="width:20%; text-align: center" |
!
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|}
Syntax
Syntax is the rules and processes that describe how sentences are formed in a particular language, how words relate to each other within clauses or phrases and how those phrases relate to each other within a sentence to convey meaning. Khmer syntax is very analytic. Relationships between words and phrases are signified primarily by word order supplemented with auxiliary verbs and, particularly in formal and literary registers, grammatical marking particles. Grammatical phenomena such as negation and aspect are marked by particles while interrogative sentences are marked either by particles or interrogative words equivalent to English "wh-words".
A complete Khmer sentence consists of four basic elements—an optional topic, an optional subject, an obligatory predicate, and various adverbials and particles. The topic and subject are noun phrases, predicates are verb phrases and another noun phrase acting as an object or verbal attribute often follows the predicate.
Basic constituent order
When combining these noun and verb phrases into a sentence the order is typically SVO:
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || || ||
|-
| || || ||
|-
| I || give || banana || one || bunch[]
|-
| colspan=5 | 'I gave a bunch of bananas.'
|}
When both a direct object and indirect object are present without any grammatical markers, the preferred order is SV(DO)(IO). In such a case, if the direct object phrase contains multiple components, the indirect object immediately follows the noun of the direct object phrase and the direct object's modifiers follow the indirect object:
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || || || ||
|-
| || || || ||
|-
| I || give || banana || pig || one || bunch[]
|-
| colspan=6 | 'I gave the pig a bunch of bananas.'
|}
This ordering of objects can be changed and the meaning clarified with the inclusion of particles. The word , which normally means "to arrive" or "towards", can be used as a preposition meaning "to":
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || || || || ||
|-
| I || give || banana || one || bunch[] || toward || pig
|-
| colspan=7 | 'I gave a bunch of bananas to the pigs.'
|}
Alternatively, the indirect object could precede the direct object if the object-marking preposition were used:
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || || || || ||
|-
| I || give || pig || || banana || one || bunch[]
|-
| colspan=7 | 'I gave the pig a bunch of bananas.'
|}
However, in spoken discourse OSV is possible when emphasizing the object in a topic–comment-like structure.
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || || ||
|-
| boat || one || to sit || five || monk[]
|-
| colspan=5 | 'In a boat sit five monks.'
|}
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || || ||
|-
| science || thief || to steal || ||
|-
| colspan=5 | 'Science, a thief can not steal.'
|}
Noun phrase
The noun phrase in Khmer typically has the following structure:
= () () () () ()
The elements in parentheses are optional. Honorifics are a class of words that serve to index the social status of the referent. Honorifics can be kinship terms or personal names, both of which are often used as first and second person pronouns, or specialized words such as ('god') before royal and religious objects. The most common demonstratives are ('this, these') and ('that, those'). The word ('those over there') has a more distal or vague connotation.
If the noun phrase contains a possessive adjective, it follows the noun and precedes the numeral. If a descriptive attribute co-occurs with a possessive, the possessive construction () is expected.
Some examples of typical Khmer noun phrases are:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Khmer text !! IPA !! gloss !! translation
|-
| || || house high three four spine[] these || 'these three or four high houses'
|-
| || || banana ripe two bunches[] these || these two bunches of ripe bananas
|-
| || || friend I two person[] these || these two friends of mine
|-
| || || friend small of I two person[] these || these two small friends of mine
|}
The Khmer particle marked attributes in Old Khmer noun phrases and is used in formal and literary language to signify that what precedes is the noun and what follows is the attribute. Modern usage may carry the connotation of mild intensity.
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || ||
|-
| field || paddy || || vast
|-
| colspan=4 | '(very) expansive fields and paddies'
|}
Verb phrase
Khmer verbs are completely uninflected, and once a subject or topic has been introduced or is clear from context the noun phrase may be dropped. Thus, the simplest possible sentence in Khmer consists of a single verb. For example, 'to go' on its own can mean "I'm going.", "He went.", "They've gone.", "Let's go.", etc. This also results in long strings of verbs such as:
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || || ||
|-
| I || to want || to go || to walk || to play
|-
| colspan=5 | 'I want to go for a stroll.'
|}
Khmer uses three verbs for what translates into English as the copula. The general copula is ; it is used to convey identity with nominal predicates. For locative predicates, the copula is . The verb is the "existential" copula meaning "there is" or "there exists".
{| style="width:35%;"
| || || || || || || ||
|-
| language || || || to express || heart || thought || all || kind
|-
| colspan=8 | 'Language is the expression of all emotions and ideas'
|}
{| style="text-align: left;"
| || || || || style="width:30%; text-align: center" | || ||
|-
| he || || close || temple || style="width:30%; text-align: center" | || to exist || plan
|-
| colspan=4 | 'He is close to the temple.' || style="width:30%; text-align: center" | || colspan=2 | 'There is a plan.'
|}
Negation is achieved by putting before the verb and the particle at the end of the sentence or clause. In colloquial speech, verbs can also be negated without the need for a final particle, by placing before them.
{| style="text-align: left;"
| || || style="width:15%; text-align: center" | || || || || || style="width:15%; text-align: center" | || || ||
|-
| I || to believe || style="width:15%; text-align: center" | || I || || to believe || || style="width:15%; text-align: center" | || I || || to believe
|-
| colspan=2 | 'I believe.' || style="width:15%; text-align: center" | || colspan=4 | 'I don't believe.' || style="width:15%; text-align: center" | || colspan=3 | 'I don't believe.'
|}
Past tense can be conveyed by adverbs, such as "yesterday" or by the use of perfective particles such as
{| style="text-align: left;"
| || || || style="width:30%; text-align: center" | || || ||
|-
| he || to go || yesterday || style="width:30%; text-align: center" | || he || to go ||
|-
| colspan=3 | 'He went yesterday.' || style="width:30%; text-align: center" | || colspan=3 | 'He left.' or 'He's already gone.'
|}
Different senses of future action can also be expressed by the use of adverbs like "tomorrow" or by the future tense marker , which is placed immediately before the verb, or both:
{| style="width:35%;"
| || || || ||
|-
| tomorrow || I || || to go || school
|-
| colspan=5 | 'Tomorrow, I will go to school.'
|}
Imperatives are often unmarked. For example, in addition to the meanings given above, the "sentence" can also mean "Go!". Various words and particles may be added to the verb to soften the command to varying degrees, including to the point of politeness (jussives):
{| style="text-align: left;"
| || || || || || || style="width:30%; text-align: center" | || || || || || ||
|-
| || try || try || you || || || style="width:30%; text-align: center" | || please || do || follow || instruction || he ||
|-
| colspan=6 | 'Go ahead and try it yourself.' || style="width:30%; text-align: center" | || colspan=6 | 'Please follow his instructions.'
|}
Prohibitives take the form " + " and also are often softened by the addition of the particle to the end of the phrase.
{| style="width:35%;"
| || || || ||
|-
| || to be || place || ||
|-
| colspan=5 | 'Don't stay in this place.'
|}
Questions
There are three basic types of questions in Khmer. Questions requesting specific information use question words. Polar questions are indicated with interrogative particles, most commonly , a homonym of the negation particle. Tag questions are indicated with various particles and rising inflection. The SVO word order is generally not inverted for questions.
{| style="text-align: left;"
| || || || style="width:10%; text-align: center" | || || || || || style="width:10%; text-align: center" | || || || || || ||
|-
| you || to go || where || style="width:10%; text-align: center" | || you || understand || || || style="width:10%; text-align: center" | || you || to go || market || || or || yet
|-
| colspan=3 | 'Where are you going?' || style="width:10%; text-align: center" | || colspan=4 | 'Can you understand?' || style="width:10%; text-align: center" | || colspan=7 | 'Have you gone to the store yet?'
|}
In more formal contexts and in polite speech, questions are also marked at their beginning by the particle .
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || || ||
|-
| || you || to invite || to go || where
|-
| colspan=5 | 'Where are you going, sir?'
|}
Passive voice
Khmer does not have a passive voice, but there is a construction utilizing the main verb ("to hit", "to be correct", "to affect") as an auxiliary verb meaning "to be subject to" or "to undergo"—which results in sentences that are translated to English using the passive voice.
{| style="width:25%;"
| || || || || ||
|-
| from || yesterday || I || to undergo || dog || to bite
|-
| colspan=6 | 'Yesterday I was bitten by a dog.'
|}
Clause syntax
Complex sentences are formed in Khmer by the addition of one or more clauses to the main clause. The various types of clauses in Khmer include the coordinate clause, the relative clause and the subordinate clause. Word order in clauses is the same for that of the basic sentences described above. Coordinate clauses do not necessarily have to be marked; they can simply follow one another. When explicitly marked, they are joined by words similar to English conjunctions such as ("and") and ("and then") or by clause-final conjunction-like adverbs and , both of which can mean "also" or "and also"; disjunction is indicated by ("or").
Relative clauses can be introduced by ("that") but, similar to coordinate clauses, often simply follow the main clause. For example, both phrases below can mean "the hospital bed that has wheels".
{| style="text-align: left;"
| || || || || || style="width:20%; text-align: center" | || || || || || ||
|-
| bed || hospital || have || wheel || to push || style="width:20%; text-align: center" | || bed || hospital || || have || wheel || to push
|}
Relative clauses are more likely to be introduced with if they do not immediately follow the head noun. Khmer subordinate conjunctions always precede a subordinate clause. Subordinate conjunctions include words such as ("because"), ("seems as if") and ("in order to").
Numerals
Counting in Khmer is based on a biquinary system: the numbers from 6 to 9 have the form "five one", "five two", etc. The words for multiples of ten from 30 to 90 are not related to the basic Khmer numbers, but are Chinese in origin, and probably came to Khmer via Thai. Khmer numerals, which were inherited directly from Indian numerals, are used more widely than Western numerals, which like Khmer numerals were inherited from Indian, but first passed through the Arabic numerals before reaching the west.
The principal number words are listed in the following table, which gives Western and Khmer digits, Khmer spelling and IPA transcription.
Intermediate numbers are formed by compounding the above elements. Powers of ten are denoted by loan words: (100), (1,000), (10,000), (100,000) and (1,000,000) from Thai and (10,000,000) from Sanskrit.
Ordinal numbers are formed by placing the particle before the corresponding cardinal number.
Social registers
Khmer employs a system of registers in which the speaker must always be conscious of the social status of the person spoken to. The different registers, which include those used for common speech, polite speech, speaking to or about royals and speaking to or about monks, employ alternate verbs, names of body parts and pronouns. As an example, the word for "to eat" used between intimates or in reference to animals is . Used in polite reference to commoners, it is . When used of those of higher social status, it is or . For monks the word is and for royals, . Another result is that the pronominal system is complex and full of honorific variations, just a few of which are shown in the table below.
Writing system
Khmer is written with the Khmer script, an abugida developed from the Pallava script of India before the 7th century when the first known inscription appeared. Written left-to-right with vowel signs that can be placed after, before, above or below the consonant they follow, the Khmer script is similar in appearance and usage to Thai and Lao, both of which were based on the Khmer system. The Khmer script is also distantly related to the Mon–Burmese script. Within Cambodia, literacy in the Khmer alphabet is estimated at 77.6%.
Consonant symbols in Khmer are divided into two groups, or series. The first series carries the inherent vowel while the second series carries the inherent vowel . The Khmer names of the series, ('voiceless') and ('voiced'), respectively, indicate that the second series consonants were used to represent the voiced phonemes of Old Khmer. As the voicing of stops was lost, however, the contrast shifted to the phonation of the attached vowels, which, in turn, evolved into a simple difference of vowel quality, often by diphthongization. This process has resulted in the Khmer alphabet having two symbols for most consonant phonemes and each vowel symbol having two possible readings, depending on the series of the initial consonant:
Examples
The following text is from Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
See also
Hem Chieu
Khmer literature
Romanization of Khmer
References and notes
Further reading
Ferlus, Michel. (1992). Essai de phonétique historique du khmer (Du milieu du premier millénaire de notre ère à l'époque actuelle)", Mon–Khmer Studies XXI: 57–89)
Headley, Robert and others. (1977). Cambodian-English Dictionary. Washington, Catholic University Press.
Herington, Jennifer and Amy Ryan. (2013). Sociolinguistic Survey of the Khmer Khe in Cambodia . Chiang Mai: Linguistics Institute, Payap University.
Huffman, F. E., Promchan, C., & Lambert, C.-R. T. (1970). Modern spoken Cambodian. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Huffman, F. E., Lambert, C.-R. T., & Im Proum. (1970). Cambodian system of writing and beginning reader with drills and glossary. Yale linguistic series. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Jacob, Judith. (1966). 'Some features of Khmer versification', in C. E. Bazell, J. C. Catford, M. A. K. Halliday, and R. H. Robins, eds., In Memory of J. R Firth, 227–41. London: Longman. [Includes discussion of the two series of syllables and their places in Khmer shymes]
Jacob, Judith. (1974). A Concise Cambodian-English Dictionary. London, Oxford University Press.
Jacob, J. M. (1996). The traditional literature of Cambodia: a preliminary guide. London oriental series, v. 40. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jacob, J. M., & Smyth, D. (1993). Cambodian linguistics, literature and history: collected articles. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Keesee, A. P. K. (1996). An English-spoken Khmer dictionary: with romanized writing system, usage, and idioms, and notes on Khmer speech and grammar. London: Kegan Paul International.
Meechan, M. (1992). Register in Khmer the laryngeal specification of pharyngeal expansion. Ottawa: National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada.
Sak-Humphry, C. (2002). Communicating in Khmer: an interactive intermediate level Khmer course. Manoa, Hawai'i: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. OCLC: 56840636
Smyth, D. (1995). Colloquial Cambodian: a complete language course. London: Routledge.
Stewart, F., & May, S. (2004). In the shadow of Angkor: contemporary writing from Cambodia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
Tonkin, D. (1991). The Cambodian alphabet: how to write the Khmer language. Bangkok: Trasvin Publications.
External links
Kheng.info—An online audio dictionary for learning Khmer, with thousands of native speaker recordings and text segmentation software.
SEAlang Project: Mon–Khmer languages. The Khmeric Branch
Khmer Swadesh vocabulary list (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
Dictionary and SpellChecker open sourced and collaborative project based on Chuon Nath Khmer Dictionary
How to install Khmer script on a Windows 7 computer
How to install Khmer script on a Windows XP computer
Khmer'' at UCLA Language Materials project
Online Khmer & English dictionary
Khmer Online Dictionaries
Khmer audio lessons at Wikiotics
http://unicode-table.com/en/sections/khmer/
http://unicode-table.com/en/sections/khmer-symbols/
Languages attested from the 9th century
Analytic languages
Isolating languages
Languages of Cambodia
Languages of Thailand
Languages of Vietnam
Subject–verb–object languages |
5218 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central%20processing%20unit | Central processing unit | A central processing unit (CPU)—also called a central processor or main processor—is the most important processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, logic, controlling, and input/output (I/O) operations. This role contrasts with that of external components, such as main memory and I/O circuitry, and specialized coprocessors such as graphics processing units (GPUs).
The form, design, and implementation of CPUs have changed over time, but their fundamental operation remains almost unchanged. Principal components of a CPU include the arithmetic–logic unit (ALU) that performs arithmetic and logic operations, processor registers that supply operands to the ALU and store the results of ALU operations, and a control unit that orchestrates the fetching (from memory), decoding and execution (of instructions) by directing the coordinated operations of the ALU, registers, and other components.
Most modern CPUs are implemented on integrated circuit (IC) microprocessors, with one or more CPUs on a single IC chip. Microprocessor chips with multiple CPUs are multi-core processors. The individual physical CPUs, processor cores, can also be multithreaded to create additional virtual or logical CPUs.
An IC that contains a CPU may also contain memory, peripheral interfaces, and other components of a computer; such integrated devices are variously called microcontrollers or systems on a chip (SoC).
Array processors or vector processors have multiple processors that operate in parallel, with no unit considered central. Virtual CPUs are an abstraction of dynamically aggregated computational resources.
History
Early computers such as the ENIAC had to be physically rewired to perform different tasks, which caused these machines to be called "fixed-program computers". The "central processing unit" term has been in use since as early as 1955. Since the term "CPU" is generally defined as a device for software (computer program) execution, the earliest devices that could rightly be called CPUs came with the advent of the stored-program computer.
The idea of a stored-program computer had been already present in the design of J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly's ENIAC, but was initially omitted so that ENIAC could be finished sooner. On June 30, 1945, before ENIAC was made, mathematician John von Neumann distributed a paper entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC. It was the outline of a stored-program computer that would eventually be completed in August 1949. EDVAC was designed to perform a certain number of instructions (or operations) of various types. Significantly, the programs written for EDVAC were to be stored in high-speed computer memory rather than specified by the physical wiring of the computer. This overcame a severe limitation of ENIAC, which was the considerable time and effort required to reconfigure the computer to perform a new task. With von Neumann's design, the program that EDVAC ran could be changed simply by changing the contents of the memory. EDVAC was not the first stored-program computer; the Manchester Baby, which was a small-scale experimental stored-program computer, ran its first program on 21 June 1948 and the Manchester Mark 1 ran its first program during the night of 16–17 June 1949.
Early CPUs were custom designs used as part of a larger and sometimes distinctive computer. However, this method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely given way to the development of multi-purpose processors produced in large quantities. This standardization began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers, and has rapidly accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit (IC). The IC has allowed increasingly complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order of nanometers. Both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence of digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in electronic devices ranging from automobiles to cellphones, and sometimes even in toys.
While von Neumann is most often credited with the design of the stored-program computer because of his design of EDVAC, and the design became known as the von Neumann architecture, others before him, such as Konrad Zuse, had suggested and implemented similar ideas. The so-called Harvard architecture of the Harvard Mark I, which was completed before EDVAC, also used a stored-program design using punched paper tape rather than electronic memory. The key difference between the von Neumann and Harvard architectures is that the latter separates the storage and treatment of CPU instructions and data, while the former uses the same memory space for both. Most modern CPUs are primarily von Neumann in design, but CPUs with the Harvard architecture are seen as well, especially in embedded applications; for instance, the Atmel AVR microcontrollers are Harvard-architecture processors.
Relays and vacuum tubes (thermionic tubes) were commonly used as switching elements; a useful computer requires thousands or tens of thousands of switching devices. The overall speed of a system is dependent on the speed of the switches. Vacuum-tube computers such as EDVAC tended to average eight hours between failures, whereas relay computers—such as the slower but earlier Harvard Mark I—failed very rarely. In the end, tube-based CPUs became dominant because the significant speed advantages afforded generally outweighed the reliability problems. Most of these early synchronous CPUs ran at low clock rates compared to modern microelectronic designs. Clock signal frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 4 MHz were very common at this time, limited largely by the speed of the switching devices they were built with.
Transistor CPUs
The design complexity of CPUs increased as various technologies facilitated the building of smaller and more reliable electronic devices. The first such improvement came with the advent of the transistor. Transistorized CPUs during the 1950s and 1960s no longer had to be built out of bulky, unreliable, and fragile switching elements, like vacuum tubes and relays. With this improvement, more complex and reliable CPUs were built onto one or several printed circuit boards containing discrete (individual) components.
In 1964, IBM introduced its IBM System/360 computer architecture that was used in a series of computers capable of running the same programs with different speeds and performances. This was significant at a time when most electronic computers were incompatible with one another, even those made by the same manufacturer. To facilitate this improvement, IBM used the concept of a microprogram (often called "microcode"), which still sees widespread use in modern CPUs. The System/360 architecture was so popular that it dominated the mainframe computer market for decades and left a legacy that is continued by similar modern computers like the IBM zSeries. In 1965, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) introduced another influential computer aimed at the scientific and research markets—the PDP-8.
Transistor-based computers had several distinct advantages over their predecessors. Aside from facilitating increased reliability and lower power consumption, transistors also allowed CPUs to operate at much higher speeds because of the short switching time of a transistor in comparison to a tube or relay. The increased reliability and dramatically increased speed of the switching elements, which were almost exclusively transistors by this time; CPU clock rates in the tens of megahertz were easily obtained during this period. Additionally, while discrete transistor and IC CPUs were in heavy usage, new high-performance designs like single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) vector processors began to appear. These early experimental designs later gave rise to the era of specialized supercomputers like those made by Cray Inc and Fujitsu Ltd.
Small-scale integration CPUs
During this period, a method of manufacturing many interconnected transistors in a compact space was developed. The integrated circuit (IC) allowed a large number of transistors to be manufactured on a single semiconductor-based die, or "chip". At first, only very basic non-specialized digital circuits such as NOR gates were miniaturized into ICs. CPUs based on these "building block" ICs are generally referred to as "small-scale integration" (SSI) devices. SSI ICs, such as the ones used in the Apollo Guidance Computer, usually contained up to a few dozen transistors. To build an entire CPU out of SSI ICs required thousands of individual chips, but still consumed much less space and power than earlier discrete transistor designs.
IBM's System/370, follow-on to the System/360, used SSI ICs rather than Solid Logic Technology discrete-transistor modules. DEC's PDP-8/I and KI10 PDP-10 also switched from the individual transistors used by the PDP-8 and PDP-10 to SSI ICs, and their extremely popular PDP-11 line was originally built with SSI ICs, but was eventually implemented with LSI components once these became practical.
Large-scale integration CPUs
Lee Boysel published influential articles, including a 1967 "manifesto", which described how to build the equivalent of a 32-bit mainframe computer from a relatively small number of large-scale integration circuits (LSI). The only way to build LSI chips, which are chips with a hundred or more gates, was to build them using a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) semiconductor manufacturing process (either PMOS logic, NMOS logic, or CMOS logic). However, some companies continued to build processors out of bipolar transistor–transistor logic (TTL) chips because bipolar junction transistors were faster than MOS chips up until the 1970s (a few companies such as Datapoint continued to build processors out of TTL chips until the early 1980s). In the 1960s, MOS ICs were slower and initially considered useful only in applications that required low power. Following the development of silicon-gate MOS technology by Federico Faggin at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968, MOS ICs largely replaced bipolar TTL as the standard chip technology in the early 1970s.
As the microelectronic technology advanced, an increasing number of transistors were placed on ICs, decreasing the number of individual ICs needed for a complete CPU. MSI and LSI ICs increased transistor counts to hundreds, and then thousands. By 1968, the number of ICs required to build a complete CPU had been reduced to 24 ICs of eight different types, with each IC containing roughly 1000 MOSFETs. In stark contrast with its SSI and MSI predecessors, the first LSI implementation of the PDP-11 contained a CPU composed of only four LSI integrated circuits.
Microprocessors
Since microprocessors were first introduced they have almost completely overtaken all other central processing unit implementation methods. The first commercially available microprocessor, made in 1971, was the Intel 4004, and the first widely used microprocessor, made in 1974, was the Intel 8080. Mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers of the time launched proprietary IC development programs to upgrade their older computer architectures, and eventually produced instruction set compatible microprocessors that were backward-compatible with their older hardware and software. Combined with the advent and eventual success of the ubiquitous personal computer, the term CPU is now applied almost exclusively to microprocessors. Several CPUs (denoted cores) can be combined in a single processing chip.
Previous generations of CPUs were implemented as discrete components and numerous small integrated circuits (ICs) on one or more circuit boards. Microprocessors, on the other hand, are CPUs manufactured on a very small number of ICs; usually just one. The overall smaller CPU size, as a result of being implemented on a single die, means faster switching time because of physical factors like decreased gate parasitic capacitance. This has allowed synchronous microprocessors to have clock rates ranging from tens of megahertz to several gigahertz. Additionally, the ability to construct exceedingly small transistors on an IC has increased the complexity and number of transistors in a single CPU many fold. This widely observed trend is described by Moore's law, which had proven to be a fairly accurate predictor of the growth of CPU (and other IC) complexity until 2016.
While the complexity, size, construction and general form of CPUs have changed enormously since 1950, the basic design and function has not changed much at all. Almost all common CPUs today can be very accurately described as von Neumann stored-program machines. As Moore's law no longer holds, concerns have arisen about the limits of integrated circuit transistor technology. Extreme miniaturization of electronic gates is causing the effects of phenomena like electromigration and subthreshold leakage to become much more significant. These newer concerns are among the many factors causing researchers to investigate new methods of computing such as the quantum computer, as well as to expand the use of parallelism and other methods that extend the usefulness of the classical von Neumann model.
Operation
The fundamental operation of most CPUs, regardless of the physical form they take, is to execute a sequence of stored instructions that is called a program. The instructions to be executed are kept in some kind of computer memory. Nearly all CPUs follow the fetch, decode and execute steps in their operation, which are collectively known as the instruction cycle.
After the execution of an instruction, the entire process repeats, with the next instruction cycle normally fetching the next-in-sequence instruction because of the incremented value in the program counter. If a jump instruction was executed, the program counter will be modified to contain the address of the instruction that was jumped to and program execution continues normally. In more complex CPUs, multiple instructions can be fetched, decoded and executed simultaneously. This section describes what is generally referred to as the "classic RISC pipeline", which is quite common among the simple CPUs used in many electronic devices (often called microcontrollers). It largely ignores the important role of CPU cache, and therefore the access stage of the pipeline.
Some instructions manipulate the program counter rather than producing result data directly; such instructions are generally called "jumps" and facilitate program behavior like loops, conditional program execution (through the use of a conditional jump), and existence of functions. In some processors, some other instructions change the state of bits in a "flags" register. These flags can be used to influence how a program behaves, since they often indicate the outcome of various operations. For example, in such processors a "compare" instruction evaluates two values and sets or clears bits in the flags register to indicate which one is greater or whether they are equal; one of these flags could then be used by a later jump instruction to determine program flow.
Fetch
Fetch involves retrieving an instruction (which is represented by a number or sequence of numbers) from program memory. The instruction's location (address) in program memory is determined by the program counter (PC; called the "instruction pointer" in Intel x86 microprocessors), which stores a number that identifies the address of the next instruction to be fetched. After an instruction is fetched, the PC is incremented by the length of the instruction so that it will contain the address of the next instruction in the sequence. Often, the instruction to be fetched must be retrieved from relatively slow memory, causing the CPU to stall while waiting for the instruction to be returned. This issue is largely addressed in modern processors by caches and pipeline architectures (see below).
Decode
The instruction that the CPU fetches from memory determines what the CPU will do. In the decode step, performed by binary decoder circuitry known as the instruction decoder, the instruction is converted into signals that control other parts of the CPU.
The way in which the instruction is interpreted is defined by the CPU's instruction set architecture (ISA). Often, one group of bits (that is, a "field") within the instruction, called the opcode, indicates which operation is to be performed, while the remaining fields usually provide supplemental information required for the operation, such as the operands. Those operands may be specified as a constant value (called an immediate value), or as the location of a value that may be a processor register or a memory address, as determined by some addressing mode.
In some CPU designs the instruction decoder is implemented as a hardwired, unchangeable binary decoder circuit. In others, a microprogram is used to translate instructions into sets of CPU configuration signals that are applied sequentially over multiple clock pulses. In some cases the memory that stores the microprogram is rewritable, making it possible to change the way in which the CPU decodes instructions.
Execute
After the fetch and decode steps, the execute step is performed. Depending on the CPU architecture, this may consist of a single action or a sequence of actions. During each action, control signals electrically enable or disable various parts of the CPU so they can perform all or part of the desired operation. The action is then completed, typically in response to a clock pulse. Very often the results are written to an internal CPU register for quick access by subsequent instructions. In other cases results may be written to slower, but less expensive and higher capacity main memory.
For example, if an instruction that performs addition is to be executed, registers containing operands (numbers to be summed) are activated, as are the parts of the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) that perform addition. When the clock pulse occurs, the operands flow from the source registers into the ALU, and the sum appears at its output. On subsequent clock pulses, other components are enabled (and disabled) to move the output (the sum of the operation) to storage (e.g., a register or memory). If the resulting sum is too large (i.e., it is larger than the ALU's output word size), an arithmetic overflow flag will be set, influencing the next operation.
Structure and implementation
Hardwired into a CPU's circuitry is a set of basic operations it can perform, called an instruction set. Such operations may involve, for example, adding or subtracting two numbers, comparing two numbers, or jumping to a different part of a program. Each instruction is represented by a unique combination of bits, known as the machine language opcode. While processing an instruction, the CPU decodes the opcode (via a binary decoder) into control signals, which orchestrate the behavior of the CPU. A complete machine language instruction consists of an opcode and, in many cases, additional bits that specify arguments for the operation (for example, the numbers to be summed in the case of an addition operation). Going up the complexity scale, a machine language program is a collection of machine language instructions that the CPU executes.
The actual mathematical operation for each instruction is performed by a combinational logic circuit within the CPU's processor known as the arithmetic–logic unit or ALU. In general, a CPU executes an instruction by fetching it from memory, using its ALU to perform an operation, and then storing the result to memory. Besides the instructions for integer mathematics and logic operations, various other machine instructions exist, such as those for loading data from memory and storing it back, branching operations, and mathematical operations on floating-point numbers performed by the CPU's floating-point unit (FPU).
Control unit
The control unit (CU) is a component of the CPU that directs the operation of the processor. It tells the computer's memory, arithmetic and logic unit and input and output devices how to respond to the instructions that have been sent to the processor.
It directs the operation of the other units by providing timing and control signals. Most computer resources are managed by the CU. It directs the flow of data between the CPU and the other devices. John von Neumann included the control unit as part of the von Neumann architecture. In modern computer designs, the control unit is typically an internal part of the CPU with its overall role and operation unchanged since its introduction.
Arithmetic logic unit
The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a digital circuit within the processor that performs integer arithmetic and bitwise logic operations. The inputs to the ALU are the data words to be operated on (called operands), status information from previous operations, and a code from the control unit indicating which operation to perform. Depending on the instruction being executed, the operands may come from internal CPU registers, external memory, or constants generated by the ALU itself.
When all input signals have settled and propagated through the ALU circuitry, the result of the performed operation appears at the ALU's outputs. The result consists of both a data word, which may be stored in a register or memory, and status information that is typically stored in a special, internal CPU register reserved for this purpose.
Address generation unit
The address generation unit (AGU), sometimes also called the address computation unit (ACU), is an execution unit inside the CPU that calculates addresses used by the CPU to access main memory. By having address calculations handled by separate circuitry that operates in parallel with the rest of the CPU, the number of CPU cycles required for executing various machine instructions can be reduced, bringing performance improvements.
While performing various operations, CPUs need to calculate memory addresses required for fetching data from the memory; for example, in-memory positions of array elements must be calculated before the CPU can fetch the data from actual memory locations. Those address-generation calculations involve different integer arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction, modulo operations, or bit shifts. Often, calculating a memory address involves more than one general-purpose machine instruction, which do not necessarily decode and execute quickly. By incorporating an AGU into a CPU design, together with introducing specialized instructions that use the AGU, various address-generation calculations can be offloaded from the rest of the CPU, and can often be executed quickly in a single CPU cycle.
Capabilities of an AGU depend on a particular CPU and its architecture. Thus, some AGUs implement and expose more address-calculation operations, while some also include more advanced specialized instructions that can operate on multiple operands at a time. Some CPU architectures include multiple AGUs so more than one address-calculation operation can be executed simultaneously, which brings further performance improvements due to the superscalar nature of advanced CPU designs. For example, Intel incorporates multiple AGUs into its Sandy Bridge and Haswell microarchitectures, which increase bandwidth of the CPU memory subsystem by allowing multiple memory-access instructions to be executed in parallel.
Memory management unit (MMU)
Many microprocessors (in smartphones and desktop, laptop, server computers) have a memory management unit, translating logical addresses into physical RAM addresses, providing memory protection and paging abilities, useful for virtual memory. Simpler processors, especially microcontrollers, usually don't include an MMU.
Cache
A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, closer to a processor core, which stores copies of the data from frequently used main memory locations. Most CPUs have different independent caches, including instruction and data caches, where the data cache is usually organized as a hierarchy of more cache levels (L1, L2, L3, L4, etc.).
All modern (fast) CPUs (with few specialized exceptions) have multiple levels of CPU caches. The first CPUs that used a cache had only one level of cache; unlike later level 1 caches, it was not split into L1d (for data) and L1i (for instructions). Almost all current CPUs with caches have a split L1 cache. They also have L2 caches and, for larger processors, L3 caches as well. The L2 cache is usually not split and acts as a common repository for the already split L1 cache. Every core of a multi-core processor has a dedicated L2 cache and is usually not shared between the cores. The L3 cache, and higher-level caches, are shared between the cores and are not split. An L4 cache is currently uncommon, and is generally on dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), rather than on static random-access memory (SRAM), on a separate die or chip. That was also the case historically with L1, while bigger chips have allowed integration of it and generally all cache levels, with the possible exception of the last level. Each extra level of cache tends to be bigger and is optimized differently.
Other types of caches exist (that are not counted towards the "cache size" of the most important caches mentioned above), such as the translation lookaside buffer (TLB) that is part of the memory management unit (MMU) that most CPUs have.
Caches are generally sized in powers of two: 2, 8, 16 etc. KiB or MiB (for larger non-L1) sizes, although the IBM z13 has a 96 KiB L1 instruction cache.
Clock rate
Most CPUs are synchronous circuits, which means they employ a clock signal to pace their sequential operations. The clock signal is produced by an external oscillator circuit that generates a consistent number of pulses each second in the form of a periodic square wave. The frequency of the clock pulses determines the rate at which a CPU executes instructions and, consequently, the faster the clock, the more instructions the CPU will execute each second.
To ensure proper operation of the CPU, the clock period is longer than the maximum time needed for all signals to propagate (move) through the CPU. In setting the clock period to a value well above the worst-case propagation delay, it is possible to design the entire CPU and the way it moves data around the "edges" of the rising and falling clock signal. This has the advantage of simplifying the CPU significantly, both from a design perspective and a component-count perspective. However, it also carries the disadvantage that the entire CPU must wait on its slowest elements, even though some portions of it are much faster. This limitation has largely been compensated for by various methods of increasing CPU parallelism (see below).
However, architectural improvements alone do not solve all of the drawbacks of globally synchronous CPUs. For example, a clock signal is subject to the delays of any other electrical signal. Higher clock rates in increasingly complex CPUs make it more difficult to keep the clock signal in phase (synchronized) throughout the entire unit. This has led many modern CPUs to require multiple identical clock signals to be provided to avoid delaying a single signal significantly enough to cause the CPU to malfunction. Another major issue, as clock rates increase dramatically, is the amount of heat that is dissipated by the CPU. The constantly changing clock causes many components to switch regardless of whether they are being used at that time. In general, a component that is switching uses more energy than an element in a static state. Therefore, as clock rate increases, so does energy consumption, causing the CPU to require more heat dissipation in the form of CPU cooling solutions.
One method of dealing with the switching of unneeded components is called clock gating, which involves turning off the clock signal to unneeded components (effectively disabling them). However, this is often regarded as difficult to implement and therefore does not see common usage outside of very low-power designs. One notable recent CPU design that uses extensive clock gating is the IBM PowerPC-based Xenon used in the Xbox 360; reducing the power requirements of the Xbox 360.
Clockless CPUs
Another method of addressing some of the problems with a global clock signal is the removal of the clock signal altogether. While removing the global clock signal makes the design process considerably more complex in many ways, asynchronous (or clockless) designs carry marked advantages in power consumption and heat dissipation in comparison with similar synchronous designs. While somewhat uncommon, entire asynchronous CPUs have been built without using a global clock signal. Two notable examples of this are the ARM compliant AMULET and the MIPS R3000 compatible MiniMIPS.
Rather than totally removing the clock signal, some CPU designs allow certain portions of the device to be asynchronous, such as using asynchronous ALUs in conjunction with superscalar pipelining to achieve some arithmetic performance gains. While it is not altogether clear whether totally asynchronous designs can perform at a comparable or better level than their synchronous counterparts, it is evident that they do at least excel in simpler math operations. This, combined with their excellent power consumption and heat dissipation properties, makes them very suitable for embedded computers.
Voltage regulator module
Many modern CPUs have a die-integrated power managing module which regulates on-demand voltage supply to the CPU circuitry allowing it to keep balance between performance and power consumption.
Integer range
Every CPU represents numerical values in a specific way. For example, some early digital computers represented numbers as familiar decimal (base 10) numeral system values, and others have employed more unusual representations such as ternary (base three). Nearly all modern CPUs represent numbers in binary form, with each digit being represented by some two-valued physical quantity such as a "high" or "low" voltage.
Related to numeric representation is the size and precision of integer numbers that a CPU can represent. In the case of a binary CPU, this is measured by the number of bits (significant digits of a binary encoded integer) that the CPU can process in one operation, which is commonly called word size, bit width, data path width, integer precision, or integer size. A CPU's integer size determines the range of integer values on which it can it can directly operate. For example, an 8-bit CPU can directly manipulate integers represented by eight bits, which have a range of 256 (28) discrete integer values.
Integer range can also affect the number of memory locations the CPU can directly address (an address is an integer value representing a specific memory location). For example, if a binary CPU uses 32 bits to represent a memory address then it can directly address 232 memory locations. To circumvent this limitation and for various other reasons, some CPUs use mechanisms (such as bank switching) that allow additional memory to be addressed.
CPUs with larger word sizes require more circuitry and consequently are physically larger, cost more and consume more power (and therefore generate more heat). As a result, smaller 4- or 8-bit microcontrollers are commonly used in modern applications even though CPUs with much larger word sizes (such as 16, 32, 64, even 128-bit) are available. When higher performance is required, however, the benefits of a larger word size (larger data ranges and address spaces) may outweigh the disadvantages. A CPU can have internal data paths shorter than the word size to reduce size and cost. For example, even though the IBM System/360 instruction set architecture was a 32-bit instruction set, the System/360 Model 30 and Model 40 had 8-bit data paths in the arithmetic logical unit, so that a 32-bit add required four cycles, one for each 8 bits of the operands, and, even though the Motorola 68000 series instruction set was a 32-bit instruction set, the Motorola 68000 and Motorola 68010 had 16-bit data paths in the arithmetic logical unit, so that a 32-bit add required two cycles.
To gain some of the advantages afforded by both lower and higher bit lengths, many instruction sets have different bit widths for integer and floating-point data, allowing CPUs implementing that instruction set to have different bit widths for different portions of the device. For example, the IBM System/360 instruction set was primarily 32 bit, but supported 64-bit floating-point values to facilitate greater accuracy and range in floating-point numbers. The System/360 Model 65 had an 8-bit adder for decimal and fixed-point binary arithmetic and a 60-bit adder for floating-point arithmetic. Many later CPU designs use similar mixed bit width, especially when the processor is meant for general-purpose use where a reasonable balance of integer and floating-point capability is required.
Parallelism
The description of the basic operation of a CPU offered in the previous section describes the simplest form that a CPU can take. This type of CPU, usually referred to as subscalar, operates on and executes one instruction on one or two pieces of data at a time, that is less than one instruction per clock cycle ().
This process gives rise to an inherent inefficiency in subscalar CPUs. Since only one instruction is executed at a time, the entire CPU must wait for that instruction to complete before proceeding to the next instruction. As a result, the subscalar CPU gets "hung up" on instructions which take more than one clock cycle to complete execution. Even adding a second execution unit (see below) does not improve performance much; rather than one pathway being hung up, now two pathways are hung up and the number of unused transistors is increased. This design, wherein the CPU's execution resources can operate on only one instruction at a time, can only possibly reach scalar performance (one instruction per clock cycle, ). However, the performance is nearly always subscalar (less than one instruction per clock cycle, ).
Attempts to achieve scalar and better performance have resulted in a variety of design methodologies that cause the CPU to behave less linearly and more in parallel. When referring to parallelism in CPUs, two terms are generally used to classify these design techniques:
instruction-level parallelism (ILP), which seeks to increase the rate at which instructions are executed within a CPU (that is, to increase the use of on-die execution resources);
task-level parallelism (TLP), which purposes to increase the number of threads or processes that a CPU can execute simultaneously.
Each methodology differs both in the ways in which they are implemented, as well as the relative effectiveness they afford in increasing the CPU's performance for an application.
Instruction-level parallelism
One of the simplest methods for increased parallelism is to begin the first steps of instruction fetching and decoding before the prior instruction finishes executing. This is a technique known as instruction pipelining, and is used in almost all modern general-purpose CPUs. Pipelining allows multiple instruction to be executed at a time by breaking the execution pathway into discrete stages. This separation can be compared to an assembly line, in which an instruction is made more complete at each stage until it exits the execution pipeline and is retired.
Pipelining does, however, introduce the possibility for a situation where the result of the previous operation is needed to complete the next operation; a condition often termed data dependency conflict. Therefore pipelined processors must check for these sorts of conditions and delay a portion of the pipeline if necessary. A pipelined processor can become very nearly scalar, inhibited only by pipeline stalls (an instruction spending more than one clock cycle in a stage).
Improvements in instruction pipelining led to further decreases in the idle time of CPU components. Designs that are said to be superscalar include a long instruction pipeline and multiple identical execution units, such as load–store units, arithmetic–logic units, floating-point units and address generation units. In a superscalar pipeline, instructions are read and passed to a dispatcher, which decides whether or not the instructions can be executed in parallel (simultaneously). If so, they are dispatched to execution units, resulting in their simultaneous execution. In general, the number of instructions that a superscalar CPU will complete in a cycle is dependent on the number of instructions it is able to dispatch simultaneously to execution units.
Most of the difficulty in the design of a superscalar CPU architecture lies in creating an effective dispatcher. The dispatcher needs to be able to quickly determine whether instructions can be executed in parallel, as well as dispatch them in such a way as to keep as many execution units busy as possible. This requires that the instruction pipeline is filled as often as possible and requires significant amounts of CPU cache. It also makes hazard-avoiding techniques like branch prediction, speculative execution, register renaming, out-of-order execution and transactional memory crucial to maintaining high levels of performance. By attempting to predict which branch (or path) a conditional instruction will take, the CPU can minimize the number of times that the entire pipeline must wait until a conditional instruction is completed. Speculative execution often provides modest performance increases by executing portions of code that may not be needed after a conditional operation completes. Out-of-order execution somewhat rearranges the order in which instructions are executed to reduce delays due to data dependencies. Also in case of single instruction stream, multiple data stream, a case when a lot of data from the same type has to be processed, modern processors can disable parts of the pipeline so that when a single instruction is executed many times, the CPU skips the fetch and decode phases and thus greatly increases performance on certain occasions, especially in highly monotonous program engines such as video creation software and photo processing.
When a fraction of the CPU is superscalar, the part that is not suffers a performance penalty due to scheduling stalls. The Intel P5 Pentium had two superscalar ALUs which could accept one instruction per clock cycle each, but its FPU could not. Thus the P5 was integer superscalar but not floating point superscalar. Intel's successor to the P5 architecture, P6, added superscalar abilities to its floating-point features.
Simple pipelining and superscalar design increase a CPU's ILP by allowing it to execute instructions at rates surpassing one instruction per clock cycle. Most modern CPU designs are at least somewhat superscalar, and nearly all general purpose CPUs designed in the last decade are superscalar. In later years some of the emphasis in designing high-ILP computers has been moved out of the CPU's hardware and into its software interface, or instruction set architecture (ISA). The strategy of the very long instruction word (VLIW) causes some ILP to become implied directly by the software, reducing the CPU’s work in boosting ILP and thereby reducing design complexity.
Task-level parallelism
Another strategy of achieving performance is to execute multiple threads or processes in parallel. This area of research is known as parallel computing. In Flynn's taxonomy, this strategy is known as multiple instruction stream, multiple data stream (MIMD).
One technology used for this purpose is multiprocessing (MP). The initial type of this technology is known as symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), where a small number of CPUs share a coherent view of their memory system. In this scheme, each CPU has additional hardware to maintain a constantly up-to-date view of memory. By avoiding stale views of memory, the CPUs can cooperate on the same program and programs can migrate from one CPU to another. To increase the number of cooperating CPUs beyond a handful, schemes such as non-uniform memory access (NUMA) and directory-based coherence protocols were introduced in the 1990s. SMP systems are limited to a small number of CPUs while NUMA systems have been built with thousands of processors. Initially, multiprocessing was built using multiple discrete CPUs and boards to implement the interconnect between the processors. When the processors and their interconnect are all implemented on a single chip, the technology is known as chip-level multiprocessing (CMP) and the single chip as a multi-core processor.
It was later recognized that finer-grain parallelism existed with a single program. A single program might have several threads (or functions) that could be executed separately or in parallel. Some of the earliest examples of this technology implemented input/output processing such as direct memory access as a separate thread from the computation thread. A more general approach to this technology was introduced in the 1970s when systems were designed to run multiple computation threads in parallel. This technology is known as multi-threading (MT). The approach is considered more cost-effective than multiprocessing, as only a small number of components within a CPU are replicated to support MT as opposed to the entire CPU in the case of MP. In MT, the execution units and the memory system including the caches are shared among multiple threads. The downside of MT is that the hardware support for multithreading is more visible to software than that of MP and thus supervisor software like operating systems have to undergo larger changes to support MT. One type of MT that was implemented is known as temporal multithreading, where one thread is executed until it is stalled waiting for data to return from external memory. In this scheme, the CPU would then quickly context switch to another thread which is ready to run, the switch often done in one CPU clock cycle, such as the UltraSPARC T1. Another type of MT is simultaneous multithreading, where instructions from multiple threads are executed in parallel within one CPU clock cycle.
For several decades from the 1970s to early 2000s, the focus in designing high performance general purpose CPUs was largely on achieving high ILP through technologies such as pipelining, caches, superscalar execution, out-of-order execution, etc. This trend culminated in large, power-hungry CPUs such as the Intel Pentium 4. By the early 2000s, CPU designers were thwarted from achieving higher performance from ILP techniques due to the growing disparity between CPU operating frequencies and main memory operating frequencies as well as escalating CPU power dissipation owing to more esoteric ILP techniques.
CPU designers then borrowed ideas from commercial computing markets such as transaction processing, where the aggregate performance of multiple programs, also known as throughput computing, was more important than the performance of a single thread or process.
This reversal of emphasis is evidenced by the proliferation of dual and more core processor designs and notably, Intel's newer designs resembling its less superscalar P6 architecture. Late designs in several processor families exhibit CMP, including the x86-64 Opteron and Athlon 64 X2, the SPARC UltraSPARC T1, IBM POWER4 and POWER5, as well as several video game console CPUs like the Xbox 360's triple-core PowerPC design, and the PlayStation 3's 7-core Cell microprocessor.
Data parallelism
A less common but increasingly important paradigm of processors (and indeed, computing in general) deals with data parallelism. The processors discussed earlier are all referred to as some type of scalar device. As the name implies, vector processors deal with multiple pieces of data in the context of one instruction. This contrasts with scalar processors, which deal with one piece of data for every instruction. Using Flynn's taxonomy, these two schemes of dealing with data are generally referred to as single instruction stream, multiple data stream (SIMD) and single instruction stream, single data stream (SISD), respectively. The great utility in creating processors that deal with vectors of data lies in optimizing tasks that tend to require the same operation (for example, a sum or a dot product) to be performed on a large set of data. Some classic examples of these types of tasks include multimedia applications (images, video and sound), as well as many types of scientific and engineering tasks. Whereas a scalar processor must complete the entire process of fetching, decoding and executing each instruction and value in a set of data, a vector processor can perform a single operation on a comparatively large set of data with one instruction. This is only possible when the application tends to require many steps which apply one operation to a large set of data.
Most early vector processors, such as the Cray-1, were associated almost exclusively with scientific research and cryptography applications. However, as multimedia has largely shifted to digital media, the need for some form of SIMD in general-purpose processors has become significant. Shortly after inclusion of floating-point units started to become commonplace in general-purpose processors, specifications for and implementations of SIMD execution units also began to appear for general-purpose processors. Some of these early SIMD specifications – like HP's Multimedia Acceleration eXtensions (MAX) and Intel's MMX – were integer-only. This proved to be a significant impediment for some software developers, since many of the applications that benefit from SIMD primarily deal with floating-point numbers. Progressively, developers refined and remade these early designs into some of the common modern SIMD specifications, which are usually associated with one instruction set architecture (ISA). Some notable modern examples include Intel's Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) and the PowerPC-related AltiVec (also known as VMX).
Hardware performance counter
Many modern architectures (including embedded ones) often include hardware performance counters (HPC), which enables low-level (instruction-level) collection, benchmarking, debugging or analysis of running software metrics. HPC may also be used to discover and analyze unusual or suspicious activity of the software, such as return-oriented programming (ROP) or sigreturn-oriented programming (SROP) exploits etc. This is usually done by software-security teams to assess and find malicious binary programs.
Many major vendors (such as IBM, Intel, AMD, and Arm etc.) provide software interfaces (usually written in C/C++) that can be used to collected data from CPUs registers in order to get metrics. Operating system vendors also provide software like perf (Linux) to record, benchmark, or trace CPU events running kernels and applications.
Virtual CPUs
Cloud computing can involve subdividing CPU operation into virtual central processing units (vCPUs).
A host is the virtual equivalent of a physical machine, on which a virtual system is operating. When there are several physical machines operating in tandem and managed as a whole, the grouped computing and memory resources form a cluster. In some systems, it is possible to dynamically add and remove from a cluster. Resources available at a host and cluster level can be partitioned into resources pools with fine granularity.
Performance
The performance or speed of a processor depends on, among many other factors, the clock rate (generally given in multiples of hertz) and the instructions per clock (IPC), which together are the factors for the instructions per second (IPS) that the CPU can perform.
Many reported IPS values have represented "peak" execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic workloads consist of a mix of instructions and applications, some of which take longer to execute than others. The performance of the memory hierarchy also greatly affects processor performance, an issue barely considered in IPS calculations. Because of these problems, various standardized tests, often called "benchmarks" for this purpose such as SPECinthave been developed to attempt to measure the real effective performance in commonly used applications.
Processing performance of computers is increased by using multi-core processors, which essentially is plugging two or more individual processors (called cores in this sense) into one integrated circuit. Ideally, a dual core processor would be nearly twice as powerful as a single core processor. In practice, the performance gain is far smaller, only about 50%, due to imperfect software algorithms and implementation. Increasing the number of cores in a processor (i.e. dual-core, quad-core, etc.) increases the workload that can be handled. This means that the processor can now handle numerous asynchronous events, interrupts, etc. which can take a toll on the CPU when overwhelmed. These cores can be thought of as different floors in a processing plant, with each floor handling a different task. Sometimes, these cores will handle the same tasks as cores adjacent to them if a single core is not enough to handle the information.
Due to specific capabilities of modern CPUs, such as simultaneous multithreading and uncore, which involve sharing of actual CPU resources while aiming at increased utilization, monitoring performance levels and hardware use gradually became a more complex task. As a response, some CPUs implement additional hardware logic that monitors actual use of various parts of a CPU and provides various counters accessible to software; an example is Intel's Performance Counter Monitor technology.
See also
Addressing mode
AMD Accelerated Processing Unit
Complex instruction set computer
Computer bus
Computer engineering
CPU core voltage
CPU socket
Data processing unit
Digital signal processor
Graphics processing unit
Comparison of instruction set architectures
Protection ring
Reduced instruction set computer
Stream processing
True Performance Index
Tensor Processing Unit
Wait state
Notes
References
External links
.
25 Microchips that shook the world – an article by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Digital electronics
Electronic design
Electronic design automation |
5222 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia | Colombia | Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country mostly in South America with insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast, Ecuador and Peru to the south and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. Colombia is divided into 32 departments. The Capital District of Bogotá is also the country's largest city hosting the main financial and cultural hub. Other major urbes include Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Villavicencio and Bucaramanga. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers (440,831 sq mi), and has a population of around 52 million. Its rich cultural heritage—including language, religion, cuisine, and art—reflects its history as a colony, fusing cultural elements brought by mass immigration from Europe and the Middle East, with those brought by the African diaspora, as well as with those of the various Indigenous civilizations that predate colonization. Spanish is the official language, although English and 64 other languages are recognized regionally.
Colombia has been home to many indigenous peoples and cultures since at least 12,000 BCE. The Spanish first landed in La Guajira in 1499, and by the mid-16th century they had colonized much of present-day Colombia, and established the New Kingdom of Granada, with Santa Fé de Bogotá as its capital. Independence from the Spanish Empire was achieved in 1819, with what is now Colombia emerging as the United Provinces of New Granada. The new polity experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858) and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before becoming a republic—the current Republic of Colombia—in 1886. With the backing of the United States and France, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, resulting in Colombia's present borders. Beginning in the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict and political violence, both of which escalated in the 1990s. Since 2005, there has been significant improvement in security, stability and rule of law, as well as unprecedented economic growth and development. Colombia is recognized for its healthcare system, being the best healthcare in Latin America according to the World Health Organization and 22nd in the world.
Colombia is one of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries; it has the highest level of biodiversity per square mile in the world and the second-highest level overall. Its territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, highlands, grasslands and deserts. It is the only country in South America with coastlines (and islands) along both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Colombia is a key member of major global and regional organizations including the UN, the WTO, the OECD, the OAS, the Pacific Alliance and the Andean Community; it is also a NATO Global Partner. Its diversified economy is the third-largest in South America, with macroeconomic stability and favorable long-term growth prospects.
Etymology
The name "Colombia" is derived from the last name of the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus (, , ). It was conceived as a reference to all of the New World. The name was later adopted by the Republic of Colombia of 1819, formed from the territories of the old Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern-day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, and northwest Brazil).
When Venezuela, Ecuador, and Cundinamarca came to exist as independent states, the former Department of Cundinamarca adopted the name "Republic of New Granada". New Granada officially changed its name in 1858 to the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the name was again changed, this time to United States of Colombia, before finally adopting its present name – the Republic of Colombia – in 1886.
To refer to this country, the Colombian government uses the terms and .
History
Pre-Columbian era
Owing to its location, the present territory of Colombia was a corridor of early human civilization from Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to the Andes and Amazon basin. The oldest archaeological finds are from the Pubenza and El Totumo sites in the Magdalena Valley southwest of Bogotá. These sites date from the Paleoindian period (18,000–8000 BCE). At Puerto Hormiga and other sites, traces from the Archaic Period (~8000–2000 BCE) have been found. Vestiges indicate that there was also early occupation in the regions of El Abra and Tequendama in Cundinamarca. The oldest pottery discovered in the Americas, found at San Jacinto, dates to 5000–4000 BCE.
Indigenous people inhabited the territory that is now Colombia by 12,500 BCE. Nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes at the El Abra, Tibitó and Tequendama sites near present-day Bogotá traded with one another and with other cultures from the Magdalena River Valley. A site including of pictographs that is under study at Serranía de la Lindosa was revealed in November 2020. Their age is suggested as being 12,500 years old (c. 10,480 B.C.) by the anthropologists working on the site because of extinct fauna depicted. That would have been during the earliest known human occupation of the area now known as Colombia.
Between 5000 and 1000 BCE, hunter-gatherer tribes transitioned to agrarian societies; fixed settlements were established, and pottery appeared. Beginning in the 1st millennium BCE, groups of Amerindians including the Muisca, Zenú, Quimbaya, and Tairona developed the political system of cacicazgos with a pyramidal structure of power headed by caciques. The Muisca inhabited mainly the area of what is now the Departments of Boyacá and Cundinamarca high plateau (Altiplano Cundiboyacense) where they formed the Muisca Confederation. They farmed maize, potato, quinoa, and cotton, and traded gold, emeralds, blankets, ceramic handicrafts, coca and especially rock salt with neighboring nations. The Tairona inhabited northern Colombia in the isolated mountain range of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The Quimbaya inhabited regions of the Cauca River Valley between the Western and Central Ranges of the Colombian Andes. Most of the Amerindians practiced agriculture and the social structure of each indigenous community was different. Some groups of indigenous people such as the Caribs lived in a state of permanent war, but others had less bellicose attitudes.
Colonial period
Alonso de Ojeda (who had sailed with Columbus) reached the Guajira Peninsula in 1499. Spanish explorers, led by Rodrigo de Bastidas, made the first exploration of the Caribbean coast in 1500. Christopher Columbus navigated near the Caribbean in 1502. In 1508, Vasco Núñez de Balboa accompanied an expedition to the territory through the region of Gulf of Urabá and they founded the town of Santa María la Antigua del Darién in 1510, the first stable settlement on the continent. Santa Marta was founded in 1525, and Cartagena in 1533. Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada led an expedition to the interior in April 1536, and christened the districts through which he passed "New Kingdom of Granada". In August 1538, he provisionally founded its capital near the Muisca cacicazgo of Muyquytá, and named it "Santa Fe". The name soon acquired a suffix and was called Santa Fe de Bogotá. Two other notable journeys by early conquistadors to the interior took place in the same period. Sebastián de Belalcázar, conqueror of Quito, traveled north and founded Cali, in 1536, and Popayán, in 1537; from 1536 to 1539, German conquistador Nikolaus Federmann crossed the Llanos Orientales and went over the Cordillera Oriental in a search for El Dorado, the "city of gold". The legend and the gold would play a pivotal role in luring the Spanish and other Europeans to New Granada during the 16th and 17th centuries.
The conquistadors made frequent alliances with the enemies of different indigenous communities. Indigenous allies were crucial to conquest, as well as to creating and maintaining empire. Indigenous peoples in New Granada experienced a decline in population due to conquest as well as Eurasian diseases, such as smallpox, to which they had no immunity. Regarding the land as deserted, the Spanish Crown sold properties to all persons interested in colonized territories, creating large farms and possession of mines. In the 16th century, the nautical science in Spain reached a great development thanks to numerous scientific figures of the Casa de Contratación and nautical science was an essential pillar of the Iberian expansion. In 1542, the region of New Granada, along with all other Spanish possessions in South America, became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, with its capital in Lima. In 1547, New Granada became a separate captaincy-general within the viceroyalty, with its capital at Santa Fe de Bogota. In 1549, the Royal Audiencia was created by a royal decree, and New Granada was ruled by the Royal Audience of Santa Fe de Bogotá, which at that time comprised the provinces of Santa Marta, Rio de San Juan, Popayán, Guayana and Cartagena. But important decisions were taken from the colony to Spain by the Council of the Indies.
In the 16th century, European slave traders had begun to bring enslaved Africans to the Americas. Spain was the only European power that did not establish factories in Africa to purchase slaves; the Spanish Empire instead relied on the asiento system, awarding merchants from other European nations the license to trade enslaved peoples to their overseas territories. This system brought Africans to Colombia, although many spoke out against the institution. The indigenous peoples could not be enslaved because they were legally subjects of the Spanish Crown. To protect the indigenous peoples, several forms of land ownership and regulation were established by the Spanish colonial authorities: resguardos, encomiendas and haciendas.
However, secret anti-Spanish discontentment was already brewing for Colombians since Spain prohibited direct trade between the Viceroyalty of Peru, which included Colombia, and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which included the Philippines, the source of Asian products like silk and porcelain which was in demand in the Americas. Illegal trade between Peruvians, Filipinos, and Mexicans continued in secret, as smuggled Asian goods ended up in Córdoba, Colombia, the distribution center for illegal Asian imports, due to the collusion between these peoples against the authorities in Spain. They settled and traded with each other while disobeying the forced Spanish monopoly.
The Viceroyalty of New Granada was established in 1717, then temporarily removed, and then re-established in 1739. Its capital was Santa Fé de Bogotá. This Viceroyalty included some other provinces of northwestern South America that had previously been under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalties of New Spain or Peru and correspond mainly to today's Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. So, Bogotá became one of the principal administrative centers of the Spanish possessions in the New World, along with Lima and Mexico City, though it remained somewhat backward compared to those two cities in several economic and logistical ways.
Great Britain declared war on Spain in 1739, and the city of Cartagena quickly became a top target for the British. A massive British expeditionary force was dispatched to capture the city, but, after achieving initial inroads, devastating outbreaks of disease crippled their numbers and the British were forced to withdraw. The battle became one of Spain's most decisive victories in the conflict, and secured Spanish dominance in the Caribbean until the Seven Years' War. The 18th-century priest, botanist and mathematician José Celestino Mutis was delegated by Viceroy Antonio Caballero y Góngora to conduct an inventory of the nature of New Granada. Started in 1783, this became known as the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada. It classified plants and wildlife, and founded the first astronomical observatory in the city of Santa Fe de Bogotá. In July 1801 the Prussian scientist Alexander von Humboldt reached Santa Fe de Bogotá where he met with Mutis. In addition, historical figures in the process of independence in New Granada emerged from the expedition as the astronomer Francisco José de Caldas, the scientist Francisco Antonio Zea, the zoologist Jorge Tadeo Lozano and the painter Salvador Rizo.
Independence
Since the beginning of the periods of conquest and colonization, there were several rebel movements against Spanish rule, but most were either crushed or remained too weak to change the overall situation. The last one that sought outright independence from Spain sprang up around 1810 and culminated in the Colombian Declaration of Independence, issued on 20 July 1810, the day that is now celebrated as the nation's Independence Day. This movement followed the independence of St. Domingue (present-day Haiti) in 1804, which provided some support to an eventual leader of this rebellion: Simón Bolívar. Francisco de Paula Santander also would play a decisive role.
A movement was initiated by Antonio Nariño, who opposed Spanish centralism and led the opposition against the Viceroyalty. Cartagena became independent in November 1811. In 1811, the United Provinces of New Granada were proclaimed, headed by Camilo Torres Tenorio. The emergence of two distinct ideological currents among the patriots (federalism and centralism) gave rise to a period of instability. Shortly after the Napoleonic Wars ended, Ferdinand VII, recently restored to the throne in Spain, unexpectedly decided to send military forces to retake most of northern South America. The viceroyalty was restored under the command of Juan Sámano, whose regime punished those who participated in the patriotic movements, ignoring the political nuances of the juntas. The retribution stoked renewed rebellion, which, combined with a weakened Spain, made possible a successful rebellion led by the Venezuelan-born Simón Bolívar, who finally proclaimed independence in 1819. The pro-Spanish resistance was defeated in 1822 in the present territory of Colombia and in 1823 in Venezuela.
The territory of the Viceroyalty of New Granada became the Republic of Colombia, organized as a union of the current territories of Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, parts of Guyana and Brazil and north of Marañón River. The Congress of Cúcuta in 1821 adopted a constitution for the new Republic. Simón Bolívar became the first President of Colombia, and Francisco de Paula Santander was made Vice President. However, the new republic was unstable and the Gran Colombia ultimately collapsed.
Modern Colombia comes from one of the countries that emerged after the dissolution of Gran Colombia, the other two being Ecuador and Venezuela. Colombia was the first constitutional government in South America, and the Liberal and Conservative parties, founded in 1848 and 1849, respectively, are two of the oldest surviving political parties in the Americas. Slavery was abolished in the country in 1851.
Internal political and territorial divisions led to the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830. The so-called "Department of Cundinamarca" adopted the name "New Granada", which it kept until 1858 when it became the "Confederación Granadina" (Granadine Confederation). After a two-year civil war in 1863, the "United States of Colombia" was created, lasting until 1886, when the country finally became known as the Republic of Colombia. Internal divisions remained between the bipartisan political forces, occasionally igniting very bloody civil wars, the most significant being the Thousand Days' War (1899–1902).
20th century
The United States of America's intentions to influence the area (especially the Panama Canal construction and control) led to the separation of the Department of Panama in 1903 and the establishment of it as a nation. The United States paid Colombia $25,000,000 in 1921, seven years after completion of the canal, for redress of President Roosevelt's role in the creation of Panama, and Colombia recognized Panama under the terms of the Thomson–Urrutia Treaty. Colombia and Peru went to war because of territory disputes far in the Amazon basin. The war ended with a peace deal brokered by the League of Nations. The League finally awarded the disputed area to Colombia in June 1934.
Soon after, Colombia achieved some degree of political stability, which was interrupted by a bloody conflict that took place between the late 1940s and the early 1950s, a period known as La Violencia ("The Violence"). Its cause was mainly mounting tensions between the two leading political parties, which subsequently ignited after the assassination of the Liberal presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 1948. The ensuing riots in Bogotá, known as El Bogotazo, spread throughout the country and claimed the lives of at least 180,000 Colombians.
Colombia entered the Korean War when Laureano Gómez was elected president. It was the only Latin American country to join the war in a direct military role as an ally of the United States. Particularly important was the resistance of the Colombian troops at Old Baldy.
The violence between the two political parties decreased first when Gustavo Rojas deposed the President of Colombia in a coup d'état and negotiated with the guerrillas, and then under the military junta of General Gabriel París.
After Rojas' deposition, the Colombian Conservative Party and Colombian Liberal Party agreed to create the National Front, a coalition that would jointly govern the country. Under the deal, the presidency would alternate between conservatives and liberals every 4 years for 16 years; the two parties would have parity in all other elective offices. The National Front ended "La Violencia", and National Front administrations attempted to institute far-reaching social and economic reforms in cooperation with the Alliance for Progress. Despite the progress in certain sectors, many social and political problems continued, and guerrilla groups were formally created such as the FARC, the ELN and the M-19 to fight the government and political apparatus.
Since the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict between government forces, leftist guerrilla groups and right wing paramilitaries. The conflict escalated in the 1990s, mainly in remote rural areas. Since the beginning of the armed conflict, human rights defenders have fought for the respect for human rights, despite staggering opposition. Several guerrillas' organizations decided to demobilize after peace negotiations in 1989–1994.
The United States has been heavily involved in the conflict since its beginnings, when in the early 1960s the U.S. government encouraged the Colombian military to attack leftist militias in rural Colombia. This was part of the U.S. fight against communism. Mercenaries and multinational corporations such as Chiquita Brands International are some of the international actors that have contributed to the violence of the conflict.
Beginning in the mid-1970s Colombian drug cartels became major producers, processors and exporters of illegal drugs, primarily marijuana and cocaine.
On 4 July 1991, a new Constitution was promulgated. The changes generated by the new constitution are viewed as positive by Colombian society.
21st century
The administration of President Álvaro Uribe (2002–2010) adopted the democratic security policy which included an integrated counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency campaign. The government economic plan also promoted confidence in investors. As part of a controversial peace process, the AUC (right-wing paramilitaries) had ceased to function formally as an organization . In February 2008, millions of Colombians demonstrated against FARC and other outlawed groups.
After peace negotiations in Cuba, the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the guerrillas of the FARC-EP announced a final agreement to end the conflict. However, a referendum to ratify the deal was unsuccessful. Afterward, the Colombian government and the FARC signed a revised peace deal in November 2016, which the Colombian congress approved. In 2016, President Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Government began a process of attention and comprehensive reparation for victims of conflict. Colombia shows modest progress in the struggle to defend human rights, as expressed by HRW. A Special Jurisdiction of Peace has been created to investigate, clarify, prosecute and punish serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law which occurred during the armed conflict and to satisfy victims' right to justice. During his visit to Colombia, Pope Francis paid tribute to the victims of the conflict.
In June 2018, Ivan Duque, the candidate of the right-wing Democratic Center party, won the presidential election. On 7 August 2018, he was sworn in as the new President of Colombia to succeed Juan Manuel Santos. Colombia's relations with Venezuela have fluctuated due to ideological differences between the two governments. Colombia has offered humanitarian support with food and medicines to mitigate the shortage of supplies in Venezuela. Colombia's Foreign Ministry said that all efforts to resolve Venezuela's crisis should be peaceful. Colombia proposed the idea of the Sustainable Development Goals and a final document was adopted by the United Nations. In February 2019, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro cut off diplomatic relations with Colombia after Colombian President Ivan Duque had helped Venezuelan opposition politicians deliver humanitarian aid to their country. Colombia recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country's legitimate president. In January 2020, Colombia rejected Maduro's proposal that the two countries restore diplomatic relations.
Protests started on 28 April 2021 when the government proposed a tax bill which would greatly expand the range of the 19 percent value-added tax. The 19 June 2022 election run-off vote ended in a win for former guerrilla, Gustavo Petro, taking 50.47% of the vote compared to 47.27% for independent candidate Rodolfo Hernández. The single-term limit for the country's presidency prevented president Iván Duque from seeking re-election. On 7 August 2022, Petro was sworn in, becoming the country's first leftist president.
Geography
The geography of Colombia is characterized by its six main natural regions that present their own unique characteristics, from the Andes mountain range region shared with Ecuador and Venezuela; the Pacific Coastal region shared with Panama and Ecuador; the Caribbean coastal region shared with Venezuela and Panama; the Llanos (plains) shared with Venezuela; the Amazon rainforest region shared with Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador; to the insular area, comprising islands in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
Colombia is bordered to the northwest by Panama, to the east by Venezuela and Brazil, and to the south by Ecuador and Peru; it established its maritime boundaries with neighboring countries through seven agreements on the Caribbean Sea and three on the Pacific Ocean. It lies between latitudes 12°N and 4°S and between longitudes 67° and 79°W.
East of the Andes lies the savanna of the Llanos, part of the Orinoco River basin, and in the far southeast, the jungle of the Amazon rainforest. Together these lowlands make up over half Colombia's territory, but they contain less than 6% of the population. To the north the Caribbean coast, home to 21.9% of the population and the location of the major port cities of Barranquilla and Cartagena, generally consists of low-lying plains, but it also contains the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, which includes the country's tallest peaks (Pico Cristóbal Colón and Pico Simón Bolívar), and the La Guajira Desert. By contrast the narrow and discontinuous Pacific coastal lowlands, backed by the Serranía de Baudó mountains, are sparsely populated and covered in dense vegetation. The principal Pacific port is Buenaventura.
Part of the Ring of Fire, a region of the world subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, in the interior of Colombia the Andes are the prevailing geographical feature. Most of Colombia's population centers are located in these interior highlands. Beyond the Colombian Massif (in the southwestern departments of Cauca and Nariño), these are divided into three branches known as cordilleras (mountain ranges): the Cordillera Occidental, running adjacent to the Pacific coast and including the city of Cali; the Cordillera Central, running between the Cauca and Magdalena River valleys (to the west and east, respectively) and including the cities of Medellín, Manizales, Pereira, and Armenia; and the Cordillera Oriental, extending northeast to the Guajira Peninsula and including Bogotá, Bucaramanga, and Cúcuta. Peaks in the Cordillera Occidental exceed , and in the Cordillera Central and Cordillera Oriental they reach . At , Bogotá is the highest city of its size in the world.
The main rivers of Colombia are Magdalena, Cauca, Guaviare, Atrato, Meta, Putumayo and Caquetá. Colombia has four main drainage systems: the Pacific drain, the Caribbean drain, the Orinoco Basin and the Amazon Basin. The Orinoco and Amazon Rivers mark limits with Colombia to Venezuela and Peru respectively.
Climate
The climate of Colombia is characterized for being tropical presenting variations within six natural regions and depending on the altitude, temperature, humidity, winds and rainfall. Colombia has a diverse range of climate zones, including tropical rainforests, savannas, steppes, deserts and mountain climates.
Mountain climate is one of the unique features of the Andes and other high altitude reliefs where climate is determined by elevation. Below in elevation is the warm altitudinal zone, where temperatures are above . About 82.5% of the country's total area lies in the warm altitudinal zone. The temperate climate altitudinal zone located between is characterized for presenting an average temperature ranging between . The cold climate is present between and the temperatures vary between . Beyond lies the alpine conditions of the forested zone and then the treeless grasslands of the páramos. Above , where temperatures are below freezing, the climate is glacial, a zone of permanent snow and ice.
Biodiversity and conservation
Colombia is one of the megadiverse countries in biodiversity, ranking first in bird species. Colombia is the country with the planet's highest biodiversity, having the highest rate of species by area as well as the largest number of endemisms (species that are not found naturally anywhere else) of any country. About 10% of the species of the Earth live in Colombia, including over 1,900 species of bird, more than in Europe and North America combined. Colombia has 10% of the world's mammals species, 14% of the amphibian species and 18% of the bird species of the world.
As for plants, the country has between 40,000 and 45,000 plant species, equivalent to 10 or 20% of total global species, which is even more remarkable given that Colombia is considered a country of intermediate size. Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world, lagging only after Brazil which is approximately 7 times bigger.
Colombia has about 2,000 species of marine fish and is the second most diverse country in freshwater fish. It is also the country with the most endemic species of butterflies, is first in orchid species, and has approximately 7,000 species of beetles. Colombia is second in the number of amphibian species and is the third most diverse country in reptiles and palms. There are about 1,900 species of mollusks and according to estimates there are about 300,000 species of invertebrates in the country. In Colombia there are 32 terrestrial biomes and 314 types of ecosystems.
Protected areas and the "National Park System" cover an area of about and account for 12.77% of the Colombian territory. Compared to neighboring countries, rates of deforestation in Colombia are still relatively low. Colombia had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.26/10, ranking it 25th globally out of 172 countries. Colombia is the sixth country in the world by magnitude of total renewable freshwater supply, and still has large reserves of freshwater.
Government and politics
The government of Colombia takes place within the framework of a presidential participatory democratic republic as established in the Constitution of 1991. In accordance with the principle of separation of powers, government is divided into three branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch.
As the head of the executive branch, the President of Colombia serves as both head of state and head of government, followed by the Vice President and the Council of Ministers. The president is elected by popular vote to serve a single four-year term (In 2015, Colombia's Congress approved the repeal of a 2004 constitutional amendment that changed the one-term limit for presidents to a two-term limit). At the provincial level executive power is vested in department governors, municipal mayors and local administrators for smaller administrative subdivisions, such as corregimientos or comunas. All regional elections are held one year and five months after the presidential election.
The legislative branch of government is represented nationally by the Congress, a bicameral institution comprising a 166-seat Chamber of Representatives and a 102-seat Senate. The Senate is elected nationally and the Chamber of Representatives is elected in electoral districts. Members of both houses are elected to serve four-year terms two months before the president, also by popular vote.
The judicial branch is headed by four high courts, consisting of the Supreme Court which deals with penal and civil matters, the Council of State, which has special responsibility for administrative law and also provides legal advice to the executive, the Constitutional Court, responsible for assuring the integrity of the Colombian constitution, and the Superior Council of Judicature, responsible for auditing the judicial branch. Colombia operates a system of civil law, which since 1991 has been applied through an adversarial system.
Despite a number of controversies, the democratic security policy has ensured that former President Álvaro Uribe remained popular among Colombian people, with his approval rating peaking at 76%, according to a poll in 2009. However, having served two terms, he was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election in 2010. In the run-off elections on 20 June 2010 the former Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos won with 69% of the vote against the second most popular candidate, Antanas Mockus. A second round was required since no candidate received over the 50% winning threshold of votes. Santos won re-election with nearly 51% of the vote in second-round elections on 15 June 2014, beating right-wing rival Óscar Iván Zuluaga, who won 45%. In 2018, Iván Duque won in the second round of the election with 54% of the vote, against 42% for his left-wing rival, Gustavo Petro. His term as Colombia's president ran for four years, beginning on 7 August 2018. In 2022, Colombia elected Gustavo Petro, who became its first leftist leader, and Francia Marquez, who was the first black person elected as vice president.
Foreign affairs
The foreign affairs of Colombia are headed by the President, as head of state, and managed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Colombia has diplomatic missions in all continents.
Colombia was one of the four founding members of the Pacific Alliance, which is a political, economic and co-operative integration mechanism that promotes the free circulation of goods, services, capital and persons between the members, as well as a common stock exchange and joint embassies in several countries. Colombia is also a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Organization of American States, the Organization of Ibero-American States, and the Andean Community of Nations. Colombia is a global partner of NATO.
Military
The executive branch of government is responsible for managing the defense of Colombia, with the President commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The Ministry of Defence exercises day-to-day control of the military and the Colombian National Police. Colombia has 455,461 active military personnel. In 2016, 3.4% of the country's GDP went towards military expenditure, placing it 24th in the world. Colombia's armed forces are the largest in Latin America, and it is the second largest spender on its military after Brazil. In 2018, Colombia signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The Colombian military is divided into three branches: the National Army of Colombia; the Colombian Aerospace Force; and the Colombian Navy. The National Police functions as a gendarmerie, operating independently from the military as the law enforcement agency for the entire country. Each of these operates with their own intelligence apparatus separate from the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI, in Spanish).
The National Army is formed by divisions, brigades, special brigades, and special units, the Colombian Navy by the Naval Infantry, the Naval Force of the Caribbean, the Naval Force of the Pacific, the Naval Force of the South, the Naval Force of the East, Colombia Coast Guards, Naval Aviation, and the Specific Command of San Andres y Providencia and the Aerospace Force by 15 air units. The National Police has a presence in all municipalities.
Administrative divisions
Colombia is divided into 32 departments and one capital district, which is treated as a department (Bogotá also serves as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca). Departments are subdivided into municipalities, each of which is assigned a municipal seat, and municipalities are in turn subdivided into corregimientos in rural areas and into comunas in urban areas. Each department has a local government with a governor and assembly directly elected to four-year terms, and each municipality is headed by a mayor and council. There is a popularly elected local administrative board in each of the corregimientos or comunas.
In addition to the capital, four other cities have been designated districts (in effect special municipalities), on the basis of special distinguishing features. These are Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta and Buenaventura. Some departments have local administrative subdivisions, where towns have a large concentration of population and municipalities are near each other (for example, in Antioquia and Cundinamarca). Where departments have a low population (for example Amazonas, Vaupés and Vichada), special administrative divisions are employed, such as "department corregimientos", which are a hybrid of a municipality and a corregimiento.
Click on a department on the map below to go to its article.
Economy
Historically an agrarian economy, Colombia urbanized rapidly in the 20th century, by the end of which just 15.8% of the workforce were employed in agriculture, generating just 6.6% of GDP; 19.6% of the workforce were employed in industry and 64.6% in services, responsible for 33.4% and 59.9% of GDP respectively. The country's economic production is dominated by its strong domestic demand. Consumption expenditure by households is the largest component of GDP.
Colombia's market economy grew steadily in the latter part of the 20th century, with gross domestic product (GDP) increasing at an average rate of over 4% per year between 1970 and 1998. The country suffered a recession in 1999 (the first full year of negative growth since the Great Depression), and the recovery from that recession was long and painful. However, in recent years growth has been impressive, reaching 6.9% in 2007, one of the highest rates of growth in Latin America. According to International Monetary Fund estimates, in 2012, Colombia's GDP (PPP) was US$500 billion (28th in the world and third in South America).
Total government expenditures account for 27.9 percent of the domestic economy. External debt equals 39.9 percent of gross domestic product. A strong fiscal climate was reaffirmed by a boost in bond ratings. Annual inflation closed 2017 at 4.09% YoY (vs. 5.75% YoY in 2016). The average national unemployment rate in 2017 was 9.4%, although the informality is the biggest problem facing the labour market (the income of formal workers climbed 24.8% in 5 years while labor incomes of informal workers rose only 9%). Colombia has free-trade zones (FTZ), such as Zona Franca del Pacifico, located in the Valle del Cauca, one of the most striking areas for foreign investment.
The financial sector has grown favorably due to good liquidity in the economy, the growth of credit and the positive performance of the Colombian economy. The Colombian Stock Exchange through the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA) offers a regional market to trade equities. Colombia is now one of only three economies with a perfect score on the strength of legal rights index, according to the World Bank.
Colombia is rich in natural resources, and it is heavily dependent on energy and mining exports. Colombia's main exports include mineral fuels, oils, distillation products, fruit and other agricultural products, sugars and sugar confectionery, food products, plastics, precious stones, metals, forest products, chemical goods, pharmaceuticals, vehicles, electronic products, electrical equipment, perfumery and cosmetics, machinery, manufactured articles, textile and fabrics, clothing and footwear, glass and glassware, furniture, prefabricated buildings, military products, home and office material, construction equipment, software, among others. Principal trading partners are the United States, China, the European Union and some Latin American countries.
Non-traditional exports have boosted the growth of Colombian foreign sales as well as the diversification of destinations of export thanks to new free trade agreements. Recent economic growth has led to a considerable increase of new millionaires, including the new entrepreneurs, Colombians with a net worth exceeding US$1 billion.
In 2017, however, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) reported that 26.9% of the population were living below the poverty line, of which 7.4% were in "extreme poverty". The multidimensional poverty rate stands at 17.0 percent of the population. The Government has also been developing a process of financial inclusion within the country's most vulnerable population.
The contribution of tourism to GDP was US$5,880.3bn (2.0% of total GDP) in 2016. Tourism generated 556,135 jobs (2.5% of total employment) in 2016. Foreign tourist visits were predicted to have risen from 0.6 million in 2007 to 4 million in 2017.
Agriculture and natural resources
In agriculture, Colombia is one of the 5 largest producers in the world of coffee, avocado and palm oil, and one of the 10 largest producers in the world of sugarcane, banana, pineapple and cocoa. The country also has considerable production of rice, potato and cassava. Although it is not the largest coffee producer in the world (Brazil claims that title), the country has been able to carry out, for decades, a global marketing campaign to add value to the country's product. Colombian palm oil production is one of the most sustainable on the planet, compared to the largest existing producers. Colombia is also among the 20 largest producers in the world of beef and chicken meat. Colombia is also the 2nd largest flower exporter in the world, after the Netherlands.
Colombia is an important exporter of coal and petroleum – in 2020, more than 40% of the country's exports were based on these two products. In 2018 it was the 5th largest coal exporter in the world. In 2019, Colombia was the 20th largest petroleum producer in the world, with 791 thousand barrels/day, exporting a good part of its production – the country was the 19th largest oil exporter in the world in 2020. In mining, Colombia is the world's largest producer of emerald, and in the production of gold, between 2006 and 2017, the country produced 15 tons per year until 2007, when its production increased significantly, beating the record of 66.1 tons extracted in 2012. In 2017, it extracted 52.2 tons. Currently, the country is among the 25 largest gold producers in the world.
Energy and transportation
The electricity production in Colombia comes mainly from Renewable energy sources. 69.93% is obtained from the hydroelectric generation. Colombia's commitment to renewable energy was recognized in the 2014 Global Green Economy Index (GGEI), ranking among the top 10 nations in the world in terms of greening efficiency sectors.
Transportation in Colombia is regulated within the functions of the Ministry of Transport and entities such as the National Roads Institute (INVÍAS) responsible for the Highways in Colombia, the Aerocivil, responsible for civil aviation and airports, the National Infrastructure Agency, in charge of concessions through public–private partnerships, for the design, construction, maintenance, operation, and administration of the transport infrastructure, the General Maritime Directorate (Dimar) has the responsibility of coordinating maritime traffic control along with the Colombian Navy, among others and under the supervision of the Superintendency of Ports and Transport.
In 2021, Colombia had of roads, of which were paved. At the end of 2017, the country had around of duplicated highways. Rail transportation in Colombia is dedicated almost entirely to freight shipments and the railway network has a length of 1,700 km of potentially active rails. Colombia has 3,960 kilometers of gas pipelines, 4,900 kilometers of oil pipelines, and 2,990 kilometers of refined-products pipelines.
The target of Colombia's government is to build 7,000 km of roads for the 2016–2020 period and reduce travel times by 30 per cent and transport costs by 20 per cent. A toll road concession programme will comprise 40 projects, and is part of a larger strategic goal to invest nearly $50 bn in transport infrastructure, including: railway systems; making the Magdalena river navigable again; improving port facilities; as well as an expansion of Bogotá's airport. Colombia is a middle-income country.
Science and technology
Colombia has more than 3,950 research groups in science and technology. iNNpulsa, a government body that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation in the country, provides grants to startups, in addition to other services it and institutions provide. Colombia was ranked 66th in the Global Innovation Index in 2023. Co-working spaces have arisen to serve as communities for startups large and small. Organizations such as the Corporation for Biological Research (CIB) for the support of young people interested in scientific work has been successfully developed in Colombia. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture based in Colombia investigates the increasing challenge of global warming and food security.
Important inventions related to medicine have been made in Colombia, such as the first external artificial pacemaker with internal electrodes, invented by the electrical engineer Jorge Reynolds Pombo, an invention of great importance for those who suffer from heart failure. Also invented in Colombia were the microkeratome and keratomileusis technique, which form the fundamental basis of what now is known as LASIK (one of the most important techniques for the correction of refractive errors of vision) and the Hakim valve for the treatment of hydrocephalus. Colombia has begun to innovate in military technology for its army and other armies of the world; especially in the design and creation of personal ballistic protection products, military hardware, military robots, bombs, simulators and radar.
Some leading Colombian scientists are Joseph M. Tohme, researcher recognized for his work on the genetic diversity of food, Manuel Elkin Patarroyo who is known for his groundbreaking work on synthetic vaccines for malaria, Francisco Lopera who discovered the "Paisa Mutation" or a type of early-onset Alzheimer's, Rodolfo Llinás known for his study of the intrinsic neurons properties and the theory of a syndrome that had changed the way of understanding the functioning of the brain, Jairo Quiroga Puello recognized for his studies on the characterization of synthetic substances which can be used to fight fungus, tumors, tuberculosis and even some viruses and Ángela Restrepo who established accurate diagnoses and treatments to combat the effects of a disease caused by Paracoccidioides brasiliensis.
Demographics
With an estimated 50 million people in 2020, Colombia is the third-most populous country in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico. At the beginning of the 20th century, Colombia's population was approximately 4 million. Since the early 1970s Colombia has experienced steady declines in its fertility, mortality, and population growth rates. The population growth rate for 2016 is estimated to be 0.9%. About 26.8% of the population were 15 years old or younger, 65.7% were between 15 and 64 years old, and 7.4% were over 65 years old. The proportion of older persons in the total population has begun to increase substantially. Colombia is projected to have a population of 55.3 million by 2050.
The population is concentrated in the Andean highlands and along the Caribbean coast, also the population densities are generally higher in the Andean region. The nine eastern lowland departments, comprising about 54% of Colombia's area, have less than 6% of the population. Traditionally a rural society, movement to urban areas was very heavy in the mid-20th century, and Colombia is now one of the most urbanized countries in Latin America. The urban population increased from 31% of the total in 1938 to nearly 60% in 1973, and by 2014 the figure stood at 76%. The population of Bogotá alone has increased from just over 300,000 in 1938 to approximately 8 million today. In total seventy-two cities now have populations of 100,000 or more (2015). Colombia has the world's largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs), estimated to be up to 4.9 million people.
The life expectancy is 74.8 years in 2015 and infant mortality is 13.1 per thousand in 2016. In 2015, 94.58% of adults and 98.66% of youth are literate and the government spends about 4.49% of its GDP on education.
Languages
More than 99.2% of Colombians speak Spanish, also called Castilian; 65 Amerindian languages, two Creole languages, the Romani language and Colombian Sign Language are also used in the country. English has official status in the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina.
Including Spanish, a total of 101 languages are listed for Colombia in the Ethnologue database. The specific number of spoken languages varies slightly since some authors consider as different languages what others consider to be varieties or dialects of the same language. Best estimates recorded 71 languages that are spoken in-country today – most of which belong to the Chibchan, Tucanoan, Bora–Witoto, Guajiboan, Arawakan, Cariban, Barbacoan, and Saliban language families. There are currently about 850,000 speakers of native languages.
Ethnic groups
Colombia is ethnically diverse, its people descending from the original Amerindian inhabitants, Spanish colonists, Africans originally brought to the country as slaves, and 20th-century immigrants from Europe and the Middle East, all contributing to a diverse cultural heritage. The demographic distribution reflects a pattern that is influenced by colonial history. Whites live all throughout the country, mainly in urban centers and the burgeoning highland and coastal cities. The populations of the major cities also include mestizos. Mestizo campesinos (people living in rural areas) also live in the Andean highlands where some Spanish conquerors mixed with the women of Amerindian chiefdoms. Mestizos include artisans and small tradesmen that have played a major part in the urban expansion of recent decades.
The 2018 census reported that the "non-ethnic population", consisting of whites and mestizos (those of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry), constituted 87.6% of the national population. 6.7% is of African ancestry. Indigenous Amerindians constitute 4.3% of the population. Raizal people constitute 0.06% of the population. Palenquero people constitute 0.02% of the population. 0.01% of the population are Roma.
The Federal Research Division estimated that the 86% of the population that did not consider themselves part of one of the ethnic groups indicated by the 2006 census was divided into 49% Mestizo or of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, and 37% White, mainly of Spanish lineage, but there is also a large population of Middle East descent; in some sectors of society there is a considerable input of German and Italian ancestry.
Many of the Indigenous peoples experienced a reduction in population during the Spanish rule and many others were absorbed into the mestizo population, but the remainder currently represents over eighty distinct cultures. Reserves (resguardos) established for indigenous peoples occupy (27% of the country's total) and are inhabited by more than 800,000 people. Some of the largest indigenous groups are the Wayuu, the Paez, the Pastos, the Emberá and the Zenú. The departments of La Guajira, Cauca, Nariño, Córdoba and Sucre have the largest indigenous populations.
The Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia (ONIC), founded at the first National Indigenous Congress in 1982, is an organization representing the indigenous peoples of Colombia. In 1991, Colombia signed and ratified the current international law concerning indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989.
Sub-Saharan Africans were brought as slaves, mostly to the coastal lowlands, beginning early in the 16th century and continuing into the 19th century. Large Afro-Colombian communities are found today on the Pacific Coast. Numerous Jamaicans migrated mainly to the islands of San Andres and Providencia. A number of other Europeans and North Americans migrated to the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including people from the former USSR during and after the Second World War.
Many immigrant communities have settled on the Caribbean coast, in particular recent immigrants from the Middle East and Europe. Barranquilla (the largest city of the Colombian Caribbean) and other Caribbean cities have the largest populations of Lebanese, Palestinian, and other Levantines. There are also important communities of Romanis and Jews. There is a major migration trend of Venezuelans, due to the political and economic situation in Venezuela. In August 2019, Colombia offered citizenship to more than 24,000 children of Venezuelan refugees who were born in Colombia.
Religion
The National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) does not collect religious statistics, and accurate reports are difficult to obtain. However, based on various studies and a survey, about 90% of the population adheres to Christianity, the majority of which (70.9%–79%) are Roman Catholic, while a significant minority (16.7%) adhere to Protestantism (primarily Evangelicalism). Some 4.7% of the population is atheist or agnostic, while 3.5% claim to believe in God but do not follow a specific religion. 1.8% of Colombians adhere to Jehovah's Witnesses and Adventism and less than 1% adhere to other religions, such as the Baháʼí Faith, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Mormonism, Hinduism, Indigenous religions, Hare Krishna movement, Rastafari movement, Eastern Orthodox Church, and spiritual studies. The remaining people either did not respond or replied that they did not know. In addition to the above statistics, 35.9% of Colombians reported that they did not practice their faith actively.
While Colombia remains a mostly Roman Catholic country by baptism numbers, the 1991 Colombian constitution guarantees freedom of religion and all religious faiths and churches are equally free before the law.
Health
The overall life expectancy in Colombia at birth is 79.3 years (76.7 years for males and 81.9 years for females). Healthcare reforms have led to massive improvements in the healthcare systems of the country, with health standards in Colombia improving very much since the 1980s. The new system has widened population coverage by the social and health security system from 21% (pre-1993) to 96% in 2012. In 2017, the government declared a cancer research and treatment center as a Project of National Strategic Interest.
A 2016 study conducted by América Economía magazine ranked 21 Colombian health care institutions among the top 44 in Latin America, amounting to 48 percent of the total. In 2022, 26 Colombian hospitals were among the 61 best in Latin America (42% total). Also in 2023, two Colombian hospitals were among the Top 75 of the world.
Education
The educational experience of many Colombian children begins with attendance at a preschool academy until age five (Educación preescolar). Basic education (Educación básica) is compulsory by law. It has two stages: Primary basic education (Educación básica primaria) which goes from first to fifth grade – children from six to ten years old, and Secondary basic education (Educación básica secundaria), which goes from sixth to ninth grade. Basic education is followed by Middle vocational education (Educación media vocacional) that comprises the tenth and eleventh grades. It may have different vocational training modalities or specialties (academic, technical, business, and so on.) according to the curriculum adopted by each school.
After the successful completion of all the basic and middle education years, a high-school diploma is awarded. The high-school graduate is known as a bachiller, because secondary basic school and middle education are traditionally considered together as a unit called bachillerato (sixth to eleventh grade). Students in their final year of middle education take the ICFES test (now renamed Saber 11) to gain access to higher education (Educación superior). This higher education includes undergraduate professional studies, technical, technological and intermediate professional education, and post-graduate studies. Technical professional institutions of Higher Education are also opened to students holder of a qualification in Arts and Business. This qualification is usually awarded by the SENA after a two years curriculum.
Bachilleres (high-school graduates) may enter into a professional undergraduate career program offered by a university; these programs last up to five years (or less for technical, technological and intermediate professional education, and post-graduate studies), even as much to six to seven years for some careers, such as medicine. In Colombia, there is not an institution such as college; students go directly into a career program at a university or any other educational institution to obtain a professional, technical or technological title. Once graduated from the university, people are granted a (professional, technical or technological) diploma and licensed (if required) to practice the career they have chosen. For some professional career programs, students are required to take the Saber-Pro test, in their final year of undergraduate academic education.
Public spending on education as a proportion of gross domestic product in 2015 was 4.49%. This represented 15.05% of total government expenditure. The primary and secondary gross enrolment ratios stood at 113.56% and 98.09% respectively. School-life expectancy was 14.42 years. A total of 94.58% of the population aged 15 and older were recorded as literate, including 98.66% of those aged 15–24.
Crime
Urbanization
Colombia is a highly urbanized country with 77.1% of the population living in urban areas. The largest cities in the country are Bogotá, with 7,387,400 inhabitants, Medellín, with 2,382,399 inhabitants, Cali, with 2,172,527 inhabitants, and Barranquilla, with 1,205,284 inhabitants.
Culture
Colombia lies at the crossroads of Latin America and the broader American continent, and as such has been hit by a wide range of cultural influences. Native American, Spanish and other European, African, American, Caribbean, and Middle Eastern influences, as well as other Latin American cultural influences, are all present in Colombia's modern culture. Urban migration, industrialization, globalization, and other political, social and economic changes have also left an impression.
Many national symbols, both objects and themes, have arisen from Colombia's diverse cultural traditions and aim to represent what Colombia, and the Colombian people, have in common. Cultural expressions in Colombia are promoted by the government through the Ministry of Culture.
Literature
Colombian literature dates back to pre-Columbian era; a notable example of the period is the epic poem known as the Legend of Yurupary. In Spanish colonial times, notable writers include Juan de Castellanos (Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias), Hernando Domínguez Camargo and his epic poem to San Ignacio de Loyola, Pedro Simón, Juan Rodríguez Freyle (El Carnero), Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita, and the nun Francisca Josefa de Castillo, representative of mysticism.
Post-independence literature linked to Romanticism highlighted Antonio Nariño, José Fernández Madrid, Camilo Torres Tenorio and Francisco Antonio Zea. In the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century the literary genre known as costumbrismo became popular; great writers of this period were Tomás Carrasquilla, Jorge Isaacs and Rafael Pombo (the latter of whom wrote notable works of children's literature). Within that period, authors such as José Asunción Silva, José Eustasio Rivera, León de Greiff, Porfirio Barba-Jacob and José María Vargas Vila developed the modernist movement. In 1872, Colombia established the Colombian Academy of Language, the first Spanish language academy in the Americas. Candelario Obeso wrote the groundbreaking Cantos Populares de mi Tierra (1877), the first book of poetry by an Afro-Colombian author.
Between 1939 and 1940 seven books of poetry were published under the name Stone and Sky in the city of Bogotá that significantly influenced the country; they were edited by the poet Jorge Rojas. In the following decade, Gonzalo Arango founded the movement of "nothingness" in response to the violence of the time; he was influenced by nihilism, existentialism, and the thought of another great Colombian writer: Fernando González Ochoa. During the boom in Latin American literature, successful writers emerged, led by Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez and his magnum opus, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Eduardo Caballero Calderón, Manuel Mejía Vallejo, and Álvaro Mutis, a writer who was awarded the Cervantes Prize and the Prince of Asturias Award for Letters. Other leading contemporary authors are Fernando Vallejo, William Ospina (Rómulo Gallegos Prize) and Germán Castro Caycedo.
Visual arts
Colombian art has over 3,000 years of history. Colombian artists have captured the country's changing political and cultural backdrop using a range of styles and mediums. There is archeological evidence of ceramics being produced earlier in Colombia than anywhere else in the Americas, dating as early as 3,000 BCE.
The earliest examples of gold craftsmanship have been attributed to the Tumaco people of the Pacific coast and date to around 325 BCE. Roughly between 200 BCE and 800 CE, the San Agustín culture, masters of stonecutting, entered its "classical period". They erected raised ceremonial centers, sarcophagi, and large stone monoliths depicting anthropomorphic and zoomorphic forms out of stone.
Colombian art has followed the trends of the time, so during the 16th to 18th centuries, Spanish Catholicism had a huge influence on Colombian art, and the popular baroque style was replaced with rococo when the Bourbons ascended to the Spanish crown. During this era, in the Spanish colony, the most important Neogranadine (Colombian) painters were Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos, Gaspar de Figueroa, Baltasar Vargas de Figueroa, Baltasar de Figueroa (the Elder), Antonio Acero de la Cruz and Joaquín Gutiérrez, of which their works are preserved. Also important was Alonso de Narváez who, although born in the Province of Seville, spent most of his life in colonial Colombia, also the Italian Angelino Medoro, lived in Colombia and Peru, and left works of art preserved in several churches in Tunja city.
During the mid-19th century, one of the most remarkable painters was Ramón Torres Méndez, who produced a series of good quality paintings depicting the people and their customs of different Colombian regions. Also noteworthy in the 19th century were Andrés de Santa María, Pedro José Figueroa, Epifanio Garay, Mercedes Delgado Mallarino, José María Espinosa, Ricardo Acevedo Bernal, between many others.
More recently, Colombian artists Pedro Nel Gómez and Santiago Martínez Delgado started the Colombian Murial Movement in the 1940s, featuring the neoclassical features of Art Deco. Since the 1950s, the Colombian art started to have a distinctive point of view, reinventing traditional elements under the concepts of the 20th century. Examples of this are the Greiff portraits by Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo, showing what the Colombian art could do with the new techniques applied to typical Colombian themes. Carlos Correa, with his paradigmatic "Naturaleza muerta en silencio" (silent dead nature), combines geometrical abstraction and cubism. Alejandro Obregón is often considered as the father of modern Colombian painting, and one of the most influential artist in this period, due to his originality, the painting of Colombian landscapes with symbolic and expressionist use of animals, (specially the Andean condor). Fernando Botero, Omar Rayo, Enrique Grau, Édgar Negret, David Manzur, Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt, Oscar Murillo, Doris Salcedo and Oscar Muñoz are some of the Colombian artists featured at the international level.
The Colombian sculpture from the sixteenth to 18th centuries was mostly devoted to religious depictions of ecclesiastic art, strongly influenced by the Spanish schools of sacred sculpture. During the early period of the Colombian republic, the national artists were focused in the production of sculptural portraits of politicians and public figures, in a plain neoclassicist trend. During the 20th century, the Colombian sculpture began to develop a bold and innovative work with the aim of reaching a better understanding of national sensitivity.
Colombian photography was marked by the arrival of the daguerreotype. Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros was who brought the daguerreotype process to Colombia in 1841. The Piloto public library has Latin America's largest archive of negatives, containing 1.7 million antique photographs covering Colombia 1848 until 2005.
The Colombian press has promoted the work of the cartoonists. In recent decades, fanzines, internet and independent publishers have been fundamental to the growth of the comic in Colombia.
Architecture
Throughout the times, there have been a variety of architectural styles, from those of indigenous peoples to contemporary ones, passing through colonial (military and religious), Republican, transition and modern styles.
Ancient habitation areas, longhouses, crop terraces, roads as the Inca road system, cemeteries, hypogeums and necropolises are all part of the architectural heritage of indigenous peoples. Some prominent indigenous structures are the preceramic and ceramic archaeological site of Tequendama, Tierradentro (a park that contains the largest concentration of pre-Columbian monumental shaft tombs with side chambers), the largest collection of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in South America, located in San Agustín, Huila, Lost city (an archaeological site with a series of terraces carved into the mountainside, a net of tiled roads, and several circular plazas), and the large villages mainly built with stone, wood, cane, and mud.
Architecture during the period of conquest and colonization is mainly derived of adapting European styles to local conditions, and Spanish influence, especially Andalusian and Extremaduran, can be easily seen. When Europeans founded cities two things were making simultaneously: the dimensioning of geometrical space (town square, street), and the location of a tangible point of orientation. The construction of forts was common throughout the Caribbean and in some cities of the interior, because of the dangers posed to Spanish colonial settlements from English, French and Dutch pirates and hostile indigenous groups. Churches, chapels, schools, and hospitals belonging to religious orders have a great urban influence. Baroque architecture is used in military buildings and public spaces. Marcelino Arroyo, Francisco José de Caldas and Domingo de Petrés were great representatives of neo-classical architecture.
The National Capitol is a great representative of romanticism. Wood was extensively used in doors, windows, railings, and ceilings during the colonization of Antioquia. The Caribbean architecture acquires a strong Arabic influence. The Teatro Colón in Bogotá is a lavish example of architecture from the 19th century. The quintas houses with innovations in the volumetric conception are some of the best examples of the Republican architecture; the Republican action in the city focused on the design of three types of spaces: parks with forests, small urban parks and avenues and the Gothic style was most commonly used for the design of churches.
Deco style, modern neoclassicism, eclecticism folklorist and art deco ornamental resources significantly influenced the architecture of Colombia, especially during the transition period. Modernism contributed with new construction technologies and new materials (steel, reinforced concrete, glass and synthetic materials) and the topology architecture and lightened slabs system also have a great influence. The most influential architects of the modern movement were Rogelio Salmona and Fernando Martínez Sanabria.
The contemporary architecture of Colombia is designed to give greater importance to the materials, this architecture takes into account the specific natural and artificial geographies and is also an architecture that appeals to the senses. The conservation of the architectural and urban heritage of Colombia has been promoted in recent years.
Music
Colombia has a vibrant collage of talent that touches a full spectrum of rhythms. Musicians, composers, music producers and singers from Colombia are recognized internationally such as Shakira, Juanes, Carlos Vives and others. Colombian music blends European-influenced guitar and song structure with large gaita flutes and percussion instruments from the indigenous population, while its percussion structure and dance forms come from Africa. Colombia has a diverse and dynamic musical environment.
Guillermo Uribe Holguín, an important cultural figure in the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, Luis Antonio Calvo and Blas Emilio Atehortúa are some of the greatest exponents of the art music. The Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the most active orchestras in Colombia.
Caribbean music has many vibrant rhythms, such as cumbia (it is played by the maracas, the drums, the gaitas and guacharaca), porro (it is a monotonous but joyful rhythm), mapalé (with its fast rhythm and constant clapping) and the "vallenato", which originated in the northern part of the Caribbean coast (the rhythm is mainly played by the caja, the guacharaca, and accordion).
The music from the Pacific coast, such as the currulao, is characterized by its strong use of drums (instruments such as the native marimba, the conunos, the bass drum, the side drum, and the cuatro guasas or tubular rattle). An important rhythm of the south region of the Pacific coast is the contradanza (it is used in dance shows due to the striking colours of the costumes). Marimba music, traditional chants and dances from the Colombia South Pacific region are on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Important musical rhythms of the Andean Region are the danza (dance of Andean folklore arising from the transformation of the European contredance), the bambuco (it is played with guitar, tiple and mandolin, the rhythm is danced by couples), the pasillo (a rhythm inspired by the Austrian waltz and the Colombian "danza", the lyrics have been composed by well-known poets), the guabina (the tiple, the bandola and the requinto are the basic instruments), the sanjuanero (it originated in Tolima and Huila Departments, the rhythm is joyful and fast). Apart from these traditional rhythms, salsa music has spread throughout the country, and the city of Cali is considered by many salsa singers to be 'The New Salsa Capital of the World'.
The instruments that distinguish the music of the Eastern Plains are the harp, the cuatro (a type of four-stringed guitar) and maracas. Important rhythms of this region are the joropo (a fast rhythm and there is also tapping as a result of its flamenco ancestry) and the galeron (it is heard a lot while cowboys are working).
The music of the Amazon region is strongly influenced by the indigenous religious practices. Some of the musical instruments used are the manguaré (a musical instrument of ceremonial type, consisting of a pair of large cylindrical drums), the quena (melodic instrument), the rondador, the congas, bells, and different types of flutes.
The music of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina is usually accompanied by a mandolin, a tub-bass, a jawbone, a guitar and maracas. Some popular archipelago rhythms are the Schottische, the Calypso, the Polka and the Mento.
Popular culture
Theater was introduced in Colombia during the Spanish colonization in 1550 through zarzuela companies. Colombian theater is supported by the Ministry of Culture and a number of private and state owned organizations. The Ibero-American Theater Festival of Bogotá is the cultural event of the highest importance in Colombia and one of the biggest theater festivals in the world. Other important theater events are: The Festival of Puppet The Fanfare (Medellín), The Manizales Theater Festival, The Caribbean Theatre Festival (Santa Marta) and The Art Festival of Popular Culture "Cultural Invasion" (Bogotá).
Although the Colombian cinema is young as an industry, more recently the film industry was growing with support from the Film Act passed in 2003. Many film festivals take place in Colombia, but the two most important are the Cartagena Film Festival, which is the oldest film festival in Latin America, and the Bogotá Film Festival.
Some important national circulation newspapers are El Tiempo and El Espectador. Television in Colombia has two privately owned TV networks and three state-owned TV networks with national coverage, as well as six regional TV networks and dozens of local TV stations. Private channels, RCN and Caracol are the highest-rated. The regional channels and regional newspapers cover a department or more and its content is made in these particular areas.
Colombia has three major national radio networks: Radiodifusora Nacional de Colombia, a state-run national radio; Caracol Radio and RCN Radio, privately owned networks with hundreds of affiliates. There are other national networks, including Cadena Super, Todelar, and Colmundo. Many hundreds of radio stations are registered with the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications.
Cuisine
Colombia's varied cuisine is influenced by its diverse fauna and flora as well as the cultural traditions of the ethnic groups. Colombian dishes and ingredients vary widely by region. Some of the most common ingredients are: cereals such as rice and maize; tubers such as potato and cassava; assorted legumes; meats, including beef, chicken, pork and goat; fish; and seafood. Colombia cuisine also features a variety of tropical fruits such as cape gooseberry, feijoa, arazá, dragon fruit, mangostino, granadilla, papaya, guava, mora (blackberry), lulo, soursop and passionfruit. Colombia is one of the world's largest consumers of fruit juices.
Among the most representative appetizers and soups are patacones (fried green plantains), sancocho de gallina (chicken soup with root vegetables) and ajiaco (potato and corn soup). Representative snacks and breads are pandebono, arepas (corn cakes), aborrajados (fried sweet plantains with cheese), torta de choclo, empanadas and almojábanas. Representative main courses are bandeja paisa, lechona tolimense, mamona, tamales and fish dishes (such as arroz de lisa), especially in coastal regions where kibbeh, suero, costeño cheese and carimañolas are also eaten. Representative side dishes are papas chorreadas (potatoes with cheese), remolachas rellenas con huevo duro (beets stuffed with hard-boiled egg) and arroz con coco (coconut rice). Organic food is a current trend in big cities, although in general across the country the fruits and veggies are very natural and fresh.
Representative desserts are buñuelos, natillas, Maria Luisa cake, bocadillo made of guayaba (guava jelly), cocadas (coconut balls), casquitos de guayaba (candied guava peels), torta de natas, obleas, flan de mango, roscón, milhoja, manjar blanco, dulce de feijoa, dulce de papayuela, torta de mojicón, and esponjado de curuba. Typical sauces (salsas) are hogao (tomato and onion sauce) and Colombian-style ají.
Some representative beverages are coffee (Tinto), champús, cholado, lulada, avena colombiana, sugarcane juice, aguapanela, aguardiente, hot chocolate and fresh fruit juices (often made with water or milk).
Sports
Tejo is Colombia's national sport and is a team sport that involves launching projectiles to hit a target. But of all sports in Colombia, football is the most popular. Colombia was the champion of the 2001 Copa América, in which they set a new record of being undefeated, conceding no goals and winning each match. Colombia has been awarded "mover of the year" twice.
Colombia is a hub for roller skaters. The national team is a perennial powerhouse at the World Roller Speed Skating Championships. Colombia has traditionally been very good in cycling and a large number of Colombian cyclists have triumphed in major competitions of cycling.
Baseball is popular in cities like Cartagena and Barranquilla. Of those cities have come good players like: Orlando Cabrera, Édgar Rentería, who was champion of the World Series in 1997 and 2010 and others who have played in Major League Baseball. Colombia was world amateur champion in 1947 and 1965.
Boxing is one of the sports that has produced more world champions for Colombia.
Motorsports also occupies an important place in the sporting preferences of Colombians; Juan Pablo Montoya is a race car driver known for winning 7 Formula One events. Colombia also has excelled in sports such as BMX, judo, shooting sport, taekwondo, wrestling, high diving and athletics, also has a long tradition in weightlifting and bowling.
See also
Index of Colombia-related articles
Outline of Colombia
Crime in Colombia
Notes
References
External links
General information
Colombia at Britannica.com
Colombia at UCB Libraries GovPubs
Colombia. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.
Key Development Forecasts for Colombia from International Futures
Official investment portal
Official Colombia Tourism Website
Study Spanish in Colombia
National Administrative Department of Statistics
Government
Colombia Online Government website
Culture
Ministry of Culture
Geography
National parks of Colombia
Andean Community
Constitutional republics
Countries in South America
Former Spanish colonies
Member states of the United Nations
OECD members
Republics
Spanish-speaking countries and territories
States and territories established in 1810
Transcontinental countries |
5224 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen%20Kane | Citizen Kane | Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film directed by, produced by, and starring Orson Welles. Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote the screenplay. The picture was Welles' first feature film. Citizen Kane is frequently cited as the greatest film ever made. For 50 consecutive years, it stood at number 1 in the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound decennial poll of critics, and it topped the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as its 2007 update. The film was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories and it won for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Mankiewicz and Welles. Citizen Kane is praised for Gregg Toland's cinematography, Robert Wise's editing, Bernard Herrmann's music, and its narrative structure, all of which have been considered innovative and precedent-setting.
The quasi-biographical film examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles, a composite character based on American media barons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, Chicago tycoons Samuel Insull and Harold McCormick, as well as aspects of the screenwriters' own lives. Upon its release, Hearst prohibited any mention of the film in his newspapers.
After the Broadway success of Welles's Mercury Theatre and the controversial 1938 radio broadcast "The War of the Worlds" on The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Welles was courted by Hollywood. He signed a contract with RKO Pictures in 1939. Although it was unusual for an untried director, he was given freedom to develop his own story, to use his own cast and crew, and to have final cut privilege. Following two abortive attempts to get a project off the ground, he wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane, collaborating with Herman J. Mankiewicz. Principal photography took place in 1940, the same year its innovative trailer was shown, and the film was released in 1941.
Although it was a critical success, Citizen Kane failed to recoup its costs at the box office. The film faded from view after its release, but it returned to public attention when it was praised by French critics such as André Bazin and re-released in 1956. In 1958, the film was voted number 9 on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. Citizen Kane was selected by the Library of Congress as an inductee of the 1989 inaugural group of 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
In a mansion called Xanadu, part of a vast palatial estate in Florida, the elderly Charles Foster Kane is on his deathbed. Holding a snow globe, he utters his last word, "Rosebud", and dies. A newsreel obituary tells the life story of Kane, an enormously wealthy newspaper publisher and industrial magnate. Kane's death becomes sensational news around the world, and the newsreel's producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with discovering the meaning of "Rosebud".
Thompson sets out to interview Kane's friends and associates. He tries to approach his second wife, Susan Alexander Kane, now an alcoholic who runs her own nightclub, but she refuses to talk to him. Thompson goes to the private archive of the late banker Walter Parks Thatcher. Through Thatcher's written memoirs, Thompson learns about Kane's rise from a Colorado boarding house and the decline of his fortune.
In 1871, gold was discovered through a mining deed belonging to Kane's mother, Mary Kane. She hired Thatcher to establish a trust that would provide for Kane's education and assume guardianship of him. While the parents and Thatcher discussed arrangements inside the boarding house, the young Kane played happily with a sled in the snow outside. When Kane's parents introduced him to Thatcher, the boy struck Thatcher with his sled and attempted to run away.
By the time Kane gained control of his trust at the age of 25, the mine's productivity and Thatcher's prudent investing had made Kane one of the richest men in the world. Kane took control of the New York Inquirer newspaper and embarked on a career of yellow journalism, publishing scandalous articles that attacked Thatcher's (and his own) business interests. Kane sold his newspaper empire to Thatcher after the 1929 stock market crash left Kane short of cash.
Thompson interviews Kane's personal business manager, Mr. Bernstein. Bernstein recalls that Kane hired the best journalists available to build the Inquirers circulation. Kane rose to power by successfully manipulating public opinion regarding the Spanish–American War and marrying Emily Norton, the niece of the President of the United States.
Thompson interviews Kane's estranged best friend, Jedediah Leland, in a retirement home. Leland says that Kane's marriage to Emily disintegrated over the years, and he began an affair with amateur singer Susan Alexander while running for Governor of New York. Both his wife and his political opponent discovered the affair, and the public scandal ended his political career. Kane married Susan and forced her into a humiliating operatic career for which she had neither the talent nor the ambition, even building a large opera house for her. After Leland began to write a negative review of Susan's disastrous opera debut, Kane fired him but finished the negative review and printed it. Susan protested that she never wanted the opera career anyway, but Kane forced her to continue the season.
Susan consents to an interview with Thompson and describes the aftermath of her opera career. She attempted suicide, and so Kane finally allowed her to abandon singing. After many unhappy years and after being hit by Kane, she finally decided to leave him. Kane's butler Raymond recounts that, after Susan left him, he began violently destroying the contents of her bedroom. When he happened upon a snow globe, he grew calm and said "Rosebud". Thompson concludes that he cannot solve the mystery and that the meaning of Kane's last word will remain a mystery.
Back at Xanadu, Kane's belongings are cataloged or discarded by the staff. They find the sled on which eight-year-old Kane was playing on the day that he was taken from his home in Colorado and throw it into a furnace with other items. Behind their backs, the sled slowly burns and its trade name, printed on top, becomes visible through the flames: "Rosebud".
Cast
The beginning of the film's ending credits states that "Most of the principal actors in Citizen Kane are new to motion pictures. The Mercury Theatre is proud to introduce them." The cast is then listed in the following order, with Orson Welles' credit for playing Charles Foster Kane appearing last:
Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland, Kane's best friend and a reporter for The Inquirer. Cotten also appears (hidden in darkness) in the News on the March screening room.
Dorothy Comingore as Susan Alexander Kane, Kane's mistress and second wife.
Agnes Moorehead as Mary Kane, Kane's mother.
Ruth Warrick as Emily Monroe Norton Kane, Kane's first wife.
Ray Collins as Jim W. Gettys, Kane's political rival for the post of Governor of New York.
Erskine Sanford as Herbert Carter, editor of The Inquirer. Sanford also appears (hidden in darkness) in the News on the March screening room.
Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein, Kane's friend and employee at The Inquirer.
William Alland as Jerry Thompson, a reporter for News on the March. Alland also voices the narrator of the News on the March newsreel.
Paul Stewart as Raymond, Kane's butler.
George Coulouris as Walter Parks Thatcher, a banker who becomes Kane's legal guardian.
Fortunio Bonanova as Signor Matiste, vocal coach of Susan Alexander Kane.
Gus Schilling as John, headwaiter at the El Rancho nightclub. Schilling also appears (hidden in darkness) in the News on the March screening room.
Philip Van Zandt as Mr. Rawlston, News on the March open at the producer.
Georgia Backus as Bertha Anderson, attendant at the library of Walter Parks Thatcher.
Harry Shannon as Jim Kane, Kane's father.
Sonny Bupp as Charles Foster Kane III, Kane's son.
Buddy Swan as Charles Foster Kane, age eight.
Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane, a wealthy newspaper publisher.
Additionally, Charles Bennett appears as the entertainer at the head of the chorus line in the Inquirer party sequence, and cinematographer Gregg Toland makes a cameo appearance as an interviewer depicted in part of the News on the March newsreel. Actor Alan Ladd, still unknown at that time, makes a small appearance as a reporter smoking a pipe at the end of the film.
Production
Development
Hollywood had shown interest in Welles as early as 1936. He turned down three scripts sent to him by Warner Bros. In 1937, he declined offers from David O. Selznick, who asked him to head his film company's story department, and William Wyler, who wanted him for a supporting role in Wuthering Heights. "Although the possibility of making huge amounts of money in Hollywood greatly attracted him," wrote biographer Frank Brady, "he was still totally, hopelessly, insanely in love with the theater, and it is there that he had every intention of remaining to make his mark."
Following "The War of the Worlds" broadcast of his CBS radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Welles was lured to Hollywood with a remarkable contract. RKO Pictures studio head George J. Schaefer wanted to work with Welles after the notorious broadcast, believing that Welles had a gift for attracting mass attention. RKO was also uncharacteristically profitable and was entering into a series of independent production contracts that would add more artistically prestigious films to its roster. Throughout the spring and early summer of 1939, Schaefer constantly tried to lure the reluctant Welles to Hollywood. Welles was in financial trouble after failure of his plays Five Kings and The Green Goddess. At first he simply wanted to spend three months in Hollywood and earn enough money to pay his debts and fund his next theatrical season. Welles first arrived on July 20, 1939, and on his first tour, he called the movie studio "the greatest electric train set a boy ever had".
Welles signed his contract with RKO on August 21, which stipulated that Welles would act in, direct, produce and write two films. Mercury would get $100,000 for the first film by January 1, 1940, plus 20% of profits after RKO recouped $500,000, and $125,000 for a second film by January 1, 1941, plus 20% of profits after RKO recouped $500,000. The most controversial aspect of the contract was granting Welles complete artistic control of the two films so long as RKO approved both projects' stories and so long as the budget did not exceed $500,000. RKO executives would not be allowed to see any footage until Welles chose to show it to them, and no cuts could be made to either film without Welles's approval. Welles was allowed to develop the story without interference, select his own cast and crew, and have the right of final cut. Granting the final cut privilege was unprecedented for a studio because it placed artistic considerations over financial investment. The contract was deeply resented in the film industry, and the Hollywood press took every opportunity to mock RKO and Welles. Schaefer remained a great supporter and saw the unprecedented contract as good publicity. Film scholar Robert L. Carringer wrote: "The simple fact seems to be that Schaefer believed Welles was going to pull off something really big almost as much as Welles did himself."
Welles spent the first five months of his RKO contract trying to get his first project going, without success. "They are laying bets over on the RKO lot that the Orson Welles deal will end up without Orson ever doing a picture there," wrote The Hollywood Reporter. It was agreed that Welles would film Heart of Darkness, previously adapted for The Mercury Theatre on the Air, which would be presented entirely through a first-person camera. After elaborate pre-production and a day of test shooting with a hand-held camera—unheard of at the time—the project never reached production because Welles was unable to trim $50,000 from its budget. Schaefer told Welles that the $500,000 budget could not be exceeded; as war loomed, revenue was declining sharply in Europe by the fall of 1939.
He then started work on the idea that became Citizen Kane. Knowing the script would take time to prepare, Welles suggested to RKO that while that was being done—"so the year wouldn't be lost"—he make a humorous political thriller. Welles proposed The Smiler with a Knife, from a novel by Cecil Day-Lewis. When that project stalled in December 1939, Welles began brainstorming other story ideas with screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who had been writing Mercury radio scripts. "Arguing, inventing, discarding, these two powerful, headstrong, dazzlingly articulate personalities thrashed toward Kane", wrote biographer Richard Meryman.
Screenplay
One of the long-standing controversies about Citizen Kane has been the authorship of the screenplay. Welles conceived the project with screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who was writing radio plays for Welles's CBS Radio series, The Campbell Playhouse. Mankiewicz based the original outline on the life of William Randolph Hearst, whom he knew socially and came to hate after being exiled from Hearst's circle.
In February 1940 Welles supplied Mankiewicz with 300 pages of notes and put him under contract to write the first draft screenplay under the supervision of John Houseman, Welles's former partner in the Mercury Theatre. Welles later explained, "I left him on his own finally, because we'd started to waste too much time haggling. So, after mutual agreements on storyline and character, Mank went off with Houseman and did his version, while I stayed in Hollywood and wrote mine." Taking these drafts, Welles drastically condensed and rearranged them, then added scenes of his own. The industry accused Welles of underplaying Mankiewicz's contribution to the script, but Welles countered the attacks by saying, "At the end, naturally, I was the one making the picture, after all—who had to make the decisions. I used what I wanted of Mank's and, rightly or wrongly, kept what I liked of my own."
The terms of the contract stated that Mankiewicz was to receive no credit for his work, as he was hired as a script doctor. Before he signed the contract Mankiewicz was particularly advised by his agents that all credit for his work belonged to Welles and the Mercury Theatre, the "author and creator". As the film neared release, however, Mankiewicz began wanting a writing credit for the film and even threatened to take out full-page advertisements in trade papers and to get his friend Ben Hecht to write an exposé for The Saturday Evening Post. Mankiewicz also threatened to go to the Screen Writers Guild and claim full credit for writing the entire script by himself.
After lodging a protest with the Screen Writers Guild, Mankiewicz withdrew it, then vacillated. The question was resolved in January 1941 when the studio, RKO Pictures, awarded Mankiewicz credit. The guild credit form listed Welles first, Mankiewicz second. Welles's assistant Richard Wilson said that the person who circled Mankiewicz's name in pencil, then drew an arrow that put it in first place, was Welles. The official credit reads, "Screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles". Mankiewicz's rancor toward Welles grew over the remaining twelve years of his life.
Questions over the authorship of the Citizen Kane screenplay were revived in 1971 by influential film critic Pauline Kael, whose controversial 50,000-word essay "Raising Kane" was commissioned as an introduction to the shooting script in The Citizen Kane Book, published in October 1971. The book-length essay first appeared in February 1971, in two consecutive issues of The New Yorker magazine.
In the ensuing controversy, Welles was defended by colleagues, critics, biographers and scholars, but his reputation was damaged by its charges. The essay's thesis was later questioned and some of Kael's findings were also contested in later years.
Questions of authorship continued to come into sharper focus with Carringer's 1978 thoroughly researched essay, "The Scripts of Citizen Kane". Carringer studied the collection of script records—"almost a day-to-day record of the history of the scripting"—that was then still intact at RKO. He reviewed all seven drafts and concluded that "the full evidence reveals that Welles's contribution to the Citizen Kane script was not only substantial but definitive."
Casting
Citizen Kane was a rare film in that its principal roles were played by actors new to motion pictures. Ten were billed as Mercury Actors, members of the skilled repertory company assembled by Welles for the stage and radio performances of the Mercury Theatre, an independent theater company he founded with Houseman in 1937. "He loved to use the Mercury players," wrote biographer Charles Higham, "and consequently he launched several of them on movie careers."
The film represents the feature film debuts of William Alland, Ray Collins, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Erskine Sanford, Everett Sloane, Paul Stewart, and Welles himself. Despite never having appeared in feature films, some of the cast members were already well known to the public. Cotten had recently become a Broadway star in the hit play The Philadelphia Story with Katharine Hepburn and Sloane was well known for his role on the radio show The Goldbergs. Mercury actor George Coulouris was a star of the stage in New York and London.
Not all of the cast came from the Mercury Players. Welles cast Dorothy Comingore, an actress who played supporting parts in films since 1934 using the name "Linda Winters", as Susan Alexander Kane. A discovery of Charlie Chaplin, Comingore was recommended to Welles by Chaplin, who then met Comingore at a party in Los Angeles and immediately cast her.
Welles had met stage actress Ruth Warrick while visiting New York on a break from Hollywood and remembered her as a good fit for Emily Norton Kane, later saying that she looked the part. Warrick told Carringer that she was struck by the extraordinary resemblance between herself and Welles's mother when she saw a photograph of Beatrice Ives Welles. She characterized her own personal relationship with Welles as motherly.
"He trained us for films at the same time that he was training himself," recalled Agnes Moorehead. "Orson believed in good acting, and he realized that rehearsals were needed to get the most from his actors. That was something new in Hollywood: nobody seemed interested in bringing in a group to rehearse before scenes were shot. But Orson knew it was necessary, and we rehearsed every sequence before it was shot."
When The March of Time narrator Westbrook Van Voorhis asked for $25,000 to narrate the News on the March sequence, Alland demonstrated his ability to imitate Van Voorhis and Welles cast him.
Welles later said that casting character actor Gino Corrado in the small part of the waiter at the El Rancho broke his heart. Corrado had appeared in many Hollywood films, often as a waiter, and Welles wanted all of the actors to be new to films.
Other uncredited roles went to Thomas A. Curran as Teddy Roosevelt in the faux newsreel; Richard Baer as Hillman, a man at Madison Square Garden, and a man in the News on the March screening room; and Alan Ladd, Arthur O'Connell and Louise Currie as reporters at Xanadu.
Ruth Warrick (died 2005) was the last surviving member of the principal cast. Sonny Bupp (died 2007), who played Kane's young son, was the last surviving credited cast member. Kathryn Trosper Popper (died March 6, 2016) was reported to have been the last surviving actor to have appeared in Citizen Kane. Jean Forward (died September 2016), a soprano who dubbed the singing voice of Susan Alexander, was the last surviving performer from the film.
Filming
Production advisor Miriam Geiger quickly compiled a handmade film textbook for Welles, a practical reference book of film techniques that he studied carefully. He then taught himself filmmaking by matching its visual vocabulary to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which he ordered from the Museum of Modern Art, and films by Frank Capra, René Clair, Fritz Lang, King Vidor and Jean Renoir. The one film he genuinely studied was John Ford's Stagecoach, which he watched 40 times. "As it turned out, the first day I ever walked onto a set was my first day as a director," Welles said. "I'd learned whatever I knew in the projection room—from Ford. After dinner every night for about a month, I'd run Stagecoach, often with some different technician or department head from the studio, and ask questions. 'How was this done?' 'Why was this done?' It was like going to school."
Welles's cinematographer for the film was Gregg Toland, described by Welles as "just then, the number-one cameraman in the world." To Welles's astonishment, Toland visited him at his office and said, "I want you to use me on your picture." He had seen some of the Mercury stage productions (including Caesar) and said he wanted to work with someone who had never made a movie. RKO hired Toland on loan from Samuel Goldwyn Productions in the first week of June 1940.
"And he never tried to impress us that he was doing any miracles," Welles recalled. "I was calling for things only a beginner would have been ignorant enough to think anybody could ever do, and there he was, doing them." Toland later explained that he wanted to work with Welles because he anticipated the first-time director's inexperience and reputation for audacious experimentation in the theater would allow the cinematographer to try new and innovative camera techniques that typical Hollywood films would never have allowed him to do. Unaware of filmmaking protocol, Welles adjusted the lights on set as he was accustomed to doing in the theater; Toland quietly re-balanced them, and was angry when one of the crew informed Welles that he was infringing on Toland's responsibilities. During the first few weeks of June, Welles had lengthy discussions about the film with Toland and art director Perry Ferguson in the morning, and in the afternoon and evening he worked with actors and revised the script.
On June 29, 1940—a Saturday morning when few inquisitive studio executives would be around—Welles began filming Citizen Kane. After the disappointment of having Heart of Darkness canceled, Welles followed Ferguson's suggestion and deceived RKO into believing that he was simply shooting camera tests. "But we were shooting the picture," Welles said, "because we wanted to get started and be already into it before anybody knew about it."
At the time RKO executives were pressuring him to agree to direct a film called The Men from Mars, to capitalize on "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. Welles said that he would consider making the project but wanted to make a different film first. At this time he did not inform them that he had already begun filming Citizen Kane.
The early footage was called "Orson Welles Tests" on all paperwork. The first "test" shot was the News on the March projection room scene, economically filmed in a real studio projection room in darkness that masked many actors who appeared in other roles later in the film. "At $809 Orson did run substantially beyond the test budget of $528—to create one of the most famous scenes in movie history," wrote Barton Whaley.
The next scenes were the El Rancho nightclub scenes and the scene in which Susan attempts suicide. Welles later said that the nightclub set was available after another film had wrapped and that filming took 10 to 12 days to complete. For these scenes Welles had Comingore's throat sprayed with chemicals to give her voice a harsh, raspy tone. Other scenes shot in secret included those in which Thompson interviews Leland and Bernstein, which were also shot on sets built for other films.
During production, the film was referred to as RKO 281. Most of the filming took place in what is now Stage 19 on the Paramount Pictures lot in Hollywood. There was some location filming at Balboa Park in San Diego and the San Diego Zoo. Photographs of German-Jewish investment banker Otto Hermann Kahn's real-life estate Oheka Castle were used to portray the fictional Xanadu.
In the end of July, RKO approved the film and Welles was allowed to officially begin shooting, despite having already been filming "tests" for several weeks. Welles leaked stories to newspaper reporters that the "tests" had been so good that there was no need to re-shoot them. The first "official" scene to be shot was the breakfast montage sequence between Kane and his first wife Emily. To strategically save money and appease the RKO executives who opposed him, Welles rehearsed scenes extensively before actually shooting and filmed very few takes of each shot set-up. Welles never shot master shots for any scene after Toland told him that Ford never shot them. To appease the increasingly curious press, Welles threw a cocktail party for selected reporters, promising that they could watch a scene being filmed. When the journalists arrived Welles told them they had "just finished" shooting for the day but still had the party. Welles told the press that he was ahead of schedule (without factoring in the month of "test shooting"), thus discrediting claims that after a year in Hollywood without making a film he was a failure in the film industry.
Welles usually worked 16 to 18 hours a day on the film. He often began work at 4 a.m. since the special effects make-up used to age him for certain scenes took up to four hours to apply. Welles used this time to discuss the day's shooting with Toland and other crew members. The special contact lenses used to make Welles look elderly proved very painful, and a doctor was employed to place them into Welles's eyes. Welles had difficulty seeing clearly while wearing them, which caused him to badly cut his wrist when shooting the scene in which Kane breaks up the furniture in Susan's bedroom. While shooting the scene in which Kane shouts at Gettys on the stairs of Susan Alexander's apartment building, Welles fell ten feet; an X-ray revealed two bone chips in his ankle.
The injury required him to direct the film from a wheelchair for two weeks. He eventually wore a steel brace to resume performing on camera; it is visible in the low-angle scene between Kane and Leland after Kane loses the election. For the final scene, a stage at the Selznick studio was equipped with a working furnace, and multiple takes were required to show the sled being put into the fire and the word "Rosebud" consumed. Paul Stewart recalled that on the ninth take the Culver City Fire Department arrived in full gear because the furnace had grown so hot the flue caught fire. "Orson was delighted with the commotion", he said.
When "Rosebud" was burned, Welles choreographed the scene while he had composer Bernard Herrmann's cue playing on the set.
Unlike Schaefer, many members of RKO's board of governors did not like Welles or the control that his contract gave him. However such board members as Nelson Rockefeller and NBC chief David Sarnoff were sympathetic to Welles. Throughout production Welles had problems with these executives not respecting his contract's stipulation of non-interference and several spies arrived on set to report what they saw to the executives. When the executives would sometimes arrive on set unannounced the entire cast and crew would suddenly start playing softball until they left. Before official shooting began the executives intercepted all copies of the script and delayed their delivery to Welles. They had one copy sent to their office in New York, resulting in it being leaked to press.
Principal shooting wrapped October 24. Welles then took several weeks away from the film for a lecture tour, during which he also scouted additional locations with Toland and Ferguson. Filming resumed November 15 with some re-shoots. Toland had to leave due to a commitment to shoot Howard Hughes' The Outlaw, but Toland's camera crew continued working on the film and Toland was replaced by RKO cinematographer Harry J. Wild. The final day of shooting on November 30 was Kane's death scene. Welles boasted that he only went 21 days over his official shooting schedule, without factoring in the month of "camera tests". According to RKO records, the film cost $839,727. Its estimated budget had been $723,800.
Post-production
Citizen Kane was edited by Robert Wise and assistant editor Mark Robson. Both would become successful film directors. Wise was hired after Welles finished shooting the "camera tests" and began officially making the film. Wise said that Welles "had an older editor assigned to him for those tests and evidently he was not too happy and asked to have somebody else. I was roughly Orson's age and had several good credits." Wise and Robson began editing the film while it was still shooting and said that they "could tell certainly that we were getting something very special. It was outstanding film day in and day out."
Welles gave Wise detailed instructions and was usually not present during the film's editing. The film was very well planned out and intentionally shot for such post-production techniques as slow dissolves. The lack of coverage made editing easy since Welles and Toland edited the film "in camera" by leaving few options of how it could be put together. Wise said the breakfast table sequence took weeks to edit and get the correct "timing" and "rhythm" for the whip pans and overlapping dialogue. The News on the March sequence was edited by RKO's newsreel division to give it authenticity. They used stock footage from Pathé News and the General Film Library.
During post-production Welles and special effects artist Linwood G. Dunn experimented with an optical printer to improve certain scenes that Welles found unsatisfactory from the footage. Whereas Welles was often immediately pleased with Wise's work, he would require Dunn and post-production audio engineer James G. Stewart to re-do their work several times until he was satisfied.
Welles hired Bernard Herrmann to compose the film's score. Where most Hollywood film scores were written quickly, in as few as two or three weeks after filming was completed, Herrmann was given 12 weeks to write the music. He had sufficient time to do his own orchestrations and conducting, and worked on the film reel by reel as it was shot and cut. He wrote complete musical pieces for some of the montages, and Welles edited many of the scenes to match their length.
Style
Film scholars and historians view Citizen Kane as Welles's attempt to create a new style of filmmaking by studying various forms of it and combining them into one. However, Welles stated that his love for cinema began only when he started working on the film. When asked where he got the confidence as a first-time director to direct a film so radically different from contemporary cinema, he responded, "Ignorance, ignorance, sheer ignorance—you know there's no confidence to equal it. It's only when you know something about a profession, I think, that you're timid or careful."
David Bordwell wrote that "The best way to understand Citizen Kane is to stop worshipping it as a triumph of technique." Bordwell argues that the film did not invent any of its famous techniques such as deep focus cinematography, shots of the ceilings, chiaroscuro lighting and temporal jump-cuts, and that many of these stylistics had been used in German Expressionist films of the 1920s, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. But Bordwell asserts that the film did put them all together for the first time and perfected the medium in one single film. In a 1948 interview, D. W. Griffith said, "I loved Citizen Kane and particularly loved the ideas he took from me."
Arguments against the film's cinematic innovations were made as early as 1946 when French historian Georges Sadoul wrote, "The film is an encyclopedia of old techniques." He pointed out such examples as compositions that used both the foreground and the background in the films of Auguste and Louis Lumière, special effects used in the films of Georges Méliès, shots of the ceiling in Erich von Stroheim's Greed and newsreel montages in the films of Dziga Vertov.
French film critic André Bazin defended the film, writing: "In this respect, the accusation of plagiarism could very well be extended to the film's use of panchromatic film or its exploitation of the properties of gelatinous silver halide." Bazin disagreed with Sadoul's comparison to Lumière's cinematography since Citizen Kane used more sophisticated lenses, but acknowledged that it had similarities to such previous works as The 49th Parallel and The Power and the Glory. Bazin stated that "even if Welles did not invent the cinematic devices employed in Citizen Kane, one should nevertheless credit him with the invention of their meaning." Bazin championed the techniques in the film for its depiction of heightened reality, but Bordwell believed that the film's use of special effects contradicted some of Bazin's theories.
Storytelling techniques
Citizen Kane rejects the traditional linear, chronological narrative and tells Kane's story entirely in flashbacks using different points of view, many of them from Kane's aged and forgetful associates, the cinematic equivalent of the unreliable narrator in literature. Welles also dispenses with the idea of a single storyteller and uses multiple narrators to recount Kane's life, a technique not used previously in Hollywood films. Each narrator recounts a different part of Kane's life, with each story overlapping another. The film depicts Kane as an enigma, a complicated man who leaves viewers with more questions than answers as to his character, such as the newsreel footage where he is attacked for being both a communist and a fascist.
The technique of flashbacks had been used in earlier films, notably The Power and the Glory (1933), but no film was as immersed in it as Citizen Kane. Thompson the reporter acts as a surrogate for the audience, questioning Kane's associates and piecing together his life.
Films typically had an "omniscient perspective" at the time, which Marilyn Fabe says give the audience the "illusion that we are looking with impunity into a world which is unaware of our gaze". Citizen Kane also begins in that fashion until the News on the March sequence, after which we the audience see the film through the perspectives of others. The News on the March sequence gives an overview of Kane's entire life (and the film's entire story) at the beginning of the film, leaving the audience without the typical suspense of wondering how it will end. Instead, the film's repetitions of events compels the audience to analyze and wonder why Kane's life happened the way that it did, under the pretext of finding out what "Rosebud" means. The film then returns to the omniscient perspective in the final scene, when only the audience discovers what "Rosebud" is.
Cinematography
The most innovative technical aspect of Citizen Kane is the extended use of deep focus, where the foreground, background, and everything in between are all in sharp focus. Cinematographer Toland did this through his experimentation with lenses and lighting. Toland described the achievement in an article for Theatre Arts magazine, made possible by the sensitivity of modern speed film:
New developments in the science of motion picture photography are not abundant at this advanced stage of the game but periodically one is perfected to make this a greater art. Of these I am in an excellent position to discuss what is termed "Pan-focus", as I have been active for two years in its development and used it for the first time in Citizen Kane. Through its use, it is possible to photograph action from a range of eighteen inches from the camera lens to over two hundred feet away, with extreme foreground and background figures and action both recorded in sharp relief. Hitherto, the camera had to be focused either for a close or a distant shot, all efforts to encompass both at the same time resulting in one or the other being out of focus. This handicap necessitated the breaking up of a scene into long and short angles, with much consequent loss of realism. With pan-focus, the camera, like the human eye, sees an entire panorama at once, with everything clear and lifelike.
Another unorthodox method used in the film was the low-angle shots facing upwards, thus allowing ceilings to be shown in the background of several scenes. Every set was built with a ceiling which broke with studio convention, and many were constructed of fabric that concealed microphones. Welles felt that the camera should show what the eye sees, and that it was a bad theatrical convention to pretend that there was no ceiling—"a big lie in order to get all those terrible lights up there," he said. He became fascinated with the look of low angles, which made even dull interiors look interesting. One extremely low angle is used to photograph the encounter between Kane and Leland after Kane loses the election. A hole was dug for the camera, which required drilling into the concrete floor.
Welles credited Toland on the same title card as himself. "It's impossible to say how much I owe to Gregg," he said. "He was superb." He called Toland "the best director of photography that ever existed."
Sound
Citizen Kanes sound was recorded by Bailey Fesler and re-recorded in post-production by audio engineer James G. Stewart, both of whom had worked in radio. Stewart said that Hollywood films never deviated from a basic pattern of how sound could be recorded or used, but with Welles "deviation from the pattern was possible because he demanded it." Although the film is known for its complex soundtrack, much of the audio is heard as it was recorded by Fesler and without manipulation.
Welles used techniques from radio like overlapping dialogue. The scene in which characters sing "Oh, Mr. Kane" was especially complicated and required mixing several soundtracks together. He also used different "sound perspectives" to create the illusion of distances, such as in scenes at Xanadu where characters speak to each other at far distances. Welles experimented with sound in post-production, creating audio montages, and chose to create all of the sound effects for the film instead of using RKO's library of sound effects.
Welles used an aural technique from radio called the "lightning-mix". Welles used this technique to link complex montage sequences via a series of related sounds or phrases. For example, Kane grows from a child into a young man in just two shots. As Thatcher hands eight-year-old Kane a sled and wishes him a Merry Christmas, the sequence suddenly jumps to a shot of Thatcher fifteen years later, completing the sentence he began in both the previous shot and the chronological past. Other radio techniques include using a number of voices, each saying a sentence or sometimes merely a fragment of a sentence, and splicing the dialogue together in quick succession, such as the projection room scene. The film's sound cost $16,996, but was originally budgeted at $7,288.
Film critic and director François Truffaut wrote that "Before Kane, nobody in Hollywood knew how to set music properly in movies. Kane was the first, in fact the only, great film that uses radio techniques. ... A lot of filmmakers know enough to follow Auguste Renoir's advice to fill the eyes with images at all costs, but only Orson Welles understood that the sound track had to be filled in the same way." Cedric Belfrage of The Clipper wrote "of all of the delectable flavours that linger on the palate after seeing Kane, the use of sound is the strongest."
Make-up
The make-up for Citizen Kane was created and applied by Maurice Seiderman (1907–1989), a junior member of the RKO make-up department. He had not been accepted into the union, which recognized him as only an apprentice, but RKO nevertheless used him to make up principal actors. "Apprentices were not supposed to make up any principals, only extras, and an apprentice could not be on a set without a journeyman present," wrote make-up artist Dick Smith, who became friends with Seiderman in 1979. "During his years at RKO I suspect these rules were probably overlooked often." "Seiderman had gained a reputation as one of the most inventive and creatively precise up-and-coming makeup men in Hollywood," wrote biographer Frank Brady.
On an early tour of RKO, Welles met Seiderman in the small make-up lab that he created for himself in an unused dressing room. "Welles fastened on to him at once," wrote biographer Charles Higham, as Seiderman had developed his own makeup methods "that ensured complete naturalness of expression—a naturalness unrivaled in Hollywood." Seiderman developed a thorough plan for aging the principal characters, first making a plaster cast of the face of each of the actors who aged. He made a plaster mold of Welles's body down to the hips.
"My sculptural techniques for the characters' aging were handled by adding pieces of white modeling clay, which matched the plaster, onto the surface of each bust," Seiderman told Norman Gambill. When Seiderman achieved the desired effect, he cast the clay pieces in a soft plastic material that he formulated himself. These appliances were then placed onto the plaster bust and a four-piece mold was made for each phase of aging. The castings were then fully painted and paired with the appropriate wig for evaluation.
Before the actors went before the cameras each day, the pliable pieces were applied directly to their faces to recreate Seiderman's sculptural image. The facial surface was underpainted in a flexible red plastic compound; The red ground resulted in a warmth of tone that was picked up by the panchromatic film. Over that was applied liquid grease paint, and finally a colorless translucent talcum. Seiderman created the effect of skin pores on Kane's face by stippling the surface with a negative cast made from an orange peel.
Welles often arrived on the set at 2:30 am, as application of the sculptural make-up took 3½ hours for the oldest incarnation of Kane. The make-up included appliances to age Welles's shoulders, breast, and stomach. "In the film and production photographs, you can see that Kane had a belly that overhung," Seiderman said. "That was not a costume, it was the rubber sculpture that created the image. You could see how Kane's silk shirt clung wetly to the character's body. It could not have been done any other way."
Seiderman worked with Charles Wright on the wigs. These went over a flexible skull cover that Seiderman created and sewed into place with elastic thread. When he found the wigs too full, he untied one hair at a time to alter their shape. Kane's mustache was inserted into the makeup surface a few hairs at a time, to realistically vary the color and texture. He also made scleral lenses for Welles, Dorothy Comingore, George Coulouris, and Everett Sloane to dull the brightness of their young eyes. The lenses took a long time to fit properly, and Seiderman began work on them before devising any of the other makeup. "I painted them to age in phases, ending with the blood vessels and the arcus senilis of old age." Seiderman's tour de force was the breakfast montage, shot all in one day. "Twelve years, two years shot at each scene," he said.
The major studios gave screen credit for make-up only to the department head. When RKO make-up department head Mel Berns refused to share credit with Seiderman, who was only an apprentice, Welles told Berns that there would be no make-up credit. Welles signed a large advertisement in the Los Angeles newspaper:
THANKS TO EVERYBODY WHO GETS SCREEN CREDIT FOR "CITIZEN KANE"AND THANKS TO THOSE WHO DON'TTO ALL THE ACTORS, THE CREW, THE OFFICE, THE MUSICIANS, EVERYBODYAND PARTICULARLY TO MAURICE SEIDERMAN, THE BEST MAKE-UP MAN IN THE WORLD
Sets
Although credited as an assistant, the film's art direction was done by Perry Ferguson. Welles and Ferguson got along during their collaboration. In the weeks before production began Welles, Toland and Ferguson met regularly to discuss the film and plan every shot, set design and prop. Ferguson would take notes during these discussions and create rough designs of the sets and story boards for individual shots. After Welles approved the rough sketches, Ferguson made miniature models for Welles and Toland to experiment on with a periscope in order to rehearse and perfect each shot. Ferguson then had detailed drawings made for the set design, including the film's lighting design. The set design was an integral part of the film's overall look and Toland's cinematography.
In the original script the Great Hall at Xanadu was modeled after the Great Hall in Hearst Castle and its design included a mixture of Renaissance and Gothic styles. "The Hearstian element is brought out in the almost perverse juxtaposition of incongruous architectural styles and motifs," wrote Carringer. Before RKO cut the film's budget, Ferguson's designs were more elaborate and resembled the production designs of early Cecil B. DeMille films and Intolerance. The budget cuts reduced Ferguson's budget by 33 percent and his work cost $58,775 total, which was below average at that time.
To save costs Ferguson and Welles re-wrote scenes in Xanadu's living room and transported them to the Great Hall. A large staircase from another film was found and used at no additional cost. When asked about the limited budget, Ferguson said "Very often—as in that much-discussed 'Xanadu' set in Citizen Kane—we can make a foreground piece, a background piece, and imaginative lighting suggests a great deal more on the screen than actually exists on the stage." According to the film's official budget there were 81 sets built, but Ferguson said there were between 106 and 116.
Still photographs of Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York, were used in the opening montage, representing Kane's Xanadu estate. Ferguson also designed statues from Kane's collection with styles ranging from Greek to German Gothic. The sets were also built to accommodate Toland's camera movements. Walls were built to fold and furniture could quickly be moved. The film's famous ceilings were made out of muslin fabric and camera boxes were built into the floors for low angle shots. Welles later said that he was proud that the film production value looked much more expensive than the film's budget. Although neither worked with Welles again, Toland and Ferguson collaborated in several films in the 1940s.
Special effects
The film's special effects were supervised by RKO department head Vernon L. Walker. Welles pioneered several visual effects to cheaply shoot things like crowd scenes and large interior spaces. For example, the scene in which the camera in the opera house rises dramatically to the rafters, to show the workmen showing a lack of appreciation for Susan Alexander Kane's performance, was shot by a camera craning upwards over the performance scene, then a curtain wipe to a miniature of the upper regions of the house, and then another curtain wipe matching it again with the scene of the workmen. Other scenes effectively employed miniatures to make the film look much more expensive than it truly was, such as various shots of Xanadu.
Some shots included rear screen projection in the background, such as Thompson's interview of Leland and some of the ocean backgrounds at Xanadu. Bordwell claims that the scene where Thatcher agrees to be Kane's guardian used rear screen projection to depict young Kane in the background, despite this scene being cited as a prime example of Toland's deep focus cinematography. A special effects camera crew from Walker's department was required for the extreme close-up shots such as Kane's lips when he says "Rosebud" and the shot of the typewriter typing Susan's bad review.
Optical effects artist Dunn claimed that "up to 80 percent of some reels was optically printed." These shots were traditionally attributed to Toland for years. The optical printer improved some of the deep focus shots. One problem with the optical printer was that it sometimes created excessive graininess, such as the optical zoom out of the snow globe. Welles decided to superimpose snow falling to mask the graininess in these shots. Toland said that he disliked the results of the optical printer, but acknowledged that "RKO special effects expert Vernon Walker, ASC, and his staff handled their part of the production—a by no means inconsiderable assignment—with ability and fine understanding."
Any time deep focus was impossible—as in the scene in which Kane finishes a negative review of Susan's opera while at the same time firing the person who began writing the review—an optical printer was used to make the whole screen appear in focus, visually layering one piece of film onto another. However, some apparently deep-focus shots were the result of in-camera effects, as in the famous scene in which Kane breaks into Susan's room after her suicide attempt. In the background, Kane and another man break into the room, while simultaneously the medicine bottle and a glass with a spoon in it are in closeup in the foreground. The shot was an in-camera matte shot. The foreground was shot first, with the background dark. Then the background was lit, the foreground darkened, the film rewound, and the scene re-shot with the background action.
Music
The film's music was composed by Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann had composed for Welles for his Mercury Theatre radio broadcasts. Because it was Herrmann's first motion picture score, RKO wanted to pay him only a small fee, but Welles insisted he be paid at the same rate as Max Steiner.
The score established Herrmann as an important new composer of film soundtracks and eschewed the typical Hollywood practice of scoring a film with virtually non-stop music. Instead Herrmann used what he later described as "radio scoring", musical cues typically 5–15 seconds in length that bridge the action or suggest a different emotional response. The breakfast montage sequence begins with a graceful waltz theme and gets darker with each variation on that theme as the passage of time leads to the hardening of Kane's personality and the breakdown of his first marriage.
Herrmann realized that musicians slated to play his music were hired for individual unique sessions; there was no need to write for existing ensembles. This meant that he was free to score for unusual combinations of instruments, even instruments that are not commonly heard. In the opening sequence, for example, the tour of Kane's estate Xanadu, Herrmann introduces a recurring leitmotif played by low woodwinds, including a quartet of alto flutes.
For Susan Alexander Kane's operatic sequence, Welles suggested that Herrmann compose a witty parody of a Mary Garden vehicle, an aria from Salammbô. "Our problem was to create something that would give the audience the feeling of the quicksand into which this simple little girl, having a charming but small voice, is suddenly thrown," Herrmann said. Writing in the style of a 19th-century French Oriental opera, Herrmann put the aria in a key that would force the singer to strain to reach the high notes, culminating in a high D, well outside the range of Susan Alexander. Soprano Jean Forward dubbed the vocal part for Comingore. Houseman claimed to have written the libretto, based on Jean Racine's Athalie and Phedre, although some confusion remains since Lucille Fletcher remembered preparing the lyrics. Fletcher, then Herrmann's wife, wrote the libretto for his opera Wuthering Heights.
Music enthusiasts consider the scene in which Susan Alexander Kane attempts to sing the famous cavatina "Una voce poco fa" from Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini with vocal coach Signor Matiste as especially memorable for depicting the horrors of learning music through mistakes.
In 1972, Herrmann said, "I was fortunate to start my career with a film like Citizen Kane, it's been a downhill run ever since!" Welles loved Herrmann's score and told director Henry Jaglom that it was 50 percent responsible for the film's artistic success.
Some incidental music came from other sources. Welles heard the tune used for the publisher's theme, "Oh, Mr. Kane", in Mexico. Called "A Poco No", the song was written by Pepe Guízar and special lyrics were written by Herman Ruby.
"In a Mizz", a 1939 jazz song by Charlie Barnet and Haven Johnson, bookends Thompson's second interview of Susan Alexander Kane. "I kind of based the whole scene around that song," Welles said. "The music is by Nat Cole—it's his trio." Later—beginning with the lyrics, "It can't be love"—"In a Mizz" is performed at the Everglades picnic, framing the fight in the tent between Susan and Kane. Musicians including bandleader Cee Pee Johnson (drums), Alton Redd (vocals), Raymond Tate (trumpet), Buddy Collette (alto sax) and Buddy Banks (tenor sax) are featured.
All of the music used in the newsreel came from the RKO music library, edited at Welles's request by the newsreel department to achieve what Herrmann called "their own crazy way of cutting". The News on the March theme that accompanies the newsreel titles is "Belgian March" by Anthony Collins, from the film Nurse Edith Cavell. Other examples are an excerpt from Alfred Newman's score for Gunga Din (the exploration of Xanadu), Roy Webb's theme for the film Reno (the growth of Kane's empire), and bits of Webb's score for Five Came Back (introducing Walter Parks Thatcher).
Editing
One of the editing techniques used in Citizen Kane was the use of montage to collapse time and space, using an episodic sequence on the same set while the characters changed costume and make-up between cuts so that the scene following each cut would look as if it took place in the same location, but at a time long after the previous cut. In the breakfast montage, Welles chronicles the breakdown of Kane's first marriage in five vignettes that condense 16 years of story time into two minutes of screen time. Welles said that the idea for the breakfast scene "was stolen from The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder ... a one-act play, which is a long Christmas dinner that takes you through something like 60 years of a family's life." The film often uses long dissolves to signify the passage of time and its psychological effect of the characters, such as the scene in which the abandoned sled is covered with snow after the young Kane is sent away with Thatcher.
Welles was influenced by the editing theories of Sergei Eisenstein by using jarring cuts that caused "sudden graphic or associative contrasts", such as the cut from Kane's deathbed to the beginning of the News on the March sequence and a sudden shot of a shrieking cockatoo at the beginning of Raymond's flashback. Although the film typically favors mise-en-scène over montage, the scene in which Kane goes to Susan Alexander's apartment after first meeting her is the only one that is primarily cut as close-ups with shots and counter shots between Kane and Susan. Fabe says that "by using a standard Hollywood technique sparingly, [Welles] revitalizes its psychological expressiveness."
Sources
Welles never confirmed a principal source for the character of Charles Foster Kane. Houseman wrote that Kane is a synthesis of different personalities, with Hearst's life used as the main source. Some events and details were invented, and Houseman wrote that he and Mankiewicz also "grafted anecdotes from other giants of journalism, including Pulitzer, Northcliffe and Mank's first boss, Herbert Bayard Swope." Welles said, "Mr. Hearst was quite a bit like Kane, although Kane isn't really founded on Hearst in particular. Many people sat for it, so to speak". He specifically acknowledged that aspects of Kane were drawn from the lives of two business tycoons familiar from his youth in Chicago—Samuel Insull and Harold Fowler McCormick.
The character of Jedediah Leland was based on drama critic Ashton Stevens, George Stevens's uncle and Welles's close boyhood friend. Some detail came from Mankiewicz's own experience as a drama critic in New York.
Many assumed that the character of Susan Alexander Kane was based on Marion Davies, Hearst's mistress whose career he managed and whom Hearst promoted as a motion picture actress. This assumption was a major reason Hearst tried to destroy Citizen Kane. Welles denied that the character was based on Davies, whom he called "an extraordinary woman—nothing like the character Dorothy Comingore played in the movie." He cited Insull's building of the Chicago Opera House, and McCormick's lavish promotion of the opera career of his second wife, Ganna Walska, as direct influences on the screenplay.
The character of political boss Jim W. Gettys is based on Charles F. Murphy, a leader in New York City's infamous Tammany Hall political machine.
Welles credited "Rosebud" to Mankiewicz. Biographer Richard Meryman wrote that the symbol of Mankiewicz's own damaged childhood was a treasured bicycle, stolen while he visited the public library and not replaced by his family as punishment. He regarded it as the prototype of Charles Foster Kane's sled. In his 2015 Welles biography, Patrick McGilligan reported that Mankiewicz himself stated that the word "Rosebud" was taken from the name of a famous racehorse, Old Rosebud. Mankiewicz had a bet on the horse in the 1914 Kentucky Derby, which he won, and McGilligan wrote that "Old Rosebud symbolized his lost youth, and the break with his family". In testimony for the Lundberg suit, Mankiewicz said, "I had undergone psycho-analysis, and Rosebud, under circumstances slightly resembling the circumstances in [Citizen Kane], played a prominent part." Gore Vidal has argued in the New York Review of Books that “Rosebud was what Hearst called his friend Marion Davies’s clitoris”.
The News on the March sequence that begins the film satirizes the journalistic style of The March of Time, the news documentary and dramatization series presented in movie theaters by Time Inc. From 1935 to 1938 Welles was a member of the uncredited company of actors that presented the original radio version.
Houseman claimed that banker Walter P. Thatcher was loosely based on J. P. Morgan. Bernstein was named for Dr. Maurice Bernstein, appointed Welles's guardian; Sloane's portrayal was said to be based on Bernard Herrmann. Herbert Carter, editor of The Inquirer, was named for actor Jack Carter.
Political themes
Laura Mulvey explored the anti-fascist themes of Citizen Kane in her 1992 monograph for the British Film Institute. The News on the March newsreel presents Kane keeping company with Hitler and other dictators while he smugly assures the public that there will be no war. She wrote that the film reflects "the battle between intervention and isolationism" then being waged in the United States; the film was released six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, while President Franklin D. Roosevelt was laboring to win public opinion for entering World War II. "In the rhetoric of Citizen Kane," Mulvey writes, "the destiny of isolationism is realised in metaphor: in Kane's own fate, dying wealthy and lonely, surrounded by the detritus of European culture and history."
Journalist Ignacio Ramonet has cited the film as an early example of mass media manipulation of public opinion and the power that media conglomerates have on influencing the democratic process. He believes that this early example of a media mogul influencing politics is outdated and that today "there are media groups with the power of a thousand Citizen Kanes." Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is sometimes labeled as a latter-day Citizen Kane.
Comparisons have also been made between the career and character of Donald Trump and Charles Foster Kane. Citizen Kane is reported to be one of Trump's favorite films, and his biographer Tim O’Brien has said that Trump is fascinated by and identifies with Kane. In an interview with filmmaker Errol Morris, Trump explained his own interpretation of the film's themes, saying "You learn in 'Kane' maybe wealth isn't everything, because he had the wealth but he didn't have the happiness. In real life I believe that wealth does in fact isolate you from other people. It's a protective mechanism — you have your guard up much more so [than] if you didn't have wealth...Perhaps I can understand that."
Pre-release controversy
To ensure that Hearst's life's influence on Citizen Kane was a secret, Welles limited access to dailies and managed the film's publicity. A December 1940 feature story in Stage magazine compared the film's narrative to Faust and made no mention of Hearst.
The film was scheduled to premiere at RKO's flagship theater Radio City Music Hall on February 14, but in early January 1941 Welles was not finished with post-production work and told RKO that it still needed its musical score. Writers for national magazines had early deadlines and so a rough cut was previewed for a select few on January 3, 1941 for such magazines as Life, Look and Redbook. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (an arch-rival of Louella Parsons, the Hollywood correspondent for Hearst papers) showed up to the screening uninvited. Most of the critics at the preview said that they liked the film and gave it good advanced reviews. Hopper wrote negatively about it, calling the film a "vicious and irresponsible attack on a great man" and criticizing its corny writing and old fashioned photography.
Friday magazine ran an article drawing point-by-point comparisons between Kane and Hearst and documented how Welles had led on Parsons. Up until this Welles had been friendly with Parsons. The magazine quoted Welles as saying that he could not understand why she was so nice to him and that she should "wait until the woman finds out that the picture's about her boss." Welles immediately denied making the statement and the editor of Friday admitted that it might be false. Welles apologized to Parsons and assured her that he had never made that remark.
Shortly after Fridays article, Hearst sent Parsons an angry letter complaining that he had learned about Citizen Kane from Hopper and not her. The incident made a fool of Parsons and compelled her to start attacking Welles and the film. Parsons demanded a private screening of the film and personally threatened Schaefer on Hearst's behalf, first with a lawsuit and then with a vague threat of consequences for everyone in Hollywood. On January 10 Parsons and two lawyers working for Hearst were given a private screening of the film. James G. Stewart was present at the screening and said that she walked out of the film.
Soon after, Parsons called Schaefer and threatened RKO with a lawsuit if they released Kane. She also contacted the management of Radio City Music Hall and demanded that they should not screen it. The next day, the front page headline in Daily Variety read, "HEARST BANS RKO FROM PAPERS." Hearst began this ban by suppressing promotion of RKO's Kitty Foyle, but in two weeks the ban was lifted for everything except Kane.
When Schaefer did not submit to Parsons she called other studio heads and made more threats on behalf of Hearst to expose the private lives of people throughout the entire film industry. Welles was threatened with an exposé about his romance with the married actress Dolores del Río, who wanted the affair kept secret until her divorce was finalized. In a statement to journalists Welles denied that the film was about Hearst. Hearst began preparing an injunction against the film for libel and invasion of privacy, but Welles's lawyer told him that he doubted Hearst would proceed due to the negative publicity and required testimony that an injunction would bring.
The Hollywood Reporter ran a front-page story on January 13 that Hearst papers were about to run a series of editorials attacking Hollywood's practice of hiring refugees and immigrants for jobs that could be done by Americans. The goal was to put pressure on the other studios to force RKO to shelve Kane. Many of those immigrants had fled Europe after the rise of fascism and feared losing the haven of the United States. Soon afterwards, Schaefer was approached by Nicholas Schenck, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's parent company, with an offer on the behalf of Louis B. Mayer and other Hollywood executives to RKO Pictures of $805,000 to destroy all prints of the film and burn the negative.
Once RKO's legal team reassured Schaefer, the studio announced on January 21 that Kane would be released as scheduled, and with one of the largest promotional campaigns in the studio's history. Schaefer brought Welles to New York City for a private screening of the film with the New York corporate heads of the studios and their lawyers. There was no objection to its release provided that certain changes, including the removal or softening of specific references that might offend Hearst, were made. Welles agreed and cut the running time from 122 minutes to 119 minutes. The cuts satisfied the corporate lawyers.
Release
Radio City Music Hall's management refused to screen Citizen Kane for its premiere. A possible factor was Parsons's threat that The American Weekly would run a defamatory story on the grandfather of major RKO stockholder Nelson Rockefeller. Other exhibitors feared being sued for libel by Hearst and refused to show the film. In March Welles threatened the RKO board of governors with a lawsuit if they did not release the film. Schaefer stood by Welles and opposed the board of governors. When RKO still delayed the film's release Welles offered to buy the film for $1 million and the studio finally agreed to release the film on May 1.
Schaefer managed to book a few theaters willing to show the film. Hearst papers refused to accept advertising. RKO's publicity advertisements for the film erroneously promoted it as a love story.
Kane opened at the RKO Palace Theatre on Broadway in New York on May 1, 1941, in Chicago on May 6, and in Los Angeles on May 8. Welles said that at the Chicago premiere that he attended the theater was almost empty.
The day after the New York release, The New York Times said "it comes close to being the most sensational film ever made in Hollywood". The Washington Post called it "one of the most important films in the history" of filmmaking. The Washington Evening Star said Welles was a genius who created "a superbly dramatic biography of another genius" and "a picture that is revolutionary". The Chicago Tribune called the film interesting and different but "its sacrifice of simplicity to eccentricity robs it of distinction and general entertainment value". The Los Angeles Times gave the film a mixed review, saying it was brilliant and skillful at times with an ending that "rather fizzled".
The film did well in cities and larger towns, but it fared poorly in more remote areas. RKO still had problems getting exhibitors to show the film. For example, one chain controlling more than 500 theaters got Welles's film as part of a package but refused to play it, reportedly out of fear of Hearst. Hearst's disruption of the film's release damaged its box office performance and, as a result, it lost $160,000 during its initial run. The film earned $23,878 during its first week in New York. By the ninth week it only made $7,279. Overall it lost money in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., but made a profit in Seattle.
Trailer
Written and directed by Welles at Toland's suggestion, the theatrical trailer for Citizen Kane differs from other trailers in that it did not feature a single second of footage of the actual film itself, but acts as a wholly original, tongue-in-cheek, pseudo-documentary piece on the film's production. Filmed at the same time as Citizen Kane itself, it offers the only existing behind-the-scenes footage of the film. The trailer, shot by Wild instead of Toland, follows an unseen Welles as he provides narration for a tour around the film set, introductions to the film's core cast members, and a brief overview of Kane's character. The trailer also contains a number of trick shots, including one of Everett Sloane appearing at first to be running into the camera, which turns out to be the reflection of the camera in a mirror.
At the time, it was almost unprecedented for a film trailer to not actually feature anything of the film itself; and while Citizen Kane is frequently cited as a groundbreaking, influential film, Simon Callow argues its trailer was no less original in its approach. Callow writes that it has "great playful charm ... it is a miniature documentary, almost an introduction to the cinema ... Teasing, charming, completely original, it is a sort of conjuring trick: Without his face appearing once on the screen, Welles entirely dominates its five [sic] minutes' duration."
Hearst's response
Hearing about Citizen Kane enraged Hearst so much that he banned any advertising, reviewing, or mentioning of it in his papers, and had his journalists libel Welles. Welles used Hearst's opposition as a pretext for previewing the film in several opinion-making screenings in Los Angeles, lobbying for its artistic worth against the hostile campaign that Hearst was waging. A special press screening took place in early March. Henry Luce was in attendance and reportedly wanted to buy the film from RKO for $1 million to distribute it himself. The reviews for this screening were positive. A Hollywood Review headline read, "Mr. Genius Comes Through; 'Kane' Astonishing Picture". The Motion Picture Herald reported about the screening and Hearst's intention to sue RKO. Time magazine wrote that "The objection of Mr. Hearst, who founded a publishing empire on sensationalism, is ironic. For to most of the several hundred people who have seen the film at private screenings, Citizen Kane is the most sensational product of the U.S. movie industry." A second press screening occurred in April.
When Schaefer rejected Hearst's offer to suppress the film, Hearst banned every newspaper and station in his media conglomerate from reviewing—or even mentioning—the film. He also had many movie theaters ban it, and many did not show it through fear of being socially exposed by his massive newspaper empire. The Oscar-nominated documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane lays the blame for the film's relative failure squarely at the feet of Hearst. The film did decent business at the box office; it went on to be the sixth highest grossing film in its year of release, a modest success its backers found acceptable. Nevertheless, the film's commercial performance fell short of its creators' expectations. Hearst's biographer David Nasaw points out that Hearst's actions were not the only reason Kane failed, however: the innovations Welles made with narrative, as well as the dark message at the heart of the film (that the pursuit of success is ultimately futile) meant that a popular audience could not appreciate its merits.
Hearst's attacks against Welles went beyond attempting to suppress the film. Welles said that while he was on his post-filming lecture tour a police detective approached him at a restaurant and advised him not to go back to his hotel. A 14-year-old girl had reportedly been hidden in the closet of his room, and two photographers were waiting for him to walk in. Knowing he would be jailed after the resulting publicity, Welles did not return to the hotel but waited until the train left town the following morning. "But that wasn't Hearst," Welles said, "that was a hatchet man from the local Hearst paper who thought he would advance himself by doing it."
In March 1941, Welles directed a Broadway version of Richard Wright's Native Son (and, for luck, used a "Rosebud" sled as a prop). Native Son received positive reviews, but Hearst-owned papers used the opportunity to attack Welles as a communist. The Hearst papers vociferously attacked Welles after his April 1941 radio play, "His Honor, the Mayor", produced for The Free Company radio series on CBS.
Welles described his chance encounter with Hearst in an elevator at the Fairmont Hotel on the night Citizen Kane opened in San Francisco. Hearst and Welles's father were acquaintances, so Welles introduced himself and asked Hearst if he would like to come to the opening. Hearst did not respond. "As he was getting off at his floor, I said, 'Charles Foster Kane would have accepted.' No reply", recalled Welles. "And Kane would have, you know. That was his style—just as he finished Jed Leland's bad review of Susan as an opera singer."
In 1945, Hearst journalist Robert Shaw wrote that the film got "a full tide of insensate fury" from Hearst papers, "then it ebbed suddenly. With one brain cell working, the chief realized that such hysterical barking by the trained seals would attract too much attention to the picture. But to this day the name of Orson Welles is on the official son-of-a-bitch list of every Hearst newspaper".
Despite Hearst's attempts to destroy the film, since 1941 references to his life and career have usually included a reference to Citizen Kane, such as the headline 'Son of Citizen Kane Dies' for the obituary of Hearst's son. In 2012, the Hearst estate agreed to screen the film at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, breaking Hearst's ban on the film.
Contemporary responses
Citizen Kane received acclaim from several critics. New York Daily News critic Kate Cameron called it "one of the most interesting and technically superior films that has ever come out of a Hollywood studio". New York World-Telegram critic William Boehnel said that the film was "staggering and belongs at once among the greatest screen achievements". Time magazine wrote that "it has found important new techniques in picture-making and story-telling." Life magazine's review said that "few movies have ever come from Hollywood with such powerful narrative, such original technique, such exciting photography." John C. Mosher of The New Yorker called the film's style "like fresh air" and raved "Something new has come to the movie world at last." Anthony Bower of The Nation called it "brilliant" and praised the cinematography and performances by Welles, Comingore and Cotten. John O'Hara's Newsweek review called it the best picture he'd ever seen and said Welles was "the best actor in the history of acting." Welles called O'Hara's review "the greatest review that anybody ever had."
The day following the premiere of Citizen Kane, The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that "... it comes close to being the most sensational film ever made in Hollywood."
Count on Mr. Welles: he doesn't do things by halves. ... Upon the screen he discovered an area large enough for his expansive whims to have free play. And the consequence is that he has made a picture of tremendous and overpowering scope, not in physical extent so much as in its rapid and graphic rotation of thoughts. Mr. Welles has put upon the screen a motion picture that really moves.
In the UK C. A. Lejeune of The Observer called it "The most exciting film that has come out of Hollywood in twenty-five years" and Dilys Powell of The Sunday Times said the film's style was made "with the ease and boldness and resource of one who controls and is not controlled by his medium." Edward Tangye Lean of Horizon praised the film's technical style, calling it "perhaps a decade ahead of its contemporaries."
A few reviews were mixed. Otis Ferguson of The New Republic said it was "the boldest free-hand stroke in major screen production since Griffith and Bitzer were running wild to unshackle the camera", but also criticized its style, calling it a "retrogression in film technique" and stating that "it holds no great place" in film history. Ferguson reacted to some of the film's celebrated visual techniques by calling them "just willful dabbling" and "the old shell game." In a rare film review, filmmaker Erich von Stroheim criticized the film's story and non-linear structure, but praised the technical style and performances, and wrote "Whatever the truth may be about it, Citizen Kane is a great picture and will go down in screen history. More power to Welles!"
Some prominent critics wrote negative reviews. In his 1941 review for Sur, Jorge Luis Borges famously called the film "a labyrinth with no center" and predicted that its legacy would be a film "whose historical value is undeniable but which no one cares to see again." The Argus Weekend Magazine critic Erle Cox called the film "amazing" but thought that Welles's break with Hollywood traditions was "overdone". Tatlers James Agate called it "the well-intentioned, muddled, amateurish thing one expects from high-brows" and "a quite good film which tries to run the psychological essay in harness with your detective thriller, and doesn't quite succeed." Eileen Creelman of The New York Sun called it "a cold picture, unemotional, a puzzle rather than a drama". Other people who disliked the film were W. H. Auden and James Agee. After watching the film on January 29, 1942 Kenneth Williams, then aged 15, writing in his first diary curtly described it as "boshey rot".
Modern critics have given Citizen Kane an even more positive response. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 99% of 125 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 9.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Orson Welles's epic tale of a publishing tycoon's rise and fall is entertaining, poignant, and inventive in its storytelling, earning its reputation as a landmark achievement in film." In April 2021, it was noted that the addition of an 80-year-old negative review from the Chicago Tribune reduced the film's rating from 100% to 99% on the site; Citizen Kane held its 100% rating until early 2021. On Metacritic, however, the film still has a rare weighted average score of 100 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Accolades
It was widely believed the film would win most of its Academy Award nominations, but it received only the award for Best Original Screenplay. Variety reported that block voting by screen extras deprived Citizen Kane of Best Picture and Best Actor, and similar prejudices were likely to have been responsible for the film receiving no technical awards.
Legacy
Citizen Kane was the only film made under Welles's original contract with RKO Pictures, which gave him complete creative control. Welles's new business manager and attorney permitted the contract to lapse. In July 1941, Welles reluctantly signed a new and less favorable deal with RKO under which he produced and directed The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), produced Journey into Fear (1943), and began It's All True, a film he agreed to do without payment. In the new contract Welles was an employee of the studio and lost the right to final cut, which later allowed RKO to modify and re-cut The Magnificent Ambersons over his objections. In June 1942, Schaefer resigned the presidency of RKO Pictures and Welles's contract was terminated by his successor.
Release in Europe
During World War II, Citizen Kane was not seen in most European countries. It was shown in France for the first time on July 10, 1946, at the Marbeuf theater in Paris. Initially most French film critics were influenced by the negative reviews of Jean-Paul Sartre in 1945 and Georges Sadoul in 1946. At that time many French intellectuals and filmmakers shared Sartre's negative opinion that Hollywood filmmakers were uncultured. Sartre criticized the film's flashbacks for its nostalgic and romantic preoccupation with the past instead of the realities of the present and said that "the whole film is based on a misconception of what cinema is all about. The film is in the past tense, whereas we all know that cinema has got to be in the present tense."
André Bazin, a then little-known film critic working for Sartre's Les Temps modernes, was asked to give an impromptu speech about the film after a screening at the Colisée Theatre in the autumn of 1946 and changed the opinion of much of the audience. This speech led to Bazin's 1947 article "The Technique of Citizen Kane", which directly influenced public opinion about the film. Carringer wrote that Bazin was "the one who did the most to enhance the film's reputation." Both Bazin's critique of the film and his theories about cinema itself centered around his strong belief in mise-en-scène. These theories were diametrically opposed to both the popular Soviet montage theory and the politically Marxist and anti-Hollywood beliefs of most French film critics at that time. Bazin believed that a film should depict reality without the filmmaker imposing their "will" on the spectator, which the Soviet theory supported. Bazin wrote that Citizen Kanes mise-en-scène created a "new conception of filmmaking" and that the freedom given to the audience from the deep focus shots was innovative by changing the entire concept of the cinematic image. Bazin wrote extensively about the mise-en-scène in the scene where Susan Alexander attempts suicide, which was one long take while other films would have used four or five shots in the scene. Bazin wrote that the film's mise-en-scène "forces the spectator to participate in the meaning of the film" and creates "a psychological realism which brings the spectator back to the real conditions of perception."
In his 1950 essay "The Evolution of the Language of Cinema", Bazin placed Citizen Kane center stage as a work which ushered in a new period in cinema. One of the first critics to defend motion pictures as being on the same artistic level as literature or painting, Bazin often used the film as an example of cinema as an art form and wrote that "Welles has given the cinema a theoretical restoration. He has enriched his filmic repertory with new or forgotten effects that, in today's artistic context, take on a significance we didn't know they could have." Bazin also compared the film to Roberto Rossellini's Paisan for having "the same aesthetic concept of realism" and to the films of William Wyler shot by Toland (such as The Little Foxes and The Best Years of Our Lives), all of which used deep focus cinematography that Bazin called "a dialectical step forward in film language."
Bazin's praise of the film went beyond film theory and reflected his own philosophy towards life itself. His metaphysical interpretations about the film reflected humankind's place in the universe. Bazin believed that the film examined one person's identity and search for meaning. It portrayed the world as ambiguous and full of contradictions, whereas films up until then simply portrayed people's actions and motivations. Bazin's biographer Dudley Andrew wrote that:
The world of Citizen Kane, that mysterious, dark, and infinitely deep world of space and memory where voices trail off into distant echoes and where meaning dissolves into interpretation, seemed to Bazin to mark the starting point from which all of us try to construct provisionally the sense of our lives.
Bazin went on to co-found Cahiers du cinéma, whose contributors (including future film directors François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard) also praised the film. The popularity of Truffaut's auteur theory helped the film's and Welles's reputation.
Re-evaluation
By 1942 Citizen Kane had run its course theatrically and, apart from a few showings at big city arthouse cinemas, it largely vanished and both the film's and Welles's reputation fell among American critics. In 1949 critic Richard Griffith in his overview of cinema, The Film Till Now, dismissed Citizen Kane as "... tinpot if not crackpot Freud."
In the United States, it was neglected and forgotten until its revival on television in the mid-to-late 1950s. Three key events in 1956 led to its re-evaluation in the United States: first, RKO was one of the first studios to sell its library to television, and early that year Citizen Kane started to appear on television; second, the film was re-released theatrically to coincide with Welles's return to the New York stage, where he played King Lear; and third, American film critic Andrew Sarris wrote "Citizen Kane: The American Baroque" for Film Culture, and described it as "the great American film" and "the work that influenced the cinema more profoundly than any American film since The Birth of a Nation." Carringer considers Sarris's essay as the most important influence on the film's reputation in the US.
During Expo 58, a poll of over 100 film historians named Kane one of the top ten greatest films ever made (the group gave first-place honors to Battleship Potemkin). When a group of young film directors announced their vote for the top six, they were booed for not including the film.
In the decades since, its critical status as one of the greatest films ever made has grown, with numerous essays and books on it including Peter Cowie's The Cinema of Orson Welles, Ronald Gottesman's Focus on Citizen Kane, a collection of significant reviews and background pieces, and most notably Kael's essay, "Raising Kane", which promoted the value of the film to a much wider audience than it had reached before. Despite its criticism of Welles, it further popularized the notion of Citizen Kane as the great American film. The rise of art house and film society circuits also aided in the film's rediscovery. David Thomson said that the film 'grows with every year as America comes to resemble it."
The British magazine Sight & Sound has produced a Top Ten list surveying film critics every decade since 1952, and is regarded as one of the most respected barometers of critical taste. Citizen Kane was a runner up to the top 10 in its 1952 poll but was voted as the greatest film ever made in its 1962 poll, retaining the top spot in every subsequent poll until 2012, when Vertigo displaced it.
The film has also ranked number one in the following film "best of" lists: Julio Castedo's The 100 Best Films of the Century, Cahiers du cinéma's 100 films pour une cinémathèque idéale, Kinovedcheskie Zapiski, Time Out magazine's Top 100 Films (Centenary), The Village Voices 100 Greatest Films, and The Royal Belgian Film Archive's Most Important and Misappreciated American Films.
Roger Ebert called Citizen Kane the greatest film ever made: "But people don't always ask about the greatest film. They ask, 'What's your favorite movie?' Again, I always answer with Citizen Kane."
In 1998 Time Out conducted a reader's poll and Citizen Kane was voted 3rd best film of all time. On February 18, 1999, the United States Postal Service honored Citizen Kane by including it in its Celebrate the Century series. The film was honored again in February 25, 2003, in a series of U.S. postage stamps marking the 75th anniversary of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Art director Perry Ferguson represents the behind-the-scenes craftsmen of filmmaking in the series; he is depicted completing a sketch for Citizen Kane.
Citizen Kane was ranked number one in the American Film Institute's polls of film industry artists and leaders in 1998 and 2007. "Rosebud" was chosen as the 17th most memorable movie quotation in a 2005 AFI poll. The film's score was one of 250 nominees for the top 25 film scores in American cinema in another 2005 AFI poll. In 2005 the film was included on Times All-Time 100 best movies list.
In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild published a list of the 75 best-edited films of all time based on a survey of its membership. Citizen Kane was listed second. In 2015, Citizen Kane ranked 1st on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.
Influence
Citizen Kane has been called the most influential film of all time. Richard Corliss has asserted that Jules Dassin's 1941 film The Tell-Tale Heart was the first example of its influence and the first pop culture reference to the film occurred later in 1941 when the spoof comedy Hellzapoppin' featured a "Rosebud" sled. The film's cinematography was almost immediately influential and in 1942 American Cinematographer wrote "without a doubt the most immediately noticeable trend in cinematography methods during the year was the trend toward crisper definition and increased depth of field."
The cinematography influenced John Huston's The Maltese Falcon. Cinematographer Arthur Edeson used a wider-angle lens than Toland and the film includes many long takes, low angles and shots of the ceiling, but it did not use deep focus shots on large sets to the extent that Citizen Kane did. Edeson and Toland are often credited together for revolutionizing cinematography in 1941. Toland's cinematography influenced his own work on The Best Years of Our Lives. Other films influenced include Gaslight, Mildred Pierce and Jane Eyre. Cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa said that his use of deep focus was influenced by "the camera work of Gregg Toland in Citizen Kane" and not by traditional Japanese art.
Its cinematography, lighting, and flashback structure influenced such film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s as The Killers, Keeper of the Flame, Caught, The Great Man and This Gun for Hire. David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson have written that "For over a decade thereafter American films displayed exaggerated foregrounds and somber lighting, enhanced by long takes and exaggerated camera movements." However, by the 1960s filmmakers such as those from the French New Wave and Cinéma vérité movements favored "flatter, more shallow images with softer focus" and Citizen Kanes style became less fashionable. American filmmakers in the 1970s combined these two approaches by using long takes, rapid cutting, deep focus and telephoto shots all at once. Its use of long takes influenced films such as The Asphalt Jungle, and its use of deep focus cinematography influenced Gun Crazy, The Whip Hand, The Devil's General and Justice Is Done. The flashback structure in which different characters have conflicting versions of past events influenced La commare secca and Man of Marble.
The film's structure influenced the biographical films Lawrence of Arabia and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters—which begin with the subject's death and show their life in flashbacks—as well as Welles's thriller Mr. Arkadin. Rosenbaum sees similarities in the film's plot to Mr. Arkadin, as well as the theme of nostalgia for loss of innocence throughout Welles's career, beginning with Citizen Kane and including The Magnificent Ambersons, Mr. Arkadin and Chimes at Midnight. Rosenbaum also points out how the film influenced Warren Beatty's Reds. The film depicts the life of Jack Reed through the eyes of Louise Bryant, much as Kane's life is seen through the eyes of Thompson and the people who he interviews. Rosenbaum also compared the romantic montage between Reed and Bryant with the breakfast table montage in Citizen Kane.
Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon is often compared to the film due to both having complicated plot structures told by multiple characters in the film. Welles said his initial idea for the film was "Basically, the idea Rashomon used later on," however Kurosawa had not yet seen the film before making Rashomon in 1950. Nigel Andrews has compared the film's complex plot structure to Rashomon, Last Year at Marienbad, Memento and Magnolia. Andrews also compares Charles Foster Kane to Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood for their portrayals of "haunted megalomaniac[s], presiding over the shards of [their] own [lives]."
The films of Paul Thomas Anderson have been compared to it. Variety compared There Will Be Blood to the film and called it "one that rivals Giant and Citizen Kane in our popular lore as origin stories about how we came to be the people we are." The Master has been called "movieland's only spiritual sequel to Citizen Kane that doesn't shrivel under the hefty comparison". The Social Network has been compared to the film for its depiction of a media mogul and by the character Erica Albright being similar to "Rosebud". The controversy of the Sony hacking before the release of The Interview brought comparisons of Hearst's attempt to suppress the film. The film's plot structure and some specific shots influenced Todd Haynes's Velvet Goldmine. Abbas Kiarostami's The Traveler has been called "the Citizen Kane of the Iranian children's cinema." The film's use of overlapping dialogue has influenced the films of Robert Altman and Carol Reed. Reed's films Odd Man Out, The Third Man (in which Welles and Cotten appeared) and Outcast of the Islands were also influenced by the film's cinematography.
Many directors have listed it as one of the greatest films ever made, including Woody Allen, Michael Apted, Les Blank, Kenneth Branagh, Paul Greengrass, Satyajit Ray, Michel Hazanavicius, Michael Mann, Sam Mendes, Jiří Menzel, Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, Denys Arcand, Gillian Armstrong, John Boorman, Roger Corman, Alex Cox, Miloš Forman, Norman Jewison, Richard Lester, Richard Linklater, Paul Mazursky, Ronald Neame, Sydney Pollack and Stanley Kubrick. Yasujirō Ozu said it was his favorite non-Japanese film and was impressed by its techniques. François Truffaut said that the film "has inspired more vocations to cinema throughout the world than any other" and recognized its influence in The Barefoot Contessa, Les Mauvaises Rencontres, Lola Montès, and 8 1/2. Truffaut's Day for Night pays tribute to the film in a dream sequence depicting a childhood memory of the character played by Truffaut stealing publicity photos from the film. Numerous film directors have cited the film as influential on their own films, including Theo Angelopoulos, Luc Besson, the Coen brothers, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, John Frankenheimer, Stephen Frears, Sergio Leone, Michael Mann, Ridley Scott, Martin Scorsese, Bryan Singer and Steven Spielberg. Ingmar Bergman disliked the film and called it "a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie has is absolutely unbelievable!"
William Friedkin said that the film influenced him and called it "a veritable quarry for filmmakers, just as Joyce's Ulysses is a quarry for writers." The film has also influenced other art forms. Carlos Fuentes's novel The Death of Artemio Cruz was partially inspired by the film and the rock band The White Stripes paid unauthorized tribute to the film in the song "The Union Forever".
Film memorabilia
In 1982, film director Steven Spielberg bought a "Rosebud" sled for $60,500; it was one of three balsa sleds used in the closing scenes and the only one that was not burned. Spielberg eventually donated the sled to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures as he stated he felt it belonged in a museum. After the Spielberg purchase, it was reported that retiree Arthur Bauer claimed to own another "Rosebud" sled. In early 1942, when Bauer was 12, he had won an RKO publicity contest and selected the hardwood sled as his prize. In 1996, Bauer's estate offered the painted pine sled at auction through Christie's. Bauer's son told CBS News that his mother had once wanted to paint the sled and use it as a plant stand, but Bauer told her to "just save it and put it in the closet." The sled was sold to an anonymous bidder for $233,500.
Welles's Oscar for Best Original Screenplay was believed to be lost until it was rediscovered in 1994. It was withdrawn from a 2007 auction at Sotheby's when bidding failed to reach its estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million. Owned by the charitable Dax Foundation, it was auctioned for $861,542 in 2011 to an anonymous buyer. Mankiewicz's Oscar was sold at least twice, in 1999 and again in 2012, the latest price being $588,455.
In 1989, Mankiewicz's personal copy of the Citizen Kane script was auctioned at Christie's. The leather-bound volume included the final shooting script and a carbon copy of American that bore handwritten annotations—purportedly made by Hearst's lawyers, who were said to have obtained it in the manner described by Kael in "Raising Kane". Estimated to bring $70,000 to $90,000, it sold for a record $231,000.
In 2007, Welles's personal copy of the last revised draft of Citizen Kane before the shooting script was sold at Sotheby's for $97,000. A second draft of the script titled American, marked "Mr. Welles' working copy", was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2014 for $164,692. A collection of 24 pages from a working script found in Welles's personal possessions by his daughter Beatrice Welles was auctioned in 2014 for $15,000.
In 2014, a collection of approximately 235 Citizen Kane stills and production photos that had belonged to Welles was sold at auction for $7,812.
Rights and home media
The composited camera negative of Citizen Kane is believed to be lost forever. The most commonly-reported explanation is that it was destroyed in a New Jersey film laboratory fire in the 1970s. However, in 2021, Nicolas Falacci revealed that he had been told "the real story" by a colleague, when he was one of two employees in the film restoration lab which assembled the 1991 "restoration" from the best available elements. Falacci noted that throughout the process he had daily visits in 1990-1 from an unnamed "older RKO executive showing up every day – nervous and sweating". According to Falacci's colleague, this elderly man was keen to cover up a clerical error he had made decades earlier when in charge of the studio's inventory, which had resulted in the original camera negatives being sent to a silver reclamation plant, destroying the nitrate film to extract its valuable silver content. Falacci's account is impossible to verify, but it would have been fully in keeping with industry standard practice for many decades, which was to destroy prints and negatives of countless older films deemed non-commercially viable, to extract the silver.
Subsequent prints were derived from a master positive (a fine-grain preservation element) made in the 1940s and originally intended for use in overseas distribution. Modern techniques were used to produce a pristine print for a 50th Anniversary theatrical reissue in 1991 which Paramount Pictures released for then-owner Turner Broadcasting System, which earned $1.6 million in North America and worldwide.
In 1955, RKO sold the American television rights to its film library, including Citizen Kane, to C&C Television Corp. In 1960, television rights to the pre-1959 RKO's live-action library were acquired by United Artists. RKO kept the non-broadcast television rights to its library.
In 1976, when home video was in its infancy, entrepreneur Snuff Garrett bought cassette rights to the RKO library for what United Press International termed "a pittance". In 1978 The Nostalgia Merchant released the film through Media Home Entertainment. By 1980 the 800-title library of The Nostalgia Merchant was earning $2.3 million a year. "Nobody wanted cassettes four years ago," Garrett told UPI. "It wasn't the first time people called me crazy. It was a hobby with me which became big business." RKO Home Video released the film on VHS and Betamax in 1985.
On December 3, 1984, The Criterion Collection released the film as its first LaserDisc. It was made from a fine grain master positive provided by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. When told about the then-new concept of having an audio commentary on the disc, Welles was skeptical but said "theoretically, that's good for teaching movies, so long as they don't talk nonsense." In 1992 Criterion released a new 50th Anniversary Edition LaserDisc. This version had an improved transfer and additional special features, including the documentary The Legacy of Citizen Kane and Welles's early short The Hearts of Age.
Turner Broadcasting System acquired broadcast television rights to the RKO library in 1986 and the full worldwide rights to the library in 1987. The RKO Home Video unit was reorganized into Turner Home Entertainment that year. In 1991 Turner released a 50th Anniversary Edition on VHS and as a collector's edition that includes the film, the documentary Reflections On Citizen Kane, Harlan Lebo's 50th anniversary album, a poster and a copy of the original script. In 1996, Time Warner acquired Turner and Warner Home Video absorbed Turner Home Entertainment. In 2011, Warner Bros. Discovery's Warner Bros. unit had distribution rights for the film.
In 2001, Warner Home Video released a 60th Anniversary Collectors Edition DVD. The two-disc DVD included feature-length commentaries by Roger Ebert and Peter Bogdanovich, as well as a second DVD with the feature length documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1999). It was simultaneously released on VHS. The DVD was criticized for being " bright, ; the dirt and grime had been cleared away, but so had a good deal of the texture, the depth, and the sense of film grain."
In 2003, Welles's daughter Beatrice Welles sued Turner Entertainment, claiming the Welles estate is the legal copyright holder of the film. She claimed that Welles's deal to terminate his contracts with RKO meant that Turner's copyright of the film was null and void. She also claimed that the estate of Orson Welles was owed 20% of the film's profits if her copyright claim was not upheld. In 2007 she was allowed to proceed with the lawsuit, overturning the 2004 decision in favor of Turner Entertainment on the issue of video rights.
In 2011, it was released on Blu-ray and DVD in a 70th Anniversary Edition. The San Francisco Chronicle called it "the Blu-ray release of the year." Supplements included everything available on the 2001 Warner Home Video release, including The Battle Over Citizen Kane DVD. A 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition added a third DVD with RKO 281 (1999), an award winning TV movie about the making of the film. Its packaging extras included a hardcover book and a folio containing mini reproductions of the original souvenir program, lobby cards, and production memos and correspondence. The transfer for the US releases were scanned as 4K resolution from three different 35mm prints and rectified the quality issues of the 2001 DVD. The rest of the world continued to receive home video releases based on the older transfer. This was partially rectified in 2016 with the release of the 75th Anniversary Edition in both the UK and US, which was a straight repackaging of the main disc from the 70th Anniversary Edition.
On August 11, 2021 Criterion announced their first 4K Ultra HD releases, a six-film slate, would include Citizen Kane. Criterion indicated each title was to be available in a combo pack including a 4K UHD disc of the feature film as well as the film and special features on the companion Blu-rays. Citizen Kane was released on November 23, 2021 by the collection as a 4K and 3 Blu-ray disc package. However, the release was recalled because at the half-hour mark on the regular blu-ray, the contrast fell sharply, which resulted in a much darker image compared to what was supposed to occur. However this issue does not apply to the 4K version itself.
Colorization controversy
In the 1980s, Citizen Kane became a catalyst in the controversy over the colorization of black-and-white films. One proponent of film colorization was Ted Turner, whose Turner Entertainment Company owned the RKO library. A Turner Entertainment spokesperson initially stated that Citizen Kane would not be colorized, but in July 1988 Turner said, "Citizen Kane? I'm thinking of colorizing it." In early 1989 it was reported that two companies were producing color tests for Turner Entertainment. Criticism increased when filmmaker Henry Jaglom stated that shortly before his death Welles had implored him "don't let Ted Turner deface my movie with his crayons."
In February 1989, Turner Entertainment President Roger Mayer announced that work to colorize the film had been stopped due to provisions in Welles's 1939 contract with RKO that "could be read to prohibit colorization without permission of the Welles estate." Mayer added that Welles's contract was "quite unusual" and "other contracts we have checked out are not like this at all." Turner had only colorized the final reel of the film before abandoning the project. In 1991 one minute of the colorized test footage was included in the BBC Arena documentary The Complete Citizen Kane.
The colorization controversy was a factor in the passage of the National Film Preservation Act in 1988 which created the National Film Registry the following year. ABC News anchor Peter Jennings reported that "one major reason for doing this is to require people like the broadcaster Ted Turner, who's been adding color to some movies and re-editing others for television, to put notices on those versions saying that the movies have been altered".
Bibliography
Bazin, André. The Technique of Citizen Kane. Paris, France: Les Temps modernes 2, number 17, 1947. pp. 943–949.
Biskind, Peter (ed.), Jaglom, Henry and Welles, Orson. My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2013. .
Bogdanovich, Peter and Welles, Orson. This is Orson Welles. HarperPerennial 1992.
Bogdanovich, Peter and Welles, Orson (uncredited). "The Kane Mutiny", in Esquire, October 1972.
Brady, Frank. Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989. .
Callow, Simon. Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu. London: Jonathan Cape, 1995.
Carringer, Robert L. The Making of Citizen Kane. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985. hardcover; 1996 revised and updated edition paperback
Carringer, Robert L. "The Scripts of Citizen Kane", in Critical Inquiry No. 5, 1978.
Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. W.W. Norton Company, 2004.
Gottesman, Ronald (ed.). Focus on Citizen Kane. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1976.
Gottesman, Ronald (ed.). Perspectives on Citizen Kane. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1996.
Heylin, Clinton. Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios, Chicago Review Press, 2005.
Howard, James. The Complete Films of Orson Welles. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1991. .
Kael, Pauline, Welles, Orson and Mankiewicz, Herman J. The Citizen Kane Book. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1971.
Leaming, Barbara. Orson Welles, A Biography. New York: Viking Press, 1985. .
Meryman, Richard. Mank: The Wit, World and Life of Herman Mankiewicz. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1978. .
Mulvey, Laura. Citizen Kane. London: British Film Institute, 1992.
Naremore, James (ed.). Orson Welles's Citizen Kane: A Casebook in Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Nasaw, David. The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Rippy, Marguerite H. Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective. Southern Illinois University Press, Illinois, 2009.
Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "I Missed It at the Movies: Objections to 'Raising Kane'", in Film Comment, Spring 1972.
Stern, Sydney Ladensohn. The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2019.
Notes
References
External links
Database
Citizen Kane at Cinema Belgica
Other
"Citizen Kane: The Once and Future Kane", essay by Bilge Ebiri on The Criterion Collection
Citizen Kane essay by Godfrey Cheshire on the National Film Registry website
Citizen Kane essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pp. 735–737
Citizen Kane bibliography via the UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
The American Film Institute's "100 Greatest Movies" list
Citizen Kane and Bernard Herrmann's film score
PBS: Citizen Kane (Archived)
Bright Lights Film Journal Essay
Roger Ebert: Citizen Kane
The Unofficial Citizen Kane Page
Time Magazine Top 100
Greatest films
DVD review
"Scene-by-scene analysis" at Movie Movie
1941 films
1940s American films
1940s English-language films
1941 directorial debut films
1941 drama films
American black-and-white films
American business films
American drama films
American nonlinear narrative films
Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler
Cultural depictions of Neville Chamberlain
Drama films based on actual events
Expressionist films
Films à clef
Films about mass media owners
Films about media manipulation
Films about newspaper publishing
Films about opera
Films about tabloid journalism
Films about the mass media in the United States
Films directed by Orson Welles
Films scored by Bernard Herrmann
Films set in New York City
Films set in Florida
Films set in 1871
Films set in 1898
Films set in the 1900s
Films set in the 1910s
Films set in the 1920s
Films set in the 1930s
Films set in 1941
Films set in country houses
Films shot in San Diego
Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award
Films with screenplays by Herman J. Mankiewicz
Films with screenplays by Orson Welles
RKO Pictures films
Spanish–American War films
United States National Film Registry films
Works about William Randolph Hearst |
5233 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl%20Linnaeus | Carl Linnaeus | Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin; his name is rendered in Latin as and, after his 1761 ennoblement, as .
Linnaeus was the son of a curate and he was born in Råshult, the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published the first edition of his in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, while publishing several volumes. By the time of his death in 1778, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe.
Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message: "Tell him I know no greater man on Earth." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly." Swedish author August Strindberg wrote: "Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist." Linnaeus has been called (Prince of Botanists) and "The Pliny of the North". He is also considered one of the founders of modern ecology.
In botany and zoology, the abbreviation L. is used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for a species' name. In older publications, the abbreviation "Linn." is found. Linnaeus's remains constitute the type specimen for the species Homo sapiens following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, since the sole specimen that he is known to have examined was himself.
Early life
Childhood
Linnaeus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus (Nils) Ingemarsson (who later adopted the family name Linnaeus) and Christina Brodersonia. His siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus (who would eventually succeed their father as rector of Stenbrohult and write a manual on beekeeping), and Emerentia Linnæa. His father taught him Latin as a small child.
One of a long line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister, and the curate of the small village of Stenbrohult in Småland. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius.
A year after Linnaeus's birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curate's house.
Even in his early years, Linnaeus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which immediately calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus and told him their names. Soon Linnaeus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants.
Carl's father was the first in his ancestry to adopt a permanent surname. Before that, ancestors had used the patronymic naming system of Scandinavian countries: his father was named Ingemarsson after his father Ingemar Bengtsson. When Nils was admitted to the University of Lund, he had to take on a family name. He adopted the Latinate name Linnæus after a giant linden tree (or lime tree), in Swedish, that grew on the family homestead. This name was spelled with the æ ligature. When Carl was born, he was named Carl Linnæus, with his father's family name. The son also always spelled it with the æ ligature, both in handwritten documents and in publications. Carl's patronymic would have been Nilsson, as in Carl Nilsson Linnæus.
Early education
Linnaeus's father began teaching him basic Latin, religion, and geography at an early age. When Linnaeus was seven, Nils decided to hire a tutor for him. The parents picked Johan Telander, a son of a local yeoman. Linnaeus did not like him, writing in his autobiography that Telander "was better calculated to extinguish a child's talents than develop them".
Two years after his tutoring had begun, he was sent to the Lower Grammar School at Växjö in 1717. Linnaeus rarely studied, often going to the countryside to look for plants. At some point, his father went to visit him and, after hearing critical assessments by his preceptors, he decided to put the youth as an apprentice to some honest cobbler. He reached the last year of the Lower School when he was fifteen, which was taught by the headmaster, Daniel Lannerus, who was interested in botany. Lannerus noticed Linnaeus's interest in botany and gave him the run of his garden.
He also introduced him to Johan Rothman, the state doctor of Småland and a teacher at Katedralskolan (a gymnasium) in Växjö. Also a botanist, Rothman broadened Linnaeus's interest in botany and helped him develop an interest in medicine. By the age of 17, Linnaeus had become well acquainted with the existing botanical literature. He remarks in his journal that he "read day and night, knowing like the back of my hand, Arvidh Månsson's Rydaholm Book of Herbs, Tillandz's Flora Åboensis, Palmberg's Serta Florea Suecana, Bromelii's Chloros Gothica and Rudbeckii's Hortus Upsaliensis".
Linnaeus entered the Växjö Katedralskola in 1724, where he studied mainly Greek, Hebrew, theology and mathematics, a curriculum designed for boys preparing for the priesthood. In the last year at the gymnasium, Linnaeus's father visited to ask the professors how his son's studies were progressing; to his dismay, most said that the boy would never become a scholar. Rothman believed otherwise, suggesting Linnaeus could have a future in medicine. The doctor offered to have Linnaeus live with his family in Växjö and to teach him physiology and botany. Nils accepted this offer.
University studies
Lund
Rothman showed Linnaeus that botany was a serious subject. He taught Linnaeus to classify plants according to Tournefort's system. Linnaeus was also taught about the sexual reproduction of plants, according to Sébastien Vaillant. In 1727, Linnaeus, age 21, enrolled in Lund University in Skåne. He was registered as , the Latin form of his full name, which he also used later for his Latin publications.
Professor Kilian Stobæus, natural scientist, physician and historian, offered Linnaeus tutoring and lodging, as well as the use of his library, which included many books about botany. He also gave the student free admission to his lectures. In his spare time, Linnaeus explored the flora of Skåne, together with students sharing the same interests.
Uppsala
In August 1728, Linnaeus decided to attend Uppsala University on the advice of Rothman, who believed it would be a better choice if Linnaeus wanted to study both medicine and botany. Rothman based this recommendation on the two professors who taught at the medical faculty at Uppsala: Olof Rudbeck the Younger and Lars Roberg. Although Rudbeck and Roberg had undoubtedly been good professors, by then they were older and not so interested in teaching. Rudbeck no longer gave public lectures, and had others stand in for him. The botany, zoology, pharmacology and anatomy lectures were not in their best state. In Uppsala, Linnaeus met a new benefactor, Olof Celsius, who was a professor of theology and an amateur botanist. He received Linnaeus into his home and allowed him use of his library, which was one of the richest botanical libraries in Sweden.
In 1729, Linnaeus wrote a thesis, on plant sexual reproduction. This attracted the attention of Rudbeck; in May 1730, he selected Linnaeus to give lectures at the University although the young man was only a second-year student. His lectures were popular, and Linnaeus often addressed an audience of 300 people. In June, Linnaeus moved from Celsius's house to Rudbeck's to become the tutor of the three youngest of his 24 children. His friendship with Celsius did not wane and they continued their botanical expeditions. Over that winter, Linnaeus began to doubt Tournefort's system of classification and decided to create one of his own. His plan was to divide the plants by the number of stamens and pistils. He began writing several books, which would later result in, for example, and . He also produced a book on the plants grown in the Uppsala Botanical Garden, .
Rudbeck's former assistant, Nils Rosén, returned to the University in March 1731 with a degree in medicine. Rosén started giving anatomy lectures and tried to take over Linnaeus's botany lectures, but Rudbeck prevented that. Until December, Rosén gave Linnaeus private tutoring in medicine. In December, Linnaeus had a "disagreement" with Rudbeck's wife and had to move out of his mentor's house; his relationship with Rudbeck did not appear to suffer. That Christmas, Linnaeus returned home to Stenbrohult to visit his parents for the first time in about three years. His mother had disapproved of his failing to become a priest, but she was pleased to learn he was teaching at the University.
Expedition to Lapland
During a visit with his parents, Linnaeus told them about his plan to travel to Lapland; Rudbeck had made the journey in 1695, but the detailed results of his exploration were lost in a fire seven years afterwards. Linnaeus's hope was to find new plants, animals and possibly valuable minerals. He was also curious about the customs of the native Sami people, reindeer-herding nomads who wandered Scandinavia's vast tundras. In April 1732, Linnaeus was awarded a grant from the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala for his journey.
Linnaeus began his expedition from Uppsala on 12 May 1732, just before he turned 25. He travelled on foot and horse, bringing with him his journal, botanical and ornithological manuscripts and sheets of paper for pressing plants. Near Gävle he found great quantities of Campanula serpyllifolia, later known as Linnaea borealis, the twinflower that would become his favourite. He sometimes dismounted on the way to examine a flower or rock and was particularly interested in mosses and lichens, the latter a main part of the diet of the reindeer, a common and economically important animal in Lapland.
Linnaeus travelled clockwise around the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, making major inland incursions from Umeå, Luleå and Tornio. He returned from his six-month-long, over expedition in October, having gathered and observed many plants, birds and rocks. Although Lapland was a region with limited biodiversity, Linnaeus described about 100 previously unidentified plants. These became the basis of his book . However, on the expedition to Lapland, Linnaeus used Latin names to describe organisms because he had not yet developed the binomial system.
In Linnaeus's ideas about nomenclature and classification were first used in a practical way, making this the first proto-modern Flora. The account covered 534 species, used the Linnaean classification system and included, for the described species, geographical distribution and taxonomic notes. It was Augustin Pyramus de Candolle who attributed Linnaeus with as the first example in the botanical genre of Flora writing. Botanical historian E. L. Greene described as "the most classic and delightful" of Linnaeus's works.
It was also during this expedition that Linnaeus had a flash of insight regarding the classification of mammals. Upon observing the lower jawbone of a horse at the side of a road he was travelling, Linnaeus remarked: "If I only knew how many teeth and of what kind every animal had, how many teats and where they were placed, I should perhaps be able to work out a perfectly natural system for the arrangement of all quadrupeds."
In 1734, Linnaeus led a small group of students to Dalarna. Funded by the Governor of Dalarna, the expedition was to catalogue known natural resources and discover new ones, but also to gather intelligence on Norwegian mining activities at Røros.
Years in the Dutch Republic (1735–38)
Doctorate
His relations with Nils Rosén having worsened, Linnaeus accepted an invitation from Claes Sohlberg, son of a mining inspector, to spend the Christmas holiday in Falun, where Linnaeus was permitted to visit the mines.
In April 1735, at the suggestion of Sohlberg's father, Linnaeus and Sohlberg set out for the Dutch Republic, where Linnaeus intended to study medicine at the University of Harderwijk while tutoring Sohlberg in exchange for an annual salary. At the time, it was common for Swedes to pursue doctoral degrees in the Netherlands, then a highly revered place to study natural history.
On the way, the pair stopped in Hamburg, where they met the mayor, who proudly showed them a supposed wonder of nature in his possession: the taxidermied remains of a seven-headed hydra. Linnaeus quickly discovered the specimen was a fake, cobbled together from the jaws and paws of weasels and the skins of snakes. The provenance of the hydra suggested to Linnaeus that it had been manufactured by monks to represent the Beast of Revelation. Even at the risk of incurring the mayor's wrath, Linnaeus made his observations public, dashing the mayor's dreams of selling the hydra for an enormous sum. Linnaeus and Sohlberg were forced to flee from Hamburg.
Linnaeus began working towards his degree as soon as he reached Harderwijk, a university known for awarding degrees in as little as a week. He submitted a dissertation, written back in Sweden, entitled Dissertatio medica inauguralis in qua exhibetur hypothesis nova de febrium intermittentium causa, in which he laid out his hypothesis that malaria arose only in areas with clay-rich soils. Although he failed to identify the true source of disease transmission, (i.e., the Anopheles mosquito), he did correctly predict that Artemisia annua (wormwood) would become a source of antimalarial medications.
Within two weeks he had completed his oral and practical examinations and was awarded a doctoral degree.
That summer Linnaeus reunited with Peter Artedi, a friend from Uppsala with whom he had once made a pact that should either of the two predecease the other, the survivor would finish the decedent's work. Ten weeks later, Artedi drowned in the canals of Amsterdam, leaving behind an unfinished manuscript on the classification of fish.
Publishing of
One of the first scientists Linnaeus met in the Netherlands was Johan Frederik Gronovius, to whom Linnaeus showed one of the several manuscripts he had brought with him from Sweden. The manuscript described a new system for classifying plants. When Gronovius saw it, he was very impressed, and offered to help pay for the printing. With an additional monetary contribution by the Scottish doctor Isaac Lawson, the manuscript was published as (1735).
Linnaeus became acquainted with one of the most respected physicians and botanists in the Netherlands, Herman Boerhaave, who tried to convince Linnaeus to make a career there. Boerhaave offered him a journey to South Africa and America, but Linnaeus declined, stating he would not stand the heat. Instead, Boerhaave convinced Linnaeus that he should visit the botanist Johannes Burman. After his visit, Burman, impressed with his guest's knowledge, decided Linnaeus should stay with him during the winter. During his stay, Linnaeus helped Burman with his . Burman also helped Linnaeus with the books on which he was working: and .
George Clifford, Philip Miller, and Johann Jacob Dillenius
In August 1735, during Linnaeus's stay with Burman, he met George Clifford III, a director of the Dutch East India Company and the owner of a rich botanical garden at the estate of Hartekamp in Heemstede. Clifford was very impressed with Linnaeus's ability to classify plants, and invited him to become his physician and superintendent of his garden. Linnaeus had already agreed to stay with Burman over the winter, and could thus not accept immediately. However, Clifford offered to compensate Burman by offering him a copy of Sir Hans Sloane's Natural History of Jamaica, a rare book, if he let Linnaeus stay with him, and Burman accepted. On 24 September 1735, Linnaeus moved to Hartekamp to become personal physician to Clifford, and curator of Clifford's herbarium. He was paid 1,000 florins a year, with free board and lodging. Though the agreement was only for a winter of that year, Linnaeus practically stayed there until 1738. It was here that he wrote a book Hortus Cliffortianus, in the preface of which he described his experience as "the happiest time of my life". (A portion of Hartekamp was declared as public garden in April 1956 by the Heemstede local authority, and was named "Linnaeushof". It eventually became, as it is claimed, the biggest playground in Europe.)
In July 1736, Linnaeus travelled to England, at Clifford's expense. He went to London to visit Sir Hans Sloane, a collector of natural history, and to see his cabinet, as well as to visit the Chelsea Physic Garden and its keeper, Philip Miller. He taught Miller about his new system of subdividing plants, as described in . Miller was in fact reluctant to use the new binomial nomenclature, preferring the classifications of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and John Ray at first. Linnaeus, nevertheless, applauded Miller's Gardeners Dictionary, the conservative Scot actually retained in his dictionary a number of pre-Linnaean binomial signifiers discarded by Linnaeus but which have been retained by modern botanists. He only fully changed to the Linnaean system in the edition of The Gardeners Dictionary of 1768. Miller ultimately was impressed, and from then on started to arrange the garden according to Linnaeus's system.
Linnaeus also travelled to Oxford University to visit the botanist Johann Jacob Dillenius. He failed to make Dillenius publicly fully accept his new classification system, though the two men remained in correspondence for many years afterwards. Linnaeus dedicated his Critica Botanica to him, as "opus botanicum quo absolutius mundus non-vidit". Linnaeus would later name a genus of tropical tree Dillenia in his honour. He then returned to Hartekamp, bringing with him many specimens of rare plants. The next year, 1737, he published , in which he described 935 genera of plants, and shortly thereafter he supplemented it with , with another sixty (sexaginta) genera.
His work at Hartekamp led to another book, , a catalogue of the botanical holdings in the herbarium and botanical garden of Hartekamp. He wrote it in nine months (completed in July 1737), but it was not published until 1738. It contains the first use of the name Nepenthes, which Linnaeus used to describe a genus of pitcher plants.
Linnaeus stayed with Clifford at Hartekamp until 18 October 1737 (new style), when he left the house to return to Sweden. Illness and the kindness of Dutch friends obliged him to stay some months longer in Holland. In May 1738, he set out for Sweden again. On the way home, he stayed in Paris for about a month, visiting botanists such as Antoine de Jussieu. After his return, Linnaeus never again left Sweden.
Return to Sweden
When Linnaeus returned to Sweden on 28 June 1738, he went to Falun, where he entered into an engagement to Sara Elisabeth Moræa. Three months later, he moved to Stockholm to find employment as a physician, and thus to make it possible to support a family. Once again, Linnaeus found a patron; he became acquainted with Count Carl Gustav Tessin, who helped him get work as a physician at the Admiralty. During this time in Stockholm, Linnaeus helped found the Royal Swedish Academy of Science; he became the first Praeses of the academy by drawing of lots.
Because his finances had improved and were now sufficient to support a family, he received permission to marry his fiancée, Sara Elisabeth Moræa. Their wedding was held 26 June 1739. Seventeen months later, Sara gave birth to their first son, Carl. Two years later, a daughter, Elisabeth Christina, was born, and the subsequent year Sara gave birth to Sara Magdalena, who died when 15 days old. Sara and Linnaeus would later have four other children: Lovisa, , Johannes and Sophia.
In May 1741, Linnaeus was appointed Professor of Medicine at Uppsala University, first with responsibility for medicine-related matters. Soon, he changed place with the other Professor of Medicine, Nils Rosén, and thus was responsible for the Botanical Garden (which he would thoroughly reconstruct and expand), botany and natural history, instead. In October that same year, his wife and nine-month-old son followed him to live in Uppsala.
Öland and Gotland
Ten days after he was appointed Professor, he undertook an expedition to the island provinces of Öland and Gotland with six students from the university to look for plants useful in medicine. First, they travelled to Öland and stayed there until 21 June, when they sailed to Visby in Gotland. Linnaeus and the students stayed on Gotland for about a month, and then returned to Uppsala. During this expedition, they found 100 previously unrecorded plants. The observations from the expedition were later published in , written in Swedish. Like , it contained both zoological and botanical observations, as well as observations concerning the culture in Öland and Gotland.
During the summer of 1745, Linnaeus published two more books: and . was a strictly botanical book, while was zoological. Anders Celsius had created the temperature scale named after him in 1742. Celsius's scale was inverted compared to today, the boiling point at 0 °C and freezing point at 100 °C. In 1745, Linnaeus inverted the scale to its present standard.
Västergötland
In the summer of 1746, Linnaeus was once again commissioned by the Government to carry out an expedition, this time to the Swedish province of Västergötland. He set out from Uppsala on 12 June and returned on 11 August. On the expedition his primary companion was Erik Gustaf Lidbeck, a student who had accompanied him on his previous journey. Linnaeus described his findings from the expedition in the book , published the next year. After he returned from the journey, the Government decided Linnaeus should take on another expedition to the southernmost province Scania. This journey was postponed, as Linnaeus felt too busy.
In 1747, Linnaeus was given the title archiater, or chief physician, by the Swedish king Adolf Frederick—a mark of great respect. The same year he was elected member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin.
Scania
In the spring of 1749, Linnaeus could finally journey to Scania, again commissioned by the Government. With him he brought his student, Olof Söderberg. On the way to Scania, he made his last visit to his brothers and sisters in Stenbrohult since his father had died the previous year. The expedition was similar to the previous journeys in most aspects, but this time he was also ordered to find the best place to grow walnut and Swedish whitebeam trees; these trees were used by the military to make rifles. While there, they also visited the Ramlösa mineral spa, where he remarked on the quality of its ferruginous water. The journey was successful, and Linnaeus's observations were published the next year in .
Rector of Uppsala University
In 1750, Linnaeus became rector of Uppsala University, starting a period where natural sciences were esteemed. Perhaps the most important contribution he made during his time at Uppsala was to teach; many of his students travelled to various places in the world to collect botanical samples. Linnaeus called the best of these students his "apostles". His lectures were normally very popular and were often held in the Botanical Garden. He tried to teach the students to think for themselves and not trust anybody, not even him. Even more popular than the lectures were the botanical excursions made every Saturday during summer, where Linnaeus and his students explored the flora and fauna in the vicinity of Uppsala.
Philosophia Botanica
Linnaeus published Philosophia Botanica in 1751. The book contained a complete survey of the taxonomy system he had been using in his earlier works. It also contained information of how to keep a journal on travels and how to maintain a botanical garden.
Nutrix Noverca
During Linnaeus's time it was normal for upper class women to have wet nurses for their babies. Linnaeus joined an ongoing campaign to end this practice in Sweden and promote breast-feeding by mothers. In 1752 Linnaeus published a thesis along with Frederick Lindberg, a physician student, based on their experiences. In the tradition of the period, this dissertation was essentially an idea of the presiding reviewer (prases) expounded upon by the student. Linnaeus's dissertation was translated into French by J. E. Gilibert in 1770 as La Nourrice marâtre, ou Dissertation sur les suites funestes du nourrisage mercénaire. Linnaeus suggested that children might absorb the personality of their wet nurse through the milk. He admired the child care practices of the Lapps and pointed out how healthy their babies were compared to those of Europeans who employed wet nurses. He compared the behaviour of wild animals and pointed out how none of them denied their newborns their breastmilk. It is thought that his activism played a role in his choice of the term Mammalia for the class of organisms.
Species Plantarum
Linnaeus published Species Plantarum, the work which is now internationally accepted as the starting point of modern botanical nomenclature, in 1753. The first volume was issued on 24 May, the second volume followed on 16 August of the same year. The book contained 1,200 pages and was published in two volumes; it described over 7,300 species. The same year the king dubbed him knight of the Order of the Polar Star, the first civilian in Sweden to become a knight in this order. He was then seldom seen not wearing the order's insignia.
Ennoblement
Linnaeus felt Uppsala was too noisy and unhealthy, so he bought two farms in 1758: Hammarby and Sävja. The next year, he bought a neighbouring farm, Edeby. He spent the summers with his family at Hammarby; initially it only had a small one-storey house, but in 1762 a new, larger main building was added. In Hammarby, Linnaeus made a garden where he could grow plants that could not be grown in the Botanical Garden in Uppsala. He began constructing a museum on a hill behind Hammarby in 1766, where he moved his library and collection of plants. A fire that destroyed about one third of Uppsala and had threatened his residence there necessitated the move.
Since the initial release of in 1735, the book had been expanded and reprinted several times; the tenth edition was released in 1758. This edition established itself as the starting point for zoological nomenclature, the equivalent of .
The Swedish King Adolf Frederick granted Linnaeus nobility in 1757, but he was not ennobled until 1761. With his ennoblement, he took the name Carl von Linné (Latinised as ), 'Linné' being a shortened and gallicised version of 'Linnæus', and the German nobiliary particle 'von' signifying his ennoblement. The noble family's coat of arms prominently features a twinflower, one of Linnaeus's favourite plants; it was given the scientific name Linnaea borealis in his honour by Gronovius. The shield in the coat of arms is divided into thirds: red, black and green for the three kingdoms of nature (animal, mineral and vegetable) in Linnaean classification; in the centre is an egg "to denote Nature, which is continued and perpetuated in ovo." At the bottom is a phrase in Latin, borrowed from the Aeneid, which reads "Famam extendere factis": we extend our fame by our deeds. Linnaeus inscribed this personal motto in books that were given to him by friends.
After his ennoblement, Linnaeus continued teaching and writing. His reputation had spread over the world, and he corresponded with many different people. For example, Catherine II of Russia sent him seeds from her country. He also corresponded with Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, "the Linnaeus of the Austrian Empire", who was a doctor and a botanist in Idrija, Duchy of Carniola (nowadays Slovenia). Scopoli communicated all of his research, findings, and descriptions (for example of the olm and the dormouse, two little animals hitherto unknown to Linnaeus). Linnaeus greatly respected Scopoli and showed great interest in his work. He named a solanaceous genus, Scopolia, the source of scopolamine, after him, but because of the great distance between them, they never met.
Final years
Linnaeus was relieved of his duties in the Royal Swedish Academy of Science in 1763, but continued his work there as usual for more than ten years after. In 1769 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society for his work. He stepped down as rector at Uppsala University in December 1772, mostly due to his declining health.
Linnaeus's last years were troubled by illness. He had had a disease called the Uppsala fever in 1764, but survived due to the care of Rosén. He developed sciatica in 1773, and the next year, he had a stroke which partially paralysed him. He had a second stroke in 1776, losing the use of his right side and leaving him bereft of his memory; while still able to admire his own writings, he could not recognise himself as their author.
In December 1777, he had another stroke which greatly weakened him, and eventually led to his death on 10 January 1778 in Hammarby. Despite his desire to be buried in Hammarby, he was buried in Uppsala Cathedral on 22 January.
His library and collections were left to his widow Sara and their children. Joseph Banks, an eminent botanist, wished to purchase the collection, but his son Carl refused the offer and instead moved the collection to Uppsala. In 1783 Carl died and Sara inherited the collection, having outlived both her husband and son. She tried to sell it to Banks, but he was no longer interested; instead an acquaintance of his agreed to buy the collection. The acquaintance was a 24-year-old medical student, James Edward Smith, who bought the whole collection: 14,000 plants, 3,198 insects, 1,564 shells, about 3,000 letters and 1,600 books. Smith founded the Linnean Society of London five years later.
The von Linné name ended with his son Carl, who never married. His other son, Johannes, had died aged 3. There are over two hundred descendants of Linnaeus through two of his daughters.
Apostles
During Linnaeus's time as Professor and Rector of Uppsala University, he taught many devoted students, 17 of whom he called "apostles". They were the most promising, most committed students, and all of them made botanical expeditions to various places in the world, often with his help. The amount of this help varied; sometimes he used his influence as Rector to grant his apostles a scholarship or a place on an expedition. To most of the apostles he gave instructions of what to look for on their journeys. Abroad, the apostles collected and organised new plants, animals and minerals according to Linnaeus's system. Most of them also gave some of their collection to Linnaeus when their journey was finished. Thanks to these students, the Linnaean system of taxonomy spread through the world without Linnaeus ever having to travel outside Sweden after his return from Holland. The British botanist William T. Stearn notes, without Linnaeus's new system, it would not have been possible for the apostles to collect and organise so many new specimens. Many of the apostles died during their expeditions.
Early expeditions
Christopher Tärnström, the first apostle and a 43-year-old pastor with a wife and children, made his journey in 1746. He boarded a Swedish East India Company ship headed for China. Tärnström never reached his destination, dying of a tropical fever on Côn Sơn Island the same year. Tärnström's widow blamed Linnaeus for making her children fatherless, causing Linnaeus to prefer sending out younger, unmarried students after Tärnström. Six other apostles later died on their expeditions, including Pehr Forsskål and Pehr Löfling.
Two years after Tärnström's expedition, Finnish-born Pehr Kalm set out as the second apostle to North America. There he spent two-and-a-half years studying the flora and fauna of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Canada. Linnaeus was overjoyed when Kalm returned, bringing back with him many pressed flowers and seeds. At least 90 of the 700 North American species described in Species Plantarum had been brought back by Kalm.
Cook expeditions and Japan
Daniel Solander was living in Linnaeus's house during his time as a student in Uppsala. Linnaeus was very fond of him, promising Solander his eldest daughter's hand in marriage. On Linnaeus's recommendation, Solander travelled to England in 1760, where he met the English botanist Joseph Banks. With Banks, Solander joined James Cook on his expedition to Oceania on the Endeavour in 1768–71. Solander was not the only apostle to journey with James Cook; Anders Sparrman followed on the Resolution in 1772–75 bound for, among other places, Oceania and South America. Sparrman made many other expeditions, one of them to South Africa.
Perhaps the most famous and successful apostle was Carl Peter Thunberg, who embarked on a nine-year expedition in 1770. He stayed in South Africa for three years, then travelled to Japan. All foreigners in Japan were forced to stay on the island of Dejima outside Nagasaki, so it was thus hard for Thunberg to study the flora. He did, however, manage to persuade some of the translators to bring him different plants, and he also found plants in the gardens of Dejima. He returned to Sweden in 1779, one year after Linnaeus's death.
Major publications
Systema Naturae
The first edition of was printed in the Netherlands in 1735. It was a twelve-page work. By the time it reached its 10th edition in 1758, it classified 4,400 species of animals and 7,700 species of plants. People from all over the world sent their specimens to Linnaeus to be included. By the time he started work on the 12th edition, Linnaeus needed a new invention—the index card—to track classifications.
In Systema Naturae, the unwieldy names mostly used at the time, such as "", were supplemented with concise and now familiar "binomials", composed of the generic name, followed by a specific epithet—in the case given, Physalis angulata. These binomials could serve as a label to refer to the species. Higher taxa were constructed and arranged in a simple and orderly manner. Although the system, now known as binomial nomenclature, was partially developed by the Bauhin brothers (see Gaspard Bauhin and Johann Bauhin) almost 200 years earlier, Linnaeus was the first to use it consistently throughout the work, including in monospecific genera, and may be said to have popularised it within the scientific community.
After the decline in Linnaeus's health in the early 1770s, publication of editions of Systema Naturae went in two different directions. Another Swedish scientist, Johan Andreas Murray issued the Regnum Vegetabile section separately in 1774 as the Systema Vegetabilium, rather confusingly labelled the 13th edition. Meanwhile, a 13th edition of the entire Systema appeared in parts between 1788 and 1793 under the editorship of Johann Friedrich Gmelin. It was through the Systema Vegetabilium that Linnaeus's work became widely known in England, following its translation from the Latin by the Lichfield Botanical Society as A System of Vegetables (1783–1785).
Orbis eruditi judicium de Caroli Linnaei MD scriptis
('Opinion of the learned world on the writings of Carl Linnaeus, Doctor') Published in 1740, this small octavo-sized pamphlet was presented to the State Library of New South Wales by the Linnean Society of NSW in 2018. This is considered among the rarest of all the writings of Linnaeus, and crucial to his career, securing him his appointment to a professorship of medicine at Uppsala University. From this position he laid the groundwork for his radical new theory of classifying and naming organisms for which he was considered the founder of modern taxonomy.
(or, more fully, ) was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today.
was first published in 1737, delineating plant genera. Around 10 editions were published, not all of them by Linnaeus himself; the most important is the 1754 fifth edition. In it Linnaeus divided the plant Kingdom into 24 classes. One, Cryptogamia, included all the plants with concealed reproductive parts (algae, fungi, mosses and liverworts and ferns).
(1751) was a summary of Linnaeus's thinking on plant classification and nomenclature, and an elaboration of the work he had previously published in (1736) and (1737). Other publications forming part of his plan to reform the foundations of botany include his and : all were printed in Holland (as were (1737) and (1735)), the Philosophia being simultaneously released in Stockholm.
Collections
At the end of his lifetime the Linnean collection in Uppsala was considered one of the finest collections of natural history objects in Sweden. Next to his own collection he had also built up a museum for the university of Uppsala, which was supplied by material donated by Carl Gyllenborg (in 1744–1745), crown-prince Adolf Fredrik (in 1745), Erik Petreus (in 1746), Claes Grill (in 1746), Magnus Lagerström (in 1748 and 1750) and Jonas Alströmer (in 1749). The relation between the museum and the private collection was not formalised and the steady flow of material from Linnean pupils were incorporated to the private collection rather than to the museum. Linnaeus felt his work was reflecting the harmony of nature and he said in 1754 "the earth is then nothing else but a museum of the all-wise creator's masterpieces, divided into three chambers". He had turned his own estate into a microcosm of that 'world museum'.
In April 1766 parts of the town were destroyed by a fire and the Linnean private collection was subsequently moved to a barn outside the town, and shortly afterwards to a single-room stone building close to his country house at Hammarby near Uppsala. This resulted in a physical separation between the two collections; the museum collection remained in the botanical garden of the university. Some material which needed special care (alcohol specimens) or ample storage space was moved from the private collection to the museum.
In Hammarby the Linnean private collections suffered seriously from damp and the depredations by mice and insects. Carl von Linné's son (Carl Linnaeus) inherited the collections in 1778 and retained them until his own death in 1783. Shortly after Carl von Linné's death his son confirmed that mice had caused "horrible damage" to the plants and that also moths and mould had caused considerable damage. He tried to rescue them from the neglect they had suffered during his father's later years, and also added further specimens. This last activity however reduced rather than augmented the scientific value of the original material.
In 1784 the young medical student James Edward Smith purchased the entire specimen collection, library, manuscripts, and correspondence of Carl Linnaeus from his widow and daughter and transferred the collections to London. Not all material in Linné's private collection was transported to England. Thirty-three fish specimens preserved in alcohol were not sent and were later lost.
In London Smith tended to neglect the zoological parts of the collection; he added some specimens and also gave some specimens away. Over the following centuries the Linnean collection in London suffered enormously at the hands of scientists who studied the collection, and in the process disturbed the original arrangement and labels, added specimens that did not belong to the original series and withdrew precious original type material.
Much material which had been intensively studied by Linné in his scientific career belonged to the collection of Queen Lovisa Ulrika (1720–1782) (in the Linnean publications referred to as "Museum Ludovicae Ulricae" or "M. L. U."). This collection was donated by her grandson King Gustav IV Adolf (1778–1837) to the museum in Uppsala in 1804. Another important collection in this respect was that of her husband King Adolf Fredrik (1710–1771) (in the Linnean sources known as "Museum Adolphi Friderici" or "Mus. Ad. Fr."), the wet parts (alcohol collection) of which were later donated to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and is today housed in the Swedish Museum of Natural History at Stockholm. The dry material was transferred to Uppsala.
System of taxonomy
The establishment of universally accepted conventions for the naming of organisms was Linnaeus's main contribution to taxonomy—his work marks the starting point of consistent use of binomial nomenclature. During the 18th century expansion of natural history knowledge, Linnaeus also developed what became known as the Linnaean taxonomy; the system of scientific classification now widely used in the biological sciences. A previous zoologist Rumphius (1627–1702) had more or less approximated the Linnaean system and his material contributed to the later development of the binomial scientific classification by Linnaeus.
The Linnaean system classified nature within a nested hierarchy, starting with three kingdoms. Kingdoms were divided into classes and they, in turn, into orders, and thence into genera (singular: genus), which were divided into species (singular: species). Below the rank of species he sometimes recognised taxa of a lower (unnamed) rank; these have since acquired standardised names such as variety in botany and subspecies in zoology. Modern taxonomy includes a rank of family between order and genus and a rank of phylum between kingdom and class that were not present in Linnaeus's original system.
Linnaeus's groupings were based upon shared physical characteristics, and not based upon differences. Of his higher groupings, only those for animals are still in use, and the groupings themselves have been significantly changed since their conception, as have the principles behind them. Nevertheless, Linnaeus is credited with establishing the idea of a hierarchical structure of classification which is based upon observable characteristics and intended to reflect natural relationships. While the underlying details concerning what are considered to be scientifically valid "observable characteristics" have changed with expanding knowledge (for example, DNA sequencing, unavailable in Linnaeus's time, has proven to be a tool of considerable utility for classifying living organisms and establishing their evolutionary relationships), the fundamental principle remains sound.
Human taxonomy
Linnaeus's system of taxonomy was especially noted as the first to include humans (Homo) taxonomically grouped with apes (Simia), under the header of Anthropomorpha.
German biologist Ernst Haeckel speaking in 1907 noted this as the "most important sign of Linnaeus's genius".
Linnaeus classified humans among the primates beginning with the first edition of . During his time at Hartekamp, he had the opportunity to examine several monkeys and noted similarities between them and man. He pointed out both species basically have the same anatomy; except for speech, he found no other differences. Thus he placed man and monkeys under the same category, Anthropomorpha, meaning "manlike." This classification received criticism from other biologists such as Johan Gottschalk Wallerius, Jacob Theodor Klein and Johann Georg Gmelin on the ground that it is illogical to describe man as human-like. In a letter to Gmelin from 1747, Linnaeus replied:
The theological concerns were twofold: first, putting man at the same level as monkeys or apes would lower the spiritually higher position that man was assumed to have in the great chain of being, and second, because the Bible says man was created in the image of God (theomorphism), if monkeys/apes and humans were not distinctly and separately designed, that would mean monkeys and apes were created in the image of God as well. This was something many could not accept. The conflict between world views that was caused by asserting man was a type of animal would simmer for a century until the much greater, and still ongoing, creation–evolution controversy began in earnest with the publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in 1859.
After such criticism, Linnaeus felt he needed to explain himself more clearly. The 10th edition of introduced new terms, including Mammalia and Primates, the latter of which would replace Anthropomorpha as well as giving humans the full binomial Homo sapiens. The new classification received less criticism, but many natural historians still believed he had demoted humans from their former place of ruling over nature and not being a part of it. Linnaeus believed that man biologically belongs to the animal kingdom and had to be included in it. In his book , he said, "One should not vent one's wrath on animals, Theology decree that man has a soul and that the animals are mere 'automata mechanica,' but I believe they would be better advised that animals have a soul and that the difference is of nobility."
Linnaeus added a second species to the genus Homo in based on a figure and description by Jacobus Bontius from a 1658 publication: Homo troglodytes ("caveman") and published a third in 1771: Homo lar. Swedish historian Gunnar Broberg states that the new human species Linnaeus described were actually simians or native people clad in skins to frighten colonial settlers, whose appearance had been exaggerated in accounts to Linnaeus. For Homo troglodytes Linnaeus asked the Swedish East India Company to search for one, but they did not find any signs of its existence. Homo lar has since been reclassified as Hylobates lar, the lar gibbon.
In the first edition of , Linnaeus subdivided the human species into four varieties: "Europæus albesc[ens]" (whitish European), "Americanus rubesc[ens]" (reddish American), "Asiaticus fuscus" (tawny Asian) and "Africanus nigr[iculus]" (blackish African).
In the tenth edition of Systema Naturae he further detailed phenotypical characteristics for each variety, based on the concept of the four temperaments from classical antiquity, and changed the description of Asians' skin tone to "luridus" (yellow). Additionally, Linnaeus created a wastebasket taxon "monstrosus" for "wild and monstrous humans, unknown groups, and more or less abnormal people".
In 1959, W. T. Stearn designated Linnaeus to be the lectotype of H. sapiens.
Influences and economic beliefs
Linnaeus's applied science was inspired not only by the instrumental utilitarianism general to the early Enlightenment, but also by his adherence to the older economic doctrine of Cameralism. Additionally, Linnaeus was a state interventionist. He supported tariffs, levies, export bounties, quotas, embargoes, navigation acts, subsidised investment capital, ceilings on wages, cash grants, state-licensed producer monopolies, and cartels.
Commemoration
Anniversaries of Linnaeus's birth, especially in centennial years, have been marked by major celebrations. Linnaeus has appeared on numerous Swedish postage stamps and banknotes. There are numerous statues of Linnaeus in countries around the world. The Linnean Society of London has awarded the Linnean Medal for excellence in botany or zoology since 1888. Following approval by the Riksdag of Sweden, Växjö University and Kalmar College merged on 1 January 2010 to become Linnaeus University. Other things named after Linnaeus include the twinflower genus Linnaea, Linnaeosicyos (a monotypic genus in the family Cucurbitaceae), the crater Linné on the Earth's moon, a street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the cobalt sulfide mineral Linnaeite.
Commentary
Andrew Dickson White wrote in A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896):
The mathematical PageRank algorithm, applied to 24 multilingual Wikipedia editions in 2014, published in PLOS ONE in 2015, placed Carl Linnaeus at the top historical figure, above Jesus, Aristotle, Napoleon, and Adolf Hitler (in that order).
In the 21st century, Linnæus's taxonomy of human "races" has been problematised and discussed. Some critics claim that Linnæus was one of the forebears of the modern pseudoscientific notion of scientific racism, while others hold the view that while his classification was stereotyped, it did not imply that certain human "races" were superior to others.
Standard author abbreviation
Selected publications by Linnaeus
Linnaeus, Carl 1846 Fauna svecica. Sistens Animalia Sveciae Regni: Quadrupedia, Aves, Amphibia, Pisces, Insecta, Vermes, distributae per classes & ordines, genera & species. C. Wishoff & G.J. Wishoff, Lugdnuni Batavorum.
see also Species Plantarum
See also
Linnaeus's flower clock
Johann Bartsch, colleague
Centuria Insectorum
History of botany
History of phycology
Scientific revolution
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links
Biographies
Biography at the Department of Systematic Botany, University of Uppsala
Biography at The Linnean Society of London
Biography from the University of California Museum of Paleontology
A four-minute biographical video from the London Natural History Museum on YouTube
Biography from Taxonomic Literature, 2nd Edition. 1976–2009.
Resources
The Linnean Society of London
The Linnaeus Apostles
The Linnean Collections
The Linnean Correspondence
Linnaeus's Disciples and Apostles
The Linnaean Dissertations
Linnean Herbarium
The Linnaeus Tercentenary
Works by Carl von Linné at the Biodiversity Heritage Library
Digital edition: "Critica Botanica" by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
Digital edition: "Classes plantarum seu systemata plantarum" by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
Oratio de telluris habitabilis incremento (1744) – full digital facsimile from Linda Hall Library
Other
Linnaeus was depicted by Jay Hosler in a parody of Peanuts titled "Good ol' Charlie Darwin".
The 15 March 2007 issue of Nature featured a picture of Linnaeus on the cover with the heading "Linnaeus's Legacy" and devoted a substantial portion to items related to Linnaeus and Linnaean taxonomy.
A tattoo of Linnaeus's definition of the order Primates mentioned by Carl Zimmer
Ginkgo biloba tree at the University of Harderwijk, said to have been planted by Linnaeus in 1735
SL Magazine, Spring 2018 features an article by Nicholas Sparks, librarian, Collection Strategy and Development titled Origins of Taxonomy, describing a generous donation from the Linnean Society of NSW to supplement the State Library of New South Wales's collections on Carl Linnaeus of documents, photographs, prints and drawings as well as a fine portrait of Linnaeus painted about 1800.
1707 births
1778 deaths
18th-century writers in Latin
18th-century male writers
18th-century Swedish physicians
18th-century Swedish zoologists
18th-century Swedish writers
Age of Liberty people
Swedish arachnologists
Botanical nomenclature
Botanists active in Europe
Botanists with author abbreviations
Bryologists
Burials at Uppsala Cathedral
Fellows of the Royal Society
Historical definitions of race
Knights of the Order of the Polar Star
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
People from Älmhult Municipality
Phycologists
Pteridologists
Swedish autobiographers
Swedish biologists
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Swedish expatriates in the Dutch Republic
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Linne, Carl von
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18th-century lexicographers |
5236 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast | Coast | The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. Shores are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape, as well as by water induced erosion, such as waves. The geological composition of rock and soil dictates the type of shore which is created. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in natural ecosystems, often home to a wide range of biodiversity. On land, they harbor important ecosystems such as freshwater or estuarine wetlands, which are important for bird populations and other terrestrial animals. In wave-protected areas they harbor saltmarshes, mangroves or seagrasses, all of which can provide nursery habitat for finfish, shellfish, and other aquatic species. Rocky shores are usually found along exposed coasts and provide habitat for a wide range of sessile animals (e.g. mussels, starfish, barnacles) and various kinds of seaweeds. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past and present, while the beach is at the edge of the shore, representing the intertidal zone where there is one. Along tropical coasts with clear, nutrient-poor water, coral reefs can often be found between depths of .
According to an atlas prepared by the United Nations, 44% of all humans live within 150 km (93 mi) of the sea. Due to its importance in society and its high population concentrations, the coast is important for major parts of the global food and economic system, and they provide many ecosystem services to humankind. For example, important human activities happen in port cities. Coastal fisheries (commercial, recreational, and subsistence) and aquaculture are major economic activities and create jobs, livelihoods, and protein for the majority of coastal human populations. Other coastal spaces like beaches and seaside resorts generate large revenues through tourism. Marine coastal ecosystems can also provide protection against sea level rise and tsunamis. In many countries, mangroves are the primary source of wood for fuel (e.g. charcoal) and building material. Coastal ecosystems like mangroves and seagrasses have a much higher capacity for carbon sequestration than many terrestrial ecosystems, and as such can play a critical role in the near-future to help mitigate climate change effects by uptake of atmospheric anthropogenic carbon dioxide.
However, the economic importance of coasts makes many of these communities vulnerable to climate change, which causes increases in extreme weather and sea level rise, and related issues such as coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and coastal flooding. Other coastal issues, such as marine pollution, marine debris, coastal development, and marine ecosystem destruction, further complicate the human uses of the coast and threaten coastal ecosystems. The interactive effects of climate change, habitat destruction, overfishing and water pollution (especially eutrophication) have led to the demise of coastal ecosystem around the globe. This has resulted in population collapse of fisheries stocks, loss of biodiversity, increased invasion of alien species, and loss of healthy habitats. International attention to these issues has been captured in Sustainable Development Goal 14 "Life Below Water" which sets goals for international policy focused on preserving marine coastal ecosystems and supporting more sustainable economic practices for coastal communities. Likewise, the United Nations has declared 2021-2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, but restoration of coastal ecosystems has received insufficient attention.
Because coasts are constantly changing, a coastline's exact perimeter cannot be determined; this measurement challenge is called the coastline paradox. The term coastal zone is used to refer to a region where interactions of sea and land processes occur. Both the terms coast and coastal are often used to describe a geographic location or region located on a coastline (e.g., New Zealand's West Coast, or the East, West, and Gulf Coast of the United States.) Coasts with a narrow continental shelf that are close to the open ocean are called pelagic coast, while other coasts are more sheltered coast in a gulf or bay. A shore, on the other hand, may refer to parts of land adjoining any large body of water, including oceans (sea shore) and lakes (lake shore).
Size
The Earth has approximately of coastline. Coastal habitats, which extend to the margins of the continental shelves, make up about 7 percent of the Earth's oceans, but at least 85% of commercially harvested fish depend on coastal environments during at least part of their life cycle. about 2.86% of exclusive economic zones were part of marine protected areas.
The definition of coasts varies. Marine scientists think of the "wet" (aquatic or intertidal) vegetated habitats as being coastal ecosystems (including seagrass, salt marsh etc.) whilst some terrestrial scientist might only think of coastal ecosystems as purely terrestrial plants that live close to the seashore (see also estuaries and coastal ecosystems).
While there is general agreement in the scientific community regarding the definition of coast, in the political sphere, the delineation of the extents of a coast differ according to jurisdiction. Government authorities in various countries may define coast differently for economic and social policy reasons.
Exact length of coastline
Formation
Tides often determine the range over which sediment is deposited or eroded. Areas with high tidal ranges allow waves to reach farther up the shore, and areas with lower tidal ranges produce deposition at a smaller elevation interval. The tidal range is influenced by the size and shape of the coastline. Tides do not typically cause erosion by themselves; however, tidal bores can erode as the waves surge up the river estuaries from the ocean.
Geologists classify coasts on the basis of tidal range into macrotidal coasts with a tidal range greater than ; mesotidal coasts with a tidal range of ; and microtidal coasts with a tidal range of less than . The distinction between macrotidal and mesotidal coasts is more important. Macrotidal coasts lack barrier islands and lagoons, and are characterized by funnel-shaped estuaries containing sand ridges aligned with tidal currents. Wave action is much more important for determining bedforms of sediments deposited along mesotidal and microtidal coasts than in macrotidal coasts.
Waves erode coastline as they break on shore releasing their energy; the larger the wave the more energy it releases and the more sediment it moves. Coastlines with longer shores have more room for the waves to disperse their energy, while coasts with cliffs and short shore faces give little room for the wave energy to be dispersed. In these areas, the wave energy breaking against the cliffs is higher, and air and water are compressed into cracks in the rock, forcing the rock apart, breaking it down. Sediment deposited by waves comes from eroded cliff faces and is moved along the coastline by the waves. This forms an abrasion or cliffed coast.
Sediment deposited by rivers is the dominant influence on the amount of sediment located in the case of coastlines that have estuaries. Today, riverine deposition at the coast is often blocked by dams and other human regulatory devices, which remove the sediment from the stream by causing it to be deposited inland. Coral reefs are a provider of sediment for coastlines of tropical islands.
Like the ocean which shapes them, coasts are a dynamic environment with constant change. The Earth's natural processes, particularly sea level rises, waves and various weather phenomena, have resulted in the erosion, accretion and reshaping of coasts as well as flooding and creation of continental shelves and drowned river valleys (rias).
Importance for humans and ecosystems
Human settlements
More and more of the world's people live in coastal regions. According to a United Nations atlas, 44% of all people live within 150 km (93 mi) of the sea. Many major cities are on or near good harbors and have port facilities. Some landlocked places have achieved port status by building canals.
Nations defend their coasts against military invaders, smugglers and illegal migrants. Fixed coastal defenses have long been erected in many nations, and coastal countries typically have a navy and some form of coast guard.
Tourism
Coasts, especially those with beaches and warm water, attract tourists often leading to the development of seaside resort communities. In many island nations such as those of the Mediterranean, South Pacific Ocean and Caribbean, tourism is central to the economy. Coasts offer recreational activities such as swimming, fishing, surfing, boating, and sunbathing.
Growth management and coastal management can be a challenge for coastal local authorities who often struggle to provide the infrastructure required by new residents, and poor management practices of construction often leave these communities and infrastructure vulnerable to processes like coastal erosion and sea level rise. In many of these communities, management practices such as beach nourishment or when the coastal infrastructure is no longer financially sustainable, managed retreat to remove communities from the coast.
Ecosystem services
Types
Emergent coastline
According to one principle of classification, an emergent coastline is a coastline that has experienced a fall in sea level, because of either a global sea-level change, or local uplift. Emergent coastlines are identifiable by the coastal landforms, which are above the high tide mark, such as raised beaches. In contrast, a submergent coastline is one where the sea level has risen, due to a global sea-level change, local subsidence, or isostatic rebound. Submergent coastlines are identifiable by their submerged, or "drowned" landforms, such as rias (drowned valleys) and fjords
Concordant coastline
According to the second principle of classification, a concordant coastline is a coastline where bands of different rock types run parallel to the shore. These rock types are usually of varying resistance, so the coastline forms distinctive landforms, such as coves. Discordant coastlines feature distinctive landforms because the rocks are eroded by the ocean waves. The less resistant rocks erode faster, creating inlets or bay; the more resistant rocks erode more slowly, remaining as headlands or outcroppings.
Rivieras
Riviera is an Italian word for "shoreline", ultimately derived from Latin ripa ("riverbank"). It came to be applied as a proper name to the coast of the Ligurian Sea, in the form riviera ligure, then shortened to riviera. Historically, the Ligurian Riviera extended from Capo Corvo (Punta Bianca) south of Genoa, north and west into what is now French territory past Monaco and sometimes as far as Marseilles. Today, this coast is divided into the Italian Riviera and the French Riviera, although the French use the term "Riviera" to refer to the Italian Riviera and call the French portion the "Côte d'Azur".
As a result of the fame of the Ligurian rivieras, the term came into English to refer to any shoreline, especially one that is sunny, topographically diverse and popular with tourists. Such places using the term include the Australian Riviera in Queensland and the Turkish Riviera along the Aegean Sea.
Other coastal categories
A cliffed coast or abrasion coast is one where marine action has produced steep declivities known as cliffs.
A flat coast is one where the land gradually descends into the sea.
A graded shoreline is one where wind and water action has produced a flat and straight coastline.
Landforms
The following articles describe some coastal landforms:
Barrier island
Bay
Headland
Cove
Peninsula
Cliff erosion
Much of the sediment deposited along a coast is the result of erosion of a surrounding cliff, or bluff. Sea cliffs retreat landward because of the constant undercutting of slopes by waves. If the slope/cliff being undercut is made of unconsolidated sediment it will erode at a much faster rate than a cliff made of bedrock.
A natural arch is formed when a headland is eroded through by waves.
Sea caves are made when certain rock beds are more susceptible to erosion than the surrounding rock beds because of different areas of weakness. These areas are eroded at a faster pace creating a hole or crevice that, through time, by means of wave action and erosion, becomes a cave.
A stack is formed when a headland is eroded away by wave and wind action.
A stump is a shortened sea stack that has been eroded away or fallen because of instability.
Wave-cut notches are caused by the undercutting of overhanging slopes which leads to increased stress on cliff material and a greater probability that the slope material will fall. The fallen debris accumulates at the bottom of the cliff and is eventually removed by waves.
A wave-cut platform forms after erosion and retreat of a sea cliff has been occurring for a long time. Gently sloping wave-cut platforms develop early on in the first stages of cliff retreat. Later, the length of the platform decreases because the waves lose their energy as they break further offshore.
Coastal features formed by sediment
Beach
Beach cusps
Cuspate foreland
Dune system
Mudflat
Raised beach
Ria
Shoal
Spit
Strand plain
Surge channel
Tombolo
Coastal features formed by another feature
Estuary
Lagoon
Salt marsh
Mangrove forests
Kelp forests
Coral reefs
Oyster reefs
Other features on the coast
Concordant coastline
Discordant coastline
Fjord
Island
Island arc
Machair
Coastal waters
"Coastal waters" (or "coastal seas") is a rather general term used differently in different contexts, ranging geographically from the waters within a few kilometers of the coast, through to the entire continental shelf which may stretch for more than a hundred kilometers from land. Thus the term coastal waters is used in a slightly different way in discussions of legal and economic boundaries (see territorial waters and international waters) or when considering the geography of coastal landforms or the ecological systems operating through the continental shelf (marine coastal ecosystems). The research on coastal waters often divides into these separate areas too.
The dynamic fluid nature of the ocean means that all components of the whole ocean system are ultimately connected, although certain regional classifications are useful and relevant. The waters of the continental shelves represent such a region. The term "coastal waters" has been used in a wide variety of different ways in different contexts. In European Union environmental management it extends from the coast to just a few nautical miles while in the United States the US EPA considers this region to extend much further offshore.
"Coastal waters" has specific meanings in the context of commercial coastal shipping, and somewhat different meanings in the context of naval littoral warfare. Oceanographers and marine biologists have yet other takes. Coastal waters have a wide range of marine habitats from enclosed estuaries to the open waters of the continental shelf.
Similarly, the term littoral zone has no single definition. It is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments, the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged.
Coastal waters can be threatened by coastal eutrophication and harmful algal blooms.
In geology
The identification of bodies of rock formed from sediments deposited in shoreline and nearshore environments (shoreline and nearshore facies) is extremely important to geologists. These provide vital clues for reconstructing the geography of ancient continents (paleogeography). The locations of these beds show the extent of ancient seas at particular points in geological time, and provide clues to the magnitudes of tides in the distant past.
Sediments deposited in the shoreface are preserved as lenses of sandstone in which the upper part of the sandstone is coarser than the lower part (a coarsening upwards sequence). Geologists refer to these are parasequences. Each records an episode of retreat of the ocean from the shoreline over a period of 10,000 to 1,000,000 years. These often show laminations reflecting various kinds of tidal cycles.
Some of the best-studied shoreline deposits in the world are found along the former western shore of the Western Interior Seaway, a shallow sea that flooded central North America during the late Cretaceous Period (about 100 to 66 million years ago). These are beautifully exposed along the Book Cliffs of Utah and Colorado.
Geologic processes
The following articles describe the various geologic processes that affect a coastal zone:
Attrition
Currents
Denudation
Deposition
Erosion
Flooding
Longshore drift
Marine sediments
Saltation
Sea level change
eustatic
isostatic
Sedimentation
Coastal sediment supply
sediment transport
solution
subaerial processes
suspension
Tides
Water waves
diffraction
refraction
wave breaking
wave shoaling
Weathering
Wildlife
Animals
Larger animals that live in coastal areas include puffins, sea turtles and rockhopper penguins, among many others. Sea snails and various kinds of barnacles live on rocky coasts and scavenge on food deposited by the sea. Some coastal animals are used to humans in developed areas, such as dolphins and seagulls who eat food thrown for them by tourists. Since the coastal areas are all part of the littoral zone, there is a profusion of marine life found just off-coast, including sessile animals such as corals, sponges, starfish, mussels, seaweeds, fishes, and sea anemones.
There are many kinds of seabirds on various coasts. These include pelicans and cormorants, who join up with terns and oystercatchers to forage for fish and shellfish. There are sea lions on the coast of Wales and other countries.
Coastal fish
Plants
Many coastal areas are famous for their kelp beds. Kelp is a fast-growing seaweed that can grow up to half a meter a day in ideal conditions. Mangroves, seagrasses, macroalgal beds, and salt marsh are important coastal vegetation types in tropical and temperate environments respectively. Restinga is another type of coastal vegetation.
Threats
Coasts also face many human-induced environmental impacts and coastal development hazards. The most important ones are:
Pollution which can be in the form of water pollution, nutrient pollution (leading to coastal eutrophication and harmful algal blooms), oil spills or marine debris that is contaminating coasts with plastic and other trash.
Sea level rise, and associated issues like coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion.
Pollution
The pollution of coastlines is connected to marine pollution which can occur from a number of sources: Marine debris (garbage and industrial debris); the transportation of petroleum in tankers, increasing the probability of large oil spills; small oil spills created by large and small vessels, which flush bilge water into the ocean.
Marine pollution
Marine debris
Microplastics
Sea level rise due to climate change
Global goals
International attention to address the threats of coasts has been captured in Sustainable Development Goal 14 "Life Below Water" which sets goals for international policy focused on preserving marine coastal ecosystems and supporting more sustainable economic practices for coastal communities. Likewise, the United Nations has declared 2021-2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, but restoration of coastal ecosystems has received insufficient attention.
See also
Bank (geography)
Beach cleaning
Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation
European Atlas of the Seas
Intertidal zone
Land reclamation
List of countries by length of coastline
List of U.S. states by coastline
Offshore or Intertidal zone
Ballantine Scale
Coastal path
Shorezone
References
External links
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - organization dedicated to ocean research, exploration, and education
Coastal and oceanic landforms
Coastal geography
Oceanographical terminology
Articles containing video clips |
5237 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatonia | Catatonia | Catatonia is a complex neuropsychiatric behavioral syndrome that is characterized by abnormal movements, immobility, abnormal behaviors, and withdrawal. The onset of catatonia can be acute or subtle and symptoms can wax, wane, or change during episodes. It has historically been related to schizophrenia (catatonic schizophrenia), but catatonia is most often seen in mood disorders. It is now known that catatonic symptoms are nonspecific and may be observed in other mental, neurological, and medical conditions. Catatonia is not a stand-alone diagnosis (although some experts disagree), and the term is used to describe a feature of the underlying disorder.
There are several subtypes of catatonia: akinetic catatonia, excited catatonia, malignant catatonia, and delirious mania.
Recognizing and treating catatonia is very important as failure to do so can lead to poor outcomes and can be potentially fatal. Treatment with benzodiazepines or ECT can lead to remission of catatonia. There is growing evidence of the effectiveness of the NMDA receptor antagonists amantadine and memantine for benzodiazepine-resistant catatonia. Antipsychotics are sometimes employed, but they can worsen symptoms and have serious adverse effects.
Signs and symptoms
The presentation of a patient with catatonia varies greatly depending on the subtype and underlying cause, and can be acute or subtle.
Because most patients with catatonia have an underlying psychiatric illness, the majority will present with worsening depression, mania, or psychosis followed by catatonia symptoms. Catatonia presents as a motor disturbance in which patients will display marked reduction in movement, marked agitation, or a mixture of both despite having the physical capacity to move normally. These patients may be unable to start an action or stop one. Movements and mannerisms may be repetitive, or purposeless.
The most common signs of catatonia are immobility, mutism, withdrawal and refusal to eat, staring, negativism, posturing (rigidity), rigidity, waxy flexibility/catalepsy, stereotypy (purposeless, repetitive movements), echolalia or echopraxia, verbigeration (repeat meaningless phrases). It should not be assumed that patients presenting with catatonia are unaware of their surroundings as some patients can recall in detail their catatonic state and their actions.
There are several subtypes of catatonia and they are characterized by the specific movement disturbance and associated features. Although catatonia can be divided into various subtypes, the natural history of catatonia is often fluctuant and different states can exist within the same individual.
Subtypes
Withdrawn Catatonia: This form of catatonia is characterized by decreased response to external stimuli, immobility or inhibited movement, mutism, staring, posturing, and negativism. Patients may sit or stand in the same position for hours, may hold odd positions, and may resist movement of their extremities.
Excited Catatonia: Excited catatonia is characterized by odd mannerisms/gestures, performing purposeless or inappropriate actions, excessive motor activity, restlessness, stereotypy, impulsivity, agitation, and combativeness. Speech and actions may be repetitive or mimic another person's. People in this state are extremely hyperactive and may have delusions and hallucinations. Catatonic excitement is commonly cited as one of the most dangerous mental states in psychiatry.
Malignant Catatonia: Malignant catatonia is a life-threatening condition that may progress rapidly within a few days. It is characterized by fever, abnormalities in blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, diaphoresis (sweating), and delirium. Certain lab findings are common with this presentation; however, they are nonspecific, which means that they are also present in other conditions and do not diagnose catatonia. These lab findings include: leukocytosis, elevated creatine kinase, low serum iron. The signs and symptoms of malignant catatonia overlap significantly with neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) and so a careful history, review of medications, and physical exam are critical to properly differentiate these conditions. For example, if the patient has waxy flexibility and holds a position against gravity when passively moved into that position, then it is likely catatonia. If the patient has a "lead-pipe rigidity" then NMS should be the prime suspect.
Other forms:
Periodic catatonia is an inconsistently defined entity. In the Wernicke-Kleist-Leonhard school, it is a distinct form of "non-system schizophrenia" characterized by recurrent acute phases with hyperkinetic and akinetic features and often psychotic symptoms, and the build-up of a residual state in between these acute phases, which is characterized by low-level catatonic features and aboulia of varying severity. The condition has a strong hereditary component. According to modern classifications, this may be diagnosed as a form of bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia. Independently, the term periodic catatonia is sometimes used in modern literature to describe a syndrome of recurrent phases of acute catatonia (excited or inhibited type) with full remission between episodes, which resembles the description of "motility psychosis" in the Wernicke-Kleist-Leonhard school.
System catatonias or systematic catatonias are only defined in the Wernicke-Kleist-Leonhard school. These are chronic-progressive conditions characterized by specific disturbances of volition and psychomotricity, leading to a dramatic decline of executive and adaptive functioning and ability to communicate. They are considered forms of schizophrenia but distinct from other schizophrenic conditions. Affective flattening and apparent loss of interests are common but may be related to reduced emotional expression rather than lack of emotion. Heredity is low. Of the 21 different forms (6 "simple" and 15 "combined" forms) that have been described, most overlap only partially - if at all - with current definitions of either catatonia or schizophrenia, and thus are difficult to classify according to modern diagnostic manuals.
Early childhood catatonias are also a diagnosis exclusive to the Wernicke-Kleist-Leonhard school, and refers to system catatonias that manifest in young children. Clinically, these conditions resemble severe regressive forms of autism.
Chronic catatonia-like breakdown or autistic catatonia refers to a functional decline seen in some patients with pre-existing autism spectrum disorder and/or intellectual disability which usually runs a chronic-progressive course and encompasses attenuated catatonic symptoms as well as mood and anxiety symptoms that increasingly interfere with adaptive functioning. Onset is typically insidious and often mistaken for background autistic symptoms. Slowing of voluntary movement, reduced speech, aboulia, increased prompt dependency and obsessive-compulsive symptoms are frequently seen; negativism, (auto-)aggressive behaviors and ill-defined hallucinations have also been reported. Both the causes of this disorder as well as its prognosis appear to be heterogenous, with most patients showing partial recovery upon treatment. It seems to be related to chronic stress as a result of life transitions, loss of external time structuring, sensory sensitivities and/or traumatic experiences, co-morbid mental disorders, or other unknown causes. Since clinical catatonia can not always be diagnosed, this condition has also been renamed to the more general term "late regression".
Complications
Patients may experience several complications from being in a catatonic state. The nature of these complications will depend on the type of catatonia being experienced by the patient. For example, patients presenting with withdrawn catatonia may have refusal to eat which will in turn lead to malnutrition and dehydration. Furthermore, if immobility is a symptom the patient is presenting with, then they may develop pressure ulcers, muscle contractions, and are at risk of developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolus (PE). Patients with excited catatonia may be aggressive and violent, and physical trauma may result from this. Catatonia may progress to the malignant type which will present with autonomic instability and may be life-threatening. Other complications also include the development of pneumonia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome.
Causes
Catatonia is almost always secondary to another underlying illness, often a psychiatric disorder. Mood disorders such as a bipolar disorder and depression are the most common etiologies to progress to catatonia. Other psychiatric associations include schizophrenia and other primary psychotic disorders. It also is related to autism spectrum disorders and ADHD. Psychodynamic theorists have interpreted catatonia as a defense against the potentially destructive consequences of responsibility, and the passivity of the disorder provides relief.
Catatonia is also seen in many medical disorders, including infections (such as encephalitis), autoimmune disorders, meningitis, focal neurological lesions (including strokes), alcohol withdrawal, abrupt or overly rapid benzodiazepine withdrawal, cerebrovascular disease, neoplasms, head injury, and some metabolic conditions (homocystinuria, diabetic ketoacidosis, hepatic encephalopathy, and hypercalcaemia).
Pathogenesis
The pathophysiology that leads to catatonia is still poorly understood and a definite mechanism remains unknown. Neurologic studies have implicated several pathways; however, it remains unclear whether these findings are the cause or the consequence of the disorder.
Abnormalities in GABA, glutamate signaling, serotonin, and dopamine transmission are believed to be implicated in catatonia.
Furthermore, it has also been hypothesized that pathways that connect the basal ganglia with the cortex and thalamus is involved in the development of catatonia.
Diagnosis
There is not yet a definitive consensus regarding diagnostic criteria of catatonia. In the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, 2013) and the World Health Organization's eleventh edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11, 2022), the classification is more homogeneous than in earlier editions. Prominent researchers in the field have other suggestions for diagnostic criteria.
DSM-5 classification
The DSM-5 does not classify catatonia as an independent disorder, but rather it classifies it as catatonia associated with another mental disorder, due to another medical condition, or as unspecified catatonia.
Catatonia is diagnosed by the presence of three or more of the following 12 psychomotor symptoms in association with a mental disorder, medical condition, or unspecified:
stupor: no psycho-motor activity; not actively relating to the environment
catalepsy: passive induction of a posture held against gravity
waxy flexibility: allowing positioning by an examiner and maintaining that position
mutism: no, or very little, verbal response (exclude if known aphasia)
negativism: opposition or no response to instructions or external stimuli
posturing: spontaneous and active maintenance of a posture against gravity
mannerisms that are odd, circumstantial caricatures of normal actions
stereotypy: repetitive, abnormally frequent, non-goal-directed movements
agitation, not influenced by external stimuli
grimacing: keeping a fixed facial expression
echolalia: mimicking another's speech
echopraxia: mimicking another's movements.
Other disorders (additional code 293.89 [F06.1] to indicate the presence of the co-morbid catatonia):
Catatonia associated with autism spectrum disorder
Catatonia associated with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders
Catatonia associated with brief psychotic disorder
Catatonia associated with schizophreniform disorder
Catatonia associated with schizoaffective disorder
Catatonia associated with a substance-induced psychotic disorder
Catatonia associated with bipolar and related disorders
Catatonia associated with major depressive disorder
Catatonic disorder due to another medical condition
If catatonic symptoms are present but do not form the catatonic syndrome, a medication- or substance-induced aetiology should first be considered.
ICD-11 classification
In ICD-11 catatonia is defined as a syndrome of primarily psychomotor disturbances that is characterized by the simultaneous occurrence of several symptoms such as stupor; catalepsy; waxy flexibility; mutism; negativism; posturing; mannerisms; stereotypies; psychomotor agitation; grimacing; echolalia and echopraxia. Catatonia may occur in the context of specific mental disorders, including mood disorders, schizophrenia or other primary psychotic disorders, and Neurodevelopmental disorders, and may be induced by psychoactive substances, including medications. Catatonia may also be caused by a medical condition not classified under mental, behavioral, or neurodevelopmental disorders.
Assessment/Physical
Catatonia is often overlooked and under-diagnosed. Patients with catatonia most commonly have an underlying psychiatric disorder, for this reason, physicians may overlook signs of catatonia due to the severity of the psychosis the patient is presenting with. Furthermore, the patient may not be presenting with the common signs of catatonia such as mutism and posturing. Additionally, the motor abnormalities seen in catatonia are also present in psychiatric disorders. For example, a patient with mania will show increased motor activity that may progress to exciting catatonia. One way in which physicians can differentiate between the two is to observe the motor abnormality. Patients with mania present with increased goal-directed activity. On the other hand, the increased activity in catatonia is not goal-directed and often repetitive.
Catatonia is a clinical diagnosis and there is no specific laboratory test to diagnose it. However, certain testing can help determine what is causing the catatonia. An EEG will likely show diffuse slowing. If seizure activity is driving the syndrome, then an EEG would also be helpful in detecting this. CT or MRI will not show catatonia; however, they might reveal abnormalities that might be leading to the syndrome. Metabolic screens, inflammatory markers, or autoantibodies may reveal reversible medical causes of catatonia.
Vital signs should be frequently monitored as catatonia can progress to malignant catatonia which is life-threatening. Malignant catatonia is characterized by fever, hypertension, tachycardia, and tachypnea.
Rating scale
Various rating scales for catatonia have been developed, however, their utility for clinical care has not been well established. The most commonly used scale is the Bush-Francis Catatonia Rating Scale (BFCRS) (external link is provided below). The scale is composed of 23 items with the first 14 items being used as the screening tool. If 2 of the 14 are positive, this prompts for further evaluation and completion of the remaining 9 items.
A diagnosis can be supported by the lorazepam challenge or the zolpidem challenge. While proven useful in the past, barbiturates are no longer commonly used in psychiatry; thus the option of either benzodiazepines or ECT.
Differential diagnosis
The differential diagnosis of catatonia is extensive as signs and symptoms of catatonia may overlap significantly with those of other conditions. Therefore, a careful and detailed history, medication review, and physical exam are key to diagnosing catatonia and differentiating it from other conditions. Furthermore, some of these conditions can themselves lead to catatonia. The differential diagnosis is as follows:
Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) and catatonia are both life-threatening conditions that share many of the same characteristics including fever, autonomic instability, rigidity, and delirium. Lab values of low serum iron, elevated creatine kinase, and white blood cell count are also shared by the two disorders further complicating the diagnosis. There are features of malignant catatonia (posturing, impulsivity, etc.) that are absent from NMS and the lab results are not as consistent in malignant catatonia as they are in NMS. Some experts consider NMS to be a drug-induced condition associated with antipsychotics, particularly, first generation antipsychotics, but it has not been established as a subtype. Therefore, discontinuing antipsychotics and starting benzodiazepines is a treatment for this condition, and similarly it is helpful in catatonia as well.
Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is an autoimmune disorder characterized by neuropsychiatric features and the presence of IgG antibodies. The presentation of anti-NMDAR encephalitis has been categorized into 5 phases: prodromal phase, psychotic phase, unresponsive phase, hyperkinetic phase, and recovery phase. The psychotic phase progresses into the unresponsive phase characterized by mutism, decreased motor activity, and catatonia.
Both serotonin syndrome and malignant catatonia may present with signs and symptoms of delirium, autonomic instability, hyperthermia, and rigidity. Again, similar to the presentation in NSM. However, patients with Serotonin syndrome have a history of ingestion of serotonergic drugs (Ex: SSRI). These patients will also present with hyperreflexia, myoclonus, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Malignant hyperthermia and malignant catatonia share features of autonomic instability, hyperthermia, and rigidity. However, malignant hyperthermia is a hereditary disorder of skeletal muscle that makes these patients susceptible to exposure to halogenated anesthetics and/or depolarizing muscle relaxants like succinylcholine. Malignant hyperthermia most commonly occurs in the intraoperative or postoperative periods. Other signs and symptoms of malignant hyperthermia include metabolic and respiratory acidosis, hyperkalemia, and cardiac arrhythmias.
Akinetic mutism is a neurological disorder characterized by a decrease in goal-directed behavior and motivation; however, the patient has an intact level of consciousness. Patients may present with apathy, and may seem indifferent to pain, hunger, or thirst. Akinetic mutism has been associated with structural damage in a variety of brain areas. Akinetic mutism and catatonia may both manifest with immobility, mutism, and waxy flexibility. Differentiating both disorders is the fact that akinetic mutism does not present with echolalia, echopraxia, or posturing. Furthermore, it is not responsive to benzodiazepines as is the case for catatonia.
Elective mutism has an anxious etiology but has also been associated with personality disorders. Patients with this disorder fail to speak with some individuals but will speak with others. Likewise, they may refuse to speak in certain situations; for example, a child who refuses to speak at school but is conversational at home. This disorder is distinguished from catatonia by the absence of any other signs/symptoms.
Nonconvulsive status epilepticus is seizure activity with no accompanying tonic-clonic movements. It can present with stupor, similar to catatonia, and they both respond to benzodiazepines. Nonconvulsive status epilepticus is diagnosed by the presence of seizure activity seen on electroencephalogram (EEG). Catatonia on the other hand, is associated with normal EEG or diffuse slowing.
Delirium is characterized by fluctuating disturbed perception and consciousness in the ill individual. It has hypoactive and hyperactive or mixed forms. People with hyperactive delirium present similarly to those with excited catatonia and have symptoms of restlessness, agitation, and aggression. Those with hypoactive delirium present with similarly to retarded catatonia, withdrawn and quiet. However, catatonia also includes other distinguishing features including posturing and rigidity as well as a positive response to benzodiazepines.
Patients with locked-in syndrome present with immobility and mutism; however, unlike patients with catatonia who are unmotivated to communicate, patients with locked-in syndrome try to communicate with eye movements and blinking. Furthermore, locked-in syndrome is caused by damage to the brainstem.
Stiff-person syndrome and catatonia are similar in that they may both present with rigidity, autonomic instability and a positive response to benzodiazepines. However, stiff-person syndrome may be associated with anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase (anti-GAD) antibodies and other catatonic signs such as mutism and posturing are not part of the syndrome.
Untreated late-stage Parkinson's disease may present similarly to retarded catatonia with symptoms of immobility, rigidity, and difficulty speaking. Further complicating the diagnosis is the fact that many patients with Parkinson's disease will have major depressive disorder, which may be the underlying cause of catatonia. Parkinson's disease can be distinguished from catatonia by a positive response to levodopa. Catatonia on the other hand will show a positive response to benzodiazepines.
Extrapyramidal side effects of antipsychotic medication, especially dystonia and akathisia, can be difficult to distinguish from catatonic symptoms, or may confound them in the psychiatric setting. Extrapyramidal motor disorders usually do not involve social symptoms like negativism, while individuals with catatonic excitement typically do not have the physically painful compulsion to move that is seen in akathisia.
Certain stimming behaviors and stress responses in individuals with autism spectrum disorders can present similarly to catatonia. In autism spectrum disorders, chronic catatonia is distinguished by a lasting deterioration of adaptive skills from the background of pre-existing autistic symptomatology that cannot be easily explained. Acute catatonia is usually clearly distinguishable from autistic symptoms.
The diagnostic entities of obsessional slowness and psychogenic parkinsonism show overlapping features with catatonia, such as motor slowness, gegenhalten (oppositional paratonia), mannerisms, and reduced or absent speech. However, psychogenic parkinsonism involves tremor which is unusual in catatonia. Obsessional slowness is a controversial diagnosis, with presentations ranging from severe but common manifestations of obsessive compulsive disorder to catatonia.
Down Syndrome Disintegrative Disorder (or Down Syndrome Regression Disorder, DSDD / DSRD) is a chronic condition characterized by loss of previously acquired adaptive, cognitive and social functioning occurring in persons with Down Syndrome, usually during adolescence or early adulthood. The clinical picture is variable, but often includes catatonic signs, which is why it was called "catatonic psychosis" in initial reports in 1946. DSDD seems to phenotypically overlap with obsessional slowness (see above) and catatonia-like regression occurring in ASD.
Treatment
The initial treatment of catatonia is to stop medication that could be potentially leading to the syndrome. These may include steroids, stimulants, anticonvulsants, neuroleptics, dopamine blockers, etc. The next step is to provide a "lorazepam challenge," in which patients are given 2 mg of IV lorazepam (or another benzodiazepine). Most patients with catatonia will respond significantly to this within the first 15–30 minutes. If no change is observed during the first dose, then a second dose is given and the patient is re-examined. If the patient responds to the lorazepam challenge, then lorazepam can be scheduled at interval doses until the catatonia resolves. The lorazepam must be tapered slowly, otherwise, the catatonia symptoms may return. The underlying cause of the catatonia should also be treated during this time. If within a week the catatonia is not resolved, then ECT can be used to reverse the symptoms. ECT in combination with benzodiazepines is used to treat malignant catatonia. In France, zolpidem has also been used in diagnosis, and response may occur within the same time period. Ultimately the underlying cause needs to be treated.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for catatonia that is well acknowledged. ECT has also shown favorable outcomes in patients with chronic catatonia. However, it has been pointed out that further high quality randomized controlled trials are needed to evaluate the efficacy, tolerance, and protocols of ECT in catatonia.
Antipsychotics should be used with care as they can worsen catatonia and are the cause of neuroleptic malignant syndrome, a dangerous condition that can mimic catatonia and requires immediate discontinuation of the antipsychotic.
There is evidence clozapine works better than other antipsychotics to treat catatonia, following a recent systematic review.
Excessive glutamate activity is believed to be involved in catatonia; when first-line treatment options fail, NMDA antagonists such as amantadine or memantine may be used. Amantadine may have an increased incidence of tolerance with prolonged use and can cause psychosis, due to its additional effects on the dopamine system. Memantine has a more targeted pharmacological profile for the glutamate system, reduced incidence of psychosis and may therefore be preferred for individuals who cannot tolerate amantadine. Topiramate is another treatment option for resistant catatonia; it produces its therapeutic effects by producing glutamate antagonism via modulation of AMPA receptors.
Prognosis
Patients who experience an episode of catatonia are more likely to experience another recurring episode. Treatment response for patients with catatonia is 50–70% and these patients have a good prognosis. However, failure to respond to medication is a very poor prognosis. Many of these patients will require long-term and continuous mental health care. For patients with catatonia with underlying schizophrenia, the prognosis is much poorer.
Epidemiology
Catatonia has been mostly studied in acutely ill psychiatric patients. Catatonia frequently goes unrecognized, leading to the belief that the syndrome is rare; however, this is not true and prevalence has been reported to be as high as 10% in patients with acute psychiatric illnesses. One large population estimate has suggested that the incidence of catatonia is 10.6 episodes per 100 000 person-years. It occurs in males and females in approximately equal numbers. 21-46% of all catatonia cases can be attributed to a general medical condition.
History
Reports of stupor-like and catatonia-like states abound in the history of psychiatry. After the middle of the 19th century there was an increase of interest in the motor disorders accompanying madness, culminating in the publication by Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum in 1874 of (Catatonia or Tension Insanity).
See also
Akinetic mutism
Autistic catatonia
Awakenings (1990 biopic about catatonic patients, based on Oliver Sacks's book of the same name)
Blank expression
Botulism
Disorganized schizophrenia
Homecoming (features catatonia as a main plot point)
Karolina Olsson
Oneiroid syndrome
Paranoid schizophrenia
Persistent vegetative state
Resignation syndrome
Sensory overload
Tonic immobility
Sleep paralysis
References
External links
Catatonia in DSM-5
Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders – Catatonic Disorders
"Schizophrenia: Catatonic Type" video by Heinz Edgar Lehmann, 1952
Bush-Francis Catatonia Rating Scale
Mood disorders
Schizophrenia
Psychopathological syndromes |
5247 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country%20music | Country music | Country (also called country and western) is a music genre originating in the Southern and Southwestern United States. First produced in the 1920s, country music primarily focuses on working class Americans and blue-collar American life.
Country music is known for its ballads and dance tunes (also known as "honky-tonk music") with simple form, folk lyrics, and harmonies generally accompanied by instruments such as banjos, fiddles, harmonicas, and many types of guitar (including acoustic, electric, steel, and resonator guitars). Though it is primarily rooted in various forms of American folk music, such as old-time music and Appalachian music, many other traditions, including African-American, Mexican, Irish, and Hawaiian music, have also had a formative influence on the genre. Blues modes have been used extensively throughout its history as well.
The term country music gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to hillbilly music; it came to encompass western music, which evolved parallel to hillbilly music from similar roots, in the mid-20th century. Contemporary styles of western music include Texas country, red dirt, and Hispano- and Mexican American-led Tejano and New Mexico music, all extant alongside longstanding indigenous traditions.
In 2009, in the United States, country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, and second most popular in the morning commute.
Origins
The main components of the modern country music style date back to music traditions throughout the Southern United States and Southwestern United States, while its place in American popular music was established in the 1920s during the early days of music recording. According to country historian Bill C. Malone, country music was "introduced to the world as a Southern phenomenon."
Migration into the southern Appalachian Mountains, of the Southeastern United States, brought the folk music and instruments of Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin along with it for nearly 300 years, which developed into Appalachian music. As the country expanded westward, the Mississippi River and Louisiana became a crossroads for country music, giving rise to Cajun music. In the Southwestern United States, it was the Rocky Mountains, American frontier, and Rio Grande that acted as a similar backdrop for Native American, Mexican, and cowboy ballads, which resulted in New Mexico music and the development of western music, and its directly related Red Dirt, Texas country, and Tejano music styles. In the Asia-Pacific, the steel guitar sound of country music has its provenance in the music of Hawaii.
Role of East Tennessee
The U.S. Congress has formally recognized Bristol, Tennessee as the "Birthplace of Country Music", based on the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927. Since 2014, the city has been home to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. Historians have also noted the influence of the less-known Johnson City sessions of 1928 and 1929, and the Knoxville sessions of 1929 and 1930. In addition, the Mountain City Fiddlers Convention, held in 1925, helped to inspire modern country music. Before these, pioneer settlers, in the Great Smoky Mountains region, had developed a rich musical heritage.
Generations
The first generation emerged in the 1920s, with Atlanta's music scene playing a major role in launching country's earliest recording artists. James Gideon "Gid" Tanner (1885–1960) was an American old-time fiddler and one of the earliest stars of what would come to be known as country music. His band, the Skillet Lickers, was one of the most innovative and influential string bands of the 1920s and 1930s. Its most notable members were Clayton McMichen (fiddle and vocal), Dan Hornsby (vocals), Riley Puckett (guitar and vocal) and Robert Lee Sweat (guitar). New York City record label Okeh Records began issuing hillbilly music records by Fiddlin' John Carson as early as 1923, followed by Columbia Records (series 15000D "Old Familiar Tunes") (Samantha Bumgarner) in 1924, and RCA Victor Records in 1927 with the first famous pioneers of the genre Jimmie Rodgers, who is widely considered the "Father of Country Music", and the first family of country music the Carter Family. Many "hillbilly" musicians recorded blues songs throughout the 1920s.
During the second generation (1930s–1940s), radio became a popular source of entertainment, and "barn dance" shows featuring country music were started all over the South, as far north as Chicago, and as far west as California. The most important was the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM in Nashville and continuing to the present day. During the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or western music, which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood, many featuring Gene Autry, who was known as king of the "singing cowboys", and Hank Williams. Bob Wills was another country musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become very popular as the leader of a "hot string band," and who also appeared in Hollywood westerns. His mix of country and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, would become known as western swing. Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band, in 1938. Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had been played at Carnegie Hall, when Johnny Barfield recorded "Boogie Woogie".
The third generation (1950s–1960s) started at the end of World War II with "mountaineer" string band music known as bluegrass, which emerged when Bill Monroe, along with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were introduced by Roy Acuff at the Grand Ole Opry. Gospel music remained a popular component of country music. The Native American, Hispano, and American frontier music of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico, became popular among poor communities in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas; the basic ensemble consisted of classical guitar, bass guitar, dobro or steel guitar, though some larger ensembles featured electric guitars, trumpets, keyboards (especially the honky-tonk piano, a type of tack piano), banjos, and drums. By the early 1950s it blended with rock and roll, becoming the rockabilly sound produced by Sam Phillips, Norman Petty, and Bob Keane. Musicians like Elvis Presley, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ritchie Valens, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash emerged as enduring representatives of the style. Beginning in the mid-1950s, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the Nashville sound turned country music into a multimillion-dollar industry centered in Nashville, Tennessee; Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves were two of the most broadly popular Nashville sound artists, and their deaths in separate plane crashes in the early 1960s were a factor in the genre's decline. Starting in the 1950s to the mid-1960s, western singer-songwriters such as Michael Martin Murphey and Marty Robbins rose in prominence as did others, throughout western music traditions, like New Mexico music's Al Hurricane. The late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres. In the aftermath of the British Invasion, many desired a return to the "old values" of rock n' roll. At the same time there was a lack of enthusiasm in the country sector for Nashville-produced music. What resulted was a crossbred genre known as country rock.
Fourth generation (1970s–1980s) music included outlaw country with roots in the Bakersfield sound, and country pop with roots in the countrypolitan, folk music and soft rock. Between 1972 and 1975 singer/guitarist John Denver released a series of hugely successful songs blending country and folk-rock musical styles. By the mid-1970s, Texas country and Tejano music gained popularity with performers like Freddie Fender. During the early 1980s country artists continued to see their records perform well on the pop charts. In 1980 a style of "neocountry disco music" was popularized. During the mid-1980s a group of new artists began to emerge who rejected the more polished country-pop sound that had been prominent on radio and the charts in favor of more traditional "back-to-basics" production.
During the fifth generation (1990s), neotraditionalists and stadium country acts prospered.
The sixth generation (2000s–present) has seen a certain amount of diversification in regard to country music styles. It has also, however, seen a shift into patriotism and conservative politics since 9/11, though such themes are less prevalent in more modern trends. The influence of rock music in country has become more overt during the late 2000s and early 2010s. Most of the best-selling country songs of this era were those by Lady A, Florida Georgia Line, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Swift. Hip hop also made its mark on country music with the emergence of country rap.
History
First generation (1920s)
The first commercial recordings of what was considered instrumental music in the traditional country style were "Arkansas Traveler" and "Turkey in the Straw" by fiddlers Henry Gilliland & A.C. (Eck) Robertson on June 30, 1922, for Victor Records and released in April 1923. Columbia Records began issuing records with "hillbilly" music (series 15000D "Old Familiar Tunes") as early as 1924.
The first commercial recording of what is widely considered to be the first country song featuring vocals and lyrics was Fiddlin' John Carson with "Little Log Cabin in the Lane" for Okeh Records on June 14, 1923.
Vernon Dalhart was the first country singer to have a nationwide hit in May 1924 with "Wreck of the Old 97". The flip side of the record was "Lonesome Road Blues", which also became very popular. In April 1924, "Aunt" Samantha Bumgarner and Eva Davis became the first female musicians to record and release country songs. Many of the early country musicians, such as the yodeler Cliff Carlisle, recorded blues songs into the 1930s. Other important early recording artists were Riley Puckett, Don Richardson, Fiddlin' John Carson, Uncle Dave Macon, Al Hopkins, Ernest V. Stoneman, Blind Alfred Reed, Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers and the Skillet Lickers. The steel guitar entered country music as early as 1922, when Jimmie Tarlton met famed Hawaiian guitarist Frank Ferera on the West Coast.
Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family are widely considered to be important early country musicians. From Scott County, Virginia, the Carters had learned sight reading of hymnals and sheet music using solfege. Their songs were first captured at a historic recording session in Bristol, Tennessee, on August 1, 1927, where Ralph Peer was the talent scout and sound recordist. A scene in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? depicts a similar occurrence in the same timeframe.
Rodgers fused hillbilly country, gospel, jazz, blues, pop, cowboy, and folk, and many of his best songs were his compositions, including "Blue Yodel", which sold over a million records and established Rodgers as the premier singer of early country music. Beginning in 1927, and for the next 17 years, the Carters recorded some 300 old-time ballads, traditional tunes, country songs and gospel hymns, all representative of America's southeastern folklore and heritage. Maybelle Carter went on to continue the family tradition with her daughters as The Carter Sisters; her daughter June would marry (in succession) Carl Smith, Rip Nix and Johnny Cash, having children with each who would also become country singers.
Second generation (1930s–1940s)
Record sales declined during the Great Depression, but radio became a popular source of entertainment, and "barn dance" shows featuring country music were started by radio stations all over the South, as far north as Chicago, and as far west as California.
The most important was the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM in Nashville and continuing to the present day. Some of the early stars on the Opry were Uncle Dave Macon, Roy Acuff and African American harmonica player DeFord Bailey. WSM's 50,000-watt signal (in 1934) could often be heard across the country. Many musicians performed and recorded songs in any number of styles. Moon Mullican, for example, played western swing but also recorded songs that can be called rockabilly. Between 1947 and 1949, country crooner Eddy Arnold placed eight songs in the top 10. From 1945 to 1955 Jenny Lou Carson was one of the most prolific songwriters in country music.
Singing cowboys and western swing
In the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or western music, which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Some of the popular singing cowboys from the era were Gene Autry, the Sons of the Pioneers, and Roy Rogers. Country music and western music were frequently played together on the same radio stations, hence the term country and western music, despite country and western being two distinct genres.
Cowgirls contributed to the sound in various family groups. Patsy Montana opened the door for female artists with her history-making song "I Want To Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart". This would begin a movement toward opportunities for women to have successful solo careers. Bob Wills was another country musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become very popular as the leader of a "hot string band," and who also appeared in Hollywood westerns. His mix of country and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, would become known as western swing. Cliff Bruner, Moon Mullican, Milton Brown and Adolph Hofner were other early western swing pioneers. Spade Cooley and Tex Williams also had very popular bands and appeared in films. At its height, western swing rivaled the popularity of big band swing music.
Changing instrumentation
Drums were scorned by early country musicians as being "too loud" and "not pure", but by 1935 western swing big band leader Bob Wills had added drums to the Texas Playboys. In the mid-1940s, the Grand Ole Opry did not want the Playboys' drummer to appear on stage. Although drums were commonly used by rockabilly groups by 1955, the less-conservative-than-the-Grand-Ole-Opry Louisiana Hayride kept its infrequently used drummer back stage as late as 1956. By the early 1960s, however, it was rare for a country band not to have a drummer. Bob Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band, in 1938. A decade later (1948) Arthur Smith achieved top 10 US country chart success with his MGM Records recording of "Guitar Boogie", which crossed over to the US pop chart, introducing many people to the potential of the electric guitar. For several decades Nashville session players preferred the warm tones of the Gibson and Gretsch archtop electrics, but a "hot" Fender style, using guitars which became available beginning in the early 1950s, eventually prevailed as the signature guitar sound of country.
Hillbilly boogie
Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had been played at Carnegie Hall, when Johnny Barfield recorded "Boogie Woogie". The trickle of what was initially called hillbilly boogie, or okie boogie (later to be renamed country boogie), became a flood beginning in late 1945. One notable release from this period was the Delmore Brothers' "Freight Train Boogie", considered to be part of the combined evolution of country music and blues towards rockabilly. In 1948, Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith achieved top ten US country chart success with his MGM Records recordings of "Guitar Boogie" and "Banjo Boogie", with the former crossing over to the US pop charts. Other country boogie artists included Moon Mullican, Merrill Moore and Tennessee Ernie Ford. The hillbilly boogie period lasted into the 1950s and remains one of many subgenres of country into the 21st century.
Bluegrass, folk and gospel
By the end of World War II, "mountaineer" string band music known as bluegrass had emerged when Bill Monroe joined with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, introduced by Roy Acuff at the Grand Ole Opry. That was the ordination of bluegrass music and how Bill Monroe came to be known as the "Father of Bluegrass." Gospel music, too, remained a popular component of bluegrass and other sorts of country music. Red Foley, the biggest country star following World War II, had one of the first million-selling gospel hits ("Peace in the Valley") and also sang boogie, blues and rockabilly. In the post-war period, country music was called "folk" in the trades, and "hillbilly" within the industry. In 1944, Billboard replaced the term "hillbilly" with "folk songs and blues," and switched to "country and western" in 1949.
Honky tonk
Another type of stripped down and raw music with a variety of moods and a basic ensemble of guitar, bass, dobro or steel guitar (and later) drums became popular, especially among rural residents in the three states of Texhomex, those being Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. It became known as honky tonk and had its roots in western swing and the ranchera music of Mexico and the border states, particularly New Mexico and Texas, together with the blues of the American South. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys personified this music which has been described as "a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, a little bit of black and a little bit of white ... just loud enough to keep you from thinking too much and to go right on ordering the whiskey." East Texan Al Dexter had a hit with "Honky Tonk Blues", and seven years later "Pistol Packin' Mama". These "honky tonk" songs were associated with barrooms, and was performed by the likes of Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells (the first major female country solo singer), Ted Daffan, Floyd Tillman, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams; the music of these artists would later be called "traditional" country. Williams' influence in particular would prove to be enormous, inspiring many of the pioneers of rock and roll, such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Ike Turner, while providing a framework for emerging honky tonk talents like George Jones. Webb Pierce was the top-charting country artist of the 1950s, with 13 of his singles spending 113 weeks at number one. He charted 48 singles during the decade; 31 reached the top ten and 26 reached the top four.
Third generation (1950s–1960s)
By the early 1950s, a blend of western swing, country boogie, and honky tonk was played by most country bands, a mixture which followed in the footsteps of Gene Autry, Lydia Mendoza, Roy Rogers, and Patsy Montana. Western music, influenced by the cowboy ballads, New Mexico, Texas country and Tejano music rhythms of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico, reached its peak in popularity in the late 1950s, most notably with the song "El Paso", first recorded by Marty Robbins in September 1959. Western music's influence would continue to grow within the country music sphere, western musicians like Michael Martin Murphey, New Mexico music artists Al Hurricane and Antonia Apodaca, Tejano music performer Little Joe, and even folk revivalist John Denver, all first rose to prominence during this time. This western music influence largely kept the music of the folk revival and folk rock from influencing the country music genre much, despite the similarity in instrumentation and origins (see, for instance, the Byrds' negative reception during their appearance on the Grand Ole Opry). The main concern was largely political: most folk revival was largely driven by progressive activists, a stark contrast to the culturally conservative audiences of country music. John Denver was perhaps the only musician to have major success in both the country and folk revival genres throughout his career, later only a handful of artists like Burl Ives and Canadian musician Gordon Lightfoot successfully made the crossover to country after folk revival fell out of fashion. During the mid-1950s a new style of country music became popular, eventually to be referred to as rockabilly.
In 1953, the first all-country radio station was established in Lubbock, Texas. The music of the 1960s and 1970s targeted the American working class, and truckers in particular. As country radio became more popular, trucking songs like the 1963 hit song Six Days on the Road by Dave Dudley began to make up their own subgenre of country. These revamped songs sought to portray American truckers as a "new folk hero", marking a significant shift in sound from earlier country music. The song was written by actual truckers and contained numerous references to the trucker culture of the time like "ICC" for Interstate Commerce Commission and "little white pills" as a reference to amphetamines. Starday Records in Nashville followed up on Dudley's initial success with the release of Give Me 40 Acres by the Willis Brothers.
Rockabilly
Rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950s; one of the first rock and roll superstars was former western yodeler Bill Haley, who repurposed his Four Aces of Western Swing into a rockabilly band in the early 1950s and renamed it the Comets. Bill Haley & His Comets are credited with two of the first successful rock and roll records, "Crazy Man, Crazy" of 1953 and "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954.
1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country music. Rockabilly was an early form of rock and roll, an upbeat combination of blues and country music. The number two, three and four songs on Billboard's charts for that year were Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel"; Johnny Cash, "I Walk the Line"; and Carl Perkins, "Blue Suede Shoes". Reflecting this success, George Jones released a rockabilly record that year under the pseudonym "Thumper Jones", wanting to capitalize on the popularity of rockabilly without alienating his traditional country base. Cash and Presley placed songs in the top 5 in 1958 with No. 3 "Guess Things Happen That Way/Come In, Stranger" by Cash, and No. 5 by Presley "Don't/I Beg of You." Presley acknowledged the influence of rhythm and blues artists and his style, saying "The colored folk been singin' and playin' it just the way I'm doin' it now, man for more years than I know." Within a few years, many rockabilly musicians returned to a more mainstream style or had defined their own unique style.
Country music gained national television exposure through Ozark Jubilee on ABC-TV and radio from 1955 to 1960 from Springfield, Missouri. The program showcased top stars including several rockabilly artists, some from the Ozarks. As Webb Pierce put it in 1956, "Once upon a time, it was almost impossible to sell country music in a place like New York City. Nowadays, television takes us everywhere, and country music records and sheet music sell as well in large cities as anywhere else."
The Country Music Association was founded in 1958, in part because numerous country musicians were appalled by the increased influence of rock and roll on country music.
The Nashville and countrypolitan sounds
Beginning in the mid-1950s, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the Nashville sound turned country music into a multimillion-dollar industry centered in Nashville, Tennessee. Under the direction of producers such as Chet Atkins, Bill Porter, Paul Cohen, Owen Bradley, Bob Ferguson, and later Billy Sherrill, the sound brought country music to a diverse audience and helped revive country as it emerged from a commercially fallow period. This subgenre was notable for borrowing from 1950s pop stylings: a prominent and smooth vocal, backed by a string section (violins and other orchestral strings) and vocal chorus. Instrumental soloing was de-emphasized in favor of trademark "licks". Leading artists in this genre included Jim Reeves, Skeeter Davis, Connie Smith, the Browns, Patsy Cline, and Eddy Arnold. The "slip note" piano style of session musician Floyd Cramer was an important component of this style. The Nashville Sound collapsed in mainstream popularity in 1964, a victim of both the British Invasion and the deaths of Reeves and Cline in separate airplane crashes. By the mid-1960s, the genre had developed into countrypolitan. Countrypolitan was aimed straight at mainstream markets, and it sold well throughout the later 1960s into the early 1970s. Top artists included Tammy Wynette, Lynn Anderson and Charlie Rich, as well as such former "hard country" artists as Ray Price and Marty Robbins. Despite the appeal of the Nashville sound, many traditional country artists emerged during this period and dominated the genre: Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Porter Wagoner, George Jones, and Sonny James among them.
Country-soul crossover
In 1962, Ray Charles surprised the pop world by turning his attention to country and western music, topping the charts and rating number three for the year on Billboard's pop chart with the "I Can't Stop Loving You" single, and recording the landmark album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.
Bakersfield sound
Another subgenre of country music grew out of hardcore honky tonk with elements of western swing and originated north-northwest of Los Angeles in Bakersfield, California, where many "Okies" and other Dust Bowl migrants had settled. Influenced by one-time West Coast residents Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell, by 1966 it was known as the Bakersfield sound. It relied on electric instruments and amplification, in particular the Telecaster electric guitar, more than other subgenres of the country music of the era, and it can be described as having a sharp, hard, driving, no-frills, edgy flavor—hard guitars and honky-tonk harmonies. Leading practitioners of this style were Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Tommy Collins, Dwight Yoakam, Gary Allan, and Wynn Stewart, each of whom had his own style.
Ken Nelson, who had produced Owens and Haggard and Rose Maddox became interested in the trucking song subgenre following the success of Six Days on the Road and asked Red Simpson to record an album of trucking songs. Haggard's White Line Fever was also part of the trucking subgenre.
Western music merges with country
The country music scene of the 1940s until the 1970s was largely dominated by western music influences, so much so that the genre began to be called "country and western". Even today, cowboy and frontier values continue to play a role in the larger country music, with western wear, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats continues to be in fashion for country artists.
West of the Mississippi river, many of these western genres continue to flourish, including the Red Dirt of Oklahoma, New Mexico music of New Mexico, and both Texas country music and Tejano music of Texas. During the 1950s until the early 1970s, the latter part of the western heyday in country music, many of these genres featured popular artists that continue to influence both their distinctive genres and larger country music. Red Dirt featured Bob Childers and Steve Ripley; for New Mexico music Al Hurricane, Al Hurricane Jr., and Antonia Apodaca; and within the Texas scenes Willie Nelson, Freddie Fender, Johnny Rodriguez, and Little Joe.
As Outlaw country music emerged as subgenre in its own right, Red Dirt, New Mexico, Texas country, and Tejano grew in popularity as a part of the Outlaw country movement. Originating in the bars, fiestas, and honky-tonks of Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas, their music supplemented outlaw country's singer-songwriter tradition as well as 21st-century rock-inspired alternative country and hip hop-inspired country rap artists.
Fourth generation (1970s–1980s)
Outlaw movement
Outlaw country was derived from the traditional western, including Red Dirt, New Mexico, Texas country, Tejano, and honky-tonk musical styles of the late 1950s and 1960s. Songs such as the 1963 Johnny Cash popularized "Ring of Fire" show clear influences from the likes of Al Hurricane and Little Joe, this influence just happened to culminate with artists such as Ray Price (whose band, the "Cherokee Cowboys", included Willie Nelson and Roger Miller) and mixed with the anger of an alienated subculture of the nation during the period, a collection of musicians that came to be known as the outlaw movement revolutionized the genre of country music in the early 1970s. "After I left Nashville (the early 70s), I wanted to relax and play the music that I wanted to play, and just stay around Texas, maybe Oklahoma. Waylon and I had that outlaw image going, and when it caught on at colleges and we started selling records, we were O.K. The whole outlaw thing, it had nothing to do with the music, it was something that got written in an article, and the young people said, 'Well, that's pretty cool.' And started listening." (Willie Nelson) The term outlaw country is traditionally associated with Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Hank Williams, Jr., Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Joe Ely. It was encapsulated in the 1976 album Wanted! The Outlaws.
Though the outlaw movement as a cultural fad had died down after the late 1970s (with Jennings noting in 1978 that it had gotten out of hand and led to real-life legal scrutiny), many western and outlaw country music artists maintained their popularity during the 1980s by forming supergroups, such as The Highwaymen, Texas Tornados, and Bandido.
Country pop
Country pop or soft pop, with roots in the countrypolitan sound, folk music, and soft rock, is a subgenre that first emerged in the 1970s. Although the term first referred to country music songs and artists that crossed over to top 40 radio, country pop acts are now more likely to cross over to adult contemporary music. It started with pop music singers like Glen Campbell, Bobbie Gentry, John Denver, Olivia Newton-John, Anne Murray, B. J. Thomas, the Bellamy Brothers, and Linda Ronstadt having hits on the country charts. Between 1972 and 1975, singer/guitarist John Denver released a series of hugely successful songs blending country and folk-rock musical styles ("Rocky Mountain High", "Sunshine on My Shoulders", "Annie's Song", "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", and "I'm Sorry"), and was named Country Music Entertainer of the Year in 1975. The year before, Olivia Newton-John, an Australian pop singer, won the "Best Female Country Vocal Performance" as well as the Country Music Association's most coveted award for females, "Female Vocalist of the Year". In response George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Jean Shepard and other traditional Nashville country artists dissatisfied with the new trend formed the short-lived "Association of Country Entertainers" in 1974; the ACE soon unraveled in the wake of Jones and Wynette's bitter divorce and Shepard's realization that most others in the industry lacked her passion for the movement.
During the mid-1970s, Dolly Parton, a successful mainstream country artist since the late 1960s, mounted a high-profile campaign to cross over to pop music, culminating in her 1977 hit "Here You Come Again", which topped the U.S. country singles chart, and also reached No. 3 on the pop singles charts. Parton's male counterpart, Kenny Rogers, came from the opposite direction, aiming his music at the country charts, after a successful career in pop, rock and folk music with the First Edition, achieving success the same year with "Lucille", which topped the country charts and reached No. 5 on the U.S. pop singles charts, as well as reaching Number 1 on the British all-genre chart. Parton and Rogers would both continue to have success on both country and pop charts simultaneously, well into the 1980s. Country music propelled Kenny Rogers’ career, making him a three-time Grammy Award winner and six-time Country Music Association Awards winner. Having sold more than 50 million albums in the US, one of his Song "The Gambler," inspired several TV films, with Rogers as the main character. Artists like Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap and Barbara Mandrell would also find success on the pop charts with their records. In 1975, author Paul Hemphill stated in the Saturday Evening Post, "Country music isn't really country anymore; it is a hybrid of nearly every form of popular music in America."
During the early 1980s, country artists continued to see their records perform well on the pop charts. Willie Nelson and Juice Newton each had two songs in the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the early eighties: Nelson charted "Always on My Mind" (#5, 1982) and "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" (#5, 1984, a duet with Julio Iglesias), and Newton achieved success with "Queen of Hearts" (#2, 1981) and "Angel of the Morning" (#4, 1981). Four country songs topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the 1980s: "Lady" by Kenny Rogers, from the late fall of 1980; "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton, "I Love a Rainy Night" by Eddie Rabbitt (these two back-to-back at the top in early 1981); and "Islands in the Stream", a duet by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers in 1983, a pop-country crossover hit written by Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees. Newton's "Queen of Hearts" almost reached No. 1, but was kept out of the spot by the pop ballad juggernaut "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. The move of country music toward neotraditional styles led to a marked decline in country/pop crossovers in the late 1980s, and only one song in that period—Roy Orbison's "You Got It", from 1989—made the top 10 of both the Billboard Hot Country Singles" and Hot 100 charts, due largely to a revival of interest in Orbison after his sudden death. The only song with substantial country airplay to reach number one on the pop charts in the late 1980s was "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters, an R&B song with slide guitar embellishment that appeared at number 42 on the country charts from minor crossover airplay. The record-setting, multi-platinum group Alabama was named Artist of the Decade for the 1980s by the Academy of Country Music.
Country rock
Country rock is a genre that started in the 1960s but became prominent in the 1970s. The late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres. In the aftermath of the British Invasion, many desired a return to the "old values" of rock n' roll. At the same time there was a lack of enthusiasm in the country sector for Nashville-produced music. What resulted was a crossbred genre known as country rock. Early innovators in this new style of music in the 1960s and 1970s included Bob Dylan, who was the first to revert to country music with his 1967 album John Wesley Harding (and even more so with that album's follow-up, Nashville Skyline), followed by Gene Clark, Clark's former band the Byrds (with Gram Parsons on Sweetheart of the Rodeo) and its spin-off the Flying Burrito Brothers (also featuring Gram Parsons), guitarist Clarence White, Michael Nesmith (the Monkees and the First National Band), the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Commander Cody, the Allman Brothers Band, Charlie Daniels, the Marshall Tucker Band, Poco, Buffalo Springfield, Stephen Stills' band Manassas and Eagles, among many, even the former folk music duo Ian & Sylvia, who formed Great Speckled Bird in 1969. The Eagles would become the most successful of these country rock acts, and their compilation album Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) remains the second-best-selling album in the US with 29 million copies sold. The Rolling Stones also got into the act with songs like "Dead Flowers"; the original recording of "Honky Tonk Women" was performed in a country style, but it was subsequently re-recorded in a hard rock style for the single version, and the band's preferred country version was later released on the album Let It Bleed, under the title "Country Honk".
Described by AllMusic as the "father of country-rock", Gram Parsons' work in the early 1970s was acclaimed for its purity and for his appreciation for aspects of traditional country music. Though his career was cut tragically short by his 1973 death, his legacy was carried on by his protégé and duet partner Emmylou Harris; Harris would release her debut solo in 1975, an amalgamation of country, rock and roll, folk, blues and pop. Subsequent to the initial blending of the two polar opposite genres, other offspring soon resulted, including Southern rock, heartland rock and in more recent years, alternative country. In the decades that followed, artists such as Juice Newton, Alabama, Hank Williams, Jr. (and, to an even greater extent, Hank Williams III), Gary Allan, Shania Twain, Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Dolly Parton, Rosanne Cash and Linda Ronstadt moved country further towards rock influence.
Neocountry
In 1980, a style of "neocountry disco music" was popularized by the film Urban Cowboy. It was during this time that a glut of pop-country crossover artists began appearing on the country charts: former pop stars Bill Medley (of the Righteous Brothers), "England Dan" Seals (of England Dan and John Ford Coley), Tom Jones, and Merrill Osmond (both alone and with some of his brothers; his younger sister Marie Osmond was already an established country star) all recorded significant country hits in the early 1980s. Sales in record stores rocketed to $250 million in 1981; by 1984, 900 radio stations began programming country or neocountry pop full-time. As with most sudden trends, however, by 1984 sales had dropped below 1979 figures.
Truck driving country
Truck driving country music is a genre of country music
and is a fusion of honky-tonk, country rock and the Bakersfield sound.
It has the tempo of country rock and the emotion of honky-tonk, and its lyrics focus on a truck driver's lifestyle. Truck driving country songs often deal with the profession of trucking and love. Well-known artists who sing truck driving country include Dave Dudley, Red Sovine, Dick Curless, Red Simpson, Del Reeves, the Willis Brothers and Jerry Reed, with C. W. McCall and Cledus Maggard (pseudonyms of Bill Fries and Jay Huguely, respectively) being more humorous entries in the subgenre. Dudley is known as the father of truck driving country.
Neotraditionalist movement
During the mid-1980s, a group of new artists began to emerge who rejected the more polished country-pop sound that had been prominent on radio and the charts, in favor of more, traditional, "back-to-basics" production. Many of the artists during the latter half of the 1980s drew on traditional honky-tonk, bluegrass, folk and western swing. Artists who typified this sound included Travis Tritt, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Keith Whitley, Alan Jackson, John Anderson, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black, Ricky Skaggs, and the Judds.
Fifth generation (1990s)
Country music was aided by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Docket 80–90, which led to a significant expansion of FM radio in the 1980s by adding numerous higher-fidelity FM signals to rural and suburban areas. At this point, country music was mainly heard on rural AM radio stations; the expansion of FM was particularly helpful to country music, which migrated to FM from the AM band as AM became overcome by talk radio (the country music stations that stayed on AM developed the classic country format for the AM audience). At the same time, beautiful music stations already in rural areas began abandoning the format (leading to its effective demise) to adopt country music as well. This wider availability of country music led to producers seeking to polish their product for a wider audience. In 1990, Billboard, which had published a country music chart since the 1940s, changed the methodology it used to compile the chart: singles sales were removed from the methodology, and only airplay on country radio determined a song's place on the chart.
In the 1990s, country music became a worldwide phenomenon thanks to Garth Brooks, who enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the decade. The RIAA has certified his recordings at a combined (128× platinum), denoting roughly 113 million U.S. shipments. Other artists who experienced success during this time included Clint Black, John Michael Montgomery, Tracy Lawrence, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson and the newly formed duo of Brooks & Dunn; George Strait, whose career began in the 1980s, also continued to have widespread success in this decade and beyond. Toby Keith began his career as a more pop-oriented country singer in the 1990s, evolving into an outlaw persona in the early 2000s with Pull My Chain and its follow-up, Unleashed.
Success of female artists
Female artists such as Reba McEntire, Patty Loveless, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Deana Carter, LeAnn Rimes, Mindy McCready, Pam Tillis, Lorrie Morgan, Shania Twain, and Mary Chapin Carpenter all released platinum-selling albums in the 1990s. The Dixie Chicks became one of the most popular country bands in the 1990s and early 2000s. Their 1998 debut album Wide Open Spaces went on to become certified 12× platinum while their 1999 album Fly went on to become 10× platinum. After their third album, Home, was released in 2003, the band made political news in part because of lead singer Natalie Maines's comments disparaging then-President George W. Bush while the band was overseas (Maines stated that she and her bandmates were ashamed to be from the same state as Bush, who had just commenced the Iraq War a few days prior). The comments caused a rift between the band and the country music scene, and the band's fourth (and most recent) album, 2006's Taking the Long Way, took a more rock-oriented direction; the album was commercially successful overall among non-country audiences but largely ignored among country audiences. After Taking the Long Way, the band broke up for a decade (with two of its members continuing as the Court Yard Hounds) before reuniting in 2016 and releasing new material in 2020.
Canadian artist Shania Twain became the best selling female country artist of the decade. This was primarily due to the success of her breakthrough sophomore 1995 album, The Woman in Me, which was certified 12× platinum sold over 20 million copies worldwide and its follow-up, 1997's Come On Over, which was certified 20× platinum and sold over 40 million copies. The album became a major worldwide phenomenon and became one of the world's best selling albums for three years (1998, 1999 and 2000); it also went on to become the best selling country album of all time.
Unlike the majority of her contemporaries, Twain enjoyed large international success that had been seen by very few country artists, before or after her. Critics have noted that Twain enjoyed much of her success due to breaking free of traditional country stereotypes and for incorporating elements of rock and pop into her music. In 2002, she released her successful fourth studio album, titled Up!, which was certified 11× platinum and sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Shania Twain has been nominated eighteen times for Grammy Awards and won five Grammys. [] She was the best-paid country music star in 2016 according to Forbes, with a net worth of $27.5 million. []Twain has been credited with breaking international boundaries for country music, as well as inspiring many country artists to incorporate different genres into their music in order to attract a wider audience. She is also credited with changing the way in which many female country performers would market themselves, as unlike many before her she used fashion and her sex appeal to get rid of the stereotypical 'honky-tonk' image the majority of country singers had in order to distinguish herself from many female country artists of the time.
Line dancing revival
In the early-mid-1990s, country western music was influenced by the popularity of line dancing. This influence was so great that Chet Atkins was quoted as saying, "The music has gotten pretty bad, I think. It's all that damn line dancing." By the end of the decade, however, at least one line dance choreographer complained that good country line dance music was no longer being released. In contrast, artists such as Don Williams and George Jones who had more or less had consistent chart success through the 1970s and 1980s suddenly had their fortunes fall rapidly around 1991 when the new chart rules took effect.
Alternative country
Country influences combined with Punk rock and alternative rock to forge the "cowpunk" scene in Southern California during the 1980s, which included bands such as the Long Ryders, Lone Justice and the Beat Farmers, as well as the established punk group X, whose music had begun to include country and rockabilly influences. Simultaneously, a generation of diverse country artists outside of California emerged that rejected the perceived cultural and musical conservatism associated with Nashville's mainstream country musicians in favor of more countercultural outlaw country and the folk singer-songwriter traditions of artists such as Woody Guthrie, Gram Parsons and Bob Dylan.
Artists from outside California who were associated with early alternative country included singer-songwriters such as Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle, the Nashville country rock band Jason and the Scorchers, the Providence "cowboy pop" band Rubber Rodeo, and the British post-punk band the Mekons. Earle, in particular, was noted for his popularity with both country and college rock audiences: He promoted his 1986 debut album Guitar Town with a tour that saw him open for both country singer Dwight Yoakam and alternative rock band the Replacements. Yoakam also cultivated a fanbase spanning multiple genres through his stripped-down honky-tonk influenced sound, association with the cowpunk scene, and performances at Los Angeles punk rock clubs.
These early styles had coalesced into a genre by the time the Illinois group Uncle Tupelo released their influential debut album No Depression in 1990. The album is widely credited as being the first "alternative country" album, and inspired the name of No Depression magazine, which exclusively covered the new genre. Following Uncle Tupelo's disbanding in 1994, its members formed two significant bands in genre: Wilco and Son Volt. Although Wilco's sound had moved away from country and towards indie rock by the time they released their critically acclaimed album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in 2002, they have continued to be an influence on later alt-country artists.
Other acts who became prominent in the alt-country genre during the 1990s and 2000s included the Bottle Rockets, the Handsome Family, Blue Mountain, Robbie Fulks, Blood Oranges, Bright Eyes, Drive-By Truckers, Old 97's, Old Crow Medicine Show, Nickel Creek, Neko Case, and Whiskeytown, whose lead singer Ryan Adams later had a successful solo-career. Alt-country, in various iterations overlapped with other genres, including Red Dirt country music (Cross Canadian Ragweed), jam bands (My Morning Jacket and the String Cheese Incident), and indie folk (the Avett Brothers).
Despite the genre's growing popularity in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, alternative country and neo-traditionalist artists saw minimal support from country radio in those decades, despite strong sales and critical acclaim for albums such as the soundtrack to the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?. In 1987, the Beat Farmers gained airplay on country music stations with their song "Make It Last", but the single was pulled from the format when station programmers decreed the band's music was too rock-oriented for their audience. However, some alt-country songs have been crossover hits to mainstream country radio in cover versions by established artists on the format; Lucinda Williams' "Passionate Kisses" was a hit for Mary Chapin Carpenter in 1993, Ryan Adams' "When the Stars Go Blue" was a hit for Tim McGraw in 2007, and Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel" was a hit for Darius Rucker (member of Hootie & The Blowfish) in 2013.
In the 2010s, the alt-country genre saw an increase in its critical and commercial popularity, owing to the success of artists such as the Civil Wars, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, Lydia Loveless and Margo Price. In 2019, Kacey Musgraves – a country artist who had gained a following with indie rock fans and music critics despite minimal airplay on country radio – won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for her album Golden Hour.
Sixth generation (2000s–present)
The sixth generation of country music continued to be influenced by other genres such as pop, rock, and R&B. Richard Marx crossed over with his Days in Avalon album, which features five country songs and several singers and musicians. Alison Krauss sang background vocals to Marx's single "Straight from My Heart." Also, Bon Jovi had a hit single, "Who Says You Can't Go Home", with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland. Kid Rock's collaboration with Sheryl Crow, "Picture," was a major crossover hit in 2001 and began Kid Rock's transition from hard rock to a country-rock hybrid that would later produce another major crossover hit, 2008's "All Summer Long." (Crow, whose music had often incorporated country elements, would also officially cross over into country with her hit "Easy" from her debut country album Feels like Home). Darius Rucker, frontman for the 1990s pop-rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, began a country solo career in the late 2000s, one that to date has produced five albums and several hits on both the country charts and the Billboard Hot 100. Singer-songwriter Unknown Hinson became famous for his appearance in the Charlotte television show Wild, Wild, South, after which Hinson started his own band and toured in southern states. Other rock stars who featured a country song on their albums were Don Henley (who released Cass County in 2015, an album which featured collaborations with numerous country artists) and Poison.
The back half of the 2010-2020 decade saw an increasing number of mainstream country acts collaborate with pop and R&B acts; many of these songs achieved commercial success by appealing to fans across multiple genres; examples include collaborations between Kane Brown and Marshmello and Maren Morris and Zedd. There has also been interest from pop singers in country music, including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber and Pink. Supporting this movement is the new generation of contemporary pop-country, including Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves, Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Sam Hunt, Chris Young, who introduced new themes in their works, touching on fundamental rights, feminism, and controversies about racism and religion of the older generations.
Popular culture
In 2005, country singer Carrie Underwood rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol and has since become one of the most prominent recording artists in the genre, with worldwide sales of more than 65 million records and seven Grammy Awards. With her first single, "Inside Your Heaven", Underwood became the only solo country artist to have a number 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the 2000–2009 decade and also broke Billboard chart history as the first country music artist ever to debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100. Underwood's debut album, Some Hearts, became the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history, the fastest-selling debut country album in the history of the SoundScan era and the best-selling country album of the last 10 years, being ranked by Billboard as the number 1 Country Album of the 2000–2009 decade. She has also become the female country artist with the most number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in the Nielsen SoundScan era (1991–present), having 14 #1s and breaking her own Guinness Book record of ten. In 2007, Underwood won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, becoming only the second Country artist in history (and the first in a decade) to win it. She also made history by becoming the seventh woman to win Entertainer of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the first woman in history to win the award twice, as well as twice consecutively. Time has listed Underwood as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
In 2016, Underwood topped the Country Airplay chart for the 15th time, becoming the female artist with the most number ones on that chart.
Carrie Underwood was only one of several country stars produced by a television series in the 2000s. In addition to Underwood, American Idol launched the careers of Kellie Pickler, Josh Gracin, Bucky Covington, Kristy Lee Cook, Danny Gokey, Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery (as well as that of occasional country singer Kelly Clarkson) in the decade, and would continue to launch country careers in the 2010s. The series Nashville Star, while not nearly as successful as Idol, did manage to bring Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and Chris Young to mainstream success, also launching the careers of lower-profile musicians such as Buddy Jewell, Sean Patrick McGraw, and Canadian musician George Canyon. Can You Duet? produced the duos Steel Magnolia and Joey + Rory. Teen sitcoms also have influenced modern country music; in 2008, actress Jennette McCurdy (best known as the sidekick Sam on the teen sitcom iCarly) released her first single, "So Close", following that with the single "Generation Love" in 2011. Another teen sitcom star, Miley Cyrus (of Disney Channel's Hannah Montana), also had a crossover hit in the late 2000s with "The Climb" and another with a duet with her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, with "Ready, Set, Don't Go." Jana Kramer, an actress in the teen drama One Tree Hill, released a country album in 2012 that has produced two hit singles as of 2013. Actresses Hayden Panettiere and Connie Britton began recording country songs as part of their roles in the TV shows Nashville and Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale released her debut album Road Between in 2014.
In 2010, the group Lady Antebellum won five Grammys, including the coveted Song of the Year and Record of the Year for "Need You Now". A large number of duos and vocal groups emerged on the charts in the 2010s, many of which feature close harmony in the lead vocals. In addition to Lady A, groups such as Little Big Town, the Band Perry, Gloriana, Thompson Square, Eli Young Band, Zac Brown Band and British duo the Shires have emerged to occupy a large share of mainstream success alongside solo singers such as Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert.
One of the most commercially successful country artists of the late 2000s and early 2010s has been singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Swift first became widely known in 2006 when her debut single, "Tim McGraw", was released when Swift was only 16 years old. In 2006, Swift released her self-titled debut studio album, which spent 275 weeks on Billboard 200, one of the longest runs of any album on that chart. In 2008, Taylor Swift released her second studio album, Fearless, which made her the second longest number-one charted on Billboard 200 and the second best-selling album (just behind Adele's 21) within the past 5 years. At the 2010 Grammys, Taylor Swift was 20 and won Album of the Year for Fearless, which made her the youngest artist to win this award. Swift has received twelve Grammys already.
Buoyed by her teen idol status among girls and a change in the methodology of compiling the Billboard charts to favor pop-crossover songs, Swift's 2012 single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" spent the most weeks at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart and Hot Country Songs chart of any song in nearly five decades. The song's long run at the top of the chart was somewhat controversial, as the song is largely a pop song without much country influence and its success on the charts driven by a change to the chart's criteria to include airplay on non-country radio stations, prompting disputes over what constitutes a country song; many of Swift's later releases, such as album 1989 (2014), Reputation (2017), and Lover (2019) were released solely to pop audiences. Swift returned to country music in her recent folk-inspired releases, Folklore (2020) and Evermore (2020), with songs like "Betty" and "No Body, No Crime".
Modern variations
Influence of rock, pop and hip-hop
In the mid to late 2010s, country music began to increasingly sound more like the style of modern-day Pop music, with more simple and repetitive lyrics, more electronic-based instrumentation, and experimentation with "talk-singing" and rap, pop-country pulled farther away from the traditional sounds of country music and received criticisms from country music purists while gaining in popularity with mainstream audiences. The topics addressed have also changed, turning controversial such as acceptance of the LGBT community, safe sex, recreational marijuana use, and questioning religious sentiment. Influences also come from some pop artists' interest in the country genre, including Justin Timberlake with the album Man of the Woods, Beyoncé's single "Daddy Lessons" from Lemonade, Gwen Stefani with "Nobody but You", Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson, and Pink.
The influence of rock music in country has become more overt during the late 2000s and early 2010s as artists like Eric Church, Jason Aldean, and Brantley Gilbert have had success; Aaron Lewis, former frontman for the rock group Staind, had a moderately successful entry into country music in 2011 and 2012, as did Dallas Smith, former frontman of the band Default.
Maren Morris success collaboration "The Middle" with EDM producer Zedd is considered one of the representations of the fusion of electro-pop with country music.
Lil Nas X song "Old Town Road" spent 19 weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the longest-running number-one song since the chart debuted in 1958, winning Billboard Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Grammy Award. Sam Hunt "Leave the Night On" peaked concurrently on the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, making Hunt the first country artist in 22 years, since Billy Ray Cyrus, to reach the top of three country charts simultaneously in the Nielsen SoundScan-era. With the fusion genre of "country trap"—a fusion of country/western themes to a hip hop beat, but usually with fully sung lyrics—emerging in the late 2010s, line dancing country had a minor revival, examples of the phenomenon include "The Git Up" by Blanco Brown. Blanco Brown has gone of to make more traditional country soul songs such as "I Need Love" and a rendition of "Don't Take the Girl" with Tim McGraw, and collaborations like "Just the Way" with Parmalee. Another country trap artist known as Breland has seen success with "My Truck, "Throw It Back" with Keith Urban, and "Praise the Lord" featuring Thomas Rhett.
Emo rap musician Sueco, released a cowpunk song in collaboration is country musician Warren Zeiders titled "Ride It Hard". Alex Melton, known for his music covers, blends pop punk with country music.
Bro country
In the early 2010s, "bro-country", a genre noted primarily for its themes on drinking and partying, girls, and pickup trucks became particularly popular. Notable artists associated with this genre are Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Jake Owen and Florida Georgia Line whose song "Cruise" became the best-selling country song of all time. Research in the mid-2010s suggested that about 45 percent of country's best-selling songs could be considered bro-country, with the top two artists being Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line. Albums by bro-country singers also sold very well—in 2013, Luke Bryan's Crash My Party was the third best-selling of all albums in the United States, with Florida Georgia Line's Here's to the Good Times at sixth, and Blake Shelton's Based on a True Story at ninth. It is also thought that the popularity of bro-country helped country music to surpass classic rock as the most popular genre in the American country in 2012. The genre however is controversial as it has been criticized by other country musicians and commentators over its themes and depiction of women, opening up a divide between the older generation of country singers and the younger bro country singers that was described as "civil war" by musicians, critics, and journalists." In 2014, Maddie & Tae's "Girl in a Country Song", addressing many of the controversial bro-country themes, peaked at number one on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.
Bluegrass and Americana
is a genre that contain songs about going through hard times, country loving, and telling stories. Newer artists like Billy Strings, the Grascals, Molly Tuttle, Tyler Childers and the Infamous Stringdusters have been increasing the popularity of this genre, alongside some of the genres more established stars who still remain popular including Rhonda Vincent, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Ricky Skaggs and Del McCoury. The genre has developed in the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati area. Other artists include New South (band), Doc Watson, Osborne Brothers, and many others.
In an effort to combat the over-reliance of mainstream country music on pop-infused artists, the sister genre of Americana began to gain popularity and increase in prominence, receiving eight Grammy categories of its own in 2009. Americana music incorporates elements of country music, bluegrass, folk, blues, gospel, rhythm and blues, roots rock and southern soul and is overseen by the Americana Music Association and the Americana Music Honors & Awards. As a result of an increasingly pop-leaning mainstream, many more traditional-sounding artists such as Tyler Childers, Zach Bryan and Old Crow Medicine Show began to associate themselves more with Americana and the alternative country scene where their sound was more celebrated. Similarly, many established country acts who no longer received commercial airplay, including Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett, began to flourish again.
Contemporary country and western revival
During the mid-1980s, a group of new artists began to emerge who rejected the more polished country-pop sound that had been prominent on radio and the charts, in favor of more, traditional, "back-to-basics" production. Many of the artists during the latter half of the 1980s drew on traditional honky-tonk, bluegrass, folk and western swing. Artists who typified this sound included Travis Tritt, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Keith Whitley, Alan Jackson, John Anderson, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black, Ricky Skaggs, and the Judds.
Beginning in 1989, a confluence of events brought an unprecedented commercial boom to country music. New marketing strategies were used to engage fans, powered by technology that more accurately tracked the popularity of country music, and boosted by a political and economic climate that focused attention on the genre. Garth Brooks ("Friends in Low Places") in particular attracted fans with his fusion of neotraditionalist country and stadium rock. Other artists such as Brooks and Dunn ("Boot Scootin' Boogie") also combined conventional country with slick, rock elements, while Lorrie Morgan, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Kathy Mattea updated neotraditionalist styles.
Roots of conservative country was Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA". The September 11 attacks of 2001 and the economic recession helped move country music back into the spotlight. Many country artists, such as Alan Jackson with his ballad on terrorist attacks, "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)", wrote songs that celebrated the military, highlighted the gospel, and emphasized home and family values over wealth. Alt-Country singer Ryan Adams song "New York, New York" pays tribute to New York City, and its popular music video (which was shot 4 days before the attacks) shows Adams playing in front of the Manhattan skyline, Along with several shots of the city. In contrast, more rock-oriented country singers took more direct aim at the attacks' perpetrators; Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" threatened to "a boot in" the posterior of the enemy, while Charlie Daniels's "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag" promised to "hunt" the perpetrators "down like a mad dog hound." These songs gained such recognition that it put country music back into popular culture. Darryl Worley recorded "Have You Forgotten" also. There have been numerous patriotic country songs throughout the years.
Some modern artists that primarily or entirely produce country pop music include Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, Sam Hunt, Kane Brown, Chris Lane, and Dan + Shay. The singers who are part of this country movement are also defined as "Nashville's new generation of country".
Although the changes made by the new generation, it has been recognized by major music awards associations and successes in Billboard and international charts. Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves won album of the year at 61st Annual Grammy Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, Country Music Association Awards, although it has received widespread criticism from the more traditionalist public.
International
Australia
Australian country music has a long tradition. Influenced by US country music, it has developed a distinct style, shaped by British and Irish folk ballads and Australian bush balladeers like Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson. Country instruments, including the guitar, banjo, fiddle and harmonica, create the distinctive sound of country music in Australia and accompany songs with strong storyline and memorable chorus.
Folk songs sung in Australia between the 1780s and 1920s, based around such themes as the struggle against government tyranny, or the lives of bushrangers, swagmen, drovers, stockmen and shearers, continue to influence the genre. This strain of Australian country, with lyrics focusing on Australian subjects, is generally known as "bush music" or "bush band music". "Waltzing Matilda", often regarded as Australia's unofficial national anthem, is a quintessential Australian country song, influenced more by British and Irish folk ballads than by US country and western music. The lyrics were composed by the poet Banjo Paterson in 1895. Other popular songs from this tradition include "The Wild Colonial Boy", "Click Go the Shears", "The Queensland Drover" and "The Dying Stockman". Later themes which endure to the present include the experiences of war, of droughts and flooding rains, of Aboriginality and of the railways and trucking routes which link Australia's vast distances.
Pioneers of a more Americanised popular country music in Australia included Tex Morton (known as "The Father of Australian Country Music") in the 1930s. Author Andrew Smith delivers a through research and engaged view of Tex Morton's life and his impact on the country music scene in Australia in the 1930s and 1940s. Other early stars included Buddy Williams, Shirley Thoms and Smoky Dawson. Buddy Williams (1918–1986) was the first Australian-born to record country music in Australia in the late 1930s and was the pioneer of a distinctly Australian style of country music called the bush ballad that others such as Slim Dusty would make popular in later years. During the Second World War, many of Buddy Williams recording sessions were done whilst on leave from the Army. At the end of the war, Williams would go on to operate some of the largest travelling tent rodeo shows Australia has ever seen.
In 1952, Dawson began a radio show and went on to national stardom as a singing cowboy of radio, TV and film. Slim Dusty (1927–2003) was known as the "King of Australian Country Music" and helped to popularise the Australian bush ballad. His successful career spanned almost six decades, and his 1957 hit "A Pub with No Beer" was the biggest-selling record by an Australian to that time, and with over seven million record sales in Australia he is the most successful artist in Australian musical history. Dusty recorded and released his one-hundredth album in the year 2000 and was given the honour of singing "Waltzing Matilda" in the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Dusty's wife Joy McKean penned several of his most popular songs.
Chad Morgan, who began recording in the 1950s, has represented a vaudeville style of comic Australian country; Frank Ifield achieved considerable success in the early 1960s, especially in the UK Singles Charts and Reg Lindsay was one of the first Australians to perform at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry in 1974. Eric Bogle's 1972 folk lament to the Gallipoli Campaign "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" recalled the British and Irish origins of Australian folk-country. Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, whose music style straddles folk, rock and country, is often described as the poet laureate of Australian music.
By the 1990s, country music had attained crossover success in the pop charts, with artists like James Blundell and James Reyne singing "Way Out West", and country star Kasey Chambers winning the ARIA Award for Best Female Artist in three years (2000, 2002 and 2004), tying with pop stars Wendy Matthews and Sia for the most wins in that category. Furthermore, Chambers has gone on to win nine ARIA Awards for Best Country Album and, in 2018, became the youngest artist to ever be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. The crossover influence of Australian country is also evident in the music of successful contemporary bands the Waifs and the John Butler Trio. Nick Cave has been heavily influenced by the country artist Johnny Cash. In 2000, Cash, covered Cave's "The Mercy Seat" on the album American III: Solitary Man, seemingly repaying Cave for the compliment he paid by covering Cash's "The Singer" (originally "The Folk Singer") on his Kicking Against the Pricks album. Subsequently, Cave cut a duet with Cash on a version of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" for Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around album (2002).
Popular contemporary performers of Australian country music include John Williamson (who wrote the iconic "True Blue"), Lee Kernaghan (whose hits include "Boys from the Bush" and "The Outback Club"), Gina Jeffreys, Forever Road and Sara Storer. In the U.S., Olivia Newton-John, Sherrié Austin and Keith Urban have attained great success. During her time as a country singer in the 1970s, Newton-John became the first (and to date only) non-US winner of the Country Music Association Award for Female Vocalist of the Year which many considered a controversial decision by the CMA; after starring in the rock-and-roll musical film Grease in 1978, Newton-John (mirroring the character she played in the film) shifted to pop music in the 1980s. Urban is arguably considered the most successful international Australian country star, winning nine CMA Awards, including three Male Vocalist of the Year wins and two wins of the CMA's top honour Entertainer of the Year. Pop star Kylie Minogue found success with her 2018 country pop album Golden which she recorded in Nashville reaching number one in Scotland, the UK and her native Australia.
Country music has been a particularly popular form of musical expression among Indigenous Australians. Troy Cassar-Daley is among Australia's successful contemporary indigenous performers, and Kev Carmody and Archie Roach employ a combination of folk-rock and country music to sing about Aboriginal rights issues.
The Tamworth Country Music Festival began in 1973 and now attracts up to 100,000 visitors annually. Held in Tamworth, New South Wales (country music capital of Australia), it celebrates the culture and heritage of Australian country music. During the festival the CMAA holds the Country Music Awards of Australia ceremony awarding the Golden Guitar trophies. Other significant country music festivals include the Whittlesea Country Music Festival (near Melbourne) and the Mildura Country Music Festival for "independent" performers during October, and the Canberra Country Music Festival held in the national capital during November.
Country HQ showcases new talent on the rise in the country music scene down under. CMC (the Country Music Channel), a 24‑hour music channel dedicated to non-stop country music, can be viewed on pay TV and features once a year the Golden Guitar Awards, CMAs and CCMAs alongside international shows such as The Wilkinsons, The Road Hammers, and Country Music Across America.
Canada
Outside of the United States, Canada has the largest country music fan and artist base, something that is to be expected given the two countries' proximity and cultural parallels. Mainstream country music is culturally ingrained in the prairie provinces, the British Columbia Interior, Northern Ontario, and in Atlantic Canada. Celtic traditional music developed in Atlantic Canada in the form of Scottish, Acadian and Irish folk music popular amongst Irish, French and Scottish immigrants to Canada's Atlantic Provinces (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island). Like the southern United States and Appalachia, all four regions are of heavy British Isles stock and rural; as such, the development of traditional music in the Maritimes somewhat mirrored the development of country music in the US South and Appalachia. Country and western music never really developed separately in Canada; however, after its introduction to Canada, following the spread of radio, it developed quite quickly out of the Atlantic Canadian traditional scene. While true Atlantic Canadian traditional music is very Celtic or "sea shanty" in nature, even today, the lines have often been blurred. Certain areas often are viewed as embracing one strain or the other more openly. For example, in Newfoundland the traditional music remains unique and Irish in nature, whereas traditional musicians in other parts of the region may play both genres interchangeably.
Don Messer's Jubilee was a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based country/folk variety television show that was broadcast nationally from 1957 to 1969. In Canada it out-performed The Ed Sullivan Show broadcast from the United States and became the top-rated television show throughout much of the 1960s. Don Messer's Jubilee followed a consistent format throughout its years, beginning with a tune named "Goin' to the Barndance Tonight", followed by fiddle tunes by Messer, songs from some of his "Islanders" including singers Marg Osburne and Charlie Chamberlain, the featured guest performance, and a closing hymn. It ended with "Till We Meet Again". The guest performance slot gave national exposure to numerous Canadian folk musicians, including Stompin' Tom Connors and Catherine McKinnon. Some Maritime country performers went on to further fame beyond Canada. Hank Snow, Wilf Carter (also known as Montana Slim), and Anne Murray are the three most notable. The cancellation of the show by the public broadcaster in 1969 caused a nationwide protest, including the raising of questions in the Parliament of Canada.
The Prairie provinces, due to their western cowboy and agrarian nature, are the true heartland of Canadian country music. While the Prairies never developed a traditional music culture anything like the Maritimes, the folk music of the Prairies often reflected the cultural origins of the settlers, who were a mix of Scottish, Ukrainian, German and others. For these reasons polkas and western music were always popular in the region, and with the introduction of the radio, mainstream country music flourished. As the culture of the region is western and frontier in nature, the specific genre of country and western is more popular today in the Prairies than in any other part of the country. No other area of the country embraces all aspects of the culture, from two-step dancing, to the cowboy dress, to rodeos, to the music itself, like the Prairies do. The Atlantic Provinces, on the other hand, produce far more traditional musicians, but they are not usually specifically country in nature, usually bordering more on the folk or Celtic genres.
Canadian country pop star Shania Twain is the best-selling female country artist of all time and one of the best-selling artists of all time in any genre. Furthermore, she is the only woman to have three consecutive albums be certified Diamond.
Mexico and Latin America
Country music artists from the U.S. have seen crossover with Latin American audiences, particularly in Mexico. Country music artists from throughout the U.S. have recorded renditions of Mexican folk songs, including "El Rey" which was performed on George Strait's Twang album and during Al Hurricane's tribute concert. American Latin pop crossover musicians, like Lorenzo Antonio's "Ranchera Jam" have also combined Mexican songs with country songs in a New Mexico music style.
While Tejano and New Mexico music is typically thought of as being Spanish language, the genres have also had charting musicians focused on English language music. During the 1970s, singer-songwriter Freddy Fender had two #1 country music singles, that were popular throughout North America, with "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" and "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights". Notable songs which have been influenced by Hispanic and Latin culture as performed by US country music artists include Marty Robbins' "El Paso" trilogy, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covering the Townes Van Zandt song "Pancho and Lefty", "Toes" by Zac Brown Band, and "Sangria" by Blake Shelton.
Regional Mexican is a radio format featuring many of Mexico's versions of country music. It includes a number of different styles, usually named after their region of origin. One specific song style, the Canción Ranchera, or simply Ranchera, literally meaning "ranch song", found its origins in the Mexican countryside and was first popularized with Mariachi. It has since also become popular with Grupero, Banda, Norteño, Tierra Caliente, Duranguense and other regional Mexican styles. The Corrido, a different song style with a similar history, is also performed in many other regional styles, and is most related to the western style of the United States and Canada. Other song styles performed in regional Mexican music include Ballads, Cumbias, Boleros, among others. Country en Español (Country in Spanish) is also popular in Mexico. Some Mexican artists began performing country songs in Spanish during the 1970s, and the genre became prominent mainly in the northern regions of the country during the 1980s. A Country en Español popularity boom also reached the central regions of Mexico during the 1990s. For most of its history, Country en Español mainly resembled Neotraditional country. However, in more modern times, some artists have incorporated influences from other country music subgenres.
In Brazil, there is Música Sertaneja, the most popular music genre in that country. It originated in the countryside of São Paulo state in the 1910s, before the development of U.S. country music.
In Argentina, on the last weekend of September, the yearly San Pedro Country Music Festival takes place in the town of San Pedro, Buenos Aires. The festival features bands from different places in Argentina, as well as international artists from Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru and the U.S.
United Kingdom
Country music is popular in the United Kingdom, although somewhat less so than in other English-speaking countries. There are some British country music acts and publications. Although radio stations devoted to country are among the most popular in other Anglophone nations, none of the top ten most-listened-to stations in the UK are country stations, and national broadcaster BBC Radio does not offer a full-time country station (BBC Radio 2 Country, a "pop-up" station, operated four days each year between 2015 and 2017). The BBC does offer a country show on BBC Radio 2 each week hosted by Bob Harris.
The most successful British country music act of the 21st century are Ward Thomas and the Shires. In 2015, the Shires' album Brave, became the first UK country act ever to chart in the Top 10 of the UK Albums Chart and they became the first UK country act to receive an award from the American Country Music Association. In 2016, Ward Thomas then became the first UK country act to hit number 1 in the UK Albums Chart with their album Cartwheels.
There is the C2C: Country to Country festival held every year, and for many years there was a festival at Wembley Arena, which was broadcast on the BBC, the International Festivals of Country Music, promoted by Mervyn Conn, held at the venue between 1969 and 1991. The shows were later taken into Europe, and featured such stars as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, David Allan Coe, Emmylou Harris, Boxcar Willie, Johnny Russell and Jerry Lee Lewis. A handful of country musicians had even greater success in mainstream British music than they did in the U.S., despite a certain amount of disdain from the music press. Britain's largest music festival Glastonbury has featured major US country acts in recent years, such as Kenny Rogers in 2013 and Dolly Parton in 2014.
From within the UK, few country musicians achieved widespread mainstream success. Many British singers who performed the occasional country songs are of other genres. Tom Jones, by this point near the end of his peak success as a pop singer, had a string of country hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Bee Gees had some fleeting success in the genre, with one country hit as artists ("Rest Your Love on Me") and a major hit as songwriters ("Islands in the Stream"); Barry Gibb, the band's usual lead singer and last surviving member, acknowledged that country music was a major influence on the band's style. Singer Engelbert Humperdinck, while charting only once in the U.S. country top 40 with "After the Lovin'," achieved widespread success on both the U.S. and British pop charts with his covers of Nashville country ballads such as "Release Me," "Am I That Easy to Forget" and "There Goes My Everything." Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler initially started her career making country records, and in 1978 her single "It's a Heartache" reached number four on the UK Singles Chart. In 2013, Tyler returned to her roots, blending the country elements of her early work with the rock of her successful material on her album Rocks and Honey which featured a duet with Vince Gill. The songwriting tandem of Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway wrote a number of country hits, in addition to their widespread success in pop songwriting; Cook is notable for being the only Briton to be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
A niche country subgenre popular in the West Country is Scrumpy and Western, which consists mostly of novelty songs and comedy music recorded there (its name comes from scrumpy, an alcoholic beverage). A primarily local interest, the largest Scrumpy and Western hit in the UK and Ireland was "The Combine Harvester," which pioneered the genre and reached number one in both the UK and Ireland; Fred Wedlock had a number-six hit in 1981 with "The Oldest Swinger in Town." In 1975, comedian Billy Connolly topped the UK Singles Chart with "D.I.V.O.R.C.E.", a parody of the Tammy Wynette song "D-I-V-O-R-C-E".
The British Country Music Festival is an annual three-day festival held in the seaside resort of Blackpool. It uniquely promotes artists from the United Kingdom and Ireland to celebrate the impact that Celtic and British settlers to America had on the origins of country music. Past headline artists have included Amy Wadge, Ward Thomas, Tom Odell, Nathan Carter, Lisa McHugh, Catherine McGrath, Wildwood Kin, The Wandering Hearts and Henry Priestman.
Ireland
In Ireland, Country and Irish is a music genre that combines traditional Irish folk music with US country music. Television channel TG4 began a quest for Ireland's next country star called Glór Tíre, translated as "Country Voice". It is now in its sixth season and is one of TG4's most-watched TV shows. Over the past ten years, country and gospel recording artist James Kilbane has reached multi-platinum success with his mix of Christian and traditional country influenced albums. James Kilbane like many other Irish artists is today working closer with Nashville. Daniel O'Donnell achieved international success with his brand of music crossing country, Irish folk and European easy listening, earning a strong following among older women both in the British Isles and in North America. A recent success in the Irish arena has been Crystal Swing.
Japan and Asia
In Japan, there are forms of J-country and J-western similar to other J-pop movements, J-hip hop and J-rock. One of the first J-western musicians was Biji Kuroda & The Chuck Wagon Boys, other vintage artists included Jimmie Tokita and His Mountain Playboys, The Blue Rangers, Wagon Aces, and Tomi Fujiyama. J-country continues to have a dedicated following in Japan, thanks to Charlie Nagatani, Katsuoshi Suga, J.T. Kanehira, Dicky Kitano, and Manami Sekiya. Country and western venues in Japan include the former annual Country Gold which were put together by Charlie Nagatani, and the modern honky tonks at Little Texas in Tokyo and Armadillo in Nagoya.
In India, there is an annual concert festival called "Blazing Guitars" held in Chennai brings together Anglo-Indian musicians from all over the country (including some who have emigrated to places like Australia). The year 2003 brought home-grown Indian, Bobby Cash to the forefront of the country music culture in India when he became India's first international country music artist to chart singles in Australia.
In the Philippines, country music has found their way into Cordilleran way of life, which often compares the Igorot lifestyle to that of US cowboys. Baguio City has an FM station that caters to country music, DZWR 99.9 Country, which is part of the Catholic Media Network. Bombo Radyo Baguio has a segment on its Sunday slot for Igorot, Ilocano and country music. And as of recently, DWUB occasionally plays country music. Many country music musicians tour the Philippines. Original Pinoy Music has influences from country.
Other international country music
Tom Roland, from the Country Music Association International, explains country music's global popularity: "In this respect, at least, Country Music listeners around the globe have something in common with those in the United States. In Germany, for instance, Rohrbach identifies three general groups that gravitate to the genre: people intrigued with the US cowboy icon, middle-aged fans who seek an alternative to harder rock music and younger listeners drawn to the pop-influenced sound that underscores many current Country hits." One of the first US people to perform country music abroad was George Hamilton IV. He was the first country musician to perform in the Soviet Union; he also toured in Australia and the Middle East. He was deemed the "International Ambassador of Country Music" for his contributions to the globalization of country music. Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Keith Urban, and Dwight Yoakam have also made numerous international tours. The Country Music Association undertakes various initiatives to promote country music internationally.
Middle East
In Iran, country music has appeared in recent years. According to Melody Music Magazine, the pioneer of country music in Iran is the English-speaking country music band Dream Rovers, whose founder, singer and songwriter is Erfan Rezayatbakhsh (elf). The band was formed in 2007 in Tehran, and during this time they have been trying to introduce and popularize country music in Iran by releasing two studio albums and performing live at concerts, despite the difficulties that the Islamic regime in Iran makes for bands that are active in the western music field.
Musician Toby Keith performed alongside Saudi Arabian folk musician Rabeh Sager in 2017. This concert was similar to the performances of Jazz ambassadors that performed distinctively American style music internationally.
Continental Europe
In Sweden, Rednex rose to stardom combining country music with electro-pop in the 1990s. In 1994, the group had a worldwide hit with their version of the traditional Southern tune "Cotton-Eyed Joe". Artists popularizing more traditional country music in Sweden have been Ann-Louise Hanson, Hasse Andersson, Kikki Danielsson, Elisabeth Andreassen and Jill Johnson. In Poland an international country music festival, known as Piknik Country, has been organised in Mrągowo in Masuria since 1983. The number of country music artists in France has increased. Some of the most important are Liane Edwards, Annabel, Rockie Mountains, Tahiana, and Lili West. French rock and roll singer Eddy Mitchell is also inspired by Americana and country music.
In the Netherlands there are many artists producing popular country and Americana music, which is mostly in the English language, as well as Dutch country and country-like music in the Dutch language. The latter is mainly popular on the countrysides in the northern and eastern parts of the Netherlands and is less associated with its US brethren, although it sounds sometimes very similar. Well-known popular artists mainly performing in English are Waylon, Danny Vera, Ilse DeLange, Douwe Bob and Henk Wijngaard.
Performers and shows
US cable television
Several US television networks are at least partly devoted to the genre: Country Music Television (the first channel devoted to country music) and CMT Music (both owned by Paramount Global), RFD-TV and The Cowboy Channel (both owned by Rural Media Group), Heartland (owned by Get After It Media), Circle (a joint venture of the Grand Ole Opry and Gray Television), The Country Network (owned by TCN Country, LLC), and Country Music Channel (the country-oriented sister channel of California Music Channel).
The Nashville Network (TNN) was launched in 1983 as a channel devoted to country music, and later added sports and outdoor lifestyle programming. It actually launched just two days after CMT. In 2000, after TNN and CMT fell under the same corporate ownership, TNN was stripped of its country format and rebranded as The National Network, then Spike TV in 2003, Spike in 2006, and finally Paramount Network in 2018. TNN was later revived from 2012 to 2013 after Jim Owens Entertainment (the company responsible for prominent TNN hosts Crook & Chase) acquired the trademark and licensed it to Luken Communications; that channel renamed itself Heartland after Luken was embroiled in an unrelated dispute that left the company bankrupt.
Great American Country (GAC) was launched in 1995, also as a country music-oriented channel that would later add lifestyle programming pertaining to the American Heartland and South. In Spring 2021, GAC's then-owner, Discovery, Inc. divested the network to GAC Media, which also acquired the equestrian network Ride TV. Later, in the summer of that year, GAC Media relaunched Great American Country as GAC Family, a family-oriented general entertainment network, while Ride TV was relaunched as GAC Living, a network devoted to programming pertaining to lifestyles of the American South. The GAC acronym which once stood for "Great American Country" now stands for "Great American Channels".
Canadian television
Only one television channel was dedicated to country music in Canada: CMT owned by Corus Entertainment (90%) and Viacom (10%). However, the lifting of strict genre licensing restrictions saw the network remove the last of its music programming at the end of August 2017 for a schedule of generic off-network family sitcoms, Cancom-compliant lifestyle programming, and reality programming. In the past, the current-day Cottage Life network saw some country focus as Country Canada and later, CBC Country Canada before that network drifted into an alternate network for overflow CBC content as Bold. Stingray Music continues to maintain several country music audio-only channels on cable radio.
In the past, country music had an extensive presence, especially on the Canadian national broadcaster, CBC Television. The show Don Messer's Jubilee significantly affected country music in Canada; for instance, it was the program that launched Anne Murray's career. Gordie Tapp's Country Hoedown and its successor, The Tommy Hunter Show, ran for a combined 36 years on the CBC, from 1956 to 1992; in its last nine years on air, the U.S. cable network TNN carried Hunter's show.
Australian cable television
The only network dedicated to country music in Australia was the Country Music Channel owned by Foxtel. It ceased operations in June 2020 and was replaced by CMT (owned by Network 10 parent company Paramount Networks UK & Australia).
British digital television
One music video channel is now dedicated to country music in the United Kingdom: Spotlight TV, owned by Canis Media.
Festivals
Criticism
Subgenres misrepresented on streaming services
Computer science and music experts identified issues with algorithms on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, specifically the categorical homogenization of music curation and metadata within larger genres such as country music. Musicians and songs from minority heritage styles, such as Appalachian, Cajun, New Mexico, and Tejano music, underperform on these platforms due to underrepresentation and miscategorization of these subgenres.
Race issue in modern country music
The Country Music Association has awarded the New Artist award to a black American only twice in 63 years, and never to a Hispanic musician. The broader modern Nashville-based Country music industry has underrepresented significant black and Latino contributions within Country music, including popular subgenres such as Cajun, Creole, Tejano, and New Mexico music. A 2021 CNN article states, "Some in country music have signaled that they are no longer content to be associated with a painful history of racism."
Black country-music artist Mickey Guyton had been included among the nominees for the 2021 award, effectively creating a litmus-test for the genre. Guyton has expressed bewilderment that, despite substantial coverage by online platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, her music, like that of Valerie June, another black musician who embraces aspects of country in her Appalachian- and Gospel-tinged work and who has been embraced by international music audiences, is still effectively ignored by American broadcast country-music radio. Guyton's 2021 album Remember Her Name in part references the case of black health-care professional Breonna Taylor, who was killed in her home by police.
In 2023, "Try That in a Small Town" by Jason Aldean became the subject of widespread controversy and media attention following the release of its music video. Tennessee state representative Justin Jones referred to the song as a "heinous vile racist song" which attempts to normalize "racist, violence, vigilantism and white nationalism". Others thought the lyrics were supportive of lynchings and sundown towns. Amanda Marie Martinez of NPR wrote that the song "builds on a lineage of anti-city songs in country music that place the rural and urban along not only a moral versus immoral binary, but an implicitly racialized one as well...selective availability of home loans in suburbs and racially restrictive housing covenants in cities furthered white flight, making cities synonymous with non-whiteness." She concluded by stating that such songs are "why country music continues to be a frightening space for marginalized communities".
See also
American Country Countdown Awards
Canadian Country Music Association
CMT Music Awards
Country (identity)
Country and Irish
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Country-western dance
Culture of the Southern United States
Music genre
List of country music performers
List of RPM number-one country singles
Music of the United States
Pop music
Western Music Association
2021 in country music
References
Further reading
Thomas S. Johnson (1981) "That Ain't Country: The Distinctiveness of Commercial Western Music" JEMF Quarterly. Vol. 17, No. 62. Summer, 1981. pp 75–84.
Bill Legere (1977). Record Collectors Guide of Country LPs. Limited ed. Mississauga, Ont.: W.J. Legere. 269, 25, 29, 2 p., thrice perforated and looseleaf. Without ISBN
Bill Legere ([1977]). E[lectrical] T[anscription]s: Transcription Library of Bill Legere. Mississauga, Ont.: B. Legere. 3 vols., each of which is thrice perforated and looseleaf. N.B.: Vol. 1–2, Country Artists—vol. 2, Pop Artists. Without ISBN
Diane Pecknold (ed.) Hidden in the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.
External links
The Country Music Association – Nashville, Tennessee(CMA)
Western Music Association (WMA)
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum – Nashville, Tennessee
Grand Ole Opry – Nashville, Tennessee
Irish country music
Country Music Festivals Ontario Website
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation
TIME Archive of country music's progression
Xroad.virginia.edu, alt country from American Studies at the University of Virginia
Largest collection of online Country music radio stations
Kingwood Kowboy's History Of Country Music
A Treasure Trove for Country Music Collectors. The British Archive of Country Music Records, BACM, is dedicated to the preservation of traditional country music
2021
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Culture of the Southern United States
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5249 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony%20capitalism | Crony capitalism | Crony capitalism sometimes also called simply cronyism, is a pejorative term used in political discourse to describe a situation in which businesses profit from a close relationship with state power, either through an anti-competitive regulatory environment, direct government largesse, and/or corruption. Examples given for crony capitalism include obtainment of permits, government grants, tax breaks, or other undue influence from businesses over the state's deployment of public goods, for example, mining concessions for primary commodities or contracts for public works. In other words, it is used to describe a situation where businesses thrive not as a result of free enterprise, but rather collusion between a business class and the political class.
Money is then made not merely by making a profit in the market, but through profiteering by rent seeking using this monopoly or oligopoly. Entrepreneurship and innovative practices which seek to reward risk are stifled since the value-added is little by crony businesses, as hardly anything of significant value is created by them, with transactions taking the form of trading. Crony capitalism spills over into the government, the politics, and the media, when this nexus distorts the economy and affects society to an extent it corrupts public-serving economic, political, and social ideals.
Historical usage
The first extensive use of the term "crony capitalism" came about in the 1980s, to characterize the Philippine economy under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Early uses of this term to describe the economic practices of the Marcos regime included that of Ricardo Manapat, who introduced it in his 1979 pamphlet "Some are Smarter than Others", which was later published in 1991; former Time magazine business editor George M. Taber, who used the term in a Time magazine article in 1980, and activist (and later Finance Minister) Jaime Ongpin, who used the term extensively in his writing and is sometimes credited for having coined it.
The term crony capitalism made a significant impact in the public as an explanation of the Asian financial crisis.
It is also used to describe governmental decisions favoring cronies of governmental officials.
The term is used largely interchangeably with the related term corporate welfare, although the latter is by definition specific to corporations.
In practice
Crony capitalism exists along a continuum. In its lightest form, crony capitalism consists of collusion among market players which is officially tolerated or encouraged by the government. While perhaps lightly competing against each other, they will present a unified front (sometimes called a trade association or industry trade group) to the government in requesting subsidies or aid or regulation. For instance, newcomers to a market then need to surmount significant barriers to entry in seeking loans, acquiring shelf space, or receiving official sanction. Some such systems are very formalized, such as sports leagues and the Medallion System of the taxicabs of New York City, but often the process is more subtle, such as expanding training and certification exams to make it more expensive for new entrants to enter a market and thereby limiting potential competition. In technological fields, there may evolve a system whereby new entrants may be accused of infringing on patents that the established competitors never assert against each other. In spite of this, some competitors may succeed when the legal barriers are light. The term crony capitalism is generally used when these practices either come to dominate the economy as a whole, or come to dominate the most valuable industries in an economy. Intentionally ambiguous laws and regulations are common in such systems. Taken strictly, such laws would greatly impede practically all business activity, but in practice they are only erratically enforced. The specter of having such laws suddenly brought down upon a business provides an incentive to stay in the good graces of political officials. Troublesome rivals who have overstepped their bounds can have these laws suddenly enforced against them, leading to fines or even jail time. Even in high-income democracies with well-established legal systems and freedom of the press in place, a larger state is generally associated with increased political corruption.
The term crony capitalism was initially applied to states involved in the 1997 Asian financial crisis such as Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. In these cases, the term was used to point out how family members of the ruling leaders become extremely wealthy with no non-political justification. Southeast Asian nations, such as Hong Kong and Malaysia, still score very poorly in rankings measuring this. It was also used in this context as part of a broader liberal critique of economic dirigisme. The term has also been applied to the system of oligarchs in Russia. Other states to which the term has been applied include India, in particular the system after the 1990s liberalization, whereby land and other resources were given at throwaway prices in the name of public private partnerships, the more recent coal-gate scam and cheap allocation of land and resources to Adani SEZ under the Congress and BJP governments.
Similar references to crony capitalism have been made to other countries such as Argentina and Greece. Wu Jinglian, one of China's leading economists and a longtime advocate of its transition to free markets, says that it faces two starkly contrasting futures, namely a market economy under the rule of law or crony capitalism. A dozen years later, prominent political scientist Pei Minxin had concluded that the latter course had become deeply embedded in China. The anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping (2012–) has seen more than 100,000 high- and low-ranking Chinese officials indicted and jailed.
Many prosperous nations have also had varying amounts of cronyism throughout their history, including the United Kingdom especially in the 1600s and 1700s, the United States and Japan.
Crony capitalism index
The Economist benchmarks countries based on a crony-capitalism index calculated via how much economic activity occurs in industries prone to cronyism. Its 2014 Crony Capitalism Index ranking listed Hong Kong, Russia and Malaysia in the top three spots.
In finance
Crony capitalism in finance was found in the Second Bank of the United States. It was a private company, but its largest stockholder was the federal government which owned 20%. It was an early bank regulator and grew to be one being the most powerful organizations in the country due largely to being the depository of the government's revenue.
The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999 completely removed Glass–Steagall’s separation between commercial banks and investment banks. After this repeal, commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies combined their lobbying efforts. Critics claim this was instrumental in the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.
In sections of an economy
More direct government involvement in a specific sector can also lead to specific areas of crony capitalism, even if the economy as a whole may be competitive. This is most common in natural resource sectors through the granting of mining or drilling concessions, but it is also possible through a process known as regulatory capture where the government agencies in charge of regulating an industry come to be controlled by that industry. Governments will often establish in good faith government agencies to regulate an industry. However, the members of an industry have a very strong interest in the actions of that regulatory body while the rest of the citizenry are only lightly affected. As a result, it is not uncommon for current industry players to gain control of the watchdog and to use it against competitors. This typically takes the form of making it very expensive for a new entrant to enter the market. An 1824 landmark United States Supreme Court ruling overturned a New York State-granted monopoly ("a veritable model of state munificence" facilitated by Robert R. Livingston, one of the Founding Fathers) for the then-revolutionary technology of steamboats. Leveraging the Supreme Court's establishment of Congressional supremacy over commerce, the Interstate Commerce Commission was established in 1887 with the intent of regulating railroad robber barons. President Grover Cleveland appointed Thomas M. Cooley, a railroad ally, as its first chairman and a permit system was used to deny access to new entrants and legalize price fixing.
The defense industry in the United States is often described as an example of crony capitalism in an industry. Connections with the Pentagon and lobbyists in Washington are described by critics as more important than actual competition due to the political and secretive nature of defense contracts. In the Airbus-Boeing WTO dispute, Airbus (which receives outright subsidies from European governments) has stated Boeing receives similar subsidies which are hidden as inefficient defense contracts. Other American defense companies were put under scrutiny for no-bid contracts for Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina related contracts purportedly due to having cronies in the Bush administration.
Gerald P. O'Driscoll, former vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, stated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became examples of crony capitalism as government backing let Fannie and Freddie dominate mortgage underwriting, saying. "The politicians created the mortgage giants, which then returned some of the profits to the pols—sometimes directly, as campaign funds; sometimes as "contributions" to favored constituents".
In developing economies
In its worst form, crony capitalism can devolve into simple corruption where any pretense of a free market is dispensed with, bribes to government officials are considered de rigueur and tax evasion is common. This is seen in many parts of Africa and is sometimes called plutocracy (rule by wealth) or kleptocracy (rule by theft). Kenyan economist David Ndii has repeatedly brought to light how this system has manifested over time, occasioned by the reign of Uhuru Kenyatta as president.
Corrupt governments may favor one set of business owners who have close ties to the government over others. This may also be done with, religious, or ethnic favoritism. For instance, Alawites in Syria have a disproportionate share of power in the government and business there (President Assad himself is an Alawite). This can be explained by considering personal relationships as a social network. As government and business leaders try to accomplish various things, they naturally turn to other powerful people for support in their endeavors. These people form hubs in the network. In a developing country those hubs may be very few, thus concentrating economic and political power in a small interlocking group.
Normally, this will be untenable to maintain in business as new entrants will affect the market. However, if business and government are entwined, then the government can maintain the small-hub network.
Raymond Vernon, specialist in economics and international affairs, wrote that the Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain because they were the first to successfully limit the power of veto groups (typically cronies of those with power in government) to block innovations, writing: "Unlike most other national environments, the British environment of the early 19th century contained relatively few threats to those who improved and applied existing inventions, whether from business competitors, labor, or the government itself. In other European countries, by contrast, the merchant guilds ... were a pervasive source of veto for many centuries. This power was typically bestowed upon them by government." For example, a Russian inventor produced a steam engine in 1766 and disappeared without a trace. Vermon further stated that "a steam powered horseless carriage produced in France in 1769 was officially suppressed." James Watt began experimenting with steam in 1763, got a patent in 1769 and began commercial production in 1775.
Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, has said: "One of the greatest dangers to the growth of developing countries is the middle income trap, where crony capitalism creates oligarchies that slow down growth. If the debate during the elections is any pointer, this is a very real concern of the public in India today". Tavleen Singh, columnist for The Indian Express, has disagreed. According to Singh, India's corporate success is not a product of crony capitalism, but because India is no longer under the influence of crony socialism.
Political viewpoints
While the problem is generally accepted across the political spectrum, ideology shades the view of the problem's causes and therefore its solutions. Political views mostly fall into two camps which might be called the socialist and capitalist critique. The socialist position is that crony capitalism is the inevitable result of any strictly capitalist system and thus broadly democratic government must regulate economic, or wealthy, interests to restrict monopoly. The capitalist position is that natural monopolies are rare, therefore governmental regulations generally abet established wealthy interests by restricting competition.
Socialist critique
Critics of crony capitalism including socialists and anti-capitalists often assert that so-called crony capitalism is simply the inevitable result of any strictly capitalist system. Jane Jacobs described it as a natural consequence of collusion between those managing power and trade while Noam Chomsky has argued that the word crony is superfluous when describing capitalism. Since businesses make money and money leads to political power, business will inevitably use their power to influence governments. Much of the impetus behind campaign finance reform in the United States and in other countries is an attempt to prevent economic power being used to take political power.
Ravi Batra argues that "all official economic measures adopted since 1981 ... have devastated the middle class" and that the Occupy Wall Street movement should push for their repeal and thus end the influence of the super wealthy in the political process which he considers a manifestation of crony capitalism.
Socialist economists, such as Robin Hahnel, have criticized the term as an ideologically motivated attempt to cast what is in their view the fundamental problems of capitalism as avoidable irregularities. Socialist economists dismiss the term as an apologetic for failures of neoliberal policy and more fundamentally their perception of the weaknesses of market allocation.
Capitalist critique
Supporters of capitalism also generally oppose crony capitalism. Further, supporters such as classical liberals, neoliberals and right-libertarians consider it an aberration brought on by governmental favors incompatible with free market.. In the capitalist view, cronyism is the result of an excess of interference in the market which inevitably will result in a toxic combination of corporations and government officials running sectors of the economy. For instance, the Financial Times observed that, in Vietnam during the 2010s, the primary beneficiaries of cronyism were Communist party officials, noting also the "common practice of employing only party members and their family members and associates to government jobs or to jobs in state-owned enterprises."
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro prefers to equate this problem with terms such as corporatocracy or corporatism, considered "a modern form of mercantilism", to emphasize that the only way to run a profitable business in such a system is to have help from corrupt government officials. Likewise, Hernando de Soto said that mercantilism "is also known as 'crony' or 'noninclusive' capitalism".
Even if the initial regulation was well-intentioned (to curb actual abuses) and even if the initial lobbying by corporations was well-intentioned (to reduce illogical regulations), the mixture of business and government stifles competition, a collusive result called regulatory capture. Burton W. Folsom Jr. distinguishes those that engage in crony capitalism—designated by him political entrepreneurs—from those who compete in the marketplace without special aid from government, whom he calls market entrepreneurs. The market entrepreneurs such as James J. Hill, Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller succeeded by producing a quality product at a competitive price. For example, the political entrepreneurs such as Edward Collins in steamships and the leaders of the Union Pacific Railroad in railroads were men who used the power of government to succeed. They tried to gain subsidies or in some way use government to stop competitors.
See also
Corporatocracy
Cronies of Ferdinand Marcos
Economic History of the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos
Government failure
Government-owned corporation
Inverted totalitarianism
Iron triangle (US politics)
Licence Raj (concept in Indian political-economics)
Mercantilism
Patrimonialism
Political family
Political machine
Regulatory capture
Rent-seeking
Stamocap
State capture
Supercapitalism
Zhao family
Notes
References
Further reading
Khatri, Naresh (2013). Anatomy of Indian Brand of Crony Capitalism. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2335201.
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/19626/1/WP0802.pdf
Bribery
Capitalism
Management cybernetics
Political corruption
Political terminology
Public choice theory |
5253 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution | Constitution | A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed.
When these principles are written down into a single document or set of legal documents, those documents may be said to embody a written constitution; if they are encompassed in a single comprehensive document, it is said to embody a codified constitution. The Constitution of the United Kingdom is a notable example of an uncodified constitution; it is instead written in numerous fundamental Acts of a legislature, court cases, or treaties.
Constitutions concern different levels of organizations, from sovereign countries to companies and unincorporated associations. A treaty that establishes an international organization is also its constitution, in that it would define how that organization is constituted. Within states, a constitution defines the principles upon which the state is based, the procedure in which laws are made and by whom. Some constitutions, especially codified constitutions, also act as limiters of state power, by establishing lines which a state's rulers cannot cross, such as fundamental rights.
The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution of any country in the world, with 146,385 words in its English-language version, while the Constitution of Monaco is the shortest written constitution with 3,814 words. The Constitution of San Marino might be the world's oldest active written constitution, since some of its core documents have been in operation since 1600, while the Constitution of the United States is the oldest active codified constitution. The historical life expectancy of a constitution since 1789 is approximately 19 years.
Etymology
The term constitution comes through French from the Latin word , used for regulations and orders, such as the imperial enactments (constitutiones principis: edicta, mandata, decreta, rescripta). Later, the term was widely used in canon law for an important determination, especially a decree issued by the Pope, now referred to as an apostolic constitution.
William Blackstone used the term for significant and egregious violations of public trust, of a nature and extent that the transgression would justify a revolutionary response. The term as used by Blackstone was not for a legal text, nor did he intend to include the later American concept of judicial review: "for that were to set the judicial power above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government".
General features
Generally, every modern written constitution confers specific powers on an organization or institutional entity, established upon the primary condition that it abides by the constitution's limitations. According to Scott Gordon, a political organization is constitutional to the extent that it "contain[s] institutionalized mechanisms of power control for the protection of the interests and liberties of the citizenry, including those that may be in the minority".
Activities of officials within an organization or polity that fall within the constitutional or statutory authority of those officials are termed "within power" (or, in Latin, intra vires); if they do not, they are termed "beyond power" (or, in Latin, ultra vires). For example, a students' union may be prohibited as an organization from engaging in activities not concerning students; if the union becomes involved in non-student activities, these activities are considered to be ultra vires of the union's charter, and nobody would be compelled by the charter to follow them. An example from the constitutional law of sovereign states would be a provincial parliament in a federal state trying to legislate in an area that the constitution allocates exclusively to the federal parliament, such as ratifying a treaty. Action that appears to be beyond power may be judicially reviewed and, if found to be beyond power, must cease. Legislation that is found to be beyond power will be "invalid" and of no force; this applies to primary legislation, requiring constitutional authorization, and secondary legislation, ordinarily requiring statutory authorization. In this context, "within power", intra vires, "authorized" and "valid" have the same meaning; as do "beyond power", ultra vires, "not authorized" and "invalid".
In most but not all modern states the constitution has supremacy over ordinary statutory law (see Uncodified constitution below); in such states when an official act is unconstitutional, i.e. it is not a power granted to the government by the constitution, that act is null and void, and the nullification is ab initio, that is, from inception, not from the date of the finding. It was never "law", even though, if it had been a statute or statutory provision, it might have been adopted according to the procedures for adopting legislation. Sometimes the problem is not that a statute is unconstitutional, but that the application of it is, on a particular occasion, and a court may decide that while there are ways it could be applied that are constitutional, that instance was not allowed or legitimate. In such a case, only that application may be ruled unconstitutional. Historically, the remedies for such violations have been petitions for common law writs, such as quo warranto.
Scholars debate whether a constitution must necessarily be autochthonous, resulting from the nations "spirit". Hegel said "A constitution...is the work of centuries; it is the idea, the consciousness of rationality so far as that consciousness is developed in a particular nation."
History and development
Since 1789, along with the Constitution of the United States of America (U.S. Constitution), which is the oldest and shortest written constitution still in force, close to 800 constitutions have been adopted and subsequently amended around the world by independent states.
In the late 18th century, Thomas Jefferson predicted that a period of 20 years would be the optimal time for any constitution to be still in force, since "the earth belongs to the living, and not to the dead". Indeed, according to recent studies, the average life of any new written constitution is around 19 years. However, a great number of constitutions do not last more than 10 years, and around 10% do not last more than one year, as was the case of the French Constitution of 1791. By contrast, some constitutions, notably that of the United States, have remained in force for several centuries, often without major revision for long periods of time.
The most common reasons for these frequent changes are the political desire for an immediate outcome and the short time devoted to the constitutional drafting process. A study in 2009 showed that the average time taken to draft a constitution is around 16 months, however there were also some extreme cases registered. For example, the Myanmar 2008 Constitution was being secretly drafted for more than 17 years, whereas at the other extreme, during the drafting of Japan's 1946 Constitution, the bureaucrats drafted everything in no more than a week. Japan has the oldest unamended constitution in the world. The record for the shortest overall process of drafting, adoption, and ratification of a national constitution belongs to the Romania's 1938 constitution, which installed a royal dictatorship in less than a month. Studies showed that typically extreme cases where the constitution-making process either takes too long or is extremely short were non-democracies. Constitutional rights are not a specific characteristic of democratic countries. Non-democratic countries have constitutions, such as that of North Korea, which officially grants every citizen, among other rights, the freedom of expression.
Pre-modern constitutions
Ancient
Excavations in modern-day Iraq by Ernest de Sarzec in 1877 found evidence of the earliest known code of justice, issued by the Sumerian king Urukagina of Lagash . Perhaps the earliest prototype for a law of government, this document itself has not yet been discovered; however it is known that it allowed some rights to his citizens. For example, it is known that it relieved tax for widows and orphans, and protected the poor from the usury of the rich.
After that, many governments ruled by special codes of written laws. The oldest such document still known to exist seems to be the Code of Ur-Nammu of Ur (c. 2050 BC). Some of the better-known ancient law codes are the code of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin, the code of Hammurabi of Babylonia, the Hittite code, the Assyrian code, and Mosaic law.
In 621 BC, a scribe named Draco codified the oral laws of the city-state of Athens; this code prescribed the death penalty for many offenses (thus creating the modern term "draconian" for very strict rules). In 594 BC, Solon, the ruler of Athens, created the new Solonian Constitution. It eased the burden of the workers, and determined that membership of the ruling class was to be based on wealth (plutocracy), rather than on birth (aristocracy). Cleisthenes again reformed the Athenian constitution and set it on a democratic footing in 508 BC.
Aristotle (c. 350 BC) was the first to make a formal distinction between ordinary law and constitutional law, establishing ideas of constitution and constitutionalism, and attempting to classify different forms of constitutional government. The most basic definition he used to describe a constitution in general terms was "the arrangement of the offices in a state". In his works Constitution of Athens, Politics, and Nicomachean Ethics, he explores different constitutions of his day, including those of Athens, Sparta, and Carthage. He classified both what he regarded as good and what he regarded as bad constitutions, and came to the conclusion that the best constitution was a mixed system including monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic elements. He also distinguished between citizens, who had the right to participate in the state, and non-citizens and slaves, who did not.
The Romans initially codified their constitution in 450 BC as the Twelve Tables. They operated under a series of laws that were added from time to time, but Roman law was not reorganized into a single code until the Codex Theodosianus (438 AD); later, in the Eastern Empire, the Codex repetitæ prælectionis (534) was highly influential throughout Europe. This was followed in the east by the Ecloga of Leo III the Isaurian (740) and the Basilica of Basil I (878).
The Edicts of Ashoka established constitutional principles for the 3rd century BC Maurya king's rule in India. For constitutional principles almost lost to antiquity, see the code of Manu.
Early Middle Ages
Many of the Germanic peoples that filled the power vacuum left by the Western Roman Empire in the Early Middle Ages codified their laws. One of the first of these Germanic law codes to be written was the Visigothic Code of Euric (471 AD). This was followed by the Lex Burgundionum, applying separate codes for Germans and for Romans; the Pactus Alamannorum; and the Salic Law of the Franks, all written soon after 500. In 506, the Breviarum or "Lex Romana" of Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, adopted and consolidated the Codex Theodosianus together with assorted earlier Roman laws. Systems that appeared somewhat later include the Edictum Rothari of the Lombards (643), the Lex Visigothorum (654), the Lex Alamannorum (730), and the Lex Frisionum (c. 785). These continental codes were all composed in Latin, while Anglo-Saxon was used for those of England, beginning with the Code of Æthelberht of Kent (602). Around 893, Alfred the Great combined this and two other earlier Saxon codes, with various Mosaic and Christian precepts, to produce the Doom book code of laws for England.
Japan's Seventeen-article constitution written in 604, reportedly by Prince Shōtoku, is an early example of a constitution in Asian political history. Influenced by Buddhist teachings, the document focuses more on social morality than on institutions of government, and remains a notable early attempt at a government constitution.
The Constitution of Medina (, Ṣaḥīfat al-Madīna), also known as the Charter of Medina, was drafted by the Islamic prophet Muhammad after his flight (hijra) to Yathrib where he became political leader. It constituted a formal agreement between Muhammad and all of the significant tribes and families of Yathrib (later known as Medina), including Muslims, Jews, and pagans. The document was drawn up with the explicit concern of bringing to an end the bitter intertribal fighting between the clans of the Aws (Aus) and Khazraj within Medina. To this effect it instituted a number of rights and responsibilities for the Muslim, Jewish, and pagan communities of Medina bringing them within the fold of one community – the Ummah. The precise dating of the Constitution of Medina remains debated, but generally scholars agree it was written shortly after the Hijra (622).
In Wales, the Cyfraith Hywel (Law of Hywel) was codified by Hywel Dda c. 942–950.
Middle Ages after 1000
The Pravda Yaroslava, originally combined by Yaroslav the Wise the Grand Prince of Kiev, was granted to Great Novgorod around 1017, and in 1054 was incorporated into the Russkaya Pravda; it became the law for all of Kievan Rus'. It survived only in later editions of the 15th century.
In England, Henry I's proclamation of the Charter of Liberties in 1100 bound the king for the first time in his treatment of the clergy and the nobility. This idea was extended and refined by the English barony when they forced King John to sign Magna Carta in 1215. The most important single article of the Magna Carta, related to "habeas corpus", provided that the king was not permitted to imprison, outlaw, exile or kill anyone at a whim – there must be due process of law first. This article, Article 39, of the Magna Carta read:
This provision became the cornerstone of English liberty after that point. The social contract in the original case was between the king and the nobility, but was gradually extended to all of the people. It led to the system of Constitutional Monarchy, with further reforms shifting the balance of power from the monarchy and nobility to the House of Commons.
The Nomocanon of Saint Sava () was the first Serbian constitution from 1219. St. Sava's Nomocanon was the compilation of civil law, based on Roman Law, and canon law, based on Ecumenical Councils. Its basic purpose was to organize the functioning of the young Serbian kingdom and the Serbian church. Saint Sava began the work on the Serbian Nomocanon in 1208 while he was at Mount Athos, using The Nomocanon in Fourteen Titles, Synopsis of Stefan the Efesian, Nomocanon of John Scholasticus, and Ecumenical Council documents, which he modified with the canonical commentaries of Aristinos and Joannes Zonaras, local church meetings, rules of the Holy Fathers, the law of Moses, the translation of Prohiron, and the Byzantine emperors' Novellae (most were taken from Justinian's Novellae). The Nomocanon was a completely new compilation of civil and canonical regulations, taken from Byzantine sources but completed and reformed by St. Sava to function properly in Serbia. Besides decrees that organized the life of church, there are various norms regarding civil life; most of these were taken from Prohiron. Legal transplants of Roman-Byzantine law became the basis of the Serbian medieval law. The essence of Zakonopravilo was based on Corpus Iuris Civilis.
Stefan Dušan, emperor of Serbs and Greeks, enacted Dušan's Code () in Serbia, in two state congresses: in 1349 in Skopje and in 1354 in Serres. It regulated all social spheres, so it was the second Serbian constitution, after St. Sava's Nomocanon (Zakonopravilo). The Code was based on Roman-Byzantine law. The legal transplanting within articles 171 and 172 of Dušan's Code, which regulated the juridical independence, is notable. They were taken from the Byzantine code Basilika (book VII, 1, 16–17).
In 1222, Hungarian King Andrew II issued the Golden Bull of 1222.
Between 1220 and 1230, a Saxon administrator, Eike von Repgow, composed the Sachsenspiegel, which became the supreme law used in parts of Germany as late as 1900.
Around 1240, the Coptic Egyptian Christian writer, 'Abul Fada'il Ibn al-'Assal, wrote the Fetha Negest in Arabic. 'Ibn al-Assal took his laws partly from apostolic writings and Mosaic law and partly from the former Byzantine codes. There are a few historical records claiming that this law code was translated into Ge'ez and entered Ethiopia around 1450 in the reign of Zara Yaqob. Even so, its first recorded use in the function of a constitution (supreme law of the land) is with Sarsa Dengel beginning in 1563. The Fetha Negest remained the supreme law in Ethiopia until 1931, when a modern-style Constitution was first granted by Emperor Haile Selassie I.
In the Principality of Catalonia, the Catalan constitutions were promulgated by the Court from 1283 (or even two centuries before, if Usatges of Barcelona is considered part of the compilation of Constitutions) until 1716, when Philip V of Spain gave the Nueva Planta decrees, finishing with the historical laws of Catalonia. These Constitutions were usually made formally as a royal initiative, but required for its approval or repeal the favorable vote of the Catalan Courts, the medieval antecedent of the modern Parliaments. These laws, like other modern constitutions, had preeminence over other laws, and they could not be contradicted by mere decrees or edicts of the king.
The Kouroukan Founga was a 13th-century charter of the Mali Empire, reconstructed from oral tradition in 1988 by Siriman Kouyaté.
The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by a Reichstag in Nuremberg headed by Emperor Charles IV that fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, an important aspect of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire.
In China, the Hongwu Emperor created and refined a document he called Ancestral Injunctions (first published in 1375, revised twice more before his death in 1398). These rules served as a constitution for the Ming Dynasty for the next 250 years.
The oldest written document still governing a sovereign nation today is that of San Marino. The Leges Statutae Republicae Sancti Marini was written in Latin and consists of six books. The first book, with 62 articles, establishes councils, courts, various executive officers, and the powers assigned to them. The remaining books cover criminal and civil law and judicial procedures and remedies. Written in 1600, the document was based upon the Statuti Comunali (Town Statute) of 1300, itself influenced by the Codex Justinianus, and it remains in force today.
In 1392 the Carta de Logu was legal code of the Giudicato of Arborea promulgated by the giudicessa Eleanor. It was in force in Sardinia until it was superseded by the code of Charles Felix in April 1827. The Carta was a work of great importance in Sardinian history. It was an organic, coherent, and systematic work of legislation encompassing the civil and penal law.
The Gayanashagowa, the oral constitution of the Haudenosaunee nation also known as the Great Law of Peace, established a system of governance as far back as 1190 AD (though perhaps more recently at 1451) in which the Sachems, or tribal chiefs, of the Iroquois League's member nations made decisions on the basis of universal consensus of all chiefs following discussions that were initiated by a single nation. The position of Sachem descends through families and are allocated by the senior female clan heads, though, prior to the filling of the position, candidacy is ultimately democratically decided by the community itself.
Modern constitutions
In 1634 the Kingdom of Sweden adopted the 1634 Instrument of Government, drawn up under the Lord High Chancellor of Sweden Axel Oxenstierna after the death of king Gustavus Adolphus, it can be seen as the first written constitution adopted by a modern state.
In 1639, the Colony of Connecticut adopted the Fundamental Orders, which was the first North American constitution, and is the basis for every new Connecticut constitution since, and is also the reason for Connecticut's nickname, "the Constitution State".
The English Protectorate that was set up by Oliver Cromwell after the English Civil War promulgated the first detailed written constitution adopted by a modern state; it was called the Instrument of Government. This formed the basis of government for the short-lived republic from 1653 to 1657 by providing a legal rationale for the increasing power of Cromwell after Parliament consistently failed to govern effectively. Most of the concepts and ideas embedded into modern constitutional theory, especially bicameralism, separation of powers, the written constitution, and judicial review, can be traced back to the experiments of that period.
Drafted by Major-General John Lambert in 1653, the Instrument of Government included elements incorporated from an earlier document "Heads of Proposals", which had been agreed to by the Army Council in 1647, as a set of propositions intended to be a basis for a constitutional settlement after King Charles I was defeated in the First English Civil War. Charles had rejected the propositions, but before the start of the Second Civil War, the Grandees of the New Model Army had presented the Heads of Proposals as their alternative to the more radical Agreement of the People presented by the Agitators and their civilian supporters at the Putney Debates.
On January 4, 1649, the Rump Parliament declared "that the people are, under God, the original of all just power; that the Commons of England, being chosen by and representing the people, have the supreme power in this nation".
The Instrument of Government was adopted by Parliament on December 15, 1653, and Oliver Cromwell was installed as Lord Protector on the following day. The constitution set up a state council consisting of 21 members while executive authority was vested in the office of "Lord Protector of the Commonwealth." This position was designated as a non-hereditary life appointment. The Instrument also required the calling of triennial Parliaments, with each sitting for at least five months.
The Instrument of Government was replaced in May 1657 by England's second, and last, codified constitution, the Humble Petition and Advice, proposed by Sir Christopher Packe. The Petition offered hereditary monarchy to Oliver Cromwell, asserted Parliament's control over issuing new taxation, provided an independent council to advise the king and safeguarded "Triennial" meetings of Parliament. A modified version of the Humble Petition with the clause on kingship removed was ratified on 25 May. This finally met its demise in conjunction with the death of Cromwell and the Restoration of the monarchy.
Other examples of European constitutions of this era were the Corsican Constitution of 1755 and the Swedish Constitution of 1772.
All of the British colonies in North America that were to become the 13 original United States, adopted their own constitutions in 1776 and 1777, during the American Revolution (and before the later Articles of Confederation and United States Constitution), with the exceptions of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts adopted its Constitution in 1780, the oldest still-functioning constitution of any U.S. state; while Connecticut and Rhode Island officially continued to operate under their old colonial charters, until they adopted their first state constitutions in 1818 and 1843, respectively.
Democratic constitutions
What is sometimes called the "enlightened constitution" model was developed by philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment such as Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke. The model proposed that constitutional governments should be stable, adaptable, accountable, open and should represent the people (i.e., support democracy).
Agreements and Constitutions of Laws and Freedoms of the Zaporizian Host was written in 1710 by Pylyp Orlyk, hetman of the Zaporozhian Host. It was written to establish a free Zaporozhian-Ukrainian Republic, with the support of Charles XII of Sweden. It is notable in that it established a democratic standard for the separation of powers in government between the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches, well before the publication of Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws. This Constitution also limited the executive authority of the hetman, and established a democratically elected Cossack parliament called the General Council. However, Orlyk's project for an independent Ukrainian State never materialized, and his constitution, written in exile, never went into effect.
Corsican Constitutions of 1755 and 1794 were inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The latter introduced universal suffrage for property owners.
The Swedish constitution of 1772 was enacted under King Gustavus III and was inspired by the separation of powers by Montesquieu. The king also cherished other enlightenment ideas (as an enlighted despot) and repealed torture, liberated agricultural trade, diminished the use of the death penalty and instituted a form of religious freedom. The constitution was commended by Voltaire.
The United States Constitution, ratified June 21, 1788, was influenced by the writings of Polybius, Locke, Montesquieu, and others. The document became a benchmark for republicanism and codified constitutions written thereafter.
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Constitution was passed on May 3, 1791. Its draft was developed by the leading minds of the Enlightenment in Poland such as King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, Stanisław Staszic, Scipione Piattoli, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj. It was adopted by the Great Sejm and is considered the first constitution of its kind in Europe and the world's second oldest one after the American Constitution.
Another landmark document was the French Constitution of 1791.
The 1811 Constitution of Venezuela was the first Constitution of Venezuela and Latin America, promulgated and drafted by Cristóbal Mendoza and Juan Germán Roscio and in Caracas. It established a federal government but was repealed one year later.
On March 19, the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was ratified by a parliament gathered in Cadiz, the only Spanish continental city which was safe from French occupation. The Spanish Constitution served as a model for other liberal constitutions of several South European and Latin American nations, for example, the Portuguese Constitution of 1822, constitutions of various Italian states during Carbonari revolts (i.e., in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), the Norwegian constitution of 1814, or the Mexican Constitution of 1824.
In Brazil, the Constitution of 1824 expressed the option for the monarchy as political system after Brazilian Independence. The leader of the national emancipation process was the Portuguese prince Pedro I, elder son of the king of Portugal. Pedro was crowned in 1822 as first emperor of Brazil. The country was ruled by Constitutional monarchy until 1889, when it adopted the Republican model.
In Denmark, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the absolute monarchy lost its personal possession of Norway to Sweden. Sweden had already enacted its 1809 Instrument of Government, which saw the division of power between the Riksdag, the king and the judiciary. However the Norwegians managed to infuse a radically democratic and liberal constitution in 1814, adopting many facets from the American constitution and the revolutionary French ones, but maintaining a hereditary monarch limited by the constitution, like the Spanish one.
The first Swiss Federal Constitution was put in force in September 1848 (with official revisions in 1878, 1891, 1949, 1971, 1982 and 1999).
The Serbian revolution initially led to a proclamation of a proto-constitution in 1811; the full-fledged Constitution of Serbia followed few decades later, in 1835. The first Serbian constitution (Sretenjski ustav) was adopted at the national assembly in Kragujevac on February 15, 1835.
The Constitution of Canada came into force on July 1, 1867, as the British North America Act, an act of the British Parliament. Over a century later, the BNA Act was patriated to the Canadian Parliament and augmented with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Apart from the Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1982, Canada's constitution also has unwritten elements based in common law and convention.
Principles of constitutional design
After tribal people first began to live in cities and establish nations, many of these functioned according to unwritten customs, while some developed autocratic, even tyrannical monarchs, who ruled by decree, or mere personal whim. Such rule led some thinkers to take the position that what mattered was not the design of governmental institutions and operations, as much as the character of the rulers. This view can be seen in Plato, who called for rule by "philosopher-kings". Later writers, such as Aristotle, Cicero and Plutarch, would examine designs for government from a legal and historical standpoint.
The Renaissance brought a series of political philosophers who wrote implied criticisms of the practices of monarchs and sought to identify principles of constitutional design that would be likely to yield more effective and just governance from their viewpoints. This began with revival of the Roman law of nations concept and its application to the relations among nations, and they sought to establish customary "laws of war and peace" to ameliorate wars and make them less likely. This led to considerations of what authority monarchs or other officials have and don't have, from where that authority derives, and the remedies for the abuse of such authority.
A seminal juncture in this line of discourse arose in England from the Civil War, the Cromwellian Protectorate, the writings of Thomas Hobbes, Samuel Rutherford, the Levellers, John Milton, and James Harrington, leading to the debate between Robert Filmer, arguing for the divine right of monarchs, on the one side, and on the other, Henry Neville, James Tyrrell, Algernon Sidney, and John Locke. What arose from the latter was a concept of government being erected on the foundations of first, a state of nature governed by natural laws, then a state of society, established by a social contract or compact, which bring underlying natural or social laws, before governments are formally established on them as foundations.
Along the way several writers examined how the design of government was important, even if the government were headed by a monarch. They also classified various historical examples of governmental designs, typically into democracies, aristocracies, or monarchies, and considered how just and effective each tended to be and why, and how the advantages of each might be obtained by combining elements of each into a more complex design that balanced competing tendencies. Some, such as Montesquieu, also examined how the functions of government, such as legislative, executive, and judicial, might appropriately be separated into branches. The prevailing theme among these writers was that the design of constitutions is not completely arbitrary or a matter of taste. They generally held that there are underlying principles of design that constrain all constitutions for every polity or organization. Each built on the ideas of those before concerning what those principles might be.
The later writings of Orestes Brownson would try to explain what constitutional designers were trying to do. According to Brownson there are, in a sense, three "constitutions" involved: The first the constitution of nature that includes all of what was called "natural law". The second is the constitution of society, an unwritten and commonly understood set of rules for the society formed by a social contract before it establishes a government, by which it establishes the third, a constitution of government. The second would include such elements as the making of decisions by public conventions called by public notice and conducted by established rules of procedure. Each constitution must be consistent with, and derive its authority from, the ones before it, as well as from a historical act of society formation or constitutional ratification. Brownson argued that a state is a society with effective dominion over a well-defined territory, that consent to a well-designed constitution of government arises from presence on that territory, and that it is possible for provisions of a written constitution of government to be "unconstitutional" if they are inconsistent with the constitutions of nature or society. Brownson argued that it is not ratification alone that makes a written constitution of government legitimate, but that it must also be competently designed and applied.
Other writers have argued that such considerations apply not only to all national constitutions of government, but also to the constitutions of private organizations, that it is not an accident that the constitutions that tend to satisfy their members contain certain elements, as a minimum, or that their provisions tend to become very similar as they are amended after experience with their use. Provisions that give rise to certain kinds of questions are seen to need additional provisions for how to resolve those questions, and provisions that offer no course of action may best be omitted and left to policy decisions. Provisions that conflict with what Brownson and others can discern are the underlying "constitutions" of nature and society tend to be difficult or impossible to execute, or to lead to unresolvable disputes.
Constitutional design has been treated as a kind of metagame in which play consists of finding the best design and provisions for a written constitution that will be the rules for the game of government, and that will be most likely to optimize a balance of the utilities of justice, liberty, and security. An example is the metagame Nomic.
Political economy theory regards constitutions as coordination devices that help citizens to prevent rulers from abusing power. If the citizenry can coordinate a response to police government officials in the face of a constitutional fault, then the government have the incentives to honor the rights that the constitution guarantees. An alternative view considers that constitutions are not enforced by the citizens at-large, but rather by the administrative powers of the state. Because rulers cannot themselves implement their policies, they need to rely on a set of organizations (armies, courts, police agencies, tax collectors) to implement it. In this position, they can directly sanction the government by refusing to cooperate, disabling the authority of the rulers. Therefore, constitutions could be characterized by a self-enforcing equilibria between the rulers and powerful administrators.
Key features
Most commonly, the term constitution refers to a set of rules and principles that define the nature and extent of government. Most constitutions seek to regulate the relationship between institutions of the state, in a basic sense the relationship between the executive, legislature and the judiciary, but also the relationship of institutions within those branches. For example, executive branches can be divided into a head of government, government departments/ministries, executive agencies and a civil service/administration. Most constitutions also attempt to define the relationship between individuals and the state, and to establish the broad rights of individual citizens. It is thus the most basic law of a territory from which all the other laws and rules are hierarchically derived; in some territories it is in fact called "Basic Law".
Classification
Classification
Codification
A fundamental classification is codification or lack of codification. A codified constitution is one that is contained in a single document, which is the single source of constitutional law in a state. An uncodified constitution is one that is not contained in a single document, consisting of several different sources, which may be written or unwritten; see constitutional convention.
Codified constitution
Most states in the world have codified constitutions.
Codified constitutions are often the product of some dramatic political change, such as a revolution. The process by which a country adopts a constitution is closely tied to the historical and political context driving this fundamental change. The legitimacy (and often the longevity) of codified constitutions has often been tied to the process by which they are initially adopted and some scholars have pointed out that high constitutional turnover within a given country may itself be detrimental to separation of powers and the rule of law.
States that have codified constitutions normally give the constitution supremacy over ordinary statute law. That is, if there is any conflict between a legal statute and the codified constitution, all or part of the statute can be declared ultra vires by a court, and struck down as unconstitutional. In addition, exceptional procedures are often required to amend a constitution. These procedures may include: convocation of a special constituent assembly or constitutional convention, requiring a supermajority of legislators' votes, approval in two terms of parliament, the consent of regional legislatures, a referendum process, and/or other procedures that make amending a constitution more difficult than passing a simple law.
Constitutions may also provide that their most basic principles can never be abolished, even by amendment. In case a formally valid amendment of a constitution infringes these principles protected against any amendment, it may constitute a so-called unconstitutional constitutional law.
Codified constitutions normally consist of a ceremonial preamble, which sets forth the goals of the state and the motivation for the constitution, and several articles containing the substantive provisions. The preamble, which is omitted in some constitutions, may contain a reference to God and/or to fundamental values of the state such as liberty, democracy or human rights. In ethnic nation-states such as Estonia, the mission of the state can be defined as preserving a specific nation, language and culture.
Uncodified constitution
only two sovereign states, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, have wholly uncodified constitutions. The Basic Laws of Israel have since 1950 been intended to be the basis for a constitution, but as of 2017 it had not been drafted. The various Laws are considered to have precedence over other laws, and give the procedure by which they can be amended, typically by a simple majority of members of the Knesset (parliament).
Uncodified constitutions are the product of an "evolution" of laws and conventions over centuries (such as in the Westminster System that developed in Britain). By contrast to codified constitutions, uncodified constitutions include both written sources – e.g. constitutional statutes enacted by the Parliament – and unwritten sources – constitutional conventions, observation of precedents, royal prerogatives, customs and traditions, such as holding general elections on Thursdays; together these constitute British constitutional law.
Mixed constitutions
Some constitutions are largely, but not wholly, codified. For example, in the Constitution of Australia, most of its fundamental political principles and regulations concerning the relationship between branches of government, and concerning the government and the individual are codified in a single document, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia. However, the presence of statutes with constitutional significance, namely the Statute of Westminster, as adopted by the Commonwealth in the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, and the Australia Act 1986 means that Australia's constitution is not contained in a single constitutional document. It means the Constitution of Australia is uncodified, it also contains constitutional conventions, thus is partially unwritten.
The Constitution of Canada resulted from the passage of several British North America Acts from 1867 to the Canada Act 1982, the act that formally severed British Parliament's ability to amend the Canadian constitution. The Canadian constitution includes specific legislative acts as mentioned in section 52(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982. However, some documents not explicitly listed in section 52(2) are also considered constitutional documents in Canada, entrenched via reference; such as the Proclamation of 1763. Although Canada's constitution includes a number of different statutes, amendments, and references, some constitutional rules that exist in Canada is derived from unwritten sources and constitutional conventions.
The terms written constitution and codified constitution are often used interchangeably, as are unwritten constitution and uncodified constitution, although this usage is technically inaccurate. A codified constitution is a single document; states that do not have such a document have uncodified, but not entirely unwritten, constitutions, since much of an uncodified constitution is usually written in laws such as the Basic Laws of Israel and the Parliament Acts of the United Kingdom. Uncodified constitutions largely lack protection against amendment by the government of the time. For example, the U.K. Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 legislated by simple majority for strictly fixed-term parliaments; until then the ruling party could call a general election at any convenient time up to the maximum term of five years. This change would require a constitutional amendment in most nations.
Amendments
A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, they can be appended to the constitution as supplemental additions (codicils), thus changing the frame of government without altering the existing text of the document.
Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation.
Methods of amending
Some countries are listed under more than one method because alternative procedures may be used.
Entrenched clauses
An entrenched clause or entrenchment clause of a basic law or constitution is a provision that makes certain amendments either more difficult or impossible to pass, making such amendments inadmissible. Overriding an entrenched clause may require a supermajority, a referendum, or the consent of the minority party. For example, the U.S. Constitution has an entrenched clause that prohibits abolishing equal suffrage of the States within the Senate without their consent. The term eternity clause is used in a similar manner in the constitutions of the Czech Republic, Germany, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Morocco, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Brazil and Norway. India's constitution does not contain specific provisions on entrenched clauses but the basic structure doctrine makes it impossible for certain basic features of the Constitution to be altered or destroyed by the Parliament of India through an amendment. The Constitution of Colombia also lacks explicit entrenched clauses, but has a similar substantive limit on amending its fundamental principles through judicial interpretations.
Constitutional rights and duties
Constitutions include various rights and duties. These include the following:
Duty to pay taxes
Duty to serve in the military
Duty to work
Right to vote
Freedom of assembly
Freedom of association
Freedom of expression
Freedom of movement
Freedom of thought
Freedom of the press
Freedom of religion
Right to dignity
Right to civil marriage
Right to petition
Right to academic freedom
Right to bear arms
Right to conscientious objection
Right to a fair trial
Right to personal development
Right to start a family
Right to information
Right to marriage
Right of revolution
Right to privacy
Right to protect one's reputation
Right to renounce citizenship
Rights of children
Rights of debtors
Separation of powers
Constitutions usually explicitly divide power between various branches of government. The standard model, described by the Baron de Montesquieu, involves three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Some constitutions include additional branches, such as an auditory branch. Constitutions vary extensively as to the degree of separation of powers between these branches.
Accountability
In presidential and semi-presidential systems of government, department secretaries/ministers are accountable to the president, who has patronage powers to appoint and dismiss ministers. The president is accountable to the people in an election.
In parliamentary systems, Cabinet Ministers are accountable to Parliament, but it is the prime minister who appoints and dismisses them. In the case of the United Kingdom and other countries with a monarchy, it is the monarch who appoints and dismisses ministers, on the advice of the prime minister. In turn the prime minister will resign if the government loses the confidence of the parliament (or a part of it). Confidence can be lost if the government loses a vote of no confidence or, depending on the country, loses a particularly important vote in parliament, such as vote on the budget. When a government loses confidence, it stays in office until a new government is formed; something which normally but not necessarily required the holding of a general election.
Other independent institutions
Other independent institutions which some constitutions have set out include a central bank, an anti-corruption commission, an electoral commission, a judicial oversight body, a human rights commission, a media commission, an ombudsman, and a truth and reconciliation commission.
Power structure
Constitutions also establish where sovereignty is located in the state. There are three basic types of distribution of sovereignty according to the degree of centralisation of power: unitary, federal, and confederal. The distinction is not absolute.
In a unitary state, sovereignty resides in the state itself, and the constitution determines this. The territory of the state may be divided into regions, but they are not sovereign and are subordinate to the state. In the UK, the constitutional doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty dictates that sovereignty is ultimately contained at the centre. Some powers have been devolved to Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales (but not England). Some unitary states (Spain is an example) devolve more and more power to sub-national governments until the state functions in practice much like a federal state.
A federal state has a central structure with at most a small amount of territory mainly containing the institutions of the federal government, and several regions (called states, provinces, etc.) which compose the territory of the whole state. Sovereignty is divided between the centre and the constituent regions. The constitutions of Canada and the United States establish federal states, with power divided between the federal government and the provinces or states. Each of the regions may in turn have its own constitution (of unitary nature).
A confederal state comprises again several regions, but the central structure has only limited coordinating power, and sovereignty is located in the regions. Confederal constitutions are rare, and there is often dispute to whether so-called "confederal" states are actually federal.
To some extent a group of states which do not constitute a federation as such may by treaties and accords give up parts of their sovereignty to a supranational entity. For example, the countries constituting the European Union have agreed to abide by some Union-wide measures which restrict their absolute sovereignty in some ways, e.g., the use of the metric system of measurement instead of national units previously used.
State of emergency
Many constitutions allow the declaration under exceptional circumstances of some form of state of emergency during which some rights and guarantees are suspended. This provision can be and has been abused to allow a government to suppress dissent without regard for human rights – see the article on state of emergency.
Facade constitutions
Italian political theorist Giovanni Sartori noted the existence of national constitutions which are a facade for authoritarian sources of power. While such documents may express respect for human rights or establish an independent judiciary, they may be ignored when the government feels threatened, or never put into practice. An extreme example was the Constitution of the Soviet Union that on paper supported freedom of assembly and freedom of speech; however, citizens who transgressed unwritten limits were summarily imprisoned. The example demonstrates that the protections and benefits of a constitution are ultimately provided not through its written terms but through deference by government and society to its principles. A constitution may change from being real to a facade and back again as democratic and autocratic governments succeed each other.
Constitutional courts
Constitutions are often, but by no means always, protected by a legal body whose job it is to interpret those constitutions and, where applicable, declare void executive and legislative acts which infringe the constitution. In some countries, such as Germany, this function is carried out by a dedicated constitutional court which performs this (and only this) function. In other countries, such as Ireland, the ordinary courts may perform this function in addition to their other responsibilities. While elsewhere, like in the United Kingdom, the concept of declaring an act to be unconstitutional does not exist.
A constitutional violation is an action or legislative act that is judged by a constitutional court to be contrary to the constitution, that is, unconstitutional. An example of constitutional violation by the executive could be a public office holder who acts outside the powers granted to that office by a constitution. An example of constitutional violation by the legislature is an attempt to pass a law that would contradict the constitution, without first going through the proper constitutional amendment process.
Some countries, mainly those with uncodified constitutions, have no such courts at all. For example, the United Kingdom has traditionally operated under the principle of parliamentary sovereignty under which the laws passed by United Kingdom Parliament could not be questioned by the courts.
See also
Basic law, equivalent in some countries, often for a temporary constitution
Apostolic constitution (a class of Catholic Church documents)
Consent of the governed
Constitution of the Roman Republic
Constitutional amendment
Constitutional court
Constitutional crisis
Constitutional economics
Constitutionalism
Corporate constitutional documents
International constitutional law
Judicial activism
Judicial restraint
Judicial review
Philosophy of law
Rule of law
Rule according to higher law
Judicial philosophies of constitutional interpretation (note: generally specific to United States constitutional law)
List of national constitutions
Originalism
Strict constructionism
Textualism
Proposed European Union constitution
Treaty of Lisbon (adopts same changes, but without constitutional name)
United Nations Charter
Further reading
Zachary Elkins and Tom Ginsburg. 2021. "What Can We Learn from Written Constitutions?" Annual Review of Political Science.
References
External links
Constitute, an indexed and searchable database of all constitutions in force
Amendments Project
Dictionary of the History of Ideas Constitutionalism
Constitutional Law, "Constitutions, bibliography, links"
International Constitutional Law: English translations of various national constitutions
United Nations Rule of Law: Constitution-making, on the relationship between constitution-making, the rule of law and the United Nations.
constitution | Theories, Features, Practices, & Facts | Britannica
Constitutionalism | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Constitutions and Constitutionalism | Encyclopedia.com
Sources of law |
5254 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common%20law | Common law | In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions.
The defining characteristic of common law is that it arises as precedent. Common law courts look to the past decisions of courts to synthesize the legal principles of past cases. Stare decisis, the principle that cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar results, lies at the heart of all common law systems. If a court finds that a similar dispute to the present one has been resolved in the past, the court is generally bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision. If, however, the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases (a "matter of first impression"), and legislative statutes are either silent or ambiguous on the question, judges have the authority and duty to resolve the issue. The opinion that a common law judge gives agglomerates with past decisions as precedent to bind future judges and litigants.
The common law, so named because it was "common" to all the king's courts across England, originated in the practices of the courts of the English kings in the centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066. The British Empire later spread the English legal system to its colonies, many of which retain the common law system today. These common law systems are legal systems that give great weight to judicial precedent, and to the style of reasoning inherited from the English legal system.
The term "common law", referring to the body of law made by the judiciary, is often distinguished from statutory law and regulations, which are laws adopted by the legislature and executive respectively. In legal systems that follow the common law, judicial precedent stands in contrast to and on equal footing with statutes. The other major legal system used by countries is the civil law, which codifies its legal principles into legal codes and does not treat judicial opinions as binding.
Today, one-third of the world's population lives in common law jurisdictions or in mixed legal systems that combine the common law with the civil law, including Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Burma, Cameroon, Canada (both the federal system and all its provinces except Quebec), Cyprus, Dominica, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom (including its overseas territories such as Gibraltar), the United States (both the federal system and 49 of its 50 states), and Zimbabwe.
Definitions
The term common law has many connotations. The first three set out here are the most-common usages within the legal community. Other connotations from past centuries are sometimes seen and are sometimes heard in everyday speech.
Common law as opposed to statutory law and regulatory law
The first definition of "common law" given in Black's Law Dictionary, 10th edition, 2014, is "The body of law derived from judicial decisions, rather than from statutes or constitutions; [synonym] CASELAW, [contrast] STATUTORY LAW". This usage is given as the first definition in modern legal dictionaries, is characterized as the "most common" usage among legal professionals, and is the usage frequently seen in decisions of courts. In this connotation, "common law" distinguishes the authority that promulgated a law. For example, the law in most Anglo-American jurisdictions includes "statutory law" enacted by a legislature, "regulatory law" (in the U.S.) or "delegated legislation" (in the U.K.) promulgated by executive branch agencies pursuant to delegation of rule-making authority from the legislature, and common law or "case law", i.e., decisions issued by courts (or quasi-judicial tribunals within agencies). This first connotation can be further differentiated into:
Publication of decisions, and indexing, is essential to the development of common law, and thus governments and private publishers publish law reports. While all decisions in common law jurisdictions are precedent (at varying levels and scope, as discussed throughout the article on precedent), some become "leading cases" or "landmark decisions" that are cited especially often.
Common law legal systems as opposed to civil law legal systems
Black's Law Dictionary, 10th ed., definition 2, differentiates "common law" jurisdictions and legal systems from "civil law" or "code" jurisdictions. Common law systems place great weight on court decisions, which are considered "law" with the same force of law as statutes—for nearly a millennium, common law courts have had the authority to make law where no legislative statute exists, and statutes mean what courts interpret them to mean.
By contrast, in civil law jurisdictions (the legal tradition that prevails, or is combined with common law, in Europe and most non-Islamic, non-common law countries), courts lack authority to act if there is no statute. Civil law judges tend to give less weight to judicial precedent, which means a civil law judge deciding a given case has more freedom to interpret the text of a statute independently (compared to a common law judge in the same circumstances), and therefore less predictably. For example, the Napoleonic Code expressly forbade French judges to pronounce general principles of law. The role of providing overarching principles, which in common law jurisdictions is provided in judicial opinions, in civil law jurisdictions is filled by giving greater weight to scholarly literature, as explained below.
Common law systems trace their history to England, while civil law systems trace their history through the Napoleonic Code back to the of Roman law. A few Western countries use other legal traditions, such as Roman-Dutch law or Scots law, for example.
Law as opposed to equity
Black's Law Dictionary, 10th ed., definition 4, differentiates "common law" (or just "law") from "equity". Before 1873, England had two complementary court systems: courts of "law" which could only award money damages and recognized only the legal owner of property, and courts of "equity" (courts of chancery) that could issue injunctive relief (that is, a court order to a party to do something, give something to someone, or stop doing something) and recognized trusts of property. This split propagated to many of the colonies, including the United States. The states of Delaware, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee continue to have divided Courts of Law and Courts of Chancery. In New Jersey, the appellate courts are unified, but the trial courts are organized into a Chancery Division and a Law Division.
For most purposes, the U.S. federal system and most states have merged the two courts. Additionally, even before the separate courts were merged, most courts were permitted to apply both law and equity, though under potentially different procedural law. Nonetheless, the historical distinction between "law" and "equity" remains important today when the case involves issues such as the following:
Categorizing and prioritizing rights to property—for example, the same article of property often has a "legal title" and an "equitable title", and these two groups of ownership rights may be held by different people.
In the United States, determining whether the Seventh Amendment's right to a jury trial applies (a determination of a fact necessary to resolution of a "common law" claim) as opposed to whether the issue will be decided by a judge (issues of what the law is, and all issues relating to equity).
The standard of review and degree of deference given by an appellate tribunal to the decision of the lower tribunal under review (issues of law are reviewed de novo, that is, "as if new" from scratch by the appellate tribunal, while most issues of equity are reviewed for "abuse of discretion", that is, with great deference to the tribunal below).
The remedies available and rules of procedure to be applied.
Courts of equity rely on common law (in the sense of this first connotation) principles of binding precedent.
Archaic meanings and historical uses
In addition, there are several historical (but now archaic) uses of the term that, while no longer current, provide background context that assists in understanding the meaning of "common law" today.
In one usage that is now archaic, but that gives insight into the history of the common law, "common law" referred to the pre-Christian system of law, imported by the pre-literate Saxons to England and upheld into their historical times until 1066, when the Norman conquest overthrew the last Saxon king—i.e., before (it was supposed) there was any consistent, written law to be applied.
"Common law" as the term is used today in common law countries contrasts with . While historically the became a secure point of reference in continental European legal systems, in England it was not a point of reference at all.
The English Court of Common Pleas dealt with lawsuits in which the monarch had no interest, i.e., between commoners.
Black's Law Dictionary, 10th ed., definition 3 is "General law common to a country as a whole, as opposed to special law that has only local application." From at least the 11th century and continuing for several centuries, there were several different circuits in the royal court system, served by itinerant judges who would travel from town to town dispensing the king's justice in "assizes". The term "common law" was used to describe the law held in common between the circuits and the different stops in each circuit. The more widely a particular law was recognized, the more weight it held, whereas purely local customs were generally subordinate to law recognized in a plurality of jurisdictions.
Misconceptions and imprecise nonlawyer usages
As used by non-lawyers in popular culture, the term "common law" connotes law based on ancient and unwritten universal custom of the people. The "ancient unwritten universal custom" view was the foundation of the first treatises by Blackstone and Coke, and was universal among lawyers and judges from the earliest times to the mid-19th century. However, for 100 years, lawyers and judges have recognized that the "ancient unwritten universal custom" view does not accord with the facts of the origin and growth of the law, and it is not held within the legal profession today.
Under the modern view, "common law" is not grounded in "custom" or "ancient usage", but rather acquires force of law instantly (without the delay implied by the term "custom" or "ancient") when pronounced by a higher court, because and to the extent the proposition is stated in judicial opinion. From the earliest times through the late 19th century, the dominant theory was that the common law was a pre-existent law or system of rules, a social standard of justice that existed in the habits, customs, and thoughts of the people. Under this older view, the legal profession considered it no part of a judge's duty to make new or change existing law, but only to expound and apply the old. By the early 20th century, largely at the urging of Oliver Wendell Holmes (as discussed throughout this article), this view had fallen into the minority view: Holmes pointed out that the older view worked undesirable and unjust results, and hampered a proper development of the law. In the century since Holmes, the dominant understanding has been that common law "decisions are themselves law, or rather the rules which the courts lay down in making the decisions constitute law". Holmes wrote in a 1917 opinion, "The common law is not a brooding omnipresence in the sky, but the articulate voice of some sovereign or quasi-sovereign that can be identified." Among legal professionals (lawyers and judges), the change in understanding occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (as explained later in this article), though lay (non-legal) dictionaries were decades behind in recognizing the change.
The reality of the modern view, and implausibility of the old "ancient unwritten universal custom" view, can be seen in practical operation: under the pre-1870 view, (a) the "common law" should have been absolutely static over centuries (but it evolved), (b) jurisdictions could not logically diverge from each other (but nonetheless did and do today), (c) a new decision logically needed to operate retroactively (but did not), and (d) there was no standard to decide which English medieval customs should be "law" and which should not. All five tensions resolve under the modern view: (a) the common law evolved to meet the needs of the times (e.g., trial by combat passed out of the law by the 15th century), (b) the common law in different jurisdictions may diverge, (c) new decisions may (but need not) have retroactive operation, and (d) court decisions are effective immediately as they are issued, not years later, or after they become "custom", and questions of what "custom" might have been at some "ancient" time are simply irrelevant.
Common law, as the term is used among lawyers in the present day, is not grounded in "custom" or "ancient usage". Common law acquires force of law because it is pronounced by a court (or similar tribunal) in an opinion, not by action or opinion of "the people" or "custom."
Common law is not frozen in time, and no longer beholden to 11th-, 13th-, or 17th-century English law. Rather, the common law evolves daily and immediately as courts issue precedential decisions (as explained later in this article), and all parties in the legal system (courts, lawyers, and all others) are responsible for up-to-date knowledge. There is no fixed reference point (for example the 11th or 18th centuries) for the definition of "common law", except in a handful of isolated contexts. Much of what was "customary" in the 13th or 17th or 18th century has no part of the common law today; much of the common law today has no antecedent in those earlier centuries.
The common law is not "unwritten". Common law exists in writing—as must any law that is to be applied consistently—in the written decisions of judges.
Common law is not the product of "universal consent". Rather, the common law is often anti-majoritarian.
People using pseudolegal tactics and arguments have frequently claimed to base their arguments on common law; notably, the radical anti-government sovereign citizens and freemen on the land movements, who deny the legitimacy of their countries' legal systems, base their beliefs on idiosyncratic interpretations of common law. "Common law" has also been used as an alibi by groups such as the far-right American Patriot movement for setting up kangaroo courts in order to conduct vigilante actions or intimidate their opponents.
Basic principles of common law
Common law adjudication
In a common law jurisdiction several stages of research and analysis are required to determine "what the law is" in a given situation. First, one must ascertain the facts. Then, one must locate any relevant statutes and cases. Then one must extract the principles, analogies and statements by various courts of what they consider important to determine how the next court is likely to rule on the facts of the present case. Later decisions, and decisions of higher courts or legislatures carry more weight than earlier cases and those of lower courts. Finally, one integrates all the lines drawn and reasons given, and determines "what the law is". Then, one applies that law to the facts.
In practice, common law systems are considerably more complicated than the simplified system described above. The decisions of a court are binding only in a particular jurisdiction, and even within a given jurisdiction, some courts have more power than others. For example, in most jurisdictions, decisions by appellate courts are binding on lower courts in the same jurisdiction, and on future decisions of the same appellate court, but decisions of lower courts are only non-binding persuasive authority. Interactions between common law, constitutional law, statutory law and regulatory law also give rise to considerable complexity.
Common law evolves to meet changing social needs and improved understanding
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. cautioned that "the proper derivation of general principles in both common and constitutional law ... arise gradually, in the emergence of a consensus from a multitude of particularized prior decisions". Justice Cardozo noted the "common law does not work from pre-established truths of universal and inflexible validity to conclusions derived from them deductively", but "[i]ts method is inductive, and it draws its generalizations from particulars".
The common law is more malleable than statutory law. First, common law courts are not absolutely bound by precedent, but can (when extraordinarily good reason is shown) reinterpret and revise the law, without legislative intervention, to adapt to new trends in political, legal and social philosophy. Second, the common law evolves through a series of gradual steps, that gradually works out all the details, so that over a decade or more, the law can change substantially but without a sharp break, thereby reducing disruptive effects. In contrast to common law incrementalism, the legislative process is very difficult to get started, as legislatures tend to delay action until a situation is intolerable. For these reasons, legislative changes tend to be large, jarring and disruptive (sometimes positively, sometimes negatively, and sometimes with unintended consequences).
One example of the gradual change that typifies evolution of the common law is the gradual change in liability for negligence. The traditional common law rule through most of the 19th century was that a plaintiff could not recover for a defendant's negligent production or distribution of a harmful instrumentality unless the two were in privity of contract. Thus, only the immediate purchaser could recover for a product defect, and if a part was built up out of parts from parts manufacturers, the ultimate buyer could not recover for injury caused by a defect in the part. In an 1842 English case, Winterbottom v. Wright, the postal service had contracted with Wright to maintain its coaches. Winterbottom was a driver for the post. When the coach failed and injured Winterbottom, he sued Wright. The Winterbottom court recognized that there would be "absurd and outrageous consequences" if an injured person could sue any person peripherally involved, and knew it had to draw a line somewhere, a limit on the causal connection between the negligent conduct and the injury. The court looked to the contractual relationships, and held that liability would only flow as far as the person in immediate contract ("privity") with the negligent party.
A first exception to this rule arose in 1852, in the case of Thomas v. Winchester, when New York's highest court held that mislabeling a poison as an innocuous herb, and then selling the mislabeled poison through a dealer who would be expected to resell it, put "human life in imminent danger". Thomas relied on this reason to create an exception to the "privity" rule. In 1909, New York held in Statler v. Ray Mfg. Co. that a coffee urn manufacturer was liable to a person injured when the urn exploded, because the urn "was of such a character inherently that, when applied to the purposes for which it was designed, it was liable to become a source of great danger to many people if not carefully and properly constructed".
Yet the privity rule survived. In Cadillac Motor Car Co. v. Johnson (decided in 1915 by the federal appeals court for New York and several neighboring states), the court held that a car owner could not recover for injuries from a defective wheel, when the automobile owner had a contract only with the automobile dealer and not with the manufacturer, even though there was "no question that the wheel was made of dead and 'dozy' wood, quite insufficient for its purposes". The Cadillac court was willing to acknowledge that the case law supported exceptions for "an article dangerous in its nature or likely to become so in the course of the ordinary usage to be contemplated by the vendor". However, held the Cadillac court, "one who manufactures articles dangerous only if defectively made, or installed, e.g., tables, chairs, pictures or mirrors hung on the walls, carriages, automobiles, and so on, is not liable to third parties for injuries caused by them, except in case of willful injury or fraud".
Finally, in the famous case of MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co., in 1916, Judge Benjamin Cardozo for New York's highest court pulled a broader principle out of these predecessor cases. The facts were almost identical to Cadillac a year earlier: a wheel from a wheel manufacturer was sold to Buick, to a dealer, to MacPherson, and the wheel failed, injuring MacPherson. Judge Cardozo held:
Cardozo's new "rule" exists in no prior case, but is inferrable as a synthesis of the "thing of danger" principle stated in them, merely extending it to "foreseeable danger" even if "the purposes for which it was designed" were not themselves "a source of great danger". MacPherson takes some care to present itself as foreseeable progression, not a wild departure. Cardozo continues to adhere to the original principle of Winterbottom, that "absurd and outrageous consequences" must be avoided, and he does so by drawing a new line in the last sentence quoted above: "There must be knowledge of a danger, not merely possible, but probable." But while adhering to the underlying principle that some boundary is necessary, MacPherson overruled the prior common law by rendering the formerly dominant factor in the boundary, that is, the privity formality arising out of a contractual relationship between persons, totally irrelevant. Rather, the most important factor in the boundary would be the nature of the thing sold and the foreseeable uses that downstream purchasers would make of the thing.
The example of the evolution of the law of negligence in the preceding paragraphs illustrates two crucial principles: (a) The common law evolves, this evolution is in the hands of judges, and judges have "made law" for hundreds of years. (b) The reasons given for a decision are often more important in the long run than the outcome in a particular case. This is the reason that judicial opinions are usually quite long, and give rationales and policies that can be balanced with judgment in future cases, rather than the bright-line rules usually embodied in statutes.
Publication of decisions
All law systems rely on written publication of the law, so that it is accessible to all. Common law decisions are published in law reports for use by lawyers, courts and the general public.
After the American Revolution, Massachusetts became the first state to establish an official Reporter of Decisions. As newer states needed law, they often looked first to the Massachusetts Reports for authoritative precedents as a basis for their own common law. The United States federal courts relied on private publishers until after the Civil War, and only began publishing as a government function in 1874. West Publishing in Minnesota is the largest private-sector publisher of law reports in the United States. Government publishers typically issue only decisions "in the raw", while private sector publishers often add indexing, including references to the key principles of the common law involved, editorial analysis, and similar finding aids.
Interaction of constitution, statute, and executive branch regulation with common law
In common law legal systems, the common law is crucial to understanding almost all important areas of law. For example, in England and Wales, in English Canada, and in most states of the United States, the basic law of contracts, torts and property do not exist in statute, but only in common law (though there may be isolated modifications enacted by statute). As another example, the Supreme Court of the United States in 1877, held that a Michigan statute that established rules for solemnization of marriages did not abolish pre-existing common-law marriage, because the statute did not affirmatively require statutory solemnization and was silent as to preexisting common law.
In almost all areas of the law (even those where there is a statutory framework, such as contracts for the sale of goods, or the criminal law), legislature-enacted statutes or agency-promulgated regulations generally give only terse statements of general principle, and the fine boundaries and definitions exist only in the interstitial common law. To find out what the precise law is that applies to a particular set of facts, one has to locate precedential decisions on the topic, and reason from those decisions by analogy.
In common law jurisdictions (in the sense opposed to "civil law"), legislatures operate under the assumption that statutes will be interpreted against the backdrop of the pre-existing common law. As the United States Supreme Court explained in United States v Texas, 507 U.S. 529 (1993):
{{|Just as longstanding is the principle that "[s]tatutes which invade the common law ... are to be read with a presumption favoring the retention of long-established and familiar principles, except when a statutory purpose to the contrary is evident. Isbrandtsen Co. v. Johnson, 343 U.S. 779, 783 (1952); Astoria Federal Savings & Loan Assn. v. Solimino, 501 U.S. 104, 108 (1991). In such cases, Congress does not write upon a clean slate. Astoria, 501 U.S. at 108. In order to abrogate a common-law principle, the statute must "speak directly" to the question addressed by the common law. Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham, 436 U. S. 618, 625 (1978); Milwaukee v. Illinois, 451 U. S. 304, 315 (1981).}}
For example, in most U.S. states, the criminal statutes are primarily codification of pre-existing common law. (Codification is the process of enacting a statute that collects and restates pre-existing law in a single document—when that pre-existing law is common law, the common law remains relevant to the interpretation of these statutes.) In reliance on this assumption, modern statutes often leave a number of terms and fine distinctions unstated—for example, a statute might be very brief, leaving the precise definition of terms unstated, under the assumption that these fine distinctions would be resolved in the future by the courts based upon what they then understand to be the pre-existing common law. (For this reason, many modern American law schools teach the common law of crime as it stood in England in 1789, because that centuries-old English common law is a necessary foundation to interpreting modern criminal statutes.)
With the transition from English law, which had common law crimes, to the new legal system under the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited ex post facto laws at both the federal and state level, the question was raised whether there could be common law crimes in the United States. It was settled in the case of United States v. Hudson, which decided that federal courts had no jurisdiction to define new common law crimes, and that there must always be a (constitutionally valid) statute defining the offense and the penalty for it.
Still, many states retain selected common law crimes. For example, in Virginia, the definition of the conduct that constitutes the crime of robbery exists only in the common law, and the robbery statute only sets the punishment. Virginia Code section 1-200 establishes the continued existence and vitality of common law principles and provides that "The common law of England, insofar as it is not repugnant to the principles of the Bill of Rights and Constitution of this Commonwealth, shall continue in full force within the same, and be the rule of decision, except as altered by the General Assembly."
By contrast to statutory codification of common law, some statutes displace common law, for example to create a new cause of action that did not exist in the common law, or to legislatively overrule the common law. An example is the tort of wrongful death, which allows certain persons, usually a spouse, child or estate, to sue for damages on behalf of the deceased. There is no such tort in English common law; thus, any jurisdiction that lacks a wrongful death statute will not allow a lawsuit for the wrongful death of a loved one. Where a wrongful death statute exists, the compensation or other remedy available is limited to the remedy specified in the statute (typically, an upper limit on the amount of damages). Courts generally interpret statutes that create new causes of action narrowly—that is, limited to their precise terms—because the courts generally recognize the legislature as being supreme in deciding the reach of judge-made law unless such statute should violate some "second order" constitutional law provision (cf. judicial activism). This principle is applied more strongly in fields of commercial law (contracts and the like) where predictability is of relatively higher value, and less in torts, where courts recognize a greater responsibility to "do justice".
Where a tort is rooted in common law, all traditionally recognized damages for that tort may be sued for, whether or not there is mention of those damages in the current statutory law. For instance, a person who sustains bodily injury through the negligence of another may sue for medical costs, pain, suffering, loss of earnings or earning capacity, mental and/or emotional distress, loss of quality of life, disfigurement and more. These damages need not be set forth in statute as they already exist in the tradition of common law. However, without a wrongful death statute, most of them are extinguished upon death.
In the United States, the power of the federal judiciary to review and invalidate unconstitutional acts of the federal executive branch is stated in the constitution, Article III sections 1 and 2: "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. ... The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority". The first landmark decision on "the judicial power" was Marbury v. Madison, . Later cases interpreted the "judicial power" of Article III to establish the power of federal courts to consider or overturn any action of Congress or of any state that conflicts with the Constitution.
The interactions between decisions of different courts is discussed further in the article on precedent. Further interactions between common law and either statute or regulation are discussed further in the articles on Skidmore deference, Chevron deference, and Auer deference.
Overruling precedent—the limits of stare decisis
The United States federal courts are divided into twelve regional circuits, each with a circuit court of appeals (plus a thirteenth, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which hears appeals in patent cases and cases against the federal government, without geographic limitation). Decisions of one circuit court are binding on the district courts within the circuit and on the circuit court itself, but are only persuasive authority on sister circuits. District court decisions are not binding precedent at all, only persuasive.
Most of the U.S. federal courts of appeal have adopted a rule under which, in the event of any conflict in decisions of panels (most of the courts of appeal almost always sit in panels of three), the earlier panel decision is controlling, and a panel decision may only be overruled by the court of appeals sitting en banc (that is, all active judges of the court) or by a higher court. In these courts, the older decision remains controlling when an issue comes up the third time.
Other courts, for example, the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the Supreme Court, always sit en banc, and thus the later decision controls. These courts essentially overrule all previous cases in each new case, and older cases survive only to the extent they do not conflict with newer cases. The interpretations of these courts—for example, Supreme Court interpretations of the constitution or federal statutes—are stable only so long as the older interpretation maintains the support of a majority of the court. Older decisions persist through some combination of belief that the old decision is right, and that it is not sufficiently wrong to be overruled.
In the jurisdictions of England and Wales and of Northern Ireland, since 2009, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has the authority to overrule and unify criminal law decisions of lower courts; it is the final court of appeal for civil law cases in all three of the UK jurisdictions, but not for criminal law cases in Scotland, where the High Court of Justiciary has this power instead (except on questions of law relating to reserved matters such as devolution and human rights). From 1966 to 2009, this power lay with the House of Lords, granted by the Practice Statement of 1966.
Canada's federal system, described below, avoids regional variability of federal law by giving national jurisdiction to both layers of appellate courts.
Common law as a foundation for commercial economies
The reliance on judicial opinion is a strength of common law systems, and is a significant contributor to the robust commercial systems in the United Kingdom and United States. Because there is reasonably precise guidance on almost every issue, parties (especially commercial parties) can predict whether a proposed course of action is likely to be lawful or unlawful, and have some assurance of consistency. As Justice Brandeis famously expressed it, "in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right." This ability to predict gives more freedom to come close to the boundaries of the law. For example, many commercial contracts are more economically efficient, and create greater wealth, because the parties know ahead of time that the proposed arrangement, though perhaps close to the line, is almost certainly legal. Newspapers, taxpayer-funded entities with some religious affiliation, and political parties can obtain fairly clear guidance on the boundaries within which their freedom of expression rights apply.
In contrast, in jurisdictions with very weak respect for precedent, fine questions of law are redetermined anew each time they arise, making consistency and prediction more difficult, and procedures far more protracted than necessary because parties cannot rely on written statements of law as reliable guides. In jurisdictions that do not have a strong allegiance to a large body of precedent, parties have less a priori guidance (unless the written law is very clear and kept updated) and must often leave a bigger "safety margin" of unexploited opportunities, and final determinations are reached only after far larger expenditures on legal fees by the parties.
This is the reason for the frequent choice of the law of the State of New York in commercial contracts, even when neither entity has extensive contacts with New York—and remarkably often even when neither party has contacts with the United States. Commercial contracts almost always include a "choice of law clause" to reduce uncertainty. Somewhat surprisingly, contracts throughout the world (for example, contracts involving parties in Japan, France and Germany, and from most of the other states of the United States) often choose the law of New York, even where the relationship of the parties and transaction to New York is quite attenuated. Because of its history as the United States' commercial center, New York common law has a depth and predictability not (yet) available in any other jurisdictions of the United States. Similarly, American corporations are often formed under Delaware corporate law, and American contracts relating to corporate law issues (merger and acquisitions of companies, rights of shareholders, and so on) include a Delaware choice of law clause, because of the deep body of law in Delaware on these issues. On the other hand, some other jurisdictions have sufficiently developed bodies of law so that parties have no real motivation to choose the law of a foreign jurisdiction (for example, England and Wales, and the state of California), but not yet so fully developed that parties with no relationship to the jurisdiction choose that law. Outside the United States, parties that are in different jurisdictions from each other often choose the law of England and Wales, particularly when the parties are each in former British colonies and members of the Commonwealth. The common theme in all cases is that commercial parties seek predictability and simplicity in their contractual relations, and frequently choose the law of a common law jurisdiction with a well-developed body of common law to achieve that result.
Likewise, for litigation of commercial disputes arising out of unpredictable torts (as opposed to the prospective choice of law clauses in contracts discussed in the previous paragraph), certain jurisdictions attract an unusually high fraction of cases, because of the predictability afforded by the depth of decided cases. For example, London is considered the pre-eminent centre for litigation of admiralty cases.
This is not to say that common law is better in every situation. For example, civil law can be clearer than case law when the legislature has had the foresight and diligence to address the precise set of facts applicable to a particular situation. For that reason, civil law statutes tend to be somewhat more detailed than statutes written by common law legislatures—but, conversely, that tends to make the statute more difficult to read (the United States tax code is an example).
History
Origins
The common lawso named because it was "common" to all the king's courts across Englandoriginated in the practices of the courts of the English kings in the centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066. Prior to the Norman Conquest, much of England's legal business took place in the local folk courts of its various shires and hundreds. A variety of other individual courts also existed across the land: urban boroughs and merchant fairs held their own courts, and large landholders also held their own manorial and seigniorial courts as needed. The degree to which common law drew from earlier Anglo-Saxon traditions such as the jury, ordeals, the penalty of outlawry, and writs all of which were incorporated into the Norman common law is still a subject of much discussion. Additionally, the Catholic Church operated its own court system that adjudicated issues of canon law.
The main sources for the history of the common law in the Middle Ages are the plea rolls and the Year Books. The plea rolls, which were the official court records for the Courts of Common Pleas and King's Bench, were written in Latin. The rolls were made up in bundles by law term: Hilary, Easter, Trinity, and Michaelmas, or winter, spring, summer, and autumn. They are currently deposited in the UK National Archives, by whose permission images of the rolls for the Courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, and Exchequer of Pleas, from the 13th century to the 17th, can be viewed online at the Anglo-American Legal Tradition site (The O'Quinn Law Library of the University of Houston Law Center).
The doctrine of precedent developed during the 12th and 13th centuries, as the collective judicial decisions that were based in tradition, custom and precedent.
The form of reasoning used in common law is known as casuistry or case-based reasoning. The common law, as applied in civil cases (as distinct from criminal cases), was devised as a means of compensating someone for wrongful acts known as torts, including both intentional torts and torts caused by negligence, and as developing the body of law recognizing and regulating contracts. The type of procedure practiced in common law courts is known as the adversarial system; this is also a development of the common law.
Medieval English common law
In 1154, Henry II became the first Plantagenet king. Among many achievements, Henry institutionalized common law by creating a unified system of law "common" to the country through incorporating and elevating local custom to the national, ending local control and peculiarities, eliminating arbitrary remedies and reinstating a jury system—citizens sworn on oath to investigate reliable criminal accusations and civil claims. The jury reached its verdict through evaluating common local knowledge, not necessarily through the presentation of evidence, a distinguishing factor from today's civil and criminal court systems.
At the time, royal government centered on the Curia Regis (king's court), the body of aristocrats and prelates who assisted in the administration of the realm and the ancestor of Parliament, the Star Chamber, and Privy Council. Henry II developed the practice of sending judges (numbering around 20 to 30 in the 1180s) from his Curia Regis to hear the various disputes throughout the country, and return to the court thereafter. The king's itinerant justices would generally receive a writ or commission under the great seal. They would then resolve disputes on an ad hoc basis according to what they interpreted the customs to be. The king's judges would then return to London and often discuss their cases and the decisions they made with the other judges. These decisions would be recorded and filed. In time, a rule, known as stare decisis (also commonly known as precedent) developed, whereby a judge would be bound to follow the decision of an earlier judge; he was required to adopt the earlier judge's interpretation of the law and apply the same principles promulgated by that earlier judge if the two cases had similar facts to one another. Once judges began to regard each other's decisions to be binding precedent, the pre-Norman system of local customs and law varying in each locality was replaced by a system that was (at least in theory, though not always in practice) common throughout the whole country, hence the name "common law".
The king's object was to preserve public order, but providing law and order was also extremely profitable–cases on forest use as well as fines and forfeitures can generate "great treasure" for the government. Eyres (a Norman French word for judicial circuit, originating from Latin iter) are more than just courts; they would supervise local government, raise revenue, investigate crimes, and enforce feudal rights of the king. There were complaints of the eyre of 1198 reducing the kingdom to poverty and Cornishmen fleeing to escape the eyre of 1233.
Henry II's creation of a powerful and unified court system, which curbed somewhat the power of canonical (church) courts, brought him (and England) into conflict with the church, most famously with Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The murder of the Archbishop gave rise to a wave of popular outrage against the King. International pressure on Henry grew, and in May 1172 he negotiated a settlement with the papacy in which the King swore to go on crusade as well as effectively overturned the more controversial clauses of the Constitutions of Clarendon. Henry nevertheless continued to exert influence in any ecclesiastical case which interested him and royal power was exercised more subtly with considerable success.
The English Court of Common Pleas was established after Magna Carta to try lawsuits between commoners in which the monarch had no interest. Its judges sat in open court in the Great Hall of the king's Palace of Westminster, permanently except in the vacations between the four terms of the Legal year.
Judge-made common law operated as the primary source of law for several hundred years, before Parliament acquired legislative powers to create statutory law. It is important to understand that common law is the older and more traditional source of law, and legislative power is simply a layer applied on top of the older common law foundation. Since the 12th century, courts have had parallel and co-equal authority to make law—"legislating from the bench" is a traditional and essential function of courts, which was carried over into the U.S. system as an essential component of the "judicial power" specified by Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. summarized centuries of history in 1917, "judges do and must legislate." In the United States, state courts continue to exercise full common law powers, and create both general common law and interstitial common law. In U.S. federal courts, after Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 78 (1938), the general dividing line is that federal courts can only "interpret" to create interstitial common law not exercise general common law powers. However, that authority to "interpret" can be an expansive power to "make law," especially on Constitutional issues where the Constitutional text is so terse. There are legitimate debates on how the powers of courts and legislatures should be balanced around "interpretation." However, the view that courts lack law-making power is historically inaccurate and constitutionally unsupportable.
In England, judges have devised a number of rules as to how to deal with precedent decisions. The early development of case-law in the thirteenth century has been traced to Bracton's On the Laws and Customs of England and led to the yearly compilations of court cases known as Year Books, of which the first extant was published in 1268, the same year that Bracton died. The Year Books are known as the law reports of medieval England, and are a principal source for knowledge of the developing legal doctrines, concepts, and methods in the period from the 13th to the 16th centuries, when the common law developed into recognizable form.
Influence of Roman law
The term "common law" is often used as a contrast to Roman-derived "civil law", and the fundamental processes and forms of reasoning in the two are quite different. Nonetheless, there has been considerable cross-fertilization of ideas, while the two traditions and sets of foundational principles remain distinct.
By the time of the rediscovery of the Roman law in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries, the common law had already developed far enough to prevent a Roman law reception as it occurred on the continent. However, the first common law scholars, most notably Glanvill and Bracton, as well as the early royal common law judges, had been well accustomed with Roman law. Often, they were clerics trained in the Roman canon law. One of the first and throughout its history one of the most significant treatises of the common law, Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae (On the Laws and Customs of England), was heavily influenced by the division of the law in Justinian's Institutes. The impact of Roman law had decreased sharply after the age of Bracton, but the Roman divisions of actions into in rem (typically, actions against a thing or property for the purpose of gaining title to that property; must be filed in a court where the property is located) and in personam (typically, actions directed against a person; these can affect a person's rights and, since a person often owns things, his property too) used by Bracton had a lasting effect and laid the groundwork for a return of Roman law structural concepts in the 18th and 19th centuries. Signs of this can be found in Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, and Roman law ideas regained importance with the revival of academic law schools in the 19th century. As a result, today, the main systematic divisions of the law into property, contract, and tort (and to some extent unjust enrichment) can be found in the civil law as well as in the common law.
Coke and Blackstone
The first attempt at a comprehensive compilation of centuries of common law was by Lord Chief Justice Edward Coke, in his treatise, Institutes of the Lawes of England in the 17th century.
The next definitive historical treatise on the common law is Commentaries on the Laws of England, written by Sir William Blackstone and first published in 1765–1769.
Propagation of the common law to the colonies and Commonwealth by reception statutes
A reception statute is a statutory law adopted as a former British colony becomes independent, by which the new nation adopts (i.e. receives) pre-independence common law, to the extent not explicitly rejected by the legislative body or constitution of the new nation. Reception statutes generally consider the English common law dating prior to independence, and the precedent originating from it, as the default law, because of the importance of using an extensive and predictable body of law to govern the conduct of citizens and businesses in a new state. All U.S. states, with the partial exception of Louisiana, have either implemented reception statutes or adopted the common law by judicial opinion.
Other examples of reception statutes in the United States, the states of the U.S., Canada and its provinces, and Hong Kong, are discussed in the reception statute article.
Yet, adoption of the common law in the newly independent nation was not a foregone conclusion, and was controversial. Immediately after the American Revolution, there was widespread distrust and hostility to anything British, and the common law was no exception. Jeffersonians decried lawyers and their common law tradition as threats to the new republic. The Jeffersonians preferred a legislatively enacted civil law under the control of the political process, rather than the common law developed by judges that—by design—were insulated from the political process. The Federalists believed that the common law was the birthright of Independence: after all, the natural rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" were the rights protected by common law. Even advocates for the common law approach noted that it was not an ideal fit for the newly independent colonies: judges and lawyers alike were severely hindered by a lack of printed legal materials. Before Independence, the most comprehensive law libraries had been maintained by Tory lawyers, and those libraries vanished with the loyalist expatriation, and the ability to print books was limited. Lawyer (later President) John Adams complained that he "suffered very much for the want of books". To bootstrap this most basic need of a common law system—knowable, written law—in 1803, lawyers in Massachusetts donated their books to found a law library. A Jeffersonian newspaper criticized the library, as it would carry forward "all the old authorities practiced in England for centuries back ... whereby a new system of jurisprudence [will be founded] on the high monarchical system [to] become the Common Law of this Commonwealth... [The library] may hereafter have a very unsocial purpose."
For several decades after independence, English law still exerted influence over American common law—for example, with Byrne v Boadle (1863), which first applied the res ipsa loquitur doctrine.
Decline of Latin maxims and "blind imitation of the past", and adding flexibility to stare decisis
Well into the 19th century, ancient maxims played a large role in common law adjudication. Many of these maxims had originated in Roman Law, migrated to England before the introduction of Christianity to the British Isles, and were typically stated in Latin even in English decisions. Many examples are familiar in everyday speech even today, "One cannot be a judge in one's own cause" (see Dr. Bonham's Case), rights are reciprocal to obligations, and the like. Judicial decisions and treatises of the 17th and 18th centuries, such at those of Lord Chief Justice Edward Coke, presented the common law as a collection of such maxims.
Reliance on old maxims and rigid adherence to precedent, no matter how old or ill-considered, came under critical discussion in the late 19th century, starting in the United States. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in his famous article, "The Path of the Law", commented, "It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past." Justice Holmes noted that study of maxims might be sufficient for "the man of the present", but "the man of the future is the man of statistics and the master of economics". In an 1880 lecture at Harvard, he wrote:
In the early 20th century, Louis Brandeis, later appointed to the United States Supreme Court, became noted for his use of policy-driving facts and economics in his briefs, and extensive appendices presenting facts that lead a judge to the advocate's conclusion. By this time, briefs relied more on facts than on Latin maxims.
Reliance on old maxims is now deprecated. Common law decisions today reflect both precedent and policy judgment drawn from economics, the social sciences, business, decisions of foreign courts, and the like. The degree to which these external factors should influence adjudication is the subject of active debate, but it is indisputable that judges do draw on experience and learning from everyday life, from other fields, and from other jurisdictions.
1870 through 20th century, and the procedural merger of law and equity
As early as the 15th century, it became the practice that litigants who felt they had been cheated by the common law system would petition the King in person. For example, they might argue that an award of damages (at common law (as opposed to equity)) was not sufficient redress for a trespasser occupying their land, and instead request that the trespasser be evicted. From this developed the system of equity, administered by the Lord Chancellor, in the courts of chancery. By their nature, equity and law were frequently in conflict and litigation would frequently continue for years as one court countermanded the other, even though it was established by the 17th century that equity should prevail.
In England, courts of law (as opposed to equity) were merged with courts of equity by the Judicature Acts of 1873 and 1875, with equity prevailing in case of conflict.
In the United States, parallel systems of law (providing money damages, with cases heard by a jury upon either party's request) and equity (fashioning a remedy to fit the situation, including injunctive relief, heard by a judge) survived well into the 20th century. The United States federal courts procedurally separated law and equity: the same judges could hear either kind of case, but a given case could only pursue causes in law or in equity, and the two kinds of cases proceeded under different procedural rules. This became problematic when a given case required both money damages and injunctive relief. In 1937, the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure combined law and equity into one form of action, the "civil action". Fed.R.Civ.P. . The distinction survives to the extent that issues that were "common law (as opposed to equity)" as of 1791 (the date of adoption of the Seventh Amendment) are still subject to the right of either party to request a jury, and "equity" issues are decided by a judge.
The states of Delaware, Illinois, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee continue to have divided courts of law and courts of chancery, for example, the Delaware Court of Chancery. In New Jersey, the appellate courts are unified, but the trial courts are organized into a Chancery Division and a Law Division.
Common law pleading and its abolition in the early 20th century
For centuries, through to the 19th century, the common law acknowledged only specific forms of action, and required very careful drafting of the opening pleading (called a writ) to slot into exactly one of them: debt, detinue, covenant, special assumpsit, general assumpsit, trespass, trover, replevin, case (or trespass on the case), and ejectment. To initiate a lawsuit, a pleading had to be drafted to meet myriad technical requirements: correctly categorizing the case into the correct legal pigeonhole (pleading in the alternative was not permitted), and using specific legal terms and phrases that had been traditional for centuries. Under the old common law pleading standards, a suit by a pro se ("for oneself", without a lawyer) party was all but impossible, and there was often considerable procedural jousting at the outset of a case over minor wording issues.
One of the major reforms of the late 19th century and early 20th century was the abolition of common law pleading requirements. A plaintiff can initiate a case by giving the defendant "a short and plain statement" of facts that constitute an alleged wrong. This reform moved the attention of courts from technical scrutiny of words to a more rational consideration of the facts, and opened access to justice far more broadly.
Alternatives to common law systems
Civil law systems—comparisons and contrasts to common law
The main alternative to the common law system is the civil law system, which is used in Continental Europe, and most of Central and South America.
Judicial decisions play only a minor role in shaping civil law
The primary contrast between the two systems is the role of written decisions and precedent.
In common law jurisdictions, nearly every case that presents a bona fide disagreement on the law is resolved in a written opinion. The legal reasoning for the decision, known as ratio decidendi, not only determines the court's judgment between the parties, but also stands as precedent for resolving future disputes. In contrast, civil law decisions typically do not include explanatory opinions, and thus no precedent flows from one decision to the next.
In common law systems, a single decided case is binding common law (connotation 1) to the same extent as statute or regulation, under the principle of stare decisis. In contrast, in civil law systems, individual decisions have only advisory, not binding effect. In civil law systems, case law only acquires weight when a long series of cases use consistent reasoning, called jurisprudence constante. Civil law lawyers consult case law to obtain their best prediction of how a court will rule, but comparatively, civil law judges are less bound to follow it.
For that reason, statutes in civil law systems are more comprehensive, detailed, and continuously updated, covering all matters capable of being brought before a court.
Adversarial system vs. inquisitorial system
Common law systems tend to give more weight to separation of powers between the judicial branch and the executive branch. In contrast, civil law systems are typically more tolerant of allowing individual officials to exercise both powers. One example of this contrast is the difference between the two systems in allocation of responsibility between prosecutor and adjudicator.
Common law courts usually use an adversarial system, in which two sides present their cases to a neutral judge. For example, in criminal cases, in adversarial systems, the prosecutor and adjudicator are two separate people. The prosecutor is lodged in the executive branch, and conducts the investigation to locate evidence. That prosecutor presents the evidence to a neutral adjudicator, who makes a decision.
In contrast, in civil law systems, criminal proceedings proceed under an inquisitorial system in which an examining magistrate serves two roles by first developing the evidence and arguments for one side and then the other during the investigation phase. The examining magistrate then presents the dossier detailing his or her findings to the president of the bench that will adjudicate on the case where it has been decided that a trial shall be conducted. Therefore, the president of the bench's view of the case is not neutral and may be biased while conducting the trial after the reading of the dossier. Unlike the common law proceedings, the president of the bench in the inquisitorial system is not merely an umpire and is entitled to directly interview the witnesses or express comments during the trial, as long as he or she does not express his or her view on the guilt of the accused.
The proceeding in the inquisitorial system is essentially by writing. Most of the witnesses would have given evidence in the investigation phase and such evidence will be contained in the dossier under the form of police reports. In the same way, the accused would have already put his or her case at the investigation phase but he or she will be free to change his or her evidence at trial. Whether the accused pleads guilty or not, a trial will be conducted. Unlike the adversarial system, the conviction and sentence to be served (if any) will be released by the trial jury together with the president of the trial bench, following their common deliberation.
In contrast, in an adversarial system, on issues of fact, the onus of framing the case rests on the parties, and judges generally decide the case presented to them, rather than acting as active investigators, or actively reframing the issues presented. "In our adversary system, in both civil and criminal cases, in the first instance and on appeal, we follow the principle of party presentation. That is, we rely on the parties to frame the issues for decision and assign to courts the role of neutral arbiter of matters the parties present." This principle applies with force in all issues in criminal matters, and to factual issues: courts seldom engage in fact gathering on their own initiative, but decide facts on the evidence presented (even here, there are exceptions, for "legislative facts" as opposed to "adjudicative facts").
On the other hand, on issues of law, common law courts regularly raise new issues (such as matters of jurisdiction or standing), perform independent research, and reformulate the legal grounds on which to analyze the facts presented to them. The United States Supreme Court regularly decides based on issues raised only in amicus briefs from non-parties. One of the most notable such cases was Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, a 1938 case in which neither party questioned the ruling from the 1842 case Swift v. Tyson that served as the foundation for their arguments, but which led the Supreme Court to overturn Swift during their deliberations. To avoid lack of notice, courts may invite briefing on an issue to ensure adequate notice. However, there are limits—an appeals court may not introduce a theory that contradicts the party's own contentions.
There are many exceptions in both directions. For example, most proceedings before U.S. federal and state agencies are inquisitorial in nature, at least the initial stages (e.g., a patent examiner, a social security hearing officer, and so on), even though the law to be applied is developed through common law processes.
Contrasting role of treatises and academic writings in common law and civil law systems
The role of the legal academy presents a significant "cultural" difference between common law (connotation 2) and civil law jurisdictions. In both systems, treatises compile decisions and state overarching principles that (in the author's opinion) explain the results of the cases. In neither system are treatises considered "law", but the weight given them is nonetheless quite different.
In common law jurisdictions, lawyers and judges tend to use these treatises as only "finding aids" to locate the relevant cases. In common law jurisdictions, scholarly work is seldom cited as authority for what the law is. Chief Justice Roberts noted the "great disconnect between the academy and the profession." When common law courts rely on scholarly work, it is almost always only for factual findings, policy justification, or the history and evolution of the law, but the court's legal conclusion is reached through analysis of relevant statutes and common law, seldom scholarly commentary.
In contrast, in civil law jurisdictions, courts give the writings of law professors significant weight, partly because civil law decisions traditionally were very brief, sometimes no more than a paragraph stating who wins and who loses. The rationale had to come from somewhere else: the academy often filled that role.
Narrowing of differences between common law and civil law
The contrast between civil law and common law legal systems has become increasingly blurred, with the growing importance of jurisprudence (similar to case law but not binding) in civil law countries, and the growing importance of statute law and codes in common law countries.
Examples of common law being replaced by statute or codified rule in the United States include criminal law (since 1812, U.S. federal courts and most but not all of the states have held that criminal law must be embodied in statute if the public is to have fair notice), commercial law (the Uniform Commercial Code in the early 1960s) and procedure (the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in the 1930s and the Federal Rules of Evidence in the 1970s). But in each case, the statute sets the general principles, but the interstitial common law process determines the scope and application of the statute.
An example of convergence from the other direction is shown in the 1982 decision Srl CILFIT and Lanificio di Gavardo SpA v Ministry of Health (), in which the European Court of Justice held that questions it has already answered need not be resubmitted. This showed how a historically distinctly common law principle is used by a court composed of judges (at that time) of essentially civil law jurisdiction.
Other alternatives
The former Soviet Bloc and other socialist countries used a socialist law system, although there is controversy as to whether socialist law ever constituted a separate legal system or not.
Much of the Muslim world uses legal systems based on Sharia (also called Islamic law).
Many churches use a system of canon law. The canon law of the Catholic Church influenced the common law during the medieval period through its preservation of Roman law doctrine such as the presumption of innocence.
Common law legal systems in the present day
In jurisdictions around the world
The common law constitutes the basis of the legal systems of:
Australia (both federally and in each of the States and Territories)
Bangladesh
Belize
Brunei
Canada (both federal and the individual provinces, with the exception of Quebec)
the Caribbean jurisdictions of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago
Cyprus
Ghana
Hong Kong
India
Ireland
Israel
Kenya
Nigeria
Malaysia
Malta
Myanmar
New Zealand
Pakistan
Philippines
Singapore
South Africa
United Kingdom (in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland)
United States (both the federal system and the individual states and Territories, with the partial exception of Louisiana and Puerto Rico)
and many other generally English-speaking countries or Commonwealth countries (except Scotland, which is bijuridicial, and Malta). Essentially, every country that was colonised at some time by England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom uses common law except those that were formerly colonised by other nations, such as Quebec (which follows the bijuridicial law or civil code of France in part), South Africa and Sri Lanka (which follow Roman Dutch law), where the prior civil law system was retained to respect the civil rights of the local colonists. Guyana and Saint Lucia have mixed common law and civil law systems.
The remainder of this section discusses jurisdiction-specific variants, arranged chronologically.
Scotland
Scotland is often said to use the civil law system, but it has a unique system that combines elements of an uncodified civil law dating back to the with an element of its own common law long predating the Treaty of Union with England in 1707 (see Legal institutions of Scotland in the High Middle Ages), founded on the customary laws of the tribes residing there. Historically, Scottish common law differed in that the use of precedent was subject to the courts' seeking to discover the principle that justifies a law rather than searching for an example as a precedent, and principles of natural justice and fairness have always played a role in Scots Law. From the 19th century, the Scottish approach to precedent developed into a stare decisis akin to that already established in England thereby reflecting a narrower, more modern approach to the application of case law in subsequent instances. This is not to say that the substantive rules of the common laws of both countries are the same, but in many matters (particularly those of UK-wide interest), they are similar.
Scotland shares the Supreme Court with England, Wales and Northern Ireland for civil cases; the court's decisions are binding on the jurisdiction from which a case arises but only influential on similar cases arising in Scotland. This has had the effect of converging the law in certain areas. For instance, the modern UK law of negligence is based on Donoghue v Stevenson, a case originating in Paisley, Scotland.
Scotland maintains a separate criminal law system from the rest of the UK, with the High Court of Justiciary being the final court for criminal appeals. The highest court of appeal in civil cases brought in Scotland is now the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (before October 2009, final appellate jurisdiction lay with the House of Lords).
The United States – its states, federal courts, and executive branch agencies (17th century on)
The centuries-old authority of the common law courts in England to develop law case by case and to apply statute law—"legislating from the bench"—is a traditional function of courts, which was carried over into the U.S. system as an essential component of the judicial power for states. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. summarized centuries of history in 1917, "judges do and must legislate" (in the federal courts, only interstitially, in state courts, to the full limits of common law adjudicatory authority).
New York (17th century)
The original colony of New Netherland was settled by the Dutch and the law was also Dutch. When the English captured pre-existing colonies they continued to allow the local settlers to keep their civil law. However, the Dutch settlers revolted against the English and the colony was recaptured by the Dutch. In 1664, the colony of New York had two distinct legal systems: on Manhattan Island and along the Hudson River, sophisticated courts modeled on those of the Netherlands were resolving disputes learnedly in accordance with Dutch customary law. On Long Island, Staten Island, and in Westchester, on the other hand, English courts were administering a crude, untechnical variant of the common law carried from Puritan New England and practiced without the intercession of lawyers. When the English finally regained control of New Netherland they imposed common law upon all the colonists, including the Dutch. This was problematic, as the patroon system of land holding, based on the feudal system and civil law, continued to operate in the colony until it was abolished in the mid-19th century. New York began a codification of its law in the 19th century. The only part of this codification process that was considered complete is known as the Field Code applying to civil procedure. The influence of Roman-Dutch law continued in the colony well into the late 19th century. The codification of a law of general obligations shows how remnants of the civil law tradition in New York continued on from the Dutch days.
Louisiana (1700s)
Under Louisiana's codified system, the Louisiana Civil Code, private law—that is, substantive law between private sector parties—is based on principles of law from continental Europe, with some common law influences. These principles derive ultimately from Roman law, transmitted through French law and Spanish law, as the state's current territory intersects the area of North America colonized by Spain and by France. Contrary to popular belief, the Louisiana code does not directly derive from the Napoleonic Code, as the latter was enacted in 1804, one year after the Louisiana Purchase. However, the two codes are similar in many respects due to common roots.
Louisiana's criminal law largely rests on English common law. Louisiana's administrative law is generally similar to the administrative law of the U.S. federal government and other U.S. states. Louisiana's procedural law is generally in line with that of other U.S. states, which in turn is generally based on the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Historically notable among the Louisiana code's differences from common law is the role of property rights among women, particularly in inheritance gained by widows.
California (1850s)
The U.S. state of California has a system based on common law, but it has codified the law in the manner of civil law jurisdictions. The reason for the enactment of the California Codes in the 19th century was to replace a pre-existing system based on Spanish civil law with a system based on common law, similar to that in most other states. California and a number of other Western states, however, have retained the concept of community property derived from civil law. The California courts have treated portions of the codes as an extension of the common-law tradition, subject to judicial development in the same manner as judge-made common law. (Most notably, in the case Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 13 Cal.3d 804 (1975), the California Supreme Court adopted the principle of comparative negligence in the face of a California Civil Code provision codifying the traditional common-law doctrine of contributory negligence.)
United States federal courts (1789 and 1938)
The United States federal government (as opposed to the states) has a variant on a common law system. United States federal courts only act as interpreters of statutes and the constitution by elaborating and precisely defining broad statutory language (connotation 1(b) above), but, unlike state courts, do not generally act as an independent source of common law.
Before 1938, the federal courts, like almost all other common law courts, decided the law on any issue where the relevant legislature (either the U.S. Congress or state legislature, depending on the issue) had not acted, by looking to courts in the same system, that is, other federal courts, even on issues of state law, and even where there was no express grant of authority from Congress or the Constitution.
In 1938, the U.S. Supreme Court in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins 304 U.S. 64, 78 (1938), overruled earlier precedent, and held "There is no federal general common law," thus confining the federal courts to act only as interstitial interpreters of law originating elsewhere. E.g., Texas Industries v. Radcliff, (without an express grant of statutory authority, federal courts cannot create rules of intuitive justice, for example, a right to contribution from co-conspirators). Post-1938, federal courts deciding issues that arise under state law are required to defer to state court interpretations of state statutes, or reason what a state's highest court would rule if presented with the issue, or to certify the question to the state's highest court for resolution.
Later courts have limited Erie slightly, to create a few situations where United States federal courts are permitted to create federal common law rules without express statutory authority, for example, where a federal rule of decision is necessary to protect uniquely federal interests, such as foreign affairs, or financial instruments issued by the federal government. See, e.g., Clearfield Trust Co. v. United States, (giving federal courts the authority to fashion common law rules with respect to issues of federal power, in this case negotiable instruments backed by the federal government); see also International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215 (1918) (creating a cause of action for misappropriation of "hot news" that lacks any statutory grounding); but see National Basketball Association v. Motorola, Inc., 105 F.3d 841, 843–44, 853 (2d Cir. 1997) (noting continued vitality of INS "hot news" tort under New York state law, but leaving open the question of whether it survives under federal law). Except on Constitutional issues, Congress is free to legislatively overrule federal courts' common law.
United States executive branch agencies (1946)
Most executive branch agencies in the United States federal government have some adjudicatory authority. To greater or lesser extent, agencies honor their own precedent to ensure consistent results. Agency decision making is governed by the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946.
For example, the National Labor Relations Board issues relatively few regulations, but instead promulgates most of its substantive rules through common law (connotation 1).
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (19th century and 1948)
The law of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are largely based on English common law because of the long period of British colonial influence during the period of the British Raj.
Ancient India represented a distinct tradition of law, and had a historically independent school of legal theory and practice. The Arthashastra, dating from 400 BCE and the Manusmriti, from 100 CE, were influential treatises in India, texts that were considered authoritative legal guidance. Manu's central philosophy was tolerance and pluralism, and was cited across Southeast Asia. Early in this period, which finally culminated in the creation of the Gupta Empire, relations with ancient Greece and Rome were not infrequent. The appearance of similar fundamental institutions of international law in various parts of the world show that they are inherent in international society, irrespective of culture and tradition. Inter-State relations in the pre-Islamic period resulted in clear-cut rules of warfare of a high humanitarian standard, in rules of neutrality, of treaty law, of customary law embodied in religious charters, in exchange of embassies of a temporary or semi-permanent character.
When India became part of the British Empire, there was a break in tradition, and Hindu and Islamic law were supplanted by the common law. After the failed rebellion against the British in 1857, the British Parliament took over control of India from the British East India Company, and British India came under the direct rule of the Crown. The British Parliament passed the Government of India Act 1858 to this effect, which set up the structure of British government in India. It established in Britain the office of the Secretary of State for India through whom the Parliament would exercise its rule, along with a Council of India to aid him. It also established the office of the Governor-General of India along with an Executive Council in India, which consisted of high officials of the British Government. As a result, the present judicial system of the country derives largely from the British system and has little correlation to the institutions of the pre-British era.
Post-partition India (1948)
Post-partition, India retained its common law system. Much of contemporary Indian law shows substantial European and American influence. Legislation first introduced by the British is still in effect in modified form today. During the drafting of the Indian Constitution, laws from Ireland, the United States, Britain, and France were all synthesized to produce a refined set of Indian laws. Indian laws also adhere to the United Nations guidelines on human rights law and environmental law. Certain international trade laws, such as those on intellectual property, are also enforced in India.
Post-partition Pakistan (1948)
Post-partition, Pakistan retained its common law system.
Post-partition Bangladesh (1968)
Post-partition, Bangladesh retained its common law system.
Canada (1867)
Canada has separate federal and provincial legal systems.
Canadian provincial legal systems
Each province and territory is considered a separate jurisdiction with respect to case law. Each has its own procedural law in civil matters, statutorily created provincial courts and superior trial courts with inherent jurisdiction culminating in the Court of Appeal of the province. These Courts of Appeal are then subject to the Supreme Court of Canada in terms of appeal of their decisions.
All but one of the provinces of Canada use a common law system for civil matters (the exception being Quebec, which uses a French-heritage civil law system for issues arising within provincial jurisdiction, such as property ownership and contracts).
Canadian federal legal system
Canadian Federal Courts operate under a separate system throughout Canada and deal with narrower range of subject matter than superior courts in each province and territory. They only hear cases on subjects assigned to them by federal statutes, such as immigration, intellectual property, judicial review of federal government decisions, and admiralty. The Federal Court of Appeal is the appellate court for federal courts and hears cases in multiple cities; unlike the United States, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal is not divided into appellate circuits.
Canadian federal statutes must use the terminology of both the common law and civil law for civil matters; this is referred to as legislative bijuralism.
Canadian criminal law
Criminal law is uniform throughout Canada. It is based on the federal statutory Criminal Code, which in addition to substance also details procedural law. The administration of justice are the responsibilities of the provinces. Canadian criminal law uses a common law system no matter which province a case proceeds.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua's legal system is also a mixture of the English Common Law and Civil Law. This situation was brought through the influence of British administration of the Eastern half of the Mosquito Coast from the mid-17th century until about 1894, the William Walker period from about 1855 through 1857, US interventions/occupations during the period from 1909 to 1933, the influence of US institutions during the Somoza family administrations (1933 through 1979) and the considerable importation between 1979 and the present of US culture and institutions.
Israel (1948)
Israel has no formal written constitution. Its basic principles are inherited from the law of the British Mandate of Palestine and thus resemble those of British and American law, namely: the role of courts in creating the body of law and the authority of the supreme court in reviewing and if necessary overturning legislative and executive decisions, as well as employing the adversarial system. However, because Israel has no written constitution, basic laws can be changed by a vote of 61 out of 120 votes in the parliament. One of the primary reasons that the Israeli constitution remains unwritten is the fear by whatever party holds power that creating a written constitution, combined with the common-law elements, would severely limit the powers of the Knesset (which, following the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, holds near-unlimited power).
Roman Dutch common law
Roman Dutch common law is a bijuridical or mixed system of law similar to the common law system in Scotland and Louisiana. Roman Dutch common law jurisdictions include South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Many of these jurisdictions recognise customary law, and in some, such as South Africa the Constitution requires that the common law be developed in accordance with the Bill of Rights. Roman Dutch common law is a development of Roman Dutch law by courts in the Roman Dutch common law jurisdictions. During the Napoleonic wars the Kingdom of the Netherlands adopted the French code civil in 1809, however the Dutch colonies in the Cape of Good Hope and Sri Lanka, at the time called Ceylon, were seized by the British to prevent them being used as bases by the French Navy. The system was developed by the courts and spread with the expansion of British colonies in Southern Africa. Roman Dutch common law relies on legal principles set out in Roman law sources such as Justinian's Institutes and Digest, and also on the writing of Dutch jurists of the 17th century such as Grotius and Voet. In practice, the majority of decisions rely on recent precedent.
Ghana
Ghana follows the English common law tradition which was inherited from the British during her colonisation. Consequently, the laws of Ghana are, for the most part, a modified version of imported law that is continuously adapting to changing socio-economic and political realities of the country. The Bond of 1844 marked the period when the people of Ghana (then Gold Coast) ceded their independence to the British and gave the British judicial authority. Later, the Supreme Court Ordinance of 1876 formally introduced British law, be it the common law or statutory law, in the Gold Coast. Section 14 of the Ordinance formalised the application of the common-law tradition in the country.
Ghana, after independence, did not do away with the common law system inherited from the British, and today it has been enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of the country. Chapter four of Ghana's Constitution, entitled "The Laws of Ghana", has in Article 11(1) the list of laws applicable in the state. This comprises (a) the Constitution; (b) enactments made by or under the authority of the Parliament established by the Constitution; (c) any Orders, Rules and Regulations made by any person or authority under a power conferred by the Constitution; (d) the existing law; and (e) the common law. Thus, the modern-day Constitution of Ghana, like those before it, embraced the English common law by entrenching it in its provisions. The doctrine of judicial precedence which is based on the principle of stare decisis as applied in England and other pure common law countries also applies in Ghana.
Scholarly works
Edward Coke, a 17th-century Lord Chief Justice of the English Court of Common Pleas and a Member of Parliament (MP), wrote several legal texts that collected and integrated centuries of case law. Lawyers in both England and America learned the law from his Institutes and Reports until the end of the 18th century. His works are still cited by common law courts around the world.
The next definitive historical treatise on the common law is Commentaries on the Laws of England, written by Sir William Blackstone and first published in 1765–1769. Since 1979, a facsimile edition of that first edition has been available in four paper-bound volumes. Today it has been superseded in the English part of the United Kingdom by Halsbury's Laws of England that covers both common and statutory English law.
While he was still on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and before being named to the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. published a short volume called The Common Law, which remains a classic in the field. Unlike Blackstone and the Restatements, Holmes' book only briefly discusses what the law is; rather, Holmes describes the common law process. Law professor John Chipman Gray's The Nature and Sources of the Law, an examination and survey of the common law, is also still commonly read in U.S. law schools.
In the United States, Restatements of various subject matter areas (Contracts, Torts, Judgments, and so on.), edited by the American Law Institute, collect the common law for the area. The ALI Restatements are often cited by American courts and lawyers for propositions of uncodified common law, and are considered highly persuasive authority, just below binding precedential decisions. The Corpus Juris Secundum is an encyclopedia whose main content is a compendium of the common law and its variations throughout the various state jurisdictions.
Scots common law covers matters including murder and theft, and has sources in custom, in legal writings and previous court decisions. The legal writings used are called Institutional Texts and come mostly from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Examples include Craig, Jus Feudale (1655) and Stair, The Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1681).
See also
Outline of law
Common law national legal systems today
List of common law national legal systems
Common vs. civil laws
Civil law
Common law offences
Development of English legal system and case law
Books of authority
Lists of case law
Early common law systems
Anglo-Saxon law
Brehon law, or Irish law
Doom book, or Code of Alfred the Great
Time immemorial
Stages of common law trials
Arraignment
Grand jury
Jury trial
Common law in specific areas
Common law as applied to matrimony
Alimony
Common-law marriage
Employment
Faithless servant
Slavery
Slavery at common law
References
Further reading
Chapters 1–6.
Milsom, S.F.C., A Natural History of the Common Law. Columbia University Press (2003)
Milsom, S.F.C., Historical Foundations of the Common Law (2nd ed.). Lexis Law Publishing (Va), (1981)
External links
The History of the Common Law of England, and An analysis of the civil part of the law, Matthew Hale
The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, Pollock and Maitland
Select Writs. (F.W.Maitland)
Common-law Pleading: its history and principles, R.Ross Perry, (Boston, 1897)
; also available at The Climate Change and Public Health Law Site
The Principle of stare decisis American Law Register
The Australian Institute of Comparative Legal Systems
The International Institute for Law and Strategic Studies (IILSS)
New South Wales Legislation
Historical Laws of Hong Kong Online – University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives
Maxims of Common Law from Bouvier's 1856 Law Dictionary
Legal history
Legal systems |
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