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+In its primitive form, a wheel is a circular block of a hard and durable material at whose center has been bored a circular hole through which is placed an axle bearing about which the wheel rotates when a moment is applied by gravity or torque to the wheel about its axis, thereby making together one of the six simple machines. When placed vertically under a load-bearing platform or case, the wheel turning on the horizontal axle makes it possible to transport heavy loads; when placed horizontally, the wheel turning on its vertical axle makes it possible to control the spinning motion used to shape materials (e.g. a potter's wheel); when mounted on a column connected to a rudder or a chassis mounted on other wheels, one can control the direction of a vessel or vehicle (e.g. a ship's wheel or steering wheel); when connected to a crank or engine, a wheel can store, release, or transmit energy (e.g. the flywheel).
+
+The English word wheel comes from the Old English word hweol, hweogol, from Proto-Germanic *hwehwlan, *hwegwlan, from Proto-Indo-European *kwekwlo-,[1] an extended form of the root *kwel- "to revolve, move around".
+Cognates within Indo-European include Icelandic hjól "wheel, tyre", Greek κύκλος kúklos, and Sanskrit chakra, the latter two both meaning "circle" or "wheel".[2]
+
+The place and time of an "invention" of the wheel remains unclear, because the oldest hints do not guarantee the existence of real wheeled transport, or are dated with too much scatter.[3] The invention of the wheel has been credited to the Elamites because their sculptures are the earliest to portray it.[4] The invention of the solid wooden disk wheel falls into the late Neolithic, and may be seen in conjunction with other technological advances that gave rise to the early Bronze Age. This implies the passage of several wheel-less millennia even after the invention of agriculture and of pottery, during the Aceramic Neolithic.
+
+The Halaf culture of 6500–5100 BC is sometimes credited with the earliest depiction of a wheeled vehicle, but this is doubtful as there is no evidence of Halafians using either wheeled vehicles or even pottery wheels.[5] Precursors of wheels, known as "tournettes" or "slow wheels", were known in the Middle East by the 5th millennium BC. One of the earliest examples was discovered at Tepe Pardis, Iran, and dated to 5200–4700 BC. These were made of stone or clay and secured to the ground with a peg in the center, but required significant effort to turn. True potter's wheels, which are freely-spinning and have a wheel and axle mechanism, were developed in Mesopotamia (Iraq) by 4200–4000 BC.[6] The oldest surviving example, which was found in Ur (modern day Iraq), dates to approximately 3100 BC.[7]
+
+The oldest indirect evidence of wheeled movement was found in the form of miniature clay wheels north of the Black Sea before 4000 B.C. From the middle of the 4th millennium BC onwards, the evidence is condensed throughout Europe in the form of toy cars, depictions, or ruts.[8] In Mesopotamia, depictions of wheeled wagons found on clay tablet pictographs at the Eanna district of Uruk, in the Sumerian civilization are dated to c. 3500–3350 BC.[9] In the second half of the 4th millennium BC, evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared near-simultaneously in the Northern (Maykop culture) and South Caucasus (Early Kurgan culture) and Eastern Europe (Cucuteni-Trypillian culture). Depictions of a wheeled vehicle appeared between 3631–3380 BC in the Bronocice clay pot excavated in a Funnelbeaker culture settlement in southern Poland.[10] In nearby Olszanica, a 2.2 m wide door was constructed for wagon entry; this barn was 40 m long with 3 doors, dated to 5000 B.C - 7000 years old, and belonged to neolithic Linear Pottery culture.[11] Surviving evidence of a wheel-axle combination, from Stare Gmajne near Ljubljana in Slovenia (Ljubljana Marshes Wooden Wheel), is dated within two standard deviations to 3340–3030 BC, the axle to 3360–3045 BC.[12] Two types of early Neolithic European wheel and axle are known; a circumalpine type of wagon construction (the wheel and axle rotate together, as in Ljubljana Marshes Wheel), and that of the Baden culture in Hungary (axle does not rotate). They both are dated to c. 3200–3000 BC.[13] Some historians believe that there was a diffusion of the wheeled vehicle from the Near East to Europe around the mid-4th millennium BC.[14]
+
+Early wheels were simple wooden disks with a hole for the axle. Some of the earliest wheels were made from horizontal slices of tree trunks. Because of the uneven structure of wood, a wheel made from a horizontal slice of a tree trunk will tend to be inferior to one made from rounded pieces of longitudinal boards.
+
+The spoked wheel was invented more recently and allowed the construction of lighter and swifter vehicles. The earliest known examples of wooden spoked wheels are in the context of the Sintashta culture, dating to c. 2000 BC (Krivoye Lake). Soon after this, horse cultures of the Caucasus region used horse-drawn spoked-wheel war chariots for the greater part of three centuries. They moved deep into the Greek peninsula where they joined with the existing Mediterranean peoples to give rise, eventually, to classical Greece after the breaking of Minoan dominance and consolidations led by pre-classical Sparta and Athens. Celtic chariots introduced an iron rim around the wheel in the 1st millennium BC.
+
+In China, wheel tracks dating to around 2200 BC have been found at Pingliangtai, a site of the Longshan Culture.[15] Similar tracks were also found at Yanshi, a city of the Erlitou culture, dating to around 1700 BC. The earliest evidence of spoked wheels in China comes from Qinghai, in the form of two wheel hubs from a site dated between 2000-1500 BC.[16]
+
+In Britain, a large wooden wheel, measuring about 1 m (3.3 ft) in diameter, was uncovered at the Must Farm site in East Anglia in 2016. The specimen, dating from 1,100–800 BC, represents the most complete and earliest of its type found in Britain. The wheel's hub is also present. A horse's spine found nearby suggests the wheel may have been part of a horse-drawn cart. The wheel was found in a settlement built on stilts over wetland, indicating that the settlement had some sort of link to dry land.[17]
+
+Although large-scale use of wheels did not occur in the Americas prior to European contact, numerous small wheeled artifacts, identified as children's toys, have been found in Mexican archeological sites, some dating to approximately 1500 BC.[18] It is thought that the primary obstacle to large-scale development of the wheel in the Americas was the absence of domesticated large animals that could be used to pull wheeled carriages.[19] The closest relative of cattle present in Americas in pre-Columbian times, the American Bison, is difficult to domesticate and was never domesticated by Native Americans; several horse species existed until about 12,000 years ago, but ultimately became extinct.[20] The only large animal that was domesticated in the Western hemisphere, the llama, a pack animal, but not physically suited to use as a draft animal to pull wheeled vehicles,[21] and use of the llama did not spread far beyond the Andes by the time of the arrival of Europeans.
+
+Nubians from after about 400 BC used wheels for spinning pottery and as water wheels.[22] It is thought that Nubian waterwheels may have been ox-driven.[23] It is also known that Nubians used horse-drawn chariots imported from Egypt.[24]
+
+The wheel was barely used, with the exception of the Horn of Africa, in Sub-Saharan Africa well into the 19th century but this changed with the arrival of the Europeans.[25][26]
+
+The spoked wheel was in continued use without major modification until the 1870s, when wire-spoked wheels and pneumatic tires were invented.[27] The wire spokes are under tension, not compression, making it possible for the wheel to be both stiff and light. Early radially-spoked wire wheels gave rise to tangentially-spoked wire wheels, which were widely used on cars into the late 20th century. Cast alloy wheels are now more commonly used; forged alloy wheels are used when weight is critical.
+
+The invention of the wheel has also been important for technology in general, important applications including the water wheel, the cogwheel (see also antikythera mechanism), the spinning wheel, and the astrolabe or torquetum. More modern descendants of the wheel include the propeller, the jet engine, the flywheel (gyroscope) and the turbine.
+
+Ljubljana Marshes Wheel, from around 3150 BC (restored model of the oldest exactly radiocarbon dated wooden wheel part in the world).
+
+Twentieth-century solid wheel made of wooden boards, bound with a metal wheel rim
+
+Spoked wheels on the ancient Etruscan Monteleone chariot, 2nd quarter of the 6th century BC[contradictory]
+
+Spoked wheel with bronze sheeting from Árokalja, from around 1000 BC.
+
+Radially- (left) and tangentially- (right) wire-spoked wheels, both with pneumatic tires.
+
+Cast alloy wheel on a folding bicycle, with a pneumatic tire.
+
+The low resistance to motion (compared to dragging) is explained as follows (refer to friction):
+
+Bearings are used to help reduce friction at the interface. In the simplest and oldest case the bearing is just a round hole through which the axle passes (a "plain bearing").
+
+Example:
+
+Additional energy is lost from the wheel-to-road interface. This is termed rolling resistance which is predominantly a deformation loss. This energy is also lowered by the use of a wheel (in comparison to dragging) because the net force on the contact point between the road and the wheel is almost perpendicular to the ground, and hence, generates an almost zero net work. This depends on the nature of the ground, of the material of the wheel, its inflation in the case of a tire, the net torque exerted by the eventual engine, and many other factors.
+
+A wheel can also offer advantages in traversing irregular surfaces if the wheel radius is sufficiently large compared to the irregularities.
+
+The wheel alone is not a machine, but when attached to an axle in conjunction with bearing, it forms the wheel and axle, one of the simple machines. A driven wheel is an example of a wheel and axle. Wheels pre-date driven wheels by about 6000 years, themselves an evolution of using round logs as rollers to move a heavy load—a practice going back in pre-history so far that it has not been dated.
+
+The rim is the "outer edge of a wheel, holding the tire."[28] It makes up the outer circular design of the wheel on which the inside edge of the tire is mounted on vehicles such as automobiles. For example, on a bicycle wheel the rim is a large hoop attached to the outer ends of the spokes of the wheel that holds the tire and tube.
+
+In the 1st millennium BC an iron rim was introduced around the wooden wheels of chariots.
+
+The hub is the center of the wheel, and typically houses a bearing, and is where the spokes meet.
+
+A hubless wheel (also known as a rim-rider or centerless wheel) is a type of wheel with no center hub. More specifically, the hub is actually almost as big as the wheel itself. The axle is hollow, following the wheel at very close tolerances.
+
+A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel (the hub where the axle connects), connecting the hub with the round traction surface. The term originally referred to portions of a log which had been split lengthwise into four or six sections. The radial members of a wagon wheel were made by carving a spoke (from a log) into their finished shape. A spokeshave is a tool originally developed for this purpose. Eventually, the term spoke was more commonly applied to the finished product of the wheelwright's work, than to the materials used.
+
+The rims of wire wheels (or "wire spoked wheels") are connected to their hubs by wire spokes. Although these wires are generally stiffer than a typical wire rope, they function mechanically the same as tensioned flexible wires, keeping the rim true while supporting applied loads.
+
+Wire wheels are used on most bicycles and still used on many motorcycles. They were invented by aeronautical engineer George Cayley and first used in bicycles by James Starley. A process of assembling wire wheels is described as wheelbuilding.
+
+A tire (in American English and Canadian English) or tyre (in some Commonwealth Nations such as UK, India, South Africa and Australia) is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground. The word itself may be derived from the word "tie," which refers to the outer steel ring part of a wooden cart wheel that ties the wood segments together (see Etymology below).
+
+The fundamental materials of modern tires are synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric and wire, along with other compound chemicals. They consist of a tread and a body. The tread provides traction while the body ensures support. Before rubber was invented, the first versions of tires were simply bands of metal that fitted around wooden wheels to prevent wear and tear. Today, the vast majority of tires are pneumatic inflatable structures, comprising a doughnut-shaped body of cords and wires encased in rubber and generally filled with compressed air to form an inflatable cushion. Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, such as cars, bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, earthmovers, and aircraft.
+
+While wheels are very widely used for ground transport, there are alternatives, some of which are suitable for terrain where wheels are ineffective. Alternative methods for ground transport without wheels include:
+
+The wheel has also become a strong cultural and spiritual metaphor for a cycle or regular repetition (see chakra, reincarnation, Yin and Yang among others). As such and because of the difficult terrain, wheeled vehicles were forbidden in old Tibet. The wheel in ancient China is seen as a symbol of health and strength and utilized by some villages as a tool to predict future health and success. The diameter of the wheel is indicator of one's future health.
+
+The winged wheel is a symbol of progress, seen in many contexts including the coat of arms of Panama, the logo of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the State Railway of Thailand. The wheel is also the prominent figure on the flag of India. The wheel in this case represents law (dharma). It also appears in the flag of the Romani people, hinting to their nomadic history and their Indian origins.
+
+The introduction of spoked (chariot) wheels in the Middle Bronze Age appears to have carried somewhat of a prestige. The sun cross appears to have a significance in Bronze Age religion, replacing the earlier concept of a Solar barge with the more 'modern' and technologically advanced solar chariot. The wheel was also a solar symbol for the Ancient Egyptians.[29]

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+Red is the color at the end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres.[1] It is a primary color in the RGB color model and the CMYK color model, and is the complementary color of cyan. Reds range from the brilliant yellow-tinged scarlet and vermillion to bluish-red crimson, and vary in shade from the pale red pink to the dark red burgundy.[2]
+
+Red pigment made from ochre was one of the first colors used in prehistoric art. The Ancient Egyptians and Mayans colored their faces red in ceremonies; Roman generals had their bodies colored red to celebrate victories. It was also an important color in China, where it was used to color early pottery and later the gates and walls of palaces.[3]:60–61 In the Renaissance, the brilliant red costumes for the nobility and wealthy were dyed with kermes and cochineal. The 19th century brought the introduction of the first synthetic red dyes, which replaced the traditional dyes. Red also became the color of revolution; Soviet Russia adopted a red flag following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, later followed by China, Vietnam, and other communist countries.
+
+Since red is the color of blood, it has historically been associated with sacrifice, danger, and courage. Modern surveys in Europe and the United States show red is also the color most commonly associated with heat, activity, passion, sexuality, anger, love, and joy. In China, India and many other Asian countries it is the color of symbolizing happiness and good fortune.[4]:39–63
+
+The cardinal takes its name from the color worn by Catholic cardinals.
+
+Pink is a pale shade of red. Cherry blossoms in the Tsutsujigaoka Park, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
+
+Vermilion is similar to scarlet, but slightly more orange. This is sindoor, a red cosmetic powder used in India; Some Hindu women put a stripe of sindoor in their hair to show they are married.
+
+Ruby is the color of a cut and polished ruby gemstone.
+
+The human eye sees red when it looks at light with a wavelength between approximately 625 and 740 nanometers.[1] It is a primary color in the RGB color model and the light just past this range is called infrared, or below red, and cannot be seen by human eyes, although it can be sensed as heat.[5] In the language of optics, red is the color evoked by light that stimulates neither the S or the M (short and medium wavelength) cone cells of the retina, combined with a fading stimulation of the L (long-wavelength) cone cells.[6]
+
+Primates can distinguish the full range of the colors of the spectrum visible to humans, but many kinds of mammals, such as dogs and cattle, have dichromacy, which means they can see blues and yellows, but cannot distinguish red and green (both are seen as gray). Bulls, for instance, cannot see the red color of the cape of a bullfighter, but they are agitated by its movement.[7] (See color vision).
+
+One theory for why primates developed sensitivity to red is that it allowed ripe fruit to be distinguished from unripe fruit and inedible vegetation.[8] This may have driven further adaptations by species taking advantage of this new ability, such as the emergence of red faces.[9]
+
+Red light is used to help adapt night vision in low-light or night time, as the rod cells in the human eye are not sensitive to red.[10][11]
+
+Red illumination was (and sometimes still is) used as a safelight while working in a darkroom as it does not expose most photographic paper and some films.[12] Today modern darkrooms usually use an amber safelight.
+
+On the color wheel long used by painters, and in traditional color theory, red is one of the three primary colors, along with blue and yellow. Painters in the Renaissance mixed red and blue to make violet:  Cennino Cennini, in his 15th-century manual on painting, wrote, "If you want to make a lovely violet colour, take fine lac [red lake], ultramarine blue (the same amount of the one as of the other) with a binder" he noted that it could also be made by mixing blue indigo and red hematite.[13]
+
+In modern color theory, also known as the RGB color model, red, green and blue are additive primary colors. Red, green and blue light combined together makes white light, and these three colors, combined in different mixtures, can produce nearly any other color. This is the principle that is used to make all of the colors on your computer screen and your television.  For example, magenta on a computer screen is made by a similar formula to that used by Cennino Cennini in the Renaissance to make violet, but using additive colors and light instead of pigment:  it is created by combining red and blue light at equal intensity on a black screen. Violet is made on a computer screen in a similar way, but with a greater amount of blue light and less red light.[14]
+
+(See Web colors and RGB color model)
+
+In a traditional color wheel from 1708, red, yellow and blue are primary colors. Red and yellow make orange, red and blue make violet.
+
+In modern color theory, red, green and blue are the additive primary colors, and together they make white. A combination of red, green and blue light in varying proportions makes all the colors on your computer screen and television screen.
+
+Tiny Red, green and blue sub-pixels (enlarged on left side of image) create the colors you see on your computer screen and TV.
+
+As a ray of white sunlight travels through the atmosphere to the eye, some of the colors are scattered out of the beam by air molecules and airborne particles due to Rayleigh scattering, changing the final color of the beam that is seen. Colors with a shorter wavelength, such as blue and green, scatter more strongly, and are removed from the light that finally reaches the eye.[15]
+At sunrise and sunset, when the path of the sunlight through the atmosphere to the eye is longest, the blue and green components are removed almost completely, leaving the longer wavelength orange and red light. The remaining reddened sunlight can also be scattered by cloud droplets and other relatively large particles, which give the sky above the horizon its red glow.[16]
+
+Lasers emitting in the red region of the spectrum have been available since the invention of the ruby laser in 1960. In 1962 the red helium–neon laser was invented,[17] and these two types of lasers were widely used in many scientific applications including holography, and in education. Red helium–neon lasers were used commercially in LaserDisc players. The use of red laser diodes became widespread with the commercial success of modern DVD players, which use a 660 nm laser diode technology. Today, red and red-orange laser diodes are widely available to the public in the form of extremely inexpensive laser pointers. Portable, high-powered versions are also available for various applications.[18] More recently, 671 nm diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) lasers have been introduced to the market for all-DPSS laser display systems, particle image velocimetry, Raman spectroscopy, and holography.[19]
+
+Red's wavelength has been an important factor in laser technologies; red lasers, used in early compact disc technologies, are being replaced by blue lasers, as red's longer wavelength causes the laser's recordings to take up more space on the disc than would blue-laser recordings.[20]
+
+Mars appears to be red because of iron oxide on its surface.
+
+Mira, a red giant
+
+Artist's impression of a red dwarf, a small, relatively cool star that appears red due to its temperature
+
+Red ochre cliffs near Roussillon in France. Red ochre is composed of clay tinted with hematite. Ochre was the first pigment used by man in prehistoric cave paintings.
+
+Vermilion pigment, made from cinnabar. This was the pigment used in the murals of Pompeii and to color Chinese lacquerware beginning in the Song dynasty.
+
+Despite its yellow greenish flower, the roots of the Rubia tinctorum, or madder plant, produced the most common red dye used from ancient times until the 19th century.
+
+Red lead, also known as minium, has been used since the time of the ancient Greeks. Chemically it is known as lead tetroxide. The Romans prepared it by the roasting of lead white pigment. It was commonly used in the Middle Ages for the headings and decoration of illuminated manuscripts.
+
+Alizarin was the first synthetic red dye, created by German chemists in 1868. It duplicated the colorant in the madder plant, but was cheaper and longer lasting. After its introduction, the production of natural dyes from the madder plant virtually ceased.
+
+Red lac, also called red lake, crimson lake or carmine lake, was an important red pigment in Renaissance and Baroque art. Since it was translucent, thin layers of red lac were built up or glazed over a more opaque dark color to create a particularly deep and vivid color.
+
+Unlike vermilion or red ochre, made from minerals, red lake pigments are made by mixing organic dyes, made from insects or plants, with white chalk or alum. Red lac was made from the gum lac, the dark red resinous substance secreted by various scale insects, particularly the Laccifer lacca from India.[24] Carmine lake was made from the cochineal insect from Central and South America, Kermes lake came from a different scale insect, kermes vermilio, which thrived on oak trees around the Mediterranean. Other red lakes were made from the rose madder plant and from the brazilwood tree.
+
+Red lake pigments were an important part of the palette of 16th-century Venetian painters,  particularly Titian, but they were used in all periods.[25]  Since the red lakes were made from organic dyes, they tended to be fugitive, becoming unstable and fading when exposed to sunlight.
+
+The most common synthetic food coloring today is Allura Red AC, a red azo dye that goes by several names including: Allura Red, Food Red 17, C.I. 16035, FD&C Red 40,[26][27] It was originally manufactured from coal tar, but now is mostly made from petroleum.
+
+In Europe, Allura Red AC is not recommended for consumption by children. It is banned in Denmark, Belgium, France and Switzerland, and was also banned in Sweden until the country joined the European Union in 1994.[28] The European Union approves Allura Red AC as a food colorant, but EU countries' local laws banning food colorants are preserved.[29]
+
+In the United States, Allura Red AC is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in cosmetics, drugs, and food. It is used in some tattoo inks and is used in many products, such as soft drinks, children's medications, and cotton candy. On June 30, 2010, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) called for the FDA to ban Red 40.[30]
+
+Because of public concerns about possible health risks associated with synthetic dyes, many companies have switched to using natural pigments such as carmine, made from crushing the tiny female cochineal insect. This insect, originating in Mexico and Central America, was used to make the brilliant scarlet dyes of the European Renaissance.
+
+The red of autumn leaves is produced by pigments called anthocyanins. They are not present in the leaf throughout the growing season, but are actively produced towards the end of summer.[31] They develop in late summer in the sap of the cells of the leaf, and this development is the result of complex interactions of many influences—both inside and outside the plant. Their formation depends on the breakdown of sugars in the presence of bright light as the level of phosphate in the leaf is reduced.[32]
+
+During the summer growing season, phosphate is at a high level. It has a vital role in the breakdown of the sugars manufactured by chlorophyll. But in the fall, phosphate, along with the other chemicals and nutrients, moves out of the leaf into the stem of the plant. When this happens, the sugar-breakdown process changes, leading to the production of anthocyanin pigments. The brighter the light during this period, the greater the production of anthocyanins and the more brilliant the resulting color display. When the days of autumn are bright and cool, and the nights are chilly but not freezing, the brightest colorations usually develop.
+
+Anthocyanins temporarily color the edges of some of the very young leaves as they unfold from the buds in early spring. They also give the familiar color to such common fruits as cranberries, red apples, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, and plums.
+
+Anthocyanins are present in about 10% of tree species in temperate regions, although in certain areas—a famous example being New England—up to 70% of tree species may produce the pigment.[31] In autumn forests they appear vivid in the maples, oaks, sourwood, sweetgums, dogwoods, tupelos, cherry trees and persimmons. These same pigments often combine with the carotenoids' colors to create the deeper orange, fiery reds, and bronzes typical of many hardwood species. (See Autumn leaf color).
+
+Oxygenated blood is red due to the presence of oxygenated hemoglobin that contains iron molecules, with the iron components reflecting red light.[33][34] Red meat gets its color from the iron found in the myoglobin and hemoglobin in the muscles and residual blood.[35]
+
+Plants like apples, strawberries, cherries, tomatoes, peppers, and pomegranates are often colored by forms of carotenoids, red pigments that also assist photosynthesis.[36]
+
+Red blood cell agar. Blood appears red due to the iron molecules in blood cells.
+
+A red setter or Irish setter
+
+A pair of European red foxes.
+
+The European robin or robin redbreast
+
+A cooked lobster
+
+Red hair occurs naturally on approximately 1–2% of the human population.[37] It occurs more frequently (2–6%) in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations. Red hair appears in people with two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16 which causes a mutation in the MC1R protein.[38]
+
+Red hair varies from a deep burgundy through burnt orange to bright copper. It is characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin (which also accounts for the red color of the lips) and relatively low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The term redhead (originally redd hede) has been in use since at least 1510.[39] Cultural reactions have varied from ridicule to admiration; many common stereotypes exist regarding redheads and they are often portrayed as fiery-tempered.
+
+Red is associated with dominance in a number of animal species.[40] For example, in mandrills, red coloration of the face is greatest in alpha males, increasingly less prominent in lower ranking subordinates, and directly correlated with levels of testosterone.[41] Red can also affect the perception of dominance by others, leading to significant differences in mortality, reproductive success and parental investment between individuals displaying red and those not.[42] In humans, wearing red has been linked with increased performance in competitions, including professional sport[43][44] and multiplayer video games.[45] Controlled tests have demonstrated that wearing red does not increase performance or levels of testosterone during exercise, so the effect is likely to be produced by perceived rather than actual performance.[46] Judges of tae kwon do have been shown to favor competitors wearing red protective gear over blue,[47] and, when asked, a significant majority of people say that red abstract shapes are more "dominant", "aggressive", and "likely to win a physical competition" than blue shapes.[40] In contrast to its positive effect in physical competition and dominance behavior, exposure to red decreases performance in cognitive tasks[48] and elicits aversion in psychological tests where subjects are placed in an "achievement" context (e.g. taking an IQ test).[49]
+
+Inside cave 13B at Pinnacle Point, an archeological site found on the coast of South Africa, paleoanthropologists in 2000 found evidence that, between 170,000 and 40,000 years ago, Late Stone Age people were scraping and grinding ochre, a clay colored red by iron oxide, probably with the intention of using it to color their bodies.[50]
+
+Red hematite powder was also found scattered around the remains at a grave site in a Zhoukoudian cave complex near Beijing. The site has evidence of habitation as early as 700,000 years ago. The hematite might have been used to symbolize blood in an offering to the dead.[3]:4
+
+In ancient Egypt, red was associated with life, health, and victory. Egyptians would color themselves with red ochre during celebrations.[51] Egyptian women used red ochre as a cosmetic to redden cheeks and lips[52] and also used henna to color their hair and paint their nails.[53]
+
+In Renaissance painting, red was used to draw the attention of the viewer; it was often used as the color of the cloak or costume of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or another central figure. In Venice, Titian was the master of fine reds, particularly vermilion; he used many layers of pigment mixed with a semi-transparent glaze, which let the light pass through, to create a more luminous color.
+
+The Assumption, by Titian (1516–18). The figures of God, the Virgin Mary and two apostles are highlighted by their vermilion red costumes.
+
+The young Queen Elizabeth I (here in about 1563) liked to wear bright reds, before she adopted the more sober image of the "Virgin Queen". Her satin gown was probably dyed with kermes.
+
+The Wedding Dance (1566), by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. In Renaissance Flanders, people of all social classes wore red at celebrations. The dye came from the root of the madder plant, which tended toward orange.
+
+Woman with a wine glass, by Johannes Vermeer (1659–60). Vermeer used different shades and tints of vermilion to paint the red skirt, then glazed it with madder lake to make a more luminous color.
+
+Dyed feather headdress from the Aztec people of Mexico and Central America. For red they used cochineal, a brilliant scarlet dye made from insects.
+
+A native of Central America collecting cochineal insects from a cactus to make red dye (1777). From the 16th until the 19th century, it was a highly profitable export from Spanish Mexico to Europe.
+
+During the French Revolution, the Jacobins and other more radical parties adopted the red flag;  it was taken from red flags hoisted by the French government to declare a state of siege or emergency.   Many of them wore a red Phrygian cap, or liberty cap, modeled after the caps worn by freed slaves in Ancient Rome. During the height of the Reign of Terror, Women wearing red caps gathered around the guillotine to celebrate each execution. They were called the "Furies of the guillotine". The guillotines used during the Reign of Terror in 1792 and 1793 were painted red, or made of red wood. During the Reign of Terror a statue of a woman titled liberty, painted red, was placed in the square in front of the guillotine. After the end of the Reign of Terror, France went back to the blue, white and red tricolor, whose red was taken from the red and blue colors of the city of Paris, and was the traditional color of Saint Denis, the Christian martyr and patron saint of Paris.
+
+In the 20th century, red was the color of Revolution; it was the color of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and of the Chinese Revolution of 1949, and later of the Cultural Revolution. Red was the color of communist parties from Eastern Europe to Cuba to Vietnam.
+
+In the late 19th and early 20th century, the German chemical industry invented two new synthetic red pigments: cadmium red, which was the color of natural vermilion, and mars red, which was a synthetic red ochre, the color of the very first natural red pigment.
+
+Surveys show that red is the color most associated with courage.[4]:43 In western countries red is a symbol of martyrs and sacrifice, particularly because of its association with blood.[54] Beginning in the Middle Ages, the Pope and Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church wore red to symbolize the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs. The banner of the Christian soldiers in the First Crusade was a red cross on a white field, the St. George's Cross.  According to Christian tradition, Saint George was a Roman soldier who was a member of the guards of the Emperor Diocletian, who refused to renounce his Christian faith and was martyred. The Saint George's Cross became the Flag of England in the 16th century, and now is part of the Union Flag of the United Kingdom, as well as the Flag of the Republic of Georgia.[55]:36
+
+The Crucified Martyr (Saint Julia) by the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch. Saint Julia wears red, the traditional color of Christian martyrs.
+
+Roman Catholic Popes wear red as the symbol of the blood of Christ. This is Pope Innocent III, in about 1219.
+
+Robert Gibb's 1881 painting, The Thin Red Line, depicting The Thin Red Line at the Battle of Balaclava (1854), when a line of the Scottish Highland infantry repulsed a Russian cavalry charge. The name was given by the British press as a symbol of courage against the odds.
+
+The red poppy flower is worn on Remembrance Day in Commonwealth countries to honor soldiers who died in the First World War.
+
+While red is the color most associated with love, it also the color most frequently associated with hatred, anger, aggression and war. People who are angry are said to "see red." Red is the color most commonly associated with passion and heat. In ancient Rome, red was the color of Mars, the god of war—the planet Mars was named for him because of its red color.[4]:42, 53
+
+Red is the traditional color of warning and danger, and is therefore often used on flags. In the Middle Ages, a red flag shown in warfare indicated the intent to fight "mortal warfare," where the opposition would be slaughtered with none spared or taken prisoner taken for ransom.[56][57] Similarly, a red flag hoisted by a pirate ship meant no mercy would be shown to their target.[58][59] In Britain, in the early days of motoring, motor cars had to follow a man with a red flag who would warn horse-drawn vehicles, before the Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 abolished this law.[60] In automobile races, the red flag is raised if there is danger to the drivers.[61] In international football, a player who has made a serious violation of the rules is shown a red penalty card and ejected from the game.[62]
+
+Several studies have indicated that red carries the strongest reaction of all the colors, with the level of reaction decreasing gradually with the colors orange, yellow, and white, respectively.[63][64] For this reason, red is generally used as the highest level of warning, such as threat level of terrorist attack in the United States. In fact, teachers at a primary school in the UK have been told not to mark children's work in red ink because it encourages a "negative approach".[65]
+
+Red is the international color of stop signs and stop lights on highways and intersections. It was standardized as the international color at the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals of 1968. It was chosen partly because red is the brightest color in daytime (next to orange), though it is less visible at twilight, when green is the most visible color. Red also stands out more clearly against a cool natural backdrop of blue sky, green trees or gray buildings. But it was mostly chosen as the color for stoplights and stop signs because of its universal association with danger and warning.[4]:54 The 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals of 1968 uses red color also for the margin of danger warning sign, give way signs and prohibitory signs, following the previous German-type signage (established by Verordnung über Warnungstafeln für den Kraftfahrzeugverkehr in 1927).
+
+The standard international stop sign, following the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals of 1968
+
+Footballer Nemanja Vidić is shown a red card and ejected from a soccer match
+
+A red Chinese typhoon alert sign
+
+Red is the color of a severe terrorist threat level in the United States, under the Homeland Security Advisory System.
+
+Red is the color of a severe fire danger in Australia; new black/red stripes are an even more catastrophic hazard.
+
+Red is the color of a UK Railway "Home" signal; the white stripe helps recognition against dark backgrounds.
+
+Red is the color that most attracts attention. Surveys show it is the color most frequently associated with visibility, proximity, and extroverts.[citation needed] It is also the color most associated with dynamism and activity.[4]:48, 58
+
+Red is used in modern fashion much as it was used in Medieval painting; to attract the eyes of the viewer to the person who is supposed to be the center of attention. People wearing red seem to be closer than those dressed in other colors, even if they are actually the same distance away.[4]:48, 58 Monarchs, wives of presidential candidates and other celebrities often wear red to be visible from a distance in a crowd. It is also commonly worn by lifeguards and others whose job requires them to be easily found.[citation needed]
+
+Because red attracts attention, it is frequently used in advertising, though studies show that people are less likely to read something printed in red because they know it is advertising, and because it is more difficult visually to read than black and white text.[4]:60
+
+Red by a large margin is the color most commonly associated with seduction, sexuality, eroticism and immorality, possibly because of its close connection with passion and with danger.[4]:55
+
+Red was long seen as having a dark side, particularly in Christian theology. It was associated with sexual passion, anger, sin, and the devil.[66][67] In the Old Testament of the Bible, the Book of Isaiah said: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow."[68] In the New Testament, in the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist appears as a red monster, ridden by a woman dressed in scarlet, known as the Whore of Babylon.[69]
+
+Satan is often depicted as colored red and/or wearing a red costume in both iconography and popular culture.[67][70] By the 20th century, the devil in red had become a folk character in legends and stories. The devil in red appears more often in cartoons and movies than in religious art.
+
+In 17th-century New England, red was associated with adultery. In the 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, set in a Puritan New England community, a woman is punished for adultery with ostracism, her sin represented by a red letter 'A' sewn onto her clothes.[71][67]
+
+Red is still commonly associated with prostitution. At various points in history, prostitutes were required to wear red to announce their profession.[67] Houses of prostitution displayed a red light. Beginning in the early 20th century, houses of prostitution were allowed only in certain specified neighborhoods, which became known as red-light districts. Large red-light districts are found today in Bangkok and Amsterdam.
+
+In both Christian and Hebrew tradition, red is also sometimes associated with murder or guilt, with "having blood on one's hands", or "being caught red-handed.[72]
+
+The Whore of Babylon, depicted in a 14th-century French illuminated manuscript. The woman appears attractive, but is wearing red under her blue garment.
+
+Reine de joie, (Queen of Joy), a book cover illustration by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1892) about a Paris prostitute
+
+Sheet music for "At the Devil's Ball", by Irving Berlin, United States, 1915.
+
+The red-light district in Amsterdam (2003). Red is the sex industry's preferred color in many cultures, due to being strongly associated with passion, love and sexuality.[4]:39–63
+
+Red lipstick has been worn by women as a cosmetic since ancient times. It was worn by Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I, and films stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.
+
+In China, red (simplified Chinese: 红; traditional Chinese: 紅; pinyin: hóng) is the symbol of fire and the south (both south in general and Southern China specifically). It carries a largely positive connotation, being associated with courage, loyalty, honor, success, fortune, fertility, happiness, passion, and summer.[73][74] In Japan, red is a traditional color for a heroic figure.[75] In the Indian subcontinent, red is the traditional color of bridal dresses, and is frequently represented in the media as a symbolic color for married women.[76] In Central Africa, Ndembu warriors rub themselves with red paint during celebrations. Since their culture sees the color as a symbol of life and health, sick people are also painted with it. Like most Central African cultures, the Ndembu see red as ambivalent, better than black but not as good as white.[77] In other parts of Africa, however, red is a color of mourning, representing death.[78]
+
+Red is predominant in the Russian ritual textile Rushnyk
+
+The bride at a traditional Chinese wedding dresses in red, the color of happiness and good fortune.
+
+Red flags in a celebration of Muharram in Iran.
+
+In Hinduism, red is associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and embodiment of beauty.
+
+In Christianity, red is associated with the blood of Christ and the sacrifice of martyrs. In the Roman Catholic Church it is also associated with pentecost and the Holy Spirit. In Buddhism, red is one of the five colors which are said to have emanated from the Buddha when he attained enlightenment, or nirvana. In the Shinto religion of Japan, the gateways of temples, called torii, are traditionally painted vermilion red and black. The torii symbolizes the passage from the profane world to a sacred place. The bridges in the gardens of Japanese temples are also painted red.
+
+NATO Military Symbols for Land Based Systems uses red to denote hostile forces, hence the terms "red team" and "Red Cell" to denote challengers during exercises.[79]
+
+The red military uniform was adopted by the English Parliament's New Model Army in 1645, and was still worn as a dress uniform by the British Army until the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.  Ordinary soldiers wore red coats dyed with madder, while officers wore scarlet coats dyed with the more expensive cochineal.[55]:168–69 This led to British soldiers being known as red coats.
+
+In the modern British army, scarlet is still worn by the Foot Guards, the Life Guards, and by some regimental bands or drummers for ceremonial purposes. Officers and NCOs of those regiments which previously wore red retain scarlet as the color of their "mess" or formal evening jackets. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment has a scarlet tunic in its winter dress.
+
+Scarlet is worn for some full dress, military band or mess uniforms in the modern armies of a number of the countries that made up the former British Empire. These include the Australian, Jamaican, New Zealand, Fijian, Canadian, Kenyan, Ghanaian, Indian, Singaporean, Sri Lankan and Pakistani armies.[80]
+
+The musicians of the United States Marine Corps Band wear red, following an 18th-century military tradition that the uniforms of band members are the reverse of the uniforms of the other soldiers in their unit. Since the US Marine uniform is blue with red facings, the band wears the reverse.
+
+Red Serge is the uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, created in 1873 as the North-West Mounted Police, and given its present name in 1920. The uniform was adapted from the tunic of the British Army. Cadets at the Royal Military College of Canada also wear red dress uniforms.
+
+The Brazilian Marine Corps wears a red dress uniform.
+
+Officer and soldier of the British Army, 1815.
+
+The scarlet uniform of the National Guards Unit of Bulgaria
+
+Musicians of the United States Marine Corps Band
+
+Officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
+
+The Brazilian Marine Corps wears a dress uniform called A Garança.
+
+Soldiers of the Rajput Regiment of the Indian Army
+
+The first known team sport to feature red uniforms was chariot racing during the late Roman Empire. The earliest races were between two chariots, one driver wearing red, the other white. Later, the number of teams was increased to four, including drivers in light green and sky blue. Twenty-five races were run in a day, with a total of one hundred chariots participating.[81]
+
+Today many sports teams throughout the world feature red on their uniforms. Along with blue, red is the most commonly used non-white color in sports. Numerous national sports teams wear red, often through association with their national flags. A few of these teams feature the color as part of their nickname such as Spain (with their association football (soccer) national team nicknamed La Furia Roja or "The Red Fury") and Belgium (whose football team bears the nickname Rode Duivels or "Red Devils").
+
+In club association football (soccer), red is a commonly used color throughout the world. A number of teams' nicknames feature the color. A red penalty card is issued to a player who commits a serious infraction: the player is immediately disqualified from further play and his team must continue with one less player for the game's duration.
+
+In rugby union, Ireland's Munster rugby, New Zealand's Canterbury provincial team and the Crusaders Super 14 rugby side wear red as a major color in their playing strips.
+
+Rosso Corsa is the red international motor racing color of cars entered by teams from Italy. Since the 1920s Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, and later Ferrari and Abarth have been painted with a color known as rosso corsa ("racing red"). National colors were mostly replaced in Formula One by commercial sponsor liveries in 1968, but unlike most other teams, Ferrari always kept the traditional red, although the shade of the color varies.
+
+The color is commonly used for professional sports teams in Canada and the United States with eleven Major League Baseball teams, eleven National Hockey League teams, seven National Football League teams and eleven National Basketball Association teams prominently featuring some shade of the color. The color is also featured in the league logos of Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association.[82] In the National Football League, a red flag is thrown by the head coach to challenge a referee's decision during the game. During the 1950s when red was strongly associated with communism in the United States, the modern Cincinnati Reds team was known as the "Redlegs" and the term was used on baseball cards. After the red scare faded, the team was known as the "Reds" again.[83]
+
+In boxing, red is often the color used on a fighter's gloves. George Foreman wore the same red trunks he used during his loss to Muhammad Ali when he defeated Michael Moorer 20 years later to regain the title he lost. Boxers named or nicknamed "red" include Red Burman, Ernie "Red" Lopez, and his brother Danny "Little Red" Lopez.
+
+Ancient Roman mosaic of the winner of a chariot race, wearing the colors of the red team.
+
+Both the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox wear red.
+
+In martial arts, a red belt shows a high degree of proficiency, second only, in some schools, to the black belt.
+
+An Alfa Romeo Grand Prix car in 1977, painted Rosso Corsa, ("racing red"), the traditional racing color of Italy from the 1920s until the late 1960s.
+
+Red is one of the most common colors used on national flags. The use of red has similar connotations from country to country: the blood, sacrifice, and courage of those who defended their country; the sun and the hope and warmth it brings; and the sacrifice of Christ's blood (in some historically Christian nations) are a few examples. Red is the color of the flags of several countries that once belonged to the British Empire. The British flag bears the colors red, white and blue; it includes the cross of Saint George, patron saint of England, and the saltire of Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, both of which are red on white.[84]:10 The flag of the United States bears the colors of Britain,[85] the colors of the French tricolore include red as part of the old Paris coat of arms, and other countries' flags, such as those of Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, carry a small inset of the British flag in memory of their ties to that country.[84]:13–20 Many former colonies of Spain, such as Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, also feature red-one of the colors of the Spanish flag-on their own banners. Red flags are also used to symbolize storms, bad water conditions, and many other dangers. Navy flags are often red and yellow. Red is prominently featured in the flag of the United States Marine Corps.
+
+The red on the flag of Nepal represents the floral emblem of the country, the rhododendron.
+
+Red, blue, and white are also the Pan-Slavic colors adopted by the Slavic solidarity movement of the late nineteenth century. Initially these were the colors of the Russian flag; as the Slavic movement grew, they were adopted by other Slavic peoples including Slovaks, Slovenes, and Serbs. The flags of the Czech Republic and Poland use red for historic heraldic reasons (see Coat of arms of Poland and Coat of arms of the Czech Republic) & not due to Pan-Slavic connotations. In 2004 Georgia adopted a new white flag, which consists of four small and one big red cross in the middle touching all four sides.
+
+Red, white, and black were the colors of the German Empire from 1870 to 1918, and as such they came to be associated with German nationalism. In the 1920s they were adopted as the colors of the Nazi flag. In Mein Kampf, Hitler explained that they were "revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past." The red part of the flag was also chosen to attract attention – Hitler wrote: "the new flag ... should prove effective as a large poster" because "in hundreds of thousands of cases a really striking emblem may be the first cause of awakening interest in a movement." The red also symbolized the social program of the Nazis, aimed at German workers.[86] Several designs by a number of different authors were considered, but the one adopted in the end was Hitler's personal design.[87]
+
+Red, white, green and black are the colors of Pan-Arabism and are used by many Arab countries.[88]
+
+Red, gold, green, and black are the colors of Pan-Africanism. Several African countries thus use the color on their flags, including South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Ethiopia, Togo, Guinea, Benin, and Zimbabwe. The Pan-African colors are borrowed from the flag of Ethiopia, one of the oldest independent African countries.[88][89] Rwanda, notably, removed red from its flag after the Rwandan genocide because of red's association with blood.[90]
+
+The flags of Japan and Bangladesh both have a red circle in the middle of different colored backgrounds. The flag of the Philippines has a red trapezoid on the bottom signifying blood, courage, and valor (also, if the flag is inverted so that the red trapezoid is on top and the blue at the bottom, it indicates a state of war). The flag of Singapore has a red rectangle on the top. The field of the flag of Portugal is green and red. The Ottoman Empire adopted several different red flags during the six centuries of its rule, with the successor Republic of Turkey continuing the 1844 Ottoman Flag.
+
+The flag of the Byzantine Empire from 1260 to its fall in 1453
+
+The St George's cross was the banner of the First Crusade, then, beginning in the 13th century, the flag of England. It is the red color (along with that of the Cross of Saint Patrick) in the flag of the United Kingdom, and, by adoption, of the red in the flag of the United States.
+
+The red stripes in the flag of the United States were adapted from the flag of the British East Indies Company. This is the Grand Union Flag, the first U.S. flag established by the Continental Congress.
+
+The Flag of Georgia also features the Saint George's Cross. It dates back to the banner of Medieval Georgia in the 5th century.
+
+The maple leaf flag of Canada, adopted in 1965. The red color comes from the Saint George's Cross of England.
+
+In 18th-century Europe, red was usually associated with the monarchy and with those in power. The Pope wore red, as did the Swiss Guards of the Kings of France, the soldiers of the British Army and the Danish Army.
+
+The French Revolution saw red used by the Jacobins as a symbol of the martyrs of the Revolution. In the nineteenth century, with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of worker's movements, it became the color of socialism (especially the Marxist variant), and, with the Paris Commune of 1870, of revolution.
+
+In the 20th century, red was the color first of the Russian Bolsheviks and then, after the success of the Russian Revolution of 1917, of communist parties around the world.
+
+Red also became the color of many social democratic parties in Europe, including the Labour Party in Britain (founded 1900); the Social Democratic Party of Germany (whose roots went back to 1863) and the French Socialist Party, which dated back under different names, to 1879. The Socialist Party of America (1901–72) and the Communist Party USA (1919) both also chose red as their color.
+
+Members of the Christian-Social People's Party in Liechtenstein (founded 1918) advocated an expansion of democracy and progressive social policies, and were often referred to disparagingly as "Reds" for their social liberal leanings and party colors.[91]
+
+The Communist Party of China, founded in 1920, adopted the red flag and hammer and sickle emblem of the Soviet Union, which became the national symbols when the Party took power in China in 1949. Under Party leader Mao Zedong, the Party anthem became "The East Is Red",[92] and Mao Zedong himself was sometimes referred to as a "red sun".[93] During the Cultural Revolution in China, Party ideology was enforced by the Red Guards, and the sayings of Mao Zedong were published as a small red book in hundreds of millions of copies. Today the Communist Party of China claims to be the largest political party in the world, with eighty million members.[94]
+
+Beginning in the 1960s and the 1970s, paramilitary extremist groups such as the Red Army Faction in Germany, the Japanese Red Army and the Shining Path Maoist movement in Peru used red as their color. But in the 1980s, some European socialist and social democratic parties, such as the Labour Party in Britain and the Socialist Party in France, moved away from the symbolism of the far left, keeping the red color but changing their symbol to a less-threatening red rose.
+
+Red is used around the world by political parties of the left or center-left. In the United States, it is the color of the Communist Party USA, of the Social Democrats, USA, and in Puerto Rico, of the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico.
+
+In the United States, political commentators often refer to the "red states", which traditionally vote for Republican candidates in presidential elections, and "blue states", which vote for the Democratic candidate. This convention is relatively recent: before the 2000 presidential election, media outlets assigned red and blue to both parties, sometimes alternating the allocation for each election. Fixed usage was established during the 39-day recount following the 2000 election, when the media began to discuss the contest in terms of "red states" versus "blue states".[95]
+
+Such names as Red Club (a bar), Red Carpet (a discothèque) or Red Cottbus and Club Red (event locations) suggest liveliness and excitement. The Red Hat Society is a social group founded in 1998 for women 50 and over. Use of the color red to call attention to an emergency situation is evident in the names of such organizations as the Red Cross (humanitarian aid), Red Hot Organization (AIDS support), and the Red List of Threatened Species (of IUCN). In reference to humans, term "red" is often used in the West to describe the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[96]
+
+Many idiomatic expressions exploit the various connotations of red:

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+Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus.[3][10] Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days.[7][8] Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than 40 °C (104 °F), cough, runny nose, and inflamed eyes.[3][4] Small white spots known as Koplik's spots may form inside the mouth two or three days after the start of symptoms.[4] A red, flat rash which usually starts on the face and then spreads to the rest of the body typically begins three to five days after the start of symptoms.[4] Common complications include diarrhea (in 8% of cases), middle ear infection (7%), and pneumonia (6%).[5] These occur in part due to measles-induced immunosuppression.[6] Less commonly seizures, blindness, or inflammation of the brain may occur.[5][7] Other names include morbilli, rubeola, red measles, and English measles.[1][2] Both rubella, also known as German measles, and roseola are different diseases caused by unrelated viruses.[11]
+
+Measles is an airborne disease which spreads easily from one person to the next through the coughs and sneezes of infected people.[7] It may also be spread through direct contact with mouth or nasal secretions.[12] It is extremely contagious–nine out of ten people who are not immune and share living space with an infected person will be infected.[5] People are infectious to others from four days before to four days after the start of the rash.[5] While often regarded as a childhood illness, it can affect people of any age.[13] Most people do not get the disease more than once.[7] Testing for the measles virus in suspected cases is important for public health efforts.[5] Measles is not known to occur in other animals.[12]
+
+Once a person has become infected, no specific treatment is available,[12] although supportive care may improve outcomes.[7] Such care may include oral rehydration solution (slightly sweet and salty fluids), healthy food, and medications to control the fever.[7][8] Antibiotics should be prescribed if secondary bacterial infections such as ear infections or pneumonia occur.[7][12] Vitamin A supplementation is also recommended for children.[12] The risk of death among those infected is about 0.2%,[5] but may be up to 10% in people with malnutrition.[7] Most of those who die from the infection are less than five years old.[12]
+
+The measles vaccine is effective at preventing the disease, is exceptionally safe, and is often delivered in combination with other vaccines.[7][14] Vaccination resulted in an 80% decrease in deaths from measles between 2000 and 2017, with about 85% of children worldwide having received their first dose as of 2017.[12] 
+Measles affects about 20 million people a year,[3] primarily in the developing areas of Africa and Asia.[7] It is one of the leading vaccine-preventable disease causes of death.[15][16] In 1980, 2.6 million people died of it,[7] and in 1990, 545,000 died; by 2014, global vaccination programs had reduced the number of deaths from measles to 73,000.[9][17] Despite these trends, rates of disease and deaths increased from 2017 to 2019 due to a decrease in immunization.[18][19][20]
+
+Symptoms typically begin 10–14 days after exposure.[21][22] The classic symptoms include a four-day fever (the 4 D's) and the three C's—cough, coryza (head cold, fever, sneezing), and conjunctivitis (red eyes)—along with a maculopapular rash.[23] Fever is common and typically lasts for about one week; the fever seen with measles is often as high as  40 °C (104 °F).[24]
+
+Koplik's spots seen inside the mouth are diagnostic for measles, but are temporary and therefore rarely seen.[23] Koplik spots are small white spots that are commonly seen on the inside of the cheeks opposite the molars.[22] They appear as "grains of salt on a reddish background."[25] Recognizing these spots before a person reaches their maximum infectiousness can help reduce the spread of the disease.[26]
+
+The characteristic measles rash is classically described as a generalized red maculopapular rash that begins several days after the fever starts. It starts on the back of the ears and, after a few hours, spreads to the head and neck before spreading to cover most of the body, often causing itching. The measles rash appears two to four days after the initial symptoms and lasts for up to eight days. The rash is said to "stain", changing color from red to dark brown, before disappearing.[27] Overall, measles usually resolves after about three weeks.[24]
+
+A Filipino baby with measles
+
+Koplik's spots on the third pre-eruptive day
+
+Koplik's spots on the day of measles rash.
+
+Complications of measles are relatively common, ranging from mild ones such as diarrhea to serious ones such as pneumonia (either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia), laryngotracheobronchitis (croup) (either direct viral laryngotracheobronchitis or secondary bacterial bronchitis), otitis media,[28] acute brain inflammation[29] (and very rarely subacute sclerosing panencephalitis),[30] and corneal ulceration (leading to corneal scarring).[31]
+
+In addition, measles can suppress the immune system for weeks to months, and this can contribute to bacterial superinfections such as otitis media and bacterial pneumonia.[6][32][33][34][35] Two months after recovered there is a 11-73% decrease in the number of antibodies against other bacteria and viruses.[36]
+
+The death rate in the 1920s was around 30% for measles pneumonia.[37] People who are at high risk for complications are infants and children aged less than 5 years;[13] adults aged over 20 years;[13] pregnant women;[13] people with compromised immune systems, such as from leukemia, HIV infection or innate immunodeficiency;[13][38] and those who are malnourished[13] or have vitamin A deficiency.[13][39]  Complications are usually more severe in adults.[40] Between 1987 and 2000, the case fatality rate across the United States was three deaths per 1,000 cases attributable to measles, or 0.3%.[41] In underdeveloped nations with high rates of malnutrition and poor healthcare, fatality rates have been as high as 28%.[41] In immunocompromised persons (e.g., people with AIDS) the fatality rate is approximately 30%.[42]
+
+Even in previously healthy children, measles can cause serious illness requiring hospitalization.[38] One out of every 1,000 measles cases progresses to acute encephalitis, which often results in permanent brain damage.[38] One to three out of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurological complications.[38]
+
+Measles is caused by the measles virus, a single-stranded, negative-sense, enveloped RNA virus of the genus Morbillivirus within the family Paramyxoviridae.[43]
+
+The virus is highly contagious and is spread by coughing and sneezing via close personal contact or direct contact with secretions.[44] Measles is the most contagious transmissible virus known.[14] It remains infective for up to two hours in that airspace or nearby surfaces.[21][44] Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90% of nearby non-immune people will also become infected.[21] Humans are the only natural hosts of the virus, and no other animal reservoirs are known to exist.[21]
+
+Risk factors for measles virus infection include immunodeficiency caused by HIV or AIDS,[45] immunosuppression following receipt of an organ or a stem cell transplant,[46] alkylating agents, or corticosteroid therapy, regardless of immunization status;[13] travel to areas where measles commonly occurs or contact with travelers from such an area;[13] and the loss of passive, inherited antibodies before the age of routine immunization.[47]
+
+Once the measles virus gets onto the mucosa, it infects the epithelial cells in the trachea or bronchi.[48][49] Measles virus uses a protein on its surface called hemagglutinin (H protein), to bind to a target receptor on the host cell, which could be CD46, which is expressed on all nucleated human cells, CD150, aka signaling lymphocyte activation molecule or SLAM, which is found on immune cells like B or T cells, and antigen-presenting cells, or nectin-4, a cellular adhesion molecule.[48][50] Once bound, the fusion, or F protein helps the virus fuse with the membrane and ultimately get inside the cell.[48]
+
+As the virus is a single-stranded negative-sense RNA virus, it includes the enzyme RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) which is used to transcribe its genome into a positive-sense mRNA strand.[48]
+
+After that it is ready to be translated into viral proteins, wrapped in the cell's lipid envelope, and sent out of the cell as a newly made virus.[51] Within days, the measles virus spreads through local tissue and is picked up by dendritic cells and alveolar macrophages, and carried from that local tissue in the lungs to the local lymph nodes.[48][49] From there it continues to spread, eventually getting into the blood and spreading to more lung tissue, as well as other organs like the intestines and the brain.[21][48] Functional impairment of the infected dendritic cells by the measles virus is thought to contribute to measles-induced immunosuppression.[6]
+
+Clinical diagnosis of measles requires a history of fever of at least three days, with at least one of the following symptoms: cough, coryza, or conjunctivitis. Observation of Koplik's spots is also diagnostic.[26] Other possible condition that can result in these symptoms include parvovirus, dengue fever, Kawasaki disease, and scarlet fever.[52] Laboratory confirmation is however strongly recommended.[53]
+
+Laboratory diagnosis of measles can be done with confirmation of positive measles IgM antibodies or detection of measles virus RNA from throat, nasal or urine specimen by using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay.[52][54] This method is particularly useful to confirm cases when the IgM antibodies results are inconclusive.[52] For people unable to have their blood drawn, saliva can be collected for salivary measles-specific IgA testing.[54] Salivary tests used to diagnose measles involve collecting a saliva sample and testing for the presence of measles antibodies.[55][56] This method is not ideal, as saliva contains many other fluids and proteins which may make it difficult to collect samples and detect measles antibodies.[55][56] Saliva also contains 800 times fewer antibodies than blood samples do, which makes salivary testing additionally difficult. Positive contact with other people known to have measles adds evidence to the diagnosis.[55]
+
+Mothers who are immune to measles pass antibodies to their children while they are still in the womb, especially if the mother acquired immunity through infection rather than vaccination.[21][47] Such antibodies will usually give newborn infants some immunity against measles, but these antibodies are gradually lost over the course of the first nine months of life.[22][47] Infants under one year of age whose maternal anti-measles antibodies have disappeared become susceptible to infection with the measles virus.[47]
+
+In developed countries, it is recommended that children be immunized against measles at 12 months, generally as part of a three-part MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella). The vaccine is generally not given before this age because such infants respond inadequately to the vaccine due to an immature immune system.[47] A second dose of the vaccine is usually given to children between the ages of four and five, to increase rates of immunity. Measles vaccines have been given to over a billion people.[14] Vaccination rates have been high enough to make measles relatively uncommon. Adverse reactions to vaccination are rare, with fever and pain at the injection site being the most common. Life-threatening adverse reactions occur in less than one per million vaccinations (<0.0001%).[57]
+
+In developing countries where measles is common, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends two doses of vaccine be given, at six and nine months of age. The vaccine should be given whether the child is HIV-infected or not.[58] The vaccine is less effective in HIV-infected infants than in the general population, but early treatment with antiretroviral drugs can increase its effectiveness.[59] Measles vaccination programs are often used to deliver other child health interventions as well, such as bed nets to protect against malaria, antiparasite medicine and vitamin A supplements, and so contribute to the reduction of child deaths from other causes.[60]
+
+The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends that all adult international travelers who do not have positive evidence of previous measles immunity receive two doses of MMR vaccine before traveling.[61] Those born in the United States before 1957 are presumed to be immune because they would have had the disease in their childhood before any vaccination was available.[21]
+
+There have been false claims of an association between the measles vaccine and autism; this incorrect concern has reduced the rate of vaccination and increased the number of cases of measles where immunization rates became too low to maintain herd immunity.[13] Additionally, there have been false claims that measles infection protects against cancer.[14]
+
+A form of passive immunization could be effective up to the seventh day after exposure.[62] Compared to no treatment, the risk of infection was reduced by 76%; however, the effectiveness is not clear in comparison to active measles vaccine.[62]
+
+There is no specific antiviral treatment if measles develops.[44] Instead the medications are generally aimed at treating superinfections, maintaining good hydration with adequate fluids, and pain relief.[44] Some groups, like young children and the severely malnourished, are also given vitamin A, which act as an  immunomodulator that boosts the antibody responses to measles and decreases the risk of serious complications.[44][63][64]
+
+Treatment is supportive, with ibuprofen or paracetamol (acetaminophen) to reduce fever and pain and, if required, a fast-acting medication to dilate the airways for cough.[65] As for aspirin, some research has suggested a correlation between children who take aspirin and the development of Reye syndrome.[66][67]
+
+The use of vitamin A during treatment is recommended to decrease the risk of blindness;[64] however, it does not prevent or cure the disease.[68]  A systematic review of trials into its use found no reduction in overall mortality, but two doses (200 000 IU) of vitamin A was shown to reduce mortality for measles in children younger than two years of age.[63][69] It is unclear if zinc supplementation in children with measles affects outcomes as it has not been sufficiently studied.[70]
+
+Most people survive measles, though in some cases, complications may occur. About 1 in 4 individuals will be hospitalized and 1–2 in 1000 will die. Complications are more likely in children under age 5 and adults over age 20.[71] Pneumonia is the most common fatal complication of measles infection and accounts for 56-86% of measles-related deaths.[72]
+
+Possible consequences of measles virus infection include laryngotracheobronchitis, sensorineural hearing loss,[43] and—in about 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 300,000 cases[73]—panencephalitis, which is usually fatal.[74] Acute measles encephalitis is another serious risk of measles virus infection. It typically occurs two days to one week after the measles rash breaks out and begins with very high fever, severe headache,  convulsions and altered mentation. A person with measles encephalitis may become  comatose, and death or brain injury may occur.[75]
+
+For people having had measles, it is rare to ever have a symptomatic reinfection.[76]
+
+The measles virus can kill cells that make antibodies, and thus weakens the immune system which can cause deaths from other diseases.[34][35][36] Suppression of the immune system by measles lasts about two years and has been epidemiologically implicated in up to 90% of childhood deaths in  third world countries, and historically may have caused rather more deaths in the United States, the UK and Denmark than were directly caused by measles.[77]
+
+Measles is extremely infectious and its continued circulation in a community depends on the generation of susceptible hosts by birth of children. In communities that generate insufficient new hosts the disease will die out. This concept was first recognized in measles by Bartlett in 1957, who referred to the minimum number supporting measles as the critical community size (CCS).[78] Analysis of outbreaks in island communities suggested that the CCS for measles is around 250,000.[79] To achieve herd immunity, more than 95% of the community must be vaccinated due to the ease with which measles is transmitted from person to person.[24]
+
+In 2011, the WHO estimated that 158,000 deaths were caused by measles. This is down from 630,000 deaths in 1990.[80] As of 2018, measles remains a leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths in the world.[15][81] In developed countries the mortality rate is lower, for example in England and Wales from 2007-2017 death occurred between two and three cases out of 10,000.[82] In children one to three cases out of every 1,000 die in the United States (0.1–0.2%).[83] In populations with high levels of malnutrition and a lack of adequate healthcare, mortality can be as high as 10%.[7][84] In cases with complications, the rate may rise to 20–30%.[medical citation needed] In 2012, the number of deaths due to measles was 78% lower than in 2000 due to increased rates of immunization among UN member states.[24]
+
+Even in countries where vaccination has been introduced, rates may remain high. Measles is a leading cause of vaccine-preventable childhood mortality. Worldwide, the fatality rate has been significantly reduced by a vaccination campaign led by partners in the Measles Initiative: the American Red Cross, the United States  CDC, the United Nations Foundation, UNICEF and the WHO. Globally, measles fell 60% from an estimated 873,000 deaths in 1999 to 345,000 in 2005.[92] Estimates for 2008 indicate deaths fell further to 164,000 globally, with 77% of the remaining measles deaths in 2008 occurring within the Southeast Asian region.[93] There were 142,300 measles related deaths globally in 2018, of which most cases were reported from African and eastern Mediterranean regions. These estimates were slightly higher than that of 2017, when 124,000 deaths were reported due to measles infection globally.[94]
+
+In 2000, the WHO established the Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network (GMRLN) to provide laboratory surveillance for measles, rubella, and congenital rubella syndrome.[95] Data from 2016-2018 show that the most frequently detected measles virus genotypes are decreasing, suggesting that increasing global population immunity has decreased the number of chains of transmission.[95]
+
+Cases reported in the first three months of 2019, were 300% higher than in the first three months of 2018, with outbreaks in every region of the world, even in countries with high overall vaccination coverage where it spread among clusters of unvaccinated people.[96] The numbers of reported cases as of mid-November is over 413,000 globally, with an additional 250,000 cases in DRC (as reported through their national system),similar to the increasing trends of infection  reported in the earlier months of 2019, compared to 2018.[94]
+
+In England and Wales, though deaths from measles were uncommon they averaged about 500 per year in the 1940s. Deaths diminished with the improvement of medical care in the 1950s but the incidence of the disease didn't retreat until vaccination was introduced in the late 1960s. Wider coverage was achieved in the 1980s with the measles, mumps and rubella, MMR vaccine.[97]
+
+In 2013–14, there were almost 10,000 cases in 30 European countries. Most cases occurred in unvaccinated individuals and over 90% of cases occurred in Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, and United Kingdom.[24] Between October 2014 and March 2015, a measles outbreak in the German capital of Berlin resulted in at least 782 cases.[98] In 2017, numbers continued to increase in Europe to 21,315 cases, with 35 deaths.[99] In preliminary figures for 2018, reported cases in the region increased 3-fold to 82,596 in 47 countries, with 72 deaths; Ukraine had the most cases (53,218), with the highest incidence rates being in Ukraine (1209 cases per million), Serbia (579), Georgia (564) and Albania (500).[100][101] The previous year (2017) saw an estimated measles vaccine coverage of 95% for the first dose and 90% for the second dose in the region, the latter figure being the highest-ever estimated second-dose coverage.[101]
+
+In 2019, the United Kingdom, Albania, the Czech Republic, and Greece lost their measles-free status due to ongoing and prolonged spread of the disease in these countries.[102] In the first 6 months of 2019, 90,000 cases occurred in Europe.[102]
+
+As a result of widespread vaccination, the disease was declared eliminated from the Americas in 2016.[103] However, there were cases again in 2017[104], 2018, 2019[105], and 2020[106] in this region.
+
+In the United States, measles affected approximately 3,000 people per million in the 1960s before the vaccine was available. With consistent widespread childhood vaccination, this figure fell to 13 cases per million by the 1980s, and to about 1 case per million by the year 2000.[107]
+
+In 1991, an  outbreak of measles in Philadelphia was centered at the Faith Tabernacle Congregation, a faith healing church that actively discouraged parishioners from vaccinating their children. Over 1400 people were infected with measles and nine children died.
+
+Before immunization in the United States, between three and four million cases occurred each year.[5] The United States was declared free of circulating measles in 2000, with 911 cases from 2001 to 2011. In 2014 the CDC said endemic measles, rubella, and congenital rubella syndrome had not returned to the United States.[108] Occasional measles outbreaks persist, however, because of cases imported from abroad, of which more than half are the result of unvaccinated U.S. residents who are infected abroad and infect others upon return to the United States.[108] The CDC continues to recommend measles vaccination throughout the population to prevent outbreaks like these.[109]
+
+In 2014, an outbreak was initiated in Ohio when two unvaccinated Amish men harboring asymptomatic measles returned to the United States from missionary work in the Philippines.[110] Their return to a community with low vaccination rates led to an outbreak that rose to include a total of 383 cases across nine counties.[110] Of the 383 cases, 340 (89%) occurred in unvaccinated individuals.[110]
+
+From 4 January, to 2 April 2015, there were 159 cases of measles reported to the CDC. Of those 159 cases, 111 (70%) were determined to have come from an earlier exposure in late December 2014. This outbreak was believed to have originated from the Disneyland theme park in California. The Disneyland outbreak was held responsible for the infection of 147 people in seven U.S. states as well as Mexico and Canada, the majority of which were either unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status.[111] Of the cases 48% were unvaccinated and 38% were unsure of their vaccination status.[112] The initial exposure to the virus was never identified.[citation needed]
+
+In 2015, a U.S. woman in Washington state died of pneumonia, as a result of measles. She was the first fatality in the U.S. from measles since 2003.[113] The woman had been vaccinated for measles and was taking immunosuppressive drug for another condition. The drugs suppressed the woman's immunity to measles, and the woman became infected with measles; she did not develop a rash, but contracted pneumonia, which caused her death.[114][115]
+
+In June 2017, the Maine Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory confirmed a case of measles in Franklin County. This instance marks the first case of measles in 20 years for the state of Maine.[116] In 2018 one case occurred in Portland, Oregon, with 500 people exposed; 40 of them lacked immunity to the virus and were being monitored by county health officials as of 2 July 2018.[117] There were 273 cases of measles reported throughout the United States in 2018,[118] including an outbreak in Brooklyn with more than 200 reported cases from October 2018 to February 2019. The outbreak was tied with population density of the Orthodox Jewish community, with the initial exposure from an unvaccinated child that caught measles while visiting Israel.[119][120]
+
+A resurgence of measles occurred during 2019, which has been generally tied to parents choosing not to have their children vaccinated as most of the reported cases have occurred in people 19 years old or younger.[121][122][123][124][125] Cases were first reported in Washington state in January, with an  outbreak of at least 58 confirmed cases most within Clark County, which has a higher rate of vaccination exemptions compared to the rest of the state; nearly one in four kindergartners in Clark did not receive vaccinations, according to state data.[119] This led Washington state governor Jay Inslee to declare a state of emergency, and the state's congress to introduce legislation to disallow vaccination exemption for personal or philosophical reasons.[126] In April 2019, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a public health emergency because of "a huge spike" in  cases of measles where there were 285 cases centred on the Orthodox Jewish areas of Brooklyn in 2018, while there were only two cases in 2017. There were 168 more in neighboring Rockland County.[127] Other outbreaks have included Santa Cruz County and Butte County in California, and the states of New Jersey and Michigan.[125] As of April 2019[update], there have been 695 cases of measles reported in 22 states.[105] This is the highest number of measles cases since it was declared eradicated in 2000.[105] From 1 January, to 31 December 2019, 1,282 individual cases of measles were confirmed in 31 states.[106] This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992.[106] Of the 1,282 cases, 128 of the people who got measles were hospitalized, and 61 reported having complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis.[106]
+
+The spread of measles had been interrupted in Brazil in 2016, with the last known case twelve months earlier.[128] This last case was in the state of Ceará.[129]
+
+Brazil won a measles elimination certificate by the Pan American Health Organization in 2016, but the Ministry of Health has proclaimed that the country has struggled to keep this certificate, since two outbreaks had already been identified in 2018, one in the state of Amazonas and another one in Roraima, in addition to cases in other states (Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Pará, São Paulo and Rondônia), totaling 1053 confirmed cases until 1 August 2018.[130][131] In these outbreaks, and in most other cases, the contagion was related to the importation of the virus, especially from Venezuela.[130]  This was confirmed by the genotype of the virus (D8) that was identified, which is the same that circulates in Venezuela.[131]
+
+In the Vietnamese measles epidemic in spring of 2014, an estimated 8,500 measles cases were reported as of 19 April, with 114 fatalities;[132] as of 30 May, 21,639 suspected measles cases had been reported, with 142 measles-related fatalities.[133] In the Naga Self-Administered Zone in a remote northern region of Myanmar, at least 40 children died during a measles outbreak in August 2016 that was probably caused by lack of vaccination in an area of poor health infrastructure.[134][135] Following the 2019 Philippines measles outbreak, 23,563 measles cases have been reported in the country with 338 fatalities.[136] A measles outbreak also happened among the Malaysian Orang Asli sub-group of Batek people in the state of Kelantan from May 2019, causing the deaths of 15 from the tribe.[137][138]
+
+A  measles outbreak in New Zealand has 2193 confirmed cases and two deaths. A  measles outbreak in Tonga has 612 cases of measles.
+
+A  measles outbreak in Samoa in late 2019 has over 5,700 cases of measles and 83 deaths, out of a Samoan population of 200,000. Over three percent of the population were infected, and a state of emergency was declared from 17 November to 7 December. A vaccination campaign brought the measles vaccination rate from 31–34% in 2018 to an estimated 94% of the eligible population in December 2019.
+
+The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar have reported the highest numbers of cases in 2019. However, cases have decreased in Madagascar as a result of nationwide emergency measles vaccine campaigns. As of August 2019 outbreaks were occurring in Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, South Sudan and Sudan.[139]
+
+An  outbreak of measles in 2018 has resulted in 118,000 cases and 1,688 deaths. This followed  outbreaks of bubonic and pneumonic plague in 2017 (2575 cases, 221 deaths) and 2014 (263 confirmed cases, 71 deaths).[citation needed]
+
+An  outbreak of measles with nearly 5,000 deaths and 250,000 infections occurred in 2019, after the disease spread to all the provinces in the country.[140] Most deaths were among children under five years of age.[141] The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported this as the world's largest and fastest-moving epidemic.[142]
+
+Most estimates based on modern molecular biology place the emergence of measles as a human disease sometime after AD 500[143] (the former speculation that the Antonine Plague of AD 165–180 was caused by measles is now discounted), although recent[when?] studies suggest measles potentially first appeared as early as the 4th century BC.[144][145] The first systematic description of measles, and its distinction from smallpox and chickenpox, is credited to the Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (860–932), who published The Book of Smallpox and Measles.[146] Given what is now known about the evolution of measles, al-Razi's account is remarkably timely, as recent work that examined the mutation rate of the virus indicates the modern measles virus emerged from rinderpest (cattle plague) as a zoonotic disease between AD 1100 and 1200, a period that may have been preceded by limited outbreaks involving a measles virus not yet fully acclimated to humans.[143] This agrees with the observation that measles requires a susceptible population of >500,000 to sustain an epidemic, a situation that occurred in historic times following the growth of medieval European cities.[79]
+
+Measles is an endemic disease, meaning it has been continually present in a community, and many people develop resistance. In populations not exposed to measles, exposure to the new disease can be devastating. In 1529, a measles outbreak in Cuba killed two-thirds of those natives who had previously survived smallpox. Two years later, measles was responsible for the deaths of half the population of Honduras, and it had ravaged Mexico, Central America, and the Inca civilization.[148]
+
+Between roughly 1855 and 2005, measles has been estimated to have killed about 200 million people worldwide.[90] Measles killed 20 percent of Hawaii's population in the 1850s.[149] In 1875, measles killed over 40,000 Fijians, approximately one-third of the population.[150] In the 19th century, the disease killed 50% of the Andamanese population.[151] Seven to eight million children are thought to have died from measles each year before the vaccine was introduced.[24]
+
+In 1914, a statistician for the Prudential Insurance Company estimated from a survey of 22 countries that 1% of all deaths in the temperate zones were caused by measles. He observed also that 1-6% of cases of measles ended fatally the difference depending on age (0-3 being the worst), social conditions (e.g. overcrowded tenements) and pre-existing health conditions.[152]
+
+In 1954, the virus causing the disease was isolated from a 13-year-old boy from the United States, David Edmonston, and adapted and propagated on chick embryo tissue culture.[153] To date,[when?] the World Health Organization recognizes eight clades named A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Twenty-three strains of the measles virus have been identified and designated within these clades.[154] While at Merck, Maurice Hilleman developed the first successful vaccine.[155]  Licensed vaccines to prevent the disease became available in 1963.[156] An improved measles vaccine became available in 1968.[157] Measles as an endemic disease was eliminated from the United States in 2000, but continues to be reintroduced by international travelers.[158] In 2019 there were at least 1,241 cases of measles in the United States distributed across 31 states with over three quarters in New York.[159]
+
+German anti-vaccination campaigner and HIV/AIDS denialist[160] Stefan Lanka posed a challenge on his website in 2011, offering a sum of €100,000 for anyone who could scientifically prove that measles is caused by a virus and determine the diameter of the virus.[161] He posited that the illness is psychosomatic and that the measles virus does not exist. When provided with overwhelming scientific evidence from various medical studies by German physician David Bardens, Lanka did not accept the findings, forcing Bardens to appeal in court. The initial legal case ended with the ruling that Lanka was to pay the prize.[98][162] However, on appeal, Lanka was ultimately not required to the pay the award because the submitted evidence did not meet his exact requirements.[163] The case received wide international coverage that prompted many to comment on it, including neurologist, well-known skeptic and science-based medicine advocate Steven Novella, who called Lanka "a crank".[164]
+
+As outbreaks easily occur in under-vaccinated populations, the disease is seen as a test of sufficient vaccination within a population.[165] Measles outbreaks have been on the rise in the United States, especially in communities with lower rates of vaccination.[106] It is often introduced to a region by travelers from other countries and it typically spreads to those who have not received the measles vaccination.[106]
+
+Other names include morbilli, rubeola, red measles, and English measles.[1][2]
+
+In May 2015, the journal  Science published a report in which researchers found that the measles infection can leave a population at increased risk for mortality from other diseases for two to three years.[166] Results from additional studies that show the measles virus can kill cells that make antibodies were published in November 2019.[35]
+
+A specific drug treatment for measles, ERDRP-0519, has shown[when?] promising results in animal studies, but has not yet[when?] been tested in humans.[167][168]

en/5187.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,253 @@
+
+
+Coordinates: 46°N 25°E / 46°N 25°E / 46; 25
+
+– in Europe (green & dark grey)– in the European Union (green)  –  [Legend]
+
+Romania (/roʊˈmeɪniə/ (listen) ro-MAY-nee-ə; Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] (listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It shares land borders with Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, and Moldova to the east and has its opening to the Black Sea.[9] It has a predominantly temperate-continental climate. With a total area of 238,397 square kilometres (92,046 square miles), Romania is the 12th-largest country in Europe and the 7th most populous member state of the European Union, having approximately 20 million inhabitants. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest. Other major urban areas include: Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași, Constanța, Craiova, Brașov, and Galați.
+
+The River Danube, Europe's second-longest river, rises in Germany's Black Forest and flows in a generally southeasterly direction for 2,857 km (1,775 mi), coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romania's Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest, include Moldoveanu Peak, at an altitude of 2,544 m (8,346 ft).[10]
+
+Modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877.[11] Following World War I, after declaring its neutrality in 1914, Romania fought on the side of the Allied Powers beginning in 1916. Afterwards Bukovina, Bessarabia, Transylvania as well as parts of Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș became part of the sovereign Kingdom of Romania.[12] In June–August 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Second Vienna Award, Romania was compelled to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, and Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In November 1940, Romania signed the Tripartite Pact and, consequently, in June 1941 entered World War II on the Axis side, fighting against the Soviet Union until August 1944, when it joined the Allies and recovered Northern Transylvania. Following the war, under the occupation of the Red Army's forces, Romania became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition towards democracy and a market economy.
+
+Romania ranks 52nd in the Human Development Index,[13] and is a developing country[14][15] with a high-income economy.[16] It has the world's 62nd largest economy by nominal GDP, with an annual economic growth rate of 3.5% as of 2020.[17] Following rapid economic growth in the early 2000s, Romania has an economy based predominantly on services and is a producer and net exporter of machines and electric energy, featuring companies like Automobile Dacia and OMV Petrom. It has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, part of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. An overwhelming majority of the population identifies as ethnic Romanian and Eastern Orthodox Christian and are native speakers of Romanian, a Romance language.
+
+Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning "citizen of Rome".[18] The first known use of the appellation was attested to in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia.[19][20][21][22]
+
+The oldest known surviving document written in Romanian, a 1521 letter known as the "Letter of Neacșu from Câmpulung",[23] is notable for including the first documented occurrence of the country's name: Wallachia is mentioned as Țeara Rumânească (old spelling for "The Romanian Land"; țeara from the Latin terra, "land"; current spelling: Țara Românească).
+
+Two spelling forms: român and rumân were used interchangeably[a] until sociolinguistic developments in the late 17th century led to semantic differentiation of the two forms: rumân came to mean "bondsman", while român retained the original ethnolinguistic meaning.[24] After the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român.[b] Tudor Vladimirescu, a revolutionary leader of the early 19th century, used the term Rumânia to refer exclusively to the principality of Wallachia."[25]
+
+The use of the name Romania to refer to the common homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century.[c][26]
+
+In English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania.[27] Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975.[28] Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government.[29] A handful of other languages (including Italian, Hungarian, Portuguese, and Norwegian) have also switched to "o" like English, but most languages continue to prefer forms with u, e.g. French Roumanie, German and Swedish Rumänien, Spanish Rumania (the archaic form Rumanía is still in use in Spain), Polish Rumunia, Russian Румыния (Rumyniya), and Japanese ルーマニア (Rūmania).
+
+Human remains found in Peștera cu Oase ("Cave with Bones"), radiocarbon dated as being from circa 40,000 years ago, represent the oldest known Homo sapiens in Europe.[30] Neolithic techniques and agriculture spread after the arrival of a mixed group of people from Thessaly in the 6th millennium BC.[31][32] Excavations near a salt spring at Lunca yielded the earliest evidence for salt exploitation in Europe; here salt production began between 5th millennium BC and 4th BC.[33] The first permanent settlements also appeared in the Neolithic.[34] Some of them developed into "proto-cities",[34] which were larger than 320 hectares (800 acres).[35][36] The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture—the best known archaeological culture of Old Europe—flourished in Muntenia, southeastern Transylvania and northeastern Moldavia in the 3rd millennium BC.[36]
+The first fortified settlements appeared around 1800 BC, showing the militant character of Bronze Age societies.[36]
+
+Greek colonies established on the Black Sea coast in the 7th century BC became important centres of commerce with the local tribes.[37][38] Among the native peoples, Herodotus listed the Getae of the Lower Danube region, the Agathyrsi of Transylvania and the Syginnae of the plains along the river Tisza at the beginning of the 5th century BC.[39] Centuries later, Strabo associated the Getae with the Dacians who dominated the lands along the southern Carpathian Mountains in the 1st century BC.[40] Burebista was the first Dacian ruler to unite the local tribes.[40][41] He also conquered the Greek colonies in Dobruja and the neighbouring peoples as far as the Middle Danube and the Balkan Mountains between around 55 and 44 BC.[40][42] After Burebista was murdered in 44 BC, his empire collapsed.[40][43]
+
+The Romans reached Dacia during Burebista's reign and conquered Dobruja in 46 AD.[43] Dacia was again united under Decebalus around 85 AD.[40][44] He resisted the Romans for decades, but the Roman army defeated his troops in 106 AD.[45] Emperor Trajan transformed Banat, Oltenia and the greater part of Transylvania into the new Roman province of Dacia, but Dacian, Germanic and Sarmatian tribes continued to dominate the lands along the Roman frontiers.[46][47] The Romans pursued an organised colonisation policy, and the provincials enjoyed a long period of peace and prosperity in the 2nd century.[48][49] Scholars accepting the Daco-Roman continuity theory—one of the main theories about the origin of the Romanians—say that the cohabitation of the native Dacians and the Roman colonists in Roman Dacia was the first phase of the Romanians' ethnogenesis.[50][51]
+
+The Carpians, Goths and other neighbouring tribes made regular raids against Dacia from the 210s.[52] The Romans could not resist, and Emperor Aurelian ordered the evacuation of the province Dacia Trajana in 271.[53] Scholars supporting the continuity theory are convinced that most Latin-speaking commoners stayed behind when the army and civil administration was withdrawn.[54] The Romans did not abandon their fortresses along the northern banks of the Lower Danube for decades, and Dobruja (known as Scythia Minor) remained an integral part of the Roman Empire until the early 7th century.[50][55]
+
+The Goths were expanding towards the Lower Danube from the 230s, forcing the native peoples to flee to the Roman Empire or to accept their suzerainty.[56][57][58] The Goths' rule ended abruptly when the Huns invaded their territory in 376, causing new waves of migrations.[56][58][59] The Huns forced the remnants of the local population into submission, but their empire collapsed in 454.[56][60] The Gepids took possession of the former Dacia province.[61][62] The nomadic Avars defeated the Gepids and established a powerful empire around 570.[56][63] The Bulgars, who also came from the Eurasian steppes, occupied the Lower Danube region in 680.[56]
+
+Place names that are of Slavic origin abound in Romania, indicating that a significant Slavic-speaking population used to live in the territory.[64] The first Slavic groups settled in Moldavia and Wallachia in the 6th century,[65] in Transylvania around 600.[66] After the Avar Khaganate collapsed in the 790s, Bulgaria became the dominant power of the region, occupying lands as far as the river Tisa.[56] The Council of Preslav declared Old Church Slavonic the language of liturgy in the First Bulgarian Empire in 893.[67] The Romanians also adopted Old Church Slavonic as their liturgical language.[68]
+
+The Magyars (or Hungarians) took control of the steppes north of the Lower Danube in the 830s, but the Bulgarians and the Pechenegs jointly forced them to abandon this region for the lowlands along the Middle Danube around 894.[69] Centuries later, the Gesta Hungarorum wrote of the invading Magyars' wars against three dukes—Glad, Menumorut and the Vlach Gelou—for Banat, Crișana and Transylvania.[70][71] The Gesta also listed many peoples—Slavs, Bulgarians, Vlachs, Khazars, and Székelys—inhabiting the same regions.[72][73] The reliability of the Gesta is debated. Some scholars regard it as a basically accurate account, others describe it as a literary work filled with invented details.[74][75][76] The Pechenegs seized the lowlands abandoned by the Hungarians to the east of the Carpathians.[77]
+
+Byzantine missionaries proselytised in the lands east of the Tisa from the 940s[78] and Byzantine troops occupied Dobruja in the 970s.[79] The first king of Hungary, Stephen I, who supported Western European missionaries, defeated the local chieftains and established Roman Catholic bishoprics (office of a bishop) in Transylvania and Banat in the early 11th century.[80][81] Significant Pecheneg groups fled to the Byzantine Empire in the 1040s; the Oghuz Turks followed them, and the nomadic Cumans became the dominant power of the steppes in the 1060s.[82] Cooperation between the Cumans and the Vlachs against the Byzantine Empire is well documented from the end of the 11th century.[83] Scholars who reject the Daco-Roman continuity theory say that the first Vlach groups left their Balkan homeland for the mountain pastures of the eastern and southern Carpathians in the 11th century, establishing the Romanians' presence in the lands to the north of the Lower Danube.[84]
+
+Exposed to nomadic incursions, Transylvania developed into an important border province of the Kingdom of Hungary.[85][86] The Székelys—a community of free warriors—settled in central Transylvania around 1100 and moved to the easternmost regions around 1200.[87] Colonists from the Holy Roman Empire—the Transylvanian Saxons' ancestors—came to the province in the 1150s.[87][88] A high-ranking royal official, styled voivode, ruled the Transylvanian counties from the 1170s, but the Székely and Saxon seats (or districts) were not subject to the voivodes' authority.[89] Royal charters wrote of the "Vlachs' land" in southern Transylvania in the early 13th century, indicating the existence of autonomous Romanian communities.[90] Papal correspondence mentions the activities of Orthodox prelates among the Romanians in Muntenia in the 1230s.[91]
+
+The Mongols destroyed large territories during their invasion of Eastern and Central Europe in 1241 and 1242.[92] The Mongols' Golden Horde emerged as the dominant power of Eastern Europe, but Béla IV of Hungary's land grant to the Knights Hospitallers in Oltenia and Muntenia shows that the local Vlach rulers were subject to the king's authority in 1247.[93][94] Basarab I of Wallachia united the Romanian polities between the southern Carpathians and the Lower Danube in the 1310s.[95] He defeated the Hungarian royal army in the Battle of Posada and secured the independence of Wallachia in 1330.[96][97] The second Romanian principality, Moldavia, achieved full autonomy during the reign of Bogdan I around 1360.[97] A local dynasty ruled the Despotate of Dobruja in the second half of the 14th century, but the Ottoman Empire took possession of the territory after 1388.[98]
+
+Princes Mircea I and Vlad III of Wallachia, and Stephen III of Moldavia defended their countries' independence against the Ottomans. Most Wallachian and Moldavian princes paid a regular tribute to the Ottoman sultans from 1417 and 1456, respectively.[99][100] A military commander of Romanian origin, John Hunyadi, organised the defence of the Kingdom of Hungary until his death in 1456.[101] Increasing taxes outraged the Transylvanian peasants, and they rose up in an open rebellion in 1437, but the Hungarian nobles and the heads of the Saxon and Székely communities jointly suppressed their revolt.[102] The formal alliance of the Hungarian, Saxon, and Székely leaders, known as the Union of the Three Nations, became an important element of the self-government of Transylvania.[103] The Orthodox Romanian knezes ("chiefs") were excluded from the Union.[103]
+
+The Kingdom of Hungary collapsed, and the Ottomans occupied parts of Banat and Crișana in 1541.[103] Transylvania and Maramureș, along with the rest of Banat and Crișana developed into a new state under Ottoman suzerainty, the Principality of Transylvania.[104] Reformation spread and four denominations—Calvinism, Lutheranism, Unitarianism, and Roman Catholicism—were officially acknowledged in 1568.[105] The Romanians' Orthodox faith remained only tolerated,[105] although they made up more than one-third of the population, according to 17th-century estimations.[106][107]
+
+The princes of Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia joined the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire in 1594.[108] The Wallachian prince, Michael the Brave, united the three principalities under his rule in May 1600.[109][110] The neighboring powers forced him to abdicate in September, but he became a symbol of the unification of the Romanian lands in the 19th century.[109] Although the rulers of the three principalities continued to pay tribute to the Ottomans, the most talented princes—Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania, Matei Basarab of Wallachia, and Vasile Lupu of Moldavia—strengthened their autonomy.[111]
+
+The united armies of the Holy League expelled the Ottoman troops from Central Europe between 1684 and 1699, and the Principality of Transylvania was integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy.[112] The Habsburgs supported the Catholic clergy and persuaded the Orthodox Romanian prelates to accept the union with the Roman Catholic Church in 1699.[113] The Church Union strengthened the Romanian intellectuals' devotion to their Roman heritage.[114] The Orthodox Church was restored in Transylvania only after Orthodox monks stirred up revolts in 1744 and 1759.[115] The organization of the Transylvanian Military Frontier caused further disturbances, especially among the Székelys in 1764.[116]
+
+Princes Dimitrie Cantemir of Moldavia and Constantin Brâncoveanu of Wallachia concluded alliances with the Habsburg Monarchy and Russia against the Ottomans, but they were dethroned in 1711 and 1714, respectively.[117] The sultans lost confidence in the native princes and appointed Orthodox merchants from the Phanar district of Istanbul to rule Moldova and Wallachia.[118][119] The Phanariot princes pursued oppressive fiscal policies and dissolved the army.[120] The neighboring powers took advantage of the situation: the Habsburg Monarchy annexed the northwestern part of Moldavia, or Bukovina, in 1775, and the Russian Empire seized the eastern half of Moldavia, or Bessarabia, in 1812.[121][122]
+
+A census revealed that the Romanians were more numerous than any other ethnic group in Transylvania in 1733, but legislation continued to use contemptuous adjectives (such as "tolerated" and "admitted") when referring to them.[123][124] The Uniate bishop, Inocențiu Micu-Klein who demanded recognition of the Romanians as the fourth privileged nation was forced into exile.[125][124] Uniate and Orthodox clerics and laymen jointly signed a plea for the Transylvanian Romanians' emancipation in 1791, but the monarch and the local authorities refused to grant their requests.[126][123]
+
+The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca authorised the Russian ambassador in Istanbul to defend the autonomy of Moldavia and Wallachia (known as the Danubian Principalities) in 1774.[127] Taking advantage of the Greek War of Independence, a Wallachian lesser nobleman, Tudor Vladimirescu, stirred up a revolt against the Ottomans in January 1821, but he was murdered in June by Phanariot Greeks.[128] After a new Russo-Turkish War, the Treaty of Adrianople strengthened the autonomy of the Danubian Principalities in 1829, although it also acknowledged the sultan's right to confirm the election of the princes.[129]
+
+Mihail Kogălniceanu, Nicolae Bălcescu and other leaders of the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia demanded the emancipation of the peasants and the union of the two principalities, but Russian and Ottoman troops crushed their revolt.[130][131] The Wallachian revolutionists were the first to adopt the blue, yellow and red tricolour as the national flag.[132] In Transylvania, most Romanians supported the imperial government against the Hungarian revolutionaries after the Diet passed a law concerning the union of Transylvania and Hungary.[132] Bishop Andrei Șaguna proposed the unification of the Romanians of the Habsburg Monarchy in a separate duchy, but the central government refused to change the internal borders.[133]
+
+The Treaty of Paris put the Danubian Principalities under the collective guardianship of the Great Powers in 1856.[131] After special assemblies convoked in Moldavia and Wallachia urged the unification of the two principalities, the Great Powers did not prevent the election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as their collective domnitor (or ruling prince) in January 1859.[134] The united principalities officially adopted the name Romania on 21 February 1862.[135] Cuza's government carried out a series of reforms, including the secularisation of the property of monasteries and agrarian reform, but a coalition of conservative and radical politicians forced him to abdicate in February 1866.[136][137]
+
+Cuza's successor, a German prince, Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (or Carol I), was elected in May.[138] The parliament adopted the first constitution of Romania in the same year.[139] The Great Powers acknowledged Romania's full independence at the Congress of Berlin and Carol I was crowned king in 1881.[140] The Congress also granted the Danube Delta and Dobruja to Romania.[140] Although Romanian scholars strove for the unification of all Romanians into a Greater Romania, the government did not openly support their irredentist projects.[141]
+
+The Transylvanian Romanians and Saxons wanted to maintain the separate status of Transylvania in the Habsburg Monarchy, but the Austro-Hungarian Compromise brought about the union of the province with Hungary in 1867.[142] Ethnic Romanian politicians sharply opposed the Hungarian government's attempts to transform Hungary into a national state, especially the laws prescribing the obligatory teaching of Hungarian.[140] Leaders of the Romanian National Party proposed the federalisation of Austria-Hungary and the Romanian intellectuals established a cultural association to promote the use of Romanian.[143][144]
+
+Fearing Russian expansionism, Romania secretly joined the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy in 1883, but public opinion remained hostile to Austria-Hungary.[145][146] Romania seized Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War in 1913.[147] German and Austrian-Hungarian diplomacy supported Bulgaria during the war, bringing about a rapprochement between Romania and the Triple Entente of France, Russia and the United Kingdom.[147] The country remained neutral when World War I broke out in 1914, but Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu started negotiations with the Entente Powers.[148] After they promised Austrian-Hungarian territories with a majority of ethnic Romanian population to Romania in the Treaty of Bucharest, Romania entered the war against the Central Powers in 1916.[148][149] The German and Austrian-Hungarian troops defeated the Romanian army and occupied three-quarters of the country by early 1917.[150] After the October Revolution turned Russia from an ally into an enemy, Romania was forced to sign a harsh peace treaty with the Central Powers in May 1918,[151] but the collapse of Russia also enabled the union of Bessarabia with Romania.[152] King Ferdinand again mobilised the Romanian army on behalf of the Entente Powers a day before Germany capitulated on 11 November 1918.[151]
+
+Austria-Hungary quickly disintegrated after the war.[151] The General Congress of Bukovina proclaimed the union of the province with Romania on 28 November 1918, and the Grand National Assembly proclaimed the union of Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș with the kingdom on 1 December.[153][154] Peace treaties with Austria, Bulgaria and Hungary delineated the new borders in 1919 and 1920, but the Soviet Union did not acknowledge the loss of Bessarabia.[155] Romania achieved its greatest territorial extent, expanding from the pre-war 137,000 to 295,000 km2 (53,000 to 114,000 sq mi).[156] A new electoral system granted voting rights to all adult male citizens, and a series of radical agrarian reforms transformed the country into a "nation of small landowners" between 1918 and 1921.[157] Gender equality as a principle was enacted, but women could not vote or be candidates.[158] Calypso Botez established the National Council of Romanian Women to promote feminist ideas.[158] Romania was a multiethnic country, with ethnic minorities making up about 30% of the population, but the new constitution declared it a unitary national state in 1923.[156][159][160] Although minorities could establish their own schools, Romanian language, history and geography could only be taught in Romanian.[161]
+
+Agriculture remained the principal sector of economy, but several branches of industry—especially the production of coal, oil, metals, synthetic rubber, explosives and cosmetics—developed during the interwar period.[162][163] With oil production of 5.8 million tons in 1930, Romania ranked sixth in the world.[163] Two parties, the National Liberal Party and the National Peasants' Party, dominated political life, but the Great Depression brought about significant changes in the 1930s.[164][165] The democratic parties were squeezed between conflicts with the fascist and anti-Semitic Iron Guard and the authoritarian tendencies of King Carol II.[166] The King promulgated a new constitution and dissolved the political parties in 1938, replacing the parliamentary system with a royal dictatorship.[167][168]
+
+The 1938 Munich Agreement convinced King Carol II that France and the United Kingdom could not defend Romanian interests.[169] German preparations for a new war required the regular supply of Romanian oil and agricultural products.[169] The two countries concluded a treaty concerning the coordination of their economic policies in 1939, but the King could not persuade Adolf Hitler to guarantee Romania's frontiers.[170] Romania was forced to cede Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union on 26 June 1940, Northern Transylvania to Hungary on 30 August, and Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria in September.[171] After the territorial losses, the King was forced to abdicate in favour of his minor son, Michael I, on 6 September, and Romania was transformed into a national-legionary state under the leadership of General Ion Antonescu.[172] Antonescu signed the Tripartite Pact of Germany, Italy and Japan on 23 November.[173] The Iron Guard staged a coup against Antonescu, but he crushed the riot with German support and introduced a military dictatorship in early 1941.[174]
+
+Romania entered World War II soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.[175] The country regained Bessarabia and northern Bucovina, and the Germans placed Transnistria (the territory between the rivers Dniester and Dnieper) under Romanian administration.[176] Romanian and German troops massacred at least 160,000 local Jews in these territories; more than 105,000 Jews and about 11,000 Gypsies died during their deportation from Bessarabia to Transnistria.[177] Most of the Jewish population of Moldavia, Wallachia, Banat and Southern Transylvania survived,[178] but their fundamental rights were limited.[179] After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, about 132,000 Jews – mainly Hungarian-speaking – were deported to extermination camps from Northern Transylvania with the Hungarian authorities' support.[177][180]
+
+After the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, Iuliu Maniu, a leader of the opposition to Antonescu, entered into secret negotiations with British diplomats who made it clear that Romania had to seek reconciliation with the Soviet Union.[181] To facilitate the coordination of their activities against Antonescu's regime, the National Liberal and National Peasants' parties established the National Democratic Bloc, which also included the Social Democratic and Communist parties.[182] After a successful Soviet offensive, the young King Michael I ordered Antonescu's arrest and appointed politicians from the National Democratic Bloc to form a new government on 23 August 1944.[183] Romania switched sides during the war, and nearly 250,000 Romanian troops joined the Red Army's military campaign against Hungary and Germany, but Joseph Stalin regarded the country as an occupied territory within the Soviet sphere of influence.[184] Stalin's deputy instructed the King to make the Communists' candidate, Petru Groza, the prime minister in March 1945.[185][186] The Romanian administration in Northern Transylvania was soon restored, and Groza's government carried out an agrarian reform.[186] In February 1947, the Paris Peace Treaties confirmed the return of Northern Transylvania to Romania, but they also legalised the presence of units of the Red Army in the country.[187][188]
+
+During the Soviet occupation of Romania, the Communist-dominated government called for new elections in 1946, which they fraudulently won, with a fabricated 70% majority of the vote.[189] Thus, they rapidly established themselves as the dominant political force.[190] Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, a Communist party leader imprisoned in 1933, escaped in 1944 to become Romania's first Communist leader. In February 1947, he and others forced King Michael I to abdicate and leave the country and proclaimed Romania a people's republic.[191][192] Romania remained under the direct military occupation and economic control of the USSR until the late 1950s. During this period, Romania's vast natural resources were drained continuously by mixed Soviet-Romanian companies (SovRoms) set up for unilateral exploitative purposes.[193][194][195]
+
+In 1948, the state began to nationalise private firms and to collectivise agriculture.[196] Until the early 1960s, the government severely curtailed political liberties and vigorously suppressed any dissent with the help of the Securitate—the Romanian secret police. During this period the regime launched several campaigns of purges during which numerous "enemies of the state" and "parasite elements" were targeted for different forms of punishment including: deportation, internal exile, internment in forced labour camps and prisons—sometimes for life—as well as extrajudicial killing.[197] Nevertheless, anti-Communist resistance was one of the most long-lasting in the Eastern Bloc.[198] A 2006 Commission estimated the number of direct victims of the Communist repression at two million people.[199]
+
+In 1965, Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power and started to conduct the country's foreign policy more independently from the Soviet Union. Thus, Communist Romania was the only Warsaw Pact country which refused to participate in the Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Ceaușescu even publicly condemned the action as "a big mistake, [and] a serious danger to peace in Europe and to the fate of Communism in the world".[200]) It was the only Communist state to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel after 1967's Six-Day War and established diplomatic relations with West Germany the same year.[201] At the same time, close ties with the Arab countries and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) allowed Romania to play a key role in the Israel–Egypt and Israel–PLO peace talks.[202]
+
+As Romania's foreign debt increased sharply between 1977 and 1981 (from US$3 billion to $10 billion),[203] the influence of international financial organizations—such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank—grew, gradually conflicting with Ceaușescu's autocratic rule. He eventually initiated a policy of total reimbursement of the foreign debt by imposing austerity steps that impoverished the population and exhausted the economy. The process succeeded in repaying all of Romania's foreign government debt in 1989. At the same time, Ceaușescu greatly extended the authority of the Securitate secret police and imposed a severe cult of personality, which led to a dramatic decrease in the dictator's popularity and culminated in his overthrow and eventual execution, together with his wife, in the violent Romanian Revolution of December 1989 in which thousands were killed or injured. The charges for which they were executed were, among others, genocide by starvation.
+
+After the 1989 revolution, the National Salvation Front (NSF), led by Ion Iliescu, took partial multi-party democratic and free market measures.[204][205] In April 1990, a sit-in protest contesting the results of that year's legislative elections and accusing the NSF, including Iliescu, of being made up of former Communists and members of the Securitate grew rapidly to become what was called the Golaniad. Peaceful demonstrations degenerated into violence, prompting the intervention of coal miners summoned by Iliescu. This episode has been documented widely by both local[206] and foreign media,[207] and is remembered as the June 1990 Mineriad.[208][209]
+
+The subsequent disintegration of the Front produced several political parties, including most notably the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic Party. The former governed Romania from 1990 until 1996 through several coalitions and governments, with Ion Iliescu as head of state. Since then, there have been several other democratic changes of government: in 1996 Emil Constantinescu was elected president, in 2000 Iliescu returned to power, while Traian Băsescu was elected in 2004 and narrowly re-elected in 2009.[210]
+
+In November 2014, Sibiu (German: Hermannstadt) mayor Klaus Johannis was elected president, unexpectedly defeating former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who had been leading in the opinion polls. This surprise victory is attributed by many to the Romanian diaspora, of which almost 50% voted for Klaus Iohannis in the first round of voting, compared to 16% for Ponta.[211] In 2019, Johannis was re-elected president in a landslide victory over former Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă.
+
+The post–1989 period is also characterised by the fact that most of the former industrial and economic enterprises which were built and operated during the Communist period were closed, mainly as a result of the policies of privatization of the post–1989 regimes.[212]
+
+Corruption has also been a major issue in contemporary Romanian politics.[213] In November 2015, massive anti-corruption protests which developed in the wake of the Colectiv nightclub fire led to the resignation of Romania's Prime Minister Victor Ponta.[214] During 2017–2018, in response to measures which were perceived to weaken the fight against corruption, some of the biggest protests since 1989 took place in Romania, with over 500,000 people protesting across the country.[215][216]
+
+Nevertheless, there have been efforts to tackle corruption. A National Anticorruption Directorate was formed in the country in 2002. In Transparency International's 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index, Romania's public sector corruption score deteriorated to 44 out of 100, reversing gains made in previous years.[217]
+
+After the end of the Cold War, Romania developed closer ties with Western Europe and the United States, eventually joining NATO in 2004, and hosting the 2008 summit in Bucharest.[218]
+
+The country applied in June 1993 for membership in the European Union and became an Associated State of the EU in 1995, an Acceding Country in 2004, and a full member on 1 January 2007.[219]
+
+During the 2000s, Romania enjoyed one of the highest economic growth rates in Europe and has been referred at times as "the Tiger of Eastern Europe".[220] This has been accompanied by a significant improvement in living standards as the country successfully reduced domestic poverty and established a functional democratic state.[221][222] However, Romania's development suffered a major setback during the late-2000s' recession leading to a large gross domestic product contraction and a budget deficit in 2009.[223] This led to Romania borrowing from the International Monetary Fund.[224] Worsening economic conditions led to unrest and triggered a political crisis in 2012.[225]
+
+Romania still faces problems related to infrastructure,[226] medical services,[227] education,[228] and corruption.[229] Near the end of 2013, The Economist reported Romania again enjoying "booming" economic growth at 4.1% that year, with wages rising fast and a lower unemployment than in Britain. Economic growth accelerated in the midst of government liberalisations in opening up new sectors to competition and investment—most notably, energy and telecoms.[230] In 2016 the Human Development Index ranked Romania as a nation of "Very High Human Development".[231]
+
+Following the experience of economic instability throughout the 1990s, and the implementation of a free travel agreement with the EU, a great number of Romanians emigrated to Western Europe and North America, with particularly large communities in Italy, Germany and Spain. In 2016, the Romanian diaspora was estimated to be over 3.6 million people, the fifth-highest emigrant population in the world.[232]
+
+Romania is the largest country in Southeastern Europe and the twelfth-largest in Europe, having an area of 238,397 square kilometres (92,046 sq mi).[233]:17 It lies between latitudes 43° and 49° N and longitudes 20° and 30° E.
+
+The terrain is distributed roughly equally between mountains, hills, and plains. The Carpathian Mountains dominate the centre of Romania, with 14 mountain ranges reaching above 2,000 m or 6,600 ft—the highest is Moldoveanu Peak at 2,544 m or 8,346 ft.[233]:11 They are surrounded by the Moldavian and Transylvanian plateaus, the Carpathian Basin and the Wallachian plains.
+
+Natural and semi-natural ecosystems cover about 47% of the country's land area.[234] There are almost 10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi) (about 5% of the total area) of protected areas in Romania covering 13 national parks and three biosphere reserves.[235]
+
+The Danube river forms a large part of the border with Serbia and Bulgaria, and flows into the Black Sea, forming the Danube Delta, which is the second-largest and best-preserved delta in Europe, and a biosphere reserve and a biodiversity World Heritage Site.[236] At 5,800 km2 (2,200 sq mi),[237] the Danube Delta is the largest continuous marshland in Europe,[238] and supports 1,688 different plant species alone.[239]
+
+Romania has one of the largest areas of undisturbed forest in Europe, covering almost 27% of its territory.[240] Some 3,700 plant species have been identified in the country, from which to date 23 have been declared natural monuments, 74 extinct, 39 endangered, 171 vulnerable, and 1,253 rare.[241]
+
+The fauna of Romania consists of 33,792 species of animals, 33,085 invertebrate and 707 vertebrate,[241] with almost 400 unique species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians,[242] including about 50% of Europe's (excluding Russia) brown bears[243] and 20% of its wolves.[244]
+
+Owing to its distance from open sea and its position on the southeastern portion of the European continent, Romania has a climate that is temperate and continental, with four distinct seasons. The average annual temperature is 11 °C (52 °F) in the south and 8 °C (46 °F) in the north.[245] In summer, average maximum temperatures in Bucharest rise to 28 °C (82 °F), and temperatures over 35 °C (95 °F) are fairly common in the lower-lying areas of the country.[246] In winter, the average maximum temperature is below 2 °C (36 °F).[246] Precipitation is average, with over 750 mm (30 in) per year only on the highest western mountains, while around Bucharest it drops to approximately 570 mm (22 in).[233]:29
+There are some regional differences: in western sections, such as Banat, the climate is milder and has some Mediterranean influences; the eastern part of the country has a more pronounced continental climate. In Dobruja, the Black Sea also exerts an influence over the region's climate.[247]
+
+The Constitution of Romania is based on the constitution of France's Fifth Republic and was approved in a national referendum on 8 December 1991 and amended in October 2003 to bring it into conformity with EU legislation. The country is governed on the basis of a multi-party democratic system and the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches. It is a semi-presidential republic where executive functions are held by both the government and the president.[249] The latter is elected by popular vote for a maximum of two terms of five years and appoints the prime minister who in turn appoints the Council of Ministers. The legislative branch of the government, collectively known as the Parliament (residing at the Palace of the Parliament), consists of two chambers (Senate and Chamber of Deputies) whose members are elected every four years by simple plurality.[250][251]
+
+The justice system is independent of the other branches of government and is made up of a hierarchical system of courts with the High Court of Cassation and Justice being the supreme court of Romania.[252] There are also courts of appeal, county courts and local courts. The Romanian judicial system is strongly influenced by the French model, is based on civil law and is inquisitorial in nature. The Constitutional Court (Curtea Constituțională) is responsible for judging the compliance of laws and other state regulations with the constitution, which is the fundamental law of the country and can only be amended through a public referendum.[250][253] Romania's 2007 entry into the EU has been a significant influence on its domestic policy, and including judicial reforms, increased judicial cooperation with other member states, and measures to combat corruption.[254]
+
+Since December 1989, Romania has pursued a policy of strengthening relations with the West in general, more specifically with the United States and the European Union, albeit with limited relations involving the Russian Federation. It joined the NATO on 29 March 2004, the European Union (EU) on 1 January 2007, while it joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1972, and is a founding member of the World Trade Organization.[255]
+
+In the past, recent governments have stated that one of their goals is to strengthen ties with and helping other countries (in particular Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia) with the process of integration with the rest of the West.[256] Romania has also made clear since the late 1990s that it supports NATO and EU membership for the democratic former Soviet republics in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.[256] Romania also declared its public support for Turkey, and Croatia joining the European Union.[256]
+
+Romania opted on 1 January 2007, to accede to the Schengen Area, and its bid to join was approved by the European Parliament in June 2011, but was rejected by the EU Council in September 2011. As of August 2019, its acceptance into the Schengen Area is hampered because the European Council has misgivings about Romania's adherence to the rule of law,[257] a fundamental principle of EU membership.[258]
+
+In December 2005, President Traian Băsescu and United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement that would allow a U.S. military presence at several Romanian facilities primarily in the eastern part of the country.[259] In May 2009, Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, declared that "Romania is one of the most trustworthy and respectable partners of the USA."[260]
+
+Relations with Moldova are a special case given that the two countries share the same language and a common history.[256] A movement for unification of Romania and Moldova appeared in the early 1990s after both countries achieved emancipation from communist rule[261] but lost ground in the mid-1990s when a new Moldovan government pursued an agenda towards preserving a Moldovan republic independent of Romania.[262] After the 2009 protests in Moldova and the subsequent removal of Communists from power, relations between the two countries have improved considerably.[263]
+
+The Romanian Armed Forces consist of land, air, and naval forces led by a Commander-in-chief under the supervision of the Ministry of National Defence, and by the president as the Supreme Commander during wartime. The Armed Forces consist of approximately 15,000 civilians and 75,000 military personnel—45,800 for land, 13,250 for air, 6,800 for naval forces, and 8,800 in other fields.[264] Total defence spending in 2007 accounted for 2.05% of total national GDP, or approximately US$2.9 billion, with a total of $11 billion spent between 2006 and 2011 for modernization and acquisition of new equipment.[265]
+
+The Air Force currently operates modernised Soviet MiG-21 Lancer fighters.[266] The Air Force purchased seven new C-27J Spartan tactical airlifters,[267] while the Naval Forces acquired two modernised Type 22 frigates from the British Royal Navy.[268]
+
+Romania contributed troops to the international coalition in Afghanistan beginning in 2002,[269] with a peak deployment of 1,600 troops in 2010 (which was the 4th largest contribution according to the US).[270][271] Its combat mission in the country concluded in 2014.[272] Romanian troops participated in the occupation of Iraq, reaching a peak of 730 soldiers before being slowly drawn down to 350 soldiers. Romania terminated its mission in Iraq and withdrew its last troops on 24 July 2009, among the last countries to do so. The frigate the Regele Ferdinand participated in the 2011 military intervention in Libya.[273]
+
+In December 2011, the Romanian Senate unanimously adopted the draft law ratifying the Romania-United States agreement signed in September of the same year that would allow the establishment and operation of a US land-based ballistic missile defence system in Romania as part of NATO's efforts to build a continental missile shield.[274]
+
+Romania is divided into 41 counties (județe, pronounced judetse) and the municipality of Bucharest. Each county is administered by a county council, responsible for local affairs, as well as a prefect responsible for the administration of national affairs at the county level. The prefect is appointed by the central government but cannot be a member of any political party.[275] Each county is subdivided further into cities and communes, which have their own mayor and local council. There are a total of 320 cities and 2,861 communes in Romania.[233]:17 A total of 103 of the larger cities have municipality status, which gives them greater administrative power over local affairs. The municipality of Bucharest is a special case, as it enjoys a status on par to that of a county. It is further divided into six sectors[233]:6 and has a prefect, a general mayor (primar), and a general city council.
+
+The NUTS-3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) level divisions of the European Union reflect Romania's administrative-territorial structure and correspond to the 41 counties plus Bucharest.[276] The cities and communes correspond to the NUTS-5 level divisions, but there are no current NUTS-4 level divisions. The NUTS-1 (four macroregions) and NUTS-2[277] (eight development regions) divisions exist but have no administrative capacity and are used instead for coordinating regional development projects and statistical purposes.[276]
+
+In 2019, Romania has a GDP (PPP) of around $547 billion and a GDP per capita (PPP) of $28,189.[280] According to the World Bank, Romania is a high-income economy.[16] According to Eurostat, Romania's GDP per capita (PPS) was 69% of the EU average (100%) in 2019, an increase from 44% in 2007 (the year of Romania's accession to the EU), making Romania one of the fastest growing economies in the EU.[281]
+
+After 1989 the country experienced a decade of economic instability and decline, led in part by an obsolete industrial base and a lack of structural reform. From 2000 onward, however, the Romanian economy was transformed into one of relative macroeconomic stability, characterised by high growth, low unemployment and declining inflation. In 2006, according to the Romanian Statistics Office, GDP growth in real terms was recorded at 7.7%, one of the highest rates in Europe.[282] However, a recession following the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 forced the government to borrow externally, including an IMF €20 billion bailout program.[283] According to The World Bank, GDP per capita in purchasing power parity grew from $13,687 in 2007 to $28,206 in 2018.[284] Romania's net average monthly wage increased to 666 euro as of 2020,[285] and an inflation rate of −1.1% in 2016.[286] Unemployment in Romania was at 4.3% in August 2018, which is low compared to other EU countries.[287]
+
+Industrial output growth reached 6.5% year-on-year in February 2013, the highest in the Europe.[288] The largest local companies include car maker Automobile Dacia, Petrom, Rompetrol, Ford Romania, Electrica, Romgaz, RCS & RDS and Banca Transilvania.[289] As of 2020, there are around 6000 exports per month. Romania's main exports are: cars, software, clothing and textiles, industrial machinery, electrical and electronic equipment, metallurgic products, raw materials, military equipment, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agricultural products (fruits, vegetables, and flowers). Trade is mostly centred on the member states of the European Union, with Germany and Italy being the country's single largest trading partners. The account balance in 2012 was estimated to be 4.52% of  GDP.[290]
+
+After a series of privatizations and reforms in the late 1990s and 2000s, government intervention in the Romanian economy is somewhat less than in other European economies.[291] In 2005, the government replaced Romania's progressive tax system with a flat tax of 16% for both personal income and corporate profit, among the lowest rates in the European Union.[292] The economy is based predominantly on services, which account for 56.2% of the country's total GDP as of 2017, with industry and agriculture accounting for 30% and 4.4% respectively.[293]
+Approximately 25.8% of the Romanian workforce is employed in agriculture, one of the highest rates in Europe.[294]
+
+Romania has attracted increasing amounts of foreign investment following the end of Communism, with the stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Romania rising to €83.8 billion in June 2019.[295] Romania's FDI outward stock (an external or foreign business either investing in or purchasing the stock of a local economy) amounted to $745 million in December 2018, the lowest value among the 28 EU member states.[295]
+
+According to a 2019 World Bank report, Romania ranks 52nd out of 190 economies in the ease of doing business, one place higher than neighbouring Hungary and one place lower than Italy.[296] The report praised the consistent enforcement of contracts and access to credit in the country, while noting difficulties in access to electricity and dealing with construction permits.[296]
+
+Since 1867 the official currency has been the Romanian leu ("lion") and following a denomination in 2005.[297] After joining the EU in 2007, Romania is expected to adopt the Euro in 2024.[298]
+
+In January 2020, Romania's external debt was reported to be US$122 billion according to CEIC data.[299]
+
+According to the Romania's National Institute of Statistics (INSSE), Romania's total road network was estimated in 2015 at 86,080 kilometres (53,488 mi).[300] The World Bank estimates the railway network at 22,298 kilometres (13,855 mi) of track, the fourth-largest railroad network in Europe.[301] Romania's rail transport experienced a dramatic decline after 1989 and was estimated at 99 million passenger journeys in 2004, but has experienced a recent (2013) revival due to infrastructure improvements and partial privatisation of lines,[250] accounting for 45% of all passenger and freight movements in the country.[250] Bucharest Metro, the only underground railway system, was opened in 1979 and measures 61.41 km (38.16 mi) with an average ridership in 2007 of 600,000 passengers during the workweek in the country.[302] There are sixteen international commercial airports in service today. Over 12.8 million passengers flew through Bucharest's Henri Coandă International Airport in 2017.[303]
+
+Romania is a net exporter of electrical energy and is 52nd worldwide in terms of consumption of electric energy.[304] Around a third of the produced energy comes from renewable sources, mostly as hydroelectric power.[305] In 2015, the main sources were coal (28%), hydroelectric (30%), nuclear (18%), and hydrocarbons (14%).[306] It has one of the largest refining capacities in Eastern Europe, even though oil and natural gas production has been decreasing for more than a decade.[307] With one of the largest reserves of crude oil and shale gas in Europe[308] it is among the most energy-independent countries in the European Union,[309] and is looking to expand its nuclear power plant at Cernavodă further.[310]
+
+There were almost 18.3 million connections to the Internet in June 2014.[311] According to Bloomberg, in 2013 Romania ranked fifth in the world, and according to The Independent, it ranks number one in Europe at Internet speeds,[312][313] with Timișoara ranked among the highest in the world.[314]
+
+Tourism is a significant contributor to the Romanian economy, generating around 5% of GDP.[315] The number of tourists has been rising steadily, reaching 9.33 million foreign tourists in 2016, according to the Worldbank.[316] Tourism in Romania attracted €400 million in investments in 2005.[317] More than 60% of the foreign visitors in 2007 were from other EU countries.[318] The popular summer attractions of Mamaia and other Black Sea Resorts attracted 1.3 million tourists in 2009.[319][320]
+
+Most popular skiing resorts are along the Valea Prahovei and in Poiana Brașov. Castles, fortifications, or strongholds as well as preserved medieval Transylvanian cities or towns such as Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Brașov, Bistrița, Mediaș, Cisnădie, or Sighișoara also attract a large number of tourists. Bran Castle, near Brașov, is one of the most famous attractions in Romania, drawing hundreds of thousands of tourists every year as it is often advertised as being Dracula's Castle.[321]
+
+Rural tourism, focusing on folklore and traditions, has become an important alternative,[322] and is targeted to promote such sites as Bran and its Dracula's Castle, the painted churches of northern Moldavia, and the wooden churches of Maramureș, or the villages with fortified churches in Transylvania.[323] Other attractions include the Danube Delta or the Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Brâncuși at Târgu Jiu.[324][325]
+
+In 2014, Romania had 32,500 companies active in the hotel and restaurant industry, with a total turnover of €2.6 billion.[326] More than 1.9 million foreign tourists visited Romania in 2014, 12% more than in 2013.[327] According to the country's National Statistics Institute, some 77% came from Europe (particularly from Germany, Italy, and France), 12% from Asia, and less than 7% from North America.[327]
+
+Historically, Romanian researchers and inventors have made notable contributions to several fields. In the history of flight, Traian Vuia built the first airplane to take off under its own power[328] and Aurel Vlaicu built and flew some of the earliest successful aircraft,[329] while Henri Coandă discovered the Coandă effect of fluidics.[330] Victor Babeș discovered more than 50 types of bacteria;[331] biologist Nicolae Paulescu discovered insulin,[332] while Emil Palade received the Nobel Prize for his contributions to cell biology.[333] Lazăr Edeleanu was the first chemist to synthesise amphetamine, and he also invented the procedure of separating valuable petroleum components with selective solvents.[334]
+
+During the 1990s and 2000s, the development of research was hampered by several factors, including: corruption, low funding, and a considerable brain drain.[335] In recent years, Romania has ranked the lowest or second-lowest in the European Union by research and development spending as a percentage of GDP, standing at roughly 0.5% in 2016 and 2017, substantially below the EU average of just over 2%.[336][337] The country joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2011,[338] and CERN in 2016.[339] In 2018, however, Romania lost its voting rights in the ESA due to a failure to pay €56.8 million  in membership contributions to the agency.[340]
+
+In the early 2010s, the situation for science in Romania was characterised as "rapidly improving" albeit from a low base.[341] In January 2011, Parliament passed a law that enforces "strict quality control on universities and introduces tough rules for funding evaluation and peer review".[342]
+
+The nuclear physics facility of the European Union's proposed Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) laser will be built in Romania.[343] In early 2012, Romania launched its first satellite from the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana.[344] Starting in December 2014, Romania became a co-owner of the International Space Station.[345]
+
+According to the 2011 census, Romania's population is 20,121,641.[3] Like other countries in the region, its population is expected to decline gradually in the coming years as a result of sub-replacement fertility rates and negative net migration rate. In October 2011, Romanians made up 88.9% of the population. The largest ethnic minorities are the Hungarians, 6.1% of the population, and the Roma, 3.0% of the population.[d][346] The Roma minority is usually underestimated in census data and may represent up to 10% of the population.[347] Hungarians constitute a majority in the counties of Harghita and Covasna. Other minorities include Ukrainians, Germans, Turks, Lipovans, Aromanians, Tatars, and Serbs.[348] In 1930, there were 745,421 Germans living in Romania,[349] but only about 36,000 remained in the country to this day.[348] As of 2009[update], there were also approximately 133,000 immigrants living in Romania, primarily from Moldova and China.[221]
+
+The total fertility rate (TFR) in 2018 was estimated at 1.36 children born per woman, which is below the replacement rate of 2.1, and one of the lowest in the world,[350] it remains considerably below the high of 5.82 children born per woman in 1912.[351] In 2014, 31.2% of births were to unmarried women.[352]
+The birth rate (9.49‰, 2012) is much lower than the mortality rate (11.84‰, 2012), resulting in a shrinking (−0.26% per year, 2012) and aging population (median age: 41.6 years, 2018), one of the oldest populations in the world,[350] with approximately 16.8% of total population aged 65 years and over.[350][353][354] The life expectancy in 2015 was estimated at 74.92 years (71.46 years male, 78.59 years female).[355]
+The number of Romanians and individuals with ancestors born in Romania living abroad is estimated at around 12 million.[356] After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, a significant number of Romanians emigrated to other European countries, North America or Australia.[357] For example, in 1990, 96,919 Romanians permanently settled abroad.[358]
+
+The official language is Romanian, a Romance language (the most widely spoken of the Eastern Romance branch), which presents a consistent degree of similarity to Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and Istro-Romanian, but shares many features equally with the rest of the Western Romance languages, specifically Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan.[359] The Romanian alphabet contains the same 26 letters of the standard Latin alphabet, as well as five additional ones (namely 'ă','â','î','ț', and 'ș'), totaling 31.[359]
+
+Romanian is spoken as a first language by approximately 90% of the entire population, while Hungarian and Vlax Romani are spoken by 6.2% and 1.2% of the population, respectively. There are also approximately 50,000 native speakers of Ukrainian (concentrated in some compact regions, near the border where they form local majorities),[360] 25,000 native speakers of German, and 32,000 native speakers of Turkish living in Romania.[361]
+
+According to the Constitution, local councils ensure linguistic rights to all minorities, with localities with ethnic minorities of over 20%, that minority's language can be used in the public administration, justice system, and education. Foreign citizens and stateless persons who live in Romania have access to justice and education in their own language.[362] English and French are the main foreign languages taught in schools.[363] In 2010, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie identified 4,756,100 French speakers in the country.[364] According to the 2012 Eurobarometer, English is spoken by 31% of Romanians, French is spoken by 17%, as well as Italian and German, each by 7%.[365]
+
+Romania is a secular state and has no state religion. An overwhelming majority of the population identify themselves as Christians. At the country's 2011 census, 81.0% of respondents identified as Orthodox Christians belonging to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Other denominations include Protestantism (6.2%), Roman Catholicism (4.3%), and Greek Catholicism (0.8%). From the remaining population, 195,569 people belong to other Christian denominations or have another religion, which includes 64,337 Muslims (mostly of Turkish and Tatar ethnicity) and 3,519 Jewish (Jews once constituted 4% of the Romanian population—728,115 persons in the 1930 census). Moreover, 39,660 people have no religion or are atheist, whilst the religion of the rest is unknown.[4]
+
+The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church in full communion with other Orthodox churches, with a Patriarch as its leader. It is the fourth-largest Orthodox Church in the world,[366] and unlike other Orthodox churches, it functions within a Latin culture and utilises a Romance liturgical language.[367] Its canonical jurisdiction covers the territories of Romania and Moldova.[368]
+
+Although 54.0% of the population lived in urban areas in 2011,[3] this percentage has been declining since 1996.[369] Counties with over ⅔  urban population are Hunedoara, Brașov and Constanța, while those with less than a third are Dâmbovița (30.06%) and Giurgiu and Teleorman.[3] Bucharest is the capital and the largest city in Romania, with a population of over 1.8 million in 2011. Its larger urban zone has a population of almost 2.2 million,[370] which are planned to be included into a metropolitan area up to 20 times the area of the city proper.[371][372][373] Another 19 cities have a population of over 100,000, with Cluj-Napoca and Timișoara of slightly more than 300,000 inhabitants, Iași, Constanța, Craiova, and Brașov with over 250,000 inhabitants, and Galați and Ploiești with over 200,000 inhabitants.[279] Metropolitan areas have been constituted for most of these cities.
+
+Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the Romanian educational system has been in a continuous process of reform that has received mixed criticism.[376] In 2004, some 4.4 million individuals were enrolled in school. Of these, 650,000 were in kindergarten (three-six years), 3.11 million in primary and secondary level, and 650,000 in tertiary level (universities).[377] In 2018, the adult literacy rate was 98.8%.[378] Kindergarten is optional between three and six years. Since 2012, compulsory schooling starts at age 6 with the "preparatory school year" (clasa pregătitoare)[379] and is compulsory until tenth grade.[380] Primary and secondary education is divided into 12 or 13 grades. There is also a semi-legal, informal private tutoring system used mostly during secondary school, which prospered during the Communist regime.[381]
+
+Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, University of Bucharest, and West University of Timișoara have been included in the QS World University Rankings' top 800.[382]
+
+Romania ranks fifth in the all-time medal count at the International Mathematical Olympiad with 316 total medals, dating back to 1959. Ciprian Manolescu managed to write a perfect paper (42 points) for a gold medal more times than anybody else in the history of the competition, in 1995, 1996 and 1997.[383] Romania has achieved the highest team score in the competition, after China Russia the United States and Hungary. Romania also ranks sixth in the all-time medal count at the International Olympiad in Informatics with 107 total medals, dating back to 1989.[384][385][386]
+
+Romania has a universal health care system; total health expenditures by the government are roughly 5% of GDP.[387] It covers medical examinations, any surgical interventions, and any post-operative medical care, and provides free or subsidised medicine for a range of diseases. The state is obliged to fund public hospitals and clinics. The most common causes of death are cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Transmissible diseases are quite common by European standards.[388] In 2010, Romania had 428 state and 25 private hospitals,[389] with 6.2 hospital beds per 1,000 people,[390] and over 200,000 medical staff, including over 52,000 doctors.[391] As of 2013[update], the emigration rate of doctors was 9%, higher than the European average of 2.5%.[392]
+
+The topic of the origin of Romanian culture began to be discussed by the end of the 18th century among the Transylvanian School scholars.[393]
+Several writers rose to prominence in the 19th century, including: George Coșbuc, Ioan Slavici, Mihail Kogălniceanu, Vasile Alecsandri, Nicolae Bălcescu, Ion Luca Caragiale, Ion Creangă, and Mihai Eminescu, the later being considered the greatest and most influential Romanian poet, particularly for the poem Luceafărul.[394]
+
+In the 20th century, a number of Romanian artists and writers achieved international acclaim, including: Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco,[395] Mircea Eliade, Nicolae Grigorescu, Marin Preda, Liviu Rebreanu,[396] Eugène Ionesco, Emil Cioran, and Constantin Brâncuși. Brâncuși has a sculptural ensemble in Târgu Jiu, while his sculpture Bird in Space, was auctioned in 2005 for $27.5 million.[397][398] Romanian-born Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, while Banat Swabian writer Herta Müller received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature.[399]
+
+Prominent Romanian painters include: Nicolae Grigorescu, Ștefan Luchian, Ion Andreescu Nicolae Tonitza and Theodor Aman. Notable Romanian classical composers of the 19th and 20th centuries include: Ciprian Porumbescu, Anton Pann, Eduard Caudella, Mihail Jora, Dinu Lipatti and especially George Enescu. The annual George Enescu Festival is held in Bucharest in honour of the 20th-century composer.[400]
+
+Contemporary musicians like Angela Gheorghiu, Gheorghe Zamfir,[401][402] Inna,[403] Alexandra Stan[404] and many others have achieved various levels of international acclaim. At the Eurovision Song Contest Romanian singers achieved third place in 2005 and 2010.[405]
+
+In cinema, several movies of the Romanian New Wave have achieved international acclaim. At the Cannes Film Festival, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu by Cristi Puiu won the Prix Un Certain Regard in 2005,[406] while 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu won the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, in 2007.[407] At the Berlin International Film Festival, Child's Pose by Călin Peter Netzer won the Golden Bear in 2013.[408]
+
+The list of World Heritage Sites includes six cultural sites located within Romania, including eight painted churches of northern Moldavia, eight wooden churches of Maramureș, seven villages with fortified churches in Transylvania, the Horezu Monastery, and the Historic Centre of Sighișoara.[409] The city of Sibiu, with its Brukenthal National Museum, was selected as the 2007 European Capital of Culture.[410] Multiple castles exist in Romania, including the popular tourist attractions of Peleș Castle,[411] Corvin Castle, and Bran Castle or "Dracula's Castle".[412]
+
+There are 12 non-working public holidays, including the Great Union Day, celebrated on 1 December in commemoration of the 1918 union of Transylvania with Romania.[413] Winter holidays include the Christmas and New Year festivities during which various unique folklore dances and games are common: plugușorul, sorcova, ursul, and capra.[414][415] The traditional Romanian dress that otherwise has largely fallen out of use during the 20th century, is a popular ceremonial vestment worn on these festivities, especially in rural areas.[416] There are sacrifices of live pigs during Christmas and lambs during Easter that has required a special exemption from EU law after 2007.[417] In the Easter, traditions such as painting the eggs are very common. On 1 March features mărțișor gifting, which is a tradition that females are gifted with a type of talisman that is given for good luck.[418]
+
+Romanian cuisine has been influenced by Austrian and German cuisine (especially in the historical regions that had been formerly administered by the Habsburg Monarchy), but also shares some similarities with other cuisines in the Balkan region such as the Greek, Bulgarian, or Serbian cuisine.[419] Ciorbă includes a wide range of sour soups, while mititei, mămăligă (similar to polenta), and sarmale are featured commonly in main courses.[420]
+
+Pork, chicken, and beef are the preferred types of meat, but lamb and fish are also quite popular.[421][422] Certain traditional recipes are made in direct connection with the holidays: chiftele, tobă and tochitura at Christmas; drob, pască and cozonac at Easter and other Romanian holidays.[423] Țuică is a strong plum brandy reaching a 70% alcohol content which is the country's traditional alcoholic beverage, taking as much as 75% of the national crop (Romania is one of the largest plum producers in the world).[424][425] Traditional alcoholic beverages also include wine, rachiu, palincă and vișinată, but beer consumption has increased dramatically over recent years.[426]
+
+Football is the most popular sport in Romania with over 219,000 registered players as of 2018[update]. The market for professional football in Romania is roughly €740 million according to UEFA.[427]
+
+The governing body is the Romanian Football Federation, which belongs to UEFA. The Romania national football team played its first match in 1922 and is one of only four national teams to have taken part in the first three FIFA World Cups, the other three being Brazil, France, and Belgium. Overall, it has played in seven World Cups and had its most successful period during the 1990s, when it reached the quarterfinals of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, eventually being ranked third by FIFA in 1997.[428]
+
+The core player of this golden generation was Gheorghe Hagi, who was nicknamed "Maradona of the Carpathians".[429] Other successful players include the European Golden Shoe winners: Dudu Georgescu, Dorin Mateuț and Rodion Cămătaru, Nicolae Dobrin,[430] Ilie Balaci,[431] Florea Dumitrache,[432] Mihai Mocanu,[433] Michael Klein,[434] Mircea Rednic,[434] Cornel Dinu,[432] Mircea Lucescu,[435] Costică Ștefănescu,[436] Liță Dumitru,[437] Lajos Sătmăreanu,[438] Ștefan Sameș,[439] Ladislau Bölöni,[440] Anghel Iordănescu,[441] Miodrag Belodedici,[442] Helmuth Duckadam,[443] Marius Lăcătuș,[434] Victor Pițurcă[444] and many others, and most recently Gheorghe Popescu,[445] Florin Răducioiu,[446] Dorinel Munteanu,[447] Dan Petrescu,[448] Adrian Mutu,[449] Cristian Chivu,[449] or Cosmin Contra.[449] Romania's home ground is the Arena Națională in Bucharest.
+
+The most successful club is Steaua București, who were the first Eastern European team to win the Champions League in 1986, and were runners-up in 1989.[450] They were also Europa League semi-finalists in 2006.[451] Dinamo București reached the Champions League semi-final in 1984 and the Cup Winners' Cup semi-final in 1990.[452] Other important Romanian football clubs are Rapid București,[453] UTA Arad,[454] Universitatea Craiova,[455] Petrolul Ploiești,[456] CFR Cluj,[457] Astra Giurgiu,[458] and Viitorul Constanța.[459]
+
+Tennis is the second most popular sport.[460] Romania reached the Davis Cup finals three times  in 1969, 1971 and 1972.[461] In singles, Ilie Năstase was the first year-end World Number 1 in the ATP Rankings in 1973, winning several Grand Slam titles. Also Virginia Ruzici won the French Open in 1978, and was runner-up in 1980, Simona Halep won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019 after losing her first three Grand Slam finals. She has ended 2017 and 2018 as WTA's World Number 1. And in doubles Horia Tecău won three Grand Slams and the ATP Finals final. He was World Number 2 in 2015.[462]
+
+The second most popular team sport is handball.[460] The men's team won the handball world championship in 1961, 1964, 1970, 1974 making them the third most successful nation ever in the tournament. The women's team won the world championship in 1962 and have enjoyed more success than their male counterparts in recent years. In the club competition Romanian teams have won the EHF Champions League a total of three times, Steaua București won in 1968 as well as 1977 and Dinamo București won in 1965. The most notable players include Ștefan Birtalan, Vasile Stîngă (all time top scorer in the national team) and Gheorghe Gruia who was named the best player ever in 1992[463] . In present day Cristina Neagu is the most notable player and has a record four IHF World Player of the Year awards.[464]
+
+Young people prefer basketball almost as much as they prefer association football.[465] Gheorge Muresan has been a prominent basketball player as he gained popularity off the court as well as on the court. Yet, the Romanian national basketball team has had only modest success.
+
+Popular individual sports include combat sports,[460] martial arts,[460] and swimming.[460] In professional boxing, Romania has produced many world champions across the weight divisions internationally recognised by governing bodies. World champions include Lucian Bute, Leonard Dorin Doroftei, Adrian Diaconu, and Michael Loewe.[466] Another popular combat sport is professional kickboxing, which has produced prominent practitioners including Daniel Ghiță,[467] and Benjamin Adegbuyi.[468]
+
+Almost a quarter of all the medals and 25 of the gold ones were won in gymnastics,[469] with Olympic and sport icon Nadia Comăneci becoming the first gymnast ever to score a perfect ten in an Olympic event at the 1976 Summer Olympics.[470]
+Romanian competitors have won gold medals in other Olympic sports: rowing, athletics, canoeing, wrestling, shooting, fencing, swimming, weightlifting, boxing, and judo.[471]
+

en/5188.html.txt

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+A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places that has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by foot or by some form of conveyance (including a motor vehicle, cart, bicycle, or horse).
+
+Roads consist of one or two roadways (British English: carriageways), each with one or more lanes and any associated sidewalks (British English: pavement) and road verges. A bike path - a road for use by bicycles - may or may not parallel other roads.
+
+Other names for a road include: parkway; avenue; freeway, motorway or expressway; tollway; interstate; highway; thoroughfare; or primary, secondary, and tertiary local road.
+
+Historically many roads were simply recognizable routes without any formal construction or maintenance.[1]
+
+The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines a road as "a line of communication (travelled way) using a stabilized base other than rails or air strips open to public traffic, primarily for the use of road motor vehicles running on their own wheels", which includes "bridges, tunnels, supporting structures, junctions, crossings, interchanges, and toll roads, but not cycle paths".[2]
+
+The Eurostat, ITF and UNECE Glossary for Transport Statistics Illustrated defines a road as a "Line of communication (travelled way) open to public traffic, primarily for the use of road motor vehicles, using a stabilized base other than rails or air strips. [...] Included are paved roads and other roads with a stabilized base, e.g. gravel roads. Roads also cover streets, bridges, tunnels, supporting structures, junctions, crossings and interchanges. Toll roads are also included. Excluded are dedicated cycle lanes."[3]
+
+The 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic defines a road as the entire surface of any way or street open to public traffic.[4]
+
+In urban areas roads may diverge through a city or village and be named as streets, serving a dual function as urban space easement and route.[5] Modern roads are normally smoothed, paved, or otherwise prepared to allow easy travel.[6]
+
+Part 2, Division 1, clauses 11-13 of the National Transport Commission Road Transport Legislation 2006 defines a road in Australia as 'an area that is open to or used by the public and is developed for, or has as one of its main uses, the driving or riding of motor vehicles.'[7]
+
+Further, it defines a shoulder (typical an area of the road outside the edge line, or the kerb) and a road-related area which includes green areas separating roads, areas designated for cyclists and areas generally accessible to the public for driving, riding or parking vehicles.
+
+In New Zealand, the definition of a road is broad in common law[8] where the statutory definition includes areas the public has access to, by right or not.[9] Beaches, publicly accessible car parks and yards (even if privately owned), river beds, road shoulders (verges), wharves and bridges are included.[10] However, the definition of a road for insurance purposes may be restricted to reduce risk.
+
+In the United Kingdom The Highway Code details rules for "road users", but there is some ambiguity between the terms highway and road.[11] For the purposes of the English law, Highways Act 1980, which covers England and Wales but not Scotland or Northern Ireland, road is "any length of highway or of any other road to which the public has access, and includes bridges over which a road passes".[12] This includes footpaths, bridleways and cycle tracks, and also road and driveways on private land and many car parks.[13] Vehicle Excise Duty, a road use tax, is payable on some vehicles used on the public road.[13]
+
+The definition of a road depends on the definition of a highway; there is no formal definition for a highway in the relevant Act. A 1984 ruling said "the land over which a public right of way exists is known as a highway; and although most highways have been made up into roads, and most easements of way exist over footpaths, the presence or absence of a made road has nothing to do with the distinction.[14][15] Another legal view is that while a highway historically included footpaths, bridleways, driftways, etc., it can now be used to mean those ways that allow the movement of motor vehicles, and the term rights of way can be used to cover the wider usage.[16]
+
+In the United States, laws distinguish between public roads, which are open to public use, and private roads, which are privately controlled.[17]
+
+Maintenance is becoming an increasing problem in the United States. Between 1997 and 2018, the percentage of existing roads that are too bumpy to drive on compared to roads with decent surfaces increased from 10 to 21 percent.[18]
+
+The assertion that the first pathways were the trails made by animals has not been universally accepted; in many cases animals do not follow constant paths.[1] Some believe that some roads originated from following animal trails.[20][21] The Icknield Way may examplify this type of road origination, where human and animal both selected the same natural line.[22] By about 10,000 BC human travelers used rough roads/pathways.[1]
+
+Road design is part of highway engineering. Structural road design is designing a road for its environment in order to extend its longevity and reduce maintenance. The Shell pavement design method is used in many countries for the design of new asphalt roadsides.
+
+In transport engineering, subgrade is the native material underneath a constructed road
+
+Road construction requires the creation of an engineered continuous right-of-way or roadbed, overcoming geographic obstacles and having grades low enough to permit vehicle or foot travel,[39]:15 and may be required to meet standards set by law[40] or official guidelines.[41] The process is often begun with the removal of earth and rock by digging or blasting, construction of embankments, bridges and tunnels, and removal of vegetation (this may involve deforestation) and followed by the laying of pavement material. A variety of road building equipment is employed in road building.[42][43]
+
+After design, approval, planning, legal and environmental considerations have been addressed alignment of the road is set out by a surveyor.[33] The radii and gradient are designed and staked out to best suit the natural ground levels and minimize the amount of cut and fill.[41]:34 Great care is taken to preserve reference Benchmarks[41]:59
+
+Roads are designed and built for primary use by vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Storm drainage and environmental considerations are a major concern. Erosion and sediment controls are constructed to prevent detrimental effects. Drainage lines are laid with sealed joints in the road easement with runoff coefficients and characteristics adequate for the land zoning and storm water system. Drainage systems must be capable of carrying the ultimate design flow from the upstream catchment with approval for the outfall from the appropriate authority to a watercourse, creek, river or the sea for drainage discharge.[41]:38–40
+
+A borrow pit (source for obtaining fill, gravel, and rock) and a water source should be located near or in reasonable distance to the road construction site. Approval from local authorities may be required to draw water or for working (crushing and screening) of materials for construction needs. The topsoil and vegetation is removed from the borrow pit and stockpiled for subsequent rehabilitation of the extraction area. Side slopes in the excavation area not steeper than one vertical to two horizontal for safety reasons.[41]:53–56
+
+Old road surfaces, fences, and buildings may need to be removed before construction can begin. Trees in the road construction area may be marked for retention. These protected trees should not have the topsoil within the area of the tree's drip line removed and the area should be kept clear of construction material and equipment. Compensation or replacement may be required if a protected tree is damaged. Much of the vegetation may be mulched and put aside for use during reinstatement. The topsoil is usually stripped and stockpiled nearby for rehabilitation of newly constructed embankments along the road. Stumps and roots are removed and holes filled as required before the earthwork begins. Final rehabilitation after road construction is completed will include seeding, planting, watering and other activities to reinstate the area to be consistent with the untouched surrounding areas.[41]:66–67
+
+Processes during earthwork include excavation, removal of material to spoil, filling, compacting, construction and trimming. If rock or other unsuitable material is discovered it is removed, moisture content is managed and replaced with standard fill compacted to meet the design requirements (generally 90–95% relative compaction). Blasting is not frequently used to excavate the roadbed as the intact rock structure forms an ideal road base. When a depression must be filled to come up to the road grade the native bed is compacted after the topsoil has been removed. The fill is made by the "compacted layer method" where a layer of fill is spread then compacted to specifications, under saturated conditions. The process is repeated until the desired grade is reached.[41]:68–69
+
+General fill material should be free of organics, meet minimum California bearing ratio (CBR) results and have a low plasticity index. The lower fill generally comprises sand or a sand-rich mixture with fine gravel, which acts as an inhibitor to the growth of plants or other vegetable matter. The compacted fill also serves as lower-stratum drainage. Select second fill (sieved) should be composed of gravel, decomposed rock or broken rock below a specified particle size and be free of large lumps of clay. Sand clay fill may also be used. The roadbed must be "proof rolled" after each layer of fill is compacted. If a roller passes over an area without creating visible deformation or spring the section is deemed to comply.[41]:70–72
+
+Geosynthetics such as geotextiles, geogrids and geocells are frequently used in the various pavement layers to improve road quality. These materials and methods are used in low-traffic private roadways as well as public roads and highways.[44] Geosynthetics perform four main functions in roads: separation, reinforcement, filtration and drainage; which increase the pavement performance, reduce construction costs and decrease maintenance.[45][self-published source]
+
+The completed roadway is finished by paving or left with a gravel or other natural surface. The type of road surface is dependent on economic factors and expected usage. Safety improvements such as traffic signs, crash barriers, raised pavement markers and other forms of road surface marking are installed.
+
+According to a May 2009 report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and TRIP – a national transportation research organization – driving on rough roads costs the average American motorist approximately $400 a year in extra vehicle operating costs. Drivers living in urban areas with populations more than 250,000 are paying upwards of $750 more annually because of accelerated vehicle deterioration, increased maintenance, additional fuel consumption, and tire wear caused by poor road conditions.
+
+When a single carriageway road is converted into dual carriageway by building a second separate carriageway alongside the first, it is usually referred to as duplication,[46] twinning or doubling. The original carriageway is changed from two-way to become one-way, while the new carriageway is one-way in the opposite direction. In the same way as converting railway lines from single track to double track, the new carriageway is not always constructed directly alongside the existing carriageway.
+
+Like all structures, roads deteriorate over time. Deterioration is primarily due to accumulated damage from vehicles, however environmental effects such as frost heaves, thermal cracking and oxidation often contribute.[47] According to a series of experiments carried out in the late 1950s, called the AASHO Road Test, it was empirically determined that the effective damage done to the road is roughly proportional to the Fourth power of axle weight.[48] A typical tractor-trailer weighing 80,000 pounds (36.287 t) with 8,000 pounds (3.629 t) on the steer axle and 36,000 pounds (16.329 t) on both of the tandem axle groups is expected to do 7,800 times more damage than a passenger vehicle with 2,000 pounds (0.907 t) on each axle. Potholes on roads are caused by rain damage and vehicle braking or related construction works.
+
+Pavements are designed for an expected service life or design life. In some parts of the United Kingdom the standard design life is 40 years for new bitumen and concrete pavement. Maintenance is considered in the whole life cost of the road with service at 10, 20 and 30 year milestones.[49] Roads can be and are designed for a variety of lives (8-, 15-, 30-, and 60-year designs). When pavement lasts longer than its intended life, it may have been overbuilt, and the original costs may have been too high. When a pavement fails before its intended design life, the owner may have excessive repair and rehabilitation costs. Some asphalt pavements are designed as perpetual pavements with an expected structural life in excess of 50 years.[50]
+
+Many asphalt pavements built over 35 years ago, despite not being specifically designed as a perpetual pavement, have remained in good condition long past their design life.[51] Many concrete pavements built since the 1950s have significantly outlived their intended design lives.[52] Some roads like Chicago, Illinois's "Wacker Drive", a major two-level viaduct in the downtown area, are being rebuilt with a designed service life of 100 years.[53]
+
+Virtually all roads require some form of maintenance before they come to the end of their service life. Pro-active agencies use pavement management techniques to continually monitor road conditions and schedule preventive maintenance treatments as needed to prolong the lifespan of their roads. Technically advanced agencies monitor the road network surface condition with sophisticated equipment such as laser/inertial Profilometers. These measurements include road curvature, cross slope, asperity, roughness, rutting and texture. Software algorithms use this data to recommend maintenance or new construction.
+
+Maintenance treatments for asphalt concrete generally include thin asphalt overlays, crack sealing, surface rejuvenating, fog sealingfo, micro milling or diamond grinding and surface treatments. Thin surfacing preserves, protects and improves the functional condition of the road while reducing the need for routing maintenance, leading to extended service life without increasing structural capacity.[54]
+
+Older concrete pavements that develop faults can be repaired with a dowel bar retrofit, in which slots are cut in the pavement at each joint, and dowel bars are placed in the slots, which are then filled with concrete patching material. This can extend the life of the concrete pavement for 15 years.[55]
+
+Failure to maintain roads properly can create significant costs to society, in a 2009 report released by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (US) about 50% of the roads in the US are in bad condition with urban areas worse. The report estimates that urban drivers pay an average of $746/year on vehicle repairs while the average US motorist pays about $335/year. In contrast, the average motorist pays about $171/year in road maintenance taxes (based on 600 gallons/year and $0.285/gallon tax).
+
+Distress and serviceability loss on concrete roads can be caused by loss of support due to voids beneath the concrete pavement slabs. The voids usually occur near cracks or joints due to surface water infiltration. The most common causes of voids are pumping, consolidation, subgrade failure and bridge approach failure. Slab stabilization is a non-destructive method of solving this problem and is usually employed with other Concrete Pavement Restoration (CPR) methods including patching and diamond grinding. The technique restores support to concrete slabs by filing small voids that develop underneath the concrete slab at joints, cracks or the pavement edge.
+
+The process consists of pumping a cementitious grout or polyurethane mixture through holes drilled through the slab. The grout can fill small voids beneath the slab and/or sub-base. The grout also displaces free water and helps keep water from saturating and weakening support under the joints and slab edge after stabilization is complete. The three steps for this method after finding the voids are locating and drilling holes, grout injection and post-testing the stabilized slabs.
+
+Slab stabilization does not correct depressions, increase the design structural capacity, stop erosion or eliminate faulting. It does, however, restore the slab support, therefore, decreasing deflections under the load. Stabilization should only be performed at joints and cracks where loss of support exists. Visual inspection is the simplest manner to find voids. Signs that repair is needed are transverse joint faulting, corner breaks and shoulder drop off and lines at or near joints and cracks. Deflection testing is another common procedure utilized to locate voids. It is recommended to do this testing at night as during cooler temperatures, joints open, aggregate interlock diminishes and load deflections are at their highest.
+
+Ground penetrating radar pulses electromagnetic waves into the pavement and measures and graphically displays the reflected signal. This can reveal voids and other defects.
+
+The epoxy/core test, detects voids by visual and mechanical methods. It consists of drilling a 25 to 50 millimeter hole through the pavement into the sub-base with a dry-bit roto-hammer. Next, a two-part epoxy is poured into the hole – dyed for visual clarity. Once the epoxy hardens, technicians drill through the hole. If a void is present, the epoxy will stick to the core and provide physical evidence.
+
+Common stabilization materials include pozzolan-cement grout and polyurethane. The requirements for slab stabilization are strength and the ability to flow into or expand to fill small voids. Colloidal mixing equipment is necessary to use the pozzolan-cement grouts. The contractor must place the grout using a positive-displacement injection pump or a non-pulsing progressive cavity pump. A drill is also necessary but it must produce a clean hole with no surface spalling or breakouts. The injection devices must include a grout packer capable of sealing the hole. The injection device must also have a return hose or a fast-control reverse switch, in case workers detect slab movement on the uplift gauge. The uplift beam helps to monitor the slab deflection and has to have sensitive dial gauges.[56][57]
+
+Also called joint and crack repair, this method's purpose is to minimize infiltration of surface water and incompressible material into the joint system. Joint sealants are also used to reduce dowel bar corrosion in Concrete Pavement Restoration (CPR) techniques. Successful resealing consists of old sealant removal, shaping and cleaning the reservoir, installing the backer rod and installing the sealant. Sawing, manual removal, plowing and cutting are methods used to remove the old sealant. Saws are used to shape the reservoir. When cleaning the reservoir, no dust, dirt or traces of old sealant should remain. Thus, it is recommended to water wash, sand-blast and then air blow to remove any sand, dirt or dust. The backer rod installation requires a double-wheeled, steel roller to insert the rod to the desired depth. After inserting the backer rod, the sealant is placed into the joint. There are various materials to choose for this method including hot pour bituminous liquid, silicone and preformed compression seals.[56][58][59][60]
+
+Careful design and construction of roads can increase road traffic safety and reduce the harm (deaths, injuries, and property damage) on the highway system from traffic collisions.
+
+On neighborhood roads traffic calming, safety barriers, pedestrian crossings and cycle lanes can help protect pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers.
+
+Lane markers in some countries and states are marked with Cat's eyes or Botts dots, (bright reflectors that do not fade like paint). Botts dots are not used where it is icy in the winter, because frost and snowplows can break the glue that holds them to the road, although they can be embedded in short, shallow trenches carved in the roadway, as is done in the mountainous regions of California.
+
+For major roads risk can be reduced by providing limited access from properties and local roads, grade separated junctions and median dividers between opposite-direction traffic to reduce the likelihood of head-on collisions.
+
+The placement of energy attenuation devices (e.g. guardrails, wide grassy areas, sand barrels) is also common. Some road fixtures such as road signs and fire hydrants are designed to collapse on impact. Light poles are designed to break at the base rather than violently stop a car that hits them. Highway authorities may also remove larger trees from the immediate vicinity of the road. During heavy rains, if the elevation of the road surface isn't higher than the surrounding landscape, it may result in flooding.[61]
+
+Speed limits can improve road traffic safety and reduce the number of road traffic casualties from traffic collisions. In their World report on road traffic injury prevention report, the World Health Organization (WHO) identify speed control as one of various interventions likely to contribute to a reduction in road casualties.
+
+Road conditions are the collection of factors describing the ease of driving on a particular stretch of road, or on the roads of a particular locality, including the quality of the pavement surface, potholes, road markings, and weather. It has been reported that "[p]roblems of transportation participants and road conditions are the main factors that lead to road traffic accidents".[62] It has further been specifically noted that "weather conditions and road conditions are interlinked as weather conditions affect the road conditions".[63] Specific aspects of road conditions can be of particular importance for particular purposes. For example, for autonomous vehicles such as self-driving cars, significant road conditions can include "shadowing and lighting changes, road surface texture changes, and road markings consisting of circular reflectors, dashed lines, and solid lines".[64]
+
+Various government agencies and private entities, including local news services, track and report on road conditions to the public so that drivers going through a particular area can be aware of hazards that may exist in that area. News agencies, in turn, rely on tips from area residents with respect to certain aspects of road conditions in their coverage area.[65]
+
+Careful design and construction of a road can reduce any negative environmental impacts.
+
+Water management systems can be used to reduce the effect of pollutants from roads.[66][67] Rainwater and snowmelt running off of roads tends to pick up gasoline, motor oil, heavy metals, trash and other pollutants and result in water pollution. Road runoff is a major source of nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are created as combustion byproducts of gasoline and other fossil fuels.[68]
+
+De-icing chemicals and sand can run off into roadsides, contaminate groundwater and pollute surface waters;[69] and road salts can be toxic to sensitive plants and animals.[70] Sand applied to icy roads can be ground up by traffic into fine particulates and contribute to air pollution.
+
+Roads are a chief source of noise pollution. In the early 1970s, it was recognized[by whom?] that design of roads can be conducted to influence and minimize noise generation.[71] Noise barriers can reduce noise pollution near built-up areas. Regulations can restrict the use of engine braking.
+
+Motor vehicle emissions contribute air pollution. Concentrations of air pollutants and adverse respiratory health effects are greater near the road than at some distance away from the road.[72] Road dust kicked up by vehicles may trigger allergic reactions.[73] In addition, on-road transportation greenhouse gas emissions are the largest single cause of climate change, scientists say.[74]
+
+Traffic flows on the right or on the left side of the road depending on the country.[75] In countries where traffic flows on the right, traffic signs are mostly on the right side of the road, roundabouts and traffic circles go counter-clockwise/anti-clockwise, and pedestrians crossing a two-way road should watch out for traffic from the left first.[76] In countries where traffic flows on the left, the reverse is true.
+
+About 33% of the world by population drive on the left, and 67% keep right. By road distances, about 28% drive on the left, and 72% on the right,[77] even though originally most traffic drove on the left worldwide.[78]
+
+Transport economics is used to understand both the relationship between the transport system and the wider economy and the complex network effects when there are multiple paths and competing modes for both personal and freight (road/rail/air/ferry) and where Induced demand can result in increased on decreased transport levels when road provision is increased by building new roads or decreased (for example California State Route 480). Roads are generally built and maintained by the public sector using taxation although implementation may be through private contractors).[79][80] or occasionally using road tolls.[81]
+
+Public-private partnerships are a way for communities to address the rising cost by injecting private funds into the infrastructure. There are four main ones:[82]
+
+Society depends heavily on efficient roads. In the European Union (EU) 44% of all goods are moved by trucks over roads and 85% of all people are transported by cars, buses or coaches on roads.[83] The term was also commonly used to refer to roadsteads, waterways that lent themselves to use by shipping.
+
+According to the New York State Thruway Authority,[84] some sample per-mile costs to construct multi-lane roads in several US northeastern states were:
+
+The United States has the largest network of roads of any country with 4,050,717 miles (6,518,997 km) as of 2009.[85] The Republic of India has the second largest road system in the world with 4,689,842 kilometres (2,914,133 mi) of road (2013).[86] The People's Republic of China is third with 3,583,715 kilometres (2,226,817 mi) of road (2007). The Federative Republic of Brazil has the fourth largest road system in the world with 1,751,868 kilometres (1,088,560 mi) (2002). See List of countries by road network size. When looking only at expressways the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS) in China has a total length of 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi) at the end of 2006, and 60,300 km at the end of 2008, second only to the United States with 90,000 kilometres (56,000 mi) in 2005. However, as of 2017 China has 130,000 km of Expressways.[87][88]
+
+Eurasia, Africa, North America, South America, and Australia each have an extensive road network that connects most cities.
+The North and South American road networks are separated by the Darién Gap, the only interruption in the Pan-American Highway. Eurasia and Africa are connected by roads on the Sinai Peninsula. The European Peninsula is connected to the Scandinavian Peninsula by the Øresund Bridge, and both have many connections to the mainland of Eurasia, including the bridges over the Bosphorus. Antarctica has very few roads and no continent-bridging network, though there are a few ice roads between bases, such as the South Pole Traverse. Bahrain is the only island country to be connected to a continental network by road (the King Fahd Causeway to Saudi Arabia). Even well-connected road networks are controlled by many different legal jurisdictions, and laws such as which side of the road to drive on vary accordingly.
+
+Many populated domestic islands are connected to the mainland by bridges. A very long example is the 113 mi (182 km) Overseas Highway connecting many of the Florida Keys with the continental United States.
+
+Even on mainlands, some settlements have no roads connecting with the primary continental network, due to natural obstacles like mountains or wetlands, remoteness, or general expense. Unpaved roads or lack of roads are more common in developing countries, and these can become impassible in wet conditions. As of 2014, only 43% of rural Africans have access to an all-season road.[89] Due to steepness, mud, snow, or fords, roads can sometimes be passable only to four-wheel drive vehicles, those with snow chains or snow tires, or those capable of deep wading or amphibious operation.
+
+Cities on the mainland of continents which do not have road access include:
+
+Most disconnected settlements have local road networks connecting ports, buildings, and other points of interest.
+
+Where demand for travel by road vehicle to a disconnected island or mainland settlement is high, roll-on/roll-off ferries are commonly available if the journey is relatively short. For long-distance trips, passengers usually travel by air and rent a car upon arrival. If facilities are available, vehicles and cargo can also be shipped to many disconnected settlements by boat, or air transport at much greater expense. The island of Great Britain is connected to the European road network by Eurotunnel Shuttle – an example of a car shuttle train which is a service used in other parts of Europe to travel under mountains and over wetlands.
+
+In polar areas, disconnected settlements are often more easily reached by snowmobile or dogsled in cold weather, which can produce sea ice that blocks ports, and bad weather that prevents flying. For example, resupply aircraft are only flown to Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station October to February, and many residents of coastal Alaska have bulk cargo shipped in only during the warmer months. Permanent darkness during the winter can also make long-distance travel more dangerous in polar areas. Continental road networks do reach into these areas, such as the Dalton Highway to the North Slope of Alaska, the R21 highway to Murmansk in Russia, and many roads in Scandinavia (though due to fjords water transport is sometimes faster). Large areas of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia are sparsely connected. For example, all 25 communities of Nunavut are disconnected from each other and the main North American road network.[90]
+
+Road transport of people and cargo by may also be obstructed by border controls and travel restrictions. For example, travel from other parts of Asia to South Korea would require passage through the hostile country of North Korea. Moving between most countries in Africa and Eurasia would require passing through Egypt and Israel, which is a politically sensitive area.
+
+Some places are intentionally car-free, and roads (if present) might be used by bicycles or pedestrians.
+
+Roads are under construction to many remote places, such as the villages of the Annapurna Circuit, and a road was completed in 2013 to Mêdog County. Additional intercontinental and transoceanic fixed links have been proposed, including a Bering Strait crossing that would connect Eurasia-Africa and North America, a Malacca Strait Bridge to the largest island of Indonesia from Asia, and a Strait of Gibraltar crossing to connect Europe and Africa directly.

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+
+Jordan (Arabic: الأردن‎; tr. Al-ʾUrdunn [al.ʔur.dunː]), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Arabic: المملكة الأردنية الهاشمية‎; tr. Al-Mamlakah al-’Urdunniyyah Al-Hāshimiyyah), is an Arab country in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and the east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and Israel and  Palestine  to the west. The Dead Sea is located along its western borders and the country has a 26-kilometre (16 mi) coastline on the Red Sea in its extreme south-west.[7] Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe.[8] The capital, Amman, is Jordan's most populous city as well as the country's economic, political and cultural centre.[9]
+
+What is now Jordan has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period. Three stable kingdoms emerged there at the end of the Bronze Age: Ammon, Moab and Edom. Later rulers include the Nabataean Kingdom, the Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. After the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in 1916 during World War I, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned by Britain and France. The Emirate of Transjordan was established in 1921 by the Hashemite, then Emir, Abdullah I, and the emirate became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan became an independent state officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan, but was renamed in 1949 to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan after the country captured the West Bank during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and annexed it until it was lost to Israel in 1967. Jordan renounced its claim to the territory in 1988, and became one of two Arab states to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.[10] Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation. The sovereign state is a constitutional monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers.
+
+Jordan is a relatively small, semi-arid, almost landlocked country with an area of 89,342 km2 (34,495 sq mi) and a population numbering 10 million, making it the 11th-most populous Arab country. Sunni Islam, practiced by around 95% of the population, is the dominant religion and coexists with an indigenous Christian minority. Jordan has been repeatedly referred to as an "oasis of stability" in a turbulent region. It has been mostly unscathed by the violence that swept the region following the Arab Spring in 2010.[11] From as early as 1948, Jordan has accepted refugees from multiple neighbouring countries in conflict. An estimated 2.1 million Palestinian and 1.4 million Syrian refugees are present in Jordan as of a 2015 census.[3] The kingdom is also a refuge to thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution by ISIL.[12] While Jordan continues to accept refugees, the recent large influx from Syria placed substantial strain on national resources and infrastructure.[13]
+
+Jordan is classified as a country of "high human development" with an "upper middle income" economy. The Jordanian economy, one of the smallest economies in the region, is attractive to foreign investors based upon a skilled workforce.[14] The country is a major tourist destination, also attracting medical tourism due to its well developed health sector.[15] Nonetheless, a lack of natural resources, large flow of refugees and regional turmoil have hampered economic growth.[16]
+
+Jordan takes its name from the Jordan River which forms much of the country's northwestern border.[17]  While several theories for the origin of the river's name have been proposed, it is most plausible that it derives from the Semitic word Yarad, meaning "the descender", reflecting the river's declivity.[18] Much of the area that makes up modern Jordan was historically called Transjordan, meaning "across the Jordan", used to denote the lands east of the river.[18] The Old Testament refers to the area as "the other side of the Jordan".[18] Early Arab chronicles referred to the river as Al-Urdunn, corresponding to the Semitic Yarden.[19] Jund Al-Urdunn was a military district around the river in the early Islamic era.[19] Later, during the Crusades in the beginning of the second millennium, a lordship was established in the area under the name of Oultrejordain.[20]
+
+The oldest evidence of hominid habitation in Jordan dates back at least 200,000 years.[21] Jordan is rich in Paleolithic (up to 20,000 years ago) remains due to its location within the Levant where expansions of hominids out of Africa converged.[22] Past lakeshore environments attracted different hominids, and several remains of tools have been found from this period.[22] The world's oldest evidence of bread-making was found in a 14,500 years old Natufian site in Jordan's northeastern desert.[23] The transition from hunter-gatherer to establishing populous agricultural villages occurred during the Neolithic period (10,000–4,500 BC).[24] 'Ain Ghazal, one such village located in today's eastern Amman, is one of the largest known prehistoric settlements in the Near East.[25] Dozens of plaster statues of the human form dating to 7250 BC or earlier were uncovered there and they are among the oldest ever found.[26] Other than the usual Chalcolithic (4500–3600 BC) villages such as Tulaylet Ghassul in the Jordan Valley,[27] a series of circular stone enclosures in the eastern basalt desert−whose purpose remains uncertain–have baffled archaeologists.[28]
+
+Fortified towns and urban centers first emerged in the southern Levant early on in the Bronze Age (3600–1200 BC).[29] Wadi Feynan became a regional center for copper extraction, which was exploited on a large-scale to produce bronze.[30] Trade and movement of people in the Middle East peaked, spreading and refining civilizations.[31] Villages in Transjordan expanded rapidly in areas with reliable water resources and agricultural land.[31] Ancient Egyptians expanded towards the Levant and controlled both banks of the Jordan River.[32] During the Iron Age (1200–332 BC) after the withdrawal of the Egyptians, Transjordan was home to Ammon, Edom and Moab.[33] They spoke Semitic languages of the Canaanite group, and are considered to be tribal kingdoms rather than states.[33] Ammon was located in the Amman plateau; Moab in the highlands east of the Dead Sea; and Edom in the area around Wadi Araba down south.[33]
+
+The Transjordanian kingdoms of Ammon, Edom and Moab were in continuous conflict with the neighbouring Hebrew kingdoms of Israel and Judah, centered west of the Jordan River.[34] One record of this is the Mesha Stele erected by the Moabite king Mesha in 840 BC on which he lauds himself for the building projects that he initiated in Moab and commemorates his glory and victory against the Israelites.[35] The stele constitutes one of the most important direct accounts of Biblical history.[36] Around 700 BC, the kingdoms benefited from trade between Syria and Arabia when the Assyrian Empire increasingly controlled the Levant.[37] Babylonians took over the empire after its disintegration in 627 BC.[37] Although the kingdoms supported the Babylonians against Judah in the 597 BC sack of Jerusalem, they rebelled against them a decade later.[37] The kingdoms were reduced to vassals, which they remained under the Persian and Hellenic Empires.[37] By the beginning of Roman rule around 63 BC, the kingdoms of Ammon, Edom and Moab had lost their distinct identities, and were assimilated into the Roman culture.[33]
+
+Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian Empire in 332 BC introduced Hellenistic culture to the Middle East.[38] After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the empire split among his generals, and in the end much of Transjordan was disputed between the Ptolemies based in Egypt and the Seleucids based in Syria.[38] The Nabataeans, nomadic Arabs based south of Edom, managed to establish an independent kingdom in 169 BC by exploiting the struggle between the two Greek powers.[38] The Nabataean Kingdom controlled much of the trade routes of the region, and it stretched south along the Red Sea coast into the Hejaz desert, up to as far north as Damascus, which it controlled for a short period (85–71) BC.[39] The Nabataeans massed a fortune from their control of the trade routes, often drawing the envy of their neighbors.[40] Petra, Nabataea's barren capital, flourished in the 1st century AD, driven by its extensive water irrigation systems and agriculture.[41] The Nabataeans were also talented stone carvers, building their most elaborate structure, Al-Khazneh, in the first century AD.[42] It is believed to be the mausoleum of the Arab Nabataean King Aretas IV.[42]
+
+Roman legions under Pompey conquered much of the Levant in 63 BC, inaugurating a period of Roman rule that lasted four centuries.[43] In 106 AD, Emperor Trajan annexed Nabataea unopposed, and rebuilt the King's Highway which became known as the Via Traiana Nova road.[43] The Romans gave the Greek cities of Transjordan–Philadelphia (Amman), Gerasa (Jerash), Gedara (Umm Qays), Pella (Tabaqat Fahl) and Arbila (Irbid)–and other Hellenistic cities in Palestine and southern Syria, a level of autonomy by forming the Decapolis, a ten-city league.[44] Jerash is one of the best preserved Roman cities in the East; it was even visited by Emperor Hadrian during his journey to Palestine.[45]
+
+In 324 AD, the Roman Empire split, and the Eastern Roman Empire–later known as the Byzantine Empire–continued to control or influence the region until 636 AD.[46] Christianity had become legal within the empire in 313 AD after Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.[46] The Edict of Thessalonka made Christianity the official state religion in 380 AD. Transjordan prospered during the Byzantine era, and Christian churches were built everywhere.[47] The Aqaba Church in Ayla was built during this era, it is considered to be the world's first purpose built Christian church.[48] Umm ar-Rasas in southern Amman contains at least 16 Byzantine churches.[49] Meanwhile, Petra's importance declined as sea trade routes emerged, and after a 363 earthquake destroyed many structures, it declined further, eventually being abandoned.[42] The Sassanian Empire in the east became the Byzantines' rivals, and frequent confrontations sometimes led to the Sassanids controlling some parts of the region, including Transjordan.[50]
+
+In 629 AD, during the Battle of Mu'tah in what is today Al-Karak, the Byzantines and their Arab Christian clients, the Ghassanids, staved off an attack by a Muslim Rashidun force that marched northwards towards the Levant from the Hejaz (in modern-day Saudi Arabia).[51] The Byzantines however were defeated by the Muslims in 636 AD at the decisive Battle of Yarmouk just north of Transjordan.[51] Transjordan was an essential territory for the conquest of Damascus.[52] The first, or Rashidun, caliphate was followed by that of the Ummayads (661–750).[52] Under the Umayyad Caliphate, several desert castles were constructed in Transjordan, including: Qasr Al-Mshatta and Qasr Al-Hallabat.[52] The Abbasid Caliphate's campaign to take over the Umayyad's began in Transjordan.[53] A powerful 749 AD earthquake is thought to have contributed to the Umayyads defeat to the Abbasids, who moved the caliphate's capital from Damascus to Baghdad.[53] During Abbasid rule (750–969), several Arab tribes moved northwards and settled in the Levant.[52] As had happened during the Roman era, growth of maritime trade diminished Transjordan's central position, and the area became increasingly impoverished.[54] After the decline of the Abbasids, Transjordan was ruled by the Fatimid Caliphate (969–1070), then by the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (1115–1187).[55]
+
+The Crusaders constructed several Crusader castles as part of the Lordship of Oultrejordain, including those of Montreal and Al-Karak.[56] The Ayyubids built the Ajloun Castle and rebuilt older castles, to be used as military outposts against the Crusaders.[57] During the Battle of Hattin (1187) near Lake Tiberias just north of Transjordan, the Crusaders lost to Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty (1187–1260).[57] Villages in Transjordan under the Ayyubids became important stops for Muslim pilgrims going to Mecca who travelled along the route that connected Syria to the Hejaz.[58] Several of the Ayyubid castles were used and expanded by the Mamluks (1260–1516), who divided Transjordan between the provinces of Karak and Damascus.[59] During the next century Transjordan experienced Mongol attacks, but the Mongols were ultimately repelled by the Mamluks after the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260).[60]
+
+In 1516, the Ottoman Caliphate's forces conquered Mamluk territory.[61] Agricultural villages in Transjordan witnessed a period of relative prosperity in the 16th century, but were later abandoned.[62] Transjordan was of marginal importance to the Ottoman authorities.[63] As a result, Ottoman presence was virtually absent and reduced to annual tax collection visits.[62] More Arab Bedouin tribes moved into Transjordan from Syria and the Hejaz during the first three centuries of Ottoman rule, including the Adwan, the Bani Sakhr and the Howeitat.[64] These tribes laid claims to different parts of the region, and with the absence of a meaningful Ottoman authority, Transjordan slid into a state of anarchy that continued till the 19th century.[65] This led to a short-lived occupation by the Wahhabi forces (1803–1812), an ultra-orthodox Islamic movement that emerged in Najd (in modern-day Saudi Arabia).[66] Ibrahim Pasha, son of the governor of the Egypt Eyalet under the request of the Ottoman sultan, rooted out the Wahhabis by 1818.[67] In 1833 Ibrahim Pasha turned on the Ottomans and established his rule over the Levant.[68] His oppressive policies led to the unsuccessful peasants' revolt in Palestine in 1834.[68] Transjordanian cities of Al-Salt and Al-Karak were destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha's forces for harbouring a peasants' revolt leader.[68] Egyptian rule was forcibly ended in 1841, with Ottoman rule restored.[68]
+
+Only after Ibrahim Pasha's campaign did the Ottoman Empire try to solidify its presence in the Syria Vilayet, which Transjordan was part of.[69] A series of tax and land reforms (Tanzimat) in 1864 brought some prosperity back to agriculture and to abandoned villages; the end of virtually autonomy predictably provoked a backlash in other areas of Transjordan.[69] Muslim Circassians and Chechens, fleeing Russian persecution, sought refuge in the Levant.[70] In Transjordan and with Ottoman support, Circassians first settled in the long-abandoned vicinity of Amman in 1867, and later in the surrounding villages.[70] After having established its administration, conscription and heavy taxation policies by the Ottoman authorities led to revolts in the areas it controlled.[71] Transjordan's tribes in particular revolted during the Shoubak (1905) and the Karak Revolts (1910), which were brutally suppressed.[70] The construction of the Hejaz Railway in 1908–stretching across the length of Transjordan and linking Mecca with Istanbul helped the population economically, as Transjordan became a stopover for pilgrims.[70] However, increasing policies of Turkification and centralization adopted by the Ottoman Empire disenchanted the Arabs of the Levant.
+
+Four centuries of stagnation during Ottoman rule came to an end during World War I by the 1916 Arab Revolt, driven by long-term resentment towards the Ottoman authorities and growing Arab nationalism.[70] The revolt was led by Sharif Hussein of Mecca, and his sons Abdullah, Faisal and Ali, members of the Hashemite family of the Hejaz, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.[70] Locally, the revolt garnered the support of the Transjordanian tribes, including Bedouins, Circassians and Christians.[72] The Allies of World War I, including Britain and France, whose imperial interests converged with the Arabist cause, offered support.[73] The revolt started on 5 June 1916 from Medina and pushed northwards until the fighting reached Transjordan in the Battle of Aqaba on 6 July 1917.[74] The revolt reached its climax when Faisal entered Damascus in October 1918, and established an Arab-led military administration in OETA East, later declared as the Arab Kingdom of Syria, both of which Transjordan was part of.[72] During this period, the southernmost region of the country, including Ma'an and Aqaba, was also claimed by the neighboring Kingdom of Hejaz.
+
+The nascent Hashemite Kingdom over Greater Syria was forced to surrender to French troops on 24 July 1920 during the Battle of Maysalun;[75] the French occupied only the northern part of the Syrian Kingdom, leaving Transjordan in a period of interregnum. Arab aspirations failed to gain international recognition, due mainly to the secret 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement, which divided the region into French and British spheres of influence, and the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which promised Palestine to Jews.[76] This was seen by the Hashemites and the Arabs as a betrayal of their previous agreements with the British,[77] including the 1915 McMahon–Hussein Correspondence, in which the British stated their willingness to recognize the independence of a unified Arab state stretching from Aleppo to Aden under the rule of the Hashemites.[78]
+
+The British High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, travelled to Transjordan on 21 August 1920 to meet with Al-Salt's residents. He there declared to a crowd of six hundred Transjordanian notables that the British government would aid the establishment of local governments in Transjordan, which is to be kept separate from that of Palestine. The second meeting took place in Umm Qais on 2 September, where the British government representative Major Fitzroy Somerset received a petition that demanded: an independent Arab government in Transjordan to be led by an Arab prince (emir); land sale in Transjordan to Jews be stopped as well as the prevention of Jewish immigration there; that Britiain establish and fund a national army; and that free trade be maintained between Transjordan and the rest of the region.[79]
+
+Abdullah, the second son of Sharif Hussein, arrived from Hejaz by train in Ma'an in southern Transjordan on 21 November 1920 to redeem the Greater Syrian Kingdom his brother had lost.[80] Transjordan then was in disarray, widely considered to be ungovernable with its dysfunctional local governments.[81] Abdullah gained the trust of Transjordan's tribal leaders before scrambling to convince them of the benefits of an organized government.[82] Abdullah's successes drew the envy of the British, even when it was in their interest.[83] The British reluctantly accepted Abdullah as ruler of Transjordan after having given him a six-month trial.[84] In March 1921, the British decided to add Transjordan to their Mandate for Palestine, in which they would implement their "Sharifian Solution" policy without applying the provisions of the mandate dealing with Jewish settlement. On 11 April 1921, the Emirate of Transjordan was established with Abdullah as Emir.[85]
+
+In September 1922, the Council of the League of Nations recognised Transjordan as a state under the terms of the Transjordan memorandum.[86][87] Transjordan remained a British mandate until 1946, but it had been granted a greater level of autonomy than the region west of the Jordan River.[88] Multiple difficulties emerged upon the assumption of power in the region by the Hashemite leadership.[89] In Transjordan, small local rebellions at Kura in 1921 and 1923 were suppressed by the Emir's forces with the help of the British.[89] Wahhabis from Najd regained strength and repeatedly raided the southern parts of his territory in (1922–1924), seriously threatening the Emir's position.[89] The Emir was unable to repel those raids without the aid of the local Bedouin tribes and the British, who maintained a military base with a small RAF detachment close to Amman.[89]
+
+The Treaty of London, signed by the British Government and the Emir of Transjordan on 22 March 1946, recognised the independence of Transjordan upon ratification by both countries' parliaments.[90] On 25 May 1946, the day that the treaty was ratified by the Transjordan parliament, Transjordan was raised to the status of a kingdom under the name of the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan, with Abdullah as its first king.[91] The name was shortened to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on 26 April 1949.[10] 25 May is now celebrated as the nation's Independence Day, a public holiday.[92] Jordan became a member of the United Nations on 14 December 1955.[10]
+
+On 15 May 1948, as part of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan invaded Palestine together with many other Arab states.[93] Following the war, Jordan controlled the West Bank and on 24 April 1950 Jordan formally annexed these territories after the Jericho conference.[94][95] In response, some Arab countries demanded Jordan's expulsion from the Arab League.[94] On 12 June 1950, the Arab League declared that the annexation was a temporary, practical measure and that Jordan was holding the territory as a "trustee" pending a future settlement.[96] King Abdullah was assassinated at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1951 by a Palestinian militant, amid rumours he intended to sign a peace treaty with Israel.[97]
+
+Abdullah was succeeded by his son Talal, who would soon abdicate due to illness in favour of his eldest son Hussein.[98] Talal established the country's modern constitution in 1952.[98] Hussein ascended to the throne in 1953 at the age of 17.[97] Jordan witnessed great political uncertainty in the following period.[99] The 1950s were a period of political upheaval, as Nasserism and Pan-Arabism swept the Arab World.[99] On 1 March 1956, King Hussein Arabized the command of the Army by dismissing a number of senior British officers, an act made to remove remaining foreign influence in the country.[100] In 1958, Jordan and neighbouring Hashemite Iraq formed the Arab Federation as a response to the formation of the rival United Arab Republic between Nasser's Egypt and Syria.[101] The union lasted only six months, being dissolved after Iraqi King Faisal II (Hussein's cousin) was deposed by a bloody military coup on 14 July 1958.[101]
+
+Jordan signed a military pact with Egypt just before Israel launched a preemptive strike on Egypt to begin the Six-Day War in June 1967, where Jordan and Syria joined the war.[102] The Arab states were defeated and Jordan lost control of the West Bank to Israel.[102] The War of Attrition with Israel followed, which included the 1968 Battle of Karameh where the combined forces of the Jordanian Armed Forces and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) repelled an Israeli attack on the Karameh camp on the Jordanian border with the West Bank.[102] Despite the fact that the Palestinians had limited involvement against the Israeli forces, the events at Karameh gained wide recognition and acclaim in the Arab world.[103] As a result, the time period following the battle witnessed an upsurge of support for Palestinian paramilitary elements (the fedayeen) within Jordan from other Arab countries.[103] The fedayeen activities soon became a threat to Jordan's rule of law.[103] In September 1970, the Jordanian army targeted the fedayeen and the resultant fighting led to the expulsion of Palestinian fighters from various PLO groups into Lebanon, in a conflict that became known as Black September.[103]
+
+In 1973, Egypt and Syria waged the Yom Kippur War on Israel, and fighting occurred along the 1967 Jordan River cease-fire line.[103] Jordan sent a brigade to Syria to attack Israeli units on Syrian territory but did not engage Israeli forces from Jordanian territory.[103] At the Rabat summit conference in 1974, in the aftermath of the Yom-Kippur War, Jordan agreed, along with the rest of the Arab League, that the PLO was the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people".[103] Subsequently, Jordan renounced its claims to the West Bank in 1988.[103]
+
+At the 1991 Madrid Conference, Jordan agreed to negotiate a peace treaty sponsored by the US and the Soviet Union.[103] The Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed on 26 October 1994.[103] In 1997, in retribution for a bombing, Israeli agents entered Jordan using Canadian passports and poisoned Khaled Meshal, a senior Hamas leader living in Jordan.[103] Bowing to intense international pressure, Israel provided an antidote to the poison and released dozens of political prisoners, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, after King Hussein threatened to annul the peace treaty.[103]
+
+On 7 February 1999, Abdullah II ascended the throne upon the death of his father Hussein, who had ruled for nearly 50 years.[104] Abdullah embarked on economic liberalisation when he assumed the throne, and his reforms led to an economic boom which continued until 2008.[105] Abdullah II has been credited with increasing foreign investment, improving public-private partnerships and providing the foundation for Aqaba's free-trade zone and Jordan's flourishing information and communication technology (ICT) sector.[105] He also set up five other special economic zones.[105] However, during the following years Jordan's economy experienced hardship as it dealt with the effects of the Great Recession and spillover from the Arab Spring.[106]
+
+Al-Qaeda under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's leadership launched coordinated explosions in three hotel lobbies in Amman on 9 November 2005, resulting in 60 deaths and 115 injured.[107] The bombings, which targeted civilians, caused widespread outrage among Jordanians.[107] The attack is considered to be a rare event in the country, and Jordan's internal security was dramatically improved afterwards.[107] No major terrorist attacks have occurred since then.[108] Abdullah and Jordan are viewed with contempt by Islamic extremists for the country's peace treaty with Israel and its relationship with the West.[109]
+
+The Arab Spring were large-scale protests that erupted in the Arab World in 2011, demanding economic and political reforms.[110] Many of these protests tore down regimes in some Arab nations, leading to instability that ended with violent civil wars.[110] In Jordan, in response to domestic unrest, Abdullah replaced his prime minister and introduced a number of reforms including: reforming the Constitution, and laws governing public freedoms and elections.[110] Proportional representation was re-introduced to the Jordanian parliament in the 2016 general election, a move which he said would eventually lead to establishing parliamentary governments.[111] Jordan was left largely unscathed from the violence that swept the region despite an influx of 1.4 million Syrian refugees into the natural resources-lacking country and the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).[111]
+
+Jordan sits strategically at the crossroads of the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe,[8] in the Levant area of the Fertile Crescent, a cradle of civilization.[112] It is 89,341 square kilometres (34,495 sq mi) large, and 400 kilometres (250 mi) long between its northernmost and southernmost points; Umm Qais and Aqaba respectively.[17] The kingdom lies between 29° and 34° N, and 34° and 40° E. The east is an arid plateau irrigated by oases and seasonal water streams.[17] Major cities are overwhelmingly located on the north-western part of the kingdom due to its fertile soils and relatively abundant rainfall.[113] These include Irbid, Jerash and Zarqa in the northwest, the capital Amman and Al-Salt in the central west, and Madaba, Al-Karak and Aqaba in the southwest.[113] Major towns in the eastern part of the country are the oasis towns of Azraq and Ruwaished.[112]
+
+In the west, a highland area of arable land and Mediterranean evergreen forestry drops suddenly into the Jordan Rift Valley.[112] The rift valley contains the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, which separates Jordan from Israel.[112] Jordan has a 26 kilometres (16 mi) shoreline on the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea, but is otherwise landlocked.[7] The Yarmouk River, an eastern tributary of the Jordan, forms part of the boundary between Jordan and Syria (including the occupied Golan Heights) to the north.[7] The other boundaries are formed by several international and local agreements and do not follow well-defined natural features.[112] The highest point is Jabal Umm al Dami, at 1,854 m (6,083 ft) above sea level, while the lowest is the Dead Sea −420 m (−1,378 ft), the lowest land point on earth.[112]
+
+Jordan has a diverse range of habitats, ecosystems and biota due to its varied landscapes and environments.[114] The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature was set up in 1966 to protect and manage Jordan's natural resources.[115] Nature reserves in Jordan include the Dana Biosphere Reserve, the Azraq Wetland Reserve, the Shaumari Wildlife Reserve and the Mujib Nature Reserve.[115]
+
+The climate in Jordan varies greatly. Generally, the further inland from the Mediterranean, there are greater contrasts in temperature occur and less rainfall.[17] The country's average elevation is 812 m (2,664 ft) (SL).[17] The highlands above the Jordan Valley, mountains of the Dead Sea and Wadi Araba and as far south as Ras Al-Naqab are dominated by a Mediterranean climate, while the eastern and northeastern areas of the country are arid desert.[116] Although the desert parts of the kingdom reach high temperatures, the heat is usually moderated by low humidity and a daytime breeze, while the nights are cool.[117]
+
+Summers, lasting from May to September, are hot and dry, with temperatures averaging around 32 °C (90 °F) and sometimes exceeding 40 °C (104 °F) between July and August.[117] The winter, lasting from November to March, is relatively cool, with temperatures averaging around 13 °C (55 °F).[116] Winter also sees frequent showers and occasional snowfall in some western elevated areas.[116]
+
+Over 2,000 plant species have been recorded in Jordan.[118] Many of the flowering plants bloom in the spring after the winter rains and the type of vegetation depends largely on the levels of precipitation. The mountainous regions in the northwest are clothed in forests, while further south and east the vegetation becomes more scrubby and transitions to steppe-type vegetation.[119] Forests cover 1.5 million dunums (1,500 km2), less than 2% of Jordan, making Jordan among the world's least forested countries, the international average being 15%.[120]
+
+Plant species and genera include the Aleppo pine, Sarcopoterium, Salvia dominica, black iris, Tamarix, Anabasis, Artemisia, Acacia, Mediterranean cypress and Phoenecian juniper.[121] The mountainous regions in the northwest are clothed in natural forests of pine, deciduous oak, evergreen oak, pistachio and wild olive.[122] Mammal and reptile species include, the long-eared hedgehog, Nubian ibex, wild boar, fallow deer, Arabian wolf,  desert monitor, honey badger, glass snake, caracal, golden jackal and the roe deer, among others.[123][124][125] Bird include the hooded crow, Eurasian jay, lappet-faced vulture, barbary falcon, hoopoe, pharaoh eagle-owl, common cuckoo, Tristram's starling, Palestine sunbird,  Sinai rosefinch, lesser kestrel, house crow and the white-spectacled bulbul.[126]
+
+Jordan is a unitary state under a constitutional monarchy. Jordan's constitution, adopted in 1952 and amended a number of times since, is the legal framework that governs the monarch, government, bicameral legislature and judiciary.[127] The king retains wide executive and legislative powers from the government and parliament.[128] The king exercises his powers through the government that he appoints for a four-year term, which is responsible before the parliament that is made up of two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The judiciary is independent according to the constitution.[127]
+
+The king is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the army. He can declare war and peace, ratify laws and treaties, convene and close legislative sessions, call and postpone elections, dismiss the government and dissolve the parliament.[127] The appointed government can also be dismissed through a majority vote of no confidence by the elected House of Representatives. After a bill is proposed by the government, it must be approved by the House of Representatives then the Senate, and becomes law after being ratified by the king. A royal veto on legislation can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in a joint session of both houses. The parliament also has the right of interpellation.[127]
+
+The 65 members of the upper Senate are directly appointed by the king, the constitution mandates that they be veteran politicians, judges and generals who previously served in the government or in the House of Representatives.[129] The 130 members of the lower House of Representatives are elected through party-list proportional representation in 23 constituencies for a 4-year term.[130] Minimum quotas exist in the House of Representatives for women (15 seats, though they won 20 seats in the 2016 election), Christians (9 seats) and Circassians and Chechens (3 seats).[131]
+
+Courts are divided into three categories: civil, religious, and special.[132] The civil courts deal with civil and criminal matters, including cases brought against the government.[132] The civil courts include Magistrate Courts, Courts of First Instance, Courts of Appeal,[132] High Administrative Courts which hear cases relating to administrative matters,[133] and the Constitutional Court which was set up in 2012 in order to hear cases regarding the constitutionality of laws.[134] Although Islam is the state religion, the constitution preserves religious and personal freedoms. Religious law only extends to matters of personal status such as divorce and inheritance in religious courts, and is partially based on Islamic Sharia law.[135] The special court deals with cases forwarded by the civil one.[136]
+
+The capital city of Jordan is Amman, located in north-central Jordan.[9] Jordan is divided into 12 governorates (muhafazah) (informally grouped into three regions: northern, central, southern). These are subdivided into a total of 52 districts (Liwaa'), which are further divided into neighbourhoods in urban areas or into towns in rural ones.[137]
+
+The current monarch, Abdullah II, ascended to the throne in February 1999 after the death of his father King Hussein. Abdullah re-affirmed Jordan's commitment to the peace treaty with Israel and its relations with the United States. He refocused the government's agenda on economic reform, during his first year. King Abdullah's eldest son, Prince Hussein, is the current Crown Prince of Jordan.[138] The current prime minister is Omar Razzaz who received his position on 4 June 2018 after his predecessor's austerity measures forced widespread protests.[139] Abdullah had announced his intentions of turning Jordan into a parliamentary system, where the largest bloc in parliament forms a government. However, the underdevelopment of political parties in the country has hampered such moves.[140] Jordan has around 50 political parties representing nationalist, leftist, Islamist, and liberal ideologies.[141] Political parties contested a fifth of the seats in the 2016 elections, the remainder belonging to independent politicians.[142]
+
+According to Freedom House, Jordan is ranked as the 3rd freest Arab country, and as "partly free" in the Freedom in the World 2019 report.[143] The 2010 Arab Democracy Index from the Arab Reform Initiative ranked Jordan first in the state of democratic reforms out of 15 Arab countries.[144] Jordan ranked first among the Arab states and 78th globally in the Human Freedom Index in 2015,[145] and ranked 55th out of 175 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) issued by Transparency International in 2014, where 175th is most corrupt.[146] In the 2016 Press Freedom Index maintained by Reporters Without Borders, Jordan ranked 135th out of 180 countries worldwide, and 5th of 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Jordan's score was 44 on a scale from 0 (most free) to 105 (least free). The report added "the Arab Spring and the Syrian conflict have led the authorities to tighten their grip on the media and, in particular, the Internet, despite an outcry from civil society".[147] Jordanian media consists of public and private institutions. Popular Jordanian newspapers include Al Ghad and the Jordan Times. Al-Mamlaka, Ro'ya and Jordan TV are some Jordanian TV channels.[148] Internet penetration in Jordan reached 76% in 2015.[149] There are concerns that the government will use the COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan to silence dissidents.[150][151]
+
+The first level subdivision in Jordan is the muhafazah or governorate. The governorates are divided into liwa or districts, which are often further subdivided into qda or sub-districts.[153] Control for each administrative unit is in a "chief town" (administrative centre) known as a nahia.[153]
+
+The kingdom has followed a pro-Western foreign policy and maintained close relations with the United States and the United Kingdom. During the first Gulf War (1990), these relations were damaged by Jordan's neutrality and its maintenance of relations with Iraq. Later, Jordan restored its relations with Western countries through its participation in the enforcement of UN sanctions against Iraq and in the Southwest Asia peace process. After King Hussein's death in 1999, relations between Jordan and the Persian Gulf countries greatly improved.[154]
+
+Jordan is a key ally of the US and UK and, together with Egypt, is one of only two Arab nations to have signed peace treaties with Israel, Jordan's direct neighbour.[155] Jordan views an independent Palestinian state with the 1967 borders, as part of the two-state solution and of supreme national interest.[156] The ruling Hashemite dynasty has had custodianship over holy sites in Jerusalem since 1924, a position re-inforced in the Israel–Jordan peace treaty. Turmoil in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque between Israelis and Palestinians created tensions between Jordan and Israel concerning the former's role in protecting the Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem.[157]
+
+Jordan is a founding member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and of the Arab League.[158][159] It enjoys "advanced status" with the European Union and is part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which aims to increase links between the EU and its neighbours.[160] Jordan and Morocco tried to join the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 2011, but the Gulf countries offered a five-year development aid programme instead.[161]
+
+The first organised army in Jordan was established on 22 October 1920, and was named the "Arab Legion".[89] The Legion grew from 150 men in 1920 to 8,000 in 1946.[162] Jordan's capture of the West Bank during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War proved that the Arab Legion, known today as the Jordan Armed Forces, was the most effective among the Arab troops involved in the war.[162] The Royal Jordanian Army, which boasts around 110,000 personnel, is considered to be among the most professional in the region, due to being particularly well-trained and organised.[162] The Jordanian military enjoys strong support and aid from the United States, the United Kingdom and France. This is due to Jordan's critical position in the Middle East.[162] The development of Special Operations Forces has been particularly significant, enhancing the capability of the military to react rapidly to threats to homeland security, as well as training special forces from the region and beyond.[163] Jordan provides extensive training to the security forces of several Arab countries.[164]
+
+There are about 50,000 Jordanian troops working with the United Nations in peacekeeping missions across the world. Jordan ranks third internationally in participation in U.N. peacekeeping missions,[165] with one of the highest levels of peacekeeping troop contributions of all U.N. member states.[166] Jordan has dispatched several field hospitals to conflict zones and areas affected by natural disasters across the region.[167]
+
+In 2014, Jordan joined an aerial bombardment campaign by an international coalition led by the United States against the Islamic State as part of its intervention in the Syrian Civil War.[168] In 2015, Jordan participated in the Saudi Arabian-led military intervention in Yemen against the Shia Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was deposed in the 2011 uprising.[169]
+
+Jordan's law enforcement is under the purview of the Public Security Directorate (which includes approximately 50,000 persons) and the General Directorate of Gendarmerie, both of which are subordinate to the country's Ministry of Interior. The first police force in the Jordanian state was organised after the fall of the Ottoman Empire on 11 April 1921.[170] Until 1956 police duties were carried out by the Arab Legion and the Transjordan Frontier Force. After that year the Public Safety Directorate was established.[170] The number of female police officers is increasing. In the 1970s, it was the first Arab country to include females in its police force.[171] Jordan's law enforcement was ranked 37th in the world and 3rd in the Middle East, in terms of police services' performance, by the 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index.[11][172]
+
+Jordan is classified by the World Bank as an "upper-middle income" country.[173] However, approximately 14.4% of the population lives below the national poverty line on a longterm basis (as of 2010[update]),[173] while almost a third fell below the national poverty line during some time of the year—known as transient poverty.[174] The economy, which has a GDP of $39.453 billion (as of 2016[update]),[4] grew at an average rate of 8% per annum between 2004 and 2008, and around 2.6% 2010 onwards.[17] GDP per capita rose by 351% in the 1970s, declined 30% in the 1980s, and rose 36% in the 1990s—currently $9,406 per capita by purchasing power parity.[175] The Jordanian economy is one of the smallest economies in the region, and the country's populace suffers from relatively high rates of unemployment and poverty.[17]
+
+Jordan's economy is relatively well diversified. Trade and finance combined account for nearly one-third of GDP; transportation and communication, public utilities, and construction account for one-fifth, and mining and manufacturing constitute nearly another fifth.[16] Net official development assistance to Jordan in 2009 totalled US$761 million; according to the government, approximately two-thirds of this was allocated as grants, of which half was direct budget support.[176]
+
+The official currency is the Jordanian dinar, which is pegged to the IMF's special drawing rights (SDRs), equivalent to an exchange rate of 1 US$ ≡ 0.709 dinar, or approximately 1 dinar ≡ 1.41044 dollars.[177] In 2000, Jordan joined the World Trade Organization and signed the Jordan–United States Free Trade Agreement, thus becoming the first Arab country to establish a free trade agreement with the United States. Jordan enjoys advanced status with the EU, which has facilitated greater access to export to European markets.[178] Due to slow domestic growth, high energy and food subsidies and a bloated public-sector workforce, Jordan usually runs annual budget deficits.[179]
+
+The Great Recession and the turmoil caused by the Arab Spring have depressed Jordan's GDP growth, damaging trade, industry, construction and tourism.[17] Tourist arrivals have dropped sharply since 2011.[180] Since 2011, the natural gas pipeline in Sinai supplying Jordan from Egypt was attacked 32 times by Islamic State affiliates. Jordan incurred billions of dollars in losses because it had to substitute more expensive heavy-fuel oils to generate electricity.[181] In November 2012, the government cut subsidies on fuel, increasing its price.[182] The decision, which was later revoked, caused large scale protests to break out across the country.[179][180]
+
+Jordan's total foreign debt in 2011 was $19 billion, representing 60% of its GDP. In 2016, the debt reached $35.1 billion representing 93% of its GDP.[106] This substantial increase is attributed to effects of regional instability causing: decrease in tourist activity; decreased foreign investments; increased military expenditure; attacks on Egyptian pipeline; the collapse of trade with Iraq and Syria; expenses from hosting Syrian refugees and accumulated interests from loans.[106] According to the World Bank, Syrian refugees have cost Jordan more than $2.5 billion a year, amounting to 6% of the GDP and 25% of the government's annual revenue.[183] Foreign aid covers only a small part of these costs, 63% of the total costs are covered by Jordan.[184] An austerity programme was adopted by the government which aims to reduce Jordan's debt-to-GDP ratio to 77 percent by 2021.[185] The programme succeeded in preventing the debt from rising above 95% in 2018.[186]
+
+The proportion of well-educated and skilled workers in Jordan is among the highest in the region in sectors such as ICT and industry, due to a relatively modern educational system. This has attracted large foreign investments to Jordan and has enabled the country to export its workforce to Persian Gulf countries.[14] Flows of remittances to Jordan grew rapidly, particularly during the end of the 1970s and 1980s, and remains an important source of external funding.[187] Remittances from Jordanian expatriates were $3.8 billion in 2015, a notable rise in the amount of transfers compared to 2014 where remittances reached over $3.66 billion listing Jordan as fourth largest recipient in the region.[188]
+
+Jordan is ranked as having the 35th best infrastructure in the world, one of the highest rankings in the developing world, according to the 2010 World Economic Forum's Index of Economic Competitiveness. This high infrastructural development is necessitated by its role as a transit country for goods and services to Palestine and Iraq. Palestinians use Jordan as a transit country due to the Israeli restrictions and Iraqis use Jordan due to the instability in Iraq.[189]
+
+According to data from the Jordanian Ministry of Public Works and Housing, as of 2011[update], the Jordanian road network consisted of 2,878 km (1,788 mi) of main roads; 2,592 km (1,611 mi) of rural roads and 1,733 km (1,077 mi) of side roads. The Hejaz Railway built during the Ottoman Empire which extended from Damascus to Mecca will act as a base for future railway expansion plans. Currently, the railway has little civilian activity; it is primarily used for transporting goods. A national railway project is currently undergoing studies and seeking funding sources.[190]
+
+Jordan has three commercial airports, all receiving and dispatching international flights. Two are in Amman and the third is in Aqaba, King Hussein International Airport. Amman Civil Airport serves several regional routes and charter flights while Queen Alia International Airport is the major international airport in Jordan and is the hub for Royal Jordanian Airlines, the flag carrier. Queen Alia International Airport expansion was completed in 2013 with new terminals costing $700 million, to handle over 16 million passengers annually.[191] It is now considered a state-of-the-art airport and was awarded 'the best airport by region: Middle East' for 2014 and 2015 by Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey, the world's leading airport passenger satisfaction benchmark programme.[192]
+
+The Port of Aqaba is the only port in Jordan. In 2006, the port was ranked as being the "Best Container Terminal" in the Middle East by Lloyd's List. The port was chosen due to it being a transit cargo port for other neighbouring countries, its location between four countries and three continents, being an exclusive gateway for the local market and for the improvements it has recently witnessed.[193]
+
+The tourism sector is considered a cornerstone of the economy and is a large source of employment, hard currency, and economic growth. In 2010, there were 8 million visitors to Jordan. The majority of tourists coming to Jordan are from European and Arab countries.[15] The tourism sector in Jordan has been severely affected by regional turbulence.[194] The most recent blow to the tourism sector was caused by the Arab Spring, which scared off tourists from the entire region. Jordan experienced a 70% decrease in the number of tourists from 2010 to 2016.[195] Tourist numbers started to recover as of 2017.[195]
+
+According to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Jordan is home to around 100,000 archaeological and tourist sites.[196] Some very well preserved historical cities include Petra and Jerash, the former being Jordan's most popular tourist attraction and an icon of the kingdom.[195] Jordan is part of the Holy Land and has several biblical attractions that attract pilgrimage activities. Biblical sites include: Al-Maghtas—a traditional location for the Baptism of Jesus, Mount Nebo, Umm ar-Rasas, Madaba and Machaerus.[197] Islamic sites include shrines of the prophet Muhammad's companions such as 'Abd Allah ibn Rawahah, Zayd ibn Harithah and Muadh ibn Jabal.[198] Ajlun Castle built by Muslim Ayyubid leader Saladin in the 12th century AD during his wars with the Crusaders, is also a popular tourist attraction.[8]
+
+Modern entertainment, recreation and souqs in urban areas, mostly in Amman, also attract tourists. Recently, the nightlife in Amman, Aqaba and Irbid has started to emerge and the number of bars, discos and nightclubs is on the rise.[199] Alcohol is widely available in tourist restaurants, liquor stores and even some supermarkets.[200] Valleys including Wadi Mujib and hiking trails in different parts of the country attract adventurers. Hiking is getting more and more popular among tourists and locals. Places such as Dana Biosphere Reserve and Petra offer numerous signposted hiking trails. Moreover, seaside recreation is present on the shores of Aqaba and the Dead Sea through several international resorts.[201]
+
+Jordan has been a medical tourism destination in the Middle East since the 1970s. A study conducted by Jordan's Private Hospitals Association found that 250,000 patients from 102 countries received treatment in Jordan in 2010, compared to 190,000 in 2007, bringing over $1 billion in revenue. Jordan is the region's top medical tourism destination, as rated by the World Bank, and fifth in the world overall.[202] The majority of patients come from Yemen, Libya and Syria due to the ongoing civil wars in those countries. Jordanian doctors and medical staff have gained experience in dealing with war patients through years of receiving such cases from various conflict zones in the region.[203]  Jordan also is a hub for natural treatment methods in both Ma'in Hot Springs and the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is often described as a 'natural spa'. It contains 10 times more salt than the average ocean, which makes it impossible to sink in. The high salt concentration of the Dead Sea has been proven therapeutic for many skin diseases.[citation needed] The uniqueness of this lake attracts several Jordanian and foreign vacationers, which boosted investments in the hotel sector in the area.[204] The Jordan Trail, a 650 km (400 mi) hiking trail stretching the entire country from north to south, crossing several of Jordan's attractions was established in 2015.[205] The trail aims to revive the Jordanian tourism sector.[205]
+
+Jordan is the world's second poorest country in terms of water resources per capita, and scarce water resources were aggravated by the influx of Syrian refugees.[206] Water from Disi aquifer and ten major dams historically played a large role in providing Jordan's need for fresh water.[207] The Jawa Dam in northeastern Jordan, which dates back to the fourth millennium BC, is the world's oldest dam.[208] The Dead Sea is receding at an alarming rate. Multiple canals and pipelines were proposed to reduce its recession, which had begun causing sinkholes. The Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, carried out by Jordan, will provide water to the country and to Israel and Palestine, while the brine will be carried to the Dead Sea to help stabilise its levels. The first phase of the project is scheduled to begin in 2019 and to be completed in 2021.[209]
+
+Natural gas was discovered in Jordan in 1987, however, the estimated size of the reserve discovered was about 230 billion cubic feet, a minuscule quantity compared with its oil-rich neighbours. The Risha field, in the eastern desert beside the Iraqi border, produces nearly 35 million cubic feet of gas a day, which is sent to a nearby power plant to generate a small amount of Jordan's electricity needs.[210] This led to a reliance on importing oil to generate almost all of its electricity. Regional instability over the decades halted oil and gas supply to the kingdom from various sources, making it incur billions of dollars in losses. Jordan built a liquified natural gas port in Aqaba in 2012 to temporarily substitute the supply, while formulating a strategy to rationalize energy consumption and to diversify its energy sources. Jordan receives 330 days of sunshine per year, and wind speeds reach over 7 m/s in the mountainous areas, so renewables proved a promising sector.[211] King Abdullah inaugurated large-scale renewable energy projects in the 2010s including: the 117 MW Tafila Wind Farm, the 53 MW Shams Ma'an and the 103 MW Quweira solar power plants, with several more projects planned. By early 2019, it was reported that more than 1090 MW of renewable energy projects had been completed, contributing to 8% of Jordan's electricity up from 3% in 2011, while 92% was generated from gas.[212] After having initially set the percentage of renewable energy Jordan aimed to generate by 2020 at 10%, the government announced in 2018 that it sought to beat that figure and aim for 20%.[213]
+
+Jordan has the 5th largest oil-shale reserves in the world, which could be commercially exploited in the central and northwestern regions of the country.[214] Official figures estimate the kingdom's oil shale reserves at more than 70 billion tonnes. The extraction of oil-shale had been delayed a couple of years due to technological difficulties and the relatively higher costs.[215] The government overcame the difficulties and in 2017 laid the groundbreaking for the Attarat Power Plant, a $2.2 billion oil shale-dependent power plant that is expected to generate 470 MW after it is completed in 2020.[216] Jordan also aims to benefit from its large uranium reserves by tapping nuclear energy. The original plan involved constructing two 1000 MW reactors but has been scrapped due to financial constraints.[217] Currently, the country's Atomic Energy Commission is considering building small modular reactors instead, whose capacities hover below 500 MW and can provide new water sources through desalination. In 2018, the commission announced that Jordan was in talks with multiple companies to build the country's first commercial nuclear plant, a Helium-cooled reactor that is scheduled for completion by 2025.[218] Phosphate mines in the south have made Jordan one of the largest producers and exporters of the mineral in the world.[219]
+
+Jordan's well developed industrial sector, which includes mining, manufacturing, construction, and power, accounted for approximately 26% of the GDP in 2004 (including manufacturing, 16.2%; construction, 4.6%; and mining, 3.1%). More than 21% of Jordan's labor force was employed in industry in 2002. In 2014, industry accounted for 6% of the GDP.[220] The main industrial products are potash, phosphates, cement, clothes, and fertilisers. The most promising segment of this sector is construction. Petra Engineering Industries Company, which is considered to be one of the main pillars of Jordanian industry, has gained international recognition with its air-conditioning units reaching NASA.[221] Jordan is now considered to be a leading pharmaceuticals manufacturer in the MENA region led by Jordanian pharmaceutical company Hikma.[222]
+
+Jordan's military industry thrived after the King Abdullah Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) defence company was established by King Abdullah II in 1999, to provide an indigenous capability for the supply of scientific and technical services to the Jordanian Armed Forces, and to become a global hub in security research and development. It manufactures all types of military products, many of which are presented at the bi-annually held international military exhibition SOFEX. In 2015, KADDB exported $72 million worth of industries to over 42 countries.[223]
+
+Science and technology is the country's fastest developing economic sector. This growth is occurring across multiple industries, including information and communications technology (ICT) and nuclear technology. Jordan contributes 75% of the Arabic content on the Internet.[225] In 2014, the ICT sector accounted for more than 84,000 jobs and contributed to 12% of the GDP. More than 400 companies are active in telecom, information technology and video game development. There are 600 companies operating in active technologies and 300 start-up companies.[225]
+
+Nuclear science and technology is also expanding. The Jordan Research and Training Reactor, which began working in 2016, is a 5 MW training reactor located at the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Ar Ramtha.[226] The facility is the first nuclear reactor in the country and will provide Jordan with radioactive isotopes for medical usage and provide training to students to produce a skilled workforce for the country's planned commercial nuclear reactors.[226]
+
+Jordan was also selected as the location for the Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) facility, supported by UNESCO and CERN.[227] This particle accelerator that was opened in 2017 will allow collaboration between scientists from various rival Middle Eastern countries.[227] The facility is the only particle accelerator in the Middle East, and one of only 60 synchrotron radiation facilities in the world.[227]
+
+The 2015 census showed Jordan's population to be 9,531,712 (Female: 47%; Males: 53%). Around 2.9 million (30%) were non-citizens, a figure including refugees, and illegal immigrants.[3] There were 1,977,534 households in Jordan in 2015, with an average of 4.8 persons per household (compared to 6.7 persons per household for the census of 1979).[3] The capital and largest city of Jordan is Amman, which is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities and one of the most modern in the Arab world.[229] The population of Amman was 65,754 in 1946, but exceeded 4 million by 2015.
+
+Arabs make up about 98% of the population. The remaining 2% consist largely of peoples from the Caucasus including Circassians, Armenians, and Chechens, along with smaller minority groups.[17] About 84.1% of the population live in urban areas.[17]
+
+Jordan is a home to 2,175,491 Palestinian refugees as of December 2016; most of them, but not all, were granted Jordanian citizenship.[230] The first wave of Palestinian refugees arrived during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and peaked in the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1990 Gulf War. In the past, Jordan had given many Palestinian refugees citizenship, however recently Jordanian citizenship is given only in rare cases. 370,000 of these Palestinians live in UNRWA refugee camps.[230] Following the capture of the West Bank by Israel in 1967, Jordan revoked the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians to thwart any attempt to permanently resettle from the West Bank to Jordan. West Bank Palestinians with family in Jordan or Jordanian citizenship were issued yellow cards guaranteeing them all the rights of Jordanian citizenship if requested.[231]
+
+Up to 1,000,000 Iraqis moved to Jordan following the Iraq War in 2003,[232] and most of them have returned. In 2015, their number in Jordan was 130,911. Many Iraqi Christians (Assyrians/Chaldeans) however settled temporarily or permanently in Jordan.[233] Immigrants also include 15,000 Lebanese who arrived following the 2006 Lebanon War.[234] Since 2010, over 1.4 million Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan to escape the violence in Syria,[3] the largest population being in the Zaatari refugee camp. The kingdom has continued to demonstrate hospitality, despite the substantial strain the flux of Syrian refugees places on the country. The effects are largely affecting Jordanian communities, as the vast majority of Syrian refugees do not live in camps. The refugee crisis effects include competition for job opportunities, water resources and other state provided services, along with the strain on the national infrastructure.[13]
+
+In 2007, there were up to 150,000 Assyrian Christians; most are Eastern Aramaic speaking refugees from Iraq.[235] Kurds number some 30,000, and like the Assyrians, many are refugees from Iraq, Iran and Turkey.[236] Descendants of Armenians that sought refuge in the Levant during the 1915 Armenian Genocide number approximately 5,000 persons, mainly residing in Amman.[237] A small number of ethnic Mandeans also reside in Jordan, again mainly refugees from Iraq.[238] Around 12,000 Iraqi Christians have sought refuge in Jordan after the Islamic State took the city of Mosul in 2014.[239] Several thousand Libyans, Yemenis and Sudanese have also sought asylum in Jordan to escape instability and violence in their respective countries.[13] The 2015 Jordanian census recorded that there were 1,265,000 Syrians, 636,270 Egyptians, 634,182 Palestinians, 130,911 Iraqis, 31,163 Yemenis, 22,700 Libyans and 197,385 from other nationalities residing in the country.[3]
+
+There are around 1.2 million illegal, and 500,000 legal, migrant workers in the kingdom.[240] Thousands of foreign women, mostly from the Middle East and Eastern Europe, work in nightclubs, hotels and bars across the kingdom.[241][242][243] American and European expatriate communities are concentrated in the capital, as the city is home to many international organizations and diplomatic missions.[200]
+
+Sunni Islam is the dominant religion in Jordan. Muslims make up about 95% of the country's population; in turn, 93% of those self-identify as Sunnis.[244] There are also a small number of Ahmadi Muslims,[245] and some Shiites. Many Shia are Iraqi and Lebanese refugees.[246] Muslims who convert to another religion as well as missionaries from other religions face societal and legal discrimination.[247]
+
+Jordan contains some of the oldest Christian communities in the world, dating as early as the 1st century AD after the crucifixion of Jesus.[248] Christians today make up about 4% of the population,[249] down from 20% in 1930, though their absolute number has grown.[12] This is due to high immigration rates of Muslims into Jordan, higher emigration rates of Christians to the West and higher birth rates for Muslims.[250] Jordanian Christians number around 250,000, all of whom are Arabic-speaking, according to a 2014 estimate by the Orthodox Church, though the study excluded minority Christian groups and the thousands of Western, Iraqi and Syrian Christians residing in Jordan.[249] Christians are exceptionally well integrated in the Jordanian society and enjoy a high level of freedom.[251] Christians traditionally occupy two cabinet posts, and are reserved nine seats out of the 130 in the parliament.[252] The highest political position reached by a Christian is the Deputy Prime Minister, currently held by Rajai Muasher.[253] Christians are also influential in the media.[254] Smaller religious minorities include Druze, Bahá'ís and Mandaeans. Most Jordanian Druze live in the eastern oasis town of Azraq, some villages on the Syrian border, and the city of Zarqa, while most Jordanian Bahá'ís live in the village of Adassiyeh bordering the Jordan Valley.[255] It is estimated that 1,400 Mandaeans live in Amman, they came from Iraq after the 2003 invasion fleeing persecution.[256]
+
+The official language is Modern Standard Arabic, a literary language taught in the schools.[257] Most Jordanians natively speak one of the non-standard Arabic dialects known as Jordanian Arabic. Jordanian Sign Language is the language of the deaf community. English, though without official status, is widely spoken throughout the country and is the de facto language of commerce and banking, as well as a co-official status in the education sector; almost all university-level classes are held in English and almost all public schools teach English along with Standard Arabic.[257] Chechen, Circassian, Armenian, Tagalog, and Russian are popular among their communities.[258] French is offered as an elective in many schools, mainly in the private sector.[257] German is an increasingly popular language; it has been introduced at a larger scale since the establishment of the German-Jordanian University in 2005.[259]
+
+Many institutions in Jordan aim to increase cultural awareness of Jordanian Art and to represent Jordan's artistic movements in fields such as paintings, sculpture, graffiti and photography.[260] The art scene has been developing in the past few years[261] and Jordan has been a haven for artists from surrounding countries.[262] In January 2016, for the first time ever, a Jordanian film called Theeb was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.[263]
+
+The largest museum in Jordan is The Jordan Museum. It contains much of the valuable archaeological findings in the country, including some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Neolithic limestone statues of 'Ain Ghazal and a copy of the Mesha Stele.[264] Most museums in Jordan are located in Amman including The Children's Museum Jordan, The Martyr's Memorial and Museum and the Royal Automobile Museum. Museums outside Amman include the Aqaba Archaeological Museum.[265] The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts is a major contemporary art museum located in Amman.[265]
+
+Music in Jordan is now developing with a lot of new bands and artists, who are now popular in the Middle East. Artists such as Omar Al-Abdallat, Toni Qattan, Diana Karazon and Hani Metwasi have increased the popularity of Jordanian music.[266] The Jerash Festival is an annual music event that features popular Arab singers.[266] Pianist and composer Zade Dirani has gained wide international popularity.[267] There is also an increasing growth of alternative Arabic rock bands, who are dominating the scene in the Arab World, including: El Morabba3, Autostrad, JadaL, Akher Zapheer and Aziz Maraka.[268]
+
+Jordan unveiled its first underwater military museum off the coast of Aqaba. Several military vehicles, including tanks, troop carriers and a helicopter are in the museum.[269]
+
+Several Jordanian writers and poets have gained fame in the Arab world including Mustafa Wahbi Tal (Arar), Tayseer Sboul, Nahed Hattar, Fadi Zaghmout and others.
+
+While both team and individual sports are widely played in Jordan, the Kingdom has enjoyed its biggest international achievements in Taekwondo. The highlight came at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games when Ahmad Abu Ghaush won Jordan's first ever medal[270] of any colour at the Games by taking gold in the -67 kg weight.[271] Medals have continued to be won at World and Asian level in the sport since to establish Taekwondo as the Kingdom's favourite sport alongside football[200] and basketball.[272]
+
+Football is the most popular sport in Jordan.[273] The national football team came within a play-off of reaching the 2014 World Cup in Brazil[274] when they lost a two-legged play-off against Uruguay.[275] They previously reached the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup in 2004 and 2011.
+
+Jordan has a strong policy for inclusive sport and invests heavily in encouraging girls and women to participate in all sports. The women's football team gaining reputation,[276] and in March 2016 ranked 58th in the world.[277]  In 2016, Jordan hosted the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup,  with 16 teams representing six continents. The tournament was held in four stadiums in the three Jordanian cities of Amman, Zarqa and Irbid. It was the first women's sports tournament in the Middle East.[278]
+
+Basketball is another sport that Jordan continues to punch above its weight in, having qualified to the FIBA 2010 World Basketball Cup and more recently reaching the 2019 World Cup in China.[279] Jordan came within a point of reaching the 2012 Olympics after losing the final of the 2010 Asian Cup to China by the narrowest of margins, 70–69, and settling for silver instead. Jordan's national basketball team is participating in various international and Middle Eastern tournaments. Local basketball teams include: Al-Orthodoxi Club, Al-Riyadi, Zain, Al-Hussein and Al-Jazeera.[280]
+
+Boxing, Karate, Kickboxing, Muay-Thai and Ju-Jitsu are also popular. Less common sports are gaining popularity. Rugby is increasing in popularity, a Rugby Union is recognized by the Jordan Olympic Committee which supervises three national teams.[281] Although cycling is not widespread in Jordan, the sport is developing as a lifestyle and a new way to travel especially among the youth.[282] In 2014, a NGO Make Life Skate Life completed construction of the 7Hills Skatepark, the first skatepark in the country located in Downtown Amman.[283]
+
+As the 8th largest producer of olives in the world, olive oil is the main cooking oil in Jordan.[284] A common appetizer is hummus, which is a puree of chick peas blended with tahini, lemon, and garlic. Ful medames is another well-known appetiser. A typical worker's meal, it has since made its way to the tables of the upper class. A typical Jordanian meze often contains koubba maqliya, labaneh, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, olives and pickles.[285] Meze is generally accompanied by the Levantine alcoholic drink arak, which is made from grapes and aniseed and is similar to ouzo, rakı and pastis. Jordanian wine and beer are also sometimes used. The same dishes, served without alcoholic drinks, can also be termed "muqabbilat" (starters) in Arabic.[200]
+
+The most distinctive Jordanian dish is mansaf, the national dish of Jordan. The dish is a symbol for Jordanian hospitality and is influenced by the Bedouin culture. Mansaf is eaten on different occasions such as funerals, weddings and on religious holidays. It consists of a plate of rice with meat that was boiled in thick yogurt, sprayed with pine nuts and sometimes herbs. As an old tradition, the dish is eaten using one's hands, but the tradition is not always used.[285] Simple fresh fruit is often served towards the end of a Jordanian meal, but there is also dessert, such as baklava, hareeseh, knafeh, halva and qatayef, a dish made specially for Ramadan. In Jordanian cuisine, drinking coffee and tea flavoured with na'na or meramiyyeh is almost a ritual.[286]
+
+Life expectancy in Jordan was around 74.8 years in 2017.[17] The leading cause of death is cardiovascular diseases, followed by cancer.[288] Childhood immunization rates have increased steadily over the past 15 years; by 2002 immunisations and vaccines reached more than 95% of children under five.[289] In 1950, water and sanitation was available to only 10% of the population; in 2015 it reached 98% of Jordanians.[290]
+
+Jordan prides itself on its health services, some of the best in the region.[291] Qualified medics, a favourable investment climate and Jordan's stability has contributed to the success of this sector.[292] The country's health care system is divided between public and private institutions. On 1 June 2007, Jordan Hospital (as the biggest private hospital) was the first general specialty hospital to gain the international accreditation JCAHO.[289] The King Hussein Cancer Center is a leading cancer treatment center.[293] 66% of Jordanians have medical insurance.[3]
+
+The Jordanian educational system comprises 2 years of pre-school education, 10 years of compulsory basic education, and two years of secondary academic or vocational education, after which the students sit for the General Certificate of Secondary Education Exam (Tawjihi) exams.[294] Scholars may attend either private or public schools. According to the UNESCO, the literacy rate in 2015 was 98.01% and is considered to be the highest in the Middle East and the Arab world, and one of the highest in the world.[287] UNESCO ranked Jordan's educational system 18th out of 94 nations for providing gender equality in education.[295] Jordan has the highest number of researchers in research and development per million people among all the 57 countries that are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In Jordan there are 8060 researchers per million people, while the world average is 2532 per million.[296] Primary education is free in Jordan.[297]
+
+Jordan has 10 public universities, 19 private universities and 54 community colleges, of which 14 are public, 24 private and others affiliated with the Jordanian Armed Forces, the Civil Defense Department, the Ministry of Health and UNRWA.[298] There are over 200,000 Jordanian students enrolled in universities each year. An additional 20,000 Jordanians pursue higher education abroad primarily in the United States and Europe.[299] According to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, the top-ranking universities in the country are the University of Jordan (UJ) (1,220th worldwide), Jordan University of Science & Technology (JUST) (1,729th) and Hashemite University (2,176th).[300] UJ and JUST occupy 8th and 10th between Arab universities.[301] Jordan has 2,000 researchers per million people.[302]
+
+
+
+Coordinates: 31°14′N 36°31′E / 31.24°N 36.51°E / 31.24; 36.51

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+Baghdad (/ˈbæɡdæd, bəɡˈdæd/; Arabic: بَغْدَاد‎ [baɣˈdaːd] (listen), Syriac: ܒܓܕܕ‎)[2] is the capital of Iraq and the third-largest city in the Arab world after Riyadh and Cairo. Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century, and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center of the Muslim world. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as hosting a multiethnic and multireligious environment, garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Centre of Learning".
+
+Baghdad was the largest city in the world for much of the Abbasid era during the Islamic Golden Age, peaking at a population of more than a million.[3] The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1932, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arabic culture, with a population variously estimated at 6 or over 7 million.[note 1]
+
+In contemporary times, the city has often faced severe infrastructural damage, most recently due to the United States-led  2003 invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent Iraq War that lasted until December 2011. In recent years, the city has been frequently subjected to insurgent attacks, resulting in a substantial loss of cultural heritage and historical artifacts as well. As of 2018[update], Baghdad was listed as one of the least hospitable places in the world to live, ranked by Mercer as the worst major city for quality of life in the world.[8]
+
+The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, and its origin is disputed.[9] The site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. By the 8th century AD, several villages had developed there, including a Persian[10][11] hamlet called Baghdad, the name which would come to be used for the Abbasid metropolis.[12]
+
+Arab authors, realizing the pre-Islamic origins of Baghdad's name, generally looked for its roots in Middle Persian.[9] They suggested various meanings, the most common of which was "bestowed by God".[9] Modern scholars generally tend to favor this etymology,[9] which views the word as a compound of bagh () "god" and dād () "given",[13][14] In Old Persian this can be traced to Sanskrit bhag (भग) which means "god" and dātta (दत्त)  which means "given" or bhagdatta (भगदत्त) which would mean "god given, the first element can be traced to boghu and is related to bog, a Slavic word for "god".[9][15] A similar term in Middle Persian is the name Mithradāt (Mihrdād in New Persian), known in English by its Hellenistic form Mithridates, meaning "gift of Mithra" (dāt is the more archaic form of dād, related to Latin dat and English donor[9]). There are a number of other locations in the wider region whose names are compounds of the word bagh, including Baghlan and Bagram in Afghanistan, Baghshan in Iran,[16] and Baghdati in Georgia, which likely share the same etymological origins.[17][18]
+
+A few authors have suggested older origins for the name, in particular the name Bagdadu or Hudadu that existed in Old Babylonian (spelled with a sign that can represent both bag and hu), and the Babylonian Talmudic name of a place called "Baghdatha".[9][19][20] Some scholars suggested Aramaic derivations.[9]
+
+When the Abbasid caliph, Al-Mansur, founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name Madinat al-Salaam or City of Peace. This was the official name on coins, weights, and other official usage, although the common people continued to use the old name.[21][22][unreliable source?] By the 11th century, "Baghdad" became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis.
+
+After the fall of the Umayyads, the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital from which they could rule. They chose a site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon (and also just north of where ancient Babylon had once stood), and on 30 July 762[23] the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city. It was built under the supervision of the Barmakids.[24] Mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying: "This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward".[25]
+
+The city's growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors: it had control over strategic and trading routes along the Tigris, and it had an abundance of water in a dry climate. Water exists on both the north and south ends of the city, allowing all households to have a plentiful supply, which was very uncommon during this time. The city of Baghdad soon became so large that it had to be divided into three judicial districts: Madinat al-Mansur (the Round City), al-Sharqiyya (Karkh) and Askar al-Mahdi (on the West Bank).[26]
+
+Baghdad eclipsed Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanians, which was located some 30 km (19 mi) to the southeast. Today, all that remains of Ctesiphon is the shrine town of Salman Pak, just to the south of Greater Baghdad. Ctesiphon itself had replaced and absorbed Seleucia, the first capital of the Seleucid Empire, which had earlier replaced the city of Babylon.
+
+According to the traveler Ibn Battuta, Baghdad was one of the largest cities, not including the damage it has received. The residents are mostly Hanbal. Baghdad is also home to the grave of Abu Hanifa where there is a cell and a mosque above it. The Sultan of Baghdad, Abu Said Bahadur Khan, was a Tatar king who embraced Islam.[27]
+
+In its early years, the city was known as a deliberate reminder of an expression in the Qur'an, when it refers to Paradise.[28] It took four years to build (764–768). Mansur assembled engineers, surveyors, and art constructionists from around the world to come together and draw up plans for the city. Over 100,000 construction workers came to survey the plans; many were distributed salaries to start the building of the city.[29] July was chosen as the starting time because two astrologers, Naubakht Ahvazi and Mashallah, believed that the city should be built under the sign of the lion, Leo.[30] Leo is associated with fire and symbolises productivity, pride, and expansion.
+
+The bricks used to make the city were 18 inches (460 mm) on all four sides. Abu Hanifah was the counter of the bricks and he developed a canal, which brought water to the work site for both human consumption and the manufacture of the bricks. Marble was also used to make buildings throughout the city, and marble steps led down to the river's edge.
+
+The basic framework of the city consists of two large semicircles about 19 km (12 mi) in diameter. The city was designed as a circle about 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter, leading it to be known as the "Round City". The original design shows a single ring of residential and commercial structures along the inside of the city walls, but the final construction added another ring inside the first.[31] Within the city there were many parks, gardens, villas, and promenades.[32] In the center of the city lay the mosque, as well as headquarters for guards. The purpose or use of the remaining space in the center is unknown. The circular design of the city was a direct reflection of the traditional Persian Sasanian urban design. The Sasanian city of Gur in Fars, built 500 years before Baghdad, is nearly identical in its general circular design, radiating avenues, and the government buildings and temples at the centre of the city. This style of urban planning contrasted with Ancient Greek and Roman urban planning, in which cities are designed as squares or rectangles with streets intersecting each other at right angles.
+
+The four surrounding walls of Baghdad were named Kufa, Basra, Khurasan, and Syria; named because their gates pointed in the directions of these destinations. The distance between these gates was a little less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi). Each gate had double doors that were made of iron; the doors were so heavy it took several men to open and close them. The wall itself was about 44 m thick at the base and about 12 m thick at the top. Also, the wall was 30 m high, which included merlons, a solid part of an embattled parapet usually pierced by embrasures. This wall was surrounded by another wall with a thickness of 50 m. The second wall had towers and rounded merlons, which surrounded the towers. This outer wall was protected by a solid glacis, which is made out of bricks and quicklime. Beyond the outer wall was a water-filled moat.[citation needed]
+
+The Golden Gate Palace, the residence of the caliph and his family, was in the middle of Baghdad, in the central square. In the central part of the building, there was a green dome that was 39 m high. Surrounding the palace was an esplanade, a waterside building, in which only the caliph could come riding on horseback. In addition, the palace was near other mansions and officer's residences. Near the Gate of Syria, a building served as the home for the guards. It was made of brick and marble. The palace governor lived in the latter part of the building and the commander of the guards in the front. In 813, after the death of caliph Al-Amin, the palace was no longer used as the home for the caliph and his family.[33]
+The roundness points to the fact that it was based on Arabic script.[34][35] The two designers who were hired by Al-Mansur to plan the city's design were Naubakht, a Zoroastrian who also determined that the date of the foundation of the city would be astrologically auspicious, and Mashallah, a Jew from Khorasan, Iran.[36]
+
+Within a generation of its founding, Baghdad became a hub of learning and commerce. The city flourished into an unrivaled intellectual center of science, medicine, philosophy, and education, especially with the Abbasid Translation Movement began under the second caliph Al-Mansur and thrived under the seventh caliph Al-Ma'mun.[37] Baytul-Hikmah or the "House of Wisdom" was among the most well known academies,[38] and had the largest selection of books in the world by the middle of the 9th century.[citation needed] Notable scholars based in Baghdad during this time include translator Hunayn ibn Ishaq, mathematician al-Khwarizmi, and philosopher Al-Kindi.[38] Although Arabic was used as the international language of science, the scholarship involved not only Arabs, but also Persians, Syriacs,[39] Nestorians, Jews, Arab Christians,[40][41] and people from other ethnic and religious groups native to the region.[42][43][44][45][46] These are considered among the fundamental elements that contributed to the flourishing of scholarship in the Medieval Islamic world.[47][48][49] Baghdad was also a significant center of Islamic religious learning, with Al-Jahiz contributing to the formation of Mu'tazili theology, as well as Al-Tabari culminating the scholarship on the Quranic exegesis.[37] Baghdad was likely the largest city in the world from shortly after its foundation until the 930s, when it tied with Córdoba.[50]
+Several estimates suggest that the city contained over a million inhabitants at its peak.[51] Many of the One Thousand and One Nights tales, widely known as the Arabian Nights, are set in Baghdad during this period.
+
+Among the notable features of Baghdad during this period were its exceptional libraries. Many of the Abbasid caliphs were patrons of learning and enjoyed collecting both ancient and contemporary literature. Although some of the princes of the previous Umayyad dynasty had begun to gather and translate Greek scientific literature, the Abbasids were the first to foster Greek learning on a large scale. Many of these libraries were private collections intended only for the use of the owners and their immediate friends, but the libraries of the caliphs and other officials soon took on a public or a semi-public character.[52] Four great libraries were established in Baghdad during this period. The earliest was that of the famous Al-Ma'mun, who was caliph from 813 to 833. Another was established by Sabur ibn Ardashir in 991 or 993 for the literary men and scholars who frequented his academy.[52] Unfortunately, this second library was plundered and burned by the Seljuks only seventy years after it was established. This was a good example of the sort of library built up out of the needs and interests of a literary society.[52] The last two were examples of madrasa or theological college libraries. The Nezamiyeh was founded by the Persian Nizam al-Mulk, who was vizier of two early Seljuk sultans.[52] It continued to operate even after the coming of the Mongols in 1258. The Mustansiriyah madrasa, which owned an exceedingly rich library, was founded by Al-Mustansir, the second last Abbasid caliph, who died in 1242.[52] This would prove to be the last great library built by the caliphs of Baghdad.
+
+By the 10th century, the city's population was between 1.2 million[53] and 2 million.[54] Baghdad's early meteoric growth eventually slowed due to troubles within the Caliphate, including relocations of the capital to Samarra (during 808–819 and 836–892), the loss of the western and easternmost provinces, and periods of political domination by the Iranian Buwayhids (945–1055) and Seljuk Turks (1055–1135).
+
+The Seljuks were a clan of the Oghuz Turks from Central Asia that converted to the Sunni branch of Islam. In 1040, they destroyed the Ghaznavids, taking over their land and in 1055, Tughril Beg, the leader of the Seljuks, took over Baghdad. The Seljuks expelled the Buyid dynasty of Shiites that had ruled for some time and took over power and control of Baghdad. They ruled as Sultans in the name of the Abbasid caliphs (they saw themselves as being part of the Abbasid regime). Tughril Beg saw himself as the protector of the Abbasid Caliphs.[55]
+
+Sieges and wars in which Baghdad was involved are listed below:
+
+In 1058, Baghdad was captured by the Fatimids under the Turkish general Abu'l-Ḥārith Arslān al-Basasiri, an adherent of the Ismailis along with the 'Uqaylid Quraysh.[56] Not long before the arrival of the Saljuqs in Baghdad, al-Basasiri petitioned to the Fatimid Imam-Caliph al-Mustansir to support him in conquering Baghdad on the Ismaili Imam's behalf. It has recently come to light that the famed Fatimid da'i, al-Mu'ayyad al-Shirazi, had a direct role in supporting al-Basasiri and helped the general to succeed in taking Mawṣil, Wāsit and Kufa. Soon after,[57] by December 1058, a Shi'i adhān (call to prayer) was implemented in Baghdad and a khutbah (sermon) was delivered in the name of the Fatimid Imam-Caliph.[57] Despite his Shi'i inclinations, Al-Basasiri received support from Sunnis and Shi'is alike, for whom opposition to the Saljuq power was a common factor.[58]
+
+On 10 February 1258, Baghdad was captured by the Mongols led by Hulegu, a grandson of Chingiz Khan (Genghis Khan), during the siege of Baghdad.[59] Many quarters were ruined by fire, siege, or looting. The Mongols massacred most of the city's inhabitants, including the caliph Al-Musta'sim, and destroyed large sections of the city. The canals and dykes forming the city's irrigation system were also destroyed. During this time, in Baghdad, Christians and Shia were tolerated, while Sunnis were treated as enemies.[60] The sack of Baghdad put an end to the Abbasid Caliphate.[61] It has been argued that this marked an end to the Islamic Golden Age and served a blow from which Islamic civilisation never fully recovered.[62]
+
+At this point, Baghdad was ruled by the Ilkhanate, a breakaway state of the Mongol Empire, ruling from Iran. In 1401, Baghdad was again sacked, by the Central Asian Turkic conqueror Timur ("Tamerlane").[63] When his forces took Baghdad, he spared almost no one, and ordered that each of his soldiers bring back two severed human heads.[64] Baghdad became a provincial capital controlled by the Mongol Jalayirid (1400–1411), Turkic Kara Koyunlu (1411–1469), Turkic Ak Koyunlu (1469–1508), and the Iranian Safavid (1508–1534) dynasties.
+
+In 1534, Baghdad was captured by the Ottoman Turks. Under the Ottomans, Baghdad continued into a period of decline, partially as a result of the enmity between its rulers and Iranian Safavids, which did not accept the Sunni control of the city. Between 1623 and 1638, it returned to Iranian rule before falling back into Ottoman hands. Baghdad has suffered severely from visitations of the plague and cholera,[65] and sometimes two-thirds of its population has been wiped out.[66]
+
+For a time, Baghdad had been the largest city in the Middle East. The city saw relative revival in the latter part of the 18th century, under a Mamluk government. Direct Ottoman rule was reimposed by Ali Rıza Pasha in 1831. From 1851 to 1852 and from 1861 to 1867, Baghdad was governed, under the Ottoman Empire by Mehmed Namık Pasha.[67] The Nuttall Encyclopedia reports the 1907 population of Baghdad as 185,000.
+
+Baghdad Eyalet in 1609 CE.
+
+Baghdad Vilayet in 1900 CE.
+
+Souk in Baghdad, 1876 CE.
+
+Baghdad and southern Iraq remained under Ottoman rule until 1917, when captured by the British during World War I. In 1920, Baghdad became the capital of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia with several architectural and planning projects commissioned to reinforce this administration.[68] After receiving independence in 1932, the capital of the Kingdom of Iraq. The city's population grew from an estimated 145,000 in 1900 to 580,000 in 1950. During the Mandate, Baghdad's substantial Jewish community comprised a quarter of the city's population.[69] On 1 April 1941, members of the "Golden Square" and Rashid Ali staged a coup in Baghdad. Rashid Ali installed a pro-German and pro-Italian government to replace the pro-British government of Regent Abdul Ilah. On 31 May, after the resulting Anglo-Iraqi War and after Rashid Ali and his government had fled, the Mayor of Baghdad surrendered to British and Commonwealth forces. On 14 July 1958, members of the Iraqi Army, under Abd al-Karim Qasim, staged a coup to topple the Kingdom of Iraq. King Faisal II, former Prime Minister Nuri as-Said, former Regent Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, members of the royal family, and others were brutally killed during the coup. Many of the victim's bodies were then dragged through the streets of Baghdad.
+
+During the 1970s, Baghdad experienced a period of prosperity and growth because of a sharp increase in the price of petroleum, Iraq's main export. New infrastructure including modern sewerage, water, and highway facilities were built during this period. The masterplans of the city (1967, 1973) were delivered by the Polish planning office Miastoprojekt-Kraków, mediated by Polservice.[70] However, the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s was a difficult time for the city, as money was diverted by Saddam Hussein to the army and thousands of residents were killed. Iran launched a number of missile attacks against Baghdad in retaliation for Saddam Hussein's continuous bombardments of Tehran's residential districts. In 1991 and 2003, the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq caused significant damage to Baghdad's transportation, power, and sanitary infrastructure as the US-led coalition forces launched massive aerial assaults in the city in the two wars.  Also in 2003, the minor riot in the city (which took place on 21 July) caused some disturbance in the population. The historic "Assyrian Quarter" of the city, Dora, which boasted a population of 150,000 Assyrians in 2003, made up over 3% of the capital's Assyrian population then. The community has been subject to kidnappings, death threats, vandalism, and house burnings by Al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups. As of the end of 2014, only 1,500 Assyrians remained in Dora.[71]
+
+Points of interest include the National Museum of Iraq whose collection of artifacts was looted during the 2003 invasion, and the iconic Hands of Victory arches. Multiple Iraqi parties are in discussions as to whether the arches should remain as historical monuments or be dismantled. Thousands of ancient manuscripts in the National Library were destroyed under Saddam's command.
+
+Mutanabbi Street is located near the old quarter of Baghdad; at Al Rasheed Street. It is the historic center of Baghdadi book-selling, a street filled with bookstores and outdoor book stalls. It was named after the 10th-century classical Iraqi poet Al-Mutanabbi.[72] This street is well established for bookselling and has often been referred to as the heart and soul of the Baghdad literacy and intellectual community.
+
+The zoological park used to be the largest in the Middle East. Within eight days following the 2003 invasion, however, only 35 of the 650 animals in the facility survived. This was a result of theft of some animals for human food, and starvation of caged animals that had no food. South African Lawrence Anthony and some of the zoo keepers cared for the animals and fed the carnivores with donkeys they had bought locally.[73][74] Eventually, Paul Bremer, Director of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from 11 May 2003 to 28 June 2004 ordered protection of the zoo and U.S. engineers helped to reopen the facility.[73]
+
+Grand Festivities Square is the main square where public celebrations are held and is also the home to three important monuments commemorating Iraqi's fallen soldiers and victories in war; namely Al-Shaheed Monument, the Victory Arch and the Unknown Soldier's Monument.[75]
+
+Al-Shaheed Monument, also known as the Martyr's Memorial, is a monument dedicated to the Iraqi soldiers who died in the Iran–Iraq War. However, now it is generally considered by Iraqis to be for all of the martyrs of Iraq, especially those allied with Iran and Syria fighting ISIS, not just of the Iran–Iraq War. The monument was opened in 1983, and was designed by the Iraqi architect Saman Kamal and the Iraqi sculptor and artist Ismail Fatah Al Turk. During the 1970s and 1980s, Saddam Hussein's government spent a lot of money on new monuments, which included the al-Shaheed Monument.[76]
+
+Al-Shaheed, (Martyr's Monument), Zawra Park, Baghdad
+
+The Victory Arch (officially known as the Swords of Qādisīyah
+
+Qushla or Qishla is a public square and the historical complex located in Rusafa neighborhood at the riverbank of Tigris. Qushla and its surroundings is where the historical features and cultural capitals of Baghdad are concentrated, from the Mutanabbi Street, Abbasid-era palace and bridges, Ottoman-era mosques to the Mustansariyah Madrasa. The square developed during the Ottoman era as a military barracks. Today, it is a place where the citizens of Baghdad find leisure such as reading poetry in gazebos.[77] It is characterized by the iconic clock tower which was donated by George V. The entire area is submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Tentative list.[78]
+
+Firdos Square is a public open space in Baghdad and the location of two of the best-known hotels, the Palestine Hotel and the Sheraton Ishtar, which are both also the tallest buildings in Baghdad.[84] The square was the site of the statue of Saddam Hussein that was pulled down by U.S. coalition forces in a widely televised event during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
+
+Administratively, Baghdad Governorate is divided into districts which are further divided into sub-districts.  Municipally, the governorate is divided into 9 municipalities, which have responsibility for local issues.  Regional services, however, are coordinated and carried out by a mayor who oversees the municipalities.  There is no single city council that singularly governs Baghdad at a municipal level.  The governorate council is responsible for the governorate-wide policy. These official subdivisions of the city served as administrative centres for the delivery of municipal services but until 2003 had no political function. Beginning in April 2003, the U.S. controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) began the process of creating new functions for these. The process initially focused on the election of neighbourhood councils in the official neighbourhoods, elected by neighbourhood caucuses. The CPA convened a series of meetings in each neighbourhood to explain local government, to describe the caucus election process and to encourage participants to spread the word and bring friends, relatives and neighbours to subsequent meetings. Each neighbourhood process ultimately ended with a final meeting where candidates for the new neighbourhood councils identified themselves and asked their neighbours to vote for them. Once all 88 (later increased to 89) neighbourhood councils were in place, each neighbourhood council elected representatives from among their members to serve on one of the city's nine district councils. The number of neighbourhood representatives on a district council is based upon the neighbourhood's population. The next step was to have each of the nine district councils elect representatives from their membership to serve on the 37 member Baghdad City Council. This three tier system of local government connected the people of Baghdad to the central government through their representatives from the neighbourhood, through the district, and up to the city council. The same process was used to provide representative councils for the other communities in Baghdad Province outside of the city itself. There, local councils were elected from 20 neighbourhoods (Nahia) and these councils elected representatives from their members to serve on six district councils (Qada). As within the city, the district councils then elected representatives from among their members to serve on the 35 member Baghdad Regional Council. The first step in the establishment of the system of local government for Baghdad Province was the election of the Baghdad Provincial Council. As before, the representatives to the Provincial Council were elected by their peers from the lower councils in numbers proportional to the population of the districts they represent. The 41 member Provincial Council took office in February 2004 and served until national elections held in January 2005, when a new Provincial Council was elected. This system of 127 separate councils may seem overly cumbersome; however, Baghdad Province is home to approximately seven million people. At the lowest level, the neighbourhood councils, each council represents an average of 75,000 people. The nine District Advisory Councils (DAC) are as follows:[85]
+
+The nine districts are subdivided into 89 smaller neighborhoods which may make up sectors of any of the districts above. The following is a selection (rather than a complete list) of these neighborhoods:
+
+The city is located on a vast plain bisected by the Tigris river. The Tigris splits Baghdad in half, with the eastern half being called "Risafa" and the Western half known as "Karkh". The land on which the city is built is almost entirely flat and low-lying, being of alluvial origin due to the periodic large floods which have occurred on the river.
+
+Baghdad has a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh), featuring extremely hot, prolonged, dry summers and mild to cool, slightly wet, short winters. In the summer, from June through August, the average maximum temperature is as high as 44 °C (111 °F) and accompanied by sunshine. Rainfall has been recorded on fewer than half a dozen occasions at this time of year and has never exceeded 1 millimetre (0.04 in).[93] Even at night, temperatures in summer are seldom below 24 °C (75 °F). Baghdad's record highest temperature of 51 degrees Celsius (124 degrees Fahrenheit) was reached in July 2015.[94] The humidity is typically under 50% in summer due to Baghdad's distance from the marshy southern Iraq and the coasts of Persian Gulf, and dust storms from the deserts to the west are a normal occurrence during the summer.
+
+Winter temperatures are typical of hot desert climates. From December through February, Baghdad has maximum temperatures averaging 15.5 to 18.5 °C (59.9 to 65.3 °F), though highs above 21 °C (70 °F) are not unheard of. Lows below freezing occur a couple of times per year on average.[95]
+
+Annual rainfall, almost entirely confined to the period from November through March, averages approximately 150 mm (5.91 in), but has been as high as 338 mm (13.31 in) and as low as 37 mm (1.46 in).[96] On 11 January 2008, light snow fell across Baghdad for the first time in 100 years.[97] Snowfall was again reported on 11 February 2020, with accumulations across the city.[98]
+
+Baghdad's population was estimated at 7.22 million in 2015. The city historically had a predominantly Sunni population, but by the early 21st century around 82% of the city's population were Iraqi Shi'ites. At the beginning of the 21st century, some 1.5 million people migrated to Baghdad, most of them Shiites and a few Sunnis. Sunni Muslims make up 23% of Iraq's population and they are still a majority in west and north Iraq. As early as 2003, about 20 percent of the population of the city was the result of mixed marriages between Shi'ites and Sunnis: they are often referred to as "Sushis".[102] Following the sectarian violence in Iraq between the Sunni and Shia militia groups during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the city's population became overwhelmingly Shia. Despite the government's promise to resettle Sunnis displaced by the violence, little has been done to bring this about. The Iraqi Civil War following ISIS' invasion in 2014 caused hundreds of thousands of Iraqi internally displaced people to flee to the city. The city has Sunni, Shia, Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs, Armenians and mixed neighborhoods. The city was also home to a large Jewish community and regularly visited by Sikh pilgrims.
+
+Baghdad accounts for 22.2 per cent of Iraq's population and 40 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (PPP). Iraqi Airways, the national airline of Iraq, has its headquarters on the grounds of Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad.[103]
+
+Most Iraqi reconstruction efforts have been devoted to the restoration and repair of badly damaged urban infrastructure. More visible efforts at reconstruction through private development, like architect and urban designer Hisham N. Ashkouri's Baghdad Renaissance Plan and the Sindbad Hotel Complex and Conference Center have also been made.[104] A plan was proposed by a Government agency to rebuild a tourist island in 2008.[105] In late 2009, a construction plan was proposed to rebuild the heart of Baghdad, but the plan was never realized because corruption was involved in it.[106]
+
+The Baghdad Eye, a 198 m (650 ft) tall Ferris wheel, was proposed for Baghdad in August 2008. At that time, three possible locations had been identified, but no estimates of cost or completion date were given.[107][108][109][110] In October 2008, it was reported that Al-Zawraa Park was expected to be the site,[111] and a 55 m (180 ft) wheel was installed there in March 2011.[112]
+
+Iraq's Tourism Board is also seeking investors to develop a "romantic" island on the River Tigris in Baghdad that was once a popular honeymoon spot for newlywed Iraqis. The project would include a six-star hotel, spa, an 18-hole golf course and a country club. In addition, the go-ahead has been given to build numerous architecturally unique skyscrapers along the Tigris that would develop the city's financial centre in Kadhehemiah.[107]
+
+In October 2008, the Baghdad Metro resumed service. It connects the center to the southern neighborhood of Dora.
+In May 2010, a new residential and commercial project nicknamed Baghdad Gate was announced.[113] This project not only addresses the urgent need for new residential units in Baghdad but also acts as a real symbol of progress in the war torn city, as Baghdad has not seen projects of this scale for decades.[114]
+
+The Mustansiriya Madrasah was established in 1227 by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir. The name was changed to Al-Mustansiriya University in 1963. The University of Baghdad is the largest university in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab world. Prior to the Gulf War, multiple international schools operated in Baghdad, including:
+
+Baghdad has always played a significant role in the broader Arab cultural sphere, contributing several significant writers, musicians and visual artists. Famous Arab poets and singers such as Nizar Qabbani, Umm Kulthum, Fairuz, Salah Al-Hamdani, Ilham al-Madfai and others have performed for the city. The dialect of Arabic spoken in Baghdad today differs from that of other large urban centres in Iraq, having features more characteristic of nomadic Arabic dialects (Versteegh, The Arabic Language). It is possible that this was caused by the repopulating of the city with rural residents after the multiple sackings of the late Middle Ages. For poetry written about Baghdad, see Reuven Snir (ed.), Baghdad: The City in Verse (Harvard, 2013)[118] Baghdad joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a City of Literature in December 2015.[119]
+
+Some of the important cultural institutions in the city include the National Theater, which was looted during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but efforts are underway to restore the theatre.[120] The live theatre scene received a boost during the 1990s, when UN sanctions limited the import of foreign films. As many as 30 movie theatres were reported to have been converted to live stages, producing a wide range of comedies and dramatic productions.[121] Institutions offering cultural education in Baghdad include The Music and Ballet School of Baghdad and the Institute of Fine Arts Baghdad. The Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra is a government funded symphony orchestra in Baghdad. The INSO plays primarily classical European music, as well as original compositions based on Iraqi and Arab instruments and music. Baghdad is also home to a number of museums which housed artifacts and relics of ancient civilization; many of these were stolen, and the museums looted, during the widespread chaos immediately after United States forces entered the city.
+
+During the 2003 occupation of Iraq, AFN Iraq ("Freedom Radio") broadcast news and entertainment within Baghdad, among other locations. There is also a private radio station called "Dijlah" (named after the Arabic word for the Tigris River) that was created in 2004 as Iraq's first independent talk radio station. Radio Dijlah offices, in the Jamia neighborhood of Baghdad, have been attacked on several occasions.[122]
+
+Priceless collection of artifacts in the National Museum of Iraq was looted during the 2003 US-led invasion. Thousands of ancient manuscripts in the National Library were destroyed under Saddam's command and because of neglect by the occupying coalition forces.[123]
+
+Baghdad is home to some of the most successful football (soccer) teams in Iraq, the biggest being Al-Shorta (Police), Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya (Airforce club), Al-Zawra'a, and Talaba (Students). The largest stadium in Baghdad is Al-Shaab Stadium, which was opened in 1966. The city has also had a strong tradition of horse racing ever since World War I, known to Baghdadis simply as 'Races'. There are reports of pressures by the Islamists to stop this tradition due to the associated gambling.[citation needed]

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+The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Neapolitan: Regno d’ ’e Ddoje Sicilie; Sicilian: Regnu dî Dui Sicili; Italian: Regno delle Due Sicilie; Spanish: Reino de las Dos Sicilias)[1] was a kingdom located in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860.[2] The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy prior to Italian unification, comprising Sicily and all of Peninsula Italy south of the Papal States, covering most of the area of today's Mezzogiorno.
+
+The kingdom was formed when the Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples, which was officially known as the Kingdom of Sicily. Since both kingdoms were named Sicily, they were collectively known as the "Two Sicilies" (Utraque Sicilia, literally "both Sicilies"), and the unified kingdom adopted this name. The King of the Two Sicilies was overthrown by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860, after which the people voted in a plebiscite to join the Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia. The annexation of the Two Sicilies completed the first phase of Italian unification, and the new Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861.
+
+The Two Sicilies were heavily agricultural, like the other Italian states.[3]
+
+The name "Two Sicilies" originated from the partition of the medieval Kingdom of Sicily. Until 1285, the island of Sicily and the Mezzogiorno were constituent parts of the Kingdom of Sicily. As a result of the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302),[4] the King of Sicily lost the Island of Sicily (also called Trinacria) to the Crown of Aragon, but remained ruler over the peninsular part of the realm. Although his territory became known unofficially as the Kingdom of Naples, he and his successors never gave up the title "King of Sicily" and still officially referred to their realm as the "Kingdom of Sicily". At the same time, the Aragonese rulers of the Island of Sicily also called their realm the "Kingdom of Sicily". Thus, there were two kingdoms called "Sicily":[4] hence, the Two Sicilies.
+
+The Norman Kingdom of Sicily was established on Christmas Day, 1130, by Roger II of Sicily who united the lands he had inherited which included the Duchy of Apulia and the County of Sicily with the agreement of Pope Innocent II. In 1282, following the Sicilian Vespers, it was split into the Kingdoms of Sicily and of Naples by the Peace of Caltabellotta. From 1442 onward Sicily and Naples were in dynastic union, by the Crown of Aragon, since 1516 by the Habsburg Dynasty (since 1556 Spanish line). After the War of Spanish Succession, Spain ceded Sicily to Savoy and Naples to Austria. After the War of the Quadruple Alliance, Austria and Savoy switched Sicily (now to Austria) for Sardinia (now to Savoy, 1720). Austrian rule in Naples and Sicily was ended by a Spanish invasion in 1734. The Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily had been under joint rule from 1442 to 1718 and from 1720 to 1734.
+
+In the War of Polish Succession (1733-1735), Spain, now under the Bourbon Dynasty, regained the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, which had been lost to Austria and Savoy respectively in the War of Spanish Succession (1700-1713). In the Treaty of Vienna (1738) Austria ceded both Sicily and Naples to Spain in return for the Duchy of Parma. The Bourbon Dynasty of  Spain created a secundogeniture under Charles for both Sicily and Naples united. Under King Charles (1735/38-1759) and under minister Tanucci, Naples became a center of the enlightenment. In the spirit of religious toleration, Jews, banned from Naples since 1541, were readmitted in 1735. King Charles reformed the army and improved the roads. When an English fleet threatened the Neapolitan coast in 1742, during the War of Austrian Succession, the Kingdom hastily declared neutrality. Later during the same war, in 1744, an Austrian invasion was repelled at the Battle of Velletri. A number of reforms pertained to the church; the number of priests was limited to 10 for every 1000 inhabitants, later reduced to five; for the construction of new churches state permission was required, church tax reduced etc.; in 1741 and again in 1755 a concordat was signed. A Cadastral Survey of the kingdom was begun in 1740 and completed in the 1750s. A 1756 edict redefined the status of nobles, with the objective to turn them into a class of public servants. At the University of Naples Giambattista Vico (†1744), a critic of rationalist (enlightenment) philosophy, taught philosophy.
+
+In 1759, King Charles inherited the Spanish crown; he abdicated as King of the Two Sicilies in favour of his son Ferdinand IV (later Ferdinand I) and, in the pragmatic decree of 1759, established rules for the succession in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which was to be ruled by a side branch of the Spanish Bourbon Dynasty. From 1759 to 1777, minister Bernardo Tanucci, a Tuscan, dominated Neapolitan politics; he ruled as regent during the minority of Ferdinand IV (until 1767), and beyond since Ferdinand IV was not that interested in politics. Tanucci, who had served as minister under Charles, after 1759 reported on his actions to the court in Madrid; the Kingdom of Naples was no longer truly independent. The Kingdom of Naples, under Tanucci, implemented Bourbon Reforms, an early, concerted form of Enlightened Absolutism. The Jesuits were expelled in 1767; when Pope Clement XIII responded by excommunicating Tanucci, the latter ordered Pontecorvo and Benevento, exclaves of the Papal State surrounded by Neapolitan territory, occupied (until 1773). Steps were undertaken to make the Church of the Kingdom of Naples autonomous from Rome (Gallican style).
+
+Ferdinand's wife Maria Carolina, a daughter of Austria's Maria Theresia, had Tanucci dismissed (1777) and replaced by Englishman John Acton; during his administration, the Two Sicilies switched from a Spanish dependence to an Anglo-Austrian alliance. Reform policy was continued, although at a reduced pace (termination of the inquisition 1782). Torture was not abolished until 1859. A Supreme Council of Finance was established in Naples in 1782. In 1778 the Neapolitan Academy of Science and Letters was founded. The Spanish and Austrian Line of the Habsburgs, the Spanish/Neapolitan Line of the Bourbon, the Dukes of Savoy, even minister Tanucci (a Tuscan) had one aspect in common : they were foreigners, and as such they were perceived by the establishment, the landowning nobility and the church, both of which cooperated in order to defend their position. The university of Naples was the first to appoint a professor for political economy, Antonio Genovesi (1754). Some attempts were made by the Neapolitan government to introduce reforms; the Jesuits were expelled in 1765, convents closed, attempts were made to reform the agriculture, vehemently opposed by the landowning nobility. In 1763/1764 Naples was struck by a severe famine.
+
+In 1793 the Kingdom of Two Sicilies joined the First War of the Coalition against France. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1794. In 1798 Neapolitan forces moved into the Papal State in order to expel the French; the coalition falling apart, King Ferdinand, responding to Napoleon's threats, withdrew his forces. In 1799, a French force occupied Naples (i.e. the mainland part of the kingdom; king and administration had moved to Sicily) and proclaimed the short-lived Parthenopean. It faced armed resistance, in the organization of which the Catholic Church (Sanfedismo) played an important role; the French were labeled atheists and regicides. The French had to withdraw, and the Kingdom of Unified Naples regained her possessions on the mainland. In 1806 the French again invaded, Napoleon creating the Kingdom of Naples for his brother Joseph. King Ferdinand during the years 1806-1815 resided in Palermo on Sicily, his island kingdom being protected by the British fleet. In 1808, Joseph Bonaparte as King of Naples was replaced by Joachim Murat.
+
+During the Hundred Days, Murat soon realized that the European powers, meeting at the Congress of Vienna, intended to remove him and return the Kingdom of Naples to its pre-Napoleonic rulers. Murat deserted his new allies before the War of the Seventh Coalition and, after issuing a proclamation to Italian patriots in Rimini, moved north to fight against the Austrians in the Neapolitan War in order to strengthen his rule in Italy by military means. However, he was defeated by Austrian general Frederick Bianchi at the Battle of Tolentino (2–3 May 1815).
+
+The treaty of Casalanza restored Ferdinand IV of Bourbon back to the throne of Naples; the island of Sicily (where the constitution of 1812 virtually had disempowered him) was returned to him. He annulled the constitution in 1816; Sicily was fully reintegrated into what was now officially called the Regno delle Due Sicilie (Kingdom of Two Sicilies), Ferdinand IV became Ferdinand I.
+
+A number of accomplishments under the administration of Kings Joseph and Joachim Murat, such as the Code Civil, the penal and commercial code, were kept (and extended to Sicily). In the mainland parts of the Kingdom, the power and influence of both nobility and clergy had been greatly reduced, however at the expense of law and order - brigandage and the forceful occupation of lands were problems the restored Kingdom inherited from their predecessor.
+
+The Vienna Congress had granted Austria the right to station troops in the kingdom, and Austria, as well as Russia and Prussia, insisted that no written constitution was to be granted to the kingdom. In October 1815, Joachim Murat landed in Calabria, in an attempt to regain his kingdom; the government responded to acts of collaboration or of terrorism with severe repression; by June 1816 Murat's attempt had failed and the situation was under control. However, the Neapolitan administration had changed from conciliatory to reactionary. Henri de Stendhal, who visited Naples in 1817, called the kingdom "an absurd monarchy in the style of Philip II".
+
+As open political activity was suppressed, liberals organized themselves in secret societies, such as the Carbonari, whose origins date back into the French period; the Carbonari organization had been outlawed in 1816; in 1820 a revolution planned by Carbonari and Carbonari supporters, aiming at the introduction of a written constitution (the Spanish constitution of 1812), did not unfold as planned. King Ferdinand still felt compelled to grant the constitution desired by the liberals (July 13th). A revolution erupted in Palermo, Sicily, that month, but was quickly suppressed. The Neapolitan rebels occupied Benevento and Pontecorvo, enclaves belonging to the Papal State. At the Congress of Troppau (Nov. 19th), the Holy Alliance (Metternich the driving force) decided to interfere. In view of 50,000 Austria troops, King Ferdinand (outside of his capital) cancelled the constitution February 23rd 1821; Neapolitan resistance (by regular forces under General Guglielmo Pepe, as well as by irregular rebel forces (Carbonari), against the Austrians was broken by force, on March 24th 1821 Austrian forces entered the city of Naples.
+
+Political repression only intensified. To lawlessness in the countryside another problem intensified - corruption in the administration. An 1828 attempted coup to again force the promulgation of a constitution was suppressed by Neapolitan troops (the Austrian troops had left the previous year). King Francis I (1825-1830) died after having visited Paris, where he witnessed the 1830 revolution. In 1829 he had created the Royal Order of Merit (Royal Order of Francis I. of the Two Sicilies). His successor Ferdinand II. declared political amnesty and undertook steps to stimulate the economy, among them lowering the taxes. The railroad from Naples to Portici was taken in operation in 1839; progress was visible. However, the church still objected to the construction of tunnels, because of their 'obscenity'. The city of Naples received street lighting.
+
+In 1836 the Kingdom was struck by a cholera epidemic which killed 65,000 in Sicily alone. In the following years the Neapolitan countryside saw sporadic local insurrections. In the 1840s, underground literature (political pamphlets etc.) evaded censorship; a September 1847 rising, before being suppressed, crossed from mainland Calabria over to Sicily. On January 13th 1848, an open rebellion began in Palermo; the reintroduction of the 1812 constitution was demanded. King Ferdinand appointed a liberal prime minister, broke diplomatic relations with Austria, even declared war on the latter (April 7th). While the revolutionaries in the mainland part of the kingdom (they had risen shortly after the Sicilians, in several cities except Naples) approved with these measures (April 1848), Sicily continued in her revolution. With the reformers on the mainland disagreeing, King Ferdinand, using the Swiss Guard, took the initiative and suppressed the revolution in Naples (May 15th); the mainland was again under royal control by July; in September 1848, Messina was taken. Palermo, the revolutionaries' capital and last stronghold, fell on May 15th 1849.
+
+The Kingdom of Two Sicilies, in the course of 1848-1849, had been able to suppress the revolution and the attempt of Sicilian secession with their own forces, hired Swiss guards included. The war declared on Austria in April 1848, under pressure of public sentiment, had been an event on paper only.
+
+In 1849 King Ferdinand II was 39 years old; he had begun as a reformer; the early death of his wife (1836), the frequency of political unrest, the extent and range of political expectations on the side of various groups that made up public opinion, had caused him to pursue a cautious, yet authoritarian policy aiming at the prevention of the occurrence of yet another rebellion. Over half of the delegates elected to parliament in the liberal atmosphere of 1848 were arrested or fled the country. The administration, in their treatment of political prisoners, in their observation of 'suspicious elements', violated the rights of the individual guaranteed by the constitution. Conditions were so bad that they caused international attention; in 1856 Britain and France demanded the release of the political prisoners. When this was rejected, both countries broke off diplomatic relations. The Kingdom pursued an economic policy of protectionism; the country's economy was mainly based on agriculture, the cities, especially Naples - with over 400,000 inhabitants Italy's largest - 'a center of consumption rather than of production' (Santore p.163) and home to poverty most expressed by the masses of Lazzaroni, the poorest class.
+
+After visiting Naples in 1850, Gladstone began to support Neapolitan opponents of the Bourbon rulers: his "support" consistied of a couple of letters that he sent from Naples to the Parliament in London, describing the "awful conditions" of the Kingdom of Southern Italy and claiming that "it is the negation of God erected to a system of government". Gladstone's letters provoked sensitive reactions in the whole of Europe and helped to cause its diplomatic isolation prior to the invasion and annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the Kingdom of Sardinia, with the following foundation of modern Italy. Administratively, Naples and Sicily remained separate units; in 1858 the Neapolitan Postal Service issued her first postage stamps; that of Sicily followed in 1859.
+
+Until 1849, the political movement among the bourgeoisie, at times revolutionary, had been Neapolitan respectively Sicilian rather than Italian in its tendency; Sicily in 1848-1849 had striven for a higher degree of independence from Naples rather than for a unified Italy. As public sentiment for Italian unification was rather low in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the country did not feature as an object of acquisition in the earlier plans of Piemont-Sardinia's prime minister Cavour. Only when Austria was defeated in 1859 and the unification of Northern Italy (except Venetia) was accomplished in 1860, did Giuseppe Garibaldi, at the head of his 1000 Redshirts, launch his invasion of Sicily, with the connivance of Cavour (Once in Sicily, many rallied to his colours); after a successful campaign in Sicily, he crossed over to the mainland and won the battle of the Volturno with half of his army being local volunteers. King Francis II (since 1859) withdrew to the fortified port of Gaeta, where he surrendered and abdicated in February 1861. At the encounter of Teano, Garibaldi met King Victor Emmanuel, transferring to him the conquered kingdom, the Two Sicilies were annexed into the Kingdom of Italy. What used to be the Kingdom of Two Sicilies became Italy's Mezzogiorno.
+
+The Teatro Reale di San Carlo commissioned by the Bourbon King Charles VII of Naples who wanted to grant Naples a new and larger theatre to replace the old, dilapidated, and too-small Teatro San Bartolomeo of 1621. Which had served the city well, especially after Scarlatti had moved there in 1682 and had begun to create an important opera centre which existed well into the 1700s.[5] Thus, the San Carlo was inaugurated on 4 November 1737, the king's name day, with the performance of Domenico Sarro's opera Achille in Sciro and much admired for its architecture the San Carlo was now the biggest opera house in the world.[6]
+
+On 13 February 1816[7] a fire broke out during a dress-rehearsal for a ballet performance and quickly spread to destroy a part of building. On the orders of King Ferdinand I, who used the services of Antonio Niccolini, to rebuild the opera house within ten months as a traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats, and a proscenium, 33.5m wide and 30m high. The stage was 34.5m deep. Niccolini embellished in the inner of the bas-relief depicting "Time and the Hour".  Stendhal attended the second night of the inauguration and wrote: "There is nothing in all Europe, I won’t say comparable to this theatre, but which gives the slightest idea of what it is like..., it dazzles the eyes, it enraptures the soul...".
+
+From 1815 to 1822, Gioachino Rossini was the house composer and artistic director of the royal opera houses, including the San Carlo. During this period he wrote ten operas which were Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra (1815), La gazzetta, Otello, ossia il Moro di Venezia (1816), Armida (1817), Mosè in Egitto, Ricciardo e Zoraide (1818), Ermione, Bianca e Falliero, Eduardo e Cristina, La donna del lago (1819), Maometto II (1820), and Zelmira (1822), many premiered at the San Carlo. An offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the San Carlo, which followed the composer's ninth opera, led to Gaetano Donizetti's move to Naples and his residency there which lasted until the production of Caterina Cornaro in January 1844.[8] In all, Naples presented 51 of Donizetti's operas.[8] Also Vincenzo Bellini's first professionally staged opera had its first performance at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on 30 May 1826.[9]
+
+The kingdom had a large population, its capital Naples being the biggest city in Italy, at least three times as large as any other contemporary Italian state. At its peak, the kingdom had a military 100,000 soldiers strong, and a large bureaucracy.[17] Naples was the largest city in the kingdom and the third largest city in Europe. The second largest city, Palermo, was the third largest in Italy.[18] In the 1800s, the kingdom experienced large population growth, rising from approximately five to seven million.[19] It held approximately 36% of Italy's population around 1850.[20]
+
+The population of the city of Naples numbered 427,000 in 1800, 449,000 in 1850 - an insignificant increase if compared to Milan, Turin, Paris. The numbers for Palermo were 139,000 in 1800, 180,000 in 1850. The population for the mainland part of the kingdom numbered 4.99 million around 1800, 4.91 million c. 1816, 5.6 million c. 1825, 5.93 million in 1833, 6.15 million in 1838. 6.38 million in 1845, 6.61 million in 1848, an increase of 32 % over half a decade. The population of Sicily had risen from 1.66 million c. 1800 to 2.10 million in 1848.
+
+Because the kingdom did not establish a statistical department until after 1848,[21] most population statistics prior to that year are estimates and censuses undertaken were thought by contemporaries to be inaccurate.[10]
+
+A major problem in the Kingdom was the distribution of land property - most of it concentrated in the hands of a few families, the Landed Oligarchy. The villages housed a large Rural Proletariat, desperately poor and dependent on the landlords for work. The Kingdom's few cities had little industry, thus not providing the outlet excess rural population found in northern Italy, France or Germany. The figures above show that the population of the countryside rose at a faster rate than that of the city of Naples herself, a rather odd phenomenon in a time when much of Europe experienced the Industrial Revolution.
+
+As registered in the 1827[22] census, for the Neapolitan (continental) part of the kingdom, 1,475,314 of the male population were listed as Husbandmen which traditionally consisted of three classes the Borgesi (or yeomanry), the Inquilani (or small-farmers) and the Contadini (or peasantry), along with 65,225 listed as Shepherds. Wheat, wine, olive oil and cotton were the chief products with an anual production, as recorded in 1844, of 67 mio. liters of olive oil greatly produced in Apulia and Calabria and loaded for export at Gallipoli along with 191 mio. liters of wine for the principal part home consumed. On the island of Sicily, in 1839, due to less arable lands, the output was much smaller than on the mainland yet ca.115,000 acres of Vineyards and ca.260,000 acres of Orchards, mainly fig, orange and citrus, were best cultivated.
+
+Industry was the largest source of income if compared with the other preunitarian states[citation needed]. One of the most important industrial complexes in the kingdom was the shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia, which employed 1800 workers. The engineering factory of Pietrarsa was the largest industrial plant in the Italian peninsula[citation needed], producing tools, cannons, rails, locomotives. The complex also included a school for train drivers, and naval engineers and, thanks to this school, the kingdom was able to replace the English personnel who had been necessary until then. The first steamboat with screw propulsion known in the Mediterranean Sea was the "Giglio delle Onde", with mail delivery and passenger transport purposes after 1847.
+
+In Calabria, the Fonderia Ferdinandea was a large foundry where cast iron was produced. The Reali ferriere ed Officine di Mongiana was an iron foundry and weapons factory. Founded in 1770, it employed 1600 workers in 1860 and closed in 1880.  In Sicily (near Catania and Agrigento), sulfur was mined to make gunpowder. The Sicilian mines were able to satisfy most of the global demand for sulfur. Silk cloth production was focused in San Leucio (near Caserta). The region of Basilicata also had several mills in Potenza and San Chirico Raparo, where cotton, wool and silk were processed.  Food processing was widespread, especially near Naples (Torre Annunziata and Gragnano).
+
+The kingdom maintained a large sulfur mining industry. In industrializing Britain, with the repeal of tariffs on salt in 1824, demand for sulfur from Sicily surged upward. The increasing British control and exploitation of the mining, refining, and transportation of the sulfur, coupled with the failure of this lucrative export to transform Sicily's backward and impoverished economy, led to the 'Sulfur Crisis' of 1840, when King Ferdinand II gave a monopoly of the sulfur industry to a French firm, violating an earlier 1816 trade agreement with Britain. A peaceful solution was eventually negotiated by France.[23][24]
+
+With all of its major cities boasting successful ports[citation needed], transport and trade in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was most efficiently conducted by sea. The Kingdom possessed the largest merchant fleet in the Mediterranean. Urban road conditions were to the best European standards[citation needed], by 1839, the main streets of Naples were gas-lit. Efforts were made to tackle the tough mountainous terrain, Ferdinand II built the cliff-top road along the Sorrentine peninsula. Road conditions in the interior and hinterland areas of the kingdom made internal trade difficult. The first railways and iron-suspension bridges in Italy were developed in the south, as was the first overland electric telegraph cable[citation needed].
+
+The kingdom achieved several scientific and technological accomplishments, such as the first steamboat in the Mediterrean Sea (1818),[25][26] built in the shipyard of Stanislao Filosa al ponte di Vigliena, near Naples,[citation needed] and the first railway in the Italian peninsula (1839), which connected Naples to Portici.[27] However, until the Italian unification, the railway development was highly limited. In the year 1859, the kingdom had only 99 kilometers of rail, compared to the 850 kilometers of Piedmont.[28] This was because the kingdom could count on a very large and efficient merchant navy, which was able to compensate for the need for railways. Also, southern landscape was mainly mountainous making the process of building railways quite difficult, as building railway tunnels was much harder at the time.[citation needed] Other achievements included the first volcano observatory in the world, l'Osservatorio Vesuviano (1841),[29][30]. The rails for the first Italian railways were built in Mongiana as well. All the rails of the old railways that went from the south to as far as Bologna were built in Mongiana.[citation needed]
+
+Naples was home to a University and, established by Matteo Ripa in 1732, the oldest school in Europe teaching Sinology and Oriental studies while a further two universities operated in Sicily. Despite these institutions of higher learning the kingdom had no obligations for school attendance nor a recognizable school system. Clerics could inspect schools and had veto power over appointments of teachers, who were mostly part of the clergy anyhow. The Literacy rate was just 14.4% in 1861.
+
+The peninsula was divided into fifteen departments[31][32] and Sicily was divided into seven departments.[33] The island itself had a special administrative status, with its base at Palermo.[citation needed] In 1860, when the Two Sicilies were conquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia, the departments became provinces of Italy, according to the Rattazzi law.[citation needed]
+
+Peninsula departments
+
+Insular departments
+
+
+
+Ferdinand I, 1816–1825
+
+Francis I, 1825–1830
+
+Ferdinand II, 1830–1859
+
+Francis II, 1859–1861
+
+In 1860–61 with influence from Great Britain and Gladstone's propaganda, the kingdom was absorbed into the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the title dropped. It is still claimed by the head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
+
+Francis I or Francis II, King of the Two Sicilies, of Jerusalem, etc., Duke of Parma, Piacenza, Castro, etc., Hereditary Grand Prince of Tuscany, etc.[34]
+
+Some sovereigns continued to maintain diplomatic relations with the exiled court, including the Emperor of Austria, the Kings of Bavaria, Württemberg and Hanover, the Queen of Spain, the Emperor of Russia, and the Papacy.[when?]
+
+1816–1848; 1849–1860 flag
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+1848–1849 flag
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+1860–1861 flag
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+Framed antique flag of the  Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (c. 1830s) discovered in Palermo.
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+The Kingdom of Italy (Italian: Regno d'Italia) was a state which existed from 1861 — when King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy — until 1946, when civil discontent led an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and form the modern Italian Republic. The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Savoy-led Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state.
+
+Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866 and received the region of Veneto following their victory. Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, thereby ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, following strong disagreements with France about the respective colonial expansions. However, even if relations with Berlin became very friendly, the alliance with Vienna remained purely formal as the Italians were keen to acquire Trentino and Trieste, corners of Austria-Hungary populated by Italians. So during World War I, Italy accepted the British invitation to join the Allied Powers, as the western powers promised territorial compensation (at the expense of Austria-Hungary) for participation that was more generous than Vienna's offer in exchange for Italian neutrality. Victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations.
+
+"Fascist Italy" is the era of National Fascist Party government from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as head of government. The fascists imposed totalitarian rule and crushed the political and intellectual opposition, while promoting economic modernization, traditional social values and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church. According to Payne (1996), "[the] Fascist government passed through several relatively distinct phases". The first phase (1923–1925) was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, albeit with a "legally-organized executive dictatorship". Then came the second phase, "the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper, from 1925 to 1929". The third phase, with less activism, was 1929 to 1934. The fourth phase, 1935–1940, was characterized by an aggressive foreign policy: war against Ethiopia, launched from Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, which resulted in its annexation;[2] confrontations with the League of Nations, leading to sanctions; growing economic autarky; and the signing of the Pact of Steel. The war itself (1940–1943) was the fifth phase with its disasters and defeats, while the rump Salò Government under German control was the final stage (1943–1945).[3]
+
+Italy was an important member of the Axis powers in World War II, battling on several fronts with initial success. However, after the German-Italian defeat in Africa and in the Soviet Union and the subsequent Allied landings in Sicily, King Victor Emmanuel III placed Mussolini under arrest, and the Fascist Party in areas (south of Rome) controlled by the Allied invaders was shut down. The new government signed an armistice in September 1943. German forces immediately occupied northern Italy with Fascists' help, setting up the Italian Social Republic, a collaborationist puppet state still led by Mussolini and his Fascist loyalists. As a consequence, the country descended into civil war, with the Italian Co-belligerent Army and the resistance movement contended the Social Republic's forces and its German allies. Shortly after the war and the liberation of the country, civil discontent led to the institutional referendum on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the present-day Italian state.
+
+The Kingdom of Italy claimed all of the territory which covers present-day Italy and even more. The development of the Kingdom's territory progressed under Italian re-unification until 1870. The state for a long period of time did not include Trieste or Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which were annexed in 1919 and remain Italian territories today. The Triple Entente promised to grant to Italy – if the state joined the Allies in World War I – several territories including former Austrian Littoral, western parts of former Duchy of Carniola, Northern Dalmazia and notably Zara, Sebenico and most of the Dalmatian islands (except Krk and Rab), according to the secret London Pact of 1915.[4]
+
+After the compromise was nullified under pressure of President Woodrow Wilson with the Treaty of Versailles, Italian claims on Northern Dalmazia were voided. During World War II, the Kingdom gained additional territory: it gained Corsica, Nizza and Savoia from France after its surrender in 1940, territory in Slovenia and Dalmazia from Yugoslavia after its breakup in 1941 and Monaco in 1942. After World War II, the borders of present-day Italy were founded and the Kingdom abandoned its land claims.[5]
+
+The Italian Empire also gained territory until the end of World War II through colonies, protectorates, military occupations and puppet states. These included Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, Libya, Ethiopia (occupied by Italy from 1936 to 1941), Albania, British Somaliland, Greece (occupied in World War II), Tunisia, Croatia (Italian and German client state in World War II), Kosovo (occupied in World War II), Montenegro (occupied in World War II) and a 46-hectare concession from China in Tianjin (see Italian concession in Tianjin).[6]
+
+The Kingdom of Italy was theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch, who exercised his power through appointed ministers. The legislative branch was a bicameral Parliament comprising an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdom's constitution was the Statuto Albertino, the former governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were solely responsible to the king. However, by this time it was impossible for a king to appoint a government entirely of his own choosing or keep it in office, against the express will of Parliament.
+
+Members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by plurality voting system elections in uninominal districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of those voting and of 25% of all enrolled voters to be elected on the first round of balloting. If not all seats were filled on the first ballot, a runoff was held shortly afterwards for the remaining vacancies.
+
+After a brief multinominal experimentation in 1882, proportional representation into large, regional, multi-seat electoral constituencies was introduced after World War I. Socialists became the major party, but they were unable to form a government in a parliament split into three different factions, with Christian populists and classical liberals. Elections took place in 1919, 1921 and 1924: in this last occasion, Mussolini abolished proportional representation, replacing it with the Acerbo Law, by which the party that won the largest share of the votes got two-thirds of the seats, which gave the Fascist Party an absolute majority of the Chamber seats.
+
+Between 1925 and 1943, Italy was a quasi-de jure Fascist dictatorship, as the constitution formally remained in effect without alteration by the Fascists, though the monarchy also formally accepted Fascist policies and Fascist institutions. Changes in politics occurred, consisting of the establishment of the Grand Council of Fascism as a government body in 1928, which took control of the government system, as well as the Chamber of Deputies being replaced with the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations as of 1939.
+
+The monarchs of the House of Savoy who led Italy were:
+
+The creation of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of concerted efforts of Italian nationalists and monarchists loyal to the House of Savoy to establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire Italian Peninsula.
+
+After the Revolutions of 1848, the apparent leader of the Italian unification movement was Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, renowned for his extremely loyal followers.[7] Garibaldi led the Italian republican drive for unification in Southern Italy, but the Northern Italy monarchy of the House of Savoy in the Kingdom of Sardinia, a state with an important Italian population, whose government was led by Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, also had ambitions of establishing a united Italian state. Though the Kingdom had no physical connection to Rome (seen by all as the natural capital of Italy, but still capital of the Papal States), the Kingdom had successfully challenged Austria in the Second Italian War of Independence, liberating Lombardy-Venetia from Austrian rule. The Kingdom also had established important alliances which helped it improve the possibility of Italian unification, such as with the United Kingdom and France in the Crimean War. Sardinia was dependent on French protection and in 1860 Sardinia was forced to cede territory to France to maintain relations, including Garibaldi's birthplace, Nizza.
+
+Cavour moved to challenge republican unification efforts by Garibaldi by organizing popular revolts in the Papal States and used these revolts as a pretext to invade the country, even though the invasion angered the Roman Catholics, whom he told that the invasion was an effort to protect the Roman Catholic Church from the anti-clerical secularist nationalist republicans of Garibaldi. Only a small portion of the Papal States around Rome remained in the control of Pope Pius IX.[8] Despite their differences, Cavour agreed to include Garibaldi's Southern Italy allowing it to join the union with the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. Subsequently, the Parliament declared the creation of the Kingdom of Italy on 18 February 1861 (officially proclaiming it on 17 March 1861)[9] composed of both Northern Italy and Southern Italy. King Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy was then declared King of Italy, though he did not renumber himself with the assumption of the new title. This title had been out of use since the abdication of Napoleon I of France on 6 April 1814.
+
+Following the unification of most of Italy, tensions between the royalists and republicans erupted. In April 1861, Garibaldi entered the Italian parliament and challenged Cavour's leadership of the government, accusing him of dividing Italy and spoke of the threat of civil war between the Kingdom in the North and Garibaldi's forces in the South. On 6 June 1861, the Kingdom's strongman Cavour died. During the ensuing political instability, Garibaldi and the republicans became increasingly revolutionary in tone. Garibaldi's arrest in 1862 set off worldwide controversy.[10]
+
+In 1866, Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia, offered Victor Emmanuel II an alliance with the Kingdom of Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War. In exchange, Prussia would allow Italy to annex Austrian-controlled Veneto. King Emmanuel agreed to the alliance and the Third Italian War of Independence began. Italy fared poorly in the war with a badly-organized military against Austria, but Prussia's victory allowed Italy to annex Veneto. At this point, one major obstacle to Italian unity remained: Rome.
+
+In 1870, Prussia went to war with France, igniting the Franco-Prussian War. To keep the large Prussian Army at bay, France abandoned its positions in Rome – which protected the remnants of the Papal States and Pius IX – in order to fight the Prussians. Italy benefited from Prussia's victory against France by being able to take over the Papal States from French authority. Rome was captured by the Kingdom of Italy after several battles and guerrilla-like warfare by Papal Zouaves and official troops of the Holy See against the Italian invaders. Italian unification was completed and shortly afterward Italy's capital was moved to Rome. Economic conditions in the united Italy were poor.[11] There were no industry or transportation facilities, extreme poverty (especially in the "Mezzogiorno"), high illiteracy and only a small percent of wealthy Italians had the right to vote. The unification movement had largely been dependent on the support of foreign powers and remained so afterwards.
+
+Following the capture of Rome in 1870 from French forces of Napoleon III, Papal troops and Zouaves, relations between Italy and the Vatican remained sour for the next sixty years with the Popes declaring themselves to be prisoners in the Vatican. The Roman Catholic Church frequently protested the actions of the secular and anticlerical-influenced Italian governments, refused to meet with envoys from the King and urged Roman Catholics not to vote in Italian elections.[12] It would not be until 1929 that positive relations would be restored between the Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican after the signing of the Lateran Pacts.
+
+A major challenge for the prime ministers of the new Kingdom of Italy was integrating the political and administrative systems of the seven different major components into a unified set of policies. The different regions were proud of their own historic patterns and could not easily be fitted into the Sardinian model. Cavour started the planning, but died before it was fully developed—indeed, the challenges of administration the various bureaucracies are thought to have hastened his death. The easiest challenge was to harmonize the administrative bureaucracies of Italy's regions. They practically all followed the Napoleonic precedent, so harmonization was straightforward. The second challenge was to develop a parliamentary system. Cavour and most liberals up and down the peninsula highly admired the British system, so it became the model for Italy to this day. Harmonizing the Army and Navy were much more complex, chiefly because the systems of recruiting soldiers and selecting and promoting officers were so different and needed to be grandfathered in over decades. The disorganization helps explain why the Italian naval performance in the 1866 war was so abysmal. The military system was slowly integrated over several decades. The multiple educational system likewise proved complicated for there were few common elements. Shortly before his death, Cavour appointed Francesco De Sanctis as minister of education. De Sanctis was an eminent scholar from the University of Naples who proved an able and patient administrator. The addition of Veneto in 1866 and Rome in 1870 further complicated the challenges of bureaucratic coordination.[13]
+
+Italian society after unification and throughout most of the Liberal Period was sharply divided along class, linguistic, regional and social lines.[14] The north–south divide is still present.
+
+On 20 September 1870, the military forces of the King of Italy overthrew what little was left of the Papal States, capturing in particular the city of Rome. The following year, the capital was moved from Florence to Rome. For the next 59 years after 1870, the Church denied the legitimacy of the Italian King's dominion in Rome, which it claimed rightfully belonged to the Papal States. In 1929, the dispute was settled by the Lateran Treaty, in which the King recognized Vatican City as an independent state and paid a large sum of money to compensate the Church for the loss of the Papal States.
+
+Liberal governments generally followed a policy of limiting the role of the Roman Catholic Church and its clergy as the state confiscated church lands.[15] Similar policies were supported by such anticlerical and secular movements as republicanism, socialism, anarchism,[16] Freemasonry,[17] Lazzarettism[18] and Protestantism.
+
+Common cultural traits in Italy in this time were social conservative in nature, including a strong belief in the family as an institution and patriarchal values. In other areas, Italian culture was divided: aristocrats and upper middle class families in Italy at this time were highly traditional in nature and they emphasized honor above all, with challenges to honor ending in duels. After unification, a number of descendants of former royal nobility became residents of Italy, comprising 7,400 noble families. Many wealthy landowners maintained a feudal-like tight control over "their" peasants. Italian society in this period remained highly divided along regional and local sub-societies which often had historical rivalries with each other.[19]
+
+In 1860, Italy lacked a single national language: toscano (Tuscan), which is what we now know as Italian, was only used as a literary language and in Tuscany, while outside other languages were dominant. Even the kingdom's first king, Victor Emmanuel II, was known to speak almost entirely in Piedmontese[citation needed] and French, even to his cabinet ministers. Illiteracy was high, with the 1871 census indicating that 61.9% of Italian men were illiterate and 75.7% of Italian women were illiterate. This illiteracy rate was far higher than that of western European countries in the same time period and also no national popular press was possible due to the multiplicity of regional languages.[20]
+
+Italy had very few public schools upon unification, so the Italian government in the Liberal Period attempted to increase literacy by establishing state-funded schools to teach the official Italian language.[21]
+
+Living standards were low during the Liberal Period, especially in southern Italy, due to various diseases such as malaria and epidemics that occurred during the period. As a whole, there was initially a high death rate in 1871 at 30 people dying per 1,000 people, though this reduced to 24.2 per 1,000 by the 1890s. In addition, the mortality rate of children dying in their first year after birth in 1871 was 22.7 percent while the number of children dying before reaching their fifth birthday was very high at 50 percent. The mortality rate of children dying in their first year after birth decreased to an average of 17.6 percent in the time period of 1891 to 1900.[22]
+
+In terms of the entire period, Giovanni Federico has argued that Italy was not economically backward, for there was substantial development at various times between 1860 and 1940. Unlike most modern nations that relied on large corporations, industrial growth in Italy was a product of the entrepreneurial efforts of small, family-owned firms that succeeded in a local competitive environment.[23]
+
+Political unification did not systematically bring economic integration, as Italy faced serious economic problems and economic division along political, social and regional lines. In the Liberal Period, Italy remained highly economically dependent on foreign trade and the international price of coal and grain.[24]
+
+Upon unifying, Italy had a predominantly agrarian society as 60% of the active population worked in agriculture. Advances in technology, the sale of vast Church estates, foreign competition along with export opportunities rapidly transformed the agricultural sector in Italy shortly after unification. However, these developments did not benefit all of Italy in this period, as southern Italy's agriculture suffered from hot summers and aridity damaged crops while the presence of malaria prevented cultivation of low-lying areas along Italy's Adriatic Sea coast.[25]
+
+The overwhelming attention paid to foreign policy alienated the agricultural community in Italy which had been in decline since 1873. Both radical and conservative forces in the Italian parliament demanded that the government investigate how to improve agriculture in Italy. The investigation, which started in 1877 and was released eight years later, showed that agriculture was not improving, that landowners were earning revenue from their lands and contributing almost nothing to the development of the land. Lower class Italians were hurt by the break-up of communal lands to the benefit of landlords. Most of the workers on the agricultural lands were not peasants, but short-term laborers ("braccianti") who at best were employed for one year. Peasants without stable income were forced to live off of meager food supplies, disease was spreading rapidly and plagues were reported, including a major cholera epidemic which killed at least 55,000 people.[26]
+
+The Italian government could not deal with the situation effectively because of overspending that left Italy heavily in debt. Italy also suffered economically as a consequence of overproduction of grapes by their vineyards. In the 1870s and 1880s, France's vineyard industry was suffering from vine disease caused by insects. Italy prospered as the largest exporter of wine in Europe, but following the recovery of France in 1888 Southern Italy was overproducing and had to cut back, which caused greater unemployment and bankruptcies.[27]
+
+The Italian government invested heavily in developing railways in the 1870s, more than doubling the existing length of railway line between 1870 and 1890.[24]
+
+Italy's population remained severely divided between wealthy elites and impoverished workers, especially in the South. An 1881 census found that over 1 million southern day-laborers were chronically under-employed and were very likely to become seasonal emigrants in order to economically sustain themselves.[28] Southern peasants as well as small landowners and tenants often were in a state of conflict and revolt throughout the late 19th century.[29] There were exceptions to the generally poor economic condition of agricultural workers of the South, as some regions near cities such as Naples and Palermo as well as along the Tyrrhenian Sea coast.[28]
+
+From the 1870s onward, intellectuals, scholars and politicians examined the economic and social conditions of Southern Italy ("Il Mezzogiorno"), a movement known as meridionalismo ("Meridionalism"). For example, the 1910 Commission of Inquiry into the South indicated that the Italian government thus far had failed to ameliorate the severe economic differences and the limitation of voting rights only to those with sufficient property allowed rich landowners to exploit the poor.[30]
+
+After unification, Italy's politics favored liberalism:[a] the liberal-conservative right (destra storica or Historical Right) was regionally fragmented[b] and liberal-conservative Prime Minister Marco Minghetti only held on to power by enacting revolutionary and left-leaning policies (such as the nationalization of railways) to appease the opposition.
+
+In 1876, Minghetti was ousted and replaced by liberal Agostino Depretis, who began the long Liberal Period. The Liberal Period was marked by corruption, government instability, continued poverty in Southern Italy and use of authoritarian measures by the Italian government.
+
+Depretis began his term as Prime Minister by initiating an experimental political notion known as trasformismo ("transformism"). The theory of trasformismo was that a cabinet should select a variety of moderates and capable politicians from a non-partisan perspective. In practice, trasformismo was authoritarian and corrupt as Depretis pressured districts to vote for his candidates, if they wished to gain favourable concessions from Depretis when in power. The results of the Italian general election of 1876 resulted in only four representatives from the right being elected, allowing the government to be dominated by Depretis. Despotic and corrupt actions are believed to be the key means in which Depretis managed to keep support in Southern Italy. Depretis put through authoritarian measures, such as banning public meetings, placing "dangerous" individuals in internal exile on remote penal islands across Italy and adopting militarist policies. Depretis enacted controversial legislation for the time, such as abolishing arrest for debt, making elementary education free and compulsory while ending compulsory religious teaching in elementary schools.[31]
+
+In 1887, Francesco Crispi became Prime Minister and began focusing government efforts on foreign policy. Crispi worked to build Italy as a great world power through increased military expenditures, advocacy of expansionism[32] and trying to win the favor of Germany. Italy joined the Triple Alliance which included both Germany and Austria–Hungary in 1882 and which remained officially intact until 1915. While helping Italy develop strategically, he continued trasformismo and became authoritarian, once suggesting the use of martial law to ban opposition parties.[33] Despite being authoritarian, Crispi put through liberal policies such as the Public Health Act of 1888 and establishing tribunals for redress against abuses by the government.[34]
+
+Francesco Crispi was Prime Minister for a total of six years, from 1887 until 1891 and again from 1893 until 1896. Historian R. J. B. Bosworth says of his foreign policy:
+
+Crispi pursued policies whose openly aggressive character would not be equaled until the days of the Fascist regime. Crispi increased military expenditure, talked cheerfully of a European conflagration, and alarmed his German or British friends with this suggestions of preventative attacks on his enemies. His policies were ruinous, both for Italy's trade with France, and, more humiliatingly, for colonial ambitions in Eastern Africa. Crispi's lust for territory there was thwarted when on 1 March 1896, the armies of Ethiopian Emperor Menelik routed Italian forces at Adowa [...] an unparalleled disaster for a modern army. Crispi, whose private life (he was perhaps a trigamist) and personal finances [...] were objects of perennial scandal, went into dishonorable retirement.[35]
+
+Crispi greatly admired the United Kingdom, but was unable to get British assistance for his aggressive foreign policy and turned instead to Germany.[36] Crispi also enlarged the army and navy and advocated expansionism as he sought Germany's favor by joining the Triple Alliance which included both Germany and Austria–Hungary in 1882. It remained officially intact until 1915 and prevented hostilities between Italy and Austria, which controlled border regions that Italy claimed.
+
+In the late 19th and early 20th century, Italy emulated the Great Powers in acquiring colonies, especially in the scramble to take control of Africa that took place in the 1870s. Italy was weak in military and economic resources in comparison with Britain, France and Germany, but it proved difficult due to popular resistance and it was unprofitable due to heavy military costs and the lesser economic value of spheres of influence remaining when Italy began to colonize. Britain was eager to block French influence and assisted Italy in gaining territory of the Red Sea.[37]
+
+A number of colonial projects were undertaken by the government. These were done to gain support of Italian nationalists and imperialists, who wanted to rebuild a Roman Empire. Italy had already large settlements in Alexandria, Cairo and Tunis. Italy first attempted to gain colonies through negotiations with other world powers to make colonial concessions, but these negotiations failed. Italy also sent missionaries to uncolonized lands to investigate the potential for Italian colonization. The most promising and realistic of these were parts of Africa. Italian missionaries had already established a foothold at Massawa (in present-day Eritrea) in the 1830s and had entered deep into the Ethiopian Empire.[38]
+
+The beginning of colonialism came in 1885, shortly after the fall of Egyptian rule in Khartoum, when Italy landed soldiers at Massawa in East Africa. In 1888, Italy annexed Massawa by force, creating the colony of Italian Eritrea. The Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab handled trade with Italy and Ethiopia. The trade was promoted by the low duties paid on Italian trade. Italy exported manufactured products and imported coffee, beeswax and hides.[39] At the same time, Italy occupied territory on the south side of the horn of Africa, forming what would become Italian Somaliland.
+
+The Treaty of Wuchale, signed in 1889, stated in the Italian language version that Ethiopia was to become an Italian protectorate, while the Ethiopian Amharic language version stated that the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II could go through Italy to conduct foreign affairs. This happened presumably due to the mistranslation of a verb, which formed a permissive clause in Amharic and a mandatory one in Italian.[40] When the differences in the versions came to light, in 1895 Menelik II abrogated the treaty and abandoned the agreement to follow Italian foreign policy; Italy used this renunciation as a reason to invade Ethiopia.[41] Ethiopia gained the help of the Russian Empire, whose own interests in East Africa led the government of Nicholas II of Russia to send large amounts of modern weaponry to the Ethiopians to hold back an Italian invasion. In response, Britain decided to back the Italians to challenge Russian influence in Africa and declared that all of Ethiopia was within the sphere of Italian interest. On the verge of war, Italian militarism and nationalism reached a peak, with Italians flocking to the Royal Italian Army, hoping to take part in the upcoming war.[42]
+
+The Italian and British army failed on the battlefield and were overwhelmed by a huge Ethiopian army at the Battle of Adwa. At that point, the Italian invasion force was forced to retreat into Eritrea. The war formally ended with the Treaty of Addis Ababa in 1896, which abrogated the Treaty of Wuchale recognizing Ethiopia as an independent country. The failed Ethiopian campaign was one of the few military victories scored by the Africans against an imperial power at this time.[43]
+
+From 2 November 1899 to 7 September 1901, Italy participated as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance forces during the Boxer Rebellion in China. On 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was ceded to the Italy by the Qing Dynasty. On 7 June 1902, the concession was taken into Italian possession and administered by an Italian consul.
+
+In 1911, Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire and invaded Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. These provinces together formed what became known as Libya. The war ended only one year later, but the occupation resulted in acts of discrimination against Libyans such as the forced deportation of Libyans to the Tremiti Islands in October 1911. By 1912, one third of these Libyan refugees had died from a lack of food and shelter.[44] The annexation of Libya led nationalists to advocate Italian domination of the Mediterranean Sea by occupying Greece and the Adriatic Sea coastal region of Dalmazia.[45]
+
+In 1892, Giovanni Giolitti became Prime Minister of Italy for his first term. Although his first government quickly collapsed one year later, Giolitti returned in 1903 to lead Italy's government during a fragmented period that lasted until 1914. Giolitti had spent his earlier life as a civil servant and then took positions within the cabinets of Crispi. Giolitti was the first long-term Italian Prime Minister in many years because he mastered the political concept of trasformismo by manipulating, coercing and bribing officials to his side. In elections during Giolitti's government voting fraud was common and Giolitti helped improve voting only in well-off, more supportive areas, while attempting to isolate and intimidate poor areas where opposition was strong.[46] Southern Italy was in terrible shape prior to and during Giolitti's tenure as Prime Minister: four-fifths of southern Italians were illiterate and the dire situation there ranged from problems of large numbers of absentee landlords to rebellion and even starvation.[47] Corruption was such a large problem that Giolitti himself admitted that there were places "where the law does not operate at all".[48]
+
+In 1911, Giolitti's government sent forces to occupy Libya. While the success of the Libyan War improved the status of the nationalists, it did not help Giolitti's administration as a whole. The government attempted to discourage criticism by speaking about Italy's strategic achievements and inventiveness of their military in the war: Italy was the first country to use the airship for military purposes and undertook aerial bombing on the Ottoman forces.[49] The war radicalized the Italian Socialist Party: anti-war revolutionaries led by future-Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini called for violence to bring down the government. Giolitti returned as Prime Minister only briefly in 1920, but the era of liberalism was effectively over in Italy.
+
+The 1913 and 1919 elections saw gains made by Socialist, Catholic and nationalist parties at the expense of the traditionally dominant Liberals and Radicals, who were increasingly fractured and weakened as a result.
+
+In the lead-up to World War I, the Kingdom of Italy faced a number of short-term and long-term problems in determining its allies and objectives. Italy's recent success in occupying Libya as a result of the Italo-Turkish War had sparked tension with its Triple Alliance allies, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, because both countries had been seeking closer relations with the Ottoman Empire. In Munich, Germans reacted to Italy's aggression by singing anti-Italian songs.[50] Italy's relations with France were also in bad shape: France felt betrayed by Italy's support of Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War, opening the possibility of war erupting between the two countries.[51] Italy's relations with the United Kingdom had also been impaired by constant Italian demands for more recognition in the international stage following the occupation of Libya and its demands that other nations accept its spheres of influence in Eastern Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.[52]
+
+In the Mediterranean Sea, Italy's relations with the Kingdom of Greece were aggravated when Italy occupied the Greek-populated Dodecanese Islands, including Rhodes, from 1912 to 1914. These islands had been formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Italy and Greece were also in open rivalry over the desire to occupy Albania.[53] King Victor Emmanuel III himself was uneasy about Italy pursuing distant colonial adventures and said that Italy should prepare to take back Italian-populated land from Austria-Hungary as the "completion of the Risorgimento".[54] This idea put Italy at odds with Austria-Hungary.
+
+A major hindrance to Italy's decision on what to do about the war was the political instability throughout Italy in 1914. After the formation of the government of Prime Minister Antonio Salandra in March 1914, the government attempted to win the support of nationalists and moved to the political right.[55] At the same time, the left became more repulsed by the government after the killing of three anti-militarist demonstrators in June.[55] Many elements of the left including syndicalists, republicans and anarchists protested against this and the Italian Socialist Party declared a general strike in Italy.[56] The protests that ensued became known as "Red Week" as leftists rioted and various acts of civil disobedience occurred in major cities and small towns such as seizing railway stations, cutting telephone wires and burning tax-registers.[55] However, only two days later the strike was officially called off, though the civil strife continued. Militarist nationalists and anti-militarist leftists fought on the streets until the Italian Royal Army forcefully restored calm after having used thousands of men to put down the various protesting forces.[55] Following the invasion of Serbia by Austria-Hungary in 1914, World War I broke out. Despite Italy's official alliance to Germany and membership in the Triple Alliance, the Kingdom of Italy initially remained neutral, claiming that the Triple Alliance was only for defensive purposes.[57]
+
+In Italy, society was divided over the war: Italian socialists generally opposed the war and supported pacificism, while nationalists militantly supported the war. Long-time nationalists Gabriele D'Annunzio and Luigi Federzoni and an obscure Marxist journalist and new convert to nationalist sentiment, future Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, demanded that Italy join the war. For nationalists, Italy had to maintain its alliance with the Central Powers in order to gain colonial territories at the expense of France. For the liberals, the war presented Italy a long-awaited opportunity to use an alliance with the Entente to gain certain Italian-populated and other territories from Austria-Hungary, which had long been part of Italian patriotic aims since unification. In 1915, relatives of Italian revolutionary and republican hero Giuseppe Garibaldi died on the battlefield of France, where they had volunteered to fight. Federzoni used the memorial services to declare the importance of Italy joining the war and to warn the monarchy of the consequences of continued disunity in Italy if it did not:
+
+Italy has awaited this since 1866 her truly national war, in order to feel unified at last, renewed by the unanimous action and identical sacrifice of all her sons. Today, while Italy still wavers before the necessity imposed by history, the name of Garibaldi, resanctified by blood, rises again to warn her that she will not be able to defeat the revolution save by fighting and winning her national war.— Luigi Federzoni, 1915[58]
+
+Mussolini used his new newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia and his strong oratorical skills to urge nationalists and patriotic revolutionary leftists to support Italy's entry into the war to gain back Italian populated territories from Austria-Hungary, by saying "enough of Libya, and on to Trento and Trieste".[58] Mussolini claimed that it was in the interests of socialists to join the war to tear down the aristocratic Hohenzollern dynasty of Germany which he claimed was the enemy of all European workers.[59] Mussolini and other nationalists warned the Italian government that Italy must join the war or face revolution and called for violence against pacifists and neutralists.[60] Left-wing nationalism also erupted in Southern Italy as socialist and nationalist Giuseppe De Felice Giuffrida saw joining the war as essential to relieving southern Italy of the rising cost of bread which had caused riots in the south, and advocated a "war of revolution".[61]
+
+With nationalist sentiment firmly on the side of reclaiming Italian territories of Austria-Hungary, Italy entered negotiations with the Triple Entente. The negotiations ended successfully in April 1915 when the London Pact was brokered with the Italian government. The pact ensured Italy the right to attain all Italian-populated lands it wanted from Austria-Hungary, as well as concessions in the Balkan Peninsula and suitable compensation for any territory gained by the United Kingdom and France from Germany in Africa.[4] The proposal fulfilled the desires of Italian nationalists and Italian imperialism and was agreed to. Italy joined the Triple Entente in its war against Austria-Hungary.
+
+The reaction in Italy was divided: former Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti was furious over Italy's decision to go to war against its former allies, Germany and Austria-Hungary. Giolitti claimed that Italy would fail in the war, predicting high numbers of mutinies, Austro-Hungarian occupation of even more Italian territory and that the failure would produce a catastrophic rebellion that would destroy the liberal-democratic monarchy and the liberal-democratic secular institutions of the state.[62]
+
+The outset of the campaign against Austria–Hungary looked to initially favor Italy: Austria–Hungary's army was spread to cover its fronts with Serbia and Russia and Italy had a numerical superiority against the Austro-Hungarian Army. However, this advantage was never fully utilized because Italian military commander Luigi Cadorna insisted on a dangerous frontal assault against Austria–Hungary in an attempt to occupy the Slovenian plateau and Ljubljana. This assault would put the Italian army not far away from Austria–Hungary's imperial capital, Vienna. After eleven offensives with enormous loss of life and the final victory of the Central Powers, the Italian campaign to take Vienna collapsed.
+
+Upon entering the war, geography was also a difficulty for Italy as its border with Austria–Hungary was along mountainous terrain. In May 1915, Italian forces at 400,000 men along the border outnumbered the Austrian and Germans almost precisely four to one.[63] However, the Austrian defenses were strong even though they were undermanned and managed to hold off the Italian offensive.[64] The battles with the Austro-Hungarian Army along the Alpine foothills in the trench warfare there were drawn-out, long engagements with little progress.[65] Italian officers were poorly trained in contrast to the Austro-Hungarian and German armies, Italian artillery was inferior to the Austrian machine guns and the Italian forces had dangerously low supply of ammunition; this shortage would continually hamper attempts to make advances into Austrian territory.[64] This combined with the constant replacement of officers by Cadorna resulted in few officers gaining the experience necessary to lead military missions.[66] In the first year of the war, poor conditions on the battlefield led to outbreaks of cholera causing a significant number of Italian soldiers to die.[67] Despite these serious problems, Cadorna refused to back down on the strategy of offense. Naval battles occurred between the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) and the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Italy's warships were outclassed by the Austro-Hungarian fleet and the situation was made more dire for Italy in that both the French Navy and the (British) Royal Navy were not sent into the Adriatic Sea. Their respective governments viewed the Adriatic Sea as "far too dangerous to operate in due the concentration of the Austro-Hungarian fleet there".[67]
+
+Morale fell among Italian soldiers who lived a tedious life when not on the front lines, as they were forbidden to enter theaters or bars, even when on leave. However, when battles were about to occur alcohol was made freely available to the soldiers in order to reduce tension before the battle. In order to escape the tedium after battles, some groups of soldiers worked to create improvized whorehouses.[68] In order to maintain morale, the Italian army had propaganda lectures of the importance of the war to Italy, especially in order to retrieve Trento and Trieste from Austria-Hungary.[68] Some of these lectures were carried out by popular nationalist war proponents such as Gabriele D'Annunzio. D'Annunzio himself would participate in a number of paramilitary raids on Austrian positions along the Adriatic Sea coastline during the war and temporaly lost his sight after an air raid.[69] Prominent pro-war advocate Benito Mussolini was prevented from giving lecture by the government, most likely because of his revolutionary socialist past.[68]
+
+The Italian government became increasingly aggravated in 1915 with the passive nature of the Serbian army, which had not engaged in a serious offensive against Austria-Hungary for months.[70] The Italian government blamed Serbian military inactiveness for allowing the Austro-Hungarians to muster their armies against Italy.[71] Cadorna suspected that Serbia was attempting to negotiate an end to fighting with Austria-Hungary and addressed this to foreign minister Sidney Sonnino, who himself bitterly claimed that Serbia was an unreliable ally.[71] Relations between Italy and Serbia became so cold that the other Allied nations were forced to abandon the idea of forming a united Balkan front against Austria–Hungary.[71] In negotiations, Sonnino remained prepared to allow Bosnia to join Serbia, but refused to discuss the fate of Dalmazia, which was claimed both by Italy and by Pan-Slavists in Serbia.[71] As Serbia fell to the Austro-Hungarian and German forces in 1915, Cadorna proposed sending 60,000 men to land in Thessaloniki to help the Serbs now in exile in Greece and the Principality of Albania to fight off the opposing forces, but the Italian government's bitterness to Serbia resulted in the proposal being rejected.[71]
+
+In the spring of 1916, Austro-Hungarians counterattacked in the Altopiano of Asiago, towards Verona and Padova, in their Strafexpedition, but were defeated by the Italians. In August, after the Battle of Doberdò, the Italians also captured the town of Gorizia; after this, the front remained static for over a year. At the same time, Italy faced a shortage of warships, increased attacks by submarines, soaring freight charges threatening the ability to supply food to soldiers, lack of raw materials and equipment and Italians faced high taxes to pay for the war.[72] Austro-Hungarian and German forces had gone deep into Northern Italian territory. Finally in November 1916, Cadorna ended offensive operations and began a defensive approach. In 1917, France, the United Kingdom and the United States offered to send troops to Italy to help it fend off the offensive of the Central Powers, but the Italian government refused as Sonnino did not want Italy to be seen as a client state of the Allies and preferred isolation as the more brave alternative.[73] Italy also wanted to keep Greece out of the war as the Italian government feared that should Greece join the war on the side of the Allies, it would intend to annex Albania, which Italy claimed.[74] The Venizelist pro-war advocates in Greece failed to succeed in pressuring Constantine I of Greece to bring Italy into the conflict and Italian aims on Albania remained unthreatened.[74]
+
+The Russian Empire collapsed in a 1917 Russian Revolution, eventually resulting in the rise of the communist Bolshevik regime of Vladimir Lenin. The resulting marginalization of the Eastern Front allowed for more Austro-Hungarian and German forces to arrive on the front against Italy. Internal dissent against the war grew with increasingly poor economic and social conditions in Italy due to the strain of the war. Much of the profit of the war was being made in the cities, while rural areas were losing income.[75] The number of men available for agricultural work had fallen from 4.8 million to 2.2 million, though with the help of women, agricultural production managed to be maintained at 90% of its pre-war total during the war.[76] Many pacifist and internationalist Italian socialists turned to Bolshevism and advocated negotiations with the workers of Germany and Austria–Hungary to help end the war and bring about Bolshevik revolutions.[76] Avanti!, the newspaper of the Italian Socialist Party, declared: "Let the bourgeoisie fight its own war".[77] Leftist women in Northern Italian cities led protests demanding action against the high cost of living and demanding an end to the war.[78] In Milan in May 1917, communist revolutionaries organized and engaged in rioting, calling for an end to the war and managed to close down factories and stop public transportation.[79] The Italian Army was forced to enter Milan with tanks and machine guns to face communists and anarchists who fought violently until 23 May, when the Army gained control of the city with almost 50 people killed (three of which were Italian soldiers) and over 800 people arrested.[79]
+
+After the disastrous Battle of Caporetto in 1917, Italian forces were forced far back into Italian territory as far as the Piave river. The humiliation led to the appointment of Vittorio Emanuele Orlando as Prime Minister, who managed to solve some of Italy's wartime problems. Orlando abandoned the previous isolationist approach to the war and increased coordination with the Allies. The convoy system was introduced to fend off submarine attacks, and allowed Italy to end food shortages from February 1918 onward. Also Italy received more raw materials from the Allies.[81] The new Italian chief of staff, Armando Diaz, ordered the Army to defend the Monte Grappa summit, where fortified defenses were constructed; despite numerically inferior, the Italians managed to repel the Austro-Hungarian and German Army. The year 1918 also saw the beginning of official suppression of enemy aliens. The Italian socialists were increasingly suppressed by the Italian government.
+
+At the Battle of the Piave River, the Italian Army managed to hold off the Austro-Hungarian and German armies. The opposing armies repeatedly failed afterwards in major battles such as Battle of Monte Grappa and the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. After four days the Italian Army defeated the Austro-Hungarian Army in the latter battle aided by British and French divisions and the fact that the Imperial-Royal Army started to melt away as news arrived that the constituent regions of the Dual Monarchy had declared independence. Austria–Hungary ended the fighting against Italy with the armistice on 4 November 1918 which ended World War I on this front (one week before the 11 November armistice on the Western front).
+
+The Italian government was infuriated by the Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States, as advocating national self-determination which meant that Italy would not gain Dalmazia as had been promised in the Treaty of London.[82] In the Parliament of Italy, nationalists condemned Wilson's fourteen points as betraying the Treaty of London, while socialists claimed that Wilson's points were valid and claimed the Treaty of London was an offense to the rights of Slavs, Greeks and Albanians.[82] Negotiations between Italy and the Allies, particularly the new Yugoslav delegation (replacing the Serbian delegation), agreed to a trade off between Italy and the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was that Dalmazia, despite being claimed by Italy, would be accepted as Yugoslav, while Istria, claimed by Yugoslavia, would be accepted as Italian.[83]
+
+During the war, the Italian Royal Army increased in size from 15,000 men in 1914 to 160,000 men in 1918, with 5 million recruits in total entering service during the war.[66] This came at a terrible cost: by the end of the war, Italy had lost 700,000 soldiers and had a budget deficit of twelve billion lira. Italian society was divided between the majority pacifists who opposed Italian involvement in the war and the minority of pro-war nationalists who had condemned the Italian government for not having immediately gone to war with Austria–Hungary in 1914.
+
+As the war came to an end, Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando met with British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of France Georges Clemenceau and United States President Woodrow Wilson in Versailles to discuss how the borders of Europe should be redefined to help avoid a future European war.
+
+The talks provided little territorial gain to Italy because during the peace talks Wilson promised freedom to all European nationalities to form their own nation states. As a result, the Treaty of Versailles did not assign Dalmazia and Albania to Italy as had been promised in the Treaty of London. Furthermore, the British and French decided to divide the German overseas colonies into mandates of their own, with Italy receiving none of them. Italy also gained no territory from the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, despite a proposal being issued to Italy by the United Kingdom and France during the war, only to see these nations carve up the Ottoman Empire between themselves (also exploiting the forces of the Arab Revolt). Despite this, Orlando agreed to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which caused uproar against his government. Civil unrest erupted in Italy between nationalists who supported the war effort and opposed the "mutilated victory" (as nationalists referred to it) and leftists who were opposed to the war.[84]
+
+Furious over the peace settlement, the Italian nationalist poet Gabriele D'Annunzio led disaffected war veterans and nationalists to form the Free State of Fiume in September 1919. His popularity among nationalists led him to be called Il Duce ("The Leader") and he used blackshirted paramilitary in his assault on Fiume. The leadership title of Duce and the blackshirt paramilitary uniform would later be adopted by the Fascist movement of Benito Mussolini. The demand for the Italian annexation of Fiume spread to all sides of the political spectrum, including Mussolini's Fascists.[85] D'Annunzio's stirring speeches drew Croat nationalists to his side and also kept contact with the Irish Republican Army and Egyptian nationalists.[86]
+
+Italy annexed territories that included not only ethnically-mixed places, but also exclusively ethnic Slovene and Croat places, especially within the former Austrian Littoral and the former Duchy of Carniola. They included one-third of the entire territory inhabited by Slovenes at the time and one-quarter of the entire Slovene population,[87] who was during the 20 years long period of Italian Fascism (1922–1943) subjected to forced Italianization alongside 25,000 ethnic Germans. According to author Paul N. Hehn, "the treaty left half a million Slavs inside Italy, while only a few hundred Italians in the fledgling Yugoslav (i.e. Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes renamed Yugoslavia in 1929) state".[88]
+
+In 1914, Benito Mussolini was forced out of the Italian Socialist Party after calling for Italian intervention against Austria-Hungary. Prior to World War I, Mussolini had opposed military conscription, protested against Italy's occupation of Libya and was the editor of the Socialist Party's official newspaper, Avanti!, but over time he simply called for revolution without mentioning class struggle.[89] Mussolini's nationalism enabled him to raise funds from Ansaldo (an armaments firm) and other companies to create his own newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, to convince socialists and revolutionaries to support the war.[90] The Allied Powers, eager to draw Italy to the war, helped finance the newspaper.[91] This publication became the official newspaper of the Fascist movement. During the war, Mussolini served in the Army and was wounded once.[92]
+
+Following the end of the war and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Mussolini created the Fasci di Combattimento or Combat League. It was originally dominated by patriotic socialist and syndicalist veterans who opposed the pacifist policies of the Italian Socialist Party. The Fascists initially had a platform far more inclined to the left, promising social revolution, proportional representation, women's suffrage (partly realized in 1925) and dividing private property held by estates.[93][94]
+
+On 15 April 1919, the Fascists made their debut in political violence, when a group of members from the Fasci di Combattimento attacked the offices of Avanti!. Recognizing the failures of the Fascists' initial revolutionary and left-leaning policy, Mussolini moved the organization away from the left and turned the revolutionary movement into an electoral movement in 1921 named the Partito Nazionale Fascista (National Fascist Party). The party echoed the nationalist themes of D'Annunzio and rejected parliamentary democracy while still operating within it in order to destroy it. Mussolini changed his original revolutionary policies, such as moving away from anti-clericalism to supporting the Roman Catholic Church and abandoned his public opposition to the monarchy.[95] Support for the Fascists began to grow in 1921 and pro-Fascist army officers began taking arms and vehicles from the army to use in counter-revolutionary attacks on socialists.[96]
+
+In 1920, Giolitti had come back as Prime Minister in an attempt to solve the deadlock. One year later, Giolitti's government had already become unstable and a growing socialist opposition further endangered his government. Giolitti believed that the Fascists could be toned down and used to protect the state from the socialists. He decided to include Fascists on his electoral list for the 1921 elections.[95] In the elections, the Fascists did not make large gains, but Giolitti's government failed to gather a large enough coalition to govern and offered the Fascists placements in his government. The Fascists rejected Giolitti's offers and joined with socialists in bringing down his government.[97] A number of descendants of those who had served Garibaldi's revolutionaries during unification were won over to Mussolini's nationalist revolutionary ideals.[98] His advocacy of corporatism and futurism had attracted advocates of the "third way",[99] but most importantly he had won over politicians like Facta and Giolitti who did not condemn him for his Blackshirts' mistreatment of socialists.[100]
+
+In October 1922, Mussolini took advantage of a general strike by workers and announced his demands to the government to give the Fascist Party political power or face a coup. With no immediate response, a small number of Fascists began a long trek across Italy to Rome which was known as the "March on Rome", claiming to Italians that Fascists were intending to restore law and order. Mussolini himself did not participate until the very end of the march, with D'Annunzio being hailed as leader of the march until it was learned that he had been pushed out of a window and severely wounded in a failed assassination attempt, depriving him of the possibility of leading an actual coup d'état orchestrated by an organization founded by himself. Under the leadership of Mussolini, the Fascists demanded Prime Minister Luigi Facta's resignation and that Mussolini be named Prime Minister. Although the Italian Army was far better armed than the Fascist paramilitaries, the Italian government under King Vittorio Emmanuele III faced a political crisis. The King was forced to decide which of the two rival movements in Italy would form the new government: Mussolini's Fascists or the anti-royalist Italian Socialist Party, ultimately deciding to endorse the Fascists.[101][102]
+
+On 28 October 1922, the King invited Mussolini to become Prime Minister, allowing Mussolini and the Fascist Party to pursue their political ambitions as long as they supported the monarchy and its interests. At 39, Mussolini was young compared to other Italian and European leaders. His supporters named him "Il Duce" ("The Leader"). A personality cult was developed that portrayed him as the nation's saviour which was aided by the personal popularity he held with Italians already, which would remain strong until Italy faced continuous military defeats in World War II.
+
+Upon taking power, Mussolini formed a legislative coalition with nationalists, liberals and populists. However, goodwill by the Fascists towards parliamentary democracy faded quickly: Mussolini's coalition passed the electoral Acerbo Law of 1923, which gave two-thirds of the seats in parliament to the party or coalition that achieved 25% of the vote. The Fascist Party used violence and intimidation to achieve the 25% threshold in the 1924 election and became the ruling political party of Italy.
+
+Following the election, Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti was assassinated after calling for an annulment of the elections because of the irregularities. Following the assassination, the Socialists walked out of parliament, allowing Mussolini to pass more authoritarian laws. In 1925, Mussolini accepted responsibility for the Fascist violence in 1924 and promised that dissenters would be dealt with harshly. Before the speech, Blackshirts smashed opposition presses and beat up several of Mussolini's opponents. This event is considered the onset of undisguised Fascist dictatorship in Italy, though it would be 1928 before the Fascist Party was formally declared the only legal party in the country.
+
+Over the next four years, Mussolini eliminated nearly all checks and balances on his power. In 1926, Mussolini passed a law that declared he was responsible only to the King and made him the sole person able to determine Parliament's agenda. The fact that Mussolini had to pass such a law underscored how firmly the convention of parliamentary rule had been established; as mentioned above, the letter of the Statuto made ministers solely responsible to the King. Local autonomy was swept away; appointed podestas replaced communal mayors and councils. Soon after all other parties were banned in 1928, parliamentary elections were replaced by plebiscites in which the Grand Council nominated a single list of candidates. Mussolini wielded enormous political powers as the effective ruler of Italy. The King was a figurehead and handled ceremonial roles. However, he retained the power to dismiss the Prime Minister on the advice of the Grand Council, on paper the only check on Mussolini's power—which is what happened in 1943.
+
+When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 beginning World War II, Mussolini publicly declared on 24 September 1939 that Italy had the choice of entering the war or to remain neutral which would cause the country to lose its national dignity. Nevertheless, despite his aggressive posture, Mussolini kept Italy out of the conflict for several months. Mussolini told his son in law Count Ciano that he was personally jealous over Hitler's accomplishments and hoped that Hitler's prowess would be slowed down by Allied counterattack.[103] Mussolini went so far as to lessen Germany's successes in Europe by giving advanced notice to Belgium and the Netherlands of an imminent German invasion, of which Germany had informed Italy.[103]
+
+In drawing out war plans, Mussolini and the Fascist regime decided that Italy would aim to annex large portions of Africa and the Middle East to be included in its colonial empire. Hesitance remained from the King and military commander Pietro Badoglio, who warned Mussolini that Italy had too few tanks, armoured vehicles and aircraft available to be able to carry out a long-term war; Badoglio told Mussolini "It is suicide" for Italy to get involved in the European conflict.[104] Mussolini and the Fascist regime took the advice to a degree and waited as France was invaded by Germany before deciding to get involved.
+
+As France collapsed under the German Blitzkrieg, Italy declared war on France and Britain on 10 June 1940, fulfilling its obligations of the Pact of Steel. Italy hoped to quickly conquer Savoia, Nizza, Corsica and the African colonies of Tunisia and Algeria from the French, but this was quickly stopped when Germany signed an armistice with the French commander Philippe Petain who established Vichy France which retained control over these territories. This decision by Nazi Germany angered Mussolini's Fascist regime.[105]
+
+The one Italian strength that concerned the Allies was the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina), the fourth-largest navy in the world at the time. In November 1940, the British Royal Navy launched a surprise air attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto which crippled Italy's major warships. Although the Italian fleet did not inflict serious damage as was feared, it did keep significant British Commonwealth naval forces in the Mediterranean Sea. This fleet needed to fight the Italian fleet to keep British Commonwealth forces in Egypt and the Middle East from being cut off from Britain. In 1941 on the Italian-controlled island of Kastelorizo, off of the coast of Turkey, Italian forces succeeded in repelling British and Australian forces attempting to occupy the island during Operation Abstention. In December 1941, a covert attack by Italian forces took place in Alexandria, Egypt, in which Italian divers attached explosives to British warships resulting in two British battleships being severely damaged. This was known as the Raid on Alexandria. In 1942, the Italian navy inflicted a serious blow to a British convoy fleet attempting to reach Malta during Operation Harpoon, sinking multiple British vessels. Over time, the Allied navies inflicted serious damage to the Italian fleet, and ruined Italy's one advantage to Germany.
+
+Continuing indications of Italy's subordinate nature to Germany arose during the Greco-Italian War; the British air force prevented the Italian invasion and allowed the Greeks to push the Italians back to Albania. Mussolini had intended the war with Greece to prove to Germany that Italy was no minor power in the alliance, but a capable empire which could hold its own weight. Mussolini boasted to his government that he would even resign from being Italian if anyone found fighting the Greeks to be difficult.[106] Hitler and the German government were frustrated with Italy's failing campaigns, but so was Mussolini. Mussolini in private angrily accused Italians on the battlefield of becoming "overcome with a crisis of artistic sentimentalism and throwing in the towel".[107]
+
+To gain back ground in Greece, Germany reluctantly began a Balkans Campaign alongside Italy which resulted also in the destruction of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941 and the ceding of Dalmazia to Italy. Mussolini and Hitler compensated Croatian nationalists by endorsing the creation of the Independent State of Croatia under the extreme nationalist Ustaše. In order to receive the support of Italy, the Ustaše agreed to concede the main central portion of Dalmazia as well as various Adriatic Sea islands to Italy, as Dalmazia held a significant number of Italians. The ceding of the Adriatic Sea islands was considered by the Independent State of Croatia to be a minimal loss, as in exchange for those cessions they were allowed to annex all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, which led to the persecution of the Serb population there. Officially, the Independent State of Croatia was a kingdom and an Italian protectorate, ruled by Italian House of Savoy member Tomislav II of Croatia, but he never personally set foot on Croatian soil and the government was run by Ante Pavelić, the leader of the Ustaše. However, Italy did hold military control across all of Croatia's coast, which combined with Italian control of Albania and Montenegro gave Italy complete control of the Adriatic Sea, thus completing a key part of the Mare Nostrum policy of the Fascists. The Ustaše movement proved valuable to Italy and Germany as a means to counter Royalist Chetnik guerrillas (although they did work with them because they did not really like the Ustaše movement whom they left up to the Germans) and the communist Yugoslav Partisans under Josip Broz Tito who opposed the occupation of Yugoslavia.
+
+Under Italian army commander Mario Roatta's watch, the violence against the Slovene civil population in the Province of Ljubljana easily matched that of the Germans[108] with summary executions, hostage-taking and hostage killing, reprisals, internments to Rab and Gonars concentration camps and the burning of houses and whole villages. Roatta issued additional special instructions stating that the repression orders must be "carried out most energetically and without any false compassion".[109] According to historians James Walston[110] and Carlo Spartaco Capogeco,[111] the annual mortality rate in the Italian concentration camps was higher than the average mortality rate in Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald (which was 15%), at least 18%. On 5 August 1943, Monsignor Joze Srebnic, Bishop of Veglia (Krk island), reported to Pope Pius XII that "witnesses, who took part in the burials, state unequivocally that the number of the dead totals at least 3,500".[111] After the war, Yugoslavia, Greece and Ethiopia requested the extradition of 1,200 Italian war criminals for trial, but they never saw anything like the Nuremberg trials because the British government with the beginning of the Cold War saw in Pietro Badoglio a guarantee of an anti-communist post-war Italy.[112] The repression of memory led to historical revisionism in Italy about the country's actions during the war. In 1963, anthology "Notte sul'Europa", a photograph of an internee from Rab concentration camp, was included while claiming to be a photograph of an internee from a German Nazi camp when in fact the internee was a Slovene Janez Mihelčič, born 1885 in Babna Gorica and died at Rab in 1943.[113] In 2003, the Italian media published Silvio Berlusconi's statement that Mussolini merely "used to send people on vacation".[114]
+
+In 1940, Italy invaded Egypt and was soon driven far back into Libya by British Commonwealth forces.[115] The German army sent a detachment to join the Italian army in Libya to save the colony from the British advance. German army units in the Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel were the mainstay in the campaign to push the British out of Libya and into central Egypt in 1941 to 1942. The victories in Egypt were almost entirely credited to Rommel's strategic brilliance. The Italian forces received little media attention in North Africa because of their dependence on the superior weaponry and experience of Rommel's forces. For a time in 1942, Italy from an official standpoint controlled large amounts of territory along the Mediterranean Sea. With the collapse of Vichy France, Italy gained control of Corsica, Nizza, Savoia and other portions of southwestern France. Italy also oversaw a military occupation over significant sections of southern France, but despite the official territorial achievements, the so-called "Italian Empire" was a paper tiger by 1942: it was faltering as its economy failed to adapt to the conditions of war and Italian cities were being bombed by the Allies. Also despite Rommel's advances in 1941 and early 1942, the campaign in Northern Africa began to collapse in late 1942. Complete collapse came in 1943 when German and Italian forces fled Northern Africa to Sicilia.
+
+By 1943, Italy was failing on every front, by January of the year, half of the Italian forces serving on the Eastern Front had been destroyed,[116] the African campaign had collapsed, the Balkans remained unstable and demoralised Italians wanted an end to the war.[117] King Victor Emmanuel III urged Count Ciano to overstep Mussolini to try to begin talks with the Allies.[116] In mid-1943, the Allies commenced an invasion of Sicily in an effort to knock Italy out of the war and establish a foothold in Europe. Allied troops landed in Sicily with little initial opposition from Italian forces. The situation changed as the Allies ran into German forces, who held out for some time before Sicily was taken over by the Allies. The invasion made Mussolini dependent on the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) to protect his regime. The Allies steadily advanced through Italy with little opposition from demoralized Italian soldiers, while facing serious opposition from German forces.
+
+By 1943, Mussolini had lost the support of the Italian population for having led a disastrous war effort. To the world, Mussolini was viewed as a "sawdust caesar" for having led his country to war with ill-equipped and poorly trained armed forces that failed in battle. The embarrassment of Mussolini to Italy led King Victor Emmanuel III and even members of the Fascist Party to desire Mussolini's removal. The first stage of his ousting took place when the Fascist Party's Grand Council, under the direction of Dino Grandi, voted to ask Victor Emmanuel to resume his constitutional powers–in effect, a vote of no confidence in Mussolini. Days later on 26 July 1943, Victor Emmanuel officially sacked Mussolini as Prime Minister and replaced him with Marshal Pietro Badoglio. Mussolini was immediately arrested upon his removal. When the radio brought the unexpected news, Italians assumed the war was practically over. The Fascist organizations that had for two decades pledged their loyalty to Il Duce were silent—no effort was made by any of them to protest. The new Badoglio government stripped away the final elements of Fascist government by banning the Fascist Party. The Fascists had never controlled the army, but they did have a separately armed militia, which was merged into the army. The main Fascist organs including the Grand Council, the Special Tribunal for the Defense of the State and the Chambers were all disbanded. All local Fascist formations clubs and meetings were shut down. Slowly, the most outspoken Fascists were purged from office.[118]
+
+Italy then signed an armistice in Cassabile, ending its war with the Allies. However, Mussolini's reign in Italy was not over as a German commando unit, led by Otto Skorzeny, rescued Mussolini from the mountain hotel where he was being held under arrest. Hitler instructed Mussolini to establish the Italian Social Republic, a German puppet state in the portion of northern Italy held by the Wehrmacht. As result, the country descended into civil war; the new Royalist government of Victor Emmanuel III and Marshal Badoglio raised an Italian Co-belligerent Army, Navy and Air Force, which fought alongside the Allies for the rest of the war, while other Italian troops, loyal to Mussolini and his new Fascist state, continued to fight alongside the Germans in the National Republican Army. Also, a large anti-fascist Italian resistance movement fought a guerrilla war against the German and RSI forces.
+
+The RSI armed forces were a combination of Mussolini loyalist Fascists and German armed forces, although Mussolini had little power. Hitler and the German armed forces led the campaign against the Allies and saw little interest in preserving Italy as more than a buffer zone against an Allied invasion of Germany.[119] The Badoglio government attempted to establish a non-partisan administration and a number of political parties were allowed to exist again after years of being banned under Fascism. These ranged from liberal to communist parties which all were part of the government.[120] Italians celebrated the fall of Mussolini, and as more Italian territory was taken by the Allies, the Allies were welcomed as liberators by Italians who opposed the German occupation.
+
+Life for Italians under German occupation was hard, especially in Rome. Rome's citizens by 1943 had grown tired of the war and upon Italy signing an armistice with the Allies on 8 September 1943, Rome's citizens took to the streets chanting "Viva la pace!" ("Long live the peace!), but within hours German forces raided the city and attacked anti-Fascists, royalists and Jews.[121] Roman citizens were harassed by German soldiers to provide them food and fuel and German authorities would arrest all opposition and many were sent into forced labor.[122] Rome's citizens upon being liberated reported that during the first week of German occupation of Rome, crimes against Italian citizens took place as German soldiers looted stores and robbed Roman citizens at gunpoint.[122] Martial law was imposed on Rome by German authorities requiring all citizens to obey a curfew forbidding people to be out on the street after 9 p.m.[122] During winter of 1943, Rome's citizens were denied access to sufficient food, firewood and coal which was taken by German authorities to be given to German soldiers housed in occupied hotels.[122] These actions left Rome's citizens to live in the harsh cold and on the verge of starvation.[123] German authorities began arresting able-bodied Roman men to be conscripted into forced labour.[124] On 4 June 1944, the German occupation of Rome came to an end as German forces retreated as the Allies advanced.
+
+Mussolini was captured on 27 April 1945 by Communist Italian partisans near the Swiss border as he tried to escape Italy. On the next day, he was executed[125] for high treason as sentenced in absentia by a tribunal of the National Liberation Committee. Afterwards, the bodies of Mussolini, his mistress and about fifteen other Fascists were taken to Milan, where they were displayed to the public.[126] Days later on 2 May 1945, the German forces in Italy surrendered.
+
+The government of Badoglio remained in being for some nine months. On 9 June 1944, he was replaced as Prime Minister by the 70-year-old anti-fascist leader Ivanoe Bonomi. In June 1945, Bonomi was in turn replaced by Ferruccio Parri, who in turn gave way to Alcide de Gasperi on 4 December 1945. It was De Gasperi who supervised the transition to a republic following the abdication of Vittorio Emanuele III on 9 May 1946. He briefly became acting Head of State as well as Prime Minister on 18 June 1946, but ceded the former role to Provisional President Enrico De Nicola ten days later.
+
+Much like Japan and Germany, the aftermath of World War II left Italy with a destroyed economy, a divided society, and anger against the monarchy for its endorsement of the Fascist regime for the previous twenty years.
+
+Even prior to the rise of the Fascists, the monarchy was seen to have performed poorly, with society extremely divided between the wealthy North and poor South. World War I resulted in Italy making few gains and was seen as what fostered the rise of Fascism. These frustrations compacted into a revival of the Italian republican movement.[127] By the spring of 1944, it was obvious Victor Emmanuel was too tainted by his previous support for Mussolini to have any further role. He transferred his constitutional powers to Crown Prince Umberto, whom he named Lieutenant General of the Realm and de facto regent.
+
+Victor Emmanuel III nominally remained King until shortly before a 1946 referendum on whether to remain a monarchy or become a republic. On 9 May 1946, he abdicated in favour of the Crown Prince, who then ascended as King Umberto II. However, on 2 June 1946, the republican side won 54% of the vote and Italy officially became a republic.
+
+The table of results shows some relevant differences in the different parts of Italy. The peninsula seemed to be drastically cut into two, as if there were two different, respectively homogeneous countries: the North for the republic (with 66.2%); the South for the monarchy (with 63.8%). Some monarchist groups claimed that there was manipulation by northern republicans, socialists and communists. Others argued that Italy was still too chaotic in 1946 to have an accurate referendum.
+
+Regardless, to prevent civil war Umberto II accepted the results, and the new republic was born on June 12, with bitter resentment by the new government against the House of Savoy. All male members of the House of Savoy were barred from entering Italy in 1948, which was only repealed in 2002.

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+A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a two- or three-dimensional video display device such as a touchscreen, virtual reality headset or monitor/TV set. Since the 1980s, video games have become an increasingly important part of the entertainment industry, and whether they are also a form of art is a matter of dispute.
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+The electronic systems used to play video games are called platforms. Video games are developed and released for one or several platforms and may not be available on others. Specialized platforms such as arcade games, which present the game in a large, typically coin-operated chassis, were common in the 1980s in video arcades, but declined in popularity as other, more affordable platforms became available. These include dedicated devices such as video game consoles, as well as general-purpose computers like a laptop, desktop or handheld computing devices.
+
+The input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, or even a person's body, using a Kinect sensor. Players view the game on a display device such as a television or computer monitor or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and voice actor lines which come from loudspeakers or headphones. Some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets.
+
+Since the 2010s, the commercial importance of the video game industry has been increasing. The emerging Asian markets and mobile games on smartphones in particular are driving the growth of the industry. As of 2018, video games generated sales of US$134.9 billion annually worldwide,[1] and were the third-largest segment in the U.S. entertainment market, behind broadcast and cable TV.
+
+Early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a "Cathode ray tube Amusement Device" was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U.S. Patent 2455992.[2] Inspired by radar display technology, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen.[3] Other early examples include: Christopher Strachey's Draughts game, the Nimrod computer at the 1951 Festival of Britain; OXO a tic-tac-toe Computer game by Alexander S. Douglas for the EDSAC in 1952; Tennis for Two, an electronic interactive game engineered by William Higinbotham in 1958; Spacewar!, written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen's on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961; and the hit ping pong-style Pong, a 1972 game by Atari. Each game used different means of display: NIMROD used a panel of lights to play the game of Nim,[4] OXO used a graphical display to play tic-tac-toe[5] Tennis for Two used an oscilloscope to display a side view of a tennis court,[3] and Spacewar! used the DEC PDP-1's vector display to have two spaceships battle each other.[6]
+
+In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold, coin-operated video game. It used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips.[7] The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green. Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the "Brown Box", it also used a standard television.[3][8] These were followed by two versions of Atari's Pong; an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity.[9] The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, spawning the video game industry.[10]
+
+A flood of Pong clones eventually led to the video game crash of 1977, which came to an end with the mainstream success of Taito's 1978 shooter game Space Invaders,[11] marking the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games and inspiring dozens of manufacturers to enter the market.[11][12] The game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores.[13] The game also became the subject of numerous articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines, establishing video gaming as a rapidly growing mainstream hobby.[14][15] Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS (later known as Atari 2600), becoming the first "killer app" and quadrupling the console's sales.[16] This helped Atari recover from their earlier losses,[17] and in turn the Atari VCS revived the home video game market during the second generation of consoles, up until the North American video game crash of 1983.[18] The home video game industry was revitalized shortly afterwards by the widespread success of the Nintendo Entertainment System,[19] which marked a shift in the dominance of the video game industry from the United States to Japan during the third generation of consoles.[20]
+
+A number of video game developers emerged in Britain in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[21][22][23]
+
+The term "platform" refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate.[24] The term "system" is also commonly used. The distinctions below are not always clear and there may be games that bridge one or more platforms. In addition to laptop/desktop computers and mobile devices, there are other devices which have the ability to play games but are not primarily video game machines, such as PDAs and graphing calculators.
+
+In common use a "PC game" refers to a form of media that involves a player interacting with a personal computer connected to a video monitor.[25] Personal computers are not dedicated game platforms, so there may be differences running the same game on different hardware. Also, the openness allows some features to developers like reduced software cost,[26] increased flexibility, increased innovation, emulation, creation of modifications ("mods"), open hosting for online gaming (in which a person plays a video game with people who are in a different household) and others. A gaming computer is a PC or laptop intended specifically for gaming.
+
+A "console game" is played on a specialized electronic device ("home video game console") that connects to a common television set or composite video monitor, unlike PCs, which can run all sorts of computer programs, a console is a dedicated video game platform manufactured by a specific company. Usually consoles only run games developed for it, or games from other platform made by the same company, but never games developed by its direct competitor, even if the same game is available on different platforms. It often comes with a specific game controller. Major console platforms include Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo.
+
+A "handheld" gaming device is a small, self-contained electronic device that is portable and can be held in a user's hands. It features the console, a small screen, speakers and buttons, joystick or other game controllers in a single unit. Like consoles, handhelds are dedicated platforms, and share almost the same characteristics. Handheld hardware usually is less powerful than PC or console hardware. Some handheld games from the late 1970s and early 1980s could only play one game. In the 1990s and 2000s, a number of handheld games used cartridges, which enabled them to be used to play many different games.
+
+"Arcade game" generally refers to a game played on an even more specialized type of electronic device that is typically designed to play only one game and is encased in a special, large coin-operated cabinet which has one built-in console, controllers (joystick, buttons, etc.), a CRT screen, and audio amplifier and speakers. Arcade games often have brightly painted logos and images relating to the theme of the game. While most arcade games are housed in a vertical cabinet, which the user typically stands in front of to play, some arcade games use a tabletop approach, in which the display screen is housed in a table-style cabinet with a see-through table top. With table-top games, the users typically sit to play. In the 1990s and 2000s, some arcade games offered players a choice of multiple games. In the 1980s, video arcades were businesses in which game players could use a number of arcade video games. In the 2010s, there are far fewer video arcades, but some movie theaters and family entertainment centers still have them.
+
+The web browser has also established itself as platform in its own right in the 2000s, while providing a cross-platform environment for video games designed to be played on a wide spectrum of platforms. In turn, this has generated new terms to qualify classes of web browser-based games. These games may be identified based on the website that they appear, such as with "Miniclip" games. Others are named based on the programming platform used to develop them, such as Java and Flash games.
+
+With the advent of standard operating systems for mobile devices such as iOS and Android and devices with greater hardware performance, mobile gaming has become a significant platform. These games may utilize unique features of mobile devices that are not necessary present on other platforms, such as global positing information and camera devices to support augmented reality gameplay. Mobile games also led into the development of microtransactions as a valid revenue model for casual games.
+
+Virtual reality (VR) games generally require players to use a special head-mounted unit that provides stereoscopic screens and motion tracking to immerse a player within virtual environment that responds to their head movements. Some VR systems include control units for the player's hands as to provide a direct way to interact with the virtual world. VR systems generally require a separate computer, console, or other processing device that couples with the head-mounted unit.
+
+A new platform of video games emerged in late 2017 in which users could take ownership of game assets (digital assets) using Blockchain technologies.[27] An example of this is Cryptokitties.[27]
+
+A video game, like most other forms of media, may be categorized into genres. Video game genres are used to categorize video games based on their gameplay interaction rather than visual or narrative differences.[28][29] A video game genre is defined by a set of gameplay challenges and are classified independent of their setting or game-world content, unlike other works of fiction such as films or books. For example, a shooter game is still a shooter game, regardless of whether it takes place in a fantasy world or in outer space.[30][31]
+
+Because genres are dependent on content for definition, genres have changed and evolved as newer styles of video games have come into existence. Ever advancing technology and production values related to video game development have fostered more lifelike and complex games which have in turn introduced or enhanced genre possibilities (e.g., virtual pets), pushed the boundaries of existing video gaming or in some cases add new possibilities in play (such as that seen with games specifically designed for devices like Sony's EyeToy). Some genres represent combinations of others, such as multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). It is also common to see higher level genre terms that are collective in nature across all other genres such as with action, music/rhythm or horror-themed video games.[citation needed]
+
+Casual games derive their name from their ease of accessibility, simple to understand gameplay and quick to grasp rule sets. Additionally, casual games frequently support the ability to jump in and out of play on demand. Casual games as a format existed long before the term was coined and include video games such as Solitaire or Minesweeper which can commonly be found pre-installed with many versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Examples of genres within this category are match three, hidden object, time management, puzzle or many of the tower defense style games. Casual games are generally available through app stores and online retailers such as PopCap and GameHouse or provided for free play through web portals such as Newgrounds. While casual games are most commonly played on personal computers, phones or tablets, they can also be found on many of the on-line console system download services (e.g., the PlayStation Network, WiiWare or Xbox Live).
+
+Serious games are games that are designed primarily to convey information or a learning experience to the player. Some serious games may even fail to qualify as a video game in the traditional sense of the term. Educational software does not typically fall under this category (e.g., touch typing tutors, language learning programs, etc.) and the primary distinction would appear to be based on the game's primary goal as well as target age demographics. As with the other categories, this description is more of a guideline than a rule. Serious games are games generally made for reasons beyond simple entertainment and as with the core and casual games may include works from any given genre, although some such as exercise games, educational games, or propaganda games may have a higher representation in this group due to their subject matter. These games are typically designed to be played by professionals as part of a specific job or for skill set improvement. They can also be created to convey social-political awareness on a specific subject.
+
+One of the longest-running serious games franchises is Microsoft Flight Simulator, first published in 1982 under that name. The United States military uses virtual reality-based simulations, such as VBS1 for training exercises,[32] as do a growing number of first responder roles (e.g., police, firefighters, EMTs).[33] One example of a non-game environment utilized as a platform for serious game development would be the virtual world of Second Life, which is currently used by several United States governmental departments (e.g., NOAA, NASA, JPL), Universities (e.g., Ohio University, MIT) for educational and remote learning programs[34] and businesses (e.g., IBM, Cisco Systems) for meetings and training.[35]
+
+Tactical media in video games plays a crucial role in making a statement or conveying a message on important relevant issues. This form of media allows for a broader audience to be able to receive and gain access to certain information that otherwise may not have reached such people. An example of tactical media in video games would be newsgames. These are short games related to contemporary events designed to illustrate a point.[36] For example, Take Action Games is a game studio collective that was co-founded by Susana Ruiz and has made successful serious games. Some of these games include Darfur is Dying, Finding Zoe, and In The Balance. All of these games bring awareness to important issues and events.[37]
+
+On 23 September 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama launched a campaign called "Educate to Innovate" aimed at improving the technological, mathematical, scientific and engineering abilities of American students. This campaign states that it plans to harness the power of interactive games to help achieve the goal of students excelling in these departments.[38][39] This campaign has stemmed into many new opportunities for the video game realm and has contributed to many new competitions. Some of these competitions include the Stem National Video Game Competition and the Imagine Cup.[40][41] Both of these bring a focus to relevant and important current issues through gaming. www.NobelPrize.org entices the user to learn about information pertaining to the Nobel prize achievements while engaging in a fun video game.[42] There are many different types and styles of educational games, including counting to spelling to games for kids, to games for adults. Some other games do not have any particular targeted audience in mind and intended to simply educate or inform whoever views or plays the game.
+
+Video game can use several types of input devices to translate human actions to a game, the most common game controllers are keyboard and mouse for "PC games, consoles usually come with specific gamepads, handheld consoles have built in buttons. Other game controllers are commonly used for specific games like racing wheels, light guns or dance pads. Digital cameras can also be used as game controllers capturing movements of the body of the player.
+
+As technology continues to advance, more can be added onto the controller to give the player a more immersive experience when playing different games. There are some controllers that have presets so that the buttons are mapped a certain way to make playing certain games easier. Along with the presets, a player can sometimes custom map the buttons to better accommodate their play style. On keyboard and mouse, different actions in the game are already preset to keys on the keyboard. Most games allow the player to change that so that the actions are mapped to different keys that are more to their liking. The companies that design the controllers are trying to make the controller visually appealing and also feel comfortable in the hands of the consumer.
+
+An example of a technology that was incorporated into the controller was the touchscreen. It allows the player to be able to interact with the game differently than before. The person could move around in menus easier and they are also able to interact with different objects in the game. They can pick up some objects, equip others, or even just move the objects out of the player's path. Another example is motion sensor where a person's movement is able to be captured and put into a game. Some motion sensor games are based on where the controller is. The reason for that is because there is a signal that is sent from the controller to the console or computer so that the actions being done can create certain movements in the game. Other type of motion sensor games are webcam style where the player moves around in front of it, and the actions are repeated by a game character.
+
+Video game development and authorship, much like any other form of entertainment, is frequently a cross-disciplinary field. Video game developers, as employees within this industry are commonly referred, primarily include programmers and graphic designers. Over the years this has expanded to include almost every type of skill that one might see prevalent in the creation of any movie or television program, including sound designers, musicians, and other technicians; as well as skills that are specific to video games, such as the game designer. All of these are managed by producers.
+
+In the early days of the industry, it was more common for a single person to manage all of the roles needed to create a video game. As platforms have become more complex and powerful in the type of material they can present, larger teams have been needed to generate all of the art, programming, cinematography, and more. This is not to say that the age of the "one-man shop" is gone, as this is still sometimes found in the casual gaming and handheld markets,[43] where smaller games are prevalent due to technical limitations such as limited RAM or lack of dedicated 3D graphics rendering capabilities on the target platform (e.g., some PDAs).[44]
+
+With the growth of the size of development teams in the industry, the problem of cost has increased. Development studios need to be able to pay their staff a competitive wage in order to attract and retain the best talent, while publishers are constantly looking to keep costs down in order to maintain profitability on their investment. Typically, a video game console development team can range in sizes of anywhere from 5 to 50 people, with some teams exceeding 100. In May 2009, one game project was reported to have a development staff of 450.[45] The growth of team size combined with greater pressure to get completed projects into the market to begin recouping production costs has led to a greater occurrence of missed deadlines, rushed games and the release of unfinished products.[46]
+
+A phenomenon of additional game content at a later date, often for additional funds, began with digital video game distribution known as downloadable content (DLC). Developers can use digital distribution to issue new storylines after the main game is released, such as Rockstar Games with Grand Theft Auto IV (The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony), or Bethesda with Fallout 3 and its expansions. New gameplay modes can also become available, for instance, Call of Duty and its zombie modes,[47][48][49] a multiplayer mode for Mushroom Wars or a higher difficulty level for Metro: Last Light. Smaller packages of DLC are also common, ranging from better in-game weapons (Dead Space, Just Cause 2), character outfits (LittleBigPlanet, Minecraft), or new songs to perform (SingStar, Rock Band, Guitar Hero).
+
+A variation of downloadable content is expansion packs. Unlike DLC, expansion packs add a whole section to the game that either already exists in the game's code or is developed after the game is released. Expansions add new maps, missions, weapons, and other things that weren't previously accessible in the original game. An example of an expansion is Bungie's Destiny, which had the Rise of Iron expansion. The expansion added new weapons, new maps, and higher levels, and remade old missions.
+
+Expansions are added to the base game to help prolong the life of the game itself until the company is able to produce a sequel or a new game altogether. Developers may plan out their game's life and already have the code for the expansion in the game, but inaccessible by players, who later unlock these expansions, sometimes for free and sometimes at an extra cost. Some developers make games and add expansions later, so that they could see what additions the players would like to have. There are also expansions that are set apart from the original game and are considered a stand-alone game, such as Ubisoft's expansion Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Freedom's Cry, which features a different character than the original game.
+
+Many games produced for the PC are designed such that technically oriented consumers can modify the game. These mods can add an extra dimension of replayability and interest. Developers such as id Software, Valve, Crytek, Bethesda, Epic Games and Blizzard Entertainment ship their games with some of the development tools used to make the game, along with documentation to assist mod developers. The Internet provides an inexpensive medium to promote and distribute mods, and they may be a factor in the commercial success of some games.[50] This allows for the kind of success seen by popular mods such as the Half-Life mod Counter-Strike.
+
+Cheating in computer games may involve cheat codes and hidden spots implemented by the game developers,[51][52] modification of game code by third parties,[53][54] or players exploiting a software glitch. Modifications are facilitated by either cheat cartridge hardware or a software trainer.[53] Cheats usually make the game easier by providing an unlimited amount of some resource; for example weapons, health, or ammunition; or perhaps the ability to walk through walls.[52][53] Other cheats might give access to otherwise unplayable levels or provide unusual or amusing features, like altered game colors or other graphical appearances.
+
+Software errors not detected by software testers during development can find their way into released versions of computer and video games. This may happen because the glitch only occurs under unusual circumstances in the game, was deemed too minor to correct, or because the game development was hurried to meet a publication deadline. Glitches can range from minor graphical errors to serious bugs that can delete saved data or cause the game to malfunction. In some cases publishers will release updates (referred to as patches) to repair glitches. Sometimes a glitch may be beneficial to the player; these are often referred to as exploits.
+
+Easter eggs are hidden messages or jokes left in games by developers that are not part of the main game.[55] Easter eggs are secret responses that occur as a result of an undocumented set of commands. The results can vary from a simple printed message or image, to a page of programmer credits or a small videogame hidden inside an otherwise serious piece of software. Videogame cheat codes are a specific type of Easter egg, in which entering a secret command will unlock special powers or new levels for the player.[56][57]
+
+Although departments of computer science have been studying the technical aspects of video games for years, theories that examine games as an artistic medium are a relatively recent development in the humanities. The two most visible schools in this emerging field are ludology and narratology. Narrativists approach video games in the context of what Janet Murray calls "Cyberdrama". That is to say, their major concern is with video games as a storytelling medium, one that arises out of interactive fiction. Murray puts video games in the context of the Holodeck, a fictional piece of technology from Star Trek, arguing for the video game as a medium in which the player is allowed to become another person, and to act out in another world.[58] This image of video games received early widespread popular support, and forms the basis of films such as Tron, eXistenZ and The Last Starfighter.
+
+Ludologists break sharply and radically from this idea. They argue that a video game is first and foremost a game, which must be understood in terms of its rules, interface, and the concept of play that it deploys. Espen J. Aarseth argues that, although games certainly have plots, characters, and aspects of traditional narratives, these aspects are incidental to gameplay. For example, Aarseth is critical of the widespread attention that narrativists have given to the heroine of the game Tomb Raider, saying that "the dimensions of Lara Croft's body, already analyzed to death by film theorists, are irrelevant to me as a player, because a different-looking body would not make me play differently... When I play, I don't even see her body, but see through it and past it."[59] Simply put, ludologists reject traditional theories of art because they claim that the artistic and socially relevant qualities of a video game are primarily determined by the underlying set of rules, demands, and expectations imposed on the player.
+
+While many games rely on emergent principles, video games commonly present simulated story worlds where emergent behavior occurs within the context of the game. The term "emergent narrative" has been used to describe how, in a simulated environment, storyline can be created simply by "what happens to the player."[60] However, emergent behavior is not limited to sophisticated games. In general, any place where event-driven instructions occur for AI in a game, emergent behavior will exist. For instance, take a racing game in which cars are programmed to avoid crashing, and they encounter an obstacle in the track: the cars might then maneuver to avoid the obstacle causing the cars behind them to slow and/or maneuver to accommodate the cars in front of them and the obstacle. The programmer never wrote code to specifically create a traffic jam, yet one now exists in the game.
+
+An emulator is a program that replicates the behavior of a video game console, allowing games to run on a different platform from the original hardware. Emulators exist for PCs, smartphones and consoles other than the original. Emulators are generally used to play old games, hack existing games, translate unreleased games in a specific region, or add enhanced features to games like improved graphics, speed up or down, bypass regional lockouts, or online multiplayer support.
+
+Some manufacturers have released official emulators for their own consoles. For example, Nintendo's Virtual Console allows users to play games for old Nintendo consoles on the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. Virtual Console is part of Nintendo's strategy for deterring video game piracy.[61] In November 2015, Microsoft launched backwards compatibility of Xbox 360 games on Xbox One console via emulation.[62] Also, Sony announced relaunching PS2 games on PS4 via emulation.[63] According to Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem, creating an emulator for a proprietary video game console is legal.[64] However, Nintendo claims that emulators promote the distribution of illegally copied games.[65]
+
+The November 2005 Nielsen Active Gamer Study, taking a survey of 2,000 regular gamers, found that the U.S. games market is diversifying. The age group among male players has expanded significantly in the 25–40 age group. For casual online puzzle-style and simple mobile cell phone games, the gender divide is more or less equal between men and women. More recently there has been a growing segment of female players engaged with the aggressive style of games historically considered to fall within traditionally male genres (e.g., first-person shooters). According to the ESRB, almost 41% of PC gamers are women.[66] Participation among African-Americans is lower. One survey of over 2000 game developers returned responses from only 2.5% who identified as black.[67]
+
+When comparing today's industry climate with that of 20 years ago, women and many adults are more inclined to be using products in the industry. While the market for teen and young adult men is still a strong market, it is the other demographics which are posting significant growth. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) provides the following summary for 2011 based on a study of almost 1,200 American households carried out by Ipsos MediaCT:[68]
+
+A 2006 academic study, based on a survey answered by 10,000 gamers, identified the gaymers (gamers that identify as gay) as a demographic group.[69][70][71] A follow-up survey in 2009 studied the purchase habits and content preferences of people in the group.[72][73][74] Based on the study by NPD group in 2011, approximately 91 percent of children aged 2–17 play games.[75]
+
+Video game culture is a worldwide new media subculture formed around video games and game playing. As computer and video games have increased in popularity over time, they have had a significant influence on popular culture. Video game culture has also evolved over time hand in hand with internet culture as well as the increasing popularity of mobile games. Many people who play video games identify as gamers, which can mean anything from someone who enjoys games to someone who is passionate about it. As video games become more social with multiplayer and online capability, gamers find themselves in growing social networks. Gaming can both be entertainment as well as competition, as a new trend known as electronic sports is becoming more widely accepted. In the 2010s, video games and discussions of video game trends and topics can be seen in social media, politics, television, film and music.
+
+Multiplayer video games are those that can be played either competitively, sometimes in Electronic Sports, or cooperatively by using either multiple input devices, or by hotseating. Tennis for Two, arguably the first video game, was a two player game, as was its successor Pong. The first commercially available game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, had two controller inputs. Since then, most consoles have been shipped with two or four controller inputs. Some have had the ability to expand to four, eight or as many as 12 inputs with additional adapters, such as the Multitap. Multiplayer arcade games typically feature play for two to four players, sometimes tilting the monitor on its back for a top-down viewing experience allowing players to sit opposite one another.
+
+Many early computer games for non-PC descendant based platforms featured multiplayer support. Personal computer systems from Atari and Commodore both regularly featured at least two game ports. PC-based computer games started with a lower availability of multiplayer options because of technical limitations. PCs typically had either one or no game ports at all. Network games for these early personal computers were generally limited to only text based adventures or MUDs that were played remotely on a dedicated server. This was due both to the slow speed of modems (300-1200-bit/s), and the prohibitive cost involved with putting a computer online in such a way where multiple visitors could make use of it. However, with the advent of widespread local area networking technologies and Internet based online capabilities, the number of players in modern games can be 32 or higher, sometimes featuring integrated text and/or voice chat. Massively multiplayer online game (MMOs) can offer extremely high numbers of simultaneous players; Eve Online set a record with 65,303 players on a single server in 2013.[76]
+
+It has been shown that action video game players have better hand–eye coordination and visuo-motor skills, such as their resistance to distraction, their sensitivity to information in the peripheral vision and their ability to count briefly presented objects, than nonplayers.[77] Researchers found that such enhanced abilities could be acquired by training with action games, involving challenges that switch attention between different locations, but not with games requiring concentration on single objects.
+
+In Steven Johnson's book, Everything Bad Is Good for You, he argues that video games in fact demand far more from a player than traditional games like Monopoly. To experience the game, the player must first determine the objectives, as well as how to complete them. They must then learn the game controls and how the human-machine interface works, including menus and HUDs. Beyond such skills, which after some time become quite fundamental and are taken for granted by many gamers, video games are based upon the player navigating (and eventually mastering) a highly complex system with many variables. This requires a strong analytical ability, as well as flexibility and adaptability. He argues that the process of learning the boundaries, goals, and controls of a given game is often a highly demanding one that calls on many different areas of cognitive function. Indeed, most games require a great deal of patience and focus from the player, and, contrary to the popular perception that games provide instant gratification, games actually delay gratification far longer than other forms of entertainment such as film or even many books.[78] Some research suggests video games may even increase players' attention capacities.[79]
+
+Learning principles found in video games have been identified as possible techniques with which to reform the U.S. education system.[80] It has been noticed that gamers adopt an attitude while playing that is of such high concentration, they do not realize they are learning, and that if the same attitude could be adopted at school, education would enjoy significant benefits.[81] Students are found to be "learning by doing" while playing video games while fostering creative thinking.[82]
+
+The U.S. Army has deployed machines such as the PackBot and UAV vehicles, which make use of a game-style hand controller to make it more familiar for young people.[83] According to research discussed at the 2008 Convention of the American Psychological Association, certain types of video games can improve the gamers' dexterity as well as their ability to do problem solving. A study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors compared to those who did not play video games. A second study of 303 laparoscopic surgeons (82 percent men; 18 percent women) also showed that surgeons who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity and then performed a drill testing these skills were significantly faster at their first attempt and across all 10 trials than the surgeons who did not play the video games first.[84]
+
+An experiment carried out by Richard De Lisi and Jennifer Woldorf demonstrates the positive effect that video games may have on spatial skills. De Lisi and Woldorf took two groups of third graders, one control group and one experiment group. Both groups took a paper-and-pencil test of mental rotation skills. After this test, the experiment group only played 11 sessions of the game Tetris. This game was chosen as it requires mental rotation. After this game, both groups took the test again. The result showed that the scores of the experiment group raised higher than that of the control group, thereby confirming this theory.[85]
+
+The research showing benefits from action games has been questioned due to methodological shortcomings, such as recruitment strategies and selection bias, potential placebo effects, and lack of baseline improvements in control groups.[86] In addition, many of the studies are cross-sectional, and of the longitudinal interventional trials, not all have found effects.[86] A response to this pointed out that the skill improvements from action games are more broad than predicted, such as mental rotation, which is not a common task in action games.[87] Action gamers are not only better at ignoring distractions, but also at focusing on the main task.[88]
+
+Like other media, video games have been the subject of objections, controversies, and censorship, for depictions of violence, criminal activities, sexual themes, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, propaganda, profanity, or advertisements. Critics of video games include parents' groups, politicians, religious groups, scientists and other advocacy groups. Claims that some video games cause addiction or violent behavior continue to be made and to be disputed.[89]
+
+There have been a number of societal and scientific arguments about whether the content of video games change the behavior and attitudes of a player, and whether this is reflected in video game culture overall. Since the early 1980s, advocates of video games have emphasized their use as an expressive medium, arguing for their protection under the laws governing freedom of speech and also as an educational tool. Detractors argue that video games are harmful and therefore should be subject to legislative oversight and restrictions. The positive and negative characteristics and effects of video games are the subject of scientific study. Results of investigations into links between video games and addiction, aggression, violence, social development, and a variety of stereotyping and sexual morality issues are debated.[90] A study was done that claimed that young people who have had a greater exposure to violence in video games ended up behaving more aggressively towards people in a social environment.[91]
+
+In 2018, the World Health Organization declared "gaming disorder" a mental disorder for people who are addicted to video games.[92][93] Some studies have claimed video games can negatively affect health and mental state for some players.[94]
+
+In spite of the alleged negative effects of video games, certain studies indicate that they may have value in terms of academic performance, perhaps because of the skills that are developed in the process. "When you play games you’re solving puzzles to move to the next level and that involves using some of the general knowledge and skills in maths, reading and science that you’ve been taught during the day", said Alberto Posso an Associate Professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, after analysing data from the results of standardized testing completed by over 12,000 high school students across Australia. As summarized by The Guardian,[95] the study (published in the International Journal of Communication) "found that students who played online games almost every day scored 15 points above average in maths and reading tests and 17 points above average in science." However, the reporter added an important comment that was not provided by some of the numerous websites that published a brief summary of the Australian study: "[the] methodology cannot prove that playing video games were the cause of the improvement." The Guardian also reported that a Columbia University study indicated that extensive video gaming by students in the 6 to 11 age group provided a greatly increased chance of high intellectual functioning and overall school competence.
+
+In an interview with CNN, Edward Castronova, a professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University Bloomington said he was not surprised by the outcome of the Australian study but also discussed the issue of causal connection. "Though there is a link between gaming and higher math and science scores, it doesn't mean playing games caused the higher scores. It could just be that kids who are sharp are looking for a challenge, and they don't find it on social media, and maybe they do find it on board games and video games," he explained.[96]
+
+Video games have also been proven to raise self-esteem and build confidence. It gives people an opportunity to do things that they cannot do offline, and to discover new things about themselves. There is a social aspect to gaming as well – research has shown that a third of video game players make good friends online. As well as that, many video games can also considered to be therapeutic as they can help to relieve stress.[97] Although short term, studies have shown that children with developmental delays gain a temporary physical improvement in health when they interact and play video games on a regular, and consistent basis due to the cognitive benefits and the use of hand eye coordination.[98]
+
+Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation based around competence, autonomy, and relatedness to facilitate positive outcomes.[99] SDT provides a framework for understanding the effects of playing video games; well-being, problem solving, group relations, physical activities.[100][101] These factors can be measured to determine the effect video games can have on people.[99]
+
+The ability to create an ideal image of one's self and being given multiple options to change that image gives a sense of satisfaction. This topic has much controversy; it is unknown whether this freedom can be beneficial to one's character or detrimental. With increased game usage, a player can become too invested in a fictionally generated character, where the desire to look that way overpowers the enjoyment of the game.[102] Players see this character creation as entertainment and a release, creating a self-image they could not obtain in reality, bringing comfort outside of the game from lack of investment to the fictional character. Problems that arise based on character design may be link to personality disorders.[103][104]
+
+Cognitive skills can be enhanced through repetition of puzzles, memory games, spatial abilities and attention control.[99][101][105] Most video games present opportunities to use these skills with the ability to try multiple times even after failure. Many of these skills can be translated to reality and problem solving. This allows the player to learn from mistakes and fully understand how and why a solution to a problem may work. Some researchers believe that continual exposure to challenges may lead players to develop greater persistence over time after a study was shown that frequent players spent more time on puzzles in task that did not involve video games.[100][101] Although players were shown to spend more time on puzzles, much of that could have been due to the positive effects of problem solving in games, which involve forming strategy and weighing option before testing a solution.[99]
+
+Representatives of Game Academy claim that such games as Civilization, Total War, or X-Com, where strategy and resource management are key, help players to develop skills that are of great use to managers. Also, they found out that IT workers play unusual puzzle games like Portal or tower defense games like Defense Grid more often than specialists from other fields.[106]
+
+In a study that followed students through school, students that played video games showed higher levels of problem solving than students who did not.[100] This contradicts the previous study in that higher success rate was seen in video game players. Time being a factor for problem solving led to different conclusions in the different studies. See video game controversies for more.
+
+Online gaming being on the rise allows for video game players to communicate and work together in order to accomplish a certain task. Being able to work as a group in a game translates well to reality and jobs, where people must work together to accomplish a task. Research on players in violent and non-violent games show similar results, where the players' relations improved to improve synergy.[94]
+
+With the introduction of Wii Fit and VR (virtual reality), exergame popularity has been increasing, allowing video game players to experience more active rather than sedentary game play.[107] Mobile apps have tried to expand this concept with the introduction of Pokémon Go, which involves walking to progress in the game. Due to exergaming being relatively new, there is still much to be researched. No major differences were seen in tests with children that played on the Wii vs. a non-active game after 12 weeks.[108] Testing a larger range of ages may show better results.
+
+Cognitive remediation therapies using tailored video games to improve cognitive deficits, which are associated with poorer outcomes, have a well established efficacy.[109] Recent studies show that commercial video games modify similar brain areas to these specialized training programs.[109][110] Such games may help in the treatment of schizophrenia.[109]
+
+Video game laws vary from country to country. Console manufacturers usually exercise tight control over the games that are published on their systems, so unusual or special-interest games are more likely to appear as PC games. Free, casual, and browser-based games are usually played on available computers, mobile phones, tablet computers or PDAs.
+
+Various organisations in different regions are responsible for giving content ratings to video games.
+
+The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) gives video games maturity ratings based on their content. For example, a game might be rated "T" for "Teen" if the game contained obscene words or violence. If a game contains explicit violence or sexual themes, it is likely to receive an M for "Mature" rating, which means that no one under 17 should play it. The rating "A/O", for "Adults Only", indicates games with massive violence or nudity. There are no laws that prohibit children from purchasing "M" rated games in the United States.  Laws attempting to prohibit minors from purchasing "M" rated games were established in California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Louisiana, but all were overturned on the grounds that these laws violated the First Amendment.[111] However, many stores have opted to not sell such games to children anyway.  One of the most controversial games of all time, Manhunt 2 by Rockstar Studios, was given an AO rating by the ESRB until Rockstar could make the content more suitable for a mature audience.
+
+Pan European Game Information (PEGI) is a system that was developed to standardize the game ratings in all of Europe (not just European Union, although the majority are EU members), the current members are: all EU members, except Germany and the 10 accession states; Norway; Switzerland. Iceland is expected to join soon, as are the 10 EU accession states. For all PEGI members, they use it as their sole system, with the exception of the UK, where if a game contains certain material,[112] it must be rated by BBFC. The PEGI ratings are legally binding in Vienna and it is a criminal offence to sell a game to someone if it is rated above their age.[113]
+
+Stricter game rating laws mean that Germany does not operate within the PEGI. Instead, they adopt their own system of certification which is required by law. The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) checks every game before release and assigns an age rating to it – either none (white), 6 years of age (yellow), 12 years of age (green), 16 years of age (blue) or 18 years of age (red). It is forbidden for anyone, retailers, friends or parents alike, to allow a child access to a game for which he or she is underage. If a game is considered to be harmful to young people (for example because of extremely violent, pornographic or racist content), it may be referred to the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (BPjM) who may opt to place it on the Index upon which the game may not be sold openly or advertised in the open media. It is considered a felony to supply these games to a child.
+
+The Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) that rates video games and PC games (except dating sims, visual novels, and eroge) in Japan with levels of rating that informs the customer of the nature of the product and for what age group it is suitable. It was established in July 2002 as a branch of Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association, and became an officially recognized non-profit organization in 2003. These ratings are:
+
+According to the market research firm SuperData, as of May 2015, the global games market was worth US$74.2 billion. By region, North America accounted for $23.6 billion, Asia for $23.1 billion, Europe for $22.1 billion and South America for $4.5 billion. By market segment, mobile games were worth $22.3 billion, retail games 19.7 billion, free-to-play MMOs 8.7 billion, social games $7.9 billion, PC DLC 7.5 billion, and other categories $3 billion or less each.[114][115]
+
+In the United States, also according to SuperData, the share of video games in the entertainment market grew from 5% in 1985 to 13% in 2015, becoming the third-largest market segment behind broadcast and cable television. The research firm anticipated that Asia would soon overtake North America as the largest video game market due to the strong growth of free-to-play and mobile games.[115]
+
+Sales of different types of games vary widely between countries due to local preferences. Japanese consumers tend to purchase much more handheld games than console games and especially PC games, with a strong preference for games catering to local tastes.[116][117] Another key difference is that, despite the decline of arcades in the West, arcade games remain an important sector of the Japanese gaming industry.[118] In South Korea, computer games are generally preferred over console games, especially MMORPG games and real-time strategy games. Computer games are also popular in China.[119]
+
+Gaming conventions are an important showcase of the industry. The annual gamescom in Cologne in August is the world's leading expo for video games in attendance.[120] The E3 in June in Los Angeles is also of global importance, but is an event for industry insiders only.[121] The Tokyo Game Show in September is the main fair in Asia. Other notable conventions and trade fairs include Brasil Game Show in October, Paris Games Week in October–November, EB Games Expo (Australia) in October, KRI, ChinaJoy in July and the annual Game Developers Conference. Some publishers, developers and technology producers also host their own regular conventions, with BlizzCon, QuakeCon, Nvision and the X shows being prominent examples.
+
+Short for electronic sports, are video game competitions played most by professional players individually or in teams that gained popularity from the late 2000s, the most common genres are fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) and real-time strategy. There are certain games that are made for just competitive multiplayer purposes. With those type of games, players focus entirely on choosing the right character or obtaining the right equipment in the game to help them when facing other players. Tournaments are held so that people in the area or from different regions can play against other players of the same game and see who is the best. Major League Gaming (MLG) is a company that reports tournaments that are held across the country. The players that compete in these tournaments are given a rank depending on their skill level in the game that they choose to play in and face other players that play that game. The players that also compete are mostly called professional players for the fact that they have played the game they are competing in for many, long hours. Those players have been able to come up with different strategies for facing different characters. The professional players are able to pick a character to their liking and be able to master how to use that character very effectively. With strategy games, players tend to know how to get resources quick and are able to make quick decisions about where their troops are to be deployed and what kind of troops to create.
+
+Creators will nearly always copyright their games. Laws that define copyright, and the rights that are conveyed over a video game vary from country to country. Usually a fair use copyright clause allows consumers some ancillary rights, such as for a player of the game to stream a game online. This is a vague area in copyright law, as these laws predate the advent of video games. This means that rightsholders often must define what they will allow a consumer to do with the video game.
+
+There are many video game museums around the world, including the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Texas,[122] which serves as the largest museum wholly dedicated to the display and preservation of the industry's most important artifacts.[123] Europe hosts video game museums such as the Computer Games Museum in Berlin[124] and the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.[125][126] The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland, California is a dedicated video game museum focusing on playable exhibits of console and computer games.[127] The Video Game Museum of Rome is also dedicated to preserving video games and their history.[128] The International Center for the History of Electronic Games at The Strong in Rochester, New York contains one of the largest collections of electronic games and game-related historical materials in the world, including a 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) exhibit which allows guests to play their way through the history of video games.[129][130][131] The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC has three video games on permanent display: Pac-Man, Dragon's Lair, and Pong.[132]
+
+The Museum of Modern Art has added a total of 20 video games and one video game console to its permanent Architecture and Design Collection since 2012.[133][134] In 2012, the Smithsonian American Art Museum ran an exhibition on "The Art of Video Games".[135] However, the reviews of the exhibit were mixed, including questioning whether video games belong in an art museum.[136][137]
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+The Romani (also spelled Romany /ˈroʊməni/, /ˈrɒ-/), colloquially known as Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants living mostly in Europe, and diaspora populations in the Americas. The Romani as a people originate from the northern Indian subcontinent,[61][62][63] from the Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab regions of modern-day India.[62][63]
+
+Genetic findings appear to confirm that the Romani "came from a single group that left northwestern India" in about 512 CE.[64] Genetic research published in the European Journal of Human Genetics "revealed that over 70% of males belong to a single lineage that appears unique to the Roma".[65] They are dispersed, but their most concentrated populations are located in Europe, especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe (including Turkey, Spain and Southern France). The Romani arrived in Mid-West Asia and Europe around 1007.[66] They have been associated with another Indo-Aryan group, the Dom people: the two groups have been said to have separated from each other or, at least, to share a similar history.[67] Specifically, the ancestors of both the Romani and the Dom left North India sometime between the 6th and 11th century.[66]
+
+The Romani are widely known in English by the exonym Gypsies (or Gipsies), which is considered by some Roma people to be pejorative due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity.[68] Beginning in 1888, the Gypsy Lore Society[69] started to publish a journal that was meant to dispel rumors about their lifestyle.[70]
+
+Since the 19th century, some Romani have also migrated to the Americas. There are an estimated one million Roma in the United States;[6] and 800,000 in Brazil, most of whose ancestors emigrated in the 19th century from Eastern Europe. Brazil also includes a notable Romani community descended from people deported by the Portuguese Empire during the Portuguese Inquisition.[71] In migrations since the late 19th century, Romani have also moved to other countries in South America and to Canada.[72][page needed]
+
+In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India.[73] The conference ended with a recommendation to the government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora.[74]
+
+The Romani language is divided into several dialects which together have an estimated number of speakers of more than two million.[75] The total number of Romani people is at least twice as high (several times as high according to high estimates). Many Romani are native speakers of the dominant language in their country of residence or of mixed languages combining the dominant language with a dialect of Romani; those varieties are sometimes called Para-Romani.[76]
+
+Perceived as derogatory, many of these exonyms are falling out of standard usage and being replaced by a version of the name Roma.
+
+Rom means man or husband in the Romani language. It has the variants dom and lom, which may be related to the Sanskrit words dam-pati (lord of the house, husband), dama (to subdue), lom (hair), lomaka (hairy), loman, roman (hairy), romaça (man with beard and long hair).[86] Another possible origin is from Sanskrit डोम doma (member of a low caste of travelling musicians and dancers).
+
+In the Romani language, Rom is a masculine noun, meaning 'man of the Roma ethnic group' or 'man, husband', with the plural Roma. The feminine of Rom in the Romani language is Romni. However, in most cases, in other languages Rom is now used for people of both genders.[87]
+
+Romani is the feminine adjective, while Romano is the masculine adjective. Some Romanies use Rom or Roma as an ethnic name, while others (such as the Sinti, or the Romanichal) do not use this term as a self-ascription for the entire ethnic group.[88]
+
+Sometimes, rom and romani are spelled with a double r, i.e., rrom and rromani. In this case rr is used to represent the phoneme /ʀ/ (also written as ř and rh), which in some Romani dialects has remained different from the one written with a single r. The rr spelling is common in certain institutions (such as the INALCO Institute in Paris), or used in certain countries, e.g., Romania, to distinguish from the endonym/homonym for Romanians (sg. român, pl. români).[89]
+
+In the English language (according to the Oxford English Dictionary), Rom is a noun (with the plural Roma or Roms) and an adjective, while Romani (Romany) is also a noun (with the plural Romani, the Romani, Romanies, or Romanis) and an adjective.  Both Rom and Romani have been in use in English since the 19th century as an alternative for Gypsy.[90] Romani was sometimes spelled Rommany, but more often Romany, while today Romani is the most popular spelling.  Occasionally, the double r spelling (e.g., Rroma, Rromani) mentioned above is also encountered in English texts.
+
+The term Roma is increasingly encountered,[91][92] as a generic term for the Romani people.[93][94][95]
+
+Because all Romanis use the word Romani as an adjective, the term became a noun for the entire ethnic group.[96] Today, the term Romani is used by some organizations, including the United Nations and the US Library of Congress.[89] However, the Council of Europe and other organizations consider that Roma is the correct term referring to all related groups, regardless of their country of origin, and recommend that Romani be restricted to the language and culture: Romani language, Romani culture.[87]
+
+The standard assumption is that the demonyms of the Romani people, Lom and Dom share the same origin.[97][98]
+
+The English term Gypsy (or Gipsy) originates from the Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien. The Spanish term Gitano and French Gitan have similar etymologies. They are ultimately derived from the Greek Αιγύπτιοι (Aigyptioi), meaning Egyptian, via Latin. This designation owes its existence to the belief, common in the Middle Ages, that the Romani, or some related group (such as the Middle Eastern Dom people), were itinerant Egyptians.[99][100] This belief appears to derive from verses in the biblical Book of Ezekiel (29: 6 and 12-13) referring to the Egyptians being scattered among the nations by an angry God. According to one narrative, they were exiled from Egypt as punishment for allegedly harbouring the infant Jesus.[101] In his book 'The Zincali: an account of the Gypsies of Spain', George Borrow notes that when they first appeared in Germany it was under the character of Egyptians doing penance for their having refused hospitality to the Virgin and her son. As described in Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the medieval French referred to the Romanies as Egyptiens.
+
+This exonym is sometimes written with capital letter, to show that it designates an ethnic group.[102] However, the word is considered derogatory because of its negative and stereotypical associations.[94][103][104][105] The Council of Europe consider that "Gypsy" or equivalent terms, as well as administrative terms such as "Gens du Voyage" (referring in fact to an ethnic group but not acknowledging ethnic identification) are not in line with European recommendations.[87] In North America, the word Gypsy is most commonly used as a reference to Romani ethnicity, though lifestyle and fashion are at times also referenced by using this word.[106]
+
+Another common designation of the Romani people is Cingane (alt. Tsinganoi, Zigar, Zigeuner), which likely derives from Athinganoi, the name of a Christian sect with whom the Romani (or some related group) became associated in the Middle Ages.[100][107][108][109]
+
+For a variety of reasons, many Romanis choose not to register their ethnic identity in official censuses. There are an estimated 10 million Romani people in Europe (as of 2019),[110] although some high estimates by Romani organizations give numbers as high as 14 million.[111] Significant Romani populations are found in the Balkans, in some Central European states, in Spain, France, Russia and Ukraine. In the European Union there are an estimated 6 million Romanis.[112]  Several million more Romanis may live outside Europe, in particular in the Middle East and in the Americas.[113]
+
+Like the Roma in general, many different ethnonyms are given to subgroups of Roma. Sometimes a subgroup uses more than one endonym, is commonly known by an exonym or erroneously by the endonym of another subgroup. The only name approaching an all-encompassing self-description is Rom.[114] Even when subgroups don't use the name, they all acknowledge a common origin and a dichotomy between themselves and Gadjo (non-Roma).[114] For instance, while the main group of Roma in German-speaking countries refer to themselves as Sinti, their name for their original language is Romanes.
+
+Subgroups have been described as, in part, a result of the Hindu caste system, which the founding population of Rom almost certainly experienced in their South Asian urheimat.[114][115]
+
+Many groups use names apparently derived from the Romani word kalo or calo, meaning "black" or "absorbing all light".[116] This closely resembles words for "black" or "dark" in Indo-Aryan languages (e.g., Sanskrit काल kāla: "black", "of a dark colour").[114] Likewise, the name of the Dom or Domba people of North India – to whom the Roma have genetic,[117] cultural and linguistic links – has come to imply "dark-skinned", in some Indian languages.[118] Hence names such as kale and calé may have originated as an exonym or a euphemism for Roma.
+
+Other endonyms for Romani include, for example:
+
+The Roma people have a number of distinct populations, the largest being the Roma and the Iberian Calé or Caló, who reached Anatolia and the Balkans about the early 12th century, from a migration out of northwestern India beginning about 600 years earlier.[132][64] They settled in present-day Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Hungary and Slovakia, by order of volume, and Spain. From the Balkans, they migrated throughout Europe and, in the nineteenth and later centuries, to the Americas. The Romani population in the United States is estimated at more than one million.[133] Brazil has the second largest Romani population in the Americas, estimated at approximately 800,000 by the 2011 census. The Romani people are mainly called by non-Romani ethnic Brazilians as ciganos. Most of them belong to the ethnic subgroup Calés (Kale), of the Iberian peninsula. Juscelino Kubitschek, Brazilian president during 1956–1961 term, was 50% Czech Romani by his mother's bloodline; and Washington Luís, last president of the First Brazilian Republic (1926–1930 term), had Portuguese Kale ancestry.
+
+There is no official or reliable count of the Romani populations worldwide.[134] Many Romani refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for fear of discrimination.[135][better source needed] Others are descendants of intermarriage with local populations and no longer identify only as Romani, or not at all.
+
+As of the early 2000s, an estimated 3.8[136][page needed] to 9 million Romani people lived in Europe and Asia Minor.[137][page needed] although some Romani organizations estimate numbers as high as 14 million.[138]  Significant Romani populations are found in the Balkan peninsula, in some Central European states, in Spain, France, Russia, and Ukraine. The total number of Romani living outside Europe are primarily in the Middle East and North Africa and in the Americas, and are estimated in total at more than two million. Some countries do not collect data by ethnicity.
+
+The Romani people identify as distinct ethnicities based in part on territorial, cultural and dialectal differences, and self-designation.[139][140][141][142]
+
+Genetic findings suggest an Indian origin for Roma.[132][64][143] Because Romani groups did not keep chronicles of their history or have oral accounts of it, most hypotheses about the Romani's migration early history are based on linguistic theory.[144] There is also no known record of a migration from India to Europe from medieval times that can be connected indisputably to Roma.[145]
+
+According to a legend reported in the Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh, from Iran and repeated by several modern authors, the Sasanian king Bahrām V Gōr learned towards the end of his reign (421–39) that the poor could not afford to enjoy music, and he asked the king of India to send him ten thousand luris, lute-playing experts.  When the luris arrived, Bahrām gave each one an ox, a donkey, and a donkey-load of wheat so that they could live on agriculture and play music for free for the poor. But the luris ate the oxen and the wheat and came back a year later with their cheeks hollowed with hunger. The king, angered with their having wasted what he had given them, ordered them to pack up their bags and go wandering around the world on their donkeys.[146]
+
+The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that the roots of the Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a large part of the basic lexicon, for example, regarding body parts or daily routines.[147]
+
+More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali.[148]
+
+Romani and Domari share some similarities: agglutination of postpositions of the second Layer (or case marking clitics) to the nominal stem, concord markers for the past tense, the neutralisation of gender marking in the plural, and the use of the oblique case as an accusative.[149] This has prompted much discussion about the relationships between these two languages. Domari was once thought to be a "sister language" of Romani, the two languages having split after the departure from the Indian subcontinent –  but later research suggests that the differences between them are significant enough to treat them as two separate languages within the Central zone (Hindustani) group of languages. The Dom and the Rom therefore likely descend from two different migration waves out of India, separated by several centuries.[67][150]
+
+In phonology, Romani language shares several isoglosses with the Central branch of Indo-Aryan languages especially in the realization of some sounds of the Old Indo-Aryan. However, it also preserves several dental clusters. In regards to verb morphology, Romani follows exactly the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers, lending credence to the theory of their Central Indian origin and a subsequent migration to northwestern India. Though the retention of dental clusters suggests a break from central languages during the transition from Old to Middle Indo-Aryan, the overall morphology suggests that the language participated in some of the significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages.[151]
+Numerals in the Romani, Domari and Lomavren languages, with Sanskrit, Hindi and Persian forms for comparison.[152] Note that Romani 7–9 are borrowed from Greek.
+
+Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group.[132][64][153] According to the study, the ancestors of present scheduled castes and scheduled tribes populations of northern India, traditionally referred to collectively as the Ḍoma, are the likely ancestral populations of modern European Roma.[154] In December 2012, additional findings appeared to confirm the "Roma came from a single group that left northwestern India about 1,500 years ago".[64] They reached the Balkans about 900 years ago[132] and then spread throughout Europe. The team also found the Roma to display genetic isolation, as well as "differential gene flow in time and space with non-Romani Europeans".[132][64]
+
+Genetic research published in European Journal of Human Genetics "has revealed that over 70% of males belong to a single lineage that appears unique to the Roma".[65]
+
+Genetic evidence supports the medieval migration from India. The Romani have been described as "a conglomerate of genetically isolated founder populations",[155] while a number of common Mendelian disorders among Romanies from all over Europe indicates "a common origin and founder effect".[155][156]
+
+A study from 2001 by Gresham et al. suggests "a limited number of related founders, compatible with a small group of migrants splitting from a distinct caste or tribal group".[157] The same study found that "a single lineage... found across Romani populations, accounts for almost one-third of Romani males".[157] A 2004 study by Morar et al. concluded that the Romani population "was founded approximately 32–40 generations ago, with secondary and tertiary founder events occurring approximately 16–25 generations ago".[158]
+
+Haplogroup H-M82 is a major lineage cluster in the Balkan Romani group, accounting for approximately 60% of the total.[159] Haplogroup H is uncommon in Europe but present in the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka.
+
+A study of 444 people representing three different ethnic groups in North Macedonia found mtDNA haplogroups M5a1 and H7a1a were dominant in Romanies (13.7% and 10.3%, respectively).[160]
+
+Y-DNA composition of Romani in North Macedonia, based on 57 samples:[161]
+
+Y-DNA Haplogroup H1a occurs in Romani at frequencies 7–70%. Unlike ethnic Hungarians, among Hungarian and Slovakian Romani subpopulations, Haplogroup E-M78 and I1 usually occur above 10% and sometimes over 20%.  While among Slovakian and Tiszavasvari Romani the dominant haplogroup is H1a, among Tokaj Romani is Haplogroup J2a (23%), while among Taktaharkány Romani is Haplogroup I2a (21%).[162] Five, rather consistent founder lineages throughout the subpopulations, were found among Romani – J-M67 and J-M92 (J2), H-M52 (H1a1), and I-P259 (I1?). Haplogroup I-P259 as H is not found at frequencies of over 3 percent among host populations, while haplogroups E and I are absent in South Asia. The lineages E-V13, I-P37 (I2a) and R-M17 (R1a) may represent gene flow from the host populations. Bulgarian, Romanian and Greek Romani are dominated by Haplogroup H-M82 (H1a1), while among Spanish Romani J2 is prevalent.[163] In Serbia among Kosovo[a] and Belgrade Romani Haplogroup H prevails, while among Vojvodina Romani, H drops to 7 percent and E-V13 rises to a prevailing level.[164]
+
+Among non-Roma Europeans Haplogroup H is extremely rare, peaking at 7 percent among Albanians from Tirana[165] and 11 percent among Bulgarian Turks. It occurs at 5 percent among Hungarians,[162] although the carriers might be of Romani origin.[163] Among non Roma-speaking Europeans at 2 percent among Slovaks,[166] 2 percent among Croats,[167] 1 percent among Macedonians from Skopje, 3 percent among Macedonian Albanians,[168] 1 percent among Serbs from Belgrade,[169] 3 percent among Bulgarians from Sofia,[170] 1 percent among Austrians and Swiss,[171] 3 percent among Romanians from Ploiesti, 1 percent among Turks.[166]
+
+They may have emerged from the modern Indian state of Rajasthan,[172] migrating to the northwest (the Punjab region, Sindh and Baluchistan of the Indian subcontinent) around 250 BC. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is now believed to have occurred beginning in about CE 500.[64]
+It has also been suggested that emigration from India may have taken place in the context of the raids by Mahmud of Ghazni. As these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the Byzantine Empire.[173] The author Ralph Lilley Turner theorised a central Indian origin of Romani followed by a migration to Northwest India as it shares a number of ancient isoglosses with Central Indo-Aryan languages in relation to realization of some sounds of Old Indo-Aryan. This is lent further credence by its sharing exactly the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers. The overall morphology suggests that Romani participated in some of the significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages, thus indicating that the proto-Romani did not leave the Indian subcontinent until late in the second half of the first millennium.[151][174]
+
+Though according to a 2012 genomic study, the Romani reached the Balkans as early as the 12th century,[175] the first historical records of the Romani reaching south-eastern Europe are from the 14th century: in 1322, after leaving Ireland on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Irish Franciscan friar Symon Semeonis encountered a migrant group of Romani outside the town of Candia (modern Heraklion), in Crete, calling them "the descendants of Cain"; his account is the earliest surviving description by a Western chronicler of the Romani in Europe.
+
+In 1350, Ludolph of Saxony mentioned a similar people with a unique language whom he called Mandapolos, a word some think derives from the Greek word mantes (meaning prophet or fortune teller).[176]
+
+Around 1360, a fiefdom called the Feudum Acinganorum was established in Corfu, which mainly used Romani serfs and to which the Romani on the island were subservient.[177]
+
+By the 1440s, they were recorded in Germany;[178] and by the 16th century, Scotland and Sweden.[179] Some Romani migrated from Persia through North Africa, reaching the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. The two currents met in France.[180]
+
+Their early history shows a mixed reception. Although 1385 marks the first recorded transaction for a Romani slave in Wallachia, they were issued safe conduct by Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund in 1417. Romanies were ordered expelled from the Meissen region of Germany in 1416, Lucerne in 1471, Milan in 1493, France in 1504, Catalonia in 1512, Sweden in 1525, England in 1530 (see Egyptians Act 1530), and Denmark in 1536. In 1510, any Romani found in Switzerland were ordered put to death, with similar rules established in England in 1554, and Denmark in 1589, whereas Portugal began deportations of Romanies to its colonies in 1538.[182]
+
+A 1596 English statute gave Romanis special privileges that other wanderers lacked. France passed a similar law in 1683. Catherine the Great of Russia declared the Romanies "crown slaves" (a status superior to serfs), but also kept them out of certain parts of the capital.[183] In 1595, Ștefan Răzvan overcame his birth into slavery, and became the Voivode (Prince) of Moldavia.[182]
+
+Since a royal edict by Charles II in 1695, Spanish Romanis had been restricted to certain towns.[184] An official edict in 1717 restricted them to only 75 towns and districts, so that they would not be concentrated in any one region. In the Great Gypsy Round-up, Romani were arrested and imprisoned by the Spanish Monarchy in 1749.
+
+During the latter part of the 17th century, around the Franco-Dutch War, both France and Holland needed thousands of men to fight. Some recruitment took the form of rounding up vagrants and the poor to work the galleys and provide the armies' labour force. With this background, Romanis were targets of both the French and the Dutch.
+
+After the wars, and into the first decade of the 18th century, Romanis were slaughtered with impunity throughout Holland. Romanis, called ‘heiden’ by the Dutch, wandered throughout the rural areas of Europe and became the societal pariahs of the age. Heidenjachten, translated as "heathen hunt" happened throughout Holland in an attempt to eradicate them.[185]
+
+Although some Romani could be kept as slaves in Wallachia and Moldavia until abolition in 1856, the majority traveled as free nomads with their wagons, as alluded to in the spoked wheel symbol in the Romani flag.[186] Elsewhere in Europe, they were subjected to ethnic cleansing, abduction of their children, and forced labour. In England, Romani were sometimes expelled from small communities or hanged; in France, they were branded, and their heads were shaved; in Moravia and Bohemia, the women were marked by their ears being severed. As a result, large groups of the Romani moved to the East, toward Poland, which was more tolerant, and Russia, where the Romani were treated more fairly as long as they paid the annual taxes.[187]
+
+Romani began emigrating to North America in colonial times, with small groups recorded in Virginia and French Louisiana. Larger-scale Roma emigration to the United States began in the 1860s, with Romanichal groups from Great Britain. The most significant number immigrated in the early 20th century, mainly from the Vlax group of Kalderash. Many Romani also settled in South America.
+
+During World War II, the Nazis embarked on a systematic genocide of the Romani, a process known in Romani as the Porajmos.[188] Romanies were marked for extermination and sentenced to forced labor and imprisonment in concentration camps. They were often killed on sight, especially by the Einsatzgruppen (paramilitary death squads) on the Eastern Front.[189] The total number of victims has been variously estimated at between 220,000 and 1,500,000.[190]
+
+The treatment of the Romani in Nazi puppet states differed markedly. In the Independent State of Croatia, the Ustaša killed almost the entire Roma population of 25,000. The concentration camp system of Jasenovac, run by the Ustaša militia and the Croat political police, were responsible for the deaths of between 15,000 and 20,000 Roma.[191]
+
+In Czechoslovakia, they were labeled a "socially degraded stratum", and Romani women were sterilized as part of a state policy to reduce their population. This policy was implemented with large financial incentives, threats of denying future welfare payments, with misinformation, or after administering drugs.[192][193]
+
+An official inquiry from the Czech Republic, resulting in a report (December 2005), concluded that the Communist authorities had practised an assimilation policy towards Romanis, which "included efforts by social services to control the birth rate in the Romani community. The problem of sexual sterilisation carried out in the Czech Republic, either with improper motivation or illegally, exists," said the Czech Public Defender of Rights, recommending state compensation for women affected between 1973 and 1991.[194] New cases were revealed up until 2004, in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland "all have histories of coercive sterilization of minorities and other groups".[195]
+
+The traditional Romanies place a high value on the extended family. Virginity is essential in unmarried women. Both men and women often marry young; there has been controversy in several countries over the Romani practise of child marriage. Romani law establishes that the man's family must pay a bride price to the bride's parents, but only traditional families still follow it.
+
+Once married, the woman joins the husband's family, where her main job is to tend to her husband's and her children's needs and take care of her in-laws. The power structure in the traditional Romani household has at its top the oldest man or grandfather, and men, in general, have more authority than women. Women gain respect and power as they get older. Young wives begin gaining authority once they have children.
+
+Romani social behavior is strictly regulated by Hindu purity laws[196] ("marime" or "marhime"), still respected by most Roma (and by most older generations of Sinti). This regulation affects many aspects of life and is applied to actions, people and things: parts of the human body are considered impure: the genital organs (because they produce emissions) and the rest of the lower body. Clothes for the lower body, as well as the clothes of menstruating women, are washed separately. Items used for eating are also washed in a different place. Childbirth is considered impure and must occur outside the dwelling place. The mother is deemed to be impure for forty days after giving birth.
+
+Death is considered impure, and affects the whole family of the dead, who remain impure for a period of time. In contrast to the practice of cremating the dead, Romani dead must be buried.[197] Cremation and burial are both known from the time of the Rigveda, and both are widely practiced in Hinduism today (although the tendency is for Hindus to practice cremation, while some communities in South India tend to bury their dead).[198] Some animals are also considered impure, for instance, cats, because they lick their hindquarters. Horses, in contrast, are not considered impure because they cannot do so.[199]
+
+In Romani philosophy, Romanipen (also romanypen, romanipe, romanype, romanimos, romaimos, romaniya) is the totality of the Romani spirit, Romani culture, Romani Law,  being a Romani, a set of Romani strains.
+
+An ethnic Romani is considered a gadjo in the Romani society if he has no Romanipen. Sometimes a non-Romani may be considered a Romani if he has Romanipen. Usually this is an adopted child. It has been hypothesized that it owes more to a framework of culture rather than simply an adherence to historically received rules.[200]
+
+Most Romani people are Christian,[201] others Muslim; some retained their ancient faith of Hinduism from their original homeland of India, while others have their own religion and political organization.[202]
+
+The ancestors of modern-day Romani people were Hindu, but adopted Christianity or Islam depending on the regions through which they had migrated.[203] Muslim Roma are found in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Egypt, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria, forming a very significant proportion of the Romani people. In neighboring countries such as Serbia and Greece, most Romani inhabitants follow the practice of Orthodoxy. It is likely that the adherence to differing religions prevented families from engaging in intermarriage.[204]
+
+In Spain, most Gitanos are Roman Catholics.[citation needed]
+Some brotherhoods have organized Gitanos in their Holy Week devotions.
+They are popularly known as Cofradía de los Gitanos.
+However, the proportion of followers of Evangelical Christianity among Gitanos is higher than among the rest of Spaniards.[citation needed]
+Their version of el culto integrates Flamenco music.
+
+Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla is recently considered a patron saint of the Romani people in Roman Catholicism.[205] Saint Sarah, or Sara e Kali, has also been venerated as a patron saint in her shrine at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France. Since the turn of the 21st century, Sara e Kali is understood to have been Kali, an Indian deity brought from India by the refugee ancestors of the Roma people; as the Roma became Christianized, she was absorbed in a syncretic way and venerated as a saint.[206]
+
+Saint Sarah is now increasingly being considered as "a Romani Goddess, the Protectress of the Roma" and an "indisputable link with Mother India".[206][207]
+
+Romanies often adopt the dominant religion of their host country in the event that a ceremony associated with a formal religious institution is necessary, such as a baptism or funeral (their particular belief systems and indigenous religion and worship remain preserved regardless of such adoption processes). The Roma continue to practice "Shaktism", a practice with origins in India, whereby a female consort is required for the worship of a god. Adherence to this practice means that for the Roma who worship the Christian God, prayer is conducted through the Virgin Mary, or her mother, Saint Anne. Shaktism continues over one thousand years after the people's separation from India.[208]
+
+Besides the Roma elders (who serve as spiritual leaders), priests, churches, or bibles do not exist among the Romanies –  the only exception is the Pentecostal Roma.[208]
+
+For the Roma communities that have resided in the Balkans for numerous centuries, often referred to as "Turkish Gypsies", the following histories apply for religious beliefs:
+
+In Ukraine and Russia, the Roma populations are also Muslim as the families of Balkan migrants continue to live in these locations. Their ancestors settled on the Crimean peninsula during the 17th and 18th centuries, but then migrated to Ukraine, southern Russia and the Povolzhie (along the Volga River). Formally, Islam is the religion that these communities align themselves with and the people are recognized for their staunch preservation of the Romani language and identity.[210]
+
+In Poland and Slovakia, their populations are Roman Catholic, many times adopting and following local, cultural Catholicism as a syncretic system of belief that incorporates distinct Roma beliefs and cultural aspects. For example, many Polish Roma delays their Church wedding due to the belief that sacramental marriage is accompanied by divine ratification, creating a virtually indissoluble union until the couple consummate, after which the sacramental marriage is dissoluble only by the death of a spouse. Therefore, for Polish Roma, once married, one can't ever divorce. Another aspect of Polish Roma's Catholicism is a tradition of pilgrimage to the Jasna Góra Monastery.[212]
+
+Most Eastern European Romanies are Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Muslim.[213] Those in Western Europe and the United States are mostly Roman Catholic or Protestant –  in southern Spain, many Romanies are Pentecostal, but this is a small minority that has emerged in contemporary times.[208] In Egypt, the Romanies are split into Christian and Muslim populations.[214]
+
+Romani music plays an important role in Central and Eastern European countries such as Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Albania, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania, and the style and performance practices of Romani musicians have influenced European classical composers such as Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. The lăutari who perform at traditional Romanian weddings are virtually all Romani.[citation needed]
+
+Probably the most internationally prominent contemporary performers[citation needed] in the lăutari tradition are Taraful Haiducilor. Bulgaria's popular "wedding music", too, is almost exclusively performed by Romani musicians such as Ivo Papasov, a virtuoso clarinetist closely associated with this genre and Bulgarian pop-folk singer Azis.
+
+Many famous classical musicians, such as the Hungarian pianist Georges Cziffra, are Romani, as are many prominent performers of manele. Zdob și Zdub, one of the most prominent rock bands in Moldova, although not Romanies themselves, draw heavily on Romani music, as do Spitalul de Urgență in Romania, Shantel in Germany, Goran Bregović in Serbia, Darko Rundek in Croatia, Beirut and Gogol Bordello in the United States.
+
+Another tradition of Romani music is the genre of the Romani brass band, with such notable practitioners as Boban Marković of Serbia, and the brass lăutari groups Fanfare Ciocărlia and Fanfare din Cozmesti of Romania.
+
+Dances such as the flamenco of Spain and Oriental dances of Egypt are said to have originated from the Romani.[215]
+
+The distinctive sound of Romani music has also strongly influenced bolero, jazz, and flamenco (especially cante jondo) in Spain. European-style gypsy jazz ("jazz Manouche" or "Sinti jazz") is still widely practiced among the original creators (the Romanie People); one who acknowledged this artistic debt was guitarist Django Reinhardt. Contemporary artists in this tradition known internationally include Stochelo Rosenberg, Biréli Lagrène, Jimmy Rosenberg, Paulus Schäfer and Tchavolo Schmitt.
+
+The Romanies of Turkey have achieved musical acclaim from national and local audiences. Local performers usually perform for special holidays. Their music is usually performed on instruments such as the darbuka, gırnata and cümbüş.[216]
+
+Romani contemporary art is art created by Romani people. It emerged at the climax of the process that began in Central and Eastern Europe in the late-1980s, when the interpretation of the cultural practice of minorities was enabled by a paradigm shift, commonly referred to in specialist literature as the Cultural turn. The idea of the "cultural turn" was introduced; and this was also the time when the notion of cultural democracy became crystallized in the debates carried on at various public forums. Civil society gained strength, and civil politics appeared, which is a prerequisite for cultural democracy. This shift of attitude in scholarly circles derived from concerns specific not only to ethnicity, but also to society, gender and class.[217]
+
+Most Romani speak one of several dialects of the Romani language,[218] an Indo-Aryan language, with roots in Sanskrit. They also often speak the languages of the countries they live in. Typically, they also incorporate loanwords and calques into Romani from the languages of those countries and especially words for terms that the Romani language does not have. Most of the Ciganos of Portugal, the Gitanos of Spain, the Romanichal of the UK, and Scandinavian Travellers have lost their knowledge of pure Romani, and respectively speak the mixed languages Caló,[219] Angloromany, and Scandoromani. Most of the speaker communities in these regions consist of later immigrants from eastern or central Europe.[220]
+
+There are no concrete statistics for the number of Romani speakers, both in Europe and globally. However, a conservative estimation has been made at 3.5 million speakers in Europe and a further 500,000 elsewhere,[220] although the actual number may be considerably higher. This makes Romani the second largest minority language in Europe, behind Catalan.[220]
+
+In relation to dialect diversity, Romani works in the same way as most other European languages.[221] Cross-dialect communication is dominated by the following features:
+
+One of the most enduring persecutions against the Romani people was their enslavement. Slavery was widely practiced in medieval Europe, including the territory of present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in the 13th–14th century.[222][page needed] Legislation decreed that all the Romani living in these states, as well as any others who immigrated there, were classified as slaves.[223] Slavery was gradually abolished during the 1840s and 1850s.[224][page needed]
+
+The exact origins of slavery in the Danubian Principalities are not known. There is some debate over whether the Romani people came to Wallachia and Moldavia as free men or were brought as slaves. Historian Nicolae Iorga associated the Roma people's arrival with the 1241 Mongol invasion of Europe and considered their slavery as a vestige of that era, in which the Romanians took the Roma as slaves from the Mongols and preserved their status to use their labor. Other historians believe that the Romani were enslaved while captured during the battles with the Tatars. The practice of enslaving war prisoners may also have been adopted from the Mongols.[222][page needed]
+
+Some Romani may have been slaves or auxiliary troops of the Mongols or Tatars, but most of them migrated from south of the Danube at the end of the 14th century, some time after the foundation of Wallachia. By then, the institution of slavery was already established in Moldavia and possibly in both principalities. After the Roma migrated into the area, slavery became a widespread practice by the majority population. The Tatar slaves, smaller in numbers, were eventually merged into the Roma population.[225]
+
+Some branches of the Romani people reached Western Europe in the 15th century, fleeing as refugees from the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans.[226] Although the Romani were refugees from the conflicts in southeastern Europe, they were often suspected by certain populations in the West of being associated with the Ottoman invasion because their physical appearance seemed Turkish. (The Imperial Diet at Landau and Freiburg in 1496–1498 declared that the Romani were spies of the Turks). In Western Europe, such suspicions and discrimination against a people who were a visible minority resulted in persecution, often violent, with efforts to achieve ethnic cleansing until the modern era. In times of social tension, the Romani suffered as scapegoats; for instance, they were accused of bringing the plague during times of epidemics.[227]
+
+On 30 July 1749, Spain conducted The Great Roundup of Romani (Gitanos) in its territory. The Spanish Crown ordered a nationwide raid that led to the break-up of families as all able-bodied men were interned into forced labor camps in an attempt at ethnic cleansing. The measure was eventually reversed and the Romanis were freed as protests began to arise in different communities, sedentary romanis being highly esteemed and protected in rural Spain.[228][229]
+
+Later in the 19th century, Romani immigration was forbidden on a racial basis in areas outside Europe, mostly in the English-speaking world. Argentina in 1880 prohibited immigration by Roma, as did the United States in 1885.[227]
+
+In the Habsburg Monarchy under Maria Theresa (1740–1780), a series of decrees tried to force the Romanies to permanently settle, removed rights to horse and wagon ownership (1754), renamed them as "New Citizens" and forced Romani boys into military service if they had no trade (1761), forced them to register with the local authorities (1767), and prohibited marriage between Romanies (1773). Her successor Josef II prohibited the wearing of traditional Romani clothing and the use of the Romani language, punishable by flogging.[230]
+
+In Spain, attempts to assimilate the Gitanos were under way as early as 1619, when Gitanos were forcibly settled, the use of the Romani language was prohibited, Gitano men and women were sent to separate workhouses and their children sent to orphanages. King Charles III took on a more progressive attitude to Gitano assimilation, proclaiming their equal rights as Spanish citizens and ending official denigration based on their race. While he prohibited the nomadic lifestyle, the use of the Calo language, Romani clothing, their trade in horses and other itinerant trades, he also forbade any form of discrimination against them or barring them from the guilds. The use of the word gitano was also forbidden to further assimilation, substituted for "New Castilian", which was also applied to former Jews and Muslims.[231][232]
+
+Most historians agree that Charles III pragmática failed for three main reasons, ultimately derived from its implementation outside major cities and in marginal areas: The difficulty the Gitano community faced in changing its nomadic lifestyle, the marginal lifestyle in which the community had been driven by society and the serious difficulties of applying the pragmática in the fields of education and work. One author ascribes its failure to the overall rejection by the wider population of the integration of the Gitanos.[230][233]
+
+Other examples of forced assimilation include Norway, where a law was passed in 1896 permitting the state to remove children from their parents and place them in state institutions.[234] This resulted in some 1,500 Romani children being taken from their parents in the 20th century.[235]
+
+The persecution of the Romanies reached a peak during World War II in the Porajmos genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany. In 1935, the Nuremberg laws stripped the Romani people living in Nazi Germany of their citizenship, after which they were subjected to violence, imprisonment in concentration camps and later genocide in extermination camps. The policy was extended in areas occupied by the Nazis during the war, and it was also applied by their allies, notably the Independent State of Croatia, Romania, and Hungary.
+
+Because no accurate pre-war census figures exist for the Romanis, it is impossible to accurately assess the actual number of victims. Most estimates for numbers of Romani victims of the Holocaust fall between 200,000 and 500,000, although figures ranging between 90,000 and 1.5 million have been proposed. Lower estimates do not include those killed in all Axis-controlled countries. A detailed study by Sybil Milton, formerly senior historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum gave a figure of at least a minimum of 220,000, possibly closer to 500,000.[236] Ian Hancock, Director of the Program of Romani Studies and the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at the University of Texas at Austin, argues in favour of a higher figure of between 500,000 and 1,500,000.[237]
+
+In Central Europe, the extermination in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was so thorough that the Bohemian Romani language became extinct.
+
+In Europe, Romani people are associated with poverty, and are accused of high rates of crime and behaviours that are perceived by the rest of the population as being antisocial or inappropriate.[239] Partly for this reason, discrimination against the Romani people has continued to the present day,[240][241] although efforts are being made to address them.[242] Amnesty International reports continued instances of Antizigan discrimination during the 20th century, particularly in Romania, Serbia,[243] Slovakia,[244] Hungary,[245] Slovenia,[246] and Kosovo.[247] The European Union has recognized that discrimination against Romani must be addressed, and with the national Roma integration strategy they encourage member states to work towards greater Romani inclusion and upholding the rights of the Romani in the European union.[248]
+
+In Eastern Europe, Roma children often attend Roma Special Schools, separate from non-Roma children, which puts them at an educational disadvantage.[251]:83
+
+The Romanis of Kosovo have been severely persecuted by ethnic Albanians since the end of the Kosovo War, and the region's Romani community is, for the most part, annihilated.[252]
+
+Czechoslovakia carried out a policy of sterilization of Romani women, starting in 1973.[253] The dissidents of the Charter 77 denounced it in 1977–78 as a genocide, but the practice continued through the Velvet Revolution of 1989.[254] A 2005 report by the Czech Republic's independent ombudsman, Otakar Motejl, identified dozens of cases of coercive sterilization between 1979 and 2001, and called for criminal investigations and possible prosecution against several health care workers and administrators.[255]
+
+In 2008, following the rape and subsequent murder of an Italian woman in Rome at the hands of a young man from a local Romani encampment,[256] the Italian government declared that Italy's Romani population represented a national security risk and that swift action was required to address the emergenza nomadi (nomad emergency).[257] Specifically, officials in the Italian government accused the Romanies of being responsible for rising crime rates in urban areas.
+
+The 2008 deaths of Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic, two Roma children who drowned while Italian beach-goers remained unperturbed, brought international attention to the relationship between Italians and the Roma people. Reviewing the situation in 2012, one Belgian magazine observed:
+
+On International Roma Day, which falls on 8 April, the significant proportion of Europe's 12 million Roma who live in deplorable conditions will not have much to celebrate. And poverty is not the only worry for the community. Ethnic tensions are on the rise. In 2008, Roma camps came under attack in Italy, intimidation by racist parliamentarians is the norm in Hungary. Speaking in 1993, Václav Havel prophetically remarked that "the treatment of the Roma is a Litmus test for democracy": and democracy has been found wanting. The consequences of the transition to capitalism have been disastrous for the Roma. Under communism they had jobs, free housing and schooling. Now many are unemployed, many are losing their homes and racism is increasingly rewarded with impunity.[258]
+
+The 2016 Pew Research poll found that Italians, in particular, hold strong anti-Roma views, with 82% of Italians expressing negative opinions about Roma. In Greece 67%, in Hungary 64%, in France 61%, in Spain 49%, in Poland 47%, in the UK 45%, in Sweden 42%, in Germany 40%, and in the Netherlands[259] 37% had an unfavourable view of Roma.[260] The 2019 Pew Research poll found that 83% of Italians, 76% of Slovaks, 72% of Greeks, 68% of Bulgarians, 66% of Czechs, 61% of Lithuanians, 61% of Hungarians, 54% of Ukrainians, 52% of Russians, 51% of Poles, 44% of French, 40% of Spaniards, and 37% of Germans held unfavorable views of Roma.[261]
+
+Reports of anti-Roma incidents are increasing across Europe.[262] Discrimination against Roma remains widespread in Romania,[263] Slovakia,[264] Bulgaria,[265][266], and the Czech Republic.[267] Roma communities across Ukraine have been the target of violent attacks.[268][269]
+
+In the summer of 2010, French authorities demolished at least 51 illegal Roma camps and began the process of repatriating their residents to their countries of origin.[270] This followed tensions between the French state and Roma communities, which had been heightened after French police opened fire and killed a traveller who drove through a police checkpoint, hitting an officer, and attempted to hit two more officers at another checkpoint. In retaliation a group of Roma, armed with hatchets and iron bars, attacked the police station of Saint-Aignan, toppled traffic lights and road signs and burned three cars.[271][272] The French government has been accused of perpetrating these actions to pursue its political agenda.[273] EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding stated that the European Commission should take legal action against France over the issue, calling the deportations "a disgrace". A leaked file dated 5 August, sent from the Interior Ministry to regional police chiefs, included the instruction: "Three hundred camps or illegal settlements must be cleared within three months, Roma camps are a priority."[274]
+
+Many depictions of Romani people in literature and art present romanticized narratives of mystical powers of fortune telling or irascible or passionate temper paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. Romani were a popular subject in Venetian painting from the time of Giorgione at the start of the 16th century; the inclusion of such a figure adds an exotic oriental flavour to scenes. A Venetian Renaissance painting by Paris Bordone (ca. 1530, Strasbourg) of the Holy Family in Egypt makes Elizabeth, a Romani fortune-teller; the scene is otherwise located in a distinctly European landscape.[275]
+
+Particularly notable are classics like the story Carmen by Prosper Mérimée and the opera based on it by Georges Bizet, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Herge's The Castafiore Emerald and Miguel de Cervantes' La Gitanilla. The Romani were also depicted in A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Othello and The Tempest, all by William Shakespeare.
+
+The Romani were also heavily romanticized in the Soviet Union, a classic example being the 1975 film Tabor ukhodit v Nebo.
+A more realistic depiction of contemporary Romani in the Balkans, featuring Romani lay actors speaking in their native dialects, although still playing with established clichés of a Romani penchant for both magic and crime, was presented by Emir Kusturica in his Time of the Gypsies (1988) and Black Cat, White Cat (1998). The films of Tony Gatlif, a French director of Romani ethnicity, like Les Princes (1983), Latcho Drom (1993) and Gadjo Dilo (1997) also portray romani life.
+
+Paris Bordone, c. 1530, Elizabeth, at right, is shown as a Romani fortune-teller
+
+August von Pettenkofen: Gypsy Children (1885), Hermitage Museum
+
+Vincent van Gogh: The Caravans – Gypsy Camp near Arles (1888, oil on canvas)
+
+Carmen
+
+Esméralda
+
+Nicolae Grigorescu Gypsy from Boldu (1897), Art Museum of Iași
+
+General
+
+Lists
+
+European countries Roma links
+
+Non-governmental organisations
+
+Museums and libraries

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+
+Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] (listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP). He rose to power as the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then as Führer in 1934.[a] During his dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland on 1 September 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust.
+
+Hitler was born in Austria—then part of Austria-Hungary—and was raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the NSDAP, and was appointed leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
+
+By November 1932, the Nazi Party had the most seats in the German Reichstag but did not have a majority. As a result, no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933 which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which gave him significant popular support.
+
+Hitler sought Lebensraum ("living space") for the German people in Eastern Europe, and his aggressive foreign policy is considered the primary cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September 1939, invaded Poland, resulting in Britain and France declaring war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. These gains were gradually reversed after 1941, and in 1945 the Allied armies defeated the German army. On 29 April 1945, he married his longtime lover Eva Braun. Less than two days later, the couple committed suicide to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army. Their corpses were burned.
+
+Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of about 6 million Jews and millions of other victims whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans) or socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European theatre. The number of civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, and the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history.
+
+Hitler's actions and Nazi ideology are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral. According to Ian Kershaw, "Never in history has such ruination – physical and moral – been associated with the name of one man."[4]
+
+Hitler's father Alois Hitler Sr. (1837–1903) was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber.[5] The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, and Alois initially bore his mother's surname Schicklgruber. In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois's mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedler's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler.[6] In 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal record received an annotation made by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father (recorded as "Georg Hitler").[7][8] Alois then assumed the surname "Hitler",[8] also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, or Huettler. The name is probably based on "one who lives in a hut" (German Hütte for "hut").[9]
+
+Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Alois' mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the family's 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois.[10] No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenberger's existence,[11] so historians dismiss the claim that Alois' father was Jewish.[12][13]
+
+Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present-day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire.[14]  He was the fourth of six children born to Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl. Three of Hitler's siblings—Gustav, Ida, and Otto—died in infancy.[15] Also living in the household were Alois's children from his second marriage: Alois Jr. (born 1882) and Angela (born 1883).[16] When Hitler was three, the family moved to Passau, Germany.[17] There he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech throughout his life.[18][19][20] The family returned to Austria and settled in Leonding in 1894, and in June 1895 Alois retired to Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees. Hitler attended Volksschule (a state-owned primary school) in nearby Fischlham.[21][22]
+
+The move to Hafeld coincided with the onset of intense father-son conflicts caused by Hitler's refusal to conform to the strict discipline of his school.[23] His father beat him, although his mother tried to protect him.[24] Alois Hitler's farming efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and in 1897 the family moved to Lambach. The eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even considered becoming a priest.[25] In 1898 the family returned permanently to Leonding. Hitler was deeply affected by the death of his younger brother Edmund, who died in 1900 from measles. Hitler changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious student to a morose, detached boy who constantly fought with his father and teachers.[26]
+
+Alois had made a successful career in the customs bureau, and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.[27] Hitler later dramatised an episode from this period when his father took him to visit a customs office, depicting it as an event that gave rise to an unforgiving antagonism between father and son, who were both strong-willed.[28][29][30] Ignoring his son's desire to attend a classical high school and become an artist, Alois sent Hitler to the Realschule in Linz in September 1900.[b][31] Hitler rebelled against this decision, and in Mein Kampf states that he intentionally did poorly in school, hoping that once his father saw "what little progress I was making at the technical school he would let me devote myself to my dream".[32]
+
+Like many Austrian Germans, Hitler began to develop German nationalist ideas from a young age.[33] He expressed loyalty only to Germany, despising the declining Habsburg Monarchy and its rule over an ethnically variegated empire.[34][35] Hitler and his friends used the greeting "Heil", and sang the "Deutschlandlied" instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem.[36]
+
+After Alois's sudden death on 3 January 1903, Hitler's performance at school deteriorated and his mother allowed him to leave.[37] He enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in September 1904, where his behaviour and performance improved.[38] In 1905, after passing a repeat of the final exam, Hitler left the school without any ambitions for further education or clear plans for a career.[39]
+
+In 1907 Hitler left Linz to live and study fine art in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and support from his mother. He applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but was rejected twice.[40][41] The director suggested Hitler should apply to the School of Architecture, but he lacked the necessary academic credentials because he had not finished secondary school.[42]
+
+On 21 December 1907, his mother died of breast cancer at the age of 47, when he himself was 18. In 1909 Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live a bohemian life in homeless shelters and a men's dormitory.[43][44] He earned money as a casual labourer and by painting and selling watercolours of Vienna's sights.[40] During his time in Vienna, he pursued a growing passion for architecture and music, attending ten performances of Lohengrin, his favourite Wagner opera.[45]
+
+It was in Vienna that Hitler first became exposed to racist rhetoric.[46] Populists such as mayor Karl Lueger exploited the climate of virulent anti-Semitism and occasionally espoused German nationalist notions for political effect. German nationalism had a particularly widespread following in the Mariahilf district, where Hitler lived.[47] Georg Ritter von Schönerer became a major influence on Hitler.[48] He also developed an admiration for Martin Luther.[49] Hitler read local newspapers such as Deutsches Volksblatt that fanned prejudice and played on Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of Eastern European Jews.[50] He read newspapers and pamphlets that published the thoughts of philosophers and theoreticians such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gustave Le Bon and Arthur Schopenhauer.[51]
+
+The origin and development of Hitler's anti-Semitism remains a matter of debate.[52] His friend, August Kubizek, claimed that Hitler was a "confirmed anti-Semite" before he left Linz.[53] However, historian Brigitte Hamann describes Kubizek's claim as "problematical".[54] While Hitler states in Mein Kampf that he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna,[55] Reinhold Hanisch, who helped him sell his paintings, disagrees. Hitler had dealings with Jews while living in Vienna.[56][57][58] Historian Richard J. Evans states that "historians now generally agree that his notorious, murderous anti-Semitism emerged well after Germany's defeat [in World War I], as a product of the paranoid "stab-in-the-back" explanation for the catastrophe".[59]
+
+Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich, Germany.[60] When he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army,[61] he journeyed to Salzburg on 5 February 1914 for medical assessment. After he was deemed unfit for service, he returned to Munich.[62] Hitler later claimed that he did not wish to serve the Habsburg Empire because of the mixture of races in its army and his belief that the collapse of Austria-Hungary was imminent.[63]
+
+In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army.[64] According to a 1924 report by the Bavarian authorities, allowing Hitler to serve was almost certainly an administrative error, since as an Austrian citizen, he should have been returned to Austria.[64] Posted to the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List Regiment),[65][64] he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium,[66] spending nearly half his time at the regimental headquarters in Fournes-en-Weppes, well behind the front lines.[67][68] He was present at the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, and the Battle of Passchendaele, and was wounded at the Somme.[69] He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914.[69] On a recommendation by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, Hitler's Jewish superior, he received the Iron Cross, First Class on 4 August 1918, a decoration rarely awarded to one of Hitler's Gefreiter rank.[70][71] He received the Black Wound Badge on 18 May 1918.[72]
+
+During his service at headquarters, Hitler pursued his artwork, drawing cartoons and instructions for an army newspaper. During the Battle of the Somme in October 1916, he was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout.[73] Hitler spent almost two months in hospital at Beelitz, returning to his regiment on 5 March 1917.[74] On 15 October 1918, he was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack and was hospitalised in Pasewalk.[75] While there, Hitler learned of Germany's defeat, and—by his own account—upon receiving this news, he suffered a second bout of blindness.[76]
+
+Hitler described the war as "the greatest of all experiences", and was praised by his commanding officers for his bravery.[77] His wartime experience reinforced his German patriotism and he was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918.[78] His bitterness over the collapse of the war effort began to shape his ideology.[79] Like other German nationalists, he believed the Dolchstoßlegende (stab-in-the-back myth), which claimed that the German army, "undefeated in the field", had been "stabbed in the back" on the home front by civilian leaders, Jews, Marxists, and those who signed the armistice that ended the fighting—later dubbed the "November criminals".[80]
+
+The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany must relinquish several of its territories and demilitarise the Rhineland. The treaty imposed economic sanctions and levied heavy reparations on the country. Many Germans saw the treaty as an unjust humiliation—they especially objected to Article 231, which they interpreted as declaring Germany responsible for the war.[81] The Versailles Treaty and the economic, social, and political conditions in Germany after the war were later exploited by Hitler for political gain.[82]
+
+After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich.[83] Without formal education or career prospects, he remained in the army.[84] In July 1919 he was appointed Verbindungsmann (intelligence agent) of an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance unit) of the Reichswehr, assigned to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers' Party (DAP). At a DAP meeting on 12 September 1919, Party Chairman Anton Drexler was impressed with Hitler's oratorical skills. He gave him a copy of his pamphlet My Political Awakening, which contained anti-Semitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-Marxist ideas.[85] On the orders of his army superiors, Hitler applied to join the party,[86] and within a week was accepted as party member 555 (the party began counting membership at 500 to give the impression they were a much larger party).[87][88]
+
+Around this time, Hitler made his earliest known recorded statement about the Jews in a letter (now known as the Gemlich letter) dated 16 September 1919 to Adolf Gemlich about the Jewish question. In the letter, Hitler argues that the aim of the government "must unshakably be the removal of the Jews altogether".[89]
+
+At the DAP, Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the party's founders and a member of the occult Thule Society.[90] Eckart became Hitler's mentor, exchanging ideas with him and introducing him to a wide range of Munich society.[91] To increase its appeal, the DAP changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party; NSDAP).[92] Hitler designed the party's banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red background.[93]
+
+Hitler was discharged from the army on 31 March 1920 and began working full-time for the NSDAP.[94] The party headquarters was in Munich, a hotbed of anti-government German nationalists determined to crush Marxism and undermine the Weimar Republic.[95] In February 1921—already highly effective at crowd manipulation—he spoke to a crowd of over 6,000.[96] To publicise the meeting, two truckloads of party supporters drove around Munich waving swastika flags and distributing leaflets. Hitler soon gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, and especially against Marxists and Jews.[97]
+
+In June 1921, while Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin, a mutiny broke out within the NSDAP in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the rival German Socialist Party (DSP).[98] Hitler returned to Munich on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party.[99] Hitler announced he would rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich.[100] The committee agreed, and he rejoined the party on 26 July as member 3,680. Hitler continued to face some opposition within the NSDAP: Opponents of Hitler in the leadership had Hermann Esser expelled from the party, and they printed 3,000 copies of a pamphlet attacking Hitler as a traitor to the party.[100][c] In the following days, Hitler spoke to several packed houses and defended himself and Esser, to thunderous applause. His strategy proved successful, and at a special party congress on 29 July, he was granted absolute powers as party chairman, replacing Drexler, by a vote of 533 to 1.[101]
+
+Hitler's vitriolic beer hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. A demagogue,[102] he became adept at using populist themes, including the use of scapegoats, who were blamed for his listeners' economic hardships.[103][104][105] Hitler used personal magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to his advantage while engaged in public speaking.[106][107] Historians have noted the hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small groups.[108] Algis Budrys recalled the crowd noise and behaviour when Hitler appeared in a 1936 parade; some in the audience writhed and rolled on the ground or experienced fecal incontinence.[109] Alfons Heck, a former member of the Hitler Youth, recalled a similar experience:
+
+We erupted into a frenzy of nationalistic pride that bordered on hysteria. For minutes on end, we shouted at the top of our lungs, with tears streaming down our faces: Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil! From that moment on, I belonged to Adolf Hitler body and soul.[110]
+
+Early followers included Rudolf Hess, former air force ace Hermann Göring, and army captain Ernst Röhm. Röhm became head of the Nazis' paramilitary organisation, the Sturmabteilung (SA, "Stormtroopers"), which protected meetings and attacked political opponents. A critical influence on Hitler's thinking during this period was the Aufbau Vereinigung,[111] a conspiratorial group of White Russian exiles and early National Socialists. The group, financed with funds channelled from wealthy industrialists, introduced Hitler to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy, linking international finance with Bolshevism.[112]
+
+The programme of the NSDAP, known colloquially as the "Nazi Party", was laid out in their 25-point programme on 24 February 1920. This did not represent a coherent ideology, but was a conglomeration of received ideas which had currency in the völkisch Pan-Germanic movement, such as ultranationalism, opposition to the Treaty of Versailles, distrust of capitalism, as well as some socialist ideas. For Hitler, though, the most important aspect of it was its strong anti-Semitic stance. He also perceived the programme as primarily a basis for propaganda and for attracting people to the party.[113]
+
+In 1923, Hitler enlisted the help of World War I General Erich Ludendorff for an attempted coup known as the "Beer Hall Putsch". The NSDAP used Italian Fascism as a model for their appearance and policies. Hitler wanted to emulate Benito Mussolini's "March on Rome" of 1922 by staging his own coup in Bavaria, to be followed by a challenge to the government in Berlin. Hitler and Ludendorff sought the support of Staatskommissar (state commissioner) Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Bavaria's de facto ruler. However, Kahr, along with Police Chief Hans Ritter von Seisser and Reichswehr General Otto von Lossow, wanted to install a nationalist dictatorship without Hitler.[114]
+
+On 8 November 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organised by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a beer hall in Munich. Interrupting Kahr's speech, he announced that the national revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new government with Ludendorff.[115] Retiring to a back room, Hitler, with handgun drawn, demanded and got the support of Kahr, Seisser, and Lossow.[115] Hitler's forces initially succeeded in occupying the local Reichswehr and police headquarters, but Kahr and his cohorts quickly withdrew their support. Neither the army, nor the state police, joined forces with Hitler.[116] The next day, Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government, but police dispersed them.[117] Sixteen NSDAP members and four police officers were killed in the failed coup.[118]
+
+Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and by some accounts contemplated suicide.[119] He was depressed but calm when arrested on 11 November 1923 for high treason.[120] His trial before the special People's Court in Munich began in February 1924,[121] and Alfred Rosenberg became temporary leader of the NSDAP. On 1 April, Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg Prison.[122] There, he received friendly treatment from the guards, and was allowed mail from supporters and regular visits by party comrades. Pardoned by the Bavarian Supreme Court, he was released from jail on 20 December 1924, against the state prosecutor's objections.[123] Including time on remand, Hitler served just over one year in prison.[124]
+
+While at Landsberg, Hitler dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle; originally entitled Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice) at first to his chauffeur, Emil Maurice, and then to his deputy, Rudolf Hess.[124][125] The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and exposition of his ideology. The book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into one based on race. Throughout the book, Jews are equated with "germs" and presented as the "international poisoners" of society. According to Hitler's ideology, the only solution was their extermination. While Hitler did not describe exactly how this was to be accomplished, his "inherent genocidal thrust is undeniable," according to Ian Kershaw.[126]
+
+Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, Mein Kampf sold 228,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. One million copies were sold in 1933, Hitler's first year in office.[127]
+
+Shortly before Hitler was eligible for parole, the Bavarian government attempted to have him deported to Austria.[128] The Austrian federal chancellor rejected the request on the specious grounds that his service in the German Army made his Austrian citizenship void.[129] In response, Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7 April 1925.[129]
+
+At the time of Hitler's release from prison, politics in Germany had become less combative and the economy had improved, limiting Hitler's opportunities for political agitation. As a result of the failed Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazi Party and its affiliated organisations were banned in Bavaria. In a meeting with the Prime Minister of Bavaria Heinrich Held on 4 January 1925, Hitler agreed to respect the state's authority and promised that he would seek political power only through the democratic process. The meeting paved the way for the ban on the NSDAP to be lifted on 16 February.[130] However, after an inflammatory speech he gave on 27 February, Hitler was barred from public speaking by the Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until 1927.[131][132] To advance his political ambitions in spite of the ban, Hitler appointed Gregor Strasser, Otto Strasser and Joseph Goebbels to organise and enlarge the NSDAP in northern Germany. Gregor Strasser steered a more independent political course, emphasising the socialist elements of the party's programme.[133]
+
+The stock market in the United States crashed on 24 October 1929. The impact in Germany was dire: millions were thrown out of work and several major banks collapsed. Hitler and the NSDAP prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party. They promised to repudiate the Versailles Treaty, strengthen the economy, and provide jobs.[134]
+
+The Great Depression provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent about the parliamentary republic, which faced challenges from right- and left-wing extremists. The moderate political parties were increasingly unable to stem the tide of extremism, and the German referendum of 1929 helped to elevate Nazi ideology.[136] The elections of September 1930 resulted in the break-up of a grand coalition and its replacement with a minority cabinet. Its leader, chancellor Heinrich Brüning of the Centre Party, governed through emergency decrees from President Paul von Hindenburg. Governance by decree became the new norm and paved the way for authoritarian forms of government.[137] The NSDAP rose from obscurity to win 18.3 per cent of the vote and 107 parliamentary seats in the 1930 election, becoming the second-largest party in parliament.[138]
+
+Hitler made a prominent appearance at the trial of two Reichswehr officers, Lieutenants Richard Scheringer and Hanns Ludin, in late 1930. Both were charged with membership in the NSDAP, at that time illegal for Reichswehr personnel.[139] The prosecution argued that the NSDAP was an extremist party, prompting defence lawyer Hans Frank to call on Hitler to testify.[140] On 25 September 1930, Hitler testified that his party would pursue political power solely through democratic elections,[141] which won him many supporters in the officer corps.[142]
+
+Brüning's austerity measures brought little economic improvement and were extremely unpopular.[143] Hitler exploited this by targeting his political messages specifically at people who had been affected by the inflation of the 1920s and the Depression, such as farmers, war veterans, and the middle class.[144]
+
+Although Hitler had terminated his Austrian citizenship in 1925, he did not acquire German citizenship for almost seven years. This meant that he was stateless, legally unable to run for public office, and still faced the risk of deportation.[145] On 25 February 1932, the interior minister of Brunswick, Dietrich Klagges, who was a member of the NSDAP, appointed Hitler as administrator for the state's delegation to the Reichsrat in Berlin, making Hitler a citizen of Brunswick,[146] and thus of Germany.[147]
+
+Hitler ran against Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential elections. A speech to the Industry Club in Düsseldorf on 27 January 1932 won him support from many of Germany's most powerful industrialists.[148] Hindenburg had support from various nationalist, monarchist, Catholic, and republican parties, and some Social Democrats. Hitler used the campaign slogan "Hitler über Deutschland" ("Hitler over Germany"), a reference to his political ambitions and his campaigning by aircraft.[149] He was one of the first politicians to use aircraft travel for political purposes, and used it effectively.[150][151] Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 35 per cent of the vote in the final election. Although he lost to Hindenburg, this election established Hitler as a strong force in German politics.[152]
+
+The absence of an effective government prompted two influential politicians, Franz von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg, along with several other industrialists and businessmen, to write a letter to Hindenburg. The signers urged Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from parliamentary parties", which could turn into a movement that would "enrapture millions of people".[153][154]
+
+Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor after two further parliamentary elections—in July and November 1932—had not resulted in the formation of a majority government. Hitler headed a short-lived coalition government formed by the NSDAP (which had the most seats in the Reichstag) and Hugenberg's party, the German National People's Party (DNVP). On 30 January 1933, the new cabinet was sworn in during a brief ceremony in Hindenburg's office. The NSDAP gained three posts: Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Göring Minister of the Interior for Prussia.[155] Hitler had insisted on the ministerial positions as a way to gain control over the police in much of Germany.[156]
+
+As chancellor, Hitler worked against attempts by the NSDAP's opponents to build a majority government. Because of the political stalemate, he asked Hindenburg to again dissolve the Reichstag, and elections were scheduled for early March. On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire. Göring blamed a communist plot, because Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found in incriminating circumstances inside the burning building.[157] According to Kershaw, the consensus of nearly all historians is that van der Lubbe actually set the fire.[158] Others, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock, are of the opinion that the NSDAP itself was responsible.[159][160] At Hitler's urging, Hindenburg responded with the Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February, which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. The decree was permitted under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which gave the president the power to take emergency measures to protect public safety and order.[161] Activities of the German Communist Party (KPD) were suppressed, and some 4,000 KPD members were arrested.[162]
+
+In addition to political campaigning, the NSDAP engaged in paramilitary violence and the spread of anti-communist propaganda in the days preceding the election. On election day, 6 March 1933, the NSDAP's share of the vote increased to 43.9 per cent, and the party acquired the largest number of seats in parliament. Hitler's party failed to secure an absolute majority, necessitating another coalition with the DNVP.[163]
+
+On 21 March 1933, the new Reichstag was constituted with an opening ceremony at the Garrison Church in Potsdam. This "Day of Potsdam" was held to demonstrate unity between the Nazi movement and the old Prussian elite and military. Hitler appeared in a morning coat and humbly greeted Hindenburg.[164][165]
+
+To achieve full political control despite not having an absolute majority in parliament, Hitler's government brought the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act) to a vote in the newly elected Reichstag. The Act—officially titled the Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich")—gave Hitler's cabinet the power to enact laws without the consent of the Reichstag for four years. These laws could (with certain exceptions) deviate from the constitution.[166] Since it would affect the constitution, the Enabling Act required a two-thirds majority to pass. Leaving nothing to chance, the Nazis used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to arrest all 81 Communist deputies (in spite of their virulent campaign against the party, the Nazis had allowed the KPD to contest the election)[167] and prevent several Social Democrats from attending.[168]
+
+On 23 March 1933, the Reichstag assembled at the Kroll Opera House under turbulent circumstances. Ranks of SA men served as guards inside the building, while large groups outside opposing the proposed legislation shouted slogans and threats towards the arriving members of parliament.[169] The position of the Centre Party, the third largest party in the Reichstag, was decisive. After Hitler verbally promised party leader Ludwig Kaas that Hindenburg would retain his power of veto, Kaas announced the Centre Party would support the Enabling Act. The Act passed by a vote of 441–84, with all parties except the Social Democrats voting in favour. The Enabling Act, along with the Reichstag Fire Decree, transformed Hitler's government into a de facto legal dictatorship.[170]
+
+At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the National Socialist movement will go on for 1,000 years! ... Don't forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I declared that one day I would govern Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power![171]
+
+Having achieved full control over the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler and his allies began to suppress the remaining opposition. The Social Democratic Party was banned and its assets seized.[172] While many trade union delegates were in Berlin for May Day activities, SA stormtroopers demolished union offices around the country. On 2 May 1933 all trade unions were forced to dissolve and their leaders were arrested. Some were sent to concentration camps.[173] The German Labour Front was formed as an umbrella organisation to represent all workers, administrators, and company owners, thus reflecting the concept of national socialism in the spirit of Hitler's Volksgemeinschaft ("people's community").[174]
+
+By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding. This included the Nazis' nominal coalition partner, the DNVP; with the SA's help, Hitler forced its leader, Hugenberg, to resign on 29 June. On 14 July 1933, the NSDAP was declared the only legal political party in Germany.[174][172] The demands of the SA for more political and military power caused anxiety among military, industrial, and political leaders. In response, Hitler purged the entire SA leadership in the Night of the Long Knives, which took place from 30 June to 2 July 1934.[175] Hitler targeted Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders who, along with a number of Hitler's political adversaries (such as Gregor Strasser and former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher), were rounded up, arrested, and shot.[176] While the international community and some Germans were shocked by the murders, many in Germany believed Hitler was restoring order.[177]
+
+On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died. The previous day, the cabinet had enacted the "Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich".[3] This law stated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government, and was formally named as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor),[2] although Reichskanzler was eventually quietly dropped.[178] With this action, Hitler eliminated the last legal remedy by which he could be removed from office.[179]
+
+As head of state, Hitler became commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Immediately after Hindenburg's death, at the instigation of the leadership of the Reichswehr, the traditional loyalty oath of soldiers was altered to affirm loyalty to Hitler personally, by name, rather than to the office of commander-in-chief (which was later renamed to supreme commander) or the state.[180] On 19 August, the merger of the presidency with the chancellorship was approved by 88 per cent of the electorate voting in a plebiscite.[181]
+
+In early 1938, Hitler used blackmail to consolidate his hold over the military by instigating the Blomberg–Fritsch affair. Hitler forced his War Minister, Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, to resign by using a police dossier that showed that Blomberg's new wife had a record for prostitution.[182][183] Army commander Colonel-General Werner von Fritsch was removed after the Schutzstaffel (SS) produced allegations that he had engaged in a homosexual relationship.[184] Both men had fallen into disfavour because they objected to Hitler's demand to make the Wehrmacht ready for war as early as 1938.[185] Hitler assumed Blomberg's title of Commander-in-Chief, thus taking personal command of the armed forces. He replaced the Ministry of War with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), headed by General Wilhelm Keitel. On the same day, sixteen generals were stripped of their commands and 44 more were transferred; all were suspected of not being sufficiently pro-Nazi.[186] By early February 1938, twelve more generals had been removed.[187]
+
+Hitler took care to give his dictatorship the appearance of legality. Many of his decrees were explicitly based on the Reichstag Fire Decree and hence on Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. The Reichstag renewed the Enabling Act twice, each time for a four-year period.[188] While elections to the Reichstag were still held (in 1933, 1936, and 1938), voters were presented with a single list of Nazis and pro-Nazi "guests" which carried with well over 90 per cent of the vote.[189] These elections were held in far-from-secret conditions; the Nazis threatened severe reprisals against anyone who did not vote or dared to vote no.[190]
+
+In August 1934, Hitler appointed Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of Economics, and in the following year, as Plenipotentiary for War Economy in charge of preparing the economy for war.[191] Reconstruction and rearmament were financed through Mefo bills, printing money, and seizing the assets of people arrested as enemies of the State, including Jews.[192] Unemployment fell from six million in 1932 to one million in 1936.[193] Hitler oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history, leading to the construction of dams, autobahns, railroads, and other civil works. Wages were slightly lower in the mid to late 1930s compared with wages during the Weimar Republic, while the cost of living increased by 25 per cent.[194] The average work week increased during the shift to a war economy; by 1939, the average German was working between 47 and 50 hours a week.[195]
+
+Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale. Albert Speer, instrumental in implementing Hitler's classicist reinterpretation of German culture, was placed in charge of the proposed architectural renovations of Berlin.[196] Despite a threatened multi-nation boycott, Germany hosted the 1936 Olympic Games. Hitler officiated at the opening ceremonies and attended events at both the Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Summer Games in Berlin.[197]
+
+In a meeting with German military leaders on 3 February 1933, Hitler spoke of "conquest for Lebensraum in the East and its ruthless Germanisation" as his ultimate foreign policy objectives.[198] In March, Prince Bernhard Wilhelm von Bülow, secretary at the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office), issued a statement of major foreign policy aims: Anschluss with Austria, the restoration of Germany's national borders of 1914, rejection of military restrictions under the Treaty of Versailles, the return of the former German colonies in Africa, and a German zone of influence in Eastern Europe. Hitler found Bülow's goals to be too modest.[199] In speeches during this period, he stressed the peaceful goals of his policies and a willingness to work within international agreements.[200] At the first meeting of his cabinet in 1933, Hitler prioritised military spending over unemployment relief.[201]
+
+Germany withdrew from the League of Nations and the World Disarmament Conference in October 1933.[202] In January 1935, over 90 per cent of the people of the Saarland, then under League of Nations administration, voted to unite with Germany.[203] That March, Hitler announced an expansion of the Wehrmacht to 600,000 members—six times the number permitted by the Versailles Treaty—including development of an air force (Luftwaffe) and an increase in the size of the navy (Kriegsmarine). Britain, France, Italy, and the League of Nations condemned these violations of the Treaty, but did nothing to stop it.[204][205] The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA) of 18 June allowed German tonnage to increase to 35 per cent of that of the British navy. Hitler called the signing of the AGNA "the happiest day of his life", believing that the agreement marked the beginning of the Anglo-German alliance he had predicted in Mein Kampf.[206] France and Italy were not consulted before the signing, directly undermining the League of Nations and setting the Treaty of Versailles on the path towards irrelevance.[207]
+
+Germany reoccupied the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland in March 1936, in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler also sent troops to Spain to support General Franco during the Spanish Civil War after receiving an appeal for help in July 1936. At the same time, Hitler continued his efforts to create an Anglo-German alliance.[208] In August 1936, in response to a growing economic crisis caused by his rearmament efforts, Hitler ordered Göring to implement a Four Year Plan to prepare Germany for war within the next four years.[209] The plan envisaged an all-out struggle between "Judeo-Bolshevism" and German national socialism, which in Hitler's view required a committed effort of rearmament regardless of the economic costs.[210]
+
+Count Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Mussolini's government, declared an axis between Germany and Italy, and on 25 November, Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan. Britain, China, Italy, and Poland were also invited to join the Anti-Comintern Pact, but only Italy signed in 1937. Hitler abandoned his plan of an Anglo-German alliance, blaming "inadequate" British leadership.[211] At a meeting in the Reich Chancellery with his foreign ministers and military chiefs that November, Hitler restated his intention of acquiring Lebensraum for the German people. He ordered preparations for war in the East, to begin as early as 1938 and no later than 1943. In the event of his death, the conference minutes, recorded as the Hossbach Memorandum, were to be regarded as his "political testament".[212] He felt that a severe decline in living standards in Germany as a result of the economic crisis could only be stopped by military aggression aimed at seizing Austria and Czechoslovakia.[213][214] Hitler urged quick action before Britain and France gained a permanent lead in the arms race.[213] In early 1938, in the wake of the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, Hitler asserted control of the military-foreign policy apparatus, dismissing Neurath as foreign minister and appointing himself as War Minister.[209] From early 1938 onwards, Hitler was carrying out a foreign policy ultimately aimed at war.[215]
+
+In February 1938, on the advice of his newly appointed foreign minister, the strongly pro-Japanese Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler ended the Sino-German alliance with the Republic of China to instead enter into an alliance with the more modern and powerful Empire of Japan. Hitler announced German recognition of Manchukuo, the Japanese-occupied state in Manchuria, and renounced German claims to their former colonies in the Pacific held by Japan.[216] Hitler ordered an end to arms shipments to China and recalled all German officers working with the Chinese Army.[216] In retaliation, Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek cancelled all Sino-German economic agreements, depriving the Germans of many Chinese raw materials.[217]
+
+On 12 March 1938, Hitler announced the unification of Austria with Nazi Germany in the Anschluss.[218][219] Hitler then turned his attention to the ethnic German population of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.[220] On 28–29 March 1938, Hitler held a series of secret meetings in Berlin with Konrad Henlein of the Sudeten German Party, the largest of the ethnic German parties of the Sudetenland. The men agreed that Henlein would demand increased autonomy for Sudeten Germans from the Czechoslovakian government, thus providing a pretext for German military action against Czechoslovakia. In April 1938 Henlein told the foreign minister of Hungary that "whatever the Czech government might offer, he would always raise still higher demands ... he wanted to sabotage an understanding by any means because this was the only method to blow up Czechoslovakia quickly".[221] In private, Hitler considered the Sudeten issue unimportant; his real intention was a war of conquest against Czechoslovakia.[222]
+
+In April Hitler ordered the OKW to prepare for 
+Fall Grün (Case Green), the code name for an invasion of Czechoslovakia.[223] As a result of intense French and British diplomatic pressure, on 5 September Czechoslovakian President Edvard Beneš unveiled the "Fourth Plan" for constitutional reorganisation of his country, which agreed to most of Henlein's demands for Sudeten autonomy.[224] Henlein's party responded to Beneš' offer by instigating a series of violent clashes with the Czechoslovakian police that led to the declaration of martial law in certain Sudeten districts.[225][226]
+
+Germany was dependent on imported oil; a confrontation with Britain over the Czechoslovakian dispute could curtail Germany's oil supplies. This forced Hitler to call off Fall Grün, originally planned for 1 October 1938.[227] On 29 September Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, and Mussolini attended a one-day conference in Munich that led to the Munich Agreement, which handed over the Sudetenland districts to Germany.[228][229]
+
+Chamberlain was satisfied with the Munich conference, calling the outcome "peace for our time", while Hitler was angered about the missed opportunity for war in 1938;[230][231] he expressed his disappointment in a speech on 9 October in Saarbrücken.[232] In Hitler's view, the British-brokered peace, although favourable to the ostensible German demands, was a diplomatic defeat which spurred his intent of limiting British power to pave the way for the eastern expansion of Germany.[233][234] As a result of the summit, Hitler was selected Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1938.[235]
+
+In late 1938 and early 1939, the continuing economic crisis caused by rearmament forced Hitler to make major defence cuts.[236] In his "Export or die" speech of 30 January 1939, he called for an economic offensive to increase German foreign exchange holdings to pay for raw materials such as high-grade iron needed for military weapons.[236]
+
+On 14 March 1939, under threat from Hungary, Slovakia declared independence and received protection from Germany.[237] The next day, in violation of the Munich accord and possibly as a result of the deepening economic crisis requiring additional assets,[238] Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade the Czech rump state, and from Prague Castle he proclaimed the territory a German protectorate.[239]
+
+In private discussions in 1939, Hitler declared Britain the main enemy to be defeated and that Poland's obliteration was a necessary prelude for that goal.[240] The eastern flank would be secured and land would be added to Germany's Lebensraum.[241] Offended by the British "guarantee" on 31 March 1939 of Polish independence, he said, "I shall brew them a devil's drink".[242] In a speech in Wilhelmshaven for the launch of the battleship Tirpitz on 1 April, he threatened to denounce the Anglo-German Naval Agreement if the British continued to guarantee Polish independence, which he perceived as an "encirclement" policy.[242] Poland was to either become a German satellite state or it would be neutralised in order to secure the Reich's eastern flank and prevent a possible British blockade.[243] Hitler initially favoured the idea of a satellite state, but upon its rejection by the Polish government, he decided to invade and made this the main foreign policy goal of 1939.[244] On 3 April, Hitler ordered the military to prepare for Fall Weiss ("Case White"), the plan for invading Poland on 25 August.[244] In a Reichstag speech on 28 April, he renounced both the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.[245] Historians such as William Carr, Gerhard Weinberg, and Ian Kershaw have argued that one reason for Hitler's rush to war was his fear of an early death. He had repeatedly claimed that he must lead Germany into war before he got too old, as his successors might lack his strength of will.[246][247][248]
+
+Hitler was concerned that a military attack against Poland could result in a premature war with Britain.[243][249] Hitler's foreign minister and former Ambassador to London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, assured him that neither Britain nor France would honour their commitments to Poland.[250][251] Accordingly, on 22 August 1939 Hitler ordered a military mobilisation against Poland.[252]
+
+This plan required tacit Soviet support,[253] and the non-aggression pact (the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) between Germany and the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, included a secret agreement to partition Poland between the two countries.[254] Contrary to Ribbentrop's prediction that Britain would sever Anglo-Polish ties, Britain and Poland signed the Anglo-Polish alliance on 25 August 1939. This, along with news from Italy that Mussolini would not honour the Pact of Steel, prompted Hitler to postpone the attack on Poland from 25 August to 1 September.[255] Hitler unsuccessfully tried to manoeuvre the British into neutrality by offering them a non-aggression guarantee on 25 August; he then instructed Ribbentrop to present a last-minute peace plan with an impossibly short time limit in an effort to blame the imminent war on British and Polish inaction.[256][257]
+
+On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded western Poland under the pretext of having been denied claims to the Free City of Danzig and the right to extraterritorial roads across the Polish Corridor, which Germany had ceded under the Versailles Treaty.[258] In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September, surprising Hitler and prompting him to angrily ask Ribbentrop, "Now what?"[259] France and Britain did not act on their declarations immediately, and on 17 September, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland.[260]
+
+The fall of Poland was followed by what contemporary journalists dubbed the "Phoney War" or Sitzkrieg ("sitting war"). Hitler instructed the two newly appointed Gauleiters of north-western Poland, Albert Forster of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and Arthur Greiser of Reichsgau Wartheland, to Germanise their areas, with "no questions asked" about how this was accomplished.[261] In Forster's area, ethnic Poles merely had to sign forms stating that they had German blood.[262] In contrast, Greiser agreed with Himmler and carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign towards Poles. Greiser soon complained that Forster was allowing thousands of Poles to be accepted as "racial" Germans and thus endangered German "racial purity".[261] Hitler refrained from getting involved. This inaction has been advanced as an example of the theory of "working towards the Führer", in which Hitler issued vague instructions and expected his subordinates to work out policies on their own.[261][263]
+
+Another dispute pitched one side represented by Heinrich Himmler and Greiser, who championed ethnic cleansing in Poland, against another represented by Göring and Hans Frank (governor-general of occupied Poland), who called for turning Poland into the "granary" of the Reich.[264] On 12 February 1940, the dispute was initially settled in favour of the Göring–Frank view, which ended the economically disruptive mass expulsions.[264] On 15 May 1940, Himmler issued a memo entitled "Some Thoughts on the Treatment of Alien Population in the East", calling for the expulsion of the entire Jewish population of Europe into Africa and the reduction of the Polish population to a "leaderless class of labourers".[264] Hitler called Himmler's memo "good and correct",[264] and, ignoring Göring and Frank, implemented the Himmler–Greiser policy in Poland.
+
+On 9 April, German forces invaded Denmark and Norway. On the same day Hitler proclaimed the birth of the Greater Germanic Reich, his vision of a united empire of Germanic nations of Europe in which the Dutch, Flemish, and Scandinavians were joined into a "racially pure" polity under German leadership.[265] In May 1940, Germany attacked France, and conquered Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. These victories prompted Mussolini to have Italy join forces with Hitler on 10 June. France and Germany signed an armistice on 22 June.[266] Kershaw notes that Hitler's popularity within Germany—and German support for the war—reached its peak when he returned to Berlin on 6 July from his tour of Paris.[267] Following the unexpected swift victory, Hitler promoted twelve generals to the rank of field marshal during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony.[268][269]
+
+Britain, whose troops were forced to evacuate France by sea from Dunkirk,[270] continued to fight alongside other British dominions in the Battle of the Atlantic. Hitler made peace overtures to the new British leader, Winston Churchill, and upon their rejection he ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force airbases and radar stations in south-east England. On 7 September the systematic nightly bombing of London began. The German Luftwaffe failed to defeat the Royal Air Force in what became known as the Battle of Britain.[271] By the end of September, Hitler realised that air superiority for the invasion of Britain (in Operation Sea Lion) could not be achieved, and ordered the operation postponed. The nightly air raids on British cities intensified and continued for months, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry.[272]
+
+On 27 September 1940, the Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin by Saburō Kurusu of Imperial Japan, Hitler, and Italian foreign minister Ciano,[273] and later expanded to include Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, thus yielding the Axis powers. Hitler's attempt to integrate the Soviet Union into the anti-British bloc failed after inconclusive talks between Hitler and Molotov in Berlin in November, and he ordered preparations for the invasion of the Soviet Union.[274]
+
+In early 1941, German forces were deployed to North Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East. In February, German forces arrived in Libya to bolster the Italian presence. In April, Hitler launched the invasion of Yugoslavia, quickly followed by the invasion of Greece.[275] In May, German forces were sent to support Iraqi rebel forces fighting against the British and to invade Crete.[276]
+
+On 22 June 1941, contravening the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, over three million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union.[277] This offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers.[278][279] The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. By early August, Axis troops had advanced 500 km (310 mi) and won the Battle of Smolensk. Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to temporarily halt its advance to Moscow and divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev.[280] His generals disagreed with this change, having advanced within 400 km (250 mi) of Moscow, and his decision caused a crisis among the military leadership.[281][282] The pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilise fresh reserves; historian Russel Stolfi considers it to be one of the major factors that caused the failure of the Moscow offensive, which was resumed in October 1941 and ended disastrously in December.[280] During this crisis, Hitler appointed himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres.[283]
+
+On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the American fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Hitler declared war against the United States.[284]
+
+On 18 December 1941, Himmler asked Hitler, "What to do with the Jews of Russia?", to which Hitler replied, "als Partisanen auszurotten" ("exterminate them as partisans").[285] Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has commented that the remark is probably as close as historians will ever get to a definitive order from Hitler for the genocide carried out during the Holocaust.[285]
+
+In late 1942, German forces were defeated in the second battle of El Alamein,[286] thwarting Hitler's plans to seize the Suez Canal and the Middle East. Overconfident in his own military expertise following the earlier victories in 1940, Hitler became distrustful of his Army High Command and began to interfere in military and tactical planning, with damaging consequences.[287] In December 1942 and January 1943, Hitler's repeated refusal to allow their withdrawal at the Battle of Stalingrad led to the almost total destruction of the 6th Army. Over 200,000 Axis soldiers were killed and 235,000 were taken prisoner.[288] Thereafter came a decisive strategic defeat at the Battle of Kursk.[289] Hitler's military judgement became increasingly erratic, and Germany's military and economic position deteriorated, as did Hitler's health.[290]
+
+Following the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, Mussolini was removed from power by Victor Emmanuel III after a vote of no confidence of the Grand Council. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, placed in charge of the government, soon surrendered to the Allies.[291] Throughout 1943 and 1944, the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into retreat along the Eastern Front. On 6 June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed in northern France in one of the largest amphibious operations in history, Operation Overlord.[292] Many German officers concluded that defeat was inevitable and that continuing under Hitler's leadership would result in the complete destruction of the country.[293]
+
+Between 1939 and 1945, there were many plans to assassinate Hitler, some of which proceeded to significant degrees.[294] The most well known, the 20 July plot of 1944, came from within Germany and was at least partly driven by the increasing prospect of a German defeat in the war.[295] Part of Operation Valkyrie, the plot involved Claus von Stauffenberg planting a bomb in one of Hitler's headquarters, the Wolf's Lair at Rastenburg. Hitler narrowly survived because staff officer Heinz Brandt moved the briefcase containing the bomb behind a leg of the heavy conference table, which deflected much of the blast. Later, Hitler ordered savage reprisals resulting in the execution of more than 4,900 people.[296]
+
+By late 1944, both the Red Army and the Western Allies were advancing into Germany. Recognising the strength and determination of the Red Army, Hitler decided to use his remaining mobile reserves against the American and British troops, which he perceived as far weaker.[297] On 16 December, he launched the Ardennes Offensive to incite disunity among the Western Allies and perhaps convince them to join his fight against the Soviets.[298] The offensive failed after some temporary successes.[299] With much of Germany in ruins in January 1945, Hitler spoke on the radio: "However grave as the crisis may be at this moment, it will, despite everything, be mastered by our unalterable will."[300] Acting on his view that Germany's military failures meant it had forfeited its right to survive as a nation, Hitler ordered the destruction of all German industrial infrastructure before it could fall into Allied hands.[301] Minister for Armaments Albert Speer was entrusted with executing this scorched earth policy, but he secretly disobeyed the order.[301][302] Hitler's hope to negotiate peace with the United States and Britain was encouraged by the death of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 April 1945, but contrary to his expectations, this caused no rift among the Allies.[298][303]
+
+On 20 April, his 56th birthday, Hitler made his last trip from the Führerbunker (Führer's shelter) to the surface. In the ruined garden of the Reich Chancellery, he awarded Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth, who were now fighting the Red Army at the front near Berlin.[304] By 21 April, Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front had broken through the defences of General Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group Vistula during the Battle of the Seelow Heights and advanced to the outskirts of Berlin.[305] In denial about the dire situation, Hitler placed his hopes on the undermanned and under-equipped Armeeabteilung Steiner (Army Detachment Steiner), commanded by Waffen-SS General Felix Steiner. Hitler ordered Steiner to attack the northern flank of the salient, while the German Ninth Army was ordered to attack northward in a pincer attack.[306]
+
+During a military conference on 22 April, Hitler asked about Steiner's offensive. He was told that the attack had not been launched and that the Soviets had entered Berlin. Hitler asked everyone except Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Hans Krebs, and Wilhelm Burgdorf to leave the room,[307] then launched into a tirade against the treachery and incompetence of his commanders, culminating in his declaration—for the first time—that "everything was lost".[308] He announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself.[309]
+
+By 23 April the Red Army had surrounded Berlin,[310] and Goebbels made a proclamation urging its citizens to defend the city.[307] That same day, Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden, arguing that since Hitler was isolated in Berlin, Göring should assume leadership of Germany. Göring set a deadline, after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated.[311] Hitler responded by having Göring arrested, and in his last will and testament of 29 April, he removed Göring from all government positions.[312][313] On 28 April Hitler discovered that Himmler, who had left Berlin on 20 April, was trying to negotiate a surrender to the Western Allies.[314][315] He ordered Himmler's arrest and had Hermann Fegelein (Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's HQ in Berlin) shot.[316]
+
+After midnight on the night of 28–29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in the Führerbunker.[317][d] Later that afternoon, Hitler was informed that Mussolini had been executed by the Italian resistance movement on the previous day; this presumably increased his determination to avoid capture.[318]
+
+On 30 April 1945, Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery when Hitler shot himself in the head and Braun bit into a cyanide capsule.[319][320] Their bodies were carried outside to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were placed in a bomb crater, doused with petrol,[321] and set on fire as the Red Army shelling continued.[322][323] Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and Joseph Goebbels assumed Hitler's roles as head of state and chancellor respectively.[324]
+
+Berlin surrendered on 2 May. Records in the Soviet archives obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union state that the remains of Hitler, Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, the six Goebbels children, General Hans Krebs, and Hitler's dogs were repeatedly buried and exhumed.[325] On 4 April 1970, a Soviet KGB team used detailed burial charts to exhume five wooden boxes at the SMERSH facility in Magdeburg. The remains from the boxes were burned, crushed, and scattered into the Biederitz river, a tributary of the Elbe.[326] According to Kershaw, the corpses of Braun and Hitler were fully burned when the Red Army found them, and only a lower jaw with dental work could be identified as Hitler's remains.[327]
+
+If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe![328]
+
+The Holocaust and Germany's war in the East were based on Hitler's long-standing view that the Jews were the enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for Germany's expansion. He focused on Eastern Europe for this expansion, aiming to defeat Poland and the Soviet Union and then removing or killing the Jews and Slavs.[329] The Generalplan Ost (General Plan East) called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to West Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered;[330] the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanised" settlers.[331] The goal was to implement this plan after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when this failed, Hitler moved the plans forward.[330][332] By January 1942, he had decided that the Jews, Slavs, and other deportees considered undesirable should be killed.[333][e]
+
+The genocide was organised and executed by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. The records of the Wannsee Conference, held on 20 January 1942 and led by Heydrich, with fifteen senior Nazi officials participating, provide the clearest evidence of systematic planning for the Holocaust. On 22 February, Hitler was recorded saying, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews".[334] Similarly, at a meeting in July 1941 with leading functionaries of the Eastern territories, Hitler said that the easiest way to quickly pacify the areas would be best achieved by "shooting everyone who even looks odd".[335] Although no direct order from Hitler authorising the mass killings has surfaced,[336] his public speeches, orders to his generals, and the diaries of Nazi officials demonstrate that he conceived and authorised the extermination of European Jewry.[337][338] During the war, Hitler repeatedly stated his prophecy of 1939 was being fulfilled, namely, that a world war would bring about the annihilation of the Jewish race.[339] Hitler approved the Einsatzgruppen—killing squads that followed the German army through Poland, the Baltic, and the Soviet Union[340]—and was well informed about their activities.[337][341] By summer 1942, Auschwitz concentration camp was expanded to accommodate large numbers of deportees for killing or enslavement.[342] Scores of other concentration camps and satellite camps were set up throughout Europe, with several camps devoted exclusively to extermination.[343]
+
+Between 1939 and 1945, the Schutzstaffel (SS), assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, was responsible for the deaths of at least eleven million non-combatants,[344][330] including about 6 million Jews (representing two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe),[345][f] and between 200,000 and 1,500,000 Romani people.[347][345] Deaths took place in concentration and extermination camps, ghettos, and through mass executions. Many victims of the Holocaust were gassed to death, while others died of starvation or disease or while working as slave labourers.[348] In addition to eliminating Jews, the Nazis planned to reduce the population of the conquered territories by 30 million people through starvation in an action called the Hunger Plan. Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians. Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists.[349] Together, the Hunger Plan and Generalplan Ost would have led to the starvation of 80 million people in the Soviet Union.[350] These partially fulfilled plans resulted in additional deaths, bringing the total number of civilians and prisoners of war who died in the democide to an estimated 19.3 million people.[351]
+
+Hitler's policies resulted in the killing of nearly two million non-Jewish Polish civilians,[352] over three million Soviet prisoners of war,[353] communists and other political opponents, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled,[354][355] Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and trade unionists. Hitler did not speak publicly about the killings, and seems never to have visited the concentration camps.[356]
+
+The Nazis embraced the concept of racial hygiene. On 15 September 1935, Hitler presented two laws—known as the Nuremberg Laws—to the Reichstag. The laws banned sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and Jews and were later extended to include "Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring".[357] The laws stripped all non-Aryans of their German citizenship and forbade the employment of non-Jewish women under the age of 45 in Jewish households.[358] Hitler's early eugenic policies targeted children with physical and developmental disabilities in a programme dubbed Action Brandt, and he later authorised a euthanasia programme for adults with serious mental and physical disabilities, now referred to as Aktion T4.[359]
+
+Hitler ruled the NSDAP autocratically by asserting the Führerprinzip (leader principle). The principle relied on absolute obedience of all subordinates to their superiors; thus he viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. Rank in the party was not determined by elections—positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank, who demanded unquestioning obedience to the will of the leader.[360] Hitler's leadership style was to give contradictory orders to his subordinates and to place them into positions where their duties and responsibilities overlapped with those of others, to have "the stronger one [do] the job".[361] In this way, Hitler fostered distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates to consolidate and maximise his own power. His cabinet never met after 1938, and he discouraged his ministers from meeting independently.[362][363] Hitler typically did not give written orders; instead he communicated verbally, or had them conveyed through his close associate, Martin Bormann.[364] He entrusted Bormann with his paperwork, appointments, and personal finances; Bormann used his position to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.[365]
+
+Hitler dominated his country's war effort during World War II to a greater extent than any other national leader. He strengthened his control of the armed forces in 1938, and subsequently made all major decisions regarding Germany's military strategy. His decision to mount a risky series of offensives against Norway, France, and the Low Countries in 1940 against the advice of the military proved successful, though the diplomatic and military strategies he employed in attempts to force the United Kingdom out of the war ended in failure.[366] Hitler deepened his involvement in the war effort by appointing himself commander-in-chief of the Army in December 1941; from this point forward he personally directed the war against the Soviet Union, while his military commanders facing the Western Allies retained a degree of autonomy.[367] Hitler's leadership became increasingly disconnected from reality as the war turned against Germany, with the military's defensive strategies often hindered by his slow decision making and frequent directives to hold untenable positions. Nevertheless, he continued to believe that only his leadership could deliver victory.[366] In the final months of the war Hitler refused to consider peace negotiations, regarding the destruction of Germany as preferable to surrender.[368] The military did not challenge Hitler's dominance of the war effort, and senior officers generally supported and enacted his decisions.[369]
+
+Hitler created a public image as a celibate man without a domestic life, dedicated entirely to his political mission and the nation.[145][370] He met his lover, Eva Braun, in 1929,[371] and married her on 29 April 1945, one day before they both committed suicide.[372] In September 1931, his half-niece, Geli Raubal, took her own life with Hitler's gun in his Munich apartment. It was rumoured among contemporaries that Geli was in a romantic relationship with him, and her death was a source of deep, lasting pain.[373] Paula Hitler, the younger sister of Hitler and the last living member of his immediate family, died in June 1960.[15]
+
+Hitler was born to a practising Catholic mother and an anticlerical father; after leaving home Hitler never again attended Mass or received the sacraments.[374][375][376] Speer states that Hitler railed against the church to his political associates and though he never officially left it, he had no attachment to it.[377] He adds that Hitler felt that in the absence of organised religion, people would turn to mysticism, which he considered regressive.[377] According to Speer, Hitler believed that Japanese religious beliefs or Islam would have been a more suitable religion for Germans than Christianity, with its "meekness and flabbiness".[378]
+
+Historian John S. Conway states that Hitler was fundamentally opposed to the Christian churches.[379] According to Bullock, Hitler did not believe in God, was anticlerical, and held Christian ethics in contempt because they contravened his preferred view of "survival of the fittest".[380] He favoured aspects of Protestantism that suited his own views, and adopted some elements of the Catholic Church's hierarchical organisation, liturgy, and phraseology.[381]
+
+Hitler viewed the church as an important politically conservative influence on society,[382] and he adopted a strategic relationship with it that "suited his immediate political purposes".[379] In public, Hitler often praised Christian heritage and German Christian culture, though professing a belief in an "Aryan Jesus" who fought against the Jews.[383] Any pro-Christian public rhetoric contradicted his private statements, which described Christianity as "absurdity"[384] and nonsense founded on lies.[385]
+
+According to a US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) report, "The Nazi Master Plan", Hitler planned to destroy the influence of Christian churches within the Reich.[386][387] His eventual goal was the total elimination of Christianity.[388] This goal informed Hitler's movement early on, but he saw it as inexpedient to publicly express this extreme position.[389] According to Bullock, Hitler wanted to wait until after the war before executing this plan.[390]
+
+Speer wrote that Hitler had a negative view of Himmler's and Alfred Rosenberg's mystical notions and Himmler's attempt to mythologise the SS. Hitler was more pragmatic, and his ambitions centred on more practical concerns.[391][392]
+
+Researchers have variously suggested that Hitler suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, coronary sclerosis,[393] Parkinson's disease,[290][394] syphilis,[394] giant-cell arteritis,[395] and tinnitus.[396] In a report prepared for the OSS in 1943, Walter C. Langer of Harvard University described Hitler as a "neurotic psychopath".[397] In his 1977 book The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, historian Robert G. L. Waite proposes that he suffered from borderline personality disorder.[398] Historians Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann consider that while he suffered from a number of illnesses including Parkinson's disease, Hitler did not experience pathological delusions and was always fully aware of, and therefore responsible for, his decisions.[399][308] Theories about Hitler's medical condition are difficult to prove, and placing too much weight on them may have the effect of attributing many of the events and consequences of Nazi Germany to the possibly impaired physical health of one individual.[400] Kershaw feels that it is better to take a broader view of German history by examining what social forces led to the Nazi dictatorship and its policies rather than to pursue narrow explanations for the Holocaust and World War II based on only one person.[401]
+
+Sometime in the 1930s Hitler adopted a mainly vegetarian diet,[402][403] avoiding all meat and fish from 1942 onwards. At social events he sometimes gave graphic accounts of the slaughter of animals in an effort to make his guests shun meat.[404] Bormann had a greenhouse constructed near the Berghof (near Berchtesgaden) to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruit and vegetables for Hitler.[405]
+
+Hitler stopped drinking alcohol around the time he became vegetarian and thereafter only very occasionally drank beer or wine on social occasions.[406][407] He was a non-smoker for most of his adult life, but smoked heavily in his youth (25 to 40 cigarettes a day); he eventually quit, calling the habit "a waste of money".[408] He encouraged his close associates to quit by offering a gold watch to anyone able to break the habit.[409] Hitler began using amphetamine occasionally after 1937 and became addicted to it in late 1942.[410] Speer linked this use of amphetamine to Hitler's increasingly erratic behaviour and inflexible decision making (for example, rarely allowing military retreats).[411]
+
+Prescribed 90 medications during the war years by his personal physician, Theodor Morell, Hitler took many pills each day for chronic stomach problems and other ailments.[412] He regularly consumed amphetamine, barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine,[413][414] as well as potassium bromide and atropa belladonna (the latter in the form of Doktor Koster's Antigaspills).[415] He suffered ruptured eardrums as a result of the 20 July plot bomb blast in 1944, and 200 wood splinters had to be removed from his legs.[416] Newsreel footage of Hitler shows tremors in his left hand and a shuffling walk, which began before the war and worsened towards the end of his life.[412] Ernst-Günther Schenck and several other doctors who met Hitler in the last weeks of his life also formed a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.[417]
+
+For peace, freedom
+and democracy
+never again fascism
+millions of dead warn [us]
+
+Hitler's suicide was likened by contemporaries to a "spell" being broken.[419][420] Public support for Hitler had collapsed by the time of his death and few Germans mourned his passing; Kershaw argues that most civilians and military personnel were too busy adjusting to the collapse of the country or fleeing from the fighting to take any interest.[421] According to historian John Toland, National Socialism "burst like a bubble" without its leader.[422]
+
+Hitler's actions and Nazi ideology are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral;[423] according to Kershaw, "Never in history has such ruination—physical and moral—been associated with the name of one man."[4] Hitler's political programme brought about a world war, leaving behind a devastated and impoverished Eastern and Central Europe. Germany suffered wholesale destruction, characterised as Stunde Null (Zero Hour).[424] Hitler's policies inflicted human suffering on an unprecedented scale;[425] according to R. J. Rummel, the Nazi regime was responsible for the democidal killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war.[344] In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II.[344] The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in the history of warfare.[426] Historians, philosophers, and politicians often use the word "evil" to describe the Nazi regime.[427] Many European countries have criminalised both the promotion of Nazism and Holocaust denial.[428]
+
+Historian Friedrich Meinecke described Hitler as "one of the great examples of the singular and incalculable power of personality in historical life".[429] English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper saw him as "among the 'terrible simplifiers' of history, the most systematic, the most historical, the most philosophical, and yet the coarsest, cruelest, least magnanimous conqueror the world has ever known".[430] For the historian John M. Roberts, Hitler's defeat marked the end of a phase of European history dominated by Germany.[431] In its place emerged the Cold War, a global confrontation between the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States and other NATO nations, and the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union.[432] Historian Sebastian Haffner asserts that without Hitler and the displacement of the Jews, the modern nation state of Israel would not exist. He contends that without Hitler, the de-colonisation of former European spheres of influence would have been postponed.[433] Further, Haffner claims that other than Alexander the Great, Hitler had a more significant impact than any other comparable historical figure, in that he too caused a wide range of worldwide changes in a relatively short time span.[434]
+
+Hitler exploited documentary films and newsreels to inspire a cult of personality. He was involved and appeared in a series of propaganda films throughout his political career, many made by Leni Riefenstahl, regarded as a pioneer of modern filmmaking.[435] Hitler's propaganda film appearances include:

en/520.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,191 @@
+Coordinates: 24°15′N 76°00′W / 24.250°N 76.000°W / 24.250; -76.000
+
+The Bahamas (/bəˈhɑːməz/ (listen)), known officially as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,[11] is a country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Caribbean. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archipelago's population. The archipelagic state consists of fewer than 700 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and Hispaniola Island (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the US state of Florida, and east of the Florida Keys. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes The Bahamas' territory as encompassing 470,000 km2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space.
+
+The Bahamas were inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, for many centuries.[12] Columbus was the first European to see the islands, making his first landfall in the 'New World' in 1492. Later, the Spanish shipped the native Lucayans to slavery on Hispaniola, after which the Bahama islands were mostly deserted from 1513 until 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.
+
+The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718, when the British clamped down on piracy. After the American Revolutionary War, the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists to The Bahamas; they took their slaves with them and established plantations on land grants. African slaves and their descendants constituted the majority of the population from this period on. The slave trade was abolished by the British in 1807; slavery in The Bahamas was abolished in 1834. Subsequently, The Bahamas became a haven for freed African slaves. Africans liberated from illegal slave ships were resettled on the islands by the Royal Navy, while some North American slaves and Seminoles escaped to The Bahamas from Florida. Bahamians were even known to recognise the freedom of slaves carried by the ships of other nations which reached The Bahamas. Today Afro-Bahamians make up 90% of the population of 332,634.[12]
+
+The country gained governmental independence in 1973 led by Sir Lynden O. Pindling, with Elizabeth II as its queen.[12] In terms of gross domestic product per capita, The Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas (following the United States and Canada), with an economy based on tourism and offshore finance.[13]
+
+The name Bahamas is most likely derived from either the Taíno ba ha ma ("big upper middle land"), which was a term for the region used by the indigenous people,[14] or possibly from the Spanish baja mar ("shallow water or sea" or "low tide") reflecting the shallow waters of the area. Alternatively, it may originate from Guanahani, a local name of unclear meaning.[15]
+
+The word The constitutes an integral part of the short form of the name and is, therefore, capitalised.[citation needed] The Constitution of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, the country's fundamental law, capitalises the "T" in "The Bahamas".[16]
+
+The first inhabitants of The Bahamas were the Taino people, who moved into the uninhabited southern islands from Hispaniola and Cuba around the 800s–1000s AD, having migrated there from South America; they came to be known as the Lucayan people.[17] An estimated 30,000 Lucayans inhabited The Bahamas at the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in 1492.[18]
+
+Columbus's first landfall in what was to Europeans a 'New World' was on an island he named San Salvador (known to the Lucayans as Guanahani). Whilst there is a general consensus that this island lay within The Bahamas, precisely which island Columbus landed on is a matter of scholarly debate. Some researchers believe the site to be present-day San Salvador Island (formerly known as Watling's Island), situated in the southeastern Bahamas, whilst an alternative theory holds that Columbus landed to the southeast on Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1986 by National Geographic writer and editor Joseph Judge, based on Columbus's log. On the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with the Lucayans and exchanged goods with them, claiming the islands for the Crown of Castile, before proceeding to explore the larger isles of the Greater Antilles.[17]
+
+The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas theoretically divided the new territories between the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Portugal, placing The Bahamas in the Spanish sphere; however they did little to press their claim on the ground. The Spanish did however make use of the native Lucayan peoples, many of whom were enslaved and sent to Hispaniola for use as forced labour.[17] The slaves suffered from harsh conditions and most died from contracting diseases to which they had no immunity; half of the Taino died from smallpox alone.[20] As a result of these depredations the population of The Bahamas was severely diminished.[21]
+
+The English had expressed an interest in The Bahamas as early as 1629. However, it was not until 1648 that the first English settlers arrived on the islands. Known as the Eleutherian Adventurers and led by William Sayle, they migrated to Bermuda seeking greater religious freedom. These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named 'Eleuthera', Greek for 'freedom'. They later settled New Providence, naming it Sayle's Island. Life proved harder than envisaged however, and many – including Sayle – chose to return to Bermuda.[17] To survive, the remaining settlers salvaged goods from wrecks.
+
+In 1670, King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America. They rented the islands from the king with rights of trading, tax, appointing governors, and administering the country from their base on New Providence.[22][17] Piracy and attacks from hostile foreign powers were a constant threat. In 1684, Spanish corsair Juan de Alcon raided the capital Charles Town (later renamed Nassau),[23] and in 1703, a joint Franco-Spanish expedition briefly occupied Nassau during the War of the Spanish Succession.[24][25]
+
+During proprietary rule, The Bahamas became a haven for pirates, including Blackbeard (circa 1680–1718).[26] To put an end to the 'Pirates' republic' and restore orderly government, Great Britain made The Bahamas a crown colony in 1718 under the royal governorship of Woodes Rogers.[17] After a difficult struggle, he succeeded in suppressing piracy.[27] In 1720, the Spanish attacked Nassau during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. In 1729, a local assembly was established giving a degree of self-governance for the English settlers.[17][28] The reforms had been planned by the previous Governor George Phenney and authorised in July 1728.[29]
+
+During the American War of Independence in the late 18th century, the islands became a target for US naval forces. Under the command of Commodore Esek Hopkins; US Marines, the US Navy occupied Nassau in 1776, before being evacuated a few days later. In 1782 a Spanish fleet appeared off the coast of Nassau, and the city surrendered without a fight. Spain returned possession of The Bahamas to Great Britain the following year, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Before the news was received however, the islands were recaptured by a small British force led by Andrew Deveaux.[17]
+
+After US independence, the British resettled some 7,300 Loyalists with their African slaves in The Bahamas, including 2,000 from New York[30] and at least 1,033 whites, 2,214 blacks and a few Native American Creeks from East Florida. Most of the refugees resettled from New York had fled from other colonies, including West Florida, which the Spanish captured during the war.[31] The government granted land to the planters to help compensate for losses on the continent. These Loyalists, who included Deveaux and also Lord Dunmore, established plantations on several islands and became a political force in the capital.[17] European Americans were outnumbered by the African-American slaves they brought with them, and ethnic Europeans remained a minority in the territory.[citation needed]
+
+In 1807, the British abolished the slave trade.[17] During the following decades, the Royal Navy intercepted the trade. They resettled in The Bahamas thousands of Africans liberated from slave ships.
+
+In the 1820s during the period of the Seminole Wars in Florida, hundreds of North American slaves and African Seminoles escaped from Cape Florida to The Bahamas. They settled mostly on northwest Andros Island, where they developed the village of Red Bays. From eyewitness accounts, 300 escaped in a mass flight in 1823, aided by Bahamians in 27 sloops, with others using canoes for the journey. This was commemorated in 2004 by a large sign at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.[32][33] Some of their descendants in Red Bays continue African Seminole traditions in basket making and grave marking.[34]
+
+In 1818,[35] the Home Office in London had ruled that "any slave brought to The Bahamas from outside the British West Indies would be manumitted." This led to a total of nearly 300 slaves owned by US nationals being freed from 1830 to 1835.[36] The American slave ships Comet and Encomium used in the United States domestic coastwise slave trade, were wrecked off Abaco Island in December 1830 and February 1834, respectively. When wreckers took the masters, passengers and slaves into Nassau, customs officers seized the slaves and British colonial officials freed them, over the protests of the Americans. There were 165 slaves on the Comet and 48 on the Encomium. The United Kingdom finally paid an indemnity to the United States in those two cases in 1855, under the Treaty of Claims of 1853, which settled several compensation cases between the two countries.[37][38]
+
+Slavery was abolished in the British Empire on 1 August 1834.[17] After that British colonial officials freed 78 North American slaves from the Enterprise, which went into Bermuda in 1835; and 38 from the Hermosa, which wrecked off Abaco Island in 1840.[39] The most notable case was that of the Creole in 1841: as a result of a slave revolt on board, the leaders ordered the US brig to Nassau. It was carrying 135 slaves from Virginia destined for sale in New Orleans. The Bahamian officials freed the 128 slaves who chose to stay in the islands. The Creole case has been described as the "most successful slave revolt in U.S. history".[40]
+
+These incidents, in which a total of 447 slaves belonging to US nationals were freed from 1830 to 1842, increased tension between the United States and the United Kingdom. They had been co-operating in patrols to suppress the international slave trade. However, worried about the stability of its large domestic slave trade and its value, the United States argued that the United Kingdom should not treat its domestic ships that came to its colonial ports under duress as part of the international trade.[citation needed] The United States worried that the success of the Creole slaves in gaining freedom would encourage more slave revolts on merchant ships.[citation needed]
+
+During the American Civil War of the 1860s, the islands briefly prospered as a focus for blockade runners aiding the Confederate States.[41][42]
+
+The early decades of the 20th century were ones of hardship for many Bahamians, characterised by a stagnant economy and widespread poverty. Many eked out a living via subsistence agriculture or fishing.[17]
+
+In August 1940, the Duke of Windsor was appointed Governor of The Bahamas. He arrived in the colony with his wife. Although disheartened at the condition of Government House, they "tried to make the best of a bad situation".[43] He did not enjoy the position, and referred to the islands as "a third-class British colony".[44] He opened the small local parliament on 29 October 1940. The couple visited the "Out Islands" that November, on Axel Wenner-Gren's yacht, which caused controversy;[45] the British Foreign Office strenuously objected because they had been advised by United States intelligence that Wenner-Gren was a close friend of the Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring of Nazi Germany.[45][46]
+
+The Duke was praised at the time for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands. A 1991 biography by Philip Ziegler, however, described him as contemptuous of the Bahamians and other non-European peoples of the Empire. He was praised for his resolution of civil unrest over low wages in Nassau in June 1942, when there was a "full-scale riot".[47] Ziegler said that the Duke blamed the trouble on "mischief makers – communists" and "men of Central European Jewish descent, who had secured jobs as a pretext for obtaining a deferment of draft".[48] The Duke resigned from the post on 16 March 1945.[49][50]
+
+Modern political development began after the Second World War. The first political parties were formed in the 1950s, split broadly along ethnic lines – the United Bahamian Party (UBP) representing the English-descended Bahamians (known informally as the 'Bay Street Boys'),[51] and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) representing the Afro-Bahamian majority.[17]
+
+A new constitution granting The Bahamas internal autonomy went into effect on 7 January 1964, with Chief Minister Sir Roland Symonette of the UBP becoming the first Premier.[52]:p.73[53] In 1967, Lynden Pindling of the PLP became the first black Premier of the Bahamian colony; in 1968, the title of the position was changed to Prime Minister. In 1968, Pindling announced that The Bahamas would seek full independence.[54] A new constitution giving The Bahamas increased control over its own affairs was adopted in 1968.[55] In 1971, the UBP merged with a disaffected faction of the PLP to form a new party, the Free National Movement (FNM), a de-racialised, centre-right party which aimed to counter the growing power of Pindling's PLP.[56]
+
+The British House of Lords voted to give The Bahamas its independence on 22 June 1973.[57] Prince Charles delivered the official documents to Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, officially declaring The Bahamas a fully independent nation on 10 July 1973,[58] and this date is now celebrated as the country's Independence Day.[59] It joined the Commonwealth of Nations on the same day.[60] Sir Milo Butler was appointed the first governor-general of The Bahamas (the official representative of Queen Elizabeth II) shortly after independence.[61]
+
+Shortly after independence, The Bahamas joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on 22 August 1973,[62] and later the United Nations on 18 September 1973.[63]
+
+Politically, the first two decades were dominated by Pindling's PLP, who went on to win a string of electoral victories. Allegations of corruption, links with drug cartels and financial malfeasance within the Bahamian government failed to dent Pindling's popularity. Meanwhile, the economy underwent a dramatic growth period fueled by the twin pillars of tourism and offshore finance, significantly raising the standard of living on the islands. The Bahamas' booming economy led to it becoming a beacon for immigrants, most notably from Haiti.[17]
+
+In 1992, Pindling was unseated by Hubert Ingraham of the FNM.[52]:p.78 Ingraham went on to win the 1997 Bahamian general election, before being defeated in 2002, when the PLP returned to power under Perry Christie.[52]:p.82 Ingraham returned to power from 2007–2012, followed by Christie again from 2012–17. With economic growth faltering, Bahamians re-elected the FNM in 2017, with Hubert Minnis becoming the fourth prime minister.[17]
+
+In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian struck the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama at Category 5 intensity, devastating the northwestern Bahamas. The storm inflicted at least US$7 billion in damages and killed more than 50 people,[64][65] with 1,300 people still missing.[66]
+
+The Bahamas consists of a chain of islands spread out over some 800 kilometres (500 mi) in the Atlantic Ocean, located to the east of Florida in the United States, north of Cuba and Hispaniola and west of the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands (with which it forms the Lucayan archipelago). It lies between latitudes 20° and 28°N, and longitudes 72° and 80°W and straddles the Tropic of Cancer.[12] There are some 700 islands and cays in total (of which 30 are inhabited) with a total land area of 10,010 km2 (3,860 sq mi).[12][17]
+
+Nassau, capital city of The Bahamas, lies on the island of New Providence; the other main inhabited islands are Grand Bahama, Eleuthera, Cat Island, Rum Cay, Long Island, San Salvador Island, Ragged Island, Acklins, Crooked Island, Exuma, Berry Islands, Mayaguana, the Bimini islands, Great Abaco and Great Inagua. The largest island is Andros.[17]
+
+All the islands are low and flat, with ridges that usually rise no more than 15 to 20 m (49 to 66 ft). The highest point in the country is Mount Alvernia (formerly Como Hill) on Cat Island at 64 m (210 ft).[12]
+
+According to the Köppen climate classification, the climate of The Bahamas is mostly tropical savannah climate or Aw, with a hot and wet season and a warm and dry season. The low latitude, warm tropical Gulf Stream, and low elevation give The Bahamas a warm and winterless climate.[67]
+
+As with most tropical climates, seasonal rainfall follows the sun, and summer is the wettest season. There is only a 7 °C (13 °F) difference between the warmest month and coolest month in most of the Bahama islands. Every few decades low temperatures can fall below 10 °C (50 °F) for a few hours when a severe cold outbreak comes down from the North American mainland, however there has never been a frost or freeze recorded in the Bahama islands. Only once in recorded history has snow been seen in the air anywhere in The Bahamas, this occurred in Freeport on 19 January 1977, when snow mixed with rain was seen in the air for a short time.[68] The Bahamas are often sunny and dry for long periods of time, and average more than 3,000 hours or 340 days of sunlight annually. Much of the natural vegetation is tropical scrub and cactus and succulents are common in landscapes.[69]
+
+Tropical storms and hurricanes occasionally impact The Bahamas. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew passed over the northern portions of the islands, and Hurricane Floyd passed near the eastern portions of the islands in 1999. Hurricane Dorian of 2019 passed over the archipelago at destructive Category 5 strength with sustained winds of 298 km/h (185 mph) and wind gusts up to 350 km/h (220 mph), becoming the strongest tropical cyclone on record to impact the northwestern islands of Grand Bahama and Great Abaco.[70]
+
+The Bahamas is part of the Lucayan Archipelago, which continues into the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Mouchoir Bank, the Silver Bank, and the Navidad Bank.[73]
+
+The Bahamas Platform, which includes The Bahamas, Southern Florida, Northern Cuba, the Turks and Caicos, and the Blake Plateau, formed about 150 Ma, not long after the formation of the North Atlantic. The 6.4 km (4.0 mi) thick limestones, which predominate in The Bahamas, date back to the Cretaceous. These limestones would have been deposited in shallow seas, assumed to be a stretched and thinned portion of the North American continental crust. Sediments were forming at about the same rate as the crust below was sinking due to the added weight. Thus, the entire area consisted of a large marine plain with some islands. Then, at about 80 Ma, the area became flooded by the Gulf Stream. This resulted in the drowning of the Blake Plateau, the separation of The Bahamas from Cuba and Florida, the separation of the southeastern Bahamas into separate banks, the creation of the Cay Sal Bank, plus the Little and Great Bahama Banks. Sedimentation from the "carbonate factory" of each bank, or atoll, continues today at the rate of about 20 mm (0.79 in) per kyr. Coral reefs form the "retaining walls" of these atolls, within which oolites and pellets form.[74]
+
+Coral growth was greater through the Tertiary, until the start of the ice ages, and hence those deposits are more abundant below a depth of 36 m (118 ft). In fact, an ancient extinct reef exists half a km seaward of the present one, 30 m (98 ft) below sea level. Oolites form when oceanic water penetrate the shallow banks, increasing the temperature about 3 °C (5.4 °F) and the salinity by 0.5 per cent. Cemented ooids are referred to as grapestone. Additionally, giant stromatolites are found off the Exuma Cays.[74]:22,29–30
+
+Sea level changes resulted in a drop in sea level, causing wind blown oolite to form sand dunes with distinct cross-bedding. Overlapping dunes form oolitic ridges, which become rapidly lithified through the action of rainwater, called eolianite. Most islands have ridges ranging from 30 to 45 m (98 to 148 ft), though Cat Island has a ridge 60 m (200 ft) in height. The land between ridges is conducive to the formation of lakes and swamps.[74]:41–59,61–64
+
+Solution weathering of the limestone results in a "Bahamian Karst" topography. This includes potholes, blue holes such as Dean's Blue Hole, sinkholes, beachrock such as the Bimini Road ("pavements of Atlantis"), limestone crust, caves due to the lack of rivers, and sea caves. Several blue holes are aligned along the South Andros Fault line. Tidal flats and tidal creeks are common, but the more impressive drainage patterns are formed by troughs and canyons such as Great Bahama Canyon with the evidence of turbidity currents and turbidite deposition.[74]:33–40,65,72–84,86
+
+The stratigraphy of the islands consists of the Middle Pleistocene Owl's Hole Formation, overlain by the Late Pleistocene Grotto Beach Formation, and then the Holocene Rice Bay Formation. However, these units are not necessarily stacked on top of each other but can be located laterally. The oldest formation, Owl's Hole, is capped by a terra rosa paleosoil, as is the Grotto Beach, unless eroded. The Grotto Beach Formation is the most widespread.[73]
+
+The Bahamas is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, with the queen of the Bahamas (Elizabeth II) as head of state represented locally by a governor-general.[12] Political and legal traditions closely follow those of the United Kingdom and the Westminster system.[17] The Bahamas is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares its head of state with other Commonwealth realms.[citation needed]
+
+The prime minister is the head of government and is the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Assembly.[12][17] Executive power is exercised by the Cabinet, selected by the prime minister and drawn from his supporters in the House of Assembly. The current governor-general is The Honourable Cornelius A. Smith, and the current prime minister is The Rt. Hon. Hubert Minnis MP.[12]
+
+Legislative power is vested In a bicameral parliament, which consists of a 38-member House of Assembly (the lower house), with members elected from single-member districts, and a 16-member Senate, with members appointed by the governor-general, including nine on the advice of the Prime Minister, four on the advice of the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, and three on the advice of the prime minister after consultation with the Leader of the Opposition. As under the Westminster system, the prime minister may dissolve Parliament and call a general election at any time within a five-year term.[75]
+
+Constitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, press, worship, movement and association. The Judiciary of the Bahamas is independent of the executive and the legislature. Jurisprudence is based on English law.[12]
+
+The Bahamas has a two-party system dominated by the centre-left Progressive Liberal Party and the centre-right Free National Movement. A handful of other political parties have been unable to win election to parliament; these have included the Bahamas Democratic Movement, the Coalition for Democratic Reform, Bahamian Nationalist Party and the Democratic National Alliance.[citation needed]
+
+The Bahamas has strong bilateral relationships with the United States and the United Kingdom, represented by an ambassador in Washington and High Commissioner in London. The Bahamas also associates closely with other nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).[citation needed]
+
+The Bahamanian military is the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF),[12] the navy of The Bahamas which includes a land unit called Commando Squadron (Regiment) and an Air Wing (Air Force). Under the Defence Act, the RBDF has been mandated, in the name of the queen, to defend The Bahamas, protect its territorial integrity, patrol its waters, provide assistance and relief in times of disaster, maintain order in conjunction with the law enforcement agencies of The Bahamas, and carry out any such duties as determined by the National Security Council. The Defence Force is also a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)'s Regional Security Task Force.[citation needed]
+
+The RBDF came into existence on 31 March 1980. Its duties include defending The Bahamas, stopping drug smuggling, illegal immigration and poaching, and providing assistance to mariners. The Defence Force has a fleet of 26 coastal and inshore patrol craft along with 3 aircraft and over 1,100 personnel including 65 officers and 74 women.[citation needed]
+
+The districts of The Bahamas provide a system of local government everywhere except New Providence (which holds 70 percent of the national population), whose affairs are handled directly by the central government. In 1996, the Bahamian Parliament passed the "Local Government Act" to facilitate the establishment of family island administrators, local government districts, local district councillors and local town committees for the various island communities. The overall goal of this act is to allow the various elected leaders to govern and oversee the affairs of their respective districts without the interference of the central government. In total, there are 32 districts, with elections being held every five years. There are 110 councillors and 281 town committee members elected to represent the various districts.[76]
+
+Each councillor or town committee member is responsible for the proper use of public funds for the maintenance and development of their constituency.[citation needed]
+
+The districts other than New Providence are:[citation needed]
+
+The Bahamian flag was adopted in 1973. Its colours symbolise the strength of the Bahamian people; its design reflects aspects of the natural environment (sun and sea) and economic and social development.[12] The flag is a black equilateral triangle against the mast, superimposed on a horizontal background made up of three equal stripes of aquamarine, gold and aquamarine.[12]
+
+The coat of arms of The Bahamas contains a shield with the national symbols as its focal point. The shield is supported by a marlin and a flamingo, which are the national animals of The Bahamas. The flamingo is located on the land, and the marlin on the sea, indicating the geography of the islands.[citation needed]
+
+On top of the shield is a conch shell, which represents the varied marine life of the island chain. The conch shell rests on a helmet. Below this is the actual shield, the main symbol of which is a ship representing the Santa María of Christopher Columbus, shown sailing beneath the sun. Along the bottom, below the shield appears a banner upon which is the national motto:[77]
+
+"Forward, Upward, Onward Together."
+
+The yellow elder was chosen as the national flower of The Bahamas because it is native to the Bahama islands, and it blooms throughout the year.[citation needed]
+
+Selection of the yellow elder over many other flowers was made through the combined popular vote of members of all four of New Providence's garden clubs of the 1970s—the Nassau Garden Club, the Carver Garden Club, the International Garden Club and the YWCA Garden Club. They reasoned that other flowers grown there—such as the bougainvillea, hibiscus and poinciana—had already been chosen as the national flowers of other countries. The yellow elder, on the other hand, was unclaimed by other countries (although it is now also the national flower of the United States Virgin Islands) and also the yellow elder is native to the family islands.[78]
+
+By the terms of GDP per capita, The Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas.[79] Its currency (the Bahamian dollar) is kept at a 1-to-1 peg with the US dollar.[13] It was revealed in the Panama Papers that The Bahamas is the jurisdiction with the most offshore entities or companies.[80]
+
+The Bahamas relies heavily on tourism to generate most of its economic activity. Tourism as an industry not only accounts for about 50% of the Bahamian GDP, but also provides jobs for about half of the country's workforce.[13][81] The Bahamas attracted 5.8 million visitors in 2012, more than 70% of whom were cruise visitors.[82]
+
+After tourism, the next most important economic sector is banking and offshore international financial services, accounting for some 15% of GDP.[13]
+
+The government has adopted incentives to encourage foreign financial business, and further banking and finance reforms are in progress. The government plans to merge the regulatory functions of key financial institutions, including the Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBB) and the Securities and Exchange Commission.[citation needed] The Central Bank administers restrictions and controls on capital and money market instruments. The Bahamas International Securities Exchange consists of 19 listed public companies. Reflecting the relative soundness of the banking system (mostly populated by Canadian banks), the impact of the global financial crisis on the financial sector was limited.[citation needed]
+
+The economy has a very competitive tax regime (classified by some as a tax haven). The government derives its revenue from import tariffs, VAT, licence fees, property and stamp taxes, but there is no income tax, corporate tax, capital gains tax, or wealth tax. Payroll taxes fund social insurance benefits and amount to 3.9% paid by the employee and 5.9% paid by the employer.[83] In 2010, overall tax revenue as a percentage of GDP was 17.2%.[1]
+
+Agriculture and manufacturing form the third largest sector of the Bahamian economy, representing 5–7% of total GDP.[13] An estimated 80% of the Bahamian food supply is imported. Major crops include onions, okra, tomatoes, oranges, grapefruit, cucumbers, sugar cane, lemons, limes, and sweet potatoes.[84]
+
+Access to biocapacity in the Bahamas is much higher than world average. In 2016, the Bahamas had 9.2 global hectares [85] of biocapacity per person within its territory, much more than the world average of 1.6 global hectares per person.[86] In 2016 the Bahamas used 3.7 global hectares of biocapacity per person - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means they use less biocapacity than the Bahamas contains. As a result, the Bahamas is running a biocapacity reserve.[85]
+
+The Bahamas has an estimated population of 385,637, of which 25.9% are 14 or under, 67.2% 15 to 64 and 6.9% over 65. It has a population growth rate of 0.925% (2010), with a birth rate of 17.81/1,000 population, death rate of 9.35/1,000, and net migration rate of −2.13 migrant(s)/1,000 population.[87] The infant mortality rate is 23.21 deaths/1,000 live births. Residents have a life expectancy at birth of 69.87 years: 73.49 years for females, 66.32 years for males. The total fertility rate is 2.0 children born/woman (2010).[1]
+
+The most populous islands are New Providence, where Nassau, the capital and largest city, is located;[88] and Grand Bahama, home to the second largest city of Freeport.[89]
+
+According to the 99% response rate obtained from the race question on the 2010 Census questionnaire, 90.6% of the population identified themselves as being Black, 4.7% White and 2.1% of a mixed race (African and European).[90] Three centuries prior, in 1722 when the first official census of The Bahamas was taken, 74% of the population was native European and 26% native African.[90]
+
+Since the colonial era of plantations, Africans or Afro-Bahamians have been the largest ethnic group in The Bahamas, whose primary ancestry was based in West Africa. The first Africans to arrive to The Bahamas were freed slaves from Bermuda; they arrived with the Eleutheran Adventurers looking for new lives.[citation needed]
+
+The Haitian community in The Bahamas is also largely of African descent and numbers about 80,000. Due to an extremely high immigration of Haitians to The Bahamas, the Bahamian government started deporting illegal Haitian immigrants to their homeland in late 2014.[91]
+
+The white Bahamian population are mainly the descendants of the English Puritans and American Loyalists escaping the American Revolution who arrived in 1649 and 1783, respectively.[92] Many Southern Loyalists went to the Abaco Islands, half of whose population was of European descent as of 1985.[93] The term white is usually used to identify Bahamians with Anglo ancestry, as well as "light-skinned" Afro-Bahamians. Sometimes Bahamians use the term Conchy Joe to describe people of Anglo descent.[94]
+
+A small portion of the Euro-Bahamian population are Greek Bahamians, descended from Greek labourers who came to help develop the sponging industry in the 1900s.[95] They make up less than 2% of the nation's population, but have still preserved their distinct Greek Bahamian culture.[96][97]
+
+Bahamians typically identify themselves simply as either black or white.[94]
+
+Religion in The Bahamas (2010)[98]
+
+The islands' population is predominantly Christian.[13][17] Protestant denominations collectively account for more than 70% of the population, with Baptists representing 35% of the population, Anglicans 15%, Pentecostals 8%, Church of God 5%, Seventh-day Adventists 5% and Methodists 4%. There is also a significant Roman Catholic community accounting for about 14%.[99] There are also smaller communities of Jews, Muslims, Baha'is, Hindus, Rastafarians and practitioners of traditional African religions such as Obeah.
+
+The official language of The Bahamas is English. Many people speak an English-based creole language called Bahamian dialect (known simply as "dialect") or "Bahamianese".[100] Laurente Gibbs, a Bahamian writer and actor, was the first to coin the latter name in a poem and has since promoted its usage.[101][102] Both are used as autoglossonyms.[103] Haitian Creole, a French-based creole language is spoken by Haitians and their descendants, who make up of about 25% of the total population. It is known simply as Creole[1] to differentiate it from Bahamian English.[104]
+
+The culture of the islands is a mixture of African (Afro-Bahamians being the largest ethnicity), British (as the former colonial power) and American (as the dominant country in the region and source of most tourists).[17]
+
+A form of African-based folk magic (obeah) is practised by some Bahamians, mainly in the Family Islands (out-islands) of The Bahamas.[105] The practice of obeah is illegal in The Bahamas and punishable by law.[106]
+
+In the less developed outer islands (or Family Islands), handicrafts include basketry made from palm fronds. This material, commonly called "straw", is plaited into hats and bags that are popular tourist items. Another use is for so-called "Voodoo dolls", even though such dolls are the result of foreign influences and not based in historic fact.[107]
+
+Junkanoo is a traditional Afro-Bahamian street parade of 'rushing', music, dance and art held in Nassau (and a few other settlements) every Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Junkanoo is also used to celebrate other holidays and events such as Emancipation Day.[17]
+
+Regattas are important social events in many family island settlements. They usually feature one or more days of sailing by old-fashioned work boats, as well as an onshore festival.[citation needed]
+
+Many dishes are associated with Bahamian cuisine, which reflects Caribbean, African and European influences. Some settlements have festivals associated with the traditional crop or food of that area, such as the "Pineapple Fest" in Gregory Town, Eleuthera or the "Crab Fest" on Andros. Other significant traditions include story telling.[citation needed]
+
+Bahamians have created a rich literature of poetry, short stories, plays and short fictional works. Common themes in these works are (1) an awareness of change, (2) a striving for sophistication, (3) a search for identity, (4) nostalgia for the old ways and (5) an appreciation of beauty. Some major writers are Susan Wallace, Percival Miller, Robert Johnson, Raymond Brown, O.M. Smith, William Johnson, Eddie Minnis and Winston Saunders.[108][109]
+
+Bahamas culture is rich with beliefs, traditions, folklore and legend. The best-known folklore and legends in The Bahamas include the lusca and chickcharney creatures of Andros, Pretty Molly on Exuma Bahamas and the Lost City of Atlantis on Bimini Bahamas.[citation needed]
+
+Sport is a significant part of Bahamian culture. The national sport is cricket. Cricket has been played in The Bahamas from 1846,[110] the oldest sport being played in the country today. The Bahamas Cricket Association was formed in 1936, and from the 1940s to the 1970s, cricket was played amongst many Bahamians. Bahamas is not a part of the West Indies Cricket Board, so players are not eligible to play for the West Indies cricket team. The late 1970s saw the game begin to decline in the country as teachers, who had previously come from the United Kingdom with a passion for cricket, were replaced by teachers who had been trained in the United States. The Bahamian physical education teachers had no knowledge of the game and instead taught track and field, basketball, baseball, softball,[111] volleyball[112] and Association football[113] where primary and high schools compete against each other. Today cricket is still enjoyed by a few locals and immigrants in the country, usually from Jamaica, Guyana, Haiti and Barbados. Cricket is played on Saturdays and Sundays at Windsor Park and Haynes Oval.[citation needed]
+
+The only other sporting event that began before cricket was horse racing, which started in 1796. The most popular spectator sports are those imported from the United States, such as basketball,[114] American football,[115] and baseball,[116] rather than from the British Isles, due to the country's close proximity to the United States, unlike their other Caribbean counterparts, where cricket, rugby, and netball have proven to be more popular.[citation needed]
+
+Dexter Cambridge, Rick Fox, Ian Lockhart, Magnum Rolle, Buddy Hield and Deandre Ayton are a few Bahamians who joined Bahamian Mychal Thompson of the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA ranks.[117][118] Over the years American football has become much more popular than soccer, though not implemented in the high school system yet. Leagues for teens and adults have been developed by the Bahamas American Football Federation.[119] However soccer, as it is commonly known in the country, is still a very popular sport amongst high school pupils. Leagues are governed by the Bahamas Football Association. Recently,[when?] the Bahamian government has been working closely with Tottenham Hotspur of London to promote the sport in the country as well as promoting The Bahamas in the European market. In 2013, 'Spurs' became the first Premier League club to play an exhibition match in The Bahamas, facing the Jamaican national team. Joe Lewis, the owner of the club, is based in The Bahamas.[120][121][122]
+
+Other popular sports are swimming,[123] tennis[124] and boxing,[125] where Bahamians have enjoyed some degree of success at the international level. Other sports such as golf,[126] rugby league,[127] rugby union,[128] beach soccer,[129] and netball are considered growing sports. Athletics, commonly known as 'track and field' in the country, is the most successful sport by far amongst Bahamians. Bahamians have a strong tradition in the sprints and jumps. Track and field is probably the most popular spectator sport in the country next to basketball due to their success over the years. Triathlons are gaining popularity in Nassau and the Family Islands.
+
+Durward Knowles was a sailor and Olympic champion from The Bahamas. He won the gold medal in the Star class at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, together with Cecil Cooke. He won the bronze medal in the same class at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne along with Sloane Elmo Farrington.He had previously competed for the United Kingdom in the 1948 Olympics, finishing in 4th place in the Star class again with Sloane Elmo Farrington. Representing The Bahamas, Knowles won gold in the 1959 Pan American Games star class (with Farrington). He is one of only five athletes who have competed in the Olympics over a span of 40 years.[citation needed]
+
+Bahamians have gone on to win numerous track and field medals at the Olympic Games, IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games. Frank Rutherford is the first athletics Olympic medallist for the country. He won a bronze medal for triple jump during the 1992 Summer Olympics.[130] Pauline Davis-Thompson, Debbie Ferguson, Chandra Sturrup, Savatheda Fynes and Eldece Clarke-Lewis teamed up for the first athletics Olympic gold medal for the country when they won the 4 × 100 m relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics. They are affectionately known as the "Golden Girls".[131] Tonique Williams-Darling became the first athletics individual Olympic gold medallist when she won the 400-metre sprint in 2004 Summer Olympics.[132] In 2007, with the disqualification of Marion Jones, Pauline Davis-Thompson was advanced to the gold medal position in the 200 metres at the 2000 Olympics, predating William-Darling.[citation needed]
+
+The Bahamas were hosts of the first men's senior FIFA tournament to be staged in the Caribbean, the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.[133] The Bahamas also hosted the first 3 editions of the IAAF World Relays.[citation needed]
+
+According to 1995 estimates, 98.2% of the Bahamian adult population are literate.[citation needed]
+
+The University of the Bahamas (UB) is the national higher education/tertiary system. Offering baccalaureate, masters and associate degrees, UB has three campuses, and teaching and research centres throughout The Bahamas. The University of the Bahamas was chartered on 10 November 2016.[134]
+
+The Bahamas contains about 1,620 km (1,010 mi) of paved roads.[12] Inter-island transport is conducted primarily via ship and air. The country has 61 airports, the chief of which are Lynden Pindling International Airport on New Providence, Grand Bahama International Airport on Grand Bahama Island and Leonard M. Thompson International Airport (formerly Marsh Harbour Airport) on Abaco Island.

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+Sir Peter Paul Rubens (/ˈruːbənz/;[1] Dutch: [ˈrybə(n)s]; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens was a painter producing altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.  He was also a prolific designer of cartoons for the Flemish tapestry workshops and of frontispieces for the publishers in Antwerp.
+
+In addition to running a large workshop in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. Rubens was a prolific artist. The catalogue of his works by Michael Jaffé lists 1,403 pieces, excluding numerous copies made in his workshop.[2]
+
+His commissioned works were mostly history paintings, which included religious and mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house. He also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the royal entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria in 1635.  He wrote a book with illustrations of the palaces in Genoa, which was published in 1622 as Palazzi di Genova.  The book was influential in spreading the Genoese palace style in Northern Europe.[3]  Rubens was an avid art collector and had one of the largest collections of art and books in Antwerp.  He was also an art dealer and is known to have sold an important number of art objects to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.[4]
+
+He was one of the last major artists to make consistent use of wooden panels as a support medium, even for very large works, but he used canvas as well, especially when the work needed to be sent a long distance. For altarpieces he sometimes painted on slate to reduce reflection problems.
+
+Rubens was born in Siegen to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. His father, a Calvinist, and mother fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568, after increased religious turmoil and persecution of Protestants during the rule of the Habsburg Netherlands by the Duke of Alba. Rubens was baptised in Cologne at St Peter's Church.
+
+Jan Rubens became the legal adviser (and lover) of Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of Orange, and settled at her court in Siegen in 1570, fathering her daughter Christine who was born in 1571.[5] Following Jan Rubens's imprisonment for the affair, Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577. The family returned to Cologne the next year. In 1589, two years after his father's death, Rubens moved with his mother Maria Pypelincks to Antwerp, where he was raised as a Catholic.
+
+Religion figured prominently in much of his work, and Rubens later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting[6] (he had said "My passion comes from the heavens, not from earthly musings").[citation needed]
+
+In Antwerp, Rubens received a Renaissance humanist education, studying Latin and classical literature. By fourteen he began his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaeght. Subsequently, he studied under two of the city's leading painters of the time, the late Mannerist artists Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen.[7] Much of his earliest training involved copying earlier artists' works, such as woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger and Marcantonio Raimondi's engravings after Raphael. Rubens completed his education in 1598, at which time he entered the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master.[8]
+
+In 1600 Rubens travelled to Italy. He stopped first in Venice, where he saw paintings by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, before settling in Mantua at the court of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga. The colouring and compositions of Veronese and Tintoretto had an immediate effect on Rubens's painting, and his later, mature style was profoundly influenced by Titian.[9] With financial support from the Duke, Rubens travelled to Rome by way of Florence in 1601. There, he studied classical Greek and Roman art and copied works of the Italian masters.  The Hellenistic sculpture Laocoön and His Sons was especially influential on him, as was the art of Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci.[10] He was also influenced by the recent, highly naturalistic paintings by Caravaggio.
+
+Rubens later made a copy of Caravaggio's Entombment of Christ and recommended his patron, the Duke of Mantua, to purchase The Death of the Virgin (Louvre).[11] After his return to Antwerp he was instrumental in the acquisition of The Madonna of the Rosary (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) for the St. Paul's Church in Antwerp.[12]  During this first stay in Rome, Rubens completed his first altarpiece commission, St. Helena with the True Cross for the Roman church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.
+
+Rubens travelled to Spain on a diplomatic mission in 1603, delivering gifts from the Gonzagas to the court of Philip III.[13] While there, he studied the extensive collections of Raphael and Titian that had been collected by Philip II.[14] He also painted an equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma during his stay (Prado, Madrid) that demonstrates the influence of works like Titian's Charles V at Mühlberg (1548; Prado, Madrid). This journey marked the first of many during his career that combined art and diplomacy.
+
+He returned to Italy in 1604, where he remained for the next four years, first in Mantua and then in Genoa and Rome. In Genoa, Rubens painted numerous portraits, such as the Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), and the portrait of Maria di Antonio Serra Pallavicini, in a style that influenced later paintings by Anthony van Dyck, Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.[15]
+
+He illustrated books, which was published in 1622 as Palazzi di Genova. From 1606 to 1608, he was mostly in Rome when he received, with the assistance of Cardinal Jacopo Serra (the brother of Maria Pallavicini), his most important commission to date for the High Altar of the city's most fashionable new church, Santa Maria in Vallicella also known as the Chiesa Nuova.
+
+The subject was to be St. Gregory the Great and important local saints adoring an icon of the Virgin and Child. The first version, a single canvas (now at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble), was immediately replaced by a second version on three slate panels that permits the actual miraculous holy image of the "Santa Maria in Vallicella" to be revealed on important feast days by a removable copper cover, also painted by the artist.[16]
+
+Rubens's experiences in Italy continued to influence his work. He continued to write many of his letters and correspondences in Italian, signed his name as "Pietro Paolo Rubens", and spoke longingly of returning to the peninsula—a hope that never materialized.[17]
+
+Upon hearing of his mother's illness in 1608, Rubens planned his departure from Italy for Antwerp. However, she died before he arrived home. His return coincided with a period of renewed prosperity in the city with the signing of the Treaty of Antwerp in April 1609, which initiated the Twelve Years' Truce. In September 1609 Rubens was appointed as court painter by Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, sovereigns of the Low Countries.
+
+He received special permission to base his studio in Antwerp instead of at their court in Brussels, and to also work for other clients. He remained close to the Archduchess Isabella until her death in 1633, and was called upon not only as a painter but also as an ambassador and diplomat. Rubens further cemented his ties to the city when, on 3 October 1609, he married Isabella Brant, the daughter of a leading Antwerp citizen and humanist, Jan Brant.
+
+In 1610 Rubens moved into a new house and studio that he designed. Now the Rubenshuis Museum, the Italian-influenced villa in the centre of Antwerp accommodated his workshop, where he and his apprentices made most of the paintings, and his personal art collection and library, both among the most extensive in Antwerp. During this time he built up a studio with numerous students and assistants. His most famous pupil was the young Anthony van Dyck, who soon became the leading Flemish portraitist and collaborated frequently with Rubens. He also often collaborated with the many specialists active in the city, including the animal painter Frans Snyders, who contributed the eagle to Prometheus Bound (c. 1611–12, completed by 1618), and his good friend the flower-painter Jan Brueghel the Elder.
+
+Another house was built by Rubens to the north of Antwerp in the polder village of Doel, "Hooghuis" (1613/1643), perhaps as an investment. The "High House" was built next to the village church.
+
+Altarpieces such as The Raising of the Cross (1610) and The Descent from the Cross (1611–1614) for the Cathedral of Our Lady were particularly important in establishing Rubens as Flanders' leading painter shortly after his return. The Raising of the Cross, for example, demonstrates the artist's synthesis of Tintoretto's Crucifixion for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, Michelangelo's dynamic figures, and Rubens's own personal style. This painting has been held as a prime example of Baroque religious art.[18]
+
+Rubens used the production of prints and book title-pages, especially for his friend Balthasar Moretus, the owner of the large Plantin-Moretus publishing house, to extend his fame throughout Europe during this part of his career. In 1618, Rubens embarked upon a printmaking enterprise by soliciting an unusual triple privilege (an early form of copyright) to protect his designs in France, the Southern Netherlands, and United Provinces.[19] He enlisted Lucas Vorsterman to engrave a number of his notable religious and mythological paintings, to which Rubens appended personal and professional dedications to noteworthy individuals in the Southern Netherlands, United Provinces, England, France, and Spain.[19] With the exception of a few etchings, Rubens left the printmaking to specialists, who included Lucas Vorsterman, Paulus Pontius and Willem Panneels.[20] He recruited a number of engravers trained by Christoffel Jegher, whom he carefully schooled in the more vigorous style he wanted. Rubens also designed the last significant woodcuts before the 19th-century revival in the technique.[21]
+
+In 1621, the Queen Mother of France, Marie de' Medici, commissioned Rubens to paint two large allegorical cycles celebrating her life and the life of her late husband, Henry IV, for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. The Marie de' Medici cycle (now in the Louvre) was installed in 1625, and although he began work on the second series it was never completed.[22] Marie was exiled from France in 1630 by her son, Louis XIII, and died in 1642 in the same house in Cologne where Rubens had lived as a child.[23]
+
+After the end of the Twelve Years' Truce in 1621, the Spanish Habsburg rulers entrusted Rubens with a number of diplomatic missions.[24] While in Paris in 1622 to discuss the Marie de' Medici cycle, Rubens engaged in clandestine information gathering activities, which at the time was an important task of diplomats.  He relied on his friendship with Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc to get information on political developments in France.[25]  Between 1627 and 1630, Rubens's diplomatic career was particularly active, and he moved between the courts of Spain and England in an attempt to bring peace between the Spanish Netherlands and the United Provinces.  He also made several trips to the northern Netherlands as both an artist and a diplomat.
+
+At the courts he sometimes encountered the attitude that courtiers should not use their hands in any art or trade, but he was also received as a gentleman by many.  Rubens was raised by Philip IV of Spain to the nobility in 1624 and knighted by Charles I of England in 1630.  Philip IV confirmed Rubens's status as a knight a few months later.[26]  Rubens was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Cambridge University in 1629.[27]
+
+Rubens was in Madrid for eight months in 1628–1629. In addition to diplomatic negotiations, he executed several important works for Philip IV and private patrons. He also began a renewed study of Titian's paintings, copying numerous works including the Madrid Fall of Man (1628–29).[28] During this stay, he befriended the court painter Diego Velázquez and the two planned to travel to Italy together the following year. Rubens, however, returned to Antwerp and Velázquez made the journey without him.[29]
+
+His stay in Antwerp was brief, and he soon travelled on to London where he remained until April 1630. An important work from this period is the Allegory of Peace and War (1629; National Gallery, London).[30] It illustrates the artist's lively concern for peace, and was given to Charles I as a gift.
+
+While Rubens's international reputation with collectors and nobility abroad continued to grow during this decade, he and his workshop also continued to paint monumental paintings for local patrons in Antwerp. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary (1625–6) for the Cathedral of Antwerp is one prominent example.
+
+Rubens's last decade was spent in and around Antwerp. Major works for foreign patrons still occupied him, such as the ceiling paintings for the Banqueting House at Inigo Jones's Palace of Whitehall, but he also explored more personal artistic directions.
+
+In 1630, four years after the death of his first wife Isabella, the 53-year-old painter married his first wife's niece, the 16-year-old Hélène Fourment. Hélène inspired the voluptuous figures in many of his paintings from the 1630s, including The Feast of Venus (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), The Three Graces and The Judgment of Paris (both Prado, Madrid). In the latter painting, which was made for the Spanish court, the artist's young wife was recognized by viewers in the figure of Venus. In an intimate portrait of her, Hélène Fourment in a Fur Wrap, also known as Het Pelsken, Rubens's wife is even partially modelled after classical sculptures of the Venus Pudica, such as the Medici Venus.
+
+In 1635, Rubens bought an estate outside Antwerp, the Steen, where he spent much of his time. Landscapes, such as his Château de Steen with Hunter (National Gallery, London) and Farmers Returning from the Fields (Pitti Gallery, Florence), reflect the more personal nature of many of his later works. He also drew upon the Netherlandish traditions of Pieter Bruegel the Elder for inspiration in later works like Flemish Kermis (c. 1630; Louvre, Paris).
+
+Rubens died from heart failure a result of his chronic gout on 30 May 1640. He was interred in the Saint James' Church in Antwerp. A burial chapel for the artist and his family was built in the church. Construction on the chapel started in 1642 and was completed in 1650 when Cornelis van Mildert (the son of Rubens' friend, the sculptor Johannes van Mildert) delivered the altarstone.  The chapel is a marble altar portico with two columns framing the altarpiece of the 'Virgin and child with saints painted by Rubens himself. The painting expresses the basis tenets of the Counter Reformation through the figures of the Virgin and saints.  In the upper niche of the retable is a marble statue depicting the Virgin as the Mater Dolorosa whose heart is pierced by a sword, which was likely sculpted by Lucas Faydherbe, a pupil of Rubens.  The remains of Rubens' second wife Helena Fourment and two of her children (one of which fathered by Rubens) were later also laid to rest in the chapel.  Over the coming centuries about 80 descendants from the Rubens family were interred in the chapel.[31]
+
+At the request of canon van Parijs, Rubens' epitaph, written in Latin by his friend Gaspar Gevartius was chiselled on the chapel floor. In the tradition of the Renaissance, Rubens is compared in the epitaph to Apelles, the most famous painter of Greek Antiquity.[32][33]
+
+His biblical and mythological nudes are especially well-known. Painted in the Baroque tradition of depicting women as soft-bodied, passive, and highly sexualized beings, his nudes emphasize the concepts of fertility, desire, physical beauty, temptation, and virtue. Skillfully rendered, these paintings of nude women are thought by feminists to have been created to sexually appeal to his largely male audience of patrons.[34] Additionally, Rubens was quite fond of painting full-figured women, giving rise to terms like 'Rubensian' or 'Rubenesque' (sometimes 'Rubensesque'). His large-scale cycle representing Marie de Medicis focuses on several classic female archetypes like the virgin, consort, wife, widow, and diplomatic regent.[35] The inclusion of this iconography in his female portraits, along with his art depicting noblewomen of the day, serve to elevate his female portrait sitters to the status and importance of his male portrait sitters.[35]
+
+Rubens's depiction of males is equally stylized, replete with meaning, and quite the opposite of his female subjects. His male nudes represent highly athletic and large mythical or biblical men. Unlike his female nudes, most of his male nudes are depicted partially nude, with sashes, armour, or shadows shielding them from being completely unclothed. These men are twisting, reaching, bending, and grasping: all of which portrays his male subjects engaged in a great deal of physical, sometimes aggressive, action. The concepts Rubens artistically represents illustrate the male as powerful, capable, forceful and compelling. The allegorical and symbolic subjects he painted reference the classic masculine tropes of athleticism, high achievement, valour in war, and civil authority.[36] Male archetypes readily found in Rubens's paintings include the hero, husband, father, civic leader, king, and the battle weary.
+
+Rubens was a great admirer of Leonardo da Vinci's work. Using an engraving done 50 years after Leonardo started his project on the Battle of Anghiari, Rubens did a masterly drawing of the Battle which is now in the Louvre in Paris. "The idea that an ancient copy of a lost artwork can be as important as the original is familiar to scholars," says Salvatore Settis, archaeologist and art historian.
+
+Paintings from Rubens's workshop can be divided into three categories: those he painted by himself, those he painted in part (mainly hands and faces), and copies supervised from his drawings or oil sketches. He had, as was usual at the time, a large workshop with many apprentices and students. It has not always been possible to identify who were Rubens' pupils and assistants since as a court painter Rubens was not required to register his pupils with the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.  About 20 pupils or assistants of Rubens have been identified, with various levels of evidence to include them as such. It is also not clear from surviving records whether a particular person was a pupil or assistant in Rubens' workshop or was an artist who was an independent master collaborating on specific works with Rubens. The unknowm Jacob Moerman was registerd as his pupil while Willem Panneels and Justus van Egmont were registered in the Guild's records as Rubens' assistants.  Anthony van Dyck worked in Rubens' workshop after training with Hendrick van Balen in Antwerp.  Other artists linked to the Rubens' workshop as pupils, assistants or collaborators are Abraham van Diepenbeeck, Lucas Faydherbe, Lucas Franchoys the Younger, Nicolaas van der Horst, Frans Luycx, Peter van Mol, Deodat del Monte, Cornelis Schut, Erasmus Quellinus the Younger, Pieter Soutman, David Teniers the Elder, Frans Wouters, Jan Thomas van Ieperen, Theodoor van Thulden and Victor Wolfvoet (II).[37]
+
+He also often sub-contracted elements such as animals, landscapes or still-lifes in large compositions to specialists such as animal painters Frans Snyders and Paul de Vos, or other artists such as Jacob Jordaens. One of his most frequent collaborators was Jan Brueghel the Younger.
+
+At a Sotheby's auction on 10 July 2002, Rubens's painting Massacre of the Innocents, rediscovered not long before, sold for £49.5 million (US$76.2 million) to Lord Thomson. At the end of 2013 this remained the record auction price for an Old Master painting. At a Christie's auction in 2012, Portrait of a Commander sold for £9.1 million (US$13.5 million) despite a dispute over the authenticity so that Sotheby's refused to auction it as a Rubens.[38]
+
+Lost works by Rubens include:
+
+Portrait of a Young Woman with a Rosary, 1609–10, oil on wood, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
+
+Venus at the Mirror, 1613–14
+
+Diana Returning from Hunt, 1615, oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
+
+The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, c. 1617, oil on canvas, Alte Pinakothek
+
+Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria, 1606
+
+Portrait of King Philip IV of Spain, c. 1628–29
+
+Portrait of Elisabeth of France. 1628, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
+
+Portrait of Ambrogio Spinola, c. 1627, National Gallery in Prague
+
+Landscape with the Ruins of Mount Palatine in Rome, 1615
+
+Miracle of Saint Hubert, painted together with Jan Bruegel, 1617
+
+Landscape with Milkmaids and Cattle, 1618
+
+The Château Het Steen with Hunter, c. 1635–1638, National Gallery, London
+
+Venus and Adonis, 1635–1638, Metropolitan Museum of Art
+
+Jupiter and Callisto, 1613, Museumslandschaft of Hesse in Kassel
+
+Pythagoras Advocating Vegetarianism, 1618–1630, by Rubens and Frans Snyders, inspired by Pythagoras's speech in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Royal Collection
+
+Perseus and Andromeda, c. 1622, Hermitage Museum
+
+Perseus Liberating Andromeda, 1639–40, Museo del Prado
+
+Lot and his daughters, c. 1613–14
+
+Ermit and sleeping Angelica, 1628
+
+Venus, Cupid, Baccchus and Ceres, 1612
+
+The Three Graces, 1635, Prado
+
+Susanna and the elders, 1609–1610, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
+
+Rubens with Hélène Fourment and their son Peter Paul, 1639, Metropolitan Museum of Art
+
+Helena Fourment in Wedding Dress, detail, the artist's second wife, c. 1630, Alte Pinakothek
+
+Bathsheba at the Fountain, 1635
+
+Pastoral Scene, 1636
+
+The Night, 1601–1603, black chalk and gouache on paper (after Michelangelo), Louvre-Lens
+
+Man in Korean Costume, c. 1617, black chalk with touches of red chalk, J. Paul Getty Museum
+
+Peter Paul Rubens (possibly his self-portrait), c. 1620s
+
+Young Woman with Folded Hands, c. 1629–30, red and black chalk, heightened with white, Boijmans Van Beuningen
+
+Study of Three Women (Psyche and her sisters), c. 1635, sanguine and ink on paper, Warsaw University Library
+
+Study for a St. Mary Magdalen, date unknown, British Museum
+
+The Judgement of Paris, c. 1606 Museo del Prado
+
+Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man, Mauritshuis, The Hague
+
+Christ Triumphant over Sin and Death, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg
+
+Sketch for Equestrian Portrait of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (Kimbell Art Museum)
+
+Portrait of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, Pollok House
+
+Equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma, Prado Museum.
+
+Diana and her Nymphs surprised by the Fauns, Prado Museum.

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+
+The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle invented in 1974[1][2] by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube,[3] the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. in 1980[4] via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer.[5] Rubik's Cube won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of January 2009[update], 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide,[6][7] making it the world's top-selling puzzle game.[8][9] It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy.[10]
+
+On the original classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces was covered by nine stickers, each of one of six solid colours: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. Some later versions of the cube have been updated to use coloured plastic panels instead, which prevents peeling and fading.[11]  In currently[according to whom?] sold models, white is opposite yellow, blue is opposite green, and orange is opposite red, and the red, white, and blue are arranged in that order in a clockwise arrangement.[12] On early cubes, the position of the colours varied from cube to cube.[13] An internal pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to have only one colour. Similar puzzles have now been produced with various numbers of sides, dimensions, and stickers, not all of them by Rubik.
+
+Although Rubik's Cube reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1980s, it is still widely known and used. Many speedcubers continue to practice it and similar puzzles; they also compete for the fastest times in various categories. Since 2003, the World Cube Association, the international governing body of Rubik's Cube, has organised competitions worldwide and recognises world records.
+
+In March 1970, Larry D. Nichols invented a 2×2×2 "Puzzle with Pieces Rotatable in Groups" and filed a Canadian patent application for it. Nichols's cube was held together by magnets. Nichols was granted U.S. Patent 3,655,201 on 11 April 1972, two years before Rubik invented his Cube.
+
+On 9 April 1970, Frank Fox applied to patent an "amusement device", a type of sliding puzzle on a spherical surface with "at least two 3×3 arrays" intended to be used for the game of noughts and crosses. He received his UK patent (1344259) on 16 January 1974.[14]
+
+In the mid-1970s, Ernő Rubik worked at the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest.[15] Although it is widely reported that the Cube was built as a teaching tool to help his students understand 3D objects, his actual purpose was solving the structural problem of moving the parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart.  He did not realise that he had created a puzzle until the first time he scrambled his new Cube and then tried to restore it.[16] Rubik applied for a patent in Hungary for his "Magic Cube" (Bűvös kocka in Hungarian) on 30 January 1975,[3] and HU170062 was granted later that year.
+
+The first test batches of the Magic Cube were produced in late 1977 and released in Budapest toy shops. Magic Cube was held together with interlocking plastic pieces that prevented the puzzle being easily pulled apart, unlike the magnets in Nichols's design. With Ernő Rubik's permission, businessman Tibor Laczi took a Cube to Germany's Nuremberg Toy Fair in February 1979 in an attempt to popularise it.[17] It was noticed by Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer, and they signed a deal with Ideal Toys in September 1979 to release the Magic Cube worldwide.[17] Ideal wanted at least a recognisable name to trademark; of course, that arrangement put Rubik in the spotlight because the Magic Cube was renamed after its inventor in 1980. The puzzle made its international debut at the toy fairs of London, Paris, Nuremberg, and New York in January and February 1980.[18]
+
+After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it could be manufactured to Western safety and packaging specifications. A lighter Cube was produced, and Ideal decided to rename it. "The Gordian Knot" and "Inca Gold" were considered, but the company finally decided on "Rubik's Cube", and the first batch was exported from Hungary in May 1980.[19]
+
+After the first batches of Rubik's Cubes were released in May 1980, initial sales were modest, but Ideal began a television advertising campaign in the middle of the year which it supplemented with newspaper adverts.[20] At the end of 1980, Rubik's Cube won a German Game of the Year special award[21] and won similar awards for best toy in the UK, France, and the US.[22] By 1981, Rubik's Cube had become a craze, and it is estimated that in the period from 1980 to 1983 around 200 million Rubik's Cubes were sold worldwide.[23] In March 1981, a speedcubing championship organised by the Guinness Book of World Records was held in Munich,[21] and a Rubik's Cube was depicted on the front cover of Scientific American that same month.[24] In June 1981, The Washington Post reported that Rubik's Cube is "a puzzle that's moving like fast food right now ... this year's Hoola Hoop or Bongo Board",[25] and by September 1981, New Scientist noted that the cube had "captivated the attention of children of ages from 7 to 70 all over the world this summer."[26]
+
+As most people could solve only one or two sides, numerous books were published including David Singmaster's Notes on Rubik's "Magic Cube" (1980) and Patrick Bossert's You Can Do the Cube (1981).[21] At one stage in 1981, three of the top ten best selling books in the US were books on solving Rubik's Cube,[27] and the best-selling book of 1981 was James G. Nourse's The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube which sold over 6 million copies.[28] In 1981, the Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited a Rubik's Cube, and at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee a six-foot Cube was put on display.[21] ABC Television even developed a cartoon show called Rubik, the Amazing Cube.[29] In June 1982, the First Rubik's Cube World Championship took place in Budapest and would become the only competition recognized as official until the championship was revived in 2003.[30]
+
+In October 1982, The New York Times reported that sales had fallen and that "the craze has died",[31] and by 1983 it was clear that sales had plummeted.[21] However, in some Communist countries, such as China and USSR, the craze had started later and demand was still high because of a shortage of Cubes.[32][33]
+
+Rubik's Cubes continued to be marketed and sold throughout the 1980s and ’90s,[21] but it was not until the early 2000s that interest in the Cube began increasing again.[34] In the US, sales doubled between 2001 and 2003, and The Boston Globe remarked that it was "becoming cool to own a Cube again".[35] The 2003 World Rubik's Games Championship was the first speedcubing tournament since 1982.[34] It was held in Toronto and was attended by 83 participants.[34] The tournament led to the formation of the World Cube Association in 2004.[34] Annual sales of Rubik branded cubes were said to have reached 15 million worldwide in 2008.[36] Part of the new appeal was ascribed to the advent of Internet video sites, such as YouTube, which allowed fans to share their solving strategies.[36] Following the expiration of Rubik's patent in 2000, other brands of cubes appeared, especially from Chinese companies.[37] Many of these Chinese branded cubes have been engineered for speed and are favoured by speedcubers.[37]
+
+Taking advantage of an initial shortage of Cubes, many imitations and variations appeared, many of which may have violated one or more patents. Today, the patents have expired and many Chinese companies produce copies of—and in nearly all cases, improvements upon—the Rubik and V-Cube designs.[37]
+
+Nichols assigned his patent to his employer Moleculon Research Corp., which sued Ideal in 1982. In 1984, Ideal lost the patent infringement suit and appealed. In 1986, the appeals court affirmed the judgment that Rubik's 2×2×2 Pocket Cube infringed Nichols's patent, but overturned the judgment on Rubik's 3×3×3 Cube.[38]
+
+Even while Rubik's patent application was being processed, Terutoshi Ishigi, a self-taught engineer and ironworks owner near Tokyo, filed for a Japanese patent for a nearly identical mechanism, which was granted in 1976 (Japanese patent publication JP55-008192). Until 1999, when an amended Japanese patent law was enforced, Japan's patent office granted Japanese patents for non-disclosed technology within Japan without requiring worldwide novelty.[39][40] Hence, Ishigi's patent is generally accepted as an independent reinvention at that time.[41][42][43] Rubik applied for more patents in 1980, including another Hungarian patent on 28 October. In the United States, Rubik was granted U.S. Patent 4,378,116 on 29 March 1983, for the Cube.  This patent expired in 2000.
+
+Rubik's Brand Ltd. also holds the registered trademarks for the word "Rubik" and "Rubik's" and for the 2D and 3D visualisations of the puzzle. The trademarks have been upheld by a ruling of the General Court of the European Union on 25 November 2014 in a successful defence against a German toy manufacturer seeking to invalidate them. However, European toy manufacturers are allowed to create differently shaped puzzles that have a similar rotating or twisting functionality of component parts such as for example Skewb, Pyraminx or Impossiball.[44]
+
+On 10 November 2016, Rubik's Cube lost a ten-year battle over a key trademark issue.  The European Union's highest court, the Court of Justice, ruled that the puzzle's shape was not sufficient to grant it trademark protection.[45]
+
+A standard Rubik's Cube measures 5.7 centimetres (2 1⁄4 in) on each side. The puzzle consists of 26 unique miniature cubes, also called "cubies" or "cubelets". Each of these includes a concealed inward extension that interlocks with the other cubes while permitting them to move to different locations. However, the centre cube of each of the six faces is merely a single square façade; all six are affixed to the core mechanism. These provide structure for the other pieces to fit into and rotate around. Hence, there are 21 pieces: a single core piece consisting of three intersecting axes holding the six centre squares in place but letting them rotate, and 20 smaller plastic pieces which fit into it to form the assembled puzzle.
+
+Each of the six centre pieces pivots on a screw (fastener) held by the centre piece, a "3D cross". A spring between each screw head and its corresponding piece tensions the piece inward, so that collectively, the whole assembly remains compact but can still be easily manipulated. The screw can be tightened or loosened to change the "feel" of the Cube. Newer official Rubik's brand cubes have rivets instead of screws and cannot be adjusted.
+
+The Cube can be taken apart without much difficulty, typically by rotating the top layer by 45° and then prying one of its edge cubes away from the other two layers. Consequently, it is a simple process to "solve" a Cube by taking it apart and reassembling it in a solved state.
+
+There are six central pieces which show one coloured face, twelve edge pieces which show two coloured faces, and eight corner pieces which show three coloured faces. Each piece shows a unique colour combination, but not all combinations are present (for example, if red and orange are on opposite sides of the solved Cube, there is no edge piece with both red and orange sides). The location of these cubes relative to one another can be altered by twisting an outer third of the Cube by increments of 90 degrees, but the location of the coloured sides relative to one another in the completed state of the puzzle cannot be altered; it is fixed by the relative positions of the centre squares. However, Cubes with alternative colour arrangements also exist; for example, with the yellow face opposite the green, the blue face opposite the white, and red and orange remaining opposite each other.
+
+Douglas Hofstadter, in the July 1982 issue of Scientific American, pointed out that Cubes could be coloured in such a way as to emphasise the corners or edges, rather than the faces as the standard colouring does; but neither of these alternative colourings has ever become popular.[41]
+
+The puzzle was originally advertised as having "over 3,000,000,000 (three billion) combinations but only one solution".[46]  Depending on how combinations are counted, the actual number can be significantly higher.
+
+The original (3×3×3) Rubik's Cube has eight corners and twelve edges. There are 8! (40,320) ways to arrange the corner cubes. Each corner has three possible orientations, although only seven (of eight) can be oriented independently; the orientation of the eighth (final) corner depends on the preceding seven, giving 37 (2,187) possibilities. There are 12!/2 (239,500,800) ways to arrange the edges, restricted from 12! because edges must be in an even permutation exactly when the corners are. (When arrangements of centres are also permitted, as described below, the rule is that the combined arrangement of corners, edges, and centres must be an even permutation.) Eleven edges can be flipped independently, with the flip of the twelfth depending on the preceding ones, giving 211 (2,048) possibilities.[47]
+
+which is approximately 43 quintillion.[48]  To put this into perspective, if one had one standard-sized Rubik's Cube for each permutation, one could cover the Earth's surface 275 times, or stack them in a tower 261 light-years high.
+
+The preceding figure is limited to permutations that can be reached solely by turning the sides of the cube. If one considers permutations reached through disassembly of the cube, the number becomes twelve times larger:
+
+which is approximately 519 quintillion[48] possible arrangements of the pieces that make up the Cube, but only one in twelve of these are actually solvable. This is because there is no sequence of moves that will swap a single pair of pieces or rotate a single corner or edge cube. Thus, there are 12 possible sets of reachable configurations, sometimes called "universes" or "orbits", into which the Cube can be placed by dismantling and reassembling it.
+
+The preceding numbers assume the center faces are in a fixed position.  If one considers turning the whole cube to be a different permutation, then each of the preceding numbers should be multiplied by 24.  A chosen colour can be on one of six sides, and then one of the adjacent colours can be in one of four positions; this determines the positions of all remaining colours.
+
+The original Rubik's Cube had no orientation markings on the centre faces (although some carried the words "Rubik's Cube" on the centre square of the white face), and therefore solving it does not require any attention to orienting those faces correctly. However, with marker pens, one could, for example, mark the central squares of an unscrambled Cube with four coloured marks on each edge, each corresponding to the colour of the adjacent face; a cube marked in this way is referred to as a "supercube". Some Cubes have also been produced commercially with markings on all of the squares, such as the Lo Shu magic square or playing card suits. Cubes have also been produced where the nine stickers on a face are used to make a single larger picture, and centre orientation matters on these as well. Thus one can nominally solve a Cube yet have the markings on the centres rotated; it then becomes an additional test to solve the centres as well.
+
+Marking Rubik's Cube's centres increases its difficulty, because this expands the set of distinguishable possible configurations. There are 46/2 (2,048) ways to orient the centres since an even permutation of the corners implies an even number of quarter turns of centres as well. In particular, when the Cube is unscrambled apart from the orientations of the central squares, there will always be an even number of centre squares requiring a quarter turn. Thus orientations of centres increases the total number of possible Cube permutations from 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (4.3×1019) to 88,580,102,706,155,225,088,000 (8.9×1022).[49]
+
+When turning a cube over is considered to be a change in permutation then we must also count arrangements of the centre faces. Nominally there are 6! ways to arrange the six centre faces of the cube, but only 24 of these are achievable without disassembly of the cube. When the orientations of centres are also counted, as above, this increases the total number of possible Cube permutations from 88,580,102,706,155,225,088,000 (8.9×1022) to 2,125,922,464,947,725,402,112,000 (2.1×1024).
+
+In Rubik's cubers' parlance, a memorised sequence of moves that has a desired effect on the cube is called an algorithm. This terminology is derived from the mathematical use of algorithm, meaning a list of well-defined instructions for performing a task from a given initial state, through well-defined successive states, to a desired end-state. Each method of solving the Cube employs its own set of algorithms, together with descriptions of what effect the algorithm has, and when it can be used to bring the cube closer to being solved.
+
+Many algorithms are designed to transform only a small part of the cube without interfering with other parts that have already been solved so that they can be applied repeatedly to different parts of the cube until the whole is solved. For example, there are well-known algorithms for cycling three corners without changing the rest of the puzzle or flipping the orientation of a pair of edges while leaving the others intact.
+
+Some algorithms do have a certain desired effect on the cube (for example, swapping two corners) but may also have the side-effect of changing other parts of the cube (such as permuting some edges). Such algorithms are often simpler than the ones without side-effects and are employed early on in the solution when most of the puzzle has not yet been solved and the side-effects are not important. Most are long and difficult to memorise. Towards the end of the solution, the more specific (and usually more complicated) algorithms are used instead.
+
+Rubik's Cube lends itself to the application of mathematical group theory, which has been helpful for deducing certain algorithms – in particular, those which have a commutator structure, namely XYX−1Y−1 (where X and Y are specific moves or move-sequences and X−1 and Y−1 are their respective inverses), or a conjugate structure, namely XYX−1, often referred to by speedcubers colloquially as a "setup move".[50] In addition, the fact that there are well-defined subgroups within the Rubik's Cube group enables the puzzle to be learned and mastered by moving up through various self-contained "levels of difficulty". For example, one such "level" could involve solving cubes which have been scrambled using only 180-degree turns. These subgroups are the principle underlying the computer cubing methods by Thistlethwaite and Kociemba, which solve the cube by further reducing it to another subgroup.
+
+Many 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube enthusiasts use a notation developed by David Singmaster to denote a sequence of moves, referred to as "Singmaster notation".[51] Its relative nature allows algorithms to be written in such a way that they can be applied regardless of which side is designated the top or how the colours are organised on a particular cube.
+
+When a prime symbol ( ′ ) follows a letter, it denotes an anticlockwise face turn; while a letter without a prime symbol denotes a clockwise turn. These directions are as one is looking at the specified face.  A letter followed by a 2 (occasionally a superscript 2) denotes two turns, or a 180-degree turn. R is right side clockwise, but R′ is right side anticlockwise. The letters x, y, and z are used to indicate that the entire Cube should be turned about one of its axes, corresponding to R, U, and F turns respectively. When x, y, or z are primed, it is an indication that the cube must be rotated in the opposite direction. When they are squared, the cube must be rotated 180 degrees.
+
+The most common deviation from Singmaster notation, and in fact the current official standard, is to use "w", for "wide", instead of lowercase letters to represent moves of two layers; thus, a move of Rw is equivalent to one of r.[52]
+
+For methods using middle-layer turns (particularly corners-first methods), there is a generally accepted "MES" extension to the notation where letters M, E, and S denote middle layer turns. It was used e.g. in Marc Waterman's Algorithm.[53]
+
+The 4×4×4 and larger cubes use an extended notation to refer to the additional middle layers. Generally speaking, uppercase letters (F B U D L R) refer to the outermost portions of the cube (called faces). Lowercase letters (f b u d l r) refer to the inner portions of the cube (called slices). An asterisk (L*), a number in front of it (2L), or two layers in parentheses (Ll), means to turn the two layers at the same time (both the inner and the outer left faces) For example: (Rr)' l2 f' means to turn the two rightmost layers anticlockwise, then the left inner layer twice, and then the inner front layer anticlockwise. By extension, for cubes of 6×6×6 and larger, moves of three layers are notated by the number 3, for example, 3L.
+
+An alternative notation, Wolstenholme notation,[54] is designed to make memorising sequences of moves easier for novices.  This notation uses the same letters for faces except it replaces U with T (top), so that all are consonants.  The key difference is the use of the vowels O, A, and I for clockwise, anticlockwise, and twice (180-degree) turns, which results in word-like sequences such as LOTA RATO LATA ROTI (equivalent to LU′R′UL′U′RU2 in Singmaster notation). Addition of a C implies rotation of the entire cube, so ROC is the clockwise rotation of the cube around its right face. Middle layer moves are denoted by adding an M to corresponding face move, so RIM means a 180-degree turn of the middle layer adjacent to the R face.
+
+Another notation appeared in the 1981 book The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube. Singmaster notation was not widely known at the time of publication. The faces were named Top (T), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Front (F), and Posterior (P), with + for clockwise, – for anticlockwise, and 2 for 180-degree turns.
+
+Another notation appeared in the 1982 "The Ideal Solution" book for Rubik's Revenge. Horizontal planes were noted as tables, with table 1 or T1 starting at the top. Vertical front to back planes were noted as books, with book 1 or B1 starting from the left. Vertical left to right planes were noted as windows, with window 1 or W1 starting at the front. Using the front face as a reference view, table moves were left or right, book moves were up or down, and window moves were clockwise or anticlockwise.
+
+Although there are a significant number of possible permutations for Rubik's Cube, a number of solutions have been developed which allow solving the cube in well under 100 moves.
+
+Many general solutions for the Cube have been discovered independently. David Singmaster first published his solution in the book Notes on Rubik's "Magic Cube" in 1981.[50] This solution involves solving the Cube layer by layer, in which one layer (designated the top) is solved first, followed by the middle layer, and then the final and bottom layer. After sufficient practice, solving the Cube layer by layer can be done in under one minute. Other general solutions include "corners first" methods or combinations of several other methods. In 1982, David Singmaster and Alexander Frey hypothesised that the number of moves needed to solve the Cube, given an ideal algorithm, might be in "the low twenties".[55] In 2007, Daniel Kunkle and Gene Cooperman used computer search methods to demonstrate that any 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube configuration can be solved in 26 moves or fewer.[56][57][58]
+In 2008, Tomas Rokicki lowered that number to 22 moves,[59][60][61] and in July 2010, a team of researchers including Rokicki, working with Google, proved the so-called "God's number" to be 20.[62][63] This is optimal, since there exist some starting positions which require a minimum of 20 moves to solve.  More generally, it has been shown that an n×n×n Rubik's Cube can be solved optimally in Θ(n2 / log(n)) moves.[64]
+
+A solution commonly used by speedcubers was developed by Jessica Fridrich. This method is called CFOP standing for "cross, F2L, OLL, PLL".  It is similar to the layer-by-layer method but employs the use of a large number of algorithms, especially for orienting and permuting the last layer. The cross is done first, followed by first layer corners and second layer edges simultaneously, with each corner paired up with a second-layer edge piece, thus completing the first two layers (F2L). This is then followed by orienting the last layer, then permuting the last layer (OLL and PLL respectively). Fridrich's solution requires learning roughly 120 algorithms but allows the Cube to be solved in only 55 moves on average.
+
+A now well-known method was developed by Lars Petrus. In this method, a 2×2×2 section is solved first, followed by a 2×2×3, and then the incorrect edges are solved using a three-move algorithm, which eliminates the need for a possible 32-move algorithm later. The principle behind this is that in layer-by-layer, one must constantly break and fix the completed layer(s); the 2×2×2 and 2×2×3 sections allow three or two layers (respectively) to be turned without ruining progress. One of the advantages of this method is that it tends to give solutions in fewer moves. For this reason, the method is also popular for fewest move competitions.[65]
+
+The Roux Method, developed by Gilles Roux, is similar to the Petrus method in that it relies on block building rather than layers, but derives from corners-first methods. In Roux, a 3×2×1 block is solved, followed by another 3×2×1 on the opposite side. Next, the corners of the top layer are solved. The cube can then be solved using only moves of the U layer and M slice.[66]
+
+Most beginner solution methods involve solving the cube one layer at a time, using algorithms that preserve what has already been solved. The easiest layer by layer methods require only 3–8 algorithms.[67][68]
+
+In 1981, thirteen-year-old Patrick Bossert developed a solution for solving the cube, along with a graphical notation, designed to be easily understood by novices.[69] It was subsequently published as You Can Do The Cube and became a best-seller.[70]
+
+In 1997, Denny Dedmore published a solution described using diagrammatic icons representing the moves to be made, instead of the usual notation.[71]
+
+Philip Marshall's The Ultimate Solution to Rubik's Cube takes a different approach, averaging only 65 twists yet requiring the memorisation of only two algorithms. The cross is solved first, followed by the remaining edges, then five corners, and finally the last three corners.[72]
+
+The most move optimal online Rubik's Cube solver programs use Herbert Kociemba's Two-Phase Algorithm which can typically determine a solution of 20 moves or fewer. The user has to set the colour configuration of the scrambled cube, and the program returns the steps required to solve it.[73]
+
+Speedcubing (or speedsolving) is the practice of trying to solve a Rubik's Cube in the shortest time possible. There are a number of speedcubing competitions that take place around the world.
+
+A speedcubing championship organised by the Guinness Book of World Records was held in Munich on 13 March 1981.[74] The contest used standardised scrambling and fixed inspection times, and the winners were Ronald Brinkmann and Jury Fröschl with times of 38.0 seconds.[74] The first world championship was the 1982 World Rubik's Cube Championship held in Budapest on 5 June 1982, which was won by Minh Thai, a Vietnamese student from Los Angeles, with a time of 22.95 seconds.[75]
+
+Since 2003, the winner of a competition is determined by taking the average time of the middle three of five attempts. However, the single best time of all tries is also recorded.
+The World Cube Association maintains a history of world records.[76]
+In 2004, the WCA made it mandatory to use a special timing device called a Stackmat timer.
+
+In addition to the main 3x3x3 event, the WCA also holds events where the cube is solved in different ways:[77]
+
+In Blindfolded Solving, the contestant first studies the scrambled cube (i.e., looking at it normally with no blindfold), and is then blindfolded before beginning to turn the cube's faces. Their recorded time for this event includes both the time spent memorizing the cube and the time spent manipulating it.
+
+In Multiple Blindfolded, all of the cubes are memorised, and then all of the cubes are solved once blindfolded; thus, the main challenge is memorising many – often ten or more – separate cubes. The event is scored not by time but by the number of points achieved after the one hour time limit has elapsed. The number of points achieved is equal to the number of cubes solved correctly, minus the number of cubes unsolved after the end of the attempt, where a greater number of points is better. If multiple competitors achieve the same number of points, rankings are assessed based on the total time of the attempt, with a shorter time being better.
+
+In Fewest Moves solving, the contestant is given one hour to find a solution and must write it down.
+
+There are different variations of Rubik's Cubes with up to thirty-three layers: the 2×2×2 (Pocket/Mini Cube), the standard 3×3×3 cube, the 4×4×4 (Rubik's Revenge/Master Cube), and the 5×5×5 (Professor's Cube) being the most well known. As of 1981, the official Rubik's Brand has licensed twisty puzzle cubes only up to the 5×5×5. The 17×17×17 "Over The Top" cube (available late 2011) was until December 2017 the largest (and most expensive, costing more than two thousand dollars) commercially sold cube. A mass-produced 17×17×17 was later introduced by the Chinese manufacturer YuXin. A working design for a 22×22×22 cube exists and was demonstrated in January 2016,[98] and a 33×33×33 in December 2017.[99] Chinese manufacturer ShengShou has been producing cubes in all sizes from 2×2×2 to 15×15×15 (as of May 2020), and have also come out with a 17×17×17[100].
+
+Non-licensed physical cubes as large as 17×17×17 based on the V-Cube patents[citation needed] are commercially available to the mass-market; these represent about the limit of practicality for the purpose of "speed-solving" competitively (as the cubes become increasingly ungainly and solve-times increase quadratically).
+
+There are many variations[101] of the original cube, some of which are made by Rubik. The mechanical products include Rubik's Magic, 360, and Twist. Also, electronics like Rubik's Revolution and Slide, were also inspired by the original.  One of the newest 3×3×3 Cube variants is Rubik's TouchCube. Sliding a finger across its faces causes its patterns of coloured lights to rotate the same way they would on a mechanical cube. The TouchCube also has buttons for hints and self-solving, and it includes a charging stand. The TouchCube was introduced at the American International Toy Fair in New York on 15 February 2009.[102][103]
+
+The Cube has inspired an entire category of similar puzzles, commonly referred to as twisty puzzles, which includes the cubes of different sizes mentioned above as well as various other geometric shapes. Some such shapes include the tetrahedron (Pyraminx), the octahedron (Skewb Diamond), the dodecahedron (Megaminx), and the icosahedron (Dogic). There are also puzzles that change shape such as Rubik's Snake and the Square One.
+
+In 2011, Guinness World Records awarded the "largest order Rubiks magic cube" to a 17×17×17 cube, made by Oskar van Deventer.[104][105] On 2 December 2017, Grégoire Pfennig announced that he had broken this record, with a 33×33×33 cube, and that his claim had been submitted to Guinness for verification.[99] On 8 April 2018, Grégoire Pfennig announced another world record, the 2x2x50 cube.[106] Whether this is a replacement for the 33x33x33 record, or an additional record, remains to be seen.
+
+Some puzzles have also been created in the shape of the Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra, such as Alexander's Star (a great dodecahedron). Grégoire Pfennig has also created at least one puzzle in the shape of a small stellated dodecahedron.
+
+Puzzles have been built resembling Rubik's Cube, or based on its inner workings. For example, a cuboid is a puzzle based on Rubik's Cube, but with different functional dimensions, such as 2×2×4, 2×3×4, and 3×3×5.[107] Many cuboids are based on 4×4×4 or 5×5×5 mechanisms, via building plastic extensions or by directly modifying the mechanism itself.
+
+Some custom puzzles are not derived from any existing mechanism, such as the Gigaminx v1.5-v2, Bevel Cube, SuperX, Toru, Rua, and 1×2×3. These puzzles usually have a set of masters 3D printed, which then are copied using moulding and casting techniques to create the final puzzle.[citation needed]
+
+Other Rubik's Cube modifications include cubes that have been extended or truncated to form a new shape. An example of this is the Trabjer's Octahedron, which can be built by truncating and extending portions of a regular 3×3×3. Most shape mods can be adapted to higher-order cubes. In the case of Tony Fisher's Rhombic Dodecahedron, there are 3×3×3, 4×4×4, 5×5×5, and 6×6×6 versions of the puzzle.
+
+Puzzles, like Rubik's Cube, can be simulated by computer software, which provides functions such as recording of player metrics, storing scrambled Cube positions, conducting online competitions, analysing of move sequences, and converting between different move notations. Software can also simulate very large puzzles that are impractical to build, such as 100×100×100 and 1,000×1,000×1,000 cubes, as well as virtual puzzles that cannot be physically built, such as 4- and 5-dimensional analogues of the cube.[108][109]
+
+Magic Cube 4D, a 4×4×4×4 virtual puzzle
+
+Magic Cube 5D, a 3×3×3×3×3 virtual puzzle
+
+high-dimensional Octagon Magic Cube Puzzle simulated phone application
+
+4D virtual 2x2x2x2 sequential move puzzle
+
+Google has released the Chrome Cube Lab in association with[110] Ernő Rubik. The site has various interactive objects based on Rubik's Cube.  Customised versions of Rubik's Cube can be created and uploaded.[111]

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+The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle invented in 1974[1][2] by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube,[3] the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. in 1980[4] via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer.[5] Rubik's Cube won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of January 2009[update], 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide,[6][7] making it the world's top-selling puzzle game.[8][9] It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy.[10]
+
+On the original classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces was covered by nine stickers, each of one of six solid colours: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. Some later versions of the cube have been updated to use coloured plastic panels instead, which prevents peeling and fading.[11]  In currently[according to whom?] sold models, white is opposite yellow, blue is opposite green, and orange is opposite red, and the red, white, and blue are arranged in that order in a clockwise arrangement.[12] On early cubes, the position of the colours varied from cube to cube.[13] An internal pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to have only one colour. Similar puzzles have now been produced with various numbers of sides, dimensions, and stickers, not all of them by Rubik.
+
+Although Rubik's Cube reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1980s, it is still widely known and used. Many speedcubers continue to practice it and similar puzzles; they also compete for the fastest times in various categories. Since 2003, the World Cube Association, the international governing body of Rubik's Cube, has organised competitions worldwide and recognises world records.
+
+In March 1970, Larry D. Nichols invented a 2×2×2 "Puzzle with Pieces Rotatable in Groups" and filed a Canadian patent application for it. Nichols's cube was held together by magnets. Nichols was granted U.S. Patent 3,655,201 on 11 April 1972, two years before Rubik invented his Cube.
+
+On 9 April 1970, Frank Fox applied to patent an "amusement device", a type of sliding puzzle on a spherical surface with "at least two 3×3 arrays" intended to be used for the game of noughts and crosses. He received his UK patent (1344259) on 16 January 1974.[14]
+
+In the mid-1970s, Ernő Rubik worked at the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest.[15] Although it is widely reported that the Cube was built as a teaching tool to help his students understand 3D objects, his actual purpose was solving the structural problem of moving the parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart.  He did not realise that he had created a puzzle until the first time he scrambled his new Cube and then tried to restore it.[16] Rubik applied for a patent in Hungary for his "Magic Cube" (Bűvös kocka in Hungarian) on 30 January 1975,[3] and HU170062 was granted later that year.
+
+The first test batches of the Magic Cube were produced in late 1977 and released in Budapest toy shops. Magic Cube was held together with interlocking plastic pieces that prevented the puzzle being easily pulled apart, unlike the magnets in Nichols's design. With Ernő Rubik's permission, businessman Tibor Laczi took a Cube to Germany's Nuremberg Toy Fair in February 1979 in an attempt to popularise it.[17] It was noticed by Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer, and they signed a deal with Ideal Toys in September 1979 to release the Magic Cube worldwide.[17] Ideal wanted at least a recognisable name to trademark; of course, that arrangement put Rubik in the spotlight because the Magic Cube was renamed after its inventor in 1980. The puzzle made its international debut at the toy fairs of London, Paris, Nuremberg, and New York in January and February 1980.[18]
+
+After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it could be manufactured to Western safety and packaging specifications. A lighter Cube was produced, and Ideal decided to rename it. "The Gordian Knot" and "Inca Gold" were considered, but the company finally decided on "Rubik's Cube", and the first batch was exported from Hungary in May 1980.[19]
+
+After the first batches of Rubik's Cubes were released in May 1980, initial sales were modest, but Ideal began a television advertising campaign in the middle of the year which it supplemented with newspaper adverts.[20] At the end of 1980, Rubik's Cube won a German Game of the Year special award[21] and won similar awards for best toy in the UK, France, and the US.[22] By 1981, Rubik's Cube had become a craze, and it is estimated that in the period from 1980 to 1983 around 200 million Rubik's Cubes were sold worldwide.[23] In March 1981, a speedcubing championship organised by the Guinness Book of World Records was held in Munich,[21] and a Rubik's Cube was depicted on the front cover of Scientific American that same month.[24] In June 1981, The Washington Post reported that Rubik's Cube is "a puzzle that's moving like fast food right now ... this year's Hoola Hoop or Bongo Board",[25] and by September 1981, New Scientist noted that the cube had "captivated the attention of children of ages from 7 to 70 all over the world this summer."[26]
+
+As most people could solve only one or two sides, numerous books were published including David Singmaster's Notes on Rubik's "Magic Cube" (1980) and Patrick Bossert's You Can Do the Cube (1981).[21] At one stage in 1981, three of the top ten best selling books in the US were books on solving Rubik's Cube,[27] and the best-selling book of 1981 was James G. Nourse's The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube which sold over 6 million copies.[28] In 1981, the Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited a Rubik's Cube, and at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee a six-foot Cube was put on display.[21] ABC Television even developed a cartoon show called Rubik, the Amazing Cube.[29] In June 1982, the First Rubik's Cube World Championship took place in Budapest and would become the only competition recognized as official until the championship was revived in 2003.[30]
+
+In October 1982, The New York Times reported that sales had fallen and that "the craze has died",[31] and by 1983 it was clear that sales had plummeted.[21] However, in some Communist countries, such as China and USSR, the craze had started later and demand was still high because of a shortage of Cubes.[32][33]
+
+Rubik's Cubes continued to be marketed and sold throughout the 1980s and ’90s,[21] but it was not until the early 2000s that interest in the Cube began increasing again.[34] In the US, sales doubled between 2001 and 2003, and The Boston Globe remarked that it was "becoming cool to own a Cube again".[35] The 2003 World Rubik's Games Championship was the first speedcubing tournament since 1982.[34] It was held in Toronto and was attended by 83 participants.[34] The tournament led to the formation of the World Cube Association in 2004.[34] Annual sales of Rubik branded cubes were said to have reached 15 million worldwide in 2008.[36] Part of the new appeal was ascribed to the advent of Internet video sites, such as YouTube, which allowed fans to share their solving strategies.[36] Following the expiration of Rubik's patent in 2000, other brands of cubes appeared, especially from Chinese companies.[37] Many of these Chinese branded cubes have been engineered for speed and are favoured by speedcubers.[37]
+
+Taking advantage of an initial shortage of Cubes, many imitations and variations appeared, many of which may have violated one or more patents. Today, the patents have expired and many Chinese companies produce copies of—and in nearly all cases, improvements upon—the Rubik and V-Cube designs.[37]
+
+Nichols assigned his patent to his employer Moleculon Research Corp., which sued Ideal in 1982. In 1984, Ideal lost the patent infringement suit and appealed. In 1986, the appeals court affirmed the judgment that Rubik's 2×2×2 Pocket Cube infringed Nichols's patent, but overturned the judgment on Rubik's 3×3×3 Cube.[38]
+
+Even while Rubik's patent application was being processed, Terutoshi Ishigi, a self-taught engineer and ironworks owner near Tokyo, filed for a Japanese patent for a nearly identical mechanism, which was granted in 1976 (Japanese patent publication JP55-008192). Until 1999, when an amended Japanese patent law was enforced, Japan's patent office granted Japanese patents for non-disclosed technology within Japan without requiring worldwide novelty.[39][40] Hence, Ishigi's patent is generally accepted as an independent reinvention at that time.[41][42][43] Rubik applied for more patents in 1980, including another Hungarian patent on 28 October. In the United States, Rubik was granted U.S. Patent 4,378,116 on 29 March 1983, for the Cube.  This patent expired in 2000.
+
+Rubik's Brand Ltd. also holds the registered trademarks for the word "Rubik" and "Rubik's" and for the 2D and 3D visualisations of the puzzle. The trademarks have been upheld by a ruling of the General Court of the European Union on 25 November 2014 in a successful defence against a German toy manufacturer seeking to invalidate them. However, European toy manufacturers are allowed to create differently shaped puzzles that have a similar rotating or twisting functionality of component parts such as for example Skewb, Pyraminx or Impossiball.[44]
+
+On 10 November 2016, Rubik's Cube lost a ten-year battle over a key trademark issue.  The European Union's highest court, the Court of Justice, ruled that the puzzle's shape was not sufficient to grant it trademark protection.[45]
+
+A standard Rubik's Cube measures 5.7 centimetres (2 1⁄4 in) on each side. The puzzle consists of 26 unique miniature cubes, also called "cubies" or "cubelets". Each of these includes a concealed inward extension that interlocks with the other cubes while permitting them to move to different locations. However, the centre cube of each of the six faces is merely a single square façade; all six are affixed to the core mechanism. These provide structure for the other pieces to fit into and rotate around. Hence, there are 21 pieces: a single core piece consisting of three intersecting axes holding the six centre squares in place but letting them rotate, and 20 smaller plastic pieces which fit into it to form the assembled puzzle.
+
+Each of the six centre pieces pivots on a screw (fastener) held by the centre piece, a "3D cross". A spring between each screw head and its corresponding piece tensions the piece inward, so that collectively, the whole assembly remains compact but can still be easily manipulated. The screw can be tightened or loosened to change the "feel" of the Cube. Newer official Rubik's brand cubes have rivets instead of screws and cannot be adjusted.
+
+The Cube can be taken apart without much difficulty, typically by rotating the top layer by 45° and then prying one of its edge cubes away from the other two layers. Consequently, it is a simple process to "solve" a Cube by taking it apart and reassembling it in a solved state.
+
+There are six central pieces which show one coloured face, twelve edge pieces which show two coloured faces, and eight corner pieces which show three coloured faces. Each piece shows a unique colour combination, but not all combinations are present (for example, if red and orange are on opposite sides of the solved Cube, there is no edge piece with both red and orange sides). The location of these cubes relative to one another can be altered by twisting an outer third of the Cube by increments of 90 degrees, but the location of the coloured sides relative to one another in the completed state of the puzzle cannot be altered; it is fixed by the relative positions of the centre squares. However, Cubes with alternative colour arrangements also exist; for example, with the yellow face opposite the green, the blue face opposite the white, and red and orange remaining opposite each other.
+
+Douglas Hofstadter, in the July 1982 issue of Scientific American, pointed out that Cubes could be coloured in such a way as to emphasise the corners or edges, rather than the faces as the standard colouring does; but neither of these alternative colourings has ever become popular.[41]
+
+The puzzle was originally advertised as having "over 3,000,000,000 (three billion) combinations but only one solution".[46]  Depending on how combinations are counted, the actual number can be significantly higher.
+
+The original (3×3×3) Rubik's Cube has eight corners and twelve edges. There are 8! (40,320) ways to arrange the corner cubes. Each corner has three possible orientations, although only seven (of eight) can be oriented independently; the orientation of the eighth (final) corner depends on the preceding seven, giving 37 (2,187) possibilities. There are 12!/2 (239,500,800) ways to arrange the edges, restricted from 12! because edges must be in an even permutation exactly when the corners are. (When arrangements of centres are also permitted, as described below, the rule is that the combined arrangement of corners, edges, and centres must be an even permutation.) Eleven edges can be flipped independently, with the flip of the twelfth depending on the preceding ones, giving 211 (2,048) possibilities.[47]
+
+which is approximately 43 quintillion.[48]  To put this into perspective, if one had one standard-sized Rubik's Cube for each permutation, one could cover the Earth's surface 275 times, or stack them in a tower 261 light-years high.
+
+The preceding figure is limited to permutations that can be reached solely by turning the sides of the cube. If one considers permutations reached through disassembly of the cube, the number becomes twelve times larger:
+
+which is approximately 519 quintillion[48] possible arrangements of the pieces that make up the Cube, but only one in twelve of these are actually solvable. This is because there is no sequence of moves that will swap a single pair of pieces or rotate a single corner or edge cube. Thus, there are 12 possible sets of reachable configurations, sometimes called "universes" or "orbits", into which the Cube can be placed by dismantling and reassembling it.
+
+The preceding numbers assume the center faces are in a fixed position.  If one considers turning the whole cube to be a different permutation, then each of the preceding numbers should be multiplied by 24.  A chosen colour can be on one of six sides, and then one of the adjacent colours can be in one of four positions; this determines the positions of all remaining colours.
+
+The original Rubik's Cube had no orientation markings on the centre faces (although some carried the words "Rubik's Cube" on the centre square of the white face), and therefore solving it does not require any attention to orienting those faces correctly. However, with marker pens, one could, for example, mark the central squares of an unscrambled Cube with four coloured marks on each edge, each corresponding to the colour of the adjacent face; a cube marked in this way is referred to as a "supercube". Some Cubes have also been produced commercially with markings on all of the squares, such as the Lo Shu magic square or playing card suits. Cubes have also been produced where the nine stickers on a face are used to make a single larger picture, and centre orientation matters on these as well. Thus one can nominally solve a Cube yet have the markings on the centres rotated; it then becomes an additional test to solve the centres as well.
+
+Marking Rubik's Cube's centres increases its difficulty, because this expands the set of distinguishable possible configurations. There are 46/2 (2,048) ways to orient the centres since an even permutation of the corners implies an even number of quarter turns of centres as well. In particular, when the Cube is unscrambled apart from the orientations of the central squares, there will always be an even number of centre squares requiring a quarter turn. Thus orientations of centres increases the total number of possible Cube permutations from 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (4.3×1019) to 88,580,102,706,155,225,088,000 (8.9×1022).[49]
+
+When turning a cube over is considered to be a change in permutation then we must also count arrangements of the centre faces. Nominally there are 6! ways to arrange the six centre faces of the cube, but only 24 of these are achievable without disassembly of the cube. When the orientations of centres are also counted, as above, this increases the total number of possible Cube permutations from 88,580,102,706,155,225,088,000 (8.9×1022) to 2,125,922,464,947,725,402,112,000 (2.1×1024).
+
+In Rubik's cubers' parlance, a memorised sequence of moves that has a desired effect on the cube is called an algorithm. This terminology is derived from the mathematical use of algorithm, meaning a list of well-defined instructions for performing a task from a given initial state, through well-defined successive states, to a desired end-state. Each method of solving the Cube employs its own set of algorithms, together with descriptions of what effect the algorithm has, and when it can be used to bring the cube closer to being solved.
+
+Many algorithms are designed to transform only a small part of the cube without interfering with other parts that have already been solved so that they can be applied repeatedly to different parts of the cube until the whole is solved. For example, there are well-known algorithms for cycling three corners without changing the rest of the puzzle or flipping the orientation of a pair of edges while leaving the others intact.
+
+Some algorithms do have a certain desired effect on the cube (for example, swapping two corners) but may also have the side-effect of changing other parts of the cube (such as permuting some edges). Such algorithms are often simpler than the ones without side-effects and are employed early on in the solution when most of the puzzle has not yet been solved and the side-effects are not important. Most are long and difficult to memorise. Towards the end of the solution, the more specific (and usually more complicated) algorithms are used instead.
+
+Rubik's Cube lends itself to the application of mathematical group theory, which has been helpful for deducing certain algorithms – in particular, those which have a commutator structure, namely XYX−1Y−1 (where X and Y are specific moves or move-sequences and X−1 and Y−1 are their respective inverses), or a conjugate structure, namely XYX−1, often referred to by speedcubers colloquially as a "setup move".[50] In addition, the fact that there are well-defined subgroups within the Rubik's Cube group enables the puzzle to be learned and mastered by moving up through various self-contained "levels of difficulty". For example, one such "level" could involve solving cubes which have been scrambled using only 180-degree turns. These subgroups are the principle underlying the computer cubing methods by Thistlethwaite and Kociemba, which solve the cube by further reducing it to another subgroup.
+
+Many 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube enthusiasts use a notation developed by David Singmaster to denote a sequence of moves, referred to as "Singmaster notation".[51] Its relative nature allows algorithms to be written in such a way that they can be applied regardless of which side is designated the top or how the colours are organised on a particular cube.
+
+When a prime symbol ( ′ ) follows a letter, it denotes an anticlockwise face turn; while a letter without a prime symbol denotes a clockwise turn. These directions are as one is looking at the specified face.  A letter followed by a 2 (occasionally a superscript 2) denotes two turns, or a 180-degree turn. R is right side clockwise, but R′ is right side anticlockwise. The letters x, y, and z are used to indicate that the entire Cube should be turned about one of its axes, corresponding to R, U, and F turns respectively. When x, y, or z are primed, it is an indication that the cube must be rotated in the opposite direction. When they are squared, the cube must be rotated 180 degrees.
+
+The most common deviation from Singmaster notation, and in fact the current official standard, is to use "w", for "wide", instead of lowercase letters to represent moves of two layers; thus, a move of Rw is equivalent to one of r.[52]
+
+For methods using middle-layer turns (particularly corners-first methods), there is a generally accepted "MES" extension to the notation where letters M, E, and S denote middle layer turns. It was used e.g. in Marc Waterman's Algorithm.[53]
+
+The 4×4×4 and larger cubes use an extended notation to refer to the additional middle layers. Generally speaking, uppercase letters (F B U D L R) refer to the outermost portions of the cube (called faces). Lowercase letters (f b u d l r) refer to the inner portions of the cube (called slices). An asterisk (L*), a number in front of it (2L), or two layers in parentheses (Ll), means to turn the two layers at the same time (both the inner and the outer left faces) For example: (Rr)' l2 f' means to turn the two rightmost layers anticlockwise, then the left inner layer twice, and then the inner front layer anticlockwise. By extension, for cubes of 6×6×6 and larger, moves of three layers are notated by the number 3, for example, 3L.
+
+An alternative notation, Wolstenholme notation,[54] is designed to make memorising sequences of moves easier for novices.  This notation uses the same letters for faces except it replaces U with T (top), so that all are consonants.  The key difference is the use of the vowels O, A, and I for clockwise, anticlockwise, and twice (180-degree) turns, which results in word-like sequences such as LOTA RATO LATA ROTI (equivalent to LU′R′UL′U′RU2 in Singmaster notation). Addition of a C implies rotation of the entire cube, so ROC is the clockwise rotation of the cube around its right face. Middle layer moves are denoted by adding an M to corresponding face move, so RIM means a 180-degree turn of the middle layer adjacent to the R face.
+
+Another notation appeared in the 1981 book The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube. Singmaster notation was not widely known at the time of publication. The faces were named Top (T), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Front (F), and Posterior (P), with + for clockwise, – for anticlockwise, and 2 for 180-degree turns.
+
+Another notation appeared in the 1982 "The Ideal Solution" book for Rubik's Revenge. Horizontal planes were noted as tables, with table 1 or T1 starting at the top. Vertical front to back planes were noted as books, with book 1 or B1 starting from the left. Vertical left to right planes were noted as windows, with window 1 or W1 starting at the front. Using the front face as a reference view, table moves were left or right, book moves were up or down, and window moves were clockwise or anticlockwise.
+
+Although there are a significant number of possible permutations for Rubik's Cube, a number of solutions have been developed which allow solving the cube in well under 100 moves.
+
+Many general solutions for the Cube have been discovered independently. David Singmaster first published his solution in the book Notes on Rubik's "Magic Cube" in 1981.[50] This solution involves solving the Cube layer by layer, in which one layer (designated the top) is solved first, followed by the middle layer, and then the final and bottom layer. After sufficient practice, solving the Cube layer by layer can be done in under one minute. Other general solutions include "corners first" methods or combinations of several other methods. In 1982, David Singmaster and Alexander Frey hypothesised that the number of moves needed to solve the Cube, given an ideal algorithm, might be in "the low twenties".[55] In 2007, Daniel Kunkle and Gene Cooperman used computer search methods to demonstrate that any 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube configuration can be solved in 26 moves or fewer.[56][57][58]
+In 2008, Tomas Rokicki lowered that number to 22 moves,[59][60][61] and in July 2010, a team of researchers including Rokicki, working with Google, proved the so-called "God's number" to be 20.[62][63] This is optimal, since there exist some starting positions which require a minimum of 20 moves to solve.  More generally, it has been shown that an n×n×n Rubik's Cube can be solved optimally in Θ(n2 / log(n)) moves.[64]
+
+A solution commonly used by speedcubers was developed by Jessica Fridrich. This method is called CFOP standing for "cross, F2L, OLL, PLL".  It is similar to the layer-by-layer method but employs the use of a large number of algorithms, especially for orienting and permuting the last layer. The cross is done first, followed by first layer corners and second layer edges simultaneously, with each corner paired up with a second-layer edge piece, thus completing the first two layers (F2L). This is then followed by orienting the last layer, then permuting the last layer (OLL and PLL respectively). Fridrich's solution requires learning roughly 120 algorithms but allows the Cube to be solved in only 55 moves on average.
+
+A now well-known method was developed by Lars Petrus. In this method, a 2×2×2 section is solved first, followed by a 2×2×3, and then the incorrect edges are solved using a three-move algorithm, which eliminates the need for a possible 32-move algorithm later. The principle behind this is that in layer-by-layer, one must constantly break and fix the completed layer(s); the 2×2×2 and 2×2×3 sections allow three or two layers (respectively) to be turned without ruining progress. One of the advantages of this method is that it tends to give solutions in fewer moves. For this reason, the method is also popular for fewest move competitions.[65]
+
+The Roux Method, developed by Gilles Roux, is similar to the Petrus method in that it relies on block building rather than layers, but derives from corners-first methods. In Roux, a 3×2×1 block is solved, followed by another 3×2×1 on the opposite side. Next, the corners of the top layer are solved. The cube can then be solved using only moves of the U layer and M slice.[66]
+
+Most beginner solution methods involve solving the cube one layer at a time, using algorithms that preserve what has already been solved. The easiest layer by layer methods require only 3–8 algorithms.[67][68]
+
+In 1981, thirteen-year-old Patrick Bossert developed a solution for solving the cube, along with a graphical notation, designed to be easily understood by novices.[69] It was subsequently published as You Can Do The Cube and became a best-seller.[70]
+
+In 1997, Denny Dedmore published a solution described using diagrammatic icons representing the moves to be made, instead of the usual notation.[71]
+
+Philip Marshall's The Ultimate Solution to Rubik's Cube takes a different approach, averaging only 65 twists yet requiring the memorisation of only two algorithms. The cross is solved first, followed by the remaining edges, then five corners, and finally the last three corners.[72]
+
+The most move optimal online Rubik's Cube solver programs use Herbert Kociemba's Two-Phase Algorithm which can typically determine a solution of 20 moves or fewer. The user has to set the colour configuration of the scrambled cube, and the program returns the steps required to solve it.[73]
+
+Speedcubing (or speedsolving) is the practice of trying to solve a Rubik's Cube in the shortest time possible. There are a number of speedcubing competitions that take place around the world.
+
+A speedcubing championship organised by the Guinness Book of World Records was held in Munich on 13 March 1981.[74] The contest used standardised scrambling and fixed inspection times, and the winners were Ronald Brinkmann and Jury Fröschl with times of 38.0 seconds.[74] The first world championship was the 1982 World Rubik's Cube Championship held in Budapest on 5 June 1982, which was won by Minh Thai, a Vietnamese student from Los Angeles, with a time of 22.95 seconds.[75]
+
+Since 2003, the winner of a competition is determined by taking the average time of the middle three of five attempts. However, the single best time of all tries is also recorded.
+The World Cube Association maintains a history of world records.[76]
+In 2004, the WCA made it mandatory to use a special timing device called a Stackmat timer.
+
+In addition to the main 3x3x3 event, the WCA also holds events where the cube is solved in different ways:[77]
+
+In Blindfolded Solving, the contestant first studies the scrambled cube (i.e., looking at it normally with no blindfold), and is then blindfolded before beginning to turn the cube's faces. Their recorded time for this event includes both the time spent memorizing the cube and the time spent manipulating it.
+
+In Multiple Blindfolded, all of the cubes are memorised, and then all of the cubes are solved once blindfolded; thus, the main challenge is memorising many – often ten or more – separate cubes. The event is scored not by time but by the number of points achieved after the one hour time limit has elapsed. The number of points achieved is equal to the number of cubes solved correctly, minus the number of cubes unsolved after the end of the attempt, where a greater number of points is better. If multiple competitors achieve the same number of points, rankings are assessed based on the total time of the attempt, with a shorter time being better.
+
+In Fewest Moves solving, the contestant is given one hour to find a solution and must write it down.
+
+There are different variations of Rubik's Cubes with up to thirty-three layers: the 2×2×2 (Pocket/Mini Cube), the standard 3×3×3 cube, the 4×4×4 (Rubik's Revenge/Master Cube), and the 5×5×5 (Professor's Cube) being the most well known. As of 1981, the official Rubik's Brand has licensed twisty puzzle cubes only up to the 5×5×5. The 17×17×17 "Over The Top" cube (available late 2011) was until December 2017 the largest (and most expensive, costing more than two thousand dollars) commercially sold cube. A mass-produced 17×17×17 was later introduced by the Chinese manufacturer YuXin. A working design for a 22×22×22 cube exists and was demonstrated in January 2016,[98] and a 33×33×33 in December 2017.[99] Chinese manufacturer ShengShou has been producing cubes in all sizes from 2×2×2 to 15×15×15 (as of May 2020), and have also come out with a 17×17×17[100].
+
+Non-licensed physical cubes as large as 17×17×17 based on the V-Cube patents[citation needed] are commercially available to the mass-market; these represent about the limit of practicality for the purpose of "speed-solving" competitively (as the cubes become increasingly ungainly and solve-times increase quadratically).
+
+There are many variations[101] of the original cube, some of which are made by Rubik. The mechanical products include Rubik's Magic, 360, and Twist. Also, electronics like Rubik's Revolution and Slide, were also inspired by the original.  One of the newest 3×3×3 Cube variants is Rubik's TouchCube. Sliding a finger across its faces causes its patterns of coloured lights to rotate the same way they would on a mechanical cube. The TouchCube also has buttons for hints and self-solving, and it includes a charging stand. The TouchCube was introduced at the American International Toy Fair in New York on 15 February 2009.[102][103]
+
+The Cube has inspired an entire category of similar puzzles, commonly referred to as twisty puzzles, which includes the cubes of different sizes mentioned above as well as various other geometric shapes. Some such shapes include the tetrahedron (Pyraminx), the octahedron (Skewb Diamond), the dodecahedron (Megaminx), and the icosahedron (Dogic). There are also puzzles that change shape such as Rubik's Snake and the Square One.
+
+In 2011, Guinness World Records awarded the "largest order Rubiks magic cube" to a 17×17×17 cube, made by Oskar van Deventer.[104][105] On 2 December 2017, Grégoire Pfennig announced that he had broken this record, with a 33×33×33 cube, and that his claim had been submitted to Guinness for verification.[99] On 8 April 2018, Grégoire Pfennig announced another world record, the 2x2x50 cube.[106] Whether this is a replacement for the 33x33x33 record, or an additional record, remains to be seen.
+
+Some puzzles have also been created in the shape of the Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra, such as Alexander's Star (a great dodecahedron). Grégoire Pfennig has also created at least one puzzle in the shape of a small stellated dodecahedron.
+
+Puzzles have been built resembling Rubik's Cube, or based on its inner workings. For example, a cuboid is a puzzle based on Rubik's Cube, but with different functional dimensions, such as 2×2×4, 2×3×4, and 3×3×5.[107] Many cuboids are based on 4×4×4 or 5×5×5 mechanisms, via building plastic extensions or by directly modifying the mechanism itself.
+
+Some custom puzzles are not derived from any existing mechanism, such as the Gigaminx v1.5-v2, Bevel Cube, SuperX, Toru, Rua, and 1×2×3. These puzzles usually have a set of masters 3D printed, which then are copied using moulding and casting techniques to create the final puzzle.[citation needed]
+
+Other Rubik's Cube modifications include cubes that have been extended or truncated to form a new shape. An example of this is the Trabjer's Octahedron, which can be built by truncating and extending portions of a regular 3×3×3. Most shape mods can be adapted to higher-order cubes. In the case of Tony Fisher's Rhombic Dodecahedron, there are 3×3×3, 4×4×4, 5×5×5, and 6×6×6 versions of the puzzle.
+
+Puzzles, like Rubik's Cube, can be simulated by computer software, which provides functions such as recording of player metrics, storing scrambled Cube positions, conducting online competitions, analysing of move sequences, and converting between different move notations. Software can also simulate very large puzzles that are impractical to build, such as 100×100×100 and 1,000×1,000×1,000 cubes, as well as virtual puzzles that cannot be physically built, such as 4- and 5-dimensional analogues of the cube.[108][109]
+
+Magic Cube 4D, a 4×4×4×4 virtual puzzle
+
+Magic Cube 5D, a 3×3×3×3×3 virtual puzzle
+
+high-dimensional Octagon Magic Cube Puzzle simulated phone application
+
+4D virtual 2x2x2x2 sequential move puzzle
+
+Google has released the Chrome Cube Lab in association with[110] Ernő Rubik. The site has various interactive objects based on Rubik's Cube.  Customised versions of Rubik's Cube can be created and uploaded.[111]

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+A ruby is a pink to blood-red coloured gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires. Ruby is one of the traditional cardinal gems, together with amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamond.[3] The word ruby comes from ruber, Latin for red. The color of a ruby is due to the element chromium.
+
+Some gemstones that are popularly or historically called rubies, such as the Black Prince's Ruby in the British Imperial State Crown, are actually spinels. These were once known as "Balas rubies".
+
+The quality of a ruby is determined by its color, cut, and clarity, which, along with carat weight, affect its value. The brightest and most valuable shade of red called blood-red or pigeon blood, commands a large premium over other rubies of similar quality. After color follows clarity: similar to diamonds, a clear stone will command a premium, but a ruby without any needle-like rutile inclusions may indicate that the stone has been treated. Ruby is the traditional birthstone for July and is usually pinker than garnet, although some rhodolite garnets have a similar pinkish hue to most rubies. The world's most valuable ruby to be sold at auction is the Sunrise Ruby.
+
+Rubies have a hardness of 9.0 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Among the natural gems only moissanite and diamond are harder, with diamond having a Mohs hardness of 10.0 and moissanite falling somewhere in between corundum (ruby) and diamond in hardness. Sapphire, ruby, and pure corundum are α-alumina, the most stable form of Al2O3, in which 3 electrons leave each aluminium ion to join the regular octahedral group of six nearby O2− ions; in pure corundum this leaves all of the aluminium ions with a very stable configuration of no unpaired electrons or unfilled energy levels, and the crystal is perfectly colorless.
+
+When a chromium atom replaces an occasional aluminium atom, it too loses 3 electrons to become a chromium3+ ion to maintain the charge balance of the Al2O3 crystal.  However, the Cr3+ ions are larger and have electron orbitals in different directions than aluminium. The octahedral arrangement of the O2− ions is distorted, and the energy levels of the different orbitals of those Cr3+ ions are slightly altered because of the directions to the O2− ions.[5] Those energy differences correspond to absorption in the ultraviolet, violet, and yellow-green regions of the spectrum.
+
+If one percent of the aluminium ions are replaced by chromium in ruby, the yellow-green absorption results in a red color for the gem.[5]  Additionally, absorption at any of the above wavelengths stimulates fluorescent emission of 694-nanometer-wavelength red light, which adds to its red color and perceived luster.
+
+After absorbing short-wavelength light, there is a short interval of time when the crystal lattice of ruby is in an excited state before fluorescence occurs. If 694-nanometer photons pass through the crystal during that time, they can stimulate more fluorescent photons to be emitted in-phase with them, thus strengthening the intensity of that red light. By arranging mirrors or other means to pass  emitted light repeatedly through the crystal, a ruby laser in this way produces a very high intensity of coherent red light.
+
+All natural rubies have imperfections in them, including color impurities and inclusions of rutile needles known as "silk". Gemologists use these needle inclusions found in natural rubies to distinguish them from synthetics, simulants, or substitutes. Usually, the rough stone is heated before cutting. These days, almost all rubies are treated in some form, with heat treatment being the most common practice. Untreated rubies of high quality command a large premium.
+
+Some rubies show a three-point or six-point asterism or "star". These rubies are cut into cabochons to display the effect properly. Asterisms are best visible with a single-light source and move across the stone as the light moves or the stone is rotated. Such effects occur when light is reflected off the "silk" (the structurally oriented rutile needle inclusions) in a certain way. This is one example where inclusions increase the value of a gemstone. Furthermore, rubies can show color changes—though this occurs very rarely—as well as chatoyancy or the "cat's eye" effect.
+
+Generally, gemstone-quality corundum in all shades of red, including pink, are called rubies.[6][7]  However, in the United States, a minimum color saturation must be met to be called a ruby; otherwise, the stone will be called a pink sapphire.[6]  Drawing a distinction between rubies and pink sapphires is relatively new, having arisen sometime in the 20th century. Often, the distinction between ruby and pink sapphire is not clear and can be debated.[8]  As a result of the difficulty and subjectiveness of such distinctions, trade organizations such as the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICGA) have adopted the broader definition for ruby which encompasses its lighter shades, including pink.[9][10]
+
+Historically, rubies have also been mined in Thailand, in the Pailin and Samlout District of Cambodia, as well as in Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India,  Namibia, Japan, and Scotland; after the Second World War ruby deposits were found in Madagascar, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, and Vietnam.[11]
+
+The Republic of North Macedonia is the only country in mainland Europe to have naturally occurring rubies. They can mainly be found around the city of Prilep. Macedonian rubies have a unique raspberry color. The ruby is also included on the Macedonian coat of arms.[12] A few rubies have been found in the U.S. states of Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wyoming.
+
+Spinel, another red gemstone, is sometimes found along with rubies in the same gem gravel or marble. Red spinels may be mistaken for rubies by those lacking experience with gems. However, the finest red spinels can have values approaching that of an average ruby.[13]
+
+The Mogok Valley in Upper Myanmar (Burma) was for centuries the world's main source for rubies. That region has produced some exceptional rubies, however in recent years few good rubies have been found. In central Myanmar, the area of Mong Hsu began producing rubies during the 1990s and rapidly became the world's main ruby mining area. The most recently found ruby deposit in Myanmar is in Namya (Namyazeik) located in the northern state of Kachin.
+
+Rubies are also mined in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Pakistani Kashmir there are vast proven reserves of millions of rubies, worth up to half a billion dollars.[14] However, as of 2017 there was only one mine (at Chitta Katha) due to lack of investment.[15] In Afghanistan, rubies are mined at Jegdalek.[16]
+
+In Sri Lanka, lighter shades of rubies (often "pink sapphires") are more commonly found.
+
+Rubies, as with other gemstones, are graded using criteria known as the four Cs, namely color, cut, clarity and carat weight. Rubies are also evaluated on the basis of their geographic origin.
+
+Color: In the evaluation of colored gemstones, color is the most important factor. Color divides into three components: hue, saturation and tone. Hue refers to color as we normally use the term. Transparent gemstones occur in the pure spectral hues of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet.[17] In nature, there are rarely pure hues, so when speaking of the hue of a gemstone, we speak of primary and secondary and sometimes tertiary hues. Ruby is defined to be red. All other hues of the gem species corundum are called sapphire. Ruby may exhibit a range of secondary hues, including orange, purple, violet, and pink.
+
+A naturally occurring ruby crystal
+
+Natural ruby with inclusions
+
+A cut pink ruby
+
+Purple rubies
+
+Improving the quality of gemstones by treating them is common practice. Some treatments are used in almost all cases and are therefore considered acceptable. During the late 1990s, a large supply of low-cost materials caused a sudden surge in supply of heat-treated rubies, leading to a downward pressure on ruby prices.
+
+Improvements used include color alteration, improving transparency by dissolving rutile inclusions, healing of fractures (cracks) or even completely filling them.
+
+The most common treatment is the application of heat. Most rubies at the lower end of the market are heat treated to improve color, remove purple tinge, blue patches, and silk. These heat treatments typically occur around temperatures of 1800 °C (3300 °F).[18] Some rubies undergo a process of low tube heat, when the stone is heated over charcoal of a temperature of about 1300 °C (2400 °F) for 20 to 30 minutes. The silk is partially broken, and the color is improved.
+
+Another treatment, which has become more frequent in recent years, is lead glass filling. Filling the fractures inside the ruby with lead glass (or a similar material) dramatically improves the transparency of the stone, making previously unsuitable rubies fit for applications in jewelry.[19] The process is done in four steps:
+
+If a color needs to be added, the glass powder can be "enhanced" with copper or other metal oxides as well as elements such as sodium, calcium, potassium etc.
+
+The second heating process can be repeated three to four times, even applying different mixtures.[21] When jewelry containing rubies is heated (for repairs) it should not be coated with boracic acid or any other substance, as this can etch the surface; it does not have to be "protected" like a diamond.
+
+The treatment can be identified by noting bubbles in cavities and fractures using a 10× loupe.[22]
+
+In 1837, Gaudin made the first synthetic rubies by fusing potash alum at a high temperature with a little chromium as a pigment. In 1847, Ebelmen made white sapphire by fusing alumina in boric acid. In 1877, Edmond Frémy and Feil made crystal corundum from which small stones could be cut. In 1887, Fremy and Auguste Verneuil manufactured artificial ruby by fusing BaF2 and Al2O3 with a little chromium at red heat. In 1903, Verneuil announced he could produce synthetic rubies on a commercial scale using this flame fusion process, later also known as the Verneuil process.[23] By 1910, Verneuil's laboratory had expanded into a 30 furnace production facility, with annual gemstone production having reached 1,000 kilograms (2,000 lb) in 1907.
+
+Edmond Frémy would later improve the crystallisation of ruby from a solution to grow larger crystals: first alongside the industrial glass-maker Charles Feil, and latterly alongside his student Auguste Verneuil. By this point Verneuil was already developing the process of flame fusion that would later bear his name. Verneuil published details of his new method in 1902, at which point the industrial production of synthetic ruby could begin. By 1910, Verneuil's laboratory had expanded into a 30 furnace production facility, with annual gemstone production having reached 1,000 kilograms (2,000 lb) in 1907.
+
+Other processes in which synthetic rubies can be produced are through Czochralski's pulling process, flux process, and the hydrothermal process. Most synthetic rubies originate from flame fusion, due to the low costs involved. Synthetic rubies may have no imperfections visible to the naked eye but magnification may reveal curved striae and gas bubbles. The fewer the number and the less obvious the imperfections, the more valuable the ruby is; unless there are no imperfections (i.e., a perfect ruby), in which case it will be suspected of being artificial. Dopants are added to some manufactured rubies so they can be identified as synthetic, but most need gemological testing to determine their origin.
+
+Synthetic rubies have technological uses as well as gemological ones. Rods of synthetic ruby are used to make ruby lasers and masers. The first working laser was made by Theodore H. Maiman in 1960.[24] Maiman used a solid-state light-pumped synthetic ruby to produce red laser light at a wavelength of 694 nanometers (nm). Ruby lasers are still in use. Rubies are also used in applications where high hardness is required such as at wear-exposed locations in modern mechanical clockworks, or as scanning probe tips in a coordinate measuring machine.
+
+Imitation rubies are also marketed. Red spinels, red garnets, and colored glass have been falsely claimed to be rubies. Imitations go back to Roman times and already in the 17th century techniques were developed to color foil red—by burning scarlet wool in the bottom part of the furnace—which was then placed under the imitation stone.[25] Trade terms such as balas ruby for red spinel and rubellite for red tourmaline can mislead unsuspecting buyers. Such terms are therefore discouraged from use by many gemological associations such as the Laboratory Manual Harmonisation Committee (LMHC).
+

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+A beehive is an enclosed, man-made structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus Apis live and raise their young. Though the word beehive is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature distinguishes nest from hive. Nest is used to discuss colonies which house themselves in natural or artificial cavities or are hanging and exposed. Hive is used to describe an artificial, man-made structure to house a honey bee nest. Several species of Apis live in colonies, but for honey production the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) and the eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) are the main species kept in hives.[1][2]
+
+The nest's internal structure is a densely packed group of hexagonal prismatic cells made of beeswax, called a honeycomb. The bees use the cells to store food (honey and pollen) and to house the brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae).
+
+Beehives serve several purposes: production of honey, pollination of nearby crops, housing supply bees for apitherapy treatment, and to try to mitigate the effects of colony collapse disorder. In America, hives are commonly transported so that bees can pollinate crops in other areas.[3] A number of patents have been issued for beehive designs.
+
+Honey bees use caves, rock cavities and hollow trees as natural nesting sites. In warmer climates they may occasionally build exposed hanging nests. Members of other subgenera have exposed aerial combs. The nest is composed of multiple honeycombs, parallel to each other, with a relatively uniform bee space. It usually has a single entrance. Western honey bees prefer nest cavities approximately 45 litres in volume and avoid those smaller than 10 or larger than 100 litres.[4] Western honey bees show several  nest-site preferences: the height above ground is usually between 1 metre (3.3 ft) and 5 metres (16 ft), entrance positions tend to face downward, Equatorial-facing entrances are favored, and nest sites over 300 metres (980 ft) from the parent colony are preferred.[5] Bees usually occupy nests for several years.
+
+The bees often smooth the bark surrounding the nest entrance, and coat the cavity walls with a thin layer of hardened plant resin called propolis. Honeycombs are attached to the walls along the cavity tops and sides, but small passageways are left along the comb edges.[6] The basic nest architecture for all honeybees is similar: honey is stored in the upper part of the comb; beneath it are rows of pollen-storage cells, worker-brood cells, and drone-brood cells, in that order. The peanut-shaped queen cells are normally built at the lower edge of the comb.[4]
+
+Bees were kept in man-made hives in Egypt in antiquity.[7] The walls of the Egyptian sun temple of Nyuserre Ini from the 5th Dynasty, dated earlier than 2422 BC, depict workers blowing smoke into hives as they remove honeycombs.[8] Inscriptions detailing the production of honey are found on the tomb of Pabasa from the 26th Dynasty (c. 650 BC), and describe honey stored in jars, and cylindrical hives.[9]
+
+The archaeologist Amihai Mazar cites 30 intact hives that were discovered in the ruins of the city of Rehov (2,000 residents in 900 BC, Israelites and Canaanites). This is evidence that an advanced honey industry existed in Israel, approximately 4,000 years ago. The beehives, made of straw and unbaked clay, were found in orderly rows, with a total of 150 hives, many broken. Ezra Marcus from the University of Haifa said the discovery provided a glimpse of ancient beekeeping seen in texts and ancient art from the Near East. An altar decorated with fertility figurines was found alongside the hives and may indicate religious practices associated with beekeeping. While beekeeping predates these ruins, this is the oldest apiary yet discovered.[10]
+
+Traditional beehives simply provided an enclosure for the bee colony. Because no internal structures were provided for the bees, the bees created their own honeycomb within the hives.  The comb is often cross-attached and cannot be moved without destroying it. This is sometimes called a fixed-frame hive to differentiate it from the modern movable-frame hives. Harvest generally destroyed the hives, though there were some adaptations using extra top baskets which could be removed when the bees filled them with honey. These were gradually supplanted with box hives of varying dimensions, with or without frames, and finally replaced by newer modern equipment.
+
+Honey from traditional hives was typically extracted by pressing – crushing the wax honeycomb to squeeze out the honey. Due to this harvesting, traditional beehives typically provided more beeswax, but far less honey, than a modern hive.
+
+Four styles of traditional beehives include; mud hives, clay/tile hives, skeps and bee gums.
+
+Mud hives are still used in Egypt and Siberia. These are long cylinders made from a mixture of unbaked mud, straw, and dung.[12]
+
+Clay tiles were the customary homes of  kept bees in the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Long cylinders of baked clay were used in ancient Egypt, the Middle East and to some extent in Greece, Italy and Malta. They sometimes were used singly, but more often stacked in rows to provide some shade, at least for those not on top. Keepers would smoke one end to drive the bees to the other end while they harvested honey.
+
+Skeps, baskets placed open-end-down, have been used to house bees for some 2000 years. Believed to have been first used in Ireland, they were initially made from wicker plastered with mud and dung but after the Middle Ages almost all were made of straw. In northern and western Europe, skeps were made of coils of grass or straw. In its simplest form, there is a single entrance at the bottom of the skep. Again, there is no internal structure provided for the bees and the colony must produce its own honeycomb, which is attached to the inside of the skep. Skeps have two disadvantages; beekeepers cannot inspect the comb for diseases and pests, and honey removal is difficult and often results in the destruction of the entire colony. To get the honey beekeepers either drove the bees out of the skep or, by using a bottom extension called an eke or a top extension called a cap, sought to create comb with only honey in it. Quite often the bees were killed, sometimes using lighted sulfur, to allow the honeycomb to be removed. Skeps could also be squeezed in a vice to extract the honey. As of 1998, most US states prohibited the use of skeps because they cannot be inspected for disease and parasites.[13]
+
+Later skep designs included a smaller woven basket (cap) on top over a small hole in the main skep.  This cap acted as a crude super, allowing some honey to be extracted with less destruction of brood and bees. In England such an extension piece consisting of a ring of about 4 or 5 coils of straw placed below a straw beehive to give extra room for brood rearing was called an eke, imp or nadir. An eke was used to give just a bit of extra room, or to "eke" some more space, a nadir is a larger extension used when a full story was needed beneath.[14]
+
+The term is derived from Old Norse skeppa, "basket".[15] A person who made such woven beehives was called a "skepper", a surname that still exists in western countries. In England the thickness of the coil of straw was controlled using a ring of leather or piece of cow's horn called a "girth" and the coils of straw could be sewn together using strips of briar. Likenesses of skeps can be found in paintings, carvings and old manuscripts. The skep is often used on signs as an indication of industry ("the busy bee").
+
+In the late 18th century, more complex skeps appeared with wooden tops with holes in them over which glass jars were placed. The comb was built in the glass jars, making the designs commercially attractive.  The most popular style of skep in the latter half of the 18th century was called the "troubé-nade"--two skeps of the same design in two, round, narrow wooden posts placed at opposite ends of the main skeps.  On their side, these wooden posts came in two forms (bicuspid or "twisted") like an upside-down bell, though this was less common.  The wooden posts were often wood with painted faces or painted on a black board. These wooden skeps, with one, or sometimes two spouts on each side, were held by a pole from which they could be turned down. They were called "bicuspid" because they looked like the handle of a bicuspid or "twisted" bell.  In contrast, the "troubé-nade" had three spouts like a bicuspid.
+
+In the eastern United States, especially in the southeast, sections of hollow trees were used until the 20th century.  These were called "gums" because they often were from black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) trees.[16]
+
+Sections of the hollow trees were set upright in "bee yards" or apiaries. Sometimes sticks or crossed sticks were placed under a board cover to give an attachment for the honeycomb. As with skeps, harvest of honey from these destroyed the colony. Often the harvester would kill the bees before even opening their nest. This was done by inserting a metal container of burning sulfur into the gum.[17]
+
+Natural tree hollows and artificially hollowed tree trunks were widely used in the past by beekeepers in Central Europe. For example, in Poland such a beehive was called a "barć" and was protected in various ways from unfavorable weather conditions (rain, frost) and predators (woodpeckers, bears, pine marten, forest dormouse). Harvest of honey from these did not destroy the colony, as only a protective piece of wood was removed from the opening and smoke was used to temporarily pacify the bees.[18][17]
+
+Bee gums are still used by beekeepers today, for bee species like Apis mellifera mellifera whose honey output is less than that of the more productive honeybee. Unlike most beehives (which are optimized for Apis mellifera and Apis cerana), the bee gum allows housing of other bee species. The bee gum allows the bees themselves to organize their nest.
+
+Part of the reason why bee gums are still used is that this allows the producers of the honey to distinguish themselves from other honey producers and to ask a higher price for the honey. An example where bee gums are still used is Mont-Lozère, France, although in Europe they are referred to as Log Hives.[19][20][21][22] The length of these log Hives used are shorter than bee gums, they are hollowed out artificially and cut to a specific size.
+
+The earliest recognizably modern designs of beehives arose in the 19th century, though they were perfected from intermediate stages of progress made in the 18th century.
+
+Intermediate stages in hive design were recorded for example by Thomas Wildman in 1768/1770, who described advances over the destructive old skep-based beekeeping so that the bees no longer had to be killed to harvest the honey.[23] Wildman, for example, fixed a parallel array of wooden bars across the top of a straw hive or skep (with a separate straw top to be fixed on later) "so that there are in all seven bars of deal" [in a 10-inch-diameter (250 mm) hive] "to which the bees fix their combs".[24] He also described using such hives in a multi-story configuration, foreshadowing the modern use of supers:  he described adding (at the proper time) successive straw hives below, and eventually removing the ones above when free of brood and filled with honey, so that the bees could be separately preserved at the harvest for a following season.  Wildman also described[25] a further development, using hives with "sliding frames" for the bees to build their comb, foreshadowing more modern uses of movable-comb hives.  Wildman acknowledged the advances in knowledge of bees previously made by Swammerdam, Maraldi, and de Reaumur – he included a lengthy translation of Reaumur's account of the natural history of bees – and he also described the initiatives of others in designing hives for the preservation of bee-life when taking the harvest, citing in particular reports from Brittany dating from the 1750s, due to Comte de la Bourdonnaye.
+
+In 1814 Petro Prokopovych, the founder of commercial beekeeping in Ukraine, invented one of the first beehive frames which allowed an easier honey harvest.[26][27]
+
+The correct distance between combs for easy operations in beehives was described in 1845 by Jan Dzierżon as 1½ inches from the center of one top bar to the center of the next one. In 1848, Dzierżon introduced grooves into the hive's side walls replacing the strips of wood for moving top bars. The grooves were 8 mm × 8 mm (0.31 in × 0.31 in), the spacing later termed bee space. The Langstroth hive was the first successful top-opened hive with movable frames. The Langstroth hive was however a direct descendant of Dzierżon's hive designs.
+
+Hives can be vertical or horizontal. There are three main types of modern hive in common use worldwide:
+
+Most hives have been optimized for Apis mellifera and Apis cerana. Some other hives have been designed and optimized for some meliponines such as  Melipona beecheii. Examples of such hives are the Nogueira-Neto hive and the UTOB hive.[28]
+
+The key innovation of this type of hive was the use of vertically hanging frames on which bees build their comb. The modern Langstroth hive consists of:[29]
+
+Named for their inventor, Rev. Lorenzo Langstroth, Langstroth hives are probably the most commonly used. Langstroth patented his design in the United-States on October 5, 1852[30] originally for comb honey production but it has become the standard style hive for many of the world's beekeepers, both professional and amateurs.
+
+A common feature of Langstroth hives is the use of specific bee spaces between frames and other parts so that bees are not likely to glue together nor fill these spaces with burr comb: comb joining adjacent frames. The sizes of hive bodies (rectangular boxes without tops or bottoms placed one on top of another) and internal frames are relatively well defined for a particular style. Langstroth hive bodies are rectangular in shape and can be made from a variety of materials that can be stacked to expand the usable space for the bees.
+
+Inside the boxes, frames are hung parallel to each other. Langstroth frames are thin rectangular structures made of wood or plastic and typically have a wax or plastic foundation on which the bees draw out the comb. The frames hold the beeswax honeycomb formed by the bees. Eight or ten frames side by side (depending on the size of the box) will fill the hive body and leave the right amount of bee space between each frame and between the end frames and the hive body.
+
+Langstroth frames can be reinforced with wire, making it possible to spin the honey out of the comb in a centrifuge. As a result, the empty frames and comb can be returned to the beehive for re-filling by the bees. Creating honeycomb involves a significant energy investment, conservatively estimated at 6.25 kilograms of honey needed to create 1 kilogram of comb in temperate climates.[31] Reusing comb can thus increase the productivity of a beekeeping enterprise.[32]
+
+This class of hives includes several other styles, which differ mainly in the size and number of frames used. These include:
+
+The Warré hive was invented by the abbot Émile Warré, and is also called "ruche populaire" (fr) or "The People's Hive" (en).  It is a modular and storied design similar to a Langstroth hive. The hive body is made of boxes stacked vertically; however, it uses top bars for comb support instead of full frames similar to a Top-Bar Hive, as a general rule. The popularity of this hive is growing among 'sustainable-practice' beekeepers.[37]
+
+The Warre hive differs from other stacked hive systems in one fundamental aspect: when the bees need more space as the colony expands, the new box is "nadired". i.e. positioned underneath the existing box(es). This serves the purpose of warmth retention within the brood nest of the hive, considered vital to colony health.[37]
+
+The WBC, invented by and named after William Broughton Carr in 1890, is a double-walled hive with an external housing that splays out towards the bottom of each frame covering a standard box shape hive inside. The WBC is in many respects the 'classic' hive as represented in pictures and paintings, but despite the extra level of insulation for the bees offered by its double-walled design, many beekeepers avoid it, owing to the inconvenience of having to remove the external layer before the hive can be examined.
+
+In 1890, Charles Nash Abbott (1830–1894), advisor to Ireland's Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, design of a new Congested Districts Board (CDB) hive in Dublin, Ireland. It was commissioned by the Irish Congested District Board which provide support for rural populations until its absorption in the department of Agriculture.[38]
+
+One of the most famous Slovenian beekeepers was Anton Žnideršič (1874–1947). He developed the AZ hive house and hive box widely used today in Slovenia.
+
+The top-bar or Kenya-hives were developed as a lower-cost alternative to the standard Langstroth hives and equipment. They are becoming very popular in the US due to their alignment with the organic, treatment-free philosophies of many new beekeeping devotees in the United States. They are also popular, owing to their simplicity and low cost, in developing countries. Top-bar hives have movable comb and make use of the concept of bee space.[39]
+
+The top-bar hive is so named because the bees draw their comb from  a top bar suspended across the top of a cavity and not inside a full rectangular frame with sides and a bottom bar. The beekeeper does not provide foundation wax (or provides only a small starter piece of foundation) for the bees to build from. The bees build the comb so it hangs down from the top bar. This is in keeping with the way bees build wax in a natural cavity.[40]
+
+The hive body of a common style of top-bar hive is often shaped as an inverted trapezoid. Unlike the Langstroth design, this style of top-bar hive is expanded horizontally, not vertically. The top-bar design is a single, much longer box, with the bars hanging in parallel. This common style is sometimes referred to as a horizontal Top Bar hive, or hTBH.[40]
+
+Because top bars are used as opposed to frames, the honey is usually extracted by crushing and straining rather than centrifuging. Because the bees have to rebuild their comb after honey is harvested, a top-bar hive yields a beeswax harvest in addition to honey. The bees store most of their honey separately from the areas where they are raising the brood. For this reason, bees are not killed when harvesting from a top-bar hive.[41]
+
+Variations:
+
+The Long Box Hive is a single story hive utilizing fully enclosed frames (per the dimensions of Langstroth hives or deeper by variation) but is worked horizontally in the manner of Kenya/Tanzanian Top-bar hives. This non-stacked style had higher popularity a century ago in the Southeast United States, but faded from use due to lack of portability. With the recent popularity of horizontal Top-bar hives, the Long Box Hive is gaining renewed but limited utilization. Alternative names "New Idea Hive", "Single Story Hive", "Poppleton Hive", or simply "Long Hive".[43]
+
+The beehive is commonly used symbol in various human cultures. In Europe, it was used by the Romans as well as in heraldry. Most heraldic representation of beehives are in the form of a skep. Bees (and beehives) have some symbols often associated with them though it is not a universal:
+
+So much has been written upon the habits and virtues of bees, that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon the subject .... Suffice it to say, that they imply industry, wealth, bounty, and wisdom in the bearer.
+
+In modern times, it is a key symbol in Freemasonry. In masonic lectures it represents industry and co-operation,[45] and as a metaphor cautioning against intellectual laziness, warning that "he that will so demean himself as not to be endeavoring to add to the common stock of knowledge and understanding, may be deemed a drone in the hive of nature, a useless member of society, and unworthy of our protection as Masons."[46]
+
+The beehive appears on the 3rd Degree emblems on the Tracing Board of Royal Cumberland No. 41, Bath and is explained as such:
+
+The Beehive teaches us that as we are born into the world rational and intelligent beings, so ought we also to be industrious ones, and not stand idly by or gaze with listless indifference on even the meanest of our fellow creatures in a state of distress if it is in our power to help them without detriment to ourselves or our connections; the constant practice, – of this virtue is enjoined on all created beings, from the highest seraph in heaven to the meanest reptile that crawls in the dust.
+
+The beehive is also used with similar meaning by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons. From Mormon usage it has become one of the State symbols of Utah (see Deseret).[48]
+
+Beekeepers and companies may remove unwanted honey bee nests from structures to relocate them into an artificial hive. This process is called a "cut out".
+
+Black bears destroy hives in their quest for honey and protein rich larvae.[49] Grizzly bears will also eat beehives and are harder to dissuade from taking several beehives.[50]
+
+Hives erected by humans as a defense for their crops against elephants are sometimes destroyed by elephants. These hives are hung on a single metal wire that encircles the crop field of some farms in African elephant territory. The installation is called a BeeHive Fence and was conceived by Lucy King.[51][52]
+
+Humans have historically destroyed nests and hives of honey-producing bee species in order to obtain honey and beeswax and other bee products.
+
+Humans may also determine that a beehive must be destroyed in the interest of public safety or in the interest of preventing the spread of bee diseases. The U.S. state of Florida destroyed the hives of Africanized honey bees, in 1999.[53] The state of Alaska has issued regulations governing the treatment of diseased beehives via burning followed by burial, fumigation using ethylene oxide or other approved gases, sterilization by treatment with lye, or by scorching.[54] In New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the treatment of hives infected with the disease American foulbrood with antibiotics is prohibited, and beekeepers are required by law to destroy such colonies and hives with fire.[55][56]

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+
+Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (/ˈnjʊəriɛf, njʊˈreɪɛf/ NEWR-ee-ef, nyuurr-AY-ef; Tatar: Рудольф Хәмит улы Нуриев; Russian: Рудо́льф Хаме́тович Нуре́ев, IPA: [rʊˈdolʲf nʊˈrʲejɪf]; 17 March 1938 – 6 January 1993) was a Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is regarded by some as the greatest male ballet dancer of his generation.[1][2][3][4]
+
+Nureyev was born on a Trans-Siberian train near Irkutsk, Siberia, Soviet Union to a Bashkir-Tatar family. He began his early career with the company that in the Soviet era was called the Kirov Ballet (now called by its original name, the Mariinsky Ballet) in Leningrad. He defected from the Soviet Union to the West in 1961, despite KGB efforts to stop him.[5] This was the first defection of a Soviet artist during the Cold War, and it created an international sensation. He went on to dance with The Royal Ballet in London and from 1983 to 1989 served as director of the Paris Opera Ballet. In addition to his technical prowess, Rudolf Nureyev was an accomplished choreographer serving as the chief choreographer of the Paris Opera Ballet. He produced his own interpretations of numerous classical works,[6] including Swan Lake, Giselle, and La Bayadère.[7]
+
+Rudolf Nureyev was born on a Trans-Siberian train near Irkutsk, Siberia, while his mother, Farida, was travelling to Vladivostok, where his father Khamet, a Red Army political commissar, was stationed.[8] He was raised as the only son with three older sisters in a Tatar Muslim family.[9][10][11]
+
+When his mother took Nureyev and his sisters into a performance of the ballet Song of the Cranes, he fell in love with dance.[8] As a child he was encouraged to dance in Bashkir folk performances and his precocity was soon noticed by teachers who encouraged him to train in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). On a tour stop in Moscow with a local ballet company, Nureyev auditioned for the Bolshoi ballet company and was accepted. However, he felt that the Mariinsky Ballet school was the best, so he left the local touring company and bought a ticket to Leningrad.[12]
+
+Owing to the disruption of Soviet cultural life caused by World War II, Nureyev was unable to enroll in a major ballet school until 1955, aged 17, when he was accepted by the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet of Leningrad, the associate school of the Mariinsky Ballet. The ballet master Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin took an interest in him professionally and allowed Nureyev to live with him and his wife.[13]
+
+Upon his graduation in 1958, Nureyev joined the Kirov Ballet (now Mariinsky). He moved immediately beyond the corps level, and was given solo roles as a principal dancer from the outset.[2] Nureyev regularly partnered with Natalia Dudinskaya, the company's senior ballerina and wife of its director, Konstantin Sergeyev. Dudinskaya, who was 26 years his senior, first chose him as her partner[13] in the ballet Laurencia.
+
+Before long Rudolf Nureyev became one of the Soviet Union's best-known dancers. From 1958 to 1961, in his three years with the Kirov, he danced 15 roles, usually opposite his partner, Ninel Kurgapkina, with whom he was very well paired, although she was almost a decade older than he was.[14] Nureyev and Kurgapkina were invited to dance at a gathering at Khrushchev's dacha,[13] and in 1959 they were allowed to travel outside the Soviet Union, dancing in Vienna at the International Youth Festival. Not long after, he was told by the Ministry of Culture that he would not be allowed to go abroad again.[15] In one memorable incident, Nureyev interrupted a performance of Don Quixote for 40 minutes, insisting on dancing in tights and not in the customary trousers. He relented in the end, but his preferred dress code was adopted in later performances.[13]
+
+By the late 1950s, Rudolf Nureyev had become a sensation in the Soviet Union.
+
+Yet, as the Kirov Ballet was preparing to go on a tour to Paris and London, Nureyev's rebellious character and non-conformist attitude made him an unlikely candidate for the trip, which the Soviet government considered crucial to its ambitions to demonstrate its "cultural supremacy" over the West. Furthermore, tensions were growing between Nureyev and the Kirov's artistic director Konstantin Sergeyev, who was also the husband of Nureyev's former dance partner Natalia Dudinskaya.[16] After a representative of the French tour organizers saw Nureyev dance in Leningrad in 1960, the French organizers urged Soviet authorities to let him dance in Paris, and he was allowed to go.[13]
+
+In Paris, his performances electrified audiences and critics. Oliver Merlin in Le Monde wrote,
+
+I will never forget his arrival running across the back of the stage, and his catlike way of holding himself opposite the ramp. He wore a white sash over an ultramarine costume, had large wild eyes and hollow cheeks under a turban topped with a spray of feathers, bulging thighs, immaculate tights. This was already Nijinsky in Firebird.[17]
+
+Nureyev was seen to have broken the rules about mingling with foreigners and allegedly frequented gay bars in Paris, which alarmed the Kirov's management[18] and the KGB agents observing him. The KGB wanted to send him back to the Soviet Union. On 16 June 1961 when the Kirov company gathered at Le Bourget Airport in Paris to fly to London, Sergeyev took Nureyev aside and told him that he must return to Moscow for a special performance in the Kremlin, rather than go on to London with the rest of the company. Nureyev became suspicious and refused. Next he was told that his mother had fallen severely ill and he needed to go home immediately to see her.[19] Nureyev refused again, believing that on return to the USSR he was likely to be imprisoned. With the help of French police and a Parisian socialite friend, Clara Saint, who had been engaged to the son of the French Minister of Culture, Andre Malraux,[20] Nureyev escaped his KGB minders and asked for asylum. Sergeyev and the KGB tried to dissuade him, but he chose to stay in Paris.
+
+Within a week, he was signed by the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas and performing The Sleeping Beauty with Nina Vyroubova. On a tour of Denmark he met Erik Bruhn, soloist at the Royal Danish Ballet[21] who became his lover, his closest friend and his protector until Bruhn's death in 1986.[22]
+
+Soviet authorities made Nureyev's father, mother and dance teacher Pushkin write letters to him, urging him to return, without effect.[13] Although he petitioned the Soviet government for many years to be allowed to visit his mother, he was not allowed to do so until 1987, when his mother was dying and Mikhail Gorbachev consented to the visit. In 1989, he was invited to dance the role of James in La Sylphide with the Mariinsky Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in Leningrad.[23] The visit gave him the opportunity to see many of the teachers and colleagues he had not seen since his defection.[24]
+
+Dame Ninette de Valois offered him a contract to join The Royal Ballet as Principal Dancer. During his time at the company, however, many critics became enraged as Nureyev made substantial changes to the productions of Swan Lake and Giselle.[25] Nureyev stayed with the Royal Ballet until 1970, when he was promoted to Principal Guest Artist, enabling him to concentrate on his increasing schedule of international guest appearances and tours.  He continued to perform regularly with The Royal Ballet until committing his future to the Paris Opera Ballet in the 1980s.
+
+Nureyev's first appearance with Prima Ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn was in a ballet matinée organized by The Royal Ballet: Giselle, 21 February 1962.[26]  The event was held in aid of the Royal Academy of Dance, a classical ballet teaching organisation of which she was president.  He danced Poème Tragique, a solo choreographed by Frederick Ashton, and the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake. They were so well received that Fonteyn and Nureyev proceeded to form a partnership which endured for many years. They premiered Romeo and Juliet for the company in 1965.[27] Fans of the duo would tear up their programs to make confetti that'd be joyously thrown at the dancers. Nureyev and Fonteyn might do upwards of 20 curtain calls.[26][28] On 11 July 1967, Fonteyn and Nureyev, after performing in San Francisco, were arrested on nearby roofs having fled during a police raid on a home in the Haight-Ashbury district. They were bailed out and charges of disturbing the peace and visiting a place where marijuana was used were dropped later that day for lack of sufficient evidence.[29]
+
+Among many appearances in North America, Nureyev developed a long-lasting connection with the National Ballet of Canada, appearing as a guest artist on many occasions. In 1972, he staged a spectacular new production of Sleeping Beauty for the company, with his own additional choreography augmenting that of Petipa. The production toured widely in the US and Canada after its initial run in Toronto, one performance of which was televised live and subsequently issued in video. Among the National Ballet's ballerinas, Nureyev most frequently partnered Veronica Tennant and Karen Kain.
+
+In 1982, Nureyev became a naturalized citizen of Austria.[30] In 1983, he was appointed director of the Paris Opera Ballet, where, as well as directing, he continued to dance and to promote younger dancers. He remained there as a dancer and chief choreographer until 1989. Among the dancers he mentored were Sylvie Guillem, Isabelle Guérin, Manuel Legris, Elisabeth Maurin, Élisabeth Platel, Charles Jude, and Monique Loudières.
+
+His artistic directorship of the Paris Opera Ballet was a great success, lifting the company out of a dark period. His Sleeping Beauty remains in the repertoire and was revived and filmed with his protégé Manuel Legris in the lead.
+
+Despite advancing illness towards the end of his tenure, he worked tirelessly, staging new versions of old standbys and commissioning some of the most ground-breaking choreographic works of his time. His own Romeo and Juliet was a popular success. When he was sick towards the end of his life, he worked on a final production of La Bayadère which closely follows the Mariinsky Ballet version he danced as a young man.
+
+When AIDS appeared in France's news around 1982, Nureyev took little notice. The dancer tested positive for HIV in 1984, but for several years he simply denied that anything was wrong with his health. However, by the late 1980s his diminished capabilities disappointed his admirers who had fond memories of his outstanding prowess and skill.[31] Nureyev began a marked decline only in the summer of 1991 and entered the final phase of the disease in the spring of 1992.[32]
+
+In March 1992, living with advanced AIDS, he visited Kazan and appeared as a conductor in front of the audience at Musa Cälil Tatar Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, which now presents the Rudolf Nureyev Festival in Tatarstan.[33][34] Returning to Paris, with a high fever, he was admitted to the hospital Notre Dame du Perpétuel Secours in Levallois-Perret, a suburb northwest of Paris, and was operated on for pericarditis, an inflammation of the membranous sac around the heart. At that time, what inspired him to fight his illness was the hope that he could fulfill an invitation to conduct Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet at an American Ballet Theatre benefit on 6 May 1992 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. He did so and was elated at the reception.[32]
+
+In July 1992, Nureyev showed renewed signs of pericarditis but determined to forswear further treatment. His last public appearance was on 8 October 1992, at the premiere at Palais Garnier of a new production of La Bayadère that he choreographed after Marius Petipa for the Paris Opera Ballet. Nureyev had managed to obtain a photocopy of the original score by Minkus when in Russia in 1989.[35]  The ballet was a personal triumph although the gravity of his condition was evident. The French Culture Minister, Jack Lang, presented him that evening on stage with France's highest cultural award, the Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.[32]
+
+Nureyev re-entered the hospital Notre Dame du Perpétuel Secours in Levallois-Perret on 20 November 1992 and remained there until his death from AIDS complications at age 54 on 6 January 1993. His funeral was held in the marble foyer of the Paris Garnier Opera House. Many paid tributes to his brilliance as a dancer. One such tribute came from Oleg Vinogradov of the Mariinsky Ballet, stating: "What Nureyev did in the west, he could never have done here."[36]
+
+Nureyev's grave, at a Russian cemetery in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois near Paris, features a tomb draped in a mosaic of an Oriental carpet. Nureyev was an avid collector of beautiful carpets and antique textiles.[32][33][37] As his coffin was lowered into the ground, music from the last act of Giselle was played and his ballet shoes were cast into the grave along with white lilies.[38]
+
+After so many years of having been denied a place in the Mariinsky Ballet's history, Nureyev's reputation was restored.[36] His name was re-entered in the history of the Mariinsky, and some of his personal effects were placed on display at the theatre museum in what was now St. Petersburg.[36] A rehearsal room was named in his honor at the famed Vaganova Academy.[36] As of October 2013, the Centre National du Costume de Scene has a permanent collection of Nureyev's costumes "that offers visitors a sense of his exuberant, vagabond personality and passion for all that was rare and beautiful."[39] In 2015, he was inducted into the Legacy Walk.[40]
+
+Since his death in 1993, the Paris Opera has instituted a tradition of presenting an evening of dance homage to Rudolf Nureyev every ten years. Because he was born in March, these performances have been given on 20 March 2003 and 6 March 2013.[41] Peers of Rudolf Nureyev who speak about and remember him, like Mikhail Baryshnikov, are often deeply touched.[42][43]
+
+A selected list of ballet performances, ballet productions and original ballets.[44]
+
+Yvette Chauviré of the Paris Opera Ballet often danced with Nureyev; he described her as a "legend".[45] (Chauviré attended his funeral with French dancer and actress Leslie Caron.)[46]
+
+At the Royal Ballet, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn  became long-standing dance partners. Nureyev once said of Fonteyn, who was 19 years older than he, that they danced with "one body, one soul". Together Nureyev and Fonteyn premiered Sir Frederick Ashton's ballet Marguerite and Armand, a ballet danced to Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor, which became their signature piece. Kenneth MacMillan was forced to allow them to premiere his Romeo and Juliet, which was intended for two other dancers, Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable.[47] Films exist of their partnership in Les Sylphides, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, and other roles. They continued to dance together for many years after Nureyev's departure from the Royal Ballet. Their last performance together was in Baroque Pas de Trois on 16 September 1988 when Fonteyn was 69, Nureyev was aged 50, with Carla Fracci, aged 52, also starring.
+
+He celebrated another long-time partnership with Eva Evdokimova. They first appeared together in La Sylphide (1971) and in 1975 he selected her as his Sleeping Beauty in his staging for London Festival Ballet. Evdokimova remained his partner of choice for many guest appearances and tours across the globe with "Nureyev and Friends" for more than fifteen years.
+
+During his American stage debut in 1962,  Nureyev also partnered with Sonia Arova at New York City's Brooklyn Academy of Music. In collaboration with Ruth Page's Chicago Opera Ballet, they performed the grand pas de deux from Don Quixote.[48][49][50][51]
+
+Nureyev was above all a stickler for classical technique, and his mastery of it made him a model for an entire generation of dancers. If the standard of male dancing rose so visibly in the West after the 1960s, it was largely because of Nureyev's inspiration.[2]
+
+Nureyev's influence on the world of ballet changed the perception of male dancers; in his own productions of the classics the male roles received much more choreography.[52] Another important influence was his crossing the borders between classical ballet and modern dance by performing both.[53] Today it is normal for dancers to receive training in both styles, but Nureyev was the originator and excelled in modern and classical dance. He went out of his way to work with modern dance great, Martha Graham, and she created a work specially for him.[54] While Gene Kelly had done much to combine modern and classical styles in film, he came from a more Modern Dance influenced "popular dance" environment, while Nureyev made great strides in gaining acceptance of Modern Dance in the "Classical Ballet" sphere.[54]
+
+Rudolf Nureyev's charisma, commitment and generosity were such that he did not just pass on his knowledge.[55] He personified the school of life for a dancer. Several dancers, who were principals with the Paris Opera Ballet under his direction, went on to become ballet directors themselves inspired to continue Nureyev's work and ideas. Manuel Legris is director of the Vienna State Ballet, Laurent Hilaire is ballet director of the Stanislavski Theatre of Moscow and Charles Jude ballet director of the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux.[55]
+
+Mikhail Baryshnikov, the other great dancer who like Nureyev defected to the West, holds Nureyev in high regard. Baryshnikov said in an interview that Rudolf Nureyev was an unusual man in all respects, instinctive, intelligence, constant curiosity, and extraordinary discipline, that was his goal of life and of course love in performing.[42][56]
+
+Nureyev had a late start to ballet and had to perfect his technique in order to be a success. John Tooley wrote that Nureyev grew up very poor and had to make up for three to five years in ballet education at a high-level ballet school, giving him a decisive impetus to acquire the maximum of technical skills[57] and to become the best dancer working on perfection during his whole career.[58] The challenge for all dancers whom Nureyev worked with was to follow suit and to share his total commitment for dance. Advocates to describe the Nureyev phenomenon precisely are John Tooley, former general director of the Royal Opera House, London, Pierre Bergé, former president of Opéra Bastille, venue of the Paris Opera Ballet (in addition to the Palais Garnier) and Manuel Legris, principal dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet nominated by Rudolf Nureyev in New York.
+
+Nureyev put it like this: "I approach dancing from a different angle than those who begin dancing at 8 or 9. Those who have studied from the beginning never question anything."[59] Nureyev entered the Vaganova Ballet Academy at the age of just 17 staying there for only 3 years compared to dancers who usually become principal dancers after entering the Vaganova school at 9 and go through the full 9 years of dance education. Vladimir Vasiliev, a peer of Nureyev at the Bolshoi and regarded along with Rudolf and Mikhail Baryshnikov as one of the top three ballet dancers, became a pupil of the Vaganova Ballet Academy in 1949, graduating in 1958 together with Nureyev. Like Nureyev, Baryshnikov spent only three years[60] at the Vaganova school of Leningrad.
+
+Paradoxically, both Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov became masters of perfection in dance.[57][1][61] Dance and life was one and the same, Pierre Bergé said about Rudolf Nureyev: "He was a dancer like any other dancer. It is extraordinary to have 19 points out of 20. It is extremely rare to have 20 out of 20. However, to have 21 out of 20 is even much rarer. And this was the situation with Nureyev."[62][63] Legris said: "Rudolf Nureyev was a high-speed train (he was a TGV)."[64][65] Working with Rudolf Nureyev involved having to surpass oneself and "stepping on it."[66]
+
+Rudolf Nureyev did not have much patience with rules, limitations and hierarchical order and had at times a volatile temper.[67] He was apt to throw tantrums in public when frustrated.[68] His impatience mainly showed itself when the failings of others interfered with his work.
+
+He socialized with Gore Vidal, Freddie Mercury, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Mick Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol, Lee Radziwill and Talitha Pol, and occasionally visited the New York discotheque Studio 54 in the late 1970s, but developed an intolerance for celebrities.[69]
+He kept up old friendships in and out of the ballet world for decades, and was considered to be a loyal and generous friend.[70]
+
+Most ballerinas with whom Rudolf Nureyev danced, including Antoinette Sibley, Gelsey Kirkland and Annette Page, paid tribute to him as a considerate partner. He was known as extremely generous to many ballerinas, who credit him with helping them during difficult times. In particular, the Canadian ballerina Lynn Seymour – distressed when she was denied the opportunity to premiere MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet – says that Nureyev often found projects for her even when she was suffering from weight problems and depression and thus had trouble finding roles.[71]
+
+Depending on the source, Nureyev is described as either bisexual,[72][73] as he did have heterosexual relationships as a younger man, or homosexual.[74][75][76] He had a turbulent relationship life, with numerous bathhouse visits and anonymous pickups.[68] Nureyev met Erik Bruhn, the celebrated Danish dancer, after Nureyev defected to the West in 1961. Nureyev was a great admirer of Bruhn, having seen filmed performances of the Dane on tour in the Soviet Union with the American Ballet Theatre, although stylistically the two dancers were very different. Bruhn and Nureyev became a couple[74][77] and the two remained together off and on, with a very volatile relationship for 25 years, until Bruhn's death in 1986.[78]
+
+In 1973, Nureyev met the 23-year-old American dancer and classical arts student Robert Tracy[76] and a two-and-a-half-year love affair began. Tracy later became Nureyev's secretary and live-in companion for over 14 years in a long-term open relationship until death. According to Tracy, Nureyev said that he had a relationship with three women in his life, he had always wanted a son, and once had plans to father one with Nastassja Kinski.[52]
+
+Nureyev learned that he had contracted HIV in 1984. He lived with the disease in secret, occasionally performing but with a marked decline in appearances. He was admitted to the Hôpital Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours in Levallois, a suburb northwest of Paris, for pericarditis, an inflammation of the membranous sac around the heart. He eventually succumbed to the AIDS-related complication on 6 January 1993.[79]
+
+In 1962, Nureyev made his screen debut in a film version of Les Sylphides. He decided against an acting career in order to branch into modern dance with the Dutch National Ballet[80] in 1968. Nureyev also made his debut in 1962 on network television in America partnered with Maria Tallchief dancing the pas de deux from August Bournonville's Flower Festival in Genzano on the Bell Telephone Hour.[48][81][82]
+
+In 1972, Sir Robert Helpmann invited him to tour Australia with Nureyev's production of Don Quixote.[83] Also that year, Nureyev had a dance number in David Winters' Television special The Special London Bridge Special, starring Tom Jones, and Jennifer O'Neill. The star-studded also included sketches and cameos by The Carpenters, Kirk Douglas, Jonathan Winters, Hermione Gingold, Lorne Greene, Chief Dan George, Charlton Heston, George Kirby, Michael Landon, Terry-Thomas, Engelbert Humperdinck, Elliott Gould, and Merle Park.[84][85][86]
+
+In 1973, a film version of Don Quixote was directed by Nureyev and Helpmann and features Nureyev as Basilio, Lucette Aldous as Kitri, Helpmann as Don Quixote and artists of the Australian Ballet.
+
+In 1977, Nureyev played Rudolph Valentino in Ken Russell's film Valentino.
+
+In 1978 he appeared as a guest star on the television series The Muppet Show[87] where he danced in a parody called "Swine Lake", sang "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in a sauna duet with Miss Piggy, and sang and tap-danced in the show's finale, "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails". His appearance is credited with making Jim Henson's series become one of the sought after programs to appear in.[88]
+
+In 1983 he had a non-dancing role in the movie Exposed with Nastassja Kinski.
+
+In 1989, he toured the United States and Canada for 24 weeks with a revival of the Broadway musical The King and I.

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+A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable surface such as tarmac, concrete, cobblestone or brick. Portions may also be smoothed with asphalt, embedded with rails, or otherwise prepared to accommodate non-pedestrian traffic.
+
+Originally, the word street simply meant a paved road (Latin: via strata). The word street is still sometimes used informally as a synonym for road, for example in connection with the ancient Watling Street, but city residents and urban planners draw a crucial modern distinction: a road's main function is transportation, while streets facilitate public interaction.[1] Examples of streets include pedestrian streets, alleys, and city-centre streets too crowded for road vehicles to pass. Conversely, highways and motorways are types of roads, but few would refer to them as streets.[2][3]
+
+The word street has its origins in the Latin strata (meaning "paved road" - abbreviation from via strata[4]); it is thus related to stratum and stratification. The first recorded use of word stratæ referring to the road has been made by the Eutropius.[5] Ancient Greek stratos means army: Greeks originally built roads to move their armies. Old English applied the word to Roman roads in Britain such as Ermine Street, Watling Street, etc. Later it acquired a dialectical meaning of "straggling village", which were often laid out on the verges of Roman roads and these settlements often became named Stretton. In the Middle Ages, a road was a way people travelled, with street applied specifically to paved ways.[6]
+
+The street is a public easement, one of the few shared between all sorts of people. As a component of the built environment as ancient as human habitation, the street sustains a range of activities vital to civilization. Its roles are as numerous and diverse as its ever-changing cast of characters.
+
+Streets can be loosely categorized as main streets and side streets. Main streets are usually broad with a relatively high level of activity. Commerce and public interaction are more visible on main streets, and vehicles may use them for longer-distance travel. Side streets are quieter, often residential in use and character, and may be used for vehicular parking.
+
+Circulation, or less broadly, transportation, is perhaps a street's most visible use, and certainly among the most important. The unrestricted movement of people and goods within a city is essential to its commerce and vitality, and streets provide the physical space for this activity.
+
+In the interest of order and efficiency, an effort may be made to segregate different types of traffic. This is usually done by carving a road through the middle for motorists, reserving pavements on either side for pedestrians; other arrangements allow for streetcars, trolleys, and even wastewater and rainfall runoff ditches (common in Japan and India). In the mid-20th century, as the automobile threatened to overwhelm city streets with pollution and ghastly accidents, many urban theorists came to see this segregation as not only helpful but necessary in order to maintain mobility.
+
+Le Corbusier, for one, perceived an ever-stricter segregation of traffic as an essential affirmation of social order—a desirable, and ultimately inevitable, expression of modernity. To this end, proposals were advanced to build "vertical streets" where road vehicles, pedestrians, and trains would each occupy their own levels. Such an arrangement, it was said, would allow for even denser development in the future.
+
+These plans were never implemented comprehensively, a fact which today's urban theorists regard as fortunate for vitality and diversity. Rather, vertical segregation is applied on a piecemeal basis, as in sewers, utility poles, depressed highways, elevated railways, common utility ducts, the extensive complex of underground malls surrounding Tokyo Station and the Ōtemachi subway station, the elevated pedestrian skyway networks of Minneapolis and Calgary, the underground cities of Atlanta and Montreal, and the multilevel streets in Chicago.
+
+Transportation is often misunderstood to be the defining characteristic, or even the sole purpose, of a street. This has not been the case since the word "street" came to be limited to urban situations, and even in the automobile age, is still demonstrably false. A street may be temporarily blocked to all through traffic in order to secure the space for other uses, such as a street fair, a flea market, children at play, filming a movie, or construction work.  Many streets are bracketed by bollards or Jersey barriers so as to keep out vehicles. These measures are often taken in a city's busiest areas, the "destination" districts, when the volume of activity outgrows the capacity of private passenger vehicles to support it. A feature universal to all streets is a human-scale design that gives its users the space and security to feel engaged in their surroundings, whatever through traffic may pass.
+
+Despite this, the operator of a motor vehicle may (incompletely) regard a street as merely a thoroughfare for vehicular travel or parking. As far as concerns the driver, a street can be one-way or two-way: vehicles on one-way streets may travel in only one direction, while those on two-way streets may travel both ways. One way streets typically have signs reading "ONE WAY" and an arrow showing the direction of allowed travel. Most two-way streets are wide enough for at least two lanes of traffic.
+
+Which lane is for which direction of traffic depends on what country the street is located in. On broader two-way streets, there is often a centre line marked down the middle of the street separating those lanes on which vehicular traffic goes in one direction from other lanes in which traffic goes in the opposite direction. Occasionally, there may be a median strip separating lanes of opposing traffic. If there is more than one lane going in one direction on a main street, these lanes may be separated by intermittent lane lines, marked on the street pavement. Side streets often do not have centre lines or lane lines.
+
+Many streets, especially side streets in residential areas, have an extra lane's width on one or both sides for parallel parking.  Most minor side streets allowing free parallel parking do not have pavement markings designating the parking lane. Main streets more often have parking lanes marked.  Some streets are too busy or narrow for parking on the side.  Sometimes parking on the sides of streets is allowed only at certain times.  Curbside signs often state regulations about parking. Some streets, particularly in business areas, may have parking meters into which coins must be paid to allow parking in the adjacent space for a limited time.  Other parking meters work on a credit card and ticket basis or pay and display. Parking lane markings on the pavement may designate the meter corresponding to a parking space.  Some wide streets with light traffic allow angle parking or herringbone parking.
+
+Sidewalks (US usage) or pavements (UK usage) are often located alongside on one or usually both sides of the street within the public land strips beyond the curbs. Sidewalks serve a traffic purpose, by making walking easier and more attractive, but they also serve a social function, allowing neighbors to meet and interact on their walks. They also can foster economic activity, such as window shopping and sidewalk cafes. Some studies have found that shops on streets with sidewalks get more customers than similar shops without sidewalks.[7]
+
+An important element of sidewalk design is accessibility for persons with disabilities. Features that make sidewalks more accessible include curb ramps, tactile paving and accessible traffic signals. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires accessibility improvement on new and reconstructed streets within the US.
+
+In most jurisdictions, bicycles are legally allowed to use streets, and required to follow the same traffic laws as motor vehicle traffic. Where the volume of bicycle traffic warrants and available right-of-way allows, provisions may be made to separate cyclists from motor vehicle traffic. Wider lanes may be provided next to the curb, or shoulders may be provided.
+Bicycle lanes may be used on busy streets to provide some separation between bicycle traffic and motor vehicle traffic.
+
+The bicycle lane may be placed between the travel lanes and the parking lanes, between the parking lanes and the curb, or for increased safety for cyclists, between curb and sidewalk. These poorer designs can lead to Dooring incidents and are unsafe for cycling.
+
+A more sensible design is found in the Netherlands with a Protected Bicycle Path totally separate from the traffic which is safe for cycling.
+
+Trams are generally considered to be environmentally friendly with tramlines running in streets with a combination of tram lanes or separate alignments are used, sometimes on a segregated right of way.[8] Signalling and effective braking reduce the risk of a tram accident.
+
+Often, a curb (British English: Kerb) is used to separate the vehicle traffic lanes from the adjacent pavement area and where people on bicycles are considered properly are used to separate cycling from traffic as well. Street signs, parking meters, bicycle stands, benches, traffic signals, and street lights are often found adjacent to streets. They may be behind the sidewalk, or between the sidewalk and the curb.
+
+There may be a road verge (a strip of grass or other vegetation) between the carriageway (North American English: Roadway) and the pavement on either side of the street on which Grass or trees are often grown there for landscaping. These are often placed for beautification but are increasingly being used to control stormwater.
+
+Although primarily used for traffic, streets are important corridors for utilities such as electric power; communications such as telephone, cable television and fiber optic lines; storm and sanitary sewers; and natural gas lines.
+
+Practically all public streets in Western countries and the majority elsewhere (though not in Japan; see Japanese addressing system) are given a street or road name, or at least a number, to identify them and any addresses located along the streets. Alleys, in some places, do not have names. The length of a lot of land along a street is referred to as the frontage of the lot.[citation needed]
+
+A street may assume the role of a town square for its regulars. Jane Jacobs, an economist and prominent urbanist, wrote extensively on the ways that interaction among the people who live and work on a particular street—"eyes on the street"—can reduce crime, encourage the exchange of ideas, and generally make the world a better place.
+
+A street can often serve as the catalyst for the neighborhood's prosperity, culture and solidarity. New Orleans’ Bourbon Street is famous not only for its active nightlife but also for its role as the center of the city's French Quarter. Similarly, the Bowery has at various times been New York City's theater district, red-light district, skid row, restaurant supply district, and the center of the nation's underground punk scene. Madison Avenue and Fleet Street are so strongly identified with their respective most famous types of commerce, that their names are sometimes applied to firms located elsewhere. Other streets mark divisions between neighborhoods of a city. For example, Yonge Street divides Toronto into east and west sides, and East Capitol Street divides Washington, D.C. into north and south.
+
+Some streets are associated with the beautification of a town or city. Greenwood, Mississippi's Grand Boulevard was once named one of America's ten most beautiful streets by the U.S. Chambers of Commerce and the Garden Clubs of America. The 1,000 oak trees lining Grand Boulevard were planted in 1916 by Sally Humphreys Gwin, a charter member of the Greenwood Garden Club. In 1950, Gwin received a citation from the National Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution in recognition of her work in the conservation of trees.[9][10]
+
+Streets also tend to aggregate establishments of similar nature and character. East 9th Street in Manhattan, for example, offers a cluster of Japanese restaurants, clothing stores, and cultural venues. In Washington, D.C., 17th Street and P Street are well known as epicenters of the city's (relatively small) gay culture. Many cities have a Radio Row or Restaurant Row. Like in Philadelphia there is a small street called Jewelers' row giving the identity of a "Diamond district". This phenomenon is the subject of urban location theory in economics. In Cleveland, Ohio, East 4th Street has become restaurant row for Cleveland. On East 4th is Michael Symon's Lola Bistro and other restaurants.
+
+A road, like a street, is often paved and used for travel. However, a street is characterized by the degree and quality of street life it facilitates, whereas a road serves primarily as a through passage for road vehicles or (less frequently) pedestrians. Buskers, beggars, boulevardiers, patrons of pavement cafés, peoplewatchers, streetwalkers, and a diversity of other characters are habitual users of a street; the same people would not typically be found on a road.
+
+In rural and suburban environments where street life is rare, the terms "street" and "road" are frequently considered interchangeable. Still, even here, what is called a "street" is usually a smaller thoroughfare, such as a road within a housing development feeding directly into individual driveways. In the last half of the 20th century these streets often abandoned the tradition of a rigid, rectangular grid, and instead were designed to discourage through traffic. This and other traffic calming methods provided quiet for families and play space for children. Adolescent suburbanites find, in attenuated form, the amenities of street life in shopping malls where vehicles are forbidden.
+
+A town square or plaza is a little more like a street, but a town square is rarely paved with asphalt and may not make any concessions for through traffic at all.
+
+There is a haphazard relationship, at best, between a thoroughfare's function and its name. For example, London's Abbey Road serves all the vital functions of a street, despite its name, and locals are more apt to refer to the "street" outside than the "road". A desolate road in rural Montana, on the other hand, may bear a sign proclaiming it "Davidson Street", but this does not make it a "street" except in the original sense of a paved road.
+
+In the United Kingdom many towns will refer to their main thoroughfare as the High Street (in the United States and Canada it would be called the Main Street—however, occasionally "Main Street" in a city or town is a street other than the de facto main thoroughfare), and many of the ways leading off it will be named "Road" despite the urban setting. Thus the town's so-called "Roads" will actually be more street-like than a road.
+
+Some streets may even be called highways, even though they may carry no highway designation at all: This may arise when an historic road that was built to connect distant towns was named a "street" but originally never was in the truest sense. Some roads of this type which later became highways, became identified as said highway and may continue to colloquially be labelled as such from force of habit even if sections of it are subsequently urbanized and become an actual street and has its highway status decommissioned. Hurontario Street in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada (which was formerly Ontario Highway 10, but predates it), is an example of this.
+
+In some other English-speaking countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, cities are often divided by a main "Road", with "Streets" leading from this "Road", or the cities are divided by thoroughfares known as "Streets" or "Roads" with no apparent differentiation between the two. In Auckland, for example, the main shopping precinct is located around Queen Street and Karangahape Road.
+
+Streets have existed for as long as humans have lived in permanent settlements (see civilization). However, modern civilization in much of the New World developed around transportation provided by motor vehicles. In some parts of the English-speaking world, such as North America, many think of the street as a thoroughfare for vehicular traffic first and foremost. In this view, pedestrian traffic is incidental to the street's purpose; a street consists of a thoroughfare running through the middle (in essence, a road), and may or may not have pavements (or sidewalks) along the sides.
+
+In an even narrower sense, some may think of a street as only the vehicle-driven and parking part of the thoroughfare. Thus, sidewalks (pavements) and road verges would not be thought of as part of the street. A mother may tell her toddlers, "Don't go out into the street, so you don't get hit by a car."
+
+Among urban residents of the English-speaking world, the word "street" appears to carry its original connotations (i.e., the facilitation of traffic as a prime purpose, and "street life" as an incidental benefit). For instance, a New York Times writer lets casually slip the observation that automobile-laden Houston Street, in lower Manhattan,  is "a street that can hardly be called 'street' anymore, transformed years ago into an eight-lane raceway that alternately resembles a Nascar event and a parking lot."[11] Published in the paper's Metro section, the article evidently presumes an audience with an innate grasp of the modern urban role of the street. To the readers of the Metro section, vehicular traffic does not reinforce, but rather detracts from, the essential "street-ness" of a street.
+
+At least one map has been made to illustrate the geography of naming conventions for thoroughfares; avenue, boulevard, circle, road, street, and other suffixes are compared and contrasted.[12]
+
+Happy street, alternatively called open street or fun street, are open to all public celebrations organised in many European  and Indian cities; mostly on some Sunday or some other specific day, initiative encourages people to use non-motorised transport and to come out onto the streets to socialize every Sunday morning through a wide array of activities; Where in families and people of all ages can simply get out in the middle of the street to walk, run, jog, dance, bicycle, sing, skate or play.[13][14][15][16]
+
+According to Sandeep Nanduri, the Corporation Commissioner of Madurai, “The idea is to socialise comfortably and safely with elements of entertainment thrown in. The aim is to keep all vehicles out and allow the public in.” [13][14]
+
+Happy Street comes to different areas on the some specific Sunday of every month.[13][14]
+
+Several cities across India including Kolkata,[17] Pune, Thane, Ahmedabad, Madurai, Benglore[18]Visakhapatnam[19] have been successfully implementing it while places like Chennai and Coimbatore have introduced car-free Sundays.[14]
+
+Detroiters[20] Halifax[21]
+
+Rare street redesigns rarely require a change of street structure or shape.
+
+The street names sometimes change or move to another area for political reasons or they are completely erased.

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+
+
+Rugby league is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 m wide and 112–122 m long.[1] One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in Northern England in 1895 as a split from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of payments to the players.[2] Its rules progressively changed with the aim of producing a faster, more entertaining game for spectators.[3]
+
+Rugby league is a popular sport played around the world in more than 70 countries. Rugby league is played on every continent except Antarctica.
+
+In rugby league, points are scored by carrying the ball and touching it to the ground beyond the opposing team's goal line; this is called a try, and is the primary method of scoring.[4] The opposing team attempts to stop the attacking side scoring points by tackling the player carrying the ball.[4] In addition to tries, points can be scored by kicking goals. Field goals can be attempted at any time, and following a successful try, the scoring team gains a free kick to try at goal with a conversion for further points.[4] Kicks at goal may also be awarded for penalties.
+
+The Super League and the National Rugby League (NRL) are the premier club competitions. Rugby league is played internationally, predominantly by European, Australasian and Pacific Island countries, and is governed by the International Rugby League (IRL). Rugby league is the national sport of Papua New Guinea,[5][6][7] and is a popular sport in countries such as England,[8] Australia,[9]New Zealand, France, Wales, Ireland, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Lebanon.[10]
+
+The first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954; the current holders are Australia.[11]
+
+Rugby league football takes its name from the bodies that split to create a new form of rugby, distinct from that run by the Rugby Football Unions, in Britain, Australia and New Zealand between 1895 and 1908.
+
+The first of these, the Northern Rugby Football Union, was established in 1895 as a breakaway faction of England's Rugby Football Union (RFU). Both organisations played the game under the same rules at first, although the Northern Union began to modify rules almost immediately, thus creating a new simpler game that was intended to be a faster paced form of rugby football. Similar breakaway factions split from RFU-affiliated unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, renaming themselves "rugby football leagues" and introducing Northern Union rules.[12] In 1922, the Northern Union also changed its name to the Rugby Football League[13] and thus over time the sport itself became known as "rugby league" football.
+
+In 1895, a schism in Rugby football resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU).[14] Although many factors played a part in the split, including the success of working class northern teams, the main division was caused by the RFU decision to enforce the amateur principle of the sport, preventing "broken time payments" to players who had taken time off work to play rugby. Northern teams typically had more working class players (coal miners, mill workers etc.) who could not afford to play without this compensation, in contrast to affluent southern teams who had other sources of income to sustain the amateur principle.[2] In 1895, a decree by the RFU banning the playing of rugby at grounds where entrance fees were charged led to twenty-two clubs (including Stockport, who negotiated by telephone) meeting at the George Hotel, Huddersfield on 29 August 1895 and forming the "Northern Rugby Football Union".[15] Within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby revolution.
+
+In 1897, the line-out was abolished[16] and in 1898 professionalism introduced.[17] In 1906, the Northern Union changed its rules, reducing teams from 15 to 13 a side and replacing the ruck formed after every tackle with the play the ball.[18]
+
+A similar schism to that which occurred in England took place in Sydney, Australia. There, on 8 August 1907 the New South Wales Rugby Football League was founded at Bateman's Hotel in George Street.[19] Rugby league then went on to displace rugby union as the primary football code in New South Wales and Queensland.[20]
+
+On 5 May 1954 over 100,000 (official figure 102,569) spectators watched the 1953–54 Challenge Cup Final replay at Odsal Stadium, Bradford, England, setting a new record for attendance at a rugby football match of either code.[19] Also in 1954 the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the International Board introduced a rule that a team in possession was allowed three play-the-balls and on the fourth tackle a scrum was to be formed. This was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover.[21] 1967 saw the first professional Sunday matches of rugby league played.
+
+The first sponsors, Joshua Tetley and John Player, entered the game for the 1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season. Television would have an enormous impact on the sport of rugby league in the 1990s when Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation sought worldwide broadcasting rights and refused to take no for an answer. The media giant's "Super League" movement saw big changes for the traditional administrators of the game. In Europe, it resulted in a move from a winter sport to a summer one as the new Super League competition tried to expand its market. In Australasia, the Super League war resulted in long and costly legal battles and changing loyalties, causing significant damage to the code in an extremely competitive sporting market. In 1997 two competitions were run alongside each other in Australia, after which a peace deal in the form of the National Rugby League was formed. The NRL has since become recognised as the sport's flagship competition and since that time has set record TV ratings and crowd figures.[22]
+
+The objective in rugby league is to score more points through tries, goals (also known as conversions) and field goals (also known as drop goals) than the opposition within the 80 minutes of play. If after two-halves of play, each consisting of forty minutes, the two teams are drawing, a draw may be declared, or the game may enter extra time under the golden point rule, depending on the relevant competition's format.
+
+The try is the most common form of scoring,[23] and a team will usually attempt to score one by running and kicking the ball further upfield or passing from player-to-player in order to manoeuvre around the opposition's defence. A try involves touching the ball to the ground on or beyond the defending team's goal-line and is worth four points. A goal is worth two points and may be gained from a conversion or a penalty. A field goal, or drop goal, is only worth one point and is gained by dropping and then kicking the ball on the half volley between the uprights in open play.
+
+Field position is crucial in rugby league,[24] achieved by running with or kicking the ball. Passing in rugby league may only be in a backward or sideways direction. Teammates, therefore, have to remain on-side by not moving ahead of the player with the ball. However the ball may be kicked ahead for teammates, but again, if they are in front of the kicker when the ball is kicked, they are deemed off-side. Tackling is a key component of rugby league play. Only the player holding the ball may be tackled. A tackle is complete, for example, when the player is held by one or more opposing players
+in such a manner that he can make no further progress and cannot part with the ball, or when the player is held by one or more opposing players and the ball or the hand or arm holding the ball comes into contact with the ground.[25] An attacking team gets a maximum of six tackles to progress up the field before possession is changed over. Once the tackle is completed, the ball-carrier must be allowed to get to his feet to 'play-the-ball'. Ball control is also important in rugby league, as a fumble of the ball on the ground forces a handover, unless the ball is fumbled backwards. The ball can also be turned over by going over the sideline.
+
+Rugby league and rugby union are distinct sports with many similarities and a shared origin. Both have the same fundamental rules, are played for 80 minutes and feature an oval-shaped ball and H-shaped goalposts. Both have rules that the ball cannot be passed forward, and dropping it forwards leads to a scrum. Both use tries as the central scoring method and conversion kicks, penalty goals and drop goals as additional scoring methods. However, there are differences in how many points each method is worth.
+
+One of the main differences is the rules of possession,[26] When the ball goes into touch, possession in rugby union is contested through a line-out, while in rugby league a scrum restarts play. The lesser focus on contesting possession means that play stops less frequently in rugby league,[27] with the ball typically in play for 50 out of the 80 minutes compared to around 35 minutes for professional rugby union.[28] Other differences include that there are fewer players in rugby league (13 compared to 15)[29][30] and different rules for tackling. Rugby union has more detailed rules than rugby league[31][32] and has changed less since the 1895 schism.[33]
+
+Rugby league historian Tony Collins has written that since rugby union turned professional in the mid-1990s, it has increasingly borrowed techniques and tactics from rugby league.[34][35] The inherent similarities between rugby league and rugby union have at times led to experimental hybrid games being played that use a mix of the two sports' rules.[36][37]
+
+Players on the pitch are divided into forwards and backs, although the game's rules apply to all players the same way. Each position has a designated number to identify himself from other players. These numbers help to identify which position a person is playing. The system of numbering players is different depending on which country the match is played in. In Australia and New Zealand, each player is usually given a number corresponding to their playing position on the field. However, since 1996 European teams have been able to grant players specific squad numbers, which they keep without regard to the position they play, similarly to association football.[38]
+
+Substitutes (generally referred to as "the bench") are allowed in the sport, and are typically used when a player gets tired or injured, although they can also be used tactically. Each team is currently allowed four substitutes, and in Australia and New Zealand, these players occupy shirt numbers 14 to 22.[39] There are no limitations on which players must occupy these interchangeable slots. Generally, twelve interchanges are allowed in any game from each team, although in the National Rugby League, this was reduced to ten prior to the 2008 season[40] and further reduced to eight prior to the 2016 season. If a team has to interchange a player due to the blood bin rule or due to injury, and this was the result of misconduct from the opposing team, the compromised team does not have to use one of its allocated interchanges to take the player in question off the field.
+
+The backs are generally smaller, faster and more agile than the forwards. They are often the most creative and evasive players on the field, relying on running, kicking and handling skills, as well as tactics and set plays, to break the defensive line, instead of brute force. Generally forwards do the majority of the work (hit-ups/tackling).
+
+Usually, the stand-off/five-eighth and scrum-half/half-back are a team's creative unit or 'playmakers'. During the interactions between a team's 'key' players (five-eighth, half-back, fullback, lock forward, and hooker), the five-eighth and half-back will usually be involved in most passing moves. These two positions are commonly called the "halves".
+
+The forwards' two responsibilities can be broken into "normal play" and "scrum play". For information on a forward's role in the scrum see rugby league scrummage. Forward positions are traditionally named after the player's position in the scrum yet are equal with respect to "normal play" with the exception of the hooker. Forward positions are traditionally assigned as follows:
+
+Rugby league is played in over 70 nations throughout the world. Seven countries – Australia, Canada, England, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Wales – have teams that play at a professional level, while the rest are semi-professional or amateur. 36 national teams are ranked by the RLIF and a further 32 are officially recognized and unranked.[41] The strongest rugby league nations are Australia, England and New Zealand.
+
+The Rugby League World Cup is the highest form of representative rugby league and currently features 14 teams. Those which have contested World Cups are; Australia, New Zealand, England, France, Fiji, Wales, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Ireland, USA, Scotland, Italy, Tonga, Cook Islands, Lebanon, Russia and South Africa. The current World Champions are Australia, who won the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. The next Rugby League World Cup will be held in October and November 2021 and hosted by England. This will be the first time that the Men's, Women's and Wheelchair competitions will be staged together.[42]
+
+The Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation's purpose is to spread the sport of rugby league throughout their region along with other governing bodies such as the ARL and NZRL.[43] Since rugby league was introduced to Australia in 1908,
+it has become the largest television sport and 3rd most attended sport in Australia.[44] Neighbouring Papua New Guinea is one of two countries to have rugby league as its national sport (with Cook Islands).[6][7] Australia's elite club competition also features a team from Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city. Rugby league is the dominant winter sport in the eastern Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.[45] The game is also among the predominant sports of Tonga[46] and is played in other Pacific nations such as Samoa and Fiji. In Australia, and indeed the rest of the region, the annual State of Origin series ranks among the most popular sporting events.[47][48]
+
+The Rugby League European Federation are responsible for developing rugby league in Europe and the Northern Hemisphere.[49]
+
+In England, rugby league has traditionally been associated with the northern counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumberland where the game originated, especially in towns along the M62 corridor.[8] Its popularity has also increased elsewhere.[50][51][52]  As of 2020[update], only three of the twelve Super League teams are based outside of these traditional counties: London Broncos, Toronto Wolfpack (Toronto, Canada) and Catalans Dragons (Perpignan, France). One other team from outside the United Kingdom, the Toulouse Olympique, competes in the English Rugby League system, although not at the highest tier Super League level. The Olympique play in the Rugby League Championship while The Wolfpack won promotion to the Super League in 2019.
+
+Super League average attendances are in the 8,000 to 9,500 range. The average Super League match attendance in 2014 was 8,365.[53] In 2018 average Super League match attendance was 8,547.[54] Ranked the eighth most popular sport in the UK overall,[55] rugby league is the 27th most popular participation sport in England according to figures released by Sport England; the total number of rugby league participants in England aged 16 and over was 44,900 in 2017.[56] This is a 39% drop from 10 years ago.[56] While the sport is largely concentrated in the north of England there have been complaints about its lack of profile in the British media. On the eve of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup Final where England would face Australia, English amateur rugby league coach Ben Dawson stated, "we’re in the final of a World Cup. First time in more than 30 years and there's no coverage anywhere".[57]
+
+France first played rugby league as late as 1934, where in the five years prior to the Second World War, the sport's popularity increased as Frenchmen became disenchanted with the state of French rugby union in the 1930s.[58] However, after the Allied Forces were defeated by Germany in June 1940, the Vichy regime in the south seized assets belonging to rugby league authorities and clubs and banned the sport for its association with the left-wing Popular Front government that had governed France before the war.[58] The sport was unbanned after the Liberation of Paris in August 1944 and the collapse of the Vichy regime, although it was still actively marginalised by the French authorities until the 1990s.[58] Despite this, the national side appeared in the finals of the 1954 and 1968 World Cups, and the country hosted the 1954 event.[59][60] In 1996, a French team, Paris Saint-Germain was one of eleven teams which formed the new Super League, although the club was dissolved in 1997.[61] In 2006, the Super League admitted the Catalans Dragons, a team from Perpignan in the southern Languedoc-Roussillon region.[62] They have subsequently reached the 2007 Challenge Cup Final and made the playoffs of the 2008 Super League XIII season. The success of the Dragons in Super League has initiated a renaissance in French rugby league, with new-found enthusiasm for the sport in the south of the country where most of the Elite One Championship teams are based. In other parts of Europe, the game is played at semi-professional and amateur level.
+
+The Toronto Wolfpack are currently North America's only active professional Rugby League team, competing in the English Rugby League system. The Wolfpack won the 2017 Kingstone Press League 1 in their inaugural season and earned promotion to the 2018 Rugby League Championship. In 2019 The Wolfpack won promotion to the Super League. The Wolfpack play their home games at Lamport Stadium in Toronto.[63] Beginning in 2020, the English Hemel Stags will be relocated to Ottawa as the Ottawa Aces, where their home field will be TD Place Stadium.[64]
+
+The early 21st century has seen other countries take up the game and compete in international rugby league with the Rugby League European Federation and Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation expanding the game to new areas such as Canada, Ghana, Philippines, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, Thailand and Brazil to name a few.[65][66][67]
+
+The two most prominent full-time professional leagues are the Australasian National Rugby League and the Super League and to a lesser extent the semi professional French Elite One Championship and Elite Two Championship. Domestic leagues, with some full-time exceptions, exist at a semi-professional level below the NRL and Super League, in Australia the Queensland Cup (which includes a team from Papua New Guinea) and NSW Cup, which provides players to various NRL teams.
+
+In the United Kingdom, below the Super League, are the Championship and League 1. The UK professional system includes 2 Welsh teams, 2 French and 1 Canadian team).
+
+The Papua New Guinea National Rugby League operates as a semi-professional competition and enjoys nationwide media coverage, being the national sport of the country.
+
+The top five attendances for rugby league test matches (International) are:
+
+The top five attendances for domestic based rugby league matches are:
+
+* NRL double header played to open Round 1 of the 1999 NRL season. Figure shown is the total attendance which is officially counted for both games.[68][69]** The official attendance of the 1954 Challenge Cup Final replay was 102,569. Unofficial estimates put the attendance as high as 150,000, Bradford Police confirming 120,000.
+
+Quotations related to Rugby league at Wikiquote
+ The dictionary definition of Rugby league at Wiktionary
+ Media related to Rugby league at Wikimedia Commons

en/5208.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+
+
+Rugby league is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 m wide and 112–122 m long.[1] One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in Northern England in 1895 as a split from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of payments to the players.[2] Its rules progressively changed with the aim of producing a faster, more entertaining game for spectators.[3]
+
+Rugby league is a popular sport played around the world in more than 70 countries. Rugby league is played on every continent except Antarctica.
+
+In rugby league, points are scored by carrying the ball and touching it to the ground beyond the opposing team's goal line; this is called a try, and is the primary method of scoring.[4] The opposing team attempts to stop the attacking side scoring points by tackling the player carrying the ball.[4] In addition to tries, points can be scored by kicking goals. Field goals can be attempted at any time, and following a successful try, the scoring team gains a free kick to try at goal with a conversion for further points.[4] Kicks at goal may also be awarded for penalties.
+
+The Super League and the National Rugby League (NRL) are the premier club competitions. Rugby league is played internationally, predominantly by European, Australasian and Pacific Island countries, and is governed by the International Rugby League (IRL). Rugby league is the national sport of Papua New Guinea,[5][6][7] and is a popular sport in countries such as England,[8] Australia,[9]New Zealand, France, Wales, Ireland, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Lebanon.[10]
+
+The first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954; the current holders are Australia.[11]
+
+Rugby league football takes its name from the bodies that split to create a new form of rugby, distinct from that run by the Rugby Football Unions, in Britain, Australia and New Zealand between 1895 and 1908.
+
+The first of these, the Northern Rugby Football Union, was established in 1895 as a breakaway faction of England's Rugby Football Union (RFU). Both organisations played the game under the same rules at first, although the Northern Union began to modify rules almost immediately, thus creating a new simpler game that was intended to be a faster paced form of rugby football. Similar breakaway factions split from RFU-affiliated unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, renaming themselves "rugby football leagues" and introducing Northern Union rules.[12] In 1922, the Northern Union also changed its name to the Rugby Football League[13] and thus over time the sport itself became known as "rugby league" football.
+
+In 1895, a schism in Rugby football resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU).[14] Although many factors played a part in the split, including the success of working class northern teams, the main division was caused by the RFU decision to enforce the amateur principle of the sport, preventing "broken time payments" to players who had taken time off work to play rugby. Northern teams typically had more working class players (coal miners, mill workers etc.) who could not afford to play without this compensation, in contrast to affluent southern teams who had other sources of income to sustain the amateur principle.[2] In 1895, a decree by the RFU banning the playing of rugby at grounds where entrance fees were charged led to twenty-two clubs (including Stockport, who negotiated by telephone) meeting at the George Hotel, Huddersfield on 29 August 1895 and forming the "Northern Rugby Football Union".[15] Within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby revolution.
+
+In 1897, the line-out was abolished[16] and in 1898 professionalism introduced.[17] In 1906, the Northern Union changed its rules, reducing teams from 15 to 13 a side and replacing the ruck formed after every tackle with the play the ball.[18]
+
+A similar schism to that which occurred in England took place in Sydney, Australia. There, on 8 August 1907 the New South Wales Rugby Football League was founded at Bateman's Hotel in George Street.[19] Rugby league then went on to displace rugby union as the primary football code in New South Wales and Queensland.[20]
+
+On 5 May 1954 over 100,000 (official figure 102,569) spectators watched the 1953–54 Challenge Cup Final replay at Odsal Stadium, Bradford, England, setting a new record for attendance at a rugby football match of either code.[19] Also in 1954 the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the International Board introduced a rule that a team in possession was allowed three play-the-balls and on the fourth tackle a scrum was to be formed. This was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover.[21] 1967 saw the first professional Sunday matches of rugby league played.
+
+The first sponsors, Joshua Tetley and John Player, entered the game for the 1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season. Television would have an enormous impact on the sport of rugby league in the 1990s when Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation sought worldwide broadcasting rights and refused to take no for an answer. The media giant's "Super League" movement saw big changes for the traditional administrators of the game. In Europe, it resulted in a move from a winter sport to a summer one as the new Super League competition tried to expand its market. In Australasia, the Super League war resulted in long and costly legal battles and changing loyalties, causing significant damage to the code in an extremely competitive sporting market. In 1997 two competitions were run alongside each other in Australia, after which a peace deal in the form of the National Rugby League was formed. The NRL has since become recognised as the sport's flagship competition and since that time has set record TV ratings and crowd figures.[22]
+
+The objective in rugby league is to score more points through tries, goals (also known as conversions) and field goals (also known as drop goals) than the opposition within the 80 minutes of play. If after two-halves of play, each consisting of forty minutes, the two teams are drawing, a draw may be declared, or the game may enter extra time under the golden point rule, depending on the relevant competition's format.
+
+The try is the most common form of scoring,[23] and a team will usually attempt to score one by running and kicking the ball further upfield or passing from player-to-player in order to manoeuvre around the opposition's defence. A try involves touching the ball to the ground on or beyond the defending team's goal-line and is worth four points. A goal is worth two points and may be gained from a conversion or a penalty. A field goal, or drop goal, is only worth one point and is gained by dropping and then kicking the ball on the half volley between the uprights in open play.
+
+Field position is crucial in rugby league,[24] achieved by running with or kicking the ball. Passing in rugby league may only be in a backward or sideways direction. Teammates, therefore, have to remain on-side by not moving ahead of the player with the ball. However the ball may be kicked ahead for teammates, but again, if they are in front of the kicker when the ball is kicked, they are deemed off-side. Tackling is a key component of rugby league play. Only the player holding the ball may be tackled. A tackle is complete, for example, when the player is held by one or more opposing players
+in such a manner that he can make no further progress and cannot part with the ball, or when the player is held by one or more opposing players and the ball or the hand or arm holding the ball comes into contact with the ground.[25] An attacking team gets a maximum of six tackles to progress up the field before possession is changed over. Once the tackle is completed, the ball-carrier must be allowed to get to his feet to 'play-the-ball'. Ball control is also important in rugby league, as a fumble of the ball on the ground forces a handover, unless the ball is fumbled backwards. The ball can also be turned over by going over the sideline.
+
+Rugby league and rugby union are distinct sports with many similarities and a shared origin. Both have the same fundamental rules, are played for 80 minutes and feature an oval-shaped ball and H-shaped goalposts. Both have rules that the ball cannot be passed forward, and dropping it forwards leads to a scrum. Both use tries as the central scoring method and conversion kicks, penalty goals and drop goals as additional scoring methods. However, there are differences in how many points each method is worth.
+
+One of the main differences is the rules of possession,[26] When the ball goes into touch, possession in rugby union is contested through a line-out, while in rugby league a scrum restarts play. The lesser focus on contesting possession means that play stops less frequently in rugby league,[27] with the ball typically in play for 50 out of the 80 minutes compared to around 35 minutes for professional rugby union.[28] Other differences include that there are fewer players in rugby league (13 compared to 15)[29][30] and different rules for tackling. Rugby union has more detailed rules than rugby league[31][32] and has changed less since the 1895 schism.[33]
+
+Rugby league historian Tony Collins has written that since rugby union turned professional in the mid-1990s, it has increasingly borrowed techniques and tactics from rugby league.[34][35] The inherent similarities between rugby league and rugby union have at times led to experimental hybrid games being played that use a mix of the two sports' rules.[36][37]
+
+Players on the pitch are divided into forwards and backs, although the game's rules apply to all players the same way. Each position has a designated number to identify himself from other players. These numbers help to identify which position a person is playing. The system of numbering players is different depending on which country the match is played in. In Australia and New Zealand, each player is usually given a number corresponding to their playing position on the field. However, since 1996 European teams have been able to grant players specific squad numbers, which they keep without regard to the position they play, similarly to association football.[38]
+
+Substitutes (generally referred to as "the bench") are allowed in the sport, and are typically used when a player gets tired or injured, although they can also be used tactically. Each team is currently allowed four substitutes, and in Australia and New Zealand, these players occupy shirt numbers 14 to 22.[39] There are no limitations on which players must occupy these interchangeable slots. Generally, twelve interchanges are allowed in any game from each team, although in the National Rugby League, this was reduced to ten prior to the 2008 season[40] and further reduced to eight prior to the 2016 season. If a team has to interchange a player due to the blood bin rule or due to injury, and this was the result of misconduct from the opposing team, the compromised team does not have to use one of its allocated interchanges to take the player in question off the field.
+
+The backs are generally smaller, faster and more agile than the forwards. They are often the most creative and evasive players on the field, relying on running, kicking and handling skills, as well as tactics and set plays, to break the defensive line, instead of brute force. Generally forwards do the majority of the work (hit-ups/tackling).
+
+Usually, the stand-off/five-eighth and scrum-half/half-back are a team's creative unit or 'playmakers'. During the interactions between a team's 'key' players (five-eighth, half-back, fullback, lock forward, and hooker), the five-eighth and half-back will usually be involved in most passing moves. These two positions are commonly called the "halves".
+
+The forwards' two responsibilities can be broken into "normal play" and "scrum play". For information on a forward's role in the scrum see rugby league scrummage. Forward positions are traditionally named after the player's position in the scrum yet are equal with respect to "normal play" with the exception of the hooker. Forward positions are traditionally assigned as follows:
+
+Rugby league is played in over 70 nations throughout the world. Seven countries – Australia, Canada, England, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Wales – have teams that play at a professional level, while the rest are semi-professional or amateur. 36 national teams are ranked by the RLIF and a further 32 are officially recognized and unranked.[41] The strongest rugby league nations are Australia, England and New Zealand.
+
+The Rugby League World Cup is the highest form of representative rugby league and currently features 14 teams. Those which have contested World Cups are; Australia, New Zealand, England, France, Fiji, Wales, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Ireland, USA, Scotland, Italy, Tonga, Cook Islands, Lebanon, Russia and South Africa. The current World Champions are Australia, who won the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. The next Rugby League World Cup will be held in October and November 2021 and hosted by England. This will be the first time that the Men's, Women's and Wheelchair competitions will be staged together.[42]
+
+The Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation's purpose is to spread the sport of rugby league throughout their region along with other governing bodies such as the ARL and NZRL.[43] Since rugby league was introduced to Australia in 1908,
+it has become the largest television sport and 3rd most attended sport in Australia.[44] Neighbouring Papua New Guinea is one of two countries to have rugby league as its national sport (with Cook Islands).[6][7] Australia's elite club competition also features a team from Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city. Rugby league is the dominant winter sport in the eastern Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.[45] The game is also among the predominant sports of Tonga[46] and is played in other Pacific nations such as Samoa and Fiji. In Australia, and indeed the rest of the region, the annual State of Origin series ranks among the most popular sporting events.[47][48]
+
+The Rugby League European Federation are responsible for developing rugby league in Europe and the Northern Hemisphere.[49]
+
+In England, rugby league has traditionally been associated with the northern counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumberland where the game originated, especially in towns along the M62 corridor.[8] Its popularity has also increased elsewhere.[50][51][52]  As of 2020[update], only three of the twelve Super League teams are based outside of these traditional counties: London Broncos, Toronto Wolfpack (Toronto, Canada) and Catalans Dragons (Perpignan, France). One other team from outside the United Kingdom, the Toulouse Olympique, competes in the English Rugby League system, although not at the highest tier Super League level. The Olympique play in the Rugby League Championship while The Wolfpack won promotion to the Super League in 2019.
+
+Super League average attendances are in the 8,000 to 9,500 range. The average Super League match attendance in 2014 was 8,365.[53] In 2018 average Super League match attendance was 8,547.[54] Ranked the eighth most popular sport in the UK overall,[55] rugby league is the 27th most popular participation sport in England according to figures released by Sport England; the total number of rugby league participants in England aged 16 and over was 44,900 in 2017.[56] This is a 39% drop from 10 years ago.[56] While the sport is largely concentrated in the north of England there have been complaints about its lack of profile in the British media. On the eve of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup Final where England would face Australia, English amateur rugby league coach Ben Dawson stated, "we’re in the final of a World Cup. First time in more than 30 years and there's no coverage anywhere".[57]
+
+France first played rugby league as late as 1934, where in the five years prior to the Second World War, the sport's popularity increased as Frenchmen became disenchanted with the state of French rugby union in the 1930s.[58] However, after the Allied Forces were defeated by Germany in June 1940, the Vichy regime in the south seized assets belonging to rugby league authorities and clubs and banned the sport for its association with the left-wing Popular Front government that had governed France before the war.[58] The sport was unbanned after the Liberation of Paris in August 1944 and the collapse of the Vichy regime, although it was still actively marginalised by the French authorities until the 1990s.[58] Despite this, the national side appeared in the finals of the 1954 and 1968 World Cups, and the country hosted the 1954 event.[59][60] In 1996, a French team, Paris Saint-Germain was one of eleven teams which formed the new Super League, although the club was dissolved in 1997.[61] In 2006, the Super League admitted the Catalans Dragons, a team from Perpignan in the southern Languedoc-Roussillon region.[62] They have subsequently reached the 2007 Challenge Cup Final and made the playoffs of the 2008 Super League XIII season. The success of the Dragons in Super League has initiated a renaissance in French rugby league, with new-found enthusiasm for the sport in the south of the country where most of the Elite One Championship teams are based. In other parts of Europe, the game is played at semi-professional and amateur level.
+
+The Toronto Wolfpack are currently North America's only active professional Rugby League team, competing in the English Rugby League system. The Wolfpack won the 2017 Kingstone Press League 1 in their inaugural season and earned promotion to the 2018 Rugby League Championship. In 2019 The Wolfpack won promotion to the Super League. The Wolfpack play their home games at Lamport Stadium in Toronto.[63] Beginning in 2020, the English Hemel Stags will be relocated to Ottawa as the Ottawa Aces, where their home field will be TD Place Stadium.[64]
+
+The early 21st century has seen other countries take up the game and compete in international rugby league with the Rugby League European Federation and Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation expanding the game to new areas such as Canada, Ghana, Philippines, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, Thailand and Brazil to name a few.[65][66][67]
+
+The two most prominent full-time professional leagues are the Australasian National Rugby League and the Super League and to a lesser extent the semi professional French Elite One Championship and Elite Two Championship. Domestic leagues, with some full-time exceptions, exist at a semi-professional level below the NRL and Super League, in Australia the Queensland Cup (which includes a team from Papua New Guinea) and NSW Cup, which provides players to various NRL teams.
+
+In the United Kingdom, below the Super League, are the Championship and League 1. The UK professional system includes 2 Welsh teams, 2 French and 1 Canadian team).
+
+The Papua New Guinea National Rugby League operates as a semi-professional competition and enjoys nationwide media coverage, being the national sport of the country.
+
+The top five attendances for rugby league test matches (International) are:
+
+The top five attendances for domestic based rugby league matches are:
+
+* NRL double header played to open Round 1 of the 1999 NRL season. Figure shown is the total attendance which is officially counted for both games.[68][69]** The official attendance of the 1954 Challenge Cup Final replay was 102,569. Unofficial estimates put the attendance as high as 150,000, Bradford Police confirming 120,000.
+
+Quotations related to Rugby league at Wikiquote
+ The dictionary definition of Rugby league at Wiktionary
+ Media related to Rugby league at Wikimedia Commons

en/5209.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
+
+
+Rugby union, widely known simply as rugby, is a full contact team sport that originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand.  In its most common form, a game is played between two teams of 15 players using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field called a pitch. The field has H-shaped goalposts at both ends.
+
+Rugby union is a popular sport around the world, played by male and female players of all ages. Rules do not differ between the sexes. In 2014, there were more than 6 million people playing worldwide, of whom 2.36 million were registered players. World Rugby, previously called the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) and the International Rugby Board (IRB), has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886, and currently has 101 countries as full members and 18 associate members.
+
+In 1845, the first football laws were written by pupils at Rugby School; other significant events in the early development of rugby include the decision by Blackheath F.C. to leave the Football Association in 1863 and, in 1895, the acrimonious split between the then amateur rugby union and the professional rugby league.  Historically rugby union was an amateur sport, but in 1995 formal restrictions on payments to players were removed, making the game openly professional at the highest level for the first time.[3]
+
+Rugby union spread from the Home Nations of Great Britain and Ireland and was embraced by many of the countries associated with the British Empire. Early exponents of the sport included Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France. Countries that have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport include Fiji, Georgia, Madagascar,[4] New Zealand, Samoa, and Tonga.
+
+International matches have taken place since 1871 when the first game was played between Scotland and England at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh. The Rugby World Cup, first held in 1987, is contested every four years. The Six Nations Championship in Europe and The Rugby Championship in the Southern Hemisphere are other major international competitions that are held annually.
+
+National club and provincial competitions include the Premiership in England, the Top 14 in France, the Mitre 10 Cup in New Zealand, the National Rugby Championship in Australia, and the Currie Cup in South Africa. Other transnational club competitions include the European Rugby Champions Cup, the Pro14 in Europe and South Africa, and Super Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere and Japan.
+
+The origin of rugby football is reputed to be an incident during a game of English school football at Rugby School in Warwickshire in 1823, when William Webb Ellis is said to have picked up the ball and run with it.[5] Although the story may well be apocryphal, it was immortalised at the school with a commemorative plaque that was unveiled in 1895,[6][7] and the Rugby World Cup trophy is named after Webb Ellis. Rugby football stems from the form of the game played at Rugby School, which former pupils then introduced to their universities.
+
+Former Rugby School student Albert Pell is credited with having formed the first "football" team while a student at Cambridge University.[8] Major private schools each used different rules during this early period, with former pupils from Rugby and Eton attempting to carry their preferred rules through to their universities.[9] A significant event in the early development of rugby football was the production of a written set of rules at Rugby School in 1845,[10][11] followed by the Cambridge Rules that were drawn up in 1848.[12]
+
+Formed in 1863, the national governing body The Football Association (FA) began codifying a set of universal football rules. These new rules specifically banned players from running with the ball in hand and also disallowed hacking (kicking players in the shins), both of which were legal and common tactics under the Rugby School's rules of the sport. In protest at the imposition of the new rules, the Blackheath Club left the FA[13][14] followed by several other clubs that also favoured the "Rugby Rules". Although these clubs decided to ban hacking soon afterwards, the split was permanent, and the FA's codified rules became known as "association football" whilst the clubs that had favoured the Rugby Rules formed the Rugby Football Union in 1871,[13] and their code became known as "rugby football".
+
+In 1895, there was a major schism within rugby football in England in which numerous clubs from Northern England resigned from the RFU over the issue of reimbursing players for time lost from their workplaces. The split highlighted the social and class divisions in the sport in England, and led directly to the creation of the separate code of "rugby league". The existing sport thereafter took on the name "rugby union" to differentiate it from rugby league,[15] but both versions of the sport are known simply as "rugby" throughout most of the world.[16]
+
+The first rugby football international was played on 27 March 1871 between Scotland and England in Edinburgh. Scotland won the game 1–0.[13][17] By 1881 both Ireland and Wales had representative teams and in 1883 the first international competition, the Home Nations Championship had begun. 1883 is also the year of the first rugby sevens tournament, the Melrose Sevens,[18] which is still held annually.
+
+Two important overseas tours took place in 1888: a British Isles team visited Australia and New Zealand—although a private venture, it laid the foundations for future British and Irish Lions tours;[19] and the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team brought the first overseas team to British spectators.[20]
+
+During the early history of rugby union, a time before commercial air travel, teams from different continents rarely met. The first two notable tours both took place in 1888—the British Isles team touring New Zealand and Australia,[21] followed by the New Zealand team touring Europe.[22] Traditionally the most prestigious tours were the Southern Hemisphere countries of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa making a tour of a Northern Hemisphere, and the return tours made by a joint British and Irish team.[23] Tours would last for months, due to long traveling times and the number of games undertaken; the 1888 New Zealand team began their tour in Hawkes Bay in June and did not complete their schedule until August 1889, having played 107 rugby matches.[24]  Touring international sides would play Test matches against international opponents, including national, club and county sides in the case of Northern Hemisphere rugby, or provincial/state sides in the case of Southern Hemisphere rugby.[21][25]
+
+Between 1905 and 1908, all three major Southern Hemisphere rugby countries sent their first touring teams to the Northern Hemisphere: New Zealand in 1905, followed by South Africa in 1906 and Australia in 1908. All three teams brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics,[26] and were far more successful than critics had expected.[27]
+
+The New Zealand 1905 touring team performed a haka before each match, leading Welsh Rugby Union administrator Tom Williams to suggest that Wales player Teddy Morgan lead the crowd in singing the Welsh National Anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, as a response. After Morgan began singing, the crowd joined in: the first time a national anthem was sung at the start of a sporting event.[28][nb 2] In 1905 France played England in its first international match.[26]
+
+Rugby union was included as an event in the Olympic Games four times during the early 20th century. No international rugby games and union-sponsored club matches were played during the First World War, but competitions continued through service teams such as the New Zealand Army team.[30] During the Second World War no international matches were played by most countries, though Italy, Germany and Romania played a limited number of games,[31][32][33] and Cambridge and Oxford continued their annual University Match.[34]
+
+The first officially sanctioned international rugby sevens tournament took place in 1973 at Murrayfield, one of Scotland's biggest stadiums, as part of the Scottish Rugby Union centenary celebrations.[35]
+
+In 1987 the first Rugby World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand, and the inaugural winners were New Zealand. The first World Cup Sevens tournament was held at Murrayfield in 1993. Rugby Sevens was introduced into the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and was added to the Olympic Games of 2016.[36] Both men and women's Sevens will again take place at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.[37]
+
+Rugby union was an amateur sport until the IRB declared the game "open" in August 1995 (shortly after the completion of the 1995 World Cup), removing restrictions on payments to players.[38][39] However, the pre-1995 period of rugby union was marked by frequent accusations of "shamateurism",[40] including an investigation in Britain by a House of Commons Select committee in early 1995.[41][42] Following the introduction of professionalism trans-national club competitions were started, with the Heineken Cup in the Northern Hemisphere and Super Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere.[43][44]
+
+The Tri Nations, an annual international tournament involving Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, kicked off in 1996.[44] In 2012, this competition was extended to include Argentina, a country whose impressive performances in international games (especially finishing in third place in the 2007 Rugby World Cup) was deemed to merit inclusion in the competition. As a result of the expansion to four teams, the tournament was renamed The Rugby Championship.[45]
+
+Each team starts the match with 15 players on the field and seven or eight substitutes.[46] Players in a team are divided into eight forwards (two more than in rugby league) and seven backs.[47]
+
+The main responsibilities of the forward players are to gain and retain possession of the ball. Forwards play a vital role in tackling and rucking opposing players.[48] Players in these positions are generally bigger and stronger and take part in the scrum and line-out.[48] The forwards are often collectively referred to as the 'pack', especially when in the scrum formation.[49]
+
+The front row consists of three players: two props (the loosehead prop and the tighthead prop) and the hooker. The role of the two props is to support the hooker during scrums, to provide support for the jumpers during line-outs and to provide strength and power in rucks and mauls. The third position in the front row is the hooker. The hooker is a key position in attacking and defensive play and is responsible for winning the ball in the scrum. Hookers normally throw the ball in at line-outs.[47][50]
+
+The second row consists of two locks or lock forwards. Locks are usually the tallest players in the team, and specialise as line-out jumpers.[47] The main role of the lock in line-outs is to make a standing jump, often supported by the other forwards, to either collect the thrown ball or ensure the ball comes down on their side. Locks also have an important role in the scrum, binding directly behind the three front row players and providing forward drive.[47]
+
+The back row, not to be confused with ‘Backs’, is the third and final row of the forward positions, who are often referred to as the loose forwards.[49] The three positions in the back row are the two flankers and the number 8. The two flanker positions called the blindside flanker and openside flanker, are the final row in the scrum. They are usually the most mobile forwards in the game. Their main role is to win possession through 'turn overs'.[47] The number 8 packs down between the two locks at the back of the scrum. The role of the number 8 in the scrum is to control the ball after it has been heeled back from the front of the pack, and the position provides a link between the forwards and backs during attacking phases.[51]
+
+The role of the backs is to create and convert point-scoring opportunities. They are generally smaller, faster and more agile than the forwards.[48] Another distinction between the backs and the forwards is that the backs are expected to have superior kicking and ball-handling skills, especially the fly-half, scrum-half, and full-back.[48]
+
+The half-backs consist of two positions, the scrum-half and the fly-half. The fly-half is crucial to a team's game plan, orchestrating the team's performance.[51] They are usually the first to receive the ball from the scrum-half following a breakdown, lineout, or scrum, and need to be decisive with what actions to take and be effective at communicating with the outside backs.[51] Many fly-halves are also their team's goal kickers. The scrum-half is the link between the forwards and the backs.[51] They receive the ball from the lineout and remove the ball from the back of the scrum, usually passing it to the fly-half.[52] They also feed the scrum and sometimes have to act as a fourth loose forward.[53]
+
+There are four three quarter positions: two centres (inside and outside) and two wings (left and right). The centres will attempt to tackle attacking players; whilst in attack, they should employ speed and strength to breach opposition defences.[51] The wings are generally positioned on the outside of the backline. Their primary function is to finish off moves and score tries.[54] Wings are usually the fastest players in the team and are elusive runners who use their speed to avoid tackles.[55]
+
+The full-back is normally positioned several metres behind the back line. They often field opposition kicks and are usually the last line of defence should an opponent break through the back line.[51] Two of the most important attributes of a good full-back are dependable catching skills and a good kicking game.[56]
+
+Rugby union is played between two teams – the one that scores more points wins the game. Points can be scored in several ways: a try, scored by grounding the ball in the in-goal area (between the goal line and the dead-ball line), is worth 5 points and a subsequent conversion kick scores 2 points; a successful penalty kick or a drop goal each score 3 points.[57] The values of each of these scoring methods have been changed over the years.[58]
+
+The field of play on a rugby pitch is as near as possible to a maximum of 144 metres (157 yd) long by 70 metres (77 yd) wide.[59] In actual gameplay the length of a pitch can vary. There are typically 100 metres (109 yd) between the two try-lines, but it can be as short as 94 metres (103 yd). Anywhere between 6 and 22 metres (7 and 24 yd) behind each try line serves as the in-goal area. The pitch must be at least 68 metres (74 yd) wide, up to a maximum of 70 metres (76.5 yd) [59]
+
+Rugby goalposts are H-shaped and are situated in the middle of the goal lines at each end of the field. They consist of two poles, 5.6 metres (6.1 yd) apart, connected by a horizontal crossbar 3 metres (3.3 yd) above the ground. The minimum height for posts is 3.4 metres (3.7 yd).[59]
+
+At the beginning of the game, the captains and the referee toss a coin to decide which team will kick off first. Play then starts with a dropkick, with the players chasing the ball into the opposition's territory, and the other side trying to retrieve the ball and advance it. The dropkick must make contact with the ground before kicked. If the ball does not reach the opponent's 10-metre (11-yard) line 10 meters away, the opposing team has two choices: to have the ball kicked off again, or to have a scrum at the centre of the half-way line.[60]
+If the player with the ball is tackled, frequently a ruck will result.[61]
+
+Games are divided into 40-minute halves, with a break in the middle.[62] The sides exchange ends of the field after the half-time break.[62] Stoppages for injury or to allow the referee to take disciplinary action do not count as part of the playing time, so that the elapsed time is usually longer than 80 minutes.[62] The referee is responsible for keeping time, even when—as in many professional tournaments—he is assisted by an official time-keeper.[62] If time expires while the ball is in play, the game continues until the ball is "dead", and only then will the referee blow the whistle to signal half-time or full-time; but if the referee awards a penalty or free-kick, the game continues.[62]
+
+In the knockout stages of rugby competitions, most notably the Rugby World Cup, two extra time periods of 10 minutes periods are played (with an interval of 5 minutes in between) if the game is tied after full-time. If scores are level after 100 minutes then the rules call for 20 minutes of sudden-death extra time to be played. If the sudden-death extra time period results in no scoring a kicking competition is used to determine the winner. However, no match in the history of the Rugby World Cup has ever gone past 100 minutes into a sudden-death extra time period.[63]
+
+Forward passing (throwing the ball ahead to another player) is not allowed; the ball can be passed laterally or backwards.[64] The ball tends to be moved forward in three ways — by kicking, by a player running with it or within a scrum or maul. Only the player with the ball may be tackled or rucked. When a ball is knocked forward by a player with their arms, a "knock-on" is committed, and play is restarted with a scrum.[64]
+
+Any player may kick the ball forward in an attempt to gain territory. When a player anywhere in the playing area kicks indirectly into touch so that the ball first bounces in the field of play, the throw-in is taken where the ball went into touch.[65] If the player kicks directly into touch (i.e. without bouncing in-field first) from within one's own 22-metre (24-yard) line, the lineout is taken by the opposition where the ball went into touch, but if the ball is kicked into touch directly by a player outside the 22-metre (24-yard) line, the lineout is taken level to where the kick was taken.[65]
+
+The aim of the defending side is to stop the player with the ball, either by bringing them to ground (a tackle, which is frequently followed by a ruck) or by contesting for possession with the ball-carrier on their feet (a maul). Such a circumstance is called a breakdown and each is governed by a specific law.
+
+Tackling
+
+A player may tackle an opposing player who has the ball by holding them while bringing them to ground. Tacklers cannot tackle above the shoulder (the neck and head are out of bounds),[66] and the tackler has to attempt to wrap their arms around the player being tackled to complete the tackle. It is illegal to push, shoulder-charge, or to trip a player using feet or legs, but hands may be used (this being referred to as a tap-tackle or ankle-tap).[67][68] Tacklers may not tackle an opponent who has jumped to catch a ball until the player has landed.[66]
+
+Rucking and Mauling
+
+Mauls occur after a player with the ball has come into contact with an opponent but the handler remains on his feet; once any combination of at least three players have bound themselves a maul has been set.[49] A ruck is similar to the maul, but in this case the ball has gone to ground with at least three attacking players binding themselves on the ground in an attempt to secure the ball.[49]
+
+When the ball leaves the side of the field, a line-out is awarded against the team which last touched the ball.[69] Forward players from each team line up a metre apart, perpendicular to the touchline and between 5 and 15 m (5.5 and 16.4 yd) from the touchline.[69] The ball is thrown from the touchline down the centre of the lines of forwards by a player (usually the hooker) from the team that did not play the ball into touch.[69] The exception to this is when the ball went out from a penalty, in which case the side who gained the penalty throws the ball in.[69]
+
+Both sides compete for the ball and players may lift their teammates.[70] A jumping player cannot be tackled until they stand and only shoulder-to-shoulder contact is allowed; deliberate infringement of this law is dangerous play, and results in a penalty kick.[71]
+
+A scrum is a way of restarting the game safely and fairly after a minor infringement.[72] It is awarded when the ball has been knocked or passed forward, if a player takes the ball over their own try line and puts the ball down, when a player is accidentally offside or when the ball is trapped in a ruck or maul with no realistic chance of being retrieved. A team may also opt for a scrum if awarded a penalty.[72]
+
+A scrum is formed by the eight forwards from each team crouching down and binding together in three rows, before interlocking with the opposing team.[72] For each team, the front row consists of two props (loosehead and tighthead) either side of the hooker.[72] The two props are typically amongst the strongest players on the team. The second row consists of two locks and the two flankers. Behind the second row is the number 8. This formation is known as the 3–4–1 formation.[73] Once a scrum is formed the scrum-half from the team awarded the feed rolls the ball into the gap between the two front-rows known as the tunnel.[72] The two hookers then compete for possession by hooking the ball backwards with their feet, while each pack tries to push the opposing pack backwards to help gain possession.[72] The side that wins possession can either keep the ball under their feet while driving the opposition back, in order to gain ground, or transfer the ball to the back of the scrum where it can be picked up by the number 8 or by the scrum-half.[72]
+
+There are three match officials: a referee, and two assistant referees. The referees are commonly addressed as "Sir".[74] The latter, formerly known as touch judges, had the primary function of indicating when the ball had gone into "touch"; their role has been expanded and they are now expected to assist the referee in a number of areas, such as watching for foul play and checking offside lines.[74] In addition, for matches in high level competitions, there is often a television match official (TMO; popularly called the "video referee"), to assist with certain decisions, linked up to the referee by radio.[75] The referees have a system of hand signals to indicate their decisions.[76]
+
+Common offences include tackling above the shoulders, collapsing a scrum, ruck or maul, not releasing the ball when on the ground, or being offside.[77] The non-offending team has a number of options when awarded a penalty: a "tap" kick, when the ball is kicked a very short distance from hand, allowing the kicker to regather the ball and run with it; a punt, when the ball is kicked a long distance from hand, for field position; a place-kick, when the kicker will attempt to score a goal; or a scrum.[77] Players may be sent off (signalled by a red card) or temporarily suspended ("sin-binned") for ten minutes (yellow card) for foul play or repeated infringements, and may not be replaced.[77]
+
+Occasionally, infringements are not caught by the referee during the match and these may be "cited" by the citing commissioner after the match and have punishments (usually suspension for a number of weeks) imposed on the infringing player.[78]
+
+During the match, players may be replaced (for injury) or substituted (for tactical reasons).[46] A player who has been replaced may not rejoin play unless he was temporarily replaced to have bleeding controlled; a player who has been substituted may return temporarily, to replace a player who has a blood injury or has suffered a concussion, or permanently, if he is replacing a front-row forward.[46] In international matches, eight replacements are allowed; in domestic or cross-border tournaments, at the discretion of the responsible national union(s), the number of replacements may be nominated to a maximum of eight, of whom three must be sufficiently trained and experienced to provide cover for the three front row positions.[46][79]
+
+Prior to 2016, all substitutions, no matter the cause, counted against the limit during a match. In 2016, World Rugby changed the law so that substitutions made to replace a player deemed unable to continue due to foul play by the opposition would no longer count against the match limit. This change was introduced in January of that year in the Southern Hemisphere and June in the Northern Hemisphere.[80]
+
+The most basic items of equipment for a game of rugby union are the ball itself, a rugby shirt (also known as a "jersey"), rugby shorts, socks, and boots. The rugby ball is oval in shape (technically a prolate spheroid), and is made up of four panels.[81] The ball was historically made of leather, but in the modern era most games use a ball made from a synthetic material. World Rugby lays out specific dimensions for the ball, 280–300 mm (11–12 in) in length, 740–770 mm (29–30 in) in circumference of length and 580–620 mm (23–24 in) in circumference of width.[81] Rugby boots have soles with studs to allow grip on the turf of the pitch. The studs may be either metal or plastic but must not have any sharp edges or ridges.[82]
+
+Protective equipment is optional and strictly regulated. The most common items are mouthguards, which are worn by almost all players, and are compulsory in some rugby-playing nations.[83] Other protective items that are permitted include head gear; thin (not more than 10 mm thick), non-rigid shoulder pads and shin guards; which are worn underneath socks.[82] Bandages or tape can be worn to support or protect injuries; some players wear tape around the head to protect the ears in scrums and rucks. Female players may also wear chest pads.[82] Although not worn for protection, some types of fingerless mitts are allowed to aid grip.[82]
+
+It is the responsibility of the match officials to check players' clothing and equipment before a game to ensure that it conforms to the laws of the game.[82]
+
+The international governing body of rugby union (and associated games such as sevens) is World Rugby (WR).[84] The WR headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland.[84] WR, founded in 1886, governs the sport worldwide and publishes the game's laws and rankings.[84] As of February 2014, WR (then known as the IRB, for International Rugby Board) recorded 119 unions in its membership, 101 full members and 18 associate member countries.[2] According to WR, rugby union is played by men and women in over 100 countries.[84] WR controls the Rugby World Cup,[84] the Women's Rugby World Cup,[85] Rugby World Cup Sevens,[86] HSBC Sevens Series,[87] HSBC Women's Sevens Series,[88] World Under 20 Championship,[89] World Under 20 Trophy,[90] Nations Cup[91] and the Pacific Nations Cup.[92] WR holds votes to decide where each of these events are to be held, except in the case of the Sevens World Series for men and women, for which WR contracts with several national unions to hold individual events.
+
+Six regional associations, which are members of WR, form the next level of administration; these are:
+
+SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby) is a joint venture of the South African Rugby Union, New Zealand Rugby, Rugby Australia and the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) that operates Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship (formerly the Tri Nations before the entry of Argentina).[99] Although UAR initially had no representation on the former SANZAR board, it was granted input into the organisation's issues, especially with regard to The Rugby Championship,[100] and became a full SANZAAR member in 2016 (when the country entered Super Rugby).
+
+National unions oversee rugby union within individual countries and are affiliated to WR. Since 2016, the WR Council has 40 seats.  A total of 11 unions—the eight foundation unions of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France, plus Argentina, Canada and Italy—have two seats each. In addition, the six regional associations have two seats each. Four more unions—Georgia, Japan, Romania and the USA—have one seat each. Finally, the Chairman and Vice Chairman, who usually come from one of the eight foundation unions (although the current Vice Chairman, Agustín Pichot, is with the non-foundation Argentine union) have one vote each.[101][84]
+
+The earliest countries to adopt rugby union were England, the country of inception, and the other three Home Nations, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The spread of rugby union as a global sport has its roots in the exporting of the game by British expatriates, military personnel, and overseas university students.
+The first rugby club in France was formed by British residents in Le Havre in 1872, while the next year Argentina recorded its first game: 'Banks' v 'City' in Buenos Aires.[102]
+
+Seven countries have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport; they are Fiji,[103] Georgia, Madagascar,[104][105][106] New Zealand,[107] Samoa,[108] Tonga[109] and Wales.[110]
+
+A rugby club was formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1864; while the sport was said to have been introduced to New Zealand by Charles Monro in 1870, who played rugby while a student at Christ's College, Finchley.[13]
+
+Several island nations have embraced the sport of rugby. Rugby was first played in Fiji circa 1884 by European and Fijian soldiers of the Native Constabulary at Ba on Viti Levu island.[111][112] Fiji then sent their first overseas team to Samoa in 1924, who in turn set up their own union in 1927.[113] Along with Tonga, other countries to have national rugby teams in Oceania include the Cook Islands, Niue, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.[114]
+
+In North America a club formed in Montreal in 1868, Canada's first club. The city of Montreal also played its part in the introduction of the sport in the United States, when students of McGill University played against a team from Harvard University in 1874.[13][102]
+
+Although the exact date of arrival of rugby union in Trinidad and Tobago is unknown, their first club Northern RFC was formed in 1923, a national team was playing by 1927 and due to a cancelled tour to British Guiana in 1933, switched their venue to Barbados; introducing rugby to the island.[115][116] Other Atlantic countries to play rugby union include Jamaica[117] and Bermuda.[118]
+
+The growth of rugby union in Europe outside the 6 Nations countries in terms of playing numbers has been sporadic. Historically, British and Irish home teams played the Southern Hemisphere teams of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as well as France. The rest of Europe were left to play amongst themselves. During a period when it had been isolated by the British and Irish Unions, France, lacking international competition, became the only European team from the top tier to regularly play the other European countries; mainly Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Romania, Poland, Italy and Czechoslovakia.[96][119] In 1934, instigated by the French Rugby Federation, FIRA (Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur) was formed to organise rugby union outside the authority of the IRFB.[96] The founding members were Italy, Romania, Netherlands, Portugal, Czechoslovakia, and Sweden.
+
+Other European rugby playing nations of note include Russia, whose first officially recorded match is marked by an encounter between Dynamo Moscow and the Moscow Institute of Physical Education in 1933.[120] Rugby union in Portugal also took hold between the First and Second World Wars, with a Portuguese National XV set up in 1922 and an official championship started in 1927.[121]
+
+In 1999, FIRA agreed to place itself under the auspices of the IRB, transforming itself into a strictly European organising body. Accordingly, it changed its name to FIRA–AER (Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur – Association Européenne de Rugby). It adopted its current name of Rugby Europe in 2014.
+
+Although Argentina is the best-known rugby playing nation in South America, founding the Argentine Rugby Union in 1899,[122] several other countries on the continent have a long history. Rugby had been played in Brazil since the end of the 19th century, but the game was played regularly only from 1926, when São Paulo beat Santos in an inter-city match.[123] It took Uruguay several aborted attempts to adapt to rugby, led mainly by the efforts of the Montevideo Cricket Club; these efforts succeeded in 1951 with the formation of a national league and four clubs.[124] Other South American countries that formed a rugby union include Chile (1948),[125] and Paraguay (1968).[126]
+
+Many Asian countries have a tradition of playing rugby dating from the British Empire. India began playing rugby in the early 1870s, the Calcutta Football Club forming in 1873. However, with the departure of a local British army regiment, interest in rugby diminished in the area.[127] In 1878, The Calcutta Football Club was disbanded, and rugby in India faltered.[128] Sri Lanka claims to have founded their union in 1878, and although little official information from the period is available, the team won the All-India cup in Madras in 1920.[129] The first recorded match in Malaysia was in 1892, but the first confirmation of rugby is the existence of the HMS Malaya Cup which was first presented in 1922 and is still awarded to the winners of the Malay sevens.[130]
+
+Rugby union was introduced to Japan in 1899 by two Cambridge students: Ginnosuke Tanaka and Edward Bramwell Clarke.[131][132] The Japan RFU was founded in 1926 and its place in rugby history was cemented with the news that Japan will host the 2019 World Cup.[133] It will be the first country outside the Commonwealth, Ireland and France to host the event, and this is viewed by the IRB as an opportunity for rugby union to extend its reach,[133] particularly in Asia. Other Asian playing countries of note include Singapore, South Korea, China and The Philippines, while the former British colony of Hong Kong is notable within rugby for its development of the rugby sevens game, especially the Hong Kong Sevens tournament which was founded in 1976.[134]
+
+Rugby in the Middle East and the Gulf States has its history in the 1950s, with clubs formed by British and French Services stationed in the region after the Second World War.[135] When these servicemen left, the clubs and teams were kept alive by young professionals, mostly Europeans, working in these countries. The official union of Oman was formed in 1971.[136] Bahrain founded its union a year later, while in 1975 the Dubai Sevens, the Gulf's leading rugby tournament, was created. Rugby remains a minority sport in the region with Israel and the United Arab Emirates, as of 2019, being the only member union from the Middle East to be included in the IRB World Rankings.[137]
+
+In 1875, rugby was introduced to South Africa by British soldiers garrisoned in Cape Town.[102] During the late 19th and early 20th century, the sport in Africa was spread by settlers and colonials who often adopted a "whites-only" policy to playing the game. This resulted in rugby being viewed as a bourgeois sport by the indigenous people with limited appeal.[138] The earliest countries to see the playing of competitive rugby include South Africa, and neighbouring Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), which formed the Rhodesia Rugby Football Union in 1895.[139]
+
+In more recent times the sport has been embraced by several African nations. In the early 21st century Madagascar has experienced crowds of 40,000 at national matches,[140] while Namibia, whose history of rugby can be dated from 1915, have qualified for the final stages of the World Cup four times since 1999.[141] Other African nations to be represented in the World Rugby Rankings as Member Unions include Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.[137] South Africa and Kenya are among the 15 "core teams" that participate in every event of the men's World Rugby Sevens Series.[142]
+
+Records of women's rugby football date from the late 19th century, with the first documented source being Emily Valentine's writings, in which she states that she set up a rugby team in Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Ireland in 1887.[143] Although there are reports of early women's matches in New Zealand and France, one of the first notable games to prove primary evidence was the 1917 war-time encounter between Cardiff Ladies and Newport Ladies; a photo of which shows the Cardiff team before the match at the Cardiff Arms Park.[144] Since the 1980s, the game has grown in popularity among female athletes, and by 2010, according to World Rugby, women's rugby was being played in over 100 countries.[145]
+
+The English-based Women's Rugby Football Union (WRFU), responsible for women's rugby in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, was founded in 1983, and is the oldest formally organised national governing body for women's rugby. This was replaced in 1994 by the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) in England with each of the other Home Nations governing their own countries.[146]
+
+The premier international competition in rugby union for women is the Women's Rugby World Cup, first held in 1991; from 1994 through 2014, it was held every four years.[146] After the 2014 event, the tournament was brought forward a year to 2017 to avoid clashing with other sporting cycles, in particular the Rugby World Cup Sevens competition.[147] The Women's Rugby World Cup returned to a four-year cycle after 2017, with future competitions to be held in the middle year of the men's World Cup cycle.
+
+The most important competition in rugby union is the Rugby World Cup, a men's tournament that has taken place every four years since the inaugural event in 1987. South Africa are the reigning champions, having defeated England in the final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Yokohama. New Zealand and South Africa have each won the title three times (New Zealand: 1987, 2011, 2015; South Africa: 1995, 2007, 2019), Australia have won twice (1991 and 1999), and England once (2003). England is the only team from the Northern Hemisphere to have won the Rugby World Cup.[148]
+
+The Rugby World Cup has continued to grow since its inception in 1987. The Rugby League World Cup dates from 1954 in contrast. The first tournament, in which 16 teams competed for the title, was broadcast to 17 countries with an accumulated total of 230 million television viewers. Ticket sales during the pool stages and finals of the same tournament was less than a million. The 2007 World Cup was contested by 94 countries with ticket sales of 3,850,000 over the pool and final stage. The accumulated television audience for the event, then broadcast to 200 countries, was a claimed 4.2 billion.[149]
+
+The 2019 Rugby World Cup took place in Japan between 20 September and 2 November. It was the ninth edition and the first time the tournament has been held in Asia.[150]
+
+Major international competitions are the Six Nations Championship and The Rugby Championship, held in Europe and the Southern Hemisphere respectively.[151]
+
+The Six Nations is an annual competition involving the European teams England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.[152] Each country plays the other five once. Following the first internationals between England and Scotland, Ireland and Wales began competing in the 1880s, forming the Home International Championships.[152] France joined the tournament in the 1900s and in 1910 the term Five Nations first appeared.[152] However, the Home Nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) excluded France in 1931 amid a run of poor results, allegations of professionalism and concerns over on-field violence.[153] France then rejoined in 1939–1940, though World War II halted proceedings for a further eight years.[152] France has played in all the tournaments since WWII, the first of which was played in 1947.[152] In 2000, Italy became the sixth nation in the contest and Rome's Stadio Olimpico has replaced Stadio Flaminio as the venue for their home games since 2013.[154] The current Six Nations champions are Wales.
+
+The Rugby Championship is the Southern Hemisphere's annual international series for that region's top national teams. From its inception in 1996 through 2011, it was known as the Tri Nations, as it featured the hemisphere's traditional powers of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.[155] These teams have dominated world rankings in recent years, and many considered the Tri Nations to be the toughest competition in international rugby.[156][157] The Tri Nations was initially played on a home and away basis with the three nations playing each other twice.
+
+In 2006 a new system was introduced where each nation plays the others three times, though in 2007 and 2011 the teams played each other only twice, as both were World Cup years.[155] Since Argentina's strong performances in the 2007 World Cup,[158] after the 2009 Tri Nations tournament, SANZAR (South Africa, New Zealand and Australian Rugby) invited the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) to join an expanded Four Nations tournament in 2012.[159] The competition has been officially rechristened as The Rugby Championship beginning with the 2012 edition. The competition reverted to the Tri Nations' original home-and-away format, but now involving four teams. In World Cup years, an abbreviated tournament is held in which each team plays the others only once.
+
+Rugby union was played at the Olympic Games in 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924.[160] As per Olympic rules, the nations of Scotland, Wales and England were not allowed to play separately as they are not sovereign states. In 1900, France won the gold, beating Great Britain 27 points to 8 and defeating Germany 27 points to 17.[160] In 1908, Australia defeated Great Britain, claiming the gold medal, the score being 32 points to three.[160] In 1920, the United States, fielding a team with many players new to the sport of rugby, upset France in a shock win, eight points to zero. In 1924, the United States again defeated France 17 to 3, becoming the only team to win gold twice in the sport.[160]
+
+In 2009 the International Olympic Committee voted with a majority of 81 to 8 that rugby union be reinstated as an Olympic sport in at least the 2016 and 2020 games, but in the sevens, 4-day tournament format.[36][161] This is something the rugby world has aspired to for a long time and Bernard Lapasset, president of the International Rugby Board, said the Olympic gold medal would be considered to be "the pinnacle of our sport" (Rugby Sevens).[162]
+
+Rugby sevens has been played at the Commonwealth Games since the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur.[163] The most gold medal holders are New Zealand who have won the competition on four successive occasions until South Africa beat them in 2014.[164] Rugby union has also been an Asian Games event since the 1998 games in Bangkok, Thailand. In the 1998 and 2002 editions of the games, both the usual fifteen-a-side variety and rugby sevens were played, but from 2006 onwards, only rugby sevens was retained. In 2010, the women's rugby sevens event was introduced. The event is likely to remain a permanent fixture of the Asian Games due to elevation of rugby sevens as an Olympic sport from the 2016 Olympics onwards. The present gold medal holders in the sevens tournament, held in 2014, are Japan in the men's event and China in the women's.[citation needed]
+
+Women's international rugby union began in 1982, with a match between France and the Netherlands played in Utrecht.[165] As of 2009 over six hundred women's internationals have been played by over forty different nations.[166]
+
+The first Women's Rugby World Cup was held in Wales in 1991, and was won by the United States.[146] The second tournament took place in 1994, and from that time through 2014 was held every four years. The New Zealand Women's team then won four straight World Cups (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010)[167] before England won in 2014. Following the 2014 event, World Rugby moved the next edition of the event to 2017, with a new four-year cycle from that point forward.[168] New Zealand are the current World Cup holders.
+
+As well as the Women's Rugby World Cup there are also other regular tournaments, including a Six Nations, run in parallel to the men's competition. The Women's Six Nations, first played in 1996 has been dominated by England, who have won the tournament on 14 occasions, including a run of seven consecutive wins from 2006 to 2012. However, since then, England have won only in 2017; reigning champion France have won in each even-numbered year (2014, 2016, 2018) whilst Ireland won in 2013 and 2015.
+
+Rugby union has been professionalised since 1995. The following table shows fully professional rugby competitions (semi-professional competitions are excluded from this list).
+
+Rugby union has spawned several variants of the full-contact, 15-a-side game. The two most common differences in adapted versions are fewer players and reduced player contact.
+
+The oldest variant is rugby sevens (sometimes 7s or VIIs), a fast-paced game which originated in Melrose, Scotland in 1883. In rugby sevens, there are only seven players per side, and each half is normally seven minutes. Major tournaments include the Hong Kong Sevens and Dubai Sevens, both held in areas not normally associated with the highest levels of the 15-a-side game.
+
+A more recent variant of the sport is rugby tens (10s or Xs), a Malaysian invention with ten players per side.[170]
+
+Touch rugby, in which "tackles" are made by simply touching the ball carrier with two hands, is popular both as a training game and more formally as a mixed sex version of the sport played by both children and adults.[171][172]
+
+Several variants have been created to introduce the sport to children with a less physical contact.[173] Mini rugby is a version aimed at fostering the sport in children.[174][175] It is played with only eight players and on a smaller pitch.[174]
+
+Tag Rugby is a version in which the players wear a belt with two tags attached by velcro, the removal of either counting as a 'tackle'. Tag Rugby also varies in that kicking the ball is not allowed.[176] Similar to Tag Rugby, American Flag Rugby, (AFR), is a mixed gender, non-contact imitation of rugby union designed for American children entering grades K-9.[177] Both American Flag Rugby and Mini Rugby differ to Tag Rugby in that they introduce more advanced elements of rugby union as the participants age.[174]
+
+Other less formal variants include beach rugby and snow rugby.[173][178]
+
+Rugby league was formed after the Northern Union broke from the Rugby Football Union in a disagreement over payment to players. It went on to change its laws and became a code in its own right. The two sports continue to influence each other to this day.
+
+American football[179][180] and Canadian football[181] are derived from early forms of rugby football.[181]
+
+Australian rules football was influenced by rugby football and other games originating in English public schools.[182][183][184]
+
+James Naismith took aspects of many sports including rugby to invent basketball.[185] The most obvious contribution is the jump ball's similarity to the line-out as well as the underhand shooting style that dominated the early years of the sport. Naismith played rugby at McGill University.[186]
+
+Swedish football was a code whose rules were a mix of Association and Rugby football rules.[187][188]
+
+Rugby lends its name to wheelchair rugby, a full-contact sport which contains elements of rugby such as crossing a try line with the ball to score.[189]
+
+According to a 2011 report by the Centre for the International Business of Sport, over four and a half million people play rugby union or one of its variants organised by the IRB.[190] This is an increase of 19 percent since the previous report in 2007.[191] The report also claimed that since 2007 participation has grown by 33 percent in Africa, 22 percent in South America and 18 percent in Asia and North America.[191] In 2014 the IRB published a breakdown of the total number of players worldwide by national unions. It recorded a total of 6.6 million players globally, of those, 2.36 million were registered members playing for a club affiliated to their country's union.[2] The 2016 World Rugby Year in Review reported 8.5 million players, of which 3.2 million were registered union players and 1.9 million were registered club players; 22% of all players were female.[192]
+
+The most capped international player from the tier 1 nations is former New Zealand openside flanker and captain Richie McCaw who has played in 148 internationals.[193] While the top scoring tier 1 international player is New Zealand's Dan Carter, who has amassed 1442 points during his career.[194] In April 2010 Lithuania which is a second tier rugby nation, broke the record of consecutive international wins for second tier rugby nations. In 2016, the All Blacks of New Zealand set the new record 18 consecutive test wins among tier 1 rugby nations, bettering their previous consecutive run of 17.[195] This record was equalled by England on 11 March 2017 with a win over Scotland at Twickenham.[196] The highest scoring international match between two recognised unions was Hong Kong's 164–13 victory over Singapore on 27 October 1994.[197] While the largest winning margin of 152 points is held by two countries, Japan (a 155–3 win over Chinese Taipei) and Argentina (152–0 over Paraguay) both in 2002.[197]
+
+The record attendance for a rugby union game was set on 15 July 2000 in which New Zealand defeated Australia 39–35 in a Bledisloe Cup game at Stadium Australia in Sydney before 109,874 fans.[198] The record attendance for a match in Europe of 104,000 (at the time a world record) was set on 1 March 1975 when Scotland defeated Wales 12–10 at Murrayfield in Edinburgh during the 1975 Five Nations Championship.[198] The record attendance for a domestic club match is 99,124, set when Racing 92 defeated Toulon in the 2016 Top 14 final on 24 June at Camp Nou in Barcelona. The match had been moved from its normal site of Stade de France near Paris due to scheduling conflicts with France's hosting of UEFA Euro 2016.[199]
+
+Thomas Hughes 1857 novel Tom Brown's Schooldays, set at Rugby School, includes a rugby football match, also portrayed in the 1940s film of the same name. James Joyce mentions Irish team Bective Rangers in several of his works, including Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939), while his 1916 semi-autobiographical work A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has an account of Ireland international James Magee.[200] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his 1924 Sherlock Holmes tale The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, mentions that Dr Watson played rugby for Blackheath.[201]
+
+Henri Rousseau's 1908 work Joueurs de football shows two pairs of rugby players competing.[202] Other French artists to have represented the sport in their works include Albert Gleizes' Les Joueurs de football (1912), Robert Delaunay's Football. L'Équipe de Cardiff (1916) and André Lhote's Partie de Rugby (1917).[203] The 1928 Gold Medal for Art at the Antwerp Olympics was won by Luxembourg's Jean Jacoby for his work Rugby.[204]
+
+In film, Ealing Studios' 1949 comedy A Run for Your Money and the 1979 BBC Wales television film Grand Slam both centre on fans attending a match.[205] Films that explore the sport in more detail include independent production Old Scores (1991) and Forever Strong (2008). Invictus (2009), based on John Carlin's book Playing the Enemy, explores the events of the 1995 Rugby World Cup and Nelson Mandela's attempt to use the sport to connect South Africa's people post-apartheid.[206][207]
+
+In public art and sculpture there are many works dedicated to the sport. There is a 27 ft bronze statue of a rugby line-out by pop artist Gerald Laing at Twickenham[208] and one of rugby administrator Sir Tasker Watkins at the Millennium Stadium.[209] Rugby players to have been honoured with statues include Gareth Edwards in Cardiff and Danie Craven in Stellenbosch.[210]

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+Bahrain (/bɑːˈreɪn/ (listen); Arabic: البحرين‎ al-Baḥrayn Arabic pronunciation: [al baħrajn] (listen)), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain (Arabic: مملكة البحرين‎ Mamlakat al-Baḥrayn), is a sovereign state in the Persian Gulf. The island nation comprises a small archipelago made up of 40 natural islands and an additional 51 artificial islands, centered around Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 percent of the country's landmass. The country is situated between the Qatar peninsula and the north eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the 25-kilometre (16 mi) King Fahd Causeway. According to the 2010 census, Bahrain's population is over 1.2 million, of which around half are non-nationals.[11] At 780 square kilometres (300 sq mi) in size, it is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore.[12] The capital and largest city is Manama.
+
+Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilization.[13] It has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century.[14] Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to convert to Islam, during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad in 628 CE. Following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was ruled by the Portuguese Empire from 1521 until 1602, following the conquest by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty under the Persian Empire. In 1783, the Bani Utbah clan captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, with Ahmed al Fateh as Bahrain's first hakim.
+
+In the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. In 1971, it declared independence. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared an Islamic constitutional monarchy in 2002.
+
+In 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring.[15] Bahrain's ruling al-Khalifa royal family has been accused and criticized for human rights abuses including imprisonment, torture and execution of dissidents, political opposition figures and its majority Shia Muslim population.[16][17]
+
+Bahrain developed the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf,[18] the result of decades of investing in the banking and tourism sectors;[19] many of the world's largest financial institutions have a presence in the country's capital. It subsequently has a high Human Development Index and is recognised by the World Bank as a high-income economy. Bahrain is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
+
+
+
+Bahrayn is the dual form of Arabic bahr ("sea"), so al-Bahrayn originally means "the two seas". However, the name has been lexicalised as a feminine proper noun and does not follow the grammatical rules for duals; thus its form is always Bahrayn and never Bahrān, the expected nominative form. Endings are added to the word with no changes, as in the name of the national anthem Bahraynunā ("our Bahrain") or the demonym Bahraynī. The mediaeval grammarian al-Jawahari commented on this saying that the more formally correct term Bahrī (lit. "belonging to the sea") would have been misunderstood and so was unused.[20]
+
+It remains disputed which "two seas" the name Bahrayn originally refers to.[21] The term appears five times in the Quran, but does not refer to the modern island—originally known to the Arabs as Awal—but, rather, to all of Eastern Arabia (most notably al-Katif and al-Hasa).[21]
+
+Today, Bahrain's "two seas" are generally taken to be the bay east and west of the island,[22] the seas north and south of the island,[23] or the salt and fresh water present above and below the ground.[20] In addition to wells, there are areas of the sea north of Bahrain where fresh water bubbles up in the middle of the salt water as noted by visitors since antiquity.[24] An alternate theory with regard to Bahrain's toponymy is offered by the al-Ahsa region, which suggests that the two seas were the Great Green Ocean (the Persian Gulf) and a peaceful lake on the Arabian mainland.
+
+Until the late Middle Ages, "Bahrain" referred to the region of Eastern Arabia that included Southern Iraq, Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, and Bahrain. The region stretched from Basra in Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman. This was Iqlīm al-Bahrayn's "Bahrayn Province". The exact date at which the term "Bahrain" began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown.[25] The entire coastal strip of Eastern Arabia was known as "Bahrain" for a millennium.[26] The island and kingdom were also commonly spelled Bahrein[14][27] into the 1950s.
+
+Bahrain was home to Dilmun, an important Bronze Age trade centre linking Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.[28] Bahrain was later ruled by the Assyrians and Babylonians.[29]
+
+From the sixth to third century BC, Bahrain was part of the Achaemenid Empire. By about 250 BC, Parthia brought the Persian Gulf under its control and extended its influence as far as Oman. The Parthians established garrisons along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf to control trade routes.[30]
+
+During the classical era, Bahrain was referred to by the ancient Greeks as Tylos, the centre of pearl trading, when the Greek admiral Nearchus serving under Alexander the Great landed on Bahrain.[31] Nearchus is believed to have been the first of Alexander's commanders to visit the island, and he found a verdant land that was part of a wide trading network; he recorded: "That on the island of Tylos, situated in the Persian Gulf, are large plantations of cotton trees, from which are manufactured clothes called sindones, of strongly differing degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive. The use of these is not confined to India, but extends to Arabia."[32] The Greek historian Theophrastus states that much of Bahrain was covered by these cotton trees and that Bahrain was famous for exporting walking canes engraved with emblems that were customarily carried in Babylon.[33]
+
+Alexander had planned to settle Greek colonists on Bahrain, and although it is not clear that this happened on the scale he envisaged, Bahrain became very much part of the Hellenised world: the language of the upper classes was Greek (although Aramaic was in everyday use), while Zeus was worshipped in the form of the Arabian sun-god Shams.[34] Bahrain even became the site of Greek athletic contests.[35]
+
+The Greek historian Strabo believed the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain.[36] Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain.[37][38] This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said that: "In the Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or Tylos, and Aradus, which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples."[39] The people of Tyre in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, and the similarity in the words "Tylos" and "Tyre" has been commented upon.[40] However, there is little evidence of any human settlement at all on Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place.[41]
+
+The name Tylos is thought to be a Hellenisation of the Semitic Tilmun (from Dilmun).[42] The term Tylos was commonly used for the islands until Ptolemy's Geographia when the inhabitants are referred to as Thilouanoi.[43] Some place names in Bahrain go back to the Tylos era; for instance the name of Arad, a residential suburb of Muharraq, is believed to originate from "Arados", the ancient Greek name for Muharraq.[31]
+
+In the 3rd century, Ardashir I, the first ruler of the Sassanid dynasty, marched on Oman and Bahrain, where he defeated Sanatruq the ruler of Bahrain.[44] At this time, Bahrain was known as Mishmahig (which in Middle-Persian/Pahlavi means "ewe-fish").[45]
+
+Bahrain was also the site of worship of an ox deity called Awal. Worshipers built a large statue to Awal in Muharraq, although it has now been lost. For many centuries after Tylos, Bahrain was known as Awal. By the 5th century, Bahrain became a centre for Nestorian Christianity, with the village Samahij[46] as the seat of bishops. In 410, according to the Oriental Syriac Church synodal records, a bishop named Batai was excommunicated from the church in Bahrain.[43] As a sect, the Nestorians were often persecuted as heretics by the Byzantine Empire, but Bahrain was outside the Empire's control, offering some safety. The names of several Muharraq villages today reflect Bahrain's Christian legacy, with Al Dair meaning "the monastery".
+
+Bahrain's pre-Islamic population consisted of Christian Arabs (mostly Abd al-Qays), Persians (Zoroastrians), Jews,[47] and Aramaic-speaking agriculturalists.[48][49][50] According to Robert Bertram Serjeant, the Baharna may be the Arabised "descendants of converts from the original population of Christians (Aramaeans), Jews and Persians inhabiting the island and cultivated coastal provinces of Eastern Arabia at the time of the Muslim conquest".[48][51] The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Bahrain were Aramaic speakers and to some degree Persian speakers, while Syriac functioned as a liturgical language.[49]
+
+Muhammad's first interaction with the people of Bahrain was the Al Kudr Invasion. Muhammad ordered a surprise attack on the Banu Salim tribe for allegedly plotting to attack Medina. He had received news that some tribes were assembling an army in Bahrain and preparing to attack the mainland. But the tribesmen retreated when they learned Muhammad was leading an army to do battle with them.[52][53]
+
+Traditional Islamic accounts state that Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami was sent as an envoy during the Expedition of Zayd ibn Harithah (Hisma)[54][55] to the Bahrain region by the prophet Muhammad in AD 628 and that Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi, the local ruler, responded to his mission and converted the entire area.[56][57]
+
+In 899, the Qarmatians, a millenarian Ismaili Muslim sect, seized Bahrain, seeking to create a utopian society based on reason and redistribution of property among initiates. Thereafter, the Qarmatians demanded tribute from the caliph in Baghdad, and in 930 sacked Mecca and Medina, bringing the sacred Black Stone back to their base in Ahsa, in medieval Bahrain, for ransom. According to historian Al-Juwayni, the stone was returned 22 years later in 951 under mysterious circumstances. Wrapped in a sack, it was thrown into the Great Mosque of Kufa in Iraq, accompanied by a note saying "By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back." The theft and removal of the Black Stone caused it to break into seven pieces.[58][59][60]
+
+Following their 976 defeat by the Abbasids,[61] the Qarmatians were overthrown by the Arab Uyunid dynasty of al-Hasa, who took over the entire Bahrain region in 1076.[62] The Uyunids controlled Bahrain until 1235, when the archipelago was briefly occupied by the Persian ruler of Fars. In 1253, the Bedouin Usfurids brought down the Uyunid dynasty, thereby gaining control over eastern Arabia, including the islands of Bahrain. In 1330, the archipelago became a tributary state of the rulers of Hormuz,[25] though locally the islands were controlled by the Shi'ite Jarwanid dynasty of Qatif.[63]
+In the mid-15th century, the archipelago came under the rule of the Jabrids, a Bedouin dynasty also based in Al-Ahsa that ruled most of eastern Arabia.
+
+In 1521, the Portuguese Empire allied with Hormuz and seized Bahrain from the Jabrid ruler Muqrin ibn Zamil, who was killed during the takeover. Portuguese rule lasted for around 80 years, during which time they depended mainly on Sunni Persian governors.[25] The Portuguese were expelled from the islands in 1602 by Abbas I of the Safavid Empire,[64] which gave impetus to Shia Islam.[65] For the next two centuries, Persian rulers retained control of the archipelago, interrupted by the 1717 and 1738 invasions of the Ibadis of Oman.[66] During most of this period, they resorted to governing Bahrain indirectly, either through the city of Bushehr or through immigrant Sunni Arab clans. The latter were tribes returning to the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf from Persian territories in the north who were known as Huwala.[25][67][68] In 1753, the Huwala clan of Nasr Al-Madhkur invaded Bahrain on behalf of the Iranian Zand leader Karim Khan Zand and restored direct Iranian rule.[68]
+
+In 1783, Al-Madhkur lost the islands of Bahrain following his defeat by the Bani Utbah tribe at the 1782 Battle of Zubarah. Bahrain was not new territory to the Bani Utbah; they had been a presence there since the 17th century.[69] During that time, they started purchasing date palm gardens in Bahrain; a document shows that 81 years before arrival of the Al-Khalifa, one of the sheikhs of the Al Bin Ali tribe (an offshoot of the Bani Utbah) had bought a palm garden from Mariam bint Ahmed Al Sanadi in Sitra island.[70]
+
+The Al Bin Ali were the dominant group controlling the town of Zubarah on the Qatar peninsula,[71][72] originally the center of power of the Bani Utbah. After the Bani Utbah gained control of Bahrain, the Al Bin Ali had a practically independent status there as a self-governing tribe. They used a flag with four red and three white stripes, called the Al-Sulami flag[73] in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the Eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Later, different Arab family clans and tribes from Qatar moved to Bahrain to settle after the fall of Nasr Al-Madhkur of Bushehr. These families included the House of Khalifa, Al-Ma'awdah, Al-Fadhil, Al-Mannai, Al-Noaimi, Al-Sulaiti, Al-Sadah, Al-Thawadi and other families and tribes.[74]
+
+The House of Khalifa moved from Qatar to Bahrain in 1799. Originally, their ancestors were expelled from Umm Qasr in central Arabia by the Ottomans due to their predatory habits of preying on caravans in Basra and trading ships in Shatt al-Arab waterway until Turks expelled them to Kuwait in 1716, where they remained until 1766.[75]
+
+Around the 1760s, the Al Jalahma and House of Khalifa, both belonging to the Utub Federation, migrated to Zubarah in modern-day Qatar, leaving Al Sabah as the sole proprietors of Kuwait.[76]
+
+In the early 19th century, Bahrain was invaded by both the Omanis and the Al Sauds. In 1802 it was governed by a 12-year-old child, when the Omani ruler Sayyid Sultan installed his son, Salim, as governor in the Arad Fort.[77] In 1816, the British political resident in the Gulf, William Bruce, received a letter from the Sheikh of Bahrain who was concerned about a rumour that Britain would support an attack on the island by the Imam of Muscat. He sailed to Bahrain to reassure the Sheikh that this was not the case and drew up an informal agreement assuring the Sheikh that Britain would remain a neutral party.[78]
+
+In 1820, the Al Khalifa tribe were recognised by Great Britain as the rulers ("Al-Hakim" in Arabic) of Bahrain after signing a treaty relationship.[79] However, ten years later they were forced to pay yearly tributes to Egypt despite seeking Persian and British protection.[80]
+
+In 1860, the Al Khalifas used the same tactic when the British tried to overpower Bahrain. Writing letters to the Persians and Ottomans, Al Khalifas agreed to place Bahrain under the latter's protection in March due to offering better conditions. Eventually the Government of British India overpowered Bahrain when the Persians refused to protect it. Colonel Pelly signed a new treaty with Al Khalifas placing Bahrain under British rule and protection.[80]
+
+Following the Qatari–Bahraini War in 1868, British representatives signed another agreement with the Al Khalifas. It specified that the ruler could not dispose of any of his territory except to the United Kingdom and could not enter into relationships with any foreign government without British consent.[81][82] In return the British promised to protect Bahrain from all aggression by sea and to lend support in case of land attack.[82] More importantly the British promised to support the rule of the Al Khalifa in Bahrain, securing its unstable position as rulers of the country. Other agreements in 1880 and 1892 sealed the protectorate status of Bahrain to the British.[82]
+
+Unrest amongst the people of Bahrain began when Britain officially established complete dominance over the territory in 1892. The first revolt and widespread uprising took place in March 1895 against Sheikh Issa bin Ali, then ruler of Bahrain.[83] Sheikh Issa was the first of the Al Khalifa to rule without Persian relations. Sir Arnold Wilson, Britain's representative in the Persian Gulf and author of The Persian Gulf, arrived in Bahrain from Muscat at this time.[83] The uprising developed further with some protesters killed by British forces.[83]
+
+Before the development of petroleum, the island was largely devoted to pearl fisheries and, as late as the 19th century, was considered to be the finest in the world.[14] In 1903, German explorer, Hermann Burchardt, visited Bahrain and took many photographs of historical sites, including the old Qaṣr es-Sheikh, photos now stored at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.[84] Prior to the First World War, there were about 400 vessels hunting pearls and an annual export of more than £30,000.[27]
+
+In 1911, a group of Bahraini merchants demanded restrictions on the British influence in the country. The group's leaders were subsequently arrested and exiled to India. In 1923, the British introduced administrative reforms and replaced Sheikh Issa bin Ali with his son. Some clerical opponents and families such as al Dossari left or were exiled to Saudi Arabia and Iran.[85] Three years later the British placed the country under the de facto rule of Charles Belgrave who operated as an adviser to the ruler until 1957.[86][87] Belgrave brought a number of reforms such as establishment of the country's first modern school in 1919, the Persian Gulf's first girls' school in 1928[citation needed] and the abolition of slavery in 1937.[88] At the same time, the pearl diving industry developed at a rapid pace.
+
+In 1927, Rezā Shāh, then Shah of Iran, demanded sovereignty over Bahrain in a letter to the League of Nations, a move that prompted Belgrave to undertake harsh measures including encouraging conflicts between Shia and Sunni Muslims in order to bring down the uprisings and limit the Iranian influence.[89] Belgrave even went further by suggesting to rename the Persian Gulf to the "Arabian Gulf"; however, the proposal was refused by the British government.[86] Britain's interest in Bahrain's development was motivated by concerns over Saudi and Iranian ambitions in the region.
+
+The Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company of California (Socal),[90] discovered oil in 1931 and production began the following year. This was to bring rapid modernisation to Bahrain. Relations with the United Kingdom became closer, as evidenced by the British Royal Navy moving its entire Middle Eastern command from Bushehr in Iran to Bahrain in 1935.[citation needed]
+
+In the early 1930s, Bahrain Airport was developed. Imperial Airways flew there, including the Handley Page HP42 aircraft. Later in the same decade the Bahrain Maritime Airport was established, for flying-boats and seaplanes.[91]
+
+Bahrain participated in the Second World War on the Allied side, joining on 10 September 1939. On 19 October 1940, four Italian SM.82s bombers bombed Bahrain alongside Dhahran oilfields in Saudi Arabia,[92] targeting Allied-operated oil refineries.[93] Although minimal damage was caused in both locations, the attack forced the Allies to upgrade Bahrain's defences, an action which further stretched Allied military resources.[93]
+
+After World War II, increasing anti-British sentiment spread throughout the Arab World and led to riots in Bahrain. The riots focused on the Jewish community.[94] In 1948, following rising hostilities and looting,[95] most members of Bahrain's Jewish community abandoned their properties and evacuated to Bombay, later settling in Israel (Pardes Hanna-Karkur) and the United Kingdom. As of 2008[update], 37 Jews remained in the country.[95] In the 1950s, the National Union Committee, formed by reformists following sectarian clashes, demanded an elected popular assembly, removal of Belgrave and carried out a number of protests and general strikes. In 1965 a month-long uprising broke out after hundreds of workers at the Bahrain Petroleum Company were laid off.[96]
+
+On 15 August 1971,[97][98] though the Shah of Iran was claiming historical sovereignty over Bahrain, he accepted a referendum held by the United Nations and eventually Bahrain declared independence and signed a new treaty of friendship with the United Kingdom. Bahrain joined the United Nations and the Arab League later in the year.[99] The oil boom of the 1970s benefited Bahrain greatly, although the subsequent downturn hurt the economy. The country had already begun diversification of its economy and benefited further from the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s, when Bahrain replaced Beirut as the Middle East's financial hub after Lebanon's large banking sector was driven out of the country by the war.[100]
+
+Following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran in 1981, the Bahraini Shia population orchestrated a failed coup attempt under the auspices of a front organisation, the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain. The coup would have installed a Shia cleric exiled in Iran, Hujjatu l-Islām Hādī al-Mudarrisī, as supreme leader heading a theocratic government.[101] In December 1994, a group of youths threw stones at female runners for running bare-legged during an international marathon. The resulting clash with police soon grew into civil unrest.[102][103]
+
+A popular uprising occurred between 1994 and 2000 in which leftists, liberals and Islamists joined forces.[104] The event resulted in approximately forty deaths and ended after Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa became the Emir of Bahrain in 1999.[105] He instituted elections for parliament, gave women the right to vote, and released all political prisoners.[106] A referendum on 14–15 February 2001 massively supported the National Action Charter.[107] As part of the adoption of the National Action Charter on 14 February 2002, Bahrain changed its formal name from the State (dawla) of Bahrain to the Kingdom of Bahrain.[108]
+
+The country participated in military action against the Taliban in October 2001 by deploying a frigate in the Arabian Sea for rescue and humanitarian operations.[109] As a result, in November of that year, US president George W. Bush's administration designated Bahrain as a "major non-NATO ally".[109] Bahrain opposed the invasion of Iraq and had offered Saddam Hussein asylum in the days prior to the invasion.[109] Relations improved with neighbouring Qatar after the border dispute over the Hawar Islands was resolved by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2001. Following the political liberalisation of the country, Bahrain negotiated a free trade agreement with the United States in 2004.[110]
+
+Inspired by the regional Arab Spring, Bahrain's Shia majority started large protests against its Sunni rulers in early 2011.[111][112]:162–3 The government initially allowed protests following a pre-dawn raid on protesters camped in Pearl Roundabout.[112]:73–4, 88 A month later it requested security assistance from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries and declared a three-month state of emergency.[112]:132–9 The government then launched a crackdown on the opposition that included conducting thousands of arrests and systematic torture.[113][114][115][116][117] Almost daily clashes between protesters and security forces led to dozens of deaths.[118] Protests, sometimes staged by opposition parties, were ongoing.[119][120][121][122][123] More than 80 civilians and 13 policemen have been killed as of March 2014[update].[124]
+According to Physicians for Human Rights, 34 of these deaths were related to government usage of tear gas originally manufactured by U.S.-based Federal Laboratories.[125][126] The lack of coverage by Arab media in the Persian Gulf,[127] as compared to other Arab Spring uprisings, has sparked several controversies. Iran is alleged by United States and others to have a hand in the arming of Bahraini militants.[128]
+
+Bahrain is a generally flat and arid archipelago in the Persian Gulf. It consists of a low desert plain rising gently to a low central escarpment with the highest point the 134 m (440 ft) Mountain of Smoke (Jabal ad Dukhan).[129][130] Bahrain had a total area of 665 km2 (257 sq mi) but due to land reclamation, the area increased to 780 km2 (300 sq mi), which is slightly larger than Anglesey.[130]
+
+Often described as an archipelago of 33 islands,[131] extensive land reclamation projects have changed this; by August 2008 the number of islands and island groups had increased to 84.[132] Bahrain does not share a land boundary with another country but does have a 161 km (100 mi) coastline. The country also claims a further 22 km (12 nmi) of territorial sea and a 44 km (24 nmi) contiguous zone. Bahrain's largest islands are Bahrain Island, the Hawar Islands, Muharraq Island, Umm an Nasan, and Sitra. Bahrain has mild winters and very hot, humid summers. The country's natural resources include large quantities of oil and natural gas as well as fish in the offshore waters. Arable land constitutes only 2.82%[3] of the total area.
+
+About 92% of Bahrain is desert with periodic droughts and dust storms, the main natural hazards for Bahrainis.[133] Environmental issues facing Bahrain include desertification resulting from the degradation of limited arable land, coastal degradation (damage to coastlines, coral reefs, and sea vegetation) resulting from oil spills and other discharges from large tankers, oil refineries, distribution stations, and illegal land reclamation at places such as Tubli Bay. The agricultural and domestic sectors' over-utilisation of the Dammam Aquifer, the principal aquifer in Bahrain, has led to its salinisation by adjacent brackish and saline water bodies. A hydrochemical study identified the locations of the sources of aquifer salinisation and delineated their areas of influence. The investigation indicates that the aquifer water quality is significantly modified as groundwater flows from the northwestern parts of Bahrain, where the aquifer receives its water by lateral underflow from eastern Saudi Arabia, to the southern and southeastern parts. Four types of salinisation of the aquifer are identified: brackish-water up-flow from the underlying brackish-water zones in north-central, western, and eastern regions; seawater intrusion in the eastern region; intrusion of sabkha water in the southwestern region; and irrigation return flow in a local area in the western region. Four alternatives for the management of groundwater quality that are available to the water authorities in Bahrain are discussed and their priority areas are proposed, based on the type and extent of each salinisation source, in addition to groundwater use in that area.[134]
+
+The Zagros Mountains across the Persian Gulf in Iran cause low-level winds to be directed toward Bahrain. Dust storms from Iraq and Saudi Arabia transported by northwesterly winds, locally called shamal wind, causing reduced visibility in the months of June and July.[135]
+
+Summers are very hot. The seas around Bahrain are very shallow, heating up quickly in the summer to produce very high humidity, especially at night. Summer temperatures may reach up to 50 °C (122 °F) under the right conditions.[136] Rainfall in Bahrain is minimal and irregular. Precipitation mostly occurs in winter, with an average of 70.8mm of rainfall recorded annually.
+
+More than 330 species of birds were recorded in the Bahrain archipelago, 26 species of which breed in the country. Millions of migratory birds pass through the Persian Gulf region in the winter and autumn months.[138] One globally endangered species, Chlamydotis undulata, is a regular migrant in the autumn.[138] The many islands and shallow seas of Bahrain are globally important for the breeding of the Socotra cormorant; up to 100,000 pairs of these birds were recorded over the Hawar islands.[138]  Bahrain's national bird is the bulbul while its national animal is the Arabian oryx.
+
+Only 18 species of mammals are found in Bahrain, animals such as gazelles, desert rabbits and hedgehogs are common in the wild but the Arabian oryx was hunted to extinction on the island.[138] Twenty-five species of amphibians and reptiles were recorded as well as 21 species of butterflies and 307 species of flora.[138] The marine biotopes are diverse and include extensive sea grass beds and mudflats, patchy coral reefs as well as offshore islands. Sea grass beds are important foraging grounds for some threatened species such as dugongs and the green turtle.[139] In 2003, Bahrain banned the capture of sea cows, marine turtles and dolphins within its territorial waters.[138]
+
+The Hawar Islands Protected Area provides valuable feeding and breeding grounds for a variety of migratory seabirds, it is an internationally recognised site for bird migration. The breeding colony of Socotra cormorant on Hawar Islands is the largest in the world, and the dugongs foraging around the archipelago form the second-largest dugong aggregation after Australia.[139]
+
+Bahrain has five designated protected areas, four of which are marine environments.[138] They are:
+
+Bahrain under the Al-Khalifa is a constitutional monarchy headed by the King, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. King Hamad enjoys wide executive powers which include appointing the Prime Minister and his ministers, commanding the army, chairing the Higher Judicial Council, appointing the parliament's upper house and dissolving its elected lower house.[112](p15) The head of government is the unelected prime minister, Shaikh Khalīfa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the uncle of the current king who has served in this position since 1971, making him the longest-serving prime minister in the world.[140] In 2010, about half of the government was composed of the Al Khalifa family.[141]
+
+Bahrain has a bicameral National Assembly (al-Jam'iyyah al-Watani) consisting of the Shura Council (Majlis Al-Shura) with 40 seats and the Council of Representatives (Majlis Al-Nuwab) with 40 seats. The forty members of the Shura are appointed by the king. In the Council of Representatives, 40 members are elected by absolute majority vote in single-member constituencies to serve four-year terms.[142] The appointed council "exercises a de facto veto" over the elected, because draft acts must be approved so they may pass into law. After approval, the king may ratify and issue the act or return it within six months to the National Assembly where it may only pass into law if approved by two thirds of both councils.[112](p15)
+
+In 1973, the country held its first parliamentary elections; however, two years later, the late emir dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution after parliament rejected the State Security Law.[96] The period between 2002 and 2010 saw three parliamentary elections. The first, held in 2002 was boycotted by the opposition, Al Wefaq, which won a majority in the second in 2006 and third in 2010.[143] The 2011 by-election was held to replace 18 members of Al Wefaq who resigned in protest against government crackdown.[144][145]
+
+The opening up of politics saw big gains for both Shīa and Sunnī Islamists in elections, which gave them a parliamentary platform to pursue their policies.[146] It gave a new prominence to clerics within the political system, with the most senior Shia religious leader, Sheikh Isa Qassim, playing a vital role.[147] This was especially evident when in 2005 the government called off the Shia branch of the "Family law" after over 100,000 Shia took to the streets. Islamists opposed the law because "neither elected MPs nor the government has the authority to change the law because these institutions could misinterpret the word of God". The law was supported by women activists who said they were "suffering in silence". They managed to organise a rally attended by 500 participants.[148][149][150] Ghada Jamsheer, a leading woman activist[151] said the government was using the law as a "bargaining tool with opposition Islamic groups".[152]
+
+Analysts of democratisation in the Middle East cite the Islamists' references to respect human rights in their justification for these programmes as evidence that these groups can serve as a progressive force in the region.[153] Some Islamist parties have been particularly critical of the government's readiness to sign international treaties such as the United Nations' International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. At a parliamentary session in June 2006 to discuss ratification of the Convention, Sheikh Adel Mouwda, the former leader of salafist party, Asalah, explained the party's objections: "The convention has been tailored by our enemies, God kill them all, to serve their needs and protect their interests rather than ours. This why we have eyes from the American Embassy watching us during our sessions, to ensure things are swinging their way".[154]
+
+The kingdom has a small but well equipped military called the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF), numbering around 13,000 personnel.[155] The supreme commander of the Bahraini military is King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the deputy supreme commander is the Crown Prince, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.[156][157]
+
+The BDF is primarily equipped with United States equipment, such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-5 Freedom Fighter, UH-60 Blackhawk, M60A3 tanks, and the ex-USS Jack Williams, an Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate renamed the RBNS Sabha.[158][159]
+
+The Government of Bahrain has close relations with the United States, having signed a cooperative agreement with the United States Military and has provided the United States a base in Juffair since the early 1990s, although a US naval presence existed since 1948.[160] This is the home of the headquarters for Commander, United States Naval Forces Central Command (COMUSNAVCENT) / United States Fifth Fleet (COMFIFTHFLT),[161] and around 6,000 United States military personnel.[162]
+
+Bahrain participates in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against the Shia Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh,[163] who was deposed in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.[164] Many civilians have died and large parts of the infrastructure in this region have been destroyed.[165][166][167]
+
+The permanent British Royal Navy base at Mina Salman, HMS Jufair, was officially opened in April 2018.[168]
+
+Bahrain has established bilateral relations with 190 countries worldwide.[169] As of 2012[update], Bahrain maintains a network of 25 embassies, 3 consulates and 4 permanent missions to the Arab League, United Nations and European Union respectively.[170] Bahrain also hosts 36 embassies. Bahrain plays a modest, moderating role in regional politics and adheres to the views of the Arab League on Middle East peace and Palestinian rights by supporting the two state solution.[171] Bahrain is also one of the founding members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.[172] Relations with Iran tend to be tense as a result of a failed coup in 1981 which Bahrain blames Iran for and occasional claims of Iranian sovereignty over Bahrain by ultra-conservative elements in the Iranian public.[173][174]
+
+Saudi Arabian troops were sent into Bahrain to crush pro-democracy protests in 2011.[175]
+
+The period between 1975 and 1999 known as the "State Security Law Era", saw wide range of human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, detention without trial, torture and forced exile.[176][177] After the Emir Hamad Al Khalifa (now king) succeeded his father Isa Al Khalifa in 1999, he introduced wide reforms and human rights improved significantly.[178] These moves were described by Amnesty International as representing a "historic period of human rights".[106]
+
+Human rights conditions started to decline by 2007 when torture began to be employed again.[179] In 2011, Human Rights Watch described the country's human rights situation as "dismal".[180] Due to this, Bahrain lost some of the high International rankings it had gained before.[181][182][183][184][185]
+
+In 2011, Bahrain was criticised for its crackdown on the Arab spring uprising. In September, a government-appointed commission confirmed reports of grave human rights violations, including systematic torture. The government promised to introduce reforms and avoid repeating the "painful events".[186] However, reports by human rights organisations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued in April 2012 said the same violations were still happening.[187][188]
+
+The documentary TV film Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark, which was produced by the Qatari channel Al Jazeera, talks about the Bahraini protests during 2011. This TV film showed all the violations that have been taken against the rights of Bahraini citizens during the uprising. It also caused some problems between the Bahraini and the Qatari governments.[189][190] Relations between Bahrain and Qatar improved following a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in November 2014 in which it was announced Bahrain diplomats would return to Qatar.[191]
+
+Amnesty International's 2015 report on the country points to continued suppression of dissent, restricted freedom of expression, unjust imprisonment, and frequent torture and other ill-treatment of its citizens.[192] Human Rights Watch in its 2015 report described the situation of a Shia majority as more than tragic.[193] Freedom House labels Bahrain as "not free" in its 2016 report.[194] On 7 July 2016, the European Parliament adopted, with a large majority, a resolution condemning human rights abuses performed by Bahraini authorities, and strongly called for an end to the ongoing repression against the country's human rights defenders, political opposition and civil society.[195]
+
+In August 2017, United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke against the discrimination of Shias in Bahrain, saying, "Members of the Shia community there continue to report ongoing discrimination in government employment, education, and the justice system," and that "Bahrain must stop discriminating against the Shia communities." He also stated that "In Bahrain, the government continue to question, detain and arrest Shia clerics, community members and opposition politicians."[196][197] However, in September 2017, the U.S. State Department has approved arms sales packages worth more than $3.8 billion to Bahrain including F-16 jets, upgrades, missiles and patrol boats.[198][199] In its latest report the Amnesty International accused both, US and the UK governments, of turning a blind eye to horrific abuses of human rights by the ruling Bahraini regime.[200] On 31 January 2018, Amnesty International reported that the Bahraini government expelled four of its citizens after having revoked their nationality in 2012; turning them into stateless people.[201] On 21 February 2018, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to a further five years in jail for tweets and documentation of human rights violations.[202] On behalf of the ruling family, Bahraini police have received training on how to deal with public protests from the British government.[203][unreliable source?][204]
+
+On 11 July 2020, a government watchdog in Bahrain claimed that the confessions of two pro-democracy campaigners were extracted by torture. Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa from Bahrain were leading figures in the pro-democracy protests of 2011. They were arrested in 2014 and accused of killing a police officer.[205] On July 13, 2020, the highest Court in Bahrain overruled the previous judgment and upheld the death sentences for both men. The judgment was criticized by Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, who stated: “Today’s verdict is yet another dark stain in the struggle for human rights in Bahrain.”[206]
+
+Women in Bahrain acquired voting rights and the right to stand in national elections in the 2002 election.[207] However, no women were elected to office in that year's polls.[208] In response to the failure of women candidates, six were appointed to the Shura Council, which also includes representatives of the Kingdom's indigenous Jewish and Christian communities.[209] Dr. Nada Haffadh became the country's first female cabinet minister on her appointment as Minister of Health in 2004. The quasi-governmental women's group, the Supreme Council for Women, trained female candidates to take part in the 2006 general election. When Bahrain was elected to head the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 it appointed lawyer and women's rights activist Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa President of the United Nations General Assembly, only the third woman in history to head the world body.[210] Female activist Ghada Jamsheer said "The government used women's rights as a decorative tool on the international level." She referred to the reforms as "artificial and marginal" and accused the government of "hinder[ing] non-governmental women societies".[152]
+
+In 2006, Lateefa Al Gaood became the first female MP after winning by default.[211] The number rose to four after the 2011 by-elections.[212] In 2008, Houda Nonoo was appointed ambassador to the United States making her the first Jewish ambassador of any Arab country.[213] In 2011, Alice Samaan, a Christian woman was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom.[214]
+
+Bahraini journalists risk prosecution for offenses which include "undermining" the government and religion. Self-censorship is widespread. Journalists were targeted by officials during anti-government protests in 2011. Three editors from opposition daily Al-Wasat were sacked and later fined for publishing "false" news. Several foreign correspondents were expelled.[215]
+
+Most domestic broadcasters are state-run. An independent commission, set up to look into the unrest, found that state media coverage was at times inflammatory. It said opposition groups suffered from lack of access to mainstream media, and recommended that the government "consider relaxing censorship". Bahrain will host the Saudi-financed Alarab News Channel, expected to launch in December 2012. It will be based at a planned "Media City". An opposition satellite station, Lualua TV, operates from London but has found its signals blocked.[215]
+
+By June 2012, Bahrain had 961,000 internet users.[216] The platform "provides a welcome free space for journalists, although one that is increasingly monitored", according to Reporters Without Borders. Rigorous filtering targets political, human rights, religious material and content deemed obscene. Bloggers and other netizens were among those detained during protests in 2011.[215]
+
+The first municipality in Bahrain was the 8-member Manama municipality which was established in July 1919.[217] Members of the municipality were elected annually; the municipality was said to have been the first municipality to be established in the Arab world.[217] The municipality was in charge of cleaning roads and renting buildings to tenants and shops. By 1929, it undertook road expansions as well as opening markets and slaughterhouses.[217] In 1958, the municipality started water purification projects.[217] In 1960, Bahrain comprised four municipalities: Manama, Hidd, Al Muharraq, and Riffa.[218] Over the next 30 years, the 4 municipalities were divided into 12 municipalities as settlements such as Hamad Town and Isa Town grew.[218] These municipalities were administered from Manama under a central municipal council whose members are appointed by the king.[219]
+
+The first municipal elections to be held in Bahrain after independence in 1971, was in 2002.[220] The most recent was in 2010. The municipalities are listed below:
+
+After 3 July 2002, Bahrain was split into five administrative governorates, each of which has its own governor.[221] These governorates are:
+
+The Central Governorate was abolished in September 2014, its territory divided between the Northern Governorate, Southern Governorate, and Capital Governorate.[222]
+
+The United States designated Bahrain a major non-NATO ally in 2001.[223] As of October 2014[update], Bahrain is ruled by an "authoritarian regime" and is rated as "Not Free" by the U.S.-based non-governmental Freedom House.[224]
+
+According to a January 2006 report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Bahrain has the fastest-growing economy in the Arab world.[225] Bahrain also has the freest economy in the Middle East and is twelfth-freest overall in the world based on the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal.[226]
+
+In 2008, Bahrain was named the world's fastest-growing financial center by the City of London's Global Financial Centres Index.[227][228] Bahrain's banking and financial services sector, particularly Islamic banking, have benefited from the regional boom driven by demand for oil.[229] Petroleum production and processing is Bahrain's most exported product, accounting for 60% of export receipts, 70% of government revenues, and 11% of GDP.[3] Aluminium production is the second-most exported product, followed by finance and construction materials.[3]
+
+Economic conditions have fluctuated with the changing price of oil since 1985, for example during and following the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990–91. With its highly developed communication and transport facilities, Bahrain is home to a number of multinational firms and construction proceeds on several major industrial projects. A large share of exports consist of petroleum products made from imported crude oil, which accounted for 51% of the country's imports in 2007.[133] Bahrain depends heavily on food imports to feed its growing population; it relies heavily on meat imports from Australia and also imports 75% of its total fruit consumption needs.[230][231] Since only 2.9% of the country's land is arable, agriculture contributes to 0.5% of Bahrain's GDP.[231] In 2004, Bahrain signed the Bahrain–US Free Trade Agreement, which will reduce certain trade barriers between the two nations.[232] In 2011, due to the combination of the global financial crisis and the recent unrest, the gdp growth rate decreased to 1.3%, which was the lowest growth rate since 1994.[233]
+
+Access to biocapacity in Bahrain is much lower than world average. In 2016, Bahrain had 0.52 global hectares [234] of biocapacity per person within its territory, much less than the world average of 1.6 global hectares per person.[235] In 2016 Bahrain used 8.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means they use 16.5 times as much biocapacity as Bahrain contains. As a result, Bahrain is running a biocapacity deficit.[234]
+
+Unemployment, especially among the young, and the depletion of both oil and underground water resources are major long-term economic problems. In 2008, the jobless figure was at 4%,[236] with women over represented at 85% of the total.[237] In 2007 Bahrain became the first Arab country to institute unemployment benefits as part of a series of labour reforms instigated under Minister of Labour, Dr. Majeed Al Alawi.[238]
+
+As a tourist destination, Bahrain received over eight million visitors in 2008, though the exact number varies yearly.[239] Most of these are from the surrounding Arab states although an increasing number hail from outside the region due to growing awareness of the kingdom's heritage and its higher profile as a result of the Bahrain International F1 Circuit.
+
+The kingdom combines modern Arab culture and the archaeological legacy of five thousand years of civilisation. The island is home to forts including Qalat Al Bahrain which has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The Bahrain National Museum has artefacts from the country's history dating back to the island's first human inhabitants some 9000 years ago and the Beit Al Quran (Arabic: بيت القرآن, meaning: the House of Qur'an) is a museum that holds Islamic artefacts of the Qur'an. Some of the popular historical tourist attractions in the kingdom are the Al Khamis Mosque, which is one of the oldest mosques in the region, the Arad fort in Muharraq, Barbar temple, which is an ancient temple from the Dilmunite period of Bahrain, as well as the A'ali Burial Mounds and the Saar temple.[240] The Tree of Life, a 400-year-old tree that grows in the Sakhir desert with no nearby water, is also a popular tourist attraction.[241]
+
+Bird watching (primarily in the Hawar Islands), scuba diving, and horse riding are popular tourist activities in Bahrain. Many tourists from nearby Saudi Arabia and across the region visit Manama primarily for the shopping malls in the capital Manama, such as the Bahrain City Centre and Seef Mall in the Seef district of Manama. The Manama Souq and Gold Souq in the old district of Manama are also popular with tourists.[242]
+
+In January 2019 the state-run Bahrain News Agency announced the summer 2019 opening of an underwater theme park covering about 100,000 square meters with a sunken Boeing 747 as the site's centerpiece. The project is a partnership between the Supreme Council for Environment, Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), and private investors. Bahrain hopes scuba divers from around the world will visit the underwater park, which will also include artificial coral reefs, a copy of a Bahraini pearl merchant's house, and sculptures.[243] The park is intended to become the world's largest eco-friendly underwater theme park.[244]
+
+Since 2005, Bahrain hosts an annual festival in March, titled Spring of Culture, which features internationally renowned musicians and artists performing in concerts.[245] Manama was named the Arab Capital of Culture for 2012 and Capital of Arab Tourism for 2013 by the Arab League and Asian Tourism for 2014 with the Gulf Capital of Tourism for 2016 by The Gulf Cooperation Council. The 2012 festival featured concerts starring Andrea Bocelli, Julio Iglesias and other musicians.[246]
+
+Bahrain has one main international airport, the Bahrain International Airport (BIA) which is located on the island of Muharraq, in the north-east. The airport handled more than 100,000 flights and more than 8 million passengers in 2010.[247] Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air operates and bases itself in the BIA.
+
+Bahrain has a well-developed road network, particularly in Manama. The discovery of oil in the early 1930s accelerated the creation of multiple roads and highways in Bahrain, connecting several isolated villages, such as Budaiya, to Manama.[248]
+
+To the east, a bridge connected Manama to Muharraq since 1929, a new causeway was built in 1941 which replaced the old wooden bridge.[248] Currently there are three modern bridges connecting the two locations.[249] Transits between the two islands peaked after the construction of the Bahrain International Airport in 1932.[248] Ring roads and highways were later built to connect Manama to the villages of the Northern Governorate and towards towns in central and southern Bahrain.
+
+The four main islands and all the towns and villages are linked by well-constructed roads. There were 3,164 km (1,966 mi) of roadways in 2002, of which 2,433 km (1,512 mi) were paved. A causeway stretching over 2.8 km (2 mi), connect Manama with Muharraq Island, and another bridge joins Sitra to the main island. The King Fahd Causeway, measuring 24 km (15 mi), links Bahrain with the Saudi Arabian mainland via the island of Umm an-Nasan. It was completed in December 1986, and financed by Saudi Arabia. In 2008, there were 17,743,495 passengers transiting through the causeway.[250]
+
+Bahrain's port of Mina Salman is the main seaport of the country and consists of 15 berths.[251] In 2001, Bahrain had a merchant fleet of eight ships of 1,000 GT or over, totaling 270,784 GT.[252] Private vehicles and taxis are the primary means of transportation in the city.[253] A nationwide metro system is currently under construction and is due to be operational by 2023.
+
+The telecommunications sector in Bahrain officially started in 1981 with the establishment of Bahrain's first telecommunications company, Batelco and until 2004, it monopolised the sector. In 1981, there were more than 45,000 telephones in use in the country. By 1999, Batelco had more than 100,000 mobile contracts.[254] In 2002, under pressure from international bodies, Bahrain implemented its telecommunications law which included the establishment of an independent Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).[254] In 2004, Zain (a rebranded version of MTC Vodafone) started operations in Bahrain and in 2010 VIVA (owned by STC Group) became the third company to provide mobile services.[255]
+
+Bahrain has been connected to the internet since 1995 with the country's domain suffix is '.bh'. The country's connectivity score (a statistic which measures both Internet access and fixed and mobile telephone lines) is 210.4 percent per person, while the regional average in Arab States of the Persian Gulf is 135.37 percent.[256] The number of Bahraini internet users has risen from 40,000 in 2000[257] to 250,000 in 2008,[258] or from 5.95 to 33 percent of the population. As of August 2013[update], the TRA has licensed 22 Internet Service Providers.[259]
+
+The Bahraini Economic Vision 2030 published in 2008 does not indicate how the stated goal of shifting from an economy built on oil wealth to a productive, globally competitive economy will be attained. Bahrain has already diversified its exports to some extent, out of necessity. It has the smallest hydrocarbon reserves of any Gulf state, producing 48,000 barrels per day from its one onshore field.[260] The bulk of the country's revenue comes from its share in the offshore field administered by Saudi Arabia. The gas reserve in Bahrain is expected to last for less than 27 years, leaving the country with few sources of capital to pursue the development of new industries. Investment in research and development remained very low in 2013.[261]
+
+Apart from the Ministry of Education and the Higher Education Council, the two main hives of activity in science, technology, and innovation are the University of Bahrain (established in 1986) and the Bahrain Centre for Strategic, International, and Energy Studies. The latter was founded in 2009 to undertake research with a focus on strategic security and energy issues to encourage new thinking and influence policy-making.[261]
+
+Bahrain hopes to build a science culture within the kingdom and to encourage technological innovation, among other goals. In 2013, the Bahrain Science Centre was launched as an interactive educational facility targeting 6–18-year olds. The topics covered by current exhibitions include junior engineering, human health, the five senses, Earth sciences and biodiversity.[261]
+
+In April 2014, Bahrain launched its National Space Science Agency. The agency has been working to ratify international space-related agreements such as the Outer Space Treaty, the Rescue Agreement, the Space Liability Convention, the Registration Convention and the Moon Agreement. The agency plans to establish infrastructure for the observation of both outer space and the Earth.[261]
+
+In November 2008, an agreement was signed to establish a Regional Centre for Information and Communication Technology in Manama under the auspices of UNESCO. The aim is to establish a knowledge hub for the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. In March 2012, the centre hosted two high-level workshops on ICTs and education. In 2013, Bahrain topped the Arab world for internet penetration (90% of the population), trailed by the United Arab Emirates (86%) and Qatar (85%). Just half of Bahrainis and Qataris (53%) and two-thirds of those in the United Arab Emirates (64%) had access in 2009.[261]
+
+In 2012, the government devoted 2.6% of GDP to education, one of the lowest ratios in the Arab world. This ratio was on a par with investment in education in Lebanon and higher only than that in Qatar (2.4% in 2008) and Sudan (2.2% in 2009).[261]
+
+Bahrain invests little in research and development. In 2009 and 2013, this investment reportedly amounted to 0.04% of GDP, although the data were incomplete, covering only the higher education sector. The lack of comprehensive data on research and development poses a challenge for policy-makers, as data inform evidence-based policy-making.[261]
+
+The available data for researchers in 2013 only cover the higher education sector. Here, the number of researchers is equivalent to 50 per million inhabitants, compared to a global average for all employment sectors of 1,083 per million.[261]
+
+The University of Bahrain had over 20,000 students in 2014, 65% of whom are women, and around 900 faculty members, 40% of whom are women. From 1986 to 2014, university staff published 5 500 papers and books. The university spent about US$11 million per year on research in 2014, which was conducted by a contingent of 172 men and 128 women. Women thus made up 43% of researchers at the University of Bahrain in 2014.[261]
+
+Bahrain was one of 11 Arab states which counted a majority of female university graduates in science and engineering in 2014. Women accounted for 66% of graduates in natural sciences, 28% of those in engineering and 77% of those in health and welfare. It is harder to judge the contribution of women to research, as the data for 2013 only cover the higher education sector.[261]
+
+In 2014, Bahraini scientists published 155 articles in internationally cataloged journals, according to Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded). This corresponds to 15 articles per million inhabitants, compared to a global average of 176 per million inhabitants in 2013. Scientific output has risen slowly from 93 articles in 2005 and remains modest. By 2014, only Mauritania and Palestine had a smaller output in this database among Arab states.[261]
+
+Between 2008 and 2014, Bahraini scientists collaborated most with their peers from Saudi Arabia (137 articles), followed by Egypt (101), the United Kingdom (93), the United States (89) and Tunisia (75).[261]
+
+In 2010, Bahrain's population grew to 1.2 million, of which 568,399 were Bahraini and 666,172 were non-nationals.[11] It had risen from 1.05 million (517,368 non-nationals) in 2007, the year when Bahrain's population crossed the one million mark.[262] It has over 1.69 million people as of January 2020.[263] Though a majority of the population is Middle Eastern, a sizeable number of people from South Asia live in the country. In 2008, approximately 290,000 Indian nationals lived in Bahrain, making them the single largest expatriate community in the country, the majority of which hail from the south Indian state of Kerala.[264][265] Bahrain is the fourth most densely populated sovereign state in the world with a population density of 1,646 people per km2 in 2010.[11] The only sovereign states with larger population densities are city states. Much of this population is concentrated in the north of the country with the Southern Governorate being the least densely populated part.[11] The north of the country is so urbanised that it is considered by some to be one large metropolitan area.[266]
+
+Bahraini people are ethnically diverse. Shia Bahrainis are divided into two main ethnic groups: Baharna and Ajam. The Shia Bahrainis are Baharna (Arab), and the Ajam are Persian Shias. Shia Persians form large communities in Manama and Muharraq. A small minority of Shia Bahrainis are ethnic Hasawis from Al-Hasa.
+
+Sunni Bahrainis are mainly divided into two main ethnic groups: Arabs (al Arab) and Huwala. Sunni Arabs are the most influential ethnic group in Bahrain, they hold most government positions and the Bahraini monarchy are Sunni Arabs. Sunni Arabs have traditionally lived in areas such as Zallaq, Muharraq, Riffa and Hawar islands. The Huwala are descendants of Sunni Iranians; some of them are Sunni Persians,[267][268] while others Sunni Arabs.[269][270] There are also Sunnis of Baloch origin. Most African Bahrainis come from East Africa and have traditionally lived in Muharraq Island and Riffa.[271]
+
+The state religion of Bahrain is Islam and most Bahraini citizens are Muslim. The majority of Bahraini Muslims are Shiites.[273] It is one of three countries in the Middle East in which Shiites are the majority, the other two being Iraq and Iran.[273] Public surveys are rare in Bahrain, but a 2017 national survey found that 62 percent of Bahrainis were Shia and 38 percent were Sunni, which is consistent with most estimates.[274] Although the majority of the country's citizens are Shia, the royal family and most Bahrani elites are Sunni.[274] The country's two Muslim communities are united on some issues, but disagree sharply on others.[274] Shia have often complained of being politically repressed and economically marginalized in Bahrain; as a result, most of the protestors in the Bahraini uprising of 2011 were Shia.[275][276][277]
+
+The Muslim population is numbered 866,888 according to the 2010 census.
+
+There is a native Christian community in Bahrain. Non-Muslim Bahraini residents numbered 367,683 per the 2010 census, most of whom are Christians.[278] Expatriate Christians make up the majority of Christians in Bahrain, while native Christian Bahrainis (who hold Bahraini citizenship) make up a smaller community. Alees Samaan, a former Bahraini ambassador to the United Kingdom is a native Christian. Bahrain also has a native Jewish community numbering thirty-seven Bahraini citizens.[279] Various sources cite Bahrain's native Jewish community as being from 36 to 50 people.[280]
+
+Due to an influx of immigrants and guest workers from Asian countries, such as India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the overall percentage of Muslims in the country has declined in recent years.[citation needed] According to the 2001 census, 81.2% of Bahrain's population was Muslim, 10% were Christian, and 9.8% practised Hinduism or other religions.[3] The 2010 census records that the Muslim proportion had fallen to 70.2% (the 2010 census did not differentiate between the non-Muslim religions).[11] Baha'is constitute approximately 1% of Bahrain's total population.[281]
+
+Arabic is the official language of Bahrain, though English is widely used.[1] Bahrani Arabic is the most widely spoken dialect of the Arabic language, though it differs widely from standard Arabic, like all Arabic dialects. Arabic plays an important role in political life, as, according to article 57 (c) of Bahrain's constitution, an MP must be fluent in Arabic to stand for parliament.[282] In addition, Balochi is the second largest and widely spoken language in Bahrain.The Baloch are fluent in Arabic and Balochi. Among the Bahraini and non-Bahraini population, many people speak Persian, the official language of Iran, or Urdu, an official language in Pakistan and a regional language in India.[1] Nepali is also widely spoken in the Nepalese workers and Gurkha Soldiers community. Malayalam, Tamil, Bangla and Hindi are spoken among significant Indian communities.[1] All commercial institutions and road signs are bilingual, displaying both English and Arabic.[283]
+
+Education is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 14.[284] Education is free for Bahraini citizens in public schools, with the Bahraini Ministry of Education providing free textbooks. Coeducation is not used in public schools, with boys and girls segregated into separate schools.[285]
+
+At the beginning of the 20th century, Qur'anic schools (Kuttab) were the only form of education in Bahrain.[286] They were traditional schools aimed at teaching children and youth the reading of the Qur'an. After World War I, Bahrain became open to western influences, and a demand for modern educational institutions appeared. 1919 marked the beginning of modern public school system in Bahrain when the Al-Hidaya Al-Khalifia School for boys opened in Muharraq.[286] In 1926, the Education Committee opened the second public school for boys in Manama, and in 1928 the first public school for girls was opened in Muharraq.[286] As of 2011[update], there are a total of 126,981 students studying in public schools.[287]
+
+In 2004, King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa introduced the "King Hamad Schools of Future" project that uses Information Communication Technology to support K–12 education in Bahrain.[288] The project's objective is to connect all schools within the kingdom with the Internet.[289] In addition to British intermediate schools, the island is served by the Bahrain School (BS). The BS is a United States Department of Defense school that provides a K-12 curriculum including International Baccalaureate offerings. There are also private schools that offer either the IB Diploma Programme or United Kingdom's A-Levels.
+
+Bahrain also encourages institutions of higher learning, drawing on expatriate talent and the increasing pool of Bahrain nationals returning from abroad with advanced degrees. The University of Bahrain was established for standard undergraduate and graduate study, and the King Abdulaziz University College of Health Sciences, operating under the direction of the Ministry of Health, trains physicians, nurses, pharmacists and paramedics. The 2001 National Action Charter paved the way for the formation of private universities such as the Ahlia University in Manama and University College of Bahrain in Saar. The Royal University for Women (RUW), established in 2005, was the first private, purpose-built, international university in Bahrain dedicated solely to educating women. The University of London External has appointed MCG (Management Consultancy Group) as the regional representative office in Bahrain for distance learning programmes.[290] MCG is one of the oldest private institutes in the country. Institutes have also opened which educate South Asian students, such as the Pakistan Urdu School, Bahrain and the Indian School, Bahrain. A few prominent institutions are the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance, the Ernst & Young Training Institute, and the Birla Institute of Technology International Centre. In 2004, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) set up a constituent medical university in the country. In addition to the Arabian Gulf University, AMA International University and the College of Health Sciences, these are the only medical schools in Bahrain.
+
+Bahrain has a universal health care system, dating back to 1960.[291] Government-provided health care is free to Bahraini citizens and heavily subsidised for non-Bahrainis. Healthcare expenditure accounted for 4.5% of Bahrain's GDP, according to the World Health Organization. Bahraini physicians and nurses form a majority of the country's workforce in the health sector, unlike neighbouring Gulf states.[292] The first hospital in Bahrain was the American Mission Hospital, which opened in 1893 as a dispensary.[293] The first public hospital, and also tertiary hospital, to open in Bahrain was the Salmaniya Medical Complex, in the Salmaniya district of Manama, in 1957.[294] Private hospitals are also present throughout the country, such as the International Hospital of Bahrain.
+
+The life expectancy in Bahrain is 73 for males and 76 for females. Compared to many countries in the region, the prevalence of AIDS and HIV is relatively low.[295] Malaria and tuberculosis (TB) do not constitute major problems in Bahrain as neither disease is indigenous to the country. As a result, cases of malaria and TB have declined in recent decades with cases of contractions amongst Bahraini nationals becoming rare.[295] The Ministry of Health sponsors regular vaccination campaigns against TB and other diseases such as hepatitis B.[295][296]
+
+Bahrain is currently suffering from an obesity epidemic as 28.9% of all males and 38.2% of all females are classified as obese.[297] Bahrain also has one of the highest prevalence of diabetes in the world (5th place), with more than 15% of the Bahraini population suffering from the disease, and accounting for 5% of deaths in the country.[298] Cardiovascular diseases account for 32% of all deaths in Bahrain, being the number one cause of death in the country (the second being cancer).[299] Sickle-cell anaemia and thalassaemia are prevalent in the country, with a study concluding that 18% of Bahrainis are carriers of sickle-cell anaemia while 24% are carriers of thalassaemia.[300]
+
+Islam is the main religion, and Bahrainis are known for their tolerance towards the practice of other faiths.[301] Intermarriages between Bahrainis and expatriates are not uncommon—there are many Filipino-Bahrainis like Filipino child actress Mona Marbella Al-Alawi.[302]
+
+Rules regarding female attire are generally relaxed compared to regional neighbours; the traditional attire of women usually include the hijab or the abaya.[130] Although the traditional male attire is the thobe which also includes traditional headdresses such as the keffiyeh, ghutra and agal, Western clothing is common in the country.[130]
+
+Although Bahrain legalized homosexuality in 1976, many homosexuals have since been arrested.[303][304][305]
+
+The modern art movement in the country officially emerged in the 1950s, culminating in the establishment of an art society. Expressionism and surrealism, as well as calligraphic art are the popular forms of art in the country. Abstract expressionism has gained popularity in recent decades.[306] Pottery-making and textile-weaving are also popular products that were widely made in Bahraini villages.[306] Arabic calligraphy grew in popularity as the Bahraini government was an active patron in Islamic art, culminating in the establishment of an Islamic museum, Beit Al Quran.[306] The Bahrain national museum houses a permanent contemporary art exhibition.[307] The annual Spring of Culture [308] festival run by the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities[309] has become a popular event promoting performance arts in the Kingdom. The architecture of Bahrain is similar to that of its neighbours in the Persian Gulf. The wind tower, which generates natural ventilation in a house, is a common sight on old buildings, particularly in the old districts of Manama and Muharraq.[310]
+
+Literature retains a strong tradition in the country; most traditional writers and poets write in the classical Arabic style. In recent years, the number of younger poets influenced by western literature are rising, most writing in free verse and often including political or personal content.[311] Ali Al Shargawi, a decorated longtime poet, was described in 2011 by Al Shorfa as the literary icon of Bahrain.[312]
+
+In literature, Bahrain was the site of the ancient land of Dilmun mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Legend also states that it was the location of the Garden of Eden.[313][314]
+
+The music style in Bahrain is similar to that of its neighbors. The Khaliji style of music, which is folk music, is popular in the country. The sawt style of music, which involves a complex form of urban music, performed by an Oud (plucked lute), a violin and mirwas (a drum), is also popular in Bahrain.[315] Ali Bahar was one of the most famous singers in Bahrain. He performed his music with his Band Al-Ekhwa (The Brothers). Bahrain was also the site of the first recording studio amongst the Persian Gulf states.[315]
+
+Bahrain is the first nation other than United States of America to host International Mixed Martial Arts Federation World Championships of Amateur MMA.[316] Bahrain have recorded an influx in global athletes visiting the nation for Mixed Martial Arts training during 2017.[317]
+
+In 2018, Cricket was introduced in Bahrain under initiative of KHK Sports and Exelon.[318] Bahrain Premier League 2018 comprised six franchise squads of 13 resident cricketers competing in the T20 format. The teams were SRam MRam Falcons, Kalaam Knight-Riders, Intex Lions, Bahrain Super Giants, Four Square Challengers and Awan Warriors.[319]
+
+Association football is the most popular sport in Bahrain.[320] Bahrain's national football team has competed multiple times at the Asian Cup, Arab Nations Cup and played in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, though it has never qualified for the World Cup.[321] Bahrain has its own top-tier domestic professional football league, the Bahraini Premier League. Basketball, rugby and horse racing are also widely popular in the country.[320] The government of Bahrain also sponsors a UCI WorldTeam cycling team, Bahrain–Merida, which participated in the 2017 Tour de France.[322][323]
+
+Brave Combat Federation is a Bahrain-based Mixed Martial Arts promotion which has hosted events in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Kazakhstan, and India. Bahrain MMA Federation (BMMAF) has been set up under the patronage of Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa and the jurisdiction of the Sports Minister, Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa.[324] The development of MMA in the nation is convened through KHK MMA, which owns Brave Combat Federation which is the largest Mixed Martial Arts promotion in the Middle East.[325] Bahrain will be hosting Amateur World Championships 2017 in association with International Mixed Martial Arts Federation. Bahrain will be the first Asian and Arab country to host the amateur MMA championship.[326]
+
+Bahrain has a Formula One race-track, which hosted the inaugural Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix on 4 April 2004, the first in an Arab country. This was followed by the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2005. Bahrain hosted the opening Grand Prix of the 2006 season on 12 March of that year. Both the above races were won by Fernando Alonso of Renault. The race has since been hosted annually, except for 2011 when it was cancelled due to ongoing anti-government protests.[327] The 2012 race occurred despite concerns of the safety of the teams and the ongoing protests in the country.[328] The decision to hold the race despite ongoing protests and violence[329] has been described as "controversial" by Al Jazeera English,[330] CNN,[331] AFP[332] and Sky News.[333] The Independent named it "one of the most controversial in the history of the sport".[334]
+
+In 2006, Bahrain also hosted its inaugural Australian V8 Supercar event dubbed the "Desert 400". The V8s returned every November to the Sakhir circuit until 2010, in which it was the second event of the series. The series has not returned since. The Bahrain International Circuit also features a full-length dragstrip where the Bahrain Drag Racing Club has organised invitational events featuring some of Europe's top drag racing teams to try to raise the profile of the sport in the Middle East.[335]
+
+On 1 September 2006, Bahrain changed its weekend from being Thursdays and Fridays to Fridays and Saturdays, in order to have a day of the weekend shared with the rest of the world. Notable holidays in the country are listed below:
+
+Coordinates: 26°01′39″N 50°33′00″E / 26.02750°N 50.55000°E / 26.02750; 50.55000

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+Rugby football is a collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league, as well as the earlier forms of football from which both games, Association football, Australian rules football, and Gridiron football evolved. Canadian football (Grey Cup still has "Rugby Football" written on it), and to a lesser extent American football were also broadly considered forms of rugby football but are seldom now referred to as such.[1][2][3][4]
+
+Rugby football started about 1845 at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, although forms of football in which the ball was carried and tossed date to medieval times. Rugby split into two sports in 1895, when twenty-one clubs split from the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (later renamed the Rugby Football League in 1922) in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, over broken-time payments to players who took time off from work to play the sport, thus making rugby league the first code to turn professional and pay players. Rugby union turned professional one hundred years later in 1995, following the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.[5][6] The respective world governing bodies are World Rugby (rugby union) and the Rugby League International Federation (rugby league).
+
+Rugby football was one of many versions of football played at English public schools in the 19th century.[7][8] Although rugby league initially used rugby union rules, they are now wholly separate sports, with Rugby league being much more similar to Gridiron football. In addition to these two codes, both American and Canadian football evolved from rugby football in the beginning of the 20th century.
+
+Following the 1895 split in rugby football, the two forms rugby league and rugby union differed in administration only. Soon the rules of rugby league were modified, resulting in two distinctly different forms of rugby. 100 years later, rugby union joined rugby league and most other forms of football as an openly professional sport.
+
+The Olympic form of rugby is known as Rugby Sevens. In this form of the game, each team has seven players on the field at one time playing seven-minute halves. The rules and pitch size are the same as rugby union.[9]
+
+Although rugby football was codified at Rugby School, many rugby playing countries had pre-existing football games not dissimilar to rugby.
+
+Forms of traditional football similar to rugby have been played throughout Europe and beyond. Many of these involved handling of the ball, and scrummaging formations. For example, New Zealand had Ki-o-rahi, Australia marn grook, Japan kemari, Georgia lelo burti, the Scottish Borders Jeddart Ba' and Cornwall Cornish hurling, Central Italy Calcio Fiorentino, South Wales cnapan, East Anglia Campball and Ireland had caid, an ancestor of Gaelic football.
+
+In 1871, English clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU). In 1892, after charges of professionalism (compensation of team members) were made against some clubs for paying players for missing work, the Northern Rugby Football Union, usually called the Northern Union (NU), was formed.[10] The existing rugby union authorities responded by issuing sanctions against the clubs, players, and officials involved in the new organization. After the schism, the separate clubs were named "rugby league" and "rugby union".[11]
+
+Walter Camp proposed at the US College Football 1880 rules convention that the contested scrummage be replaced with a "line of scrimmage" where the team with the ball started with uncontested possession. This change effectively started the evolution of the modern game of American football away from its rugby origins.
+
+A scrummage in a La soule game in Basse Normandie, France, 1852
+
+Depiction of a "football" game in London, 1868. Illustration by Godefroy Durand
+
+Scotland first rugby team (wearing brown[17]) for the 1st international, v. England in Edinburgh, 1871
+
+The England team in the 1st international, v. Scotland in Edinburgh, 1871
+
+Rochdale Hornets team of 1875
+
+Rugby union is both a professional and amateur game, and is dominated by the first tier unions:  New Zealand, Ireland, Wales, England, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Scotland, Italy and France. Second and third tier unions include Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, Namibia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Spain, Tonga, the United States and Uruguay. Rugby Union is administered by World Rugby (WR), whose headquarters are located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the national sport in New Zealand, Wales, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Georgia and Madagascar, and is the most popular form of rugby globally.[18] The Olympic Games have admitted the seven-a-side version of the game, known as Rugby sevens, into the programme from Rio de Janeiro in 2016 onwards.[19] There was a possibility sevens would be a demonstration sport at the 2012 London Olympics but many sports including sevens were dropped.[20]
+
+In Canada and the United States, rugby developed into gridiron football. During the late 1800s (and even the early 1900s), the two forms of the game were very similar (to the point where the United States was able to win the gold medal for rugby union at the 1924 Summer Olympics), but numerous rule changes have differentiated the gridiron-based game from its rugby counterpart, introduced by Walter Camp in the United States and John Thrift Meldrum Burnside in Canada. Among unique features of the North American game are the separation of play into downs instead of releasing the ball immediately upon tackling, the requirement that the team with the ball set into a set formation for at least one second before resuming play after a tackle (and the allowance of up to 40 seconds to do so), the allowance for one forward pass from behind the site of the last tackle on each down, the evolution of hard plastic equipment (particularly the football helmet and shoulder pads), a smaller and pointier ball that is favorable to being passed but makes drop kicks impractical, a generally smaller and narrower field measured in customary units instead of metric (in some variants of the American game a field can be as short as 50 yards between end zones), and a distinctive field (shaped like a gridiron, from which the code's nickname is derived) with lines marked in five-yard intervals.
+
+Rugby league is also both a professional and amateur game, administered on a global level by the Rugby League International Federation. In addition to amateur and semi-professional competitions in the United States, Russia, Lebanon, Serbia, Europe and Australasia, there are two major professional competitions—the Australasian National Rugby League and the Super League. International Rugby League is dominated by Australia, England and New Zealand. In Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, it is the national sport.[21][22][23] Other nations from the South Pacific and Europe also play in the Pacific Cup and European Cup respectively.
+
+Distinctive features common to both rugby codes include the oval ball and throwing the ball forward is not allowed so that players can gain ground only by running with the ball or by kicking it. As the sport of rugby league moved further away from its union counterpart, rule changes were implemented with the aim of making a faster-paced and more try-oriented game. Unlike American and Canadian football, the players do not wear any sort of protection or armour.
+
+The main differences between the two games, besides league having teams of 13 players and union of 15, involve the tackle and its aftermath:
+
+Set pieces of the union code include the "scrum", which occurs after a minor infringement of the rules (most often a knock-on, when a player knocks the ball forward), where packs of opposing players push against each other for possession, and the "line-out", in which parallel lines of players from each team, arranged perpendicular to the touch-line, attempt to catch the ball thrown from touch. A rule has been added to line-outs which allows the jumper to be pulled down once a players' feet are on the ground.
+
+In the league code, the scrum still exists, but with greatly reduced importance as it involves fewer players and is rarely contested. Set pieces are generally started from the play-the-ball situation. Many of the rugby league positions have names and requirements similar to rugby union positions, but there are no flankers in rugby league.
+
+In England, rugby union is widely regarded as an "establishment" sport, played mostly by members of the upper and middle classes. For example, many pupils at public schools and grammar schools play rugby union, although the game (which had a long history of being played at state schools until the 1980s) is becoming increasingly popular in comprehensive schools.[24] Despite this stereotype, the game, particularly in the West Country is popular amongst all classes. In contrast, rugby league has traditionally been seen as a working-class pursuit. Another exception to rugby union's upper-class stereotype is in Wales, where it has been traditionally associated with small village teams made up of coal miners and other industrial workers who played on their days off.[25] In Ireland, both rugby union and rugby league are unifying forces across the national and sectarian divide, with the Ireland international teams representing both political entities.
+
+In Australia, support for both codes is concentrated in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. The same perceived class barrier as exists between the two games in England also occurs in these states, fostered by rugby union's prominence and support at private schools.[26]
+
+Exceptions to the above include New Zealand (although rugby league is still considered to be a lower class game by many or a game for 'westies' referring to lower class western suburbs of Auckland and more recently, southern Auckland where the game is also popular), Wales, France (except Paris), Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Scottish Borders, County Limerick (see Munster) and the Pacific Islands, where rugby union is popular in working class communities. Nevertheless, rugby league is perceived as the game of the working-class people in northern England[27] and in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.[26]
+
+In the United Kingdom, rugby union fans sometimes used the term "rugger" as an alternative name for the sport, (see Oxford '-er'), although this archaic expression has not had currency since the 1950s or earlier.[28] New Zealanders refer to rugby union simply as either "rugby" or "union", or even simply "football", and to rugby league as "rugby league" or "league".[29] In the U.S., people who play rugby are sometimes called "ruggers", a term little used elsewhere except facetiously.
+
+In France, rugby is widely played and has a strong tradition in the Basque, Occitan and Catalan areas along the border regions between Spain and France. The game is very popular in South Africa, having been introduced by English-speaking settlers in the 19th century. British colonists also brought the game with them to Australia and New Zealand, where the game is widely played. It has spread thence to much of Polynesia, having particularly strong followings in Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. Rugby union continues to grow in the Americas and parts of Asia as well.
+
+About a quarter of rugby players are injured in each season.[30]
+
+Being a high contact sport Rugby union has the highest announced rates of concussions[31] and outside England also has the highest number of catastrophic injuries[32] out of any team sport.[33][34] Research finding that during match play, concussion was reported at a higher level, and during training at a lower level, but still at a higher level than most players of another sport to receive.[34]
+
+A rugby ball, originally called a quanco, is a diamond shape ball used for easier passing.
+Richard Lindon and Bernardo Solano started making balls for Rugby school out of hand stitched, four-panel, leather casings and pigs' bladders. The rugby ball's distinctive shape is supposedly due to the pig's bladder, although early balls were more plum-shaped than oval. The balls varied in size in the beginning depending upon how large the pig's bladder was.
+
+In rugby union, World Rugby regulates the size and shape of the ball under Law 2 (also known as Law E.R.B); an official rugby union ball is oval and made of four panels, has a length in-line of 280–300 millimetres, a circumference (end to end) of 740–770 millimetres, and a circumference (in width) of 580–620 millimetres. It is made of leather or suitable synthetic material and may be treated to make it water resistant and easier to grip. The rugby ball may not weigh more than 460 grams or less than 410 and has an air pressure of 65.71–68.75 kilopascals, or 0.67–0.70 kilograms per square centimetre, or 9.5–10.0 lbs per square inch.[35] Spare balls are allowed under the condition that players or teams do not seek an advantage by changing the ball. Smaller sized balls may also be used in games between younger players.
+Much larger versions of traditional balls are also available for purchase, but these are mainly for their novelty attraction.
+
+The Rugby World Cup, which was first held in New Zealand and Australia in 1987, occurs every four years.  It is an international tournament organized by World Rugby. The event is played in the union format and features the top 20 teams from around the world. The current world champions are South Africa, who won the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which was played in Japan.
+
+The Rugby League World Cup was the first World Cup of either of the Rugby codes and was first held in France in 1954, and as of 2013 occurs on a 4-year cycle. It is an international tournament that is organized by the Rugby League International Federation. The event is played in the league format and features the top 14 teams from around the world. The current world champions are Australia, who won the World Cup in 2017, played in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
+
+Rugby shirts were formerly made of leather but are now made of a cotton and polyester mix. This material has the advantage of not absorbing as much water or mud as cotton alone.[citation needed]  Owing to the more aggressive nature of the game, rugby clothing, in general, is designed to be much more robust and hardwearing than that worn for association football.
+
+The rugby jerseys are slightly different depending on the type of rugby game played. The shirts worn by rugby league footballers commonly have a large "V" around the neck. The players in rugby union wear jerseys with a more traditional design, sometimes completely white (Cahors Rugby in France). The number of the player and his or her surname are placed on the upper back of the jersey (often name above number, with the number being significantly larger and more central), and the logo of the team on the upper left chest.[citation needed]
+
+With the popularity of rugby over the years, many betting establishments have made it possible for viewers of the game to place wagers on games.  The various types of wagers that can be placed on games vary, however, the main types of bets that can be placed are as follows:
+
+Like most team sports, both forms of rugby are vulnerable to match-fixing, particularly bets involving easily manipulated outcomes, such as conceding penalties and first point scorer. A recent example is a deliberate infringement by Ryan Tandy in order for the first points scored to be a penalty goal in a 2010 NRL match; the attempt backfired when instead of taking a shot at goal, a try was scored.

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+Rugby football is a collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league, as well as the earlier forms of football from which both games, Association football, Australian rules football, and Gridiron football evolved. Canadian football (Grey Cup still has "Rugby Football" written on it), and to a lesser extent American football were also broadly considered forms of rugby football but are seldom now referred to as such.[1][2][3][4]
+
+Rugby football started about 1845 at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, although forms of football in which the ball was carried and tossed date to medieval times. Rugby split into two sports in 1895, when twenty-one clubs split from the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (later renamed the Rugby Football League in 1922) in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, over broken-time payments to players who took time off from work to play the sport, thus making rugby league the first code to turn professional and pay players. Rugby union turned professional one hundred years later in 1995, following the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.[5][6] The respective world governing bodies are World Rugby (rugby union) and the Rugby League International Federation (rugby league).
+
+Rugby football was one of many versions of football played at English public schools in the 19th century.[7][8] Although rugby league initially used rugby union rules, they are now wholly separate sports, with Rugby league being much more similar to Gridiron football. In addition to these two codes, both American and Canadian football evolved from rugby football in the beginning of the 20th century.
+
+Following the 1895 split in rugby football, the two forms rugby league and rugby union differed in administration only. Soon the rules of rugby league were modified, resulting in two distinctly different forms of rugby. 100 years later, rugby union joined rugby league and most other forms of football as an openly professional sport.
+
+The Olympic form of rugby is known as Rugby Sevens. In this form of the game, each team has seven players on the field at one time playing seven-minute halves. The rules and pitch size are the same as rugby union.[9]
+
+Although rugby football was codified at Rugby School, many rugby playing countries had pre-existing football games not dissimilar to rugby.
+
+Forms of traditional football similar to rugby have been played throughout Europe and beyond. Many of these involved handling of the ball, and scrummaging formations. For example, New Zealand had Ki-o-rahi, Australia marn grook, Japan kemari, Georgia lelo burti, the Scottish Borders Jeddart Ba' and Cornwall Cornish hurling, Central Italy Calcio Fiorentino, South Wales cnapan, East Anglia Campball and Ireland had caid, an ancestor of Gaelic football.
+
+In 1871, English clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU). In 1892, after charges of professionalism (compensation of team members) were made against some clubs for paying players for missing work, the Northern Rugby Football Union, usually called the Northern Union (NU), was formed.[10] The existing rugby union authorities responded by issuing sanctions against the clubs, players, and officials involved in the new organization. After the schism, the separate clubs were named "rugby league" and "rugby union".[11]
+
+Walter Camp proposed at the US College Football 1880 rules convention that the contested scrummage be replaced with a "line of scrimmage" where the team with the ball started with uncontested possession. This change effectively started the evolution of the modern game of American football away from its rugby origins.
+
+A scrummage in a La soule game in Basse Normandie, France, 1852
+
+Depiction of a "football" game in London, 1868. Illustration by Godefroy Durand
+
+Scotland first rugby team (wearing brown[17]) for the 1st international, v. England in Edinburgh, 1871
+
+The England team in the 1st international, v. Scotland in Edinburgh, 1871
+
+Rochdale Hornets team of 1875
+
+Rugby union is both a professional and amateur game, and is dominated by the first tier unions:  New Zealand, Ireland, Wales, England, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Scotland, Italy and France. Second and third tier unions include Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, Namibia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Spain, Tonga, the United States and Uruguay. Rugby Union is administered by World Rugby (WR), whose headquarters are located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the national sport in New Zealand, Wales, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Georgia and Madagascar, and is the most popular form of rugby globally.[18] The Olympic Games have admitted the seven-a-side version of the game, known as Rugby sevens, into the programme from Rio de Janeiro in 2016 onwards.[19] There was a possibility sevens would be a demonstration sport at the 2012 London Olympics but many sports including sevens were dropped.[20]
+
+In Canada and the United States, rugby developed into gridiron football. During the late 1800s (and even the early 1900s), the two forms of the game were very similar (to the point where the United States was able to win the gold medal for rugby union at the 1924 Summer Olympics), but numerous rule changes have differentiated the gridiron-based game from its rugby counterpart, introduced by Walter Camp in the United States and John Thrift Meldrum Burnside in Canada. Among unique features of the North American game are the separation of play into downs instead of releasing the ball immediately upon tackling, the requirement that the team with the ball set into a set formation for at least one second before resuming play after a tackle (and the allowance of up to 40 seconds to do so), the allowance for one forward pass from behind the site of the last tackle on each down, the evolution of hard plastic equipment (particularly the football helmet and shoulder pads), a smaller and pointier ball that is favorable to being passed but makes drop kicks impractical, a generally smaller and narrower field measured in customary units instead of metric (in some variants of the American game a field can be as short as 50 yards between end zones), and a distinctive field (shaped like a gridiron, from which the code's nickname is derived) with lines marked in five-yard intervals.
+
+Rugby league is also both a professional and amateur game, administered on a global level by the Rugby League International Federation. In addition to amateur and semi-professional competitions in the United States, Russia, Lebanon, Serbia, Europe and Australasia, there are two major professional competitions—the Australasian National Rugby League and the Super League. International Rugby League is dominated by Australia, England and New Zealand. In Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, it is the national sport.[21][22][23] Other nations from the South Pacific and Europe also play in the Pacific Cup and European Cup respectively.
+
+Distinctive features common to both rugby codes include the oval ball and throwing the ball forward is not allowed so that players can gain ground only by running with the ball or by kicking it. As the sport of rugby league moved further away from its union counterpart, rule changes were implemented with the aim of making a faster-paced and more try-oriented game. Unlike American and Canadian football, the players do not wear any sort of protection or armour.
+
+The main differences between the two games, besides league having teams of 13 players and union of 15, involve the tackle and its aftermath:
+
+Set pieces of the union code include the "scrum", which occurs after a minor infringement of the rules (most often a knock-on, when a player knocks the ball forward), where packs of opposing players push against each other for possession, and the "line-out", in which parallel lines of players from each team, arranged perpendicular to the touch-line, attempt to catch the ball thrown from touch. A rule has been added to line-outs which allows the jumper to be pulled down once a players' feet are on the ground.
+
+In the league code, the scrum still exists, but with greatly reduced importance as it involves fewer players and is rarely contested. Set pieces are generally started from the play-the-ball situation. Many of the rugby league positions have names and requirements similar to rugby union positions, but there are no flankers in rugby league.
+
+In England, rugby union is widely regarded as an "establishment" sport, played mostly by members of the upper and middle classes. For example, many pupils at public schools and grammar schools play rugby union, although the game (which had a long history of being played at state schools until the 1980s) is becoming increasingly popular in comprehensive schools.[24] Despite this stereotype, the game, particularly in the West Country is popular amongst all classes. In contrast, rugby league has traditionally been seen as a working-class pursuit. Another exception to rugby union's upper-class stereotype is in Wales, where it has been traditionally associated with small village teams made up of coal miners and other industrial workers who played on their days off.[25] In Ireland, both rugby union and rugby league are unifying forces across the national and sectarian divide, with the Ireland international teams representing both political entities.
+
+In Australia, support for both codes is concentrated in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. The same perceived class barrier as exists between the two games in England also occurs in these states, fostered by rugby union's prominence and support at private schools.[26]
+
+Exceptions to the above include New Zealand (although rugby league is still considered to be a lower class game by many or a game for 'westies' referring to lower class western suburbs of Auckland and more recently, southern Auckland where the game is also popular), Wales, France (except Paris), Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Scottish Borders, County Limerick (see Munster) and the Pacific Islands, where rugby union is popular in working class communities. Nevertheless, rugby league is perceived as the game of the working-class people in northern England[27] and in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.[26]
+
+In the United Kingdom, rugby union fans sometimes used the term "rugger" as an alternative name for the sport, (see Oxford '-er'), although this archaic expression has not had currency since the 1950s or earlier.[28] New Zealanders refer to rugby union simply as either "rugby" or "union", or even simply "football", and to rugby league as "rugby league" or "league".[29] In the U.S., people who play rugby are sometimes called "ruggers", a term little used elsewhere except facetiously.
+
+In France, rugby is widely played and has a strong tradition in the Basque, Occitan and Catalan areas along the border regions between Spain and France. The game is very popular in South Africa, having been introduced by English-speaking settlers in the 19th century. British colonists also brought the game with them to Australia and New Zealand, where the game is widely played. It has spread thence to much of Polynesia, having particularly strong followings in Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. Rugby union continues to grow in the Americas and parts of Asia as well.
+
+About a quarter of rugby players are injured in each season.[30]
+
+Being a high contact sport Rugby union has the highest announced rates of concussions[31] and outside England also has the highest number of catastrophic injuries[32] out of any team sport.[33][34] Research finding that during match play, concussion was reported at a higher level, and during training at a lower level, but still at a higher level than most players of another sport to receive.[34]
+
+A rugby ball, originally called a quanco, is a diamond shape ball used for easier passing.
+Richard Lindon and Bernardo Solano started making balls for Rugby school out of hand stitched, four-panel, leather casings and pigs' bladders. The rugby ball's distinctive shape is supposedly due to the pig's bladder, although early balls were more plum-shaped than oval. The balls varied in size in the beginning depending upon how large the pig's bladder was.
+
+In rugby union, World Rugby regulates the size and shape of the ball under Law 2 (also known as Law E.R.B); an official rugby union ball is oval and made of four panels, has a length in-line of 280–300 millimetres, a circumference (end to end) of 740–770 millimetres, and a circumference (in width) of 580–620 millimetres. It is made of leather or suitable synthetic material and may be treated to make it water resistant and easier to grip. The rugby ball may not weigh more than 460 grams or less than 410 and has an air pressure of 65.71–68.75 kilopascals, or 0.67–0.70 kilograms per square centimetre, or 9.5–10.0 lbs per square inch.[35] Spare balls are allowed under the condition that players or teams do not seek an advantage by changing the ball. Smaller sized balls may also be used in games between younger players.
+Much larger versions of traditional balls are also available for purchase, but these are mainly for their novelty attraction.
+
+The Rugby World Cup, which was first held in New Zealand and Australia in 1987, occurs every four years.  It is an international tournament organized by World Rugby. The event is played in the union format and features the top 20 teams from around the world. The current world champions are South Africa, who won the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which was played in Japan.
+
+The Rugby League World Cup was the first World Cup of either of the Rugby codes and was first held in France in 1954, and as of 2013 occurs on a 4-year cycle. It is an international tournament that is organized by the Rugby League International Federation. The event is played in the league format and features the top 14 teams from around the world. The current world champions are Australia, who won the World Cup in 2017, played in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
+
+Rugby shirts were formerly made of leather but are now made of a cotton and polyester mix. This material has the advantage of not absorbing as much water or mud as cotton alone.[citation needed]  Owing to the more aggressive nature of the game, rugby clothing, in general, is designed to be much more robust and hardwearing than that worn for association football.
+
+The rugby jerseys are slightly different depending on the type of rugby game played. The shirts worn by rugby league footballers commonly have a large "V" around the neck. The players in rugby union wear jerseys with a more traditional design, sometimes completely white (Cahors Rugby in France). The number of the player and his or her surname are placed on the upper back of the jersey (often name above number, with the number being significantly larger and more central), and the logo of the team on the upper left chest.[citation needed]
+
+With the popularity of rugby over the years, many betting establishments have made it possible for viewers of the game to place wagers on games.  The various types of wagers that can be placed on games vary, however, the main types of bets that can be placed are as follows:
+
+Like most team sports, both forms of rugby are vulnerable to match-fixing, particularly bets involving easily manipulated outcomes, such as conceding penalties and first point scorer. A recent example is a deliberate infringement by Ryan Tandy in order for the first points scored to be a penalty goal in a 2010 NRL match; the attempt backfired when instead of taking a shot at goal, a try was scored.

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+Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint[2] (born 24 August 1988) is an English actor and producer. He rose to prominence for his portrayal of Ron Weasley, one of the three main characters in the Harry Potter film series. Grint was cast as Ron at the age of 11, having previously acted only in school plays and at his local theatre group. From 2001 to 2011, he starred in all eight Harry Potter films.
+
+Beginning in 2002, Grint began to work outside of the Harry Potter franchise, playing a co-leading role in Thunderpants. He has had starring roles in Driving Lessons, a dramedy released in 2006, and Cherrybomb, a drama film of limited release in 2010. Grint co-starred with Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt in Wild Target, a comedy. His first film project following the end of the Harry Potter series was the 2012 anti-war film, Into the White, in which he had a supporting role. In 2013, Grint's film CBGB was released and he was cast in CBS's new show Super Clyde. Grint made his stage debut in Jez Butterworth's Mojo in October 2013 at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London.[3] In 2014, he voiced the character of Josh in Postman Pat: The Movie, and in 2017, he starred in and was executive producer of the television series Snatch, based on the film of the same name. He currently stars as Julian Pearce on the Apple TV+ series Servant.
+
+Grint was born in Harlow, Essex, England, to Nigel Grint (b. 1963), a dealer in racing memorabilia, and Joanne Grint (née Parsons; b. 1967).[1] Grint is the eldest of five siblings, the others being James (b. 1990), Georgina (b. 1993), Samantha (b. 1996), and Charlotte (b. 1998).[4] He has stated that his earliest goal in life was to become an ice cream man.[1] He grew up in Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire[5] and attended Richard Hale School, in Hertford.
+
+While in school, Grint took an avid interest in theatre. He started performing in school productions and joined the Top Hat Stage and Screen School, a local theatre group that cast him as a fish in Noah's Ark and a donkey in another nativity play. He continued performing in school plays as he moved into secondary school.[1] However, Grint had never acted professionally before the Harry Potter series.[6]
+
+At the age of 16, he left school[7] to focus on his acting career. "I didn't really like school that much," he later commented.[4]
+
+Starting in 2000, casting began for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the best-selling novel written by author J. K. Rowling. Rowling personally insisted that the cast be British and assisted Susie Figgis and director Chris Columbus in casting the roles.[8] Grint chose to audition for the role of protagonist Ron Weasley, one of Harry Potter's best friends at Hogwarts, and was a fan of the book series. Having seen a Newsround report about the open casting, he sent in a video of himself rapping about how he wished to receive the role. His attempt was successful as the casting team asked for a meeting with him.[9] On 8 August 2000, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and an 11-year-old Grint were selected to play the roles of Harry, Hermione Granger, and Ron, respectively.[10] Grint is the oldest member of the trio.[11] The release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 2001 was Grint's debut screen performance. Breaking records for opening-day sales and opening-weekend takings, it was the highest-grossing film of that year.[12] With a total of US$974 million in its theatrical run, Philosopher's Stone stands as the second most commercially successful entry in the series.[13] It was also critically well-received, scoring mainly positive reviews from critics. However, a number of critics found the adaption staying faithful to the book to be both its best and worst quality.[14] Grint won a Satellite Award in the category of "Outstanding New Talent", and a Young Artist Award for "Most Promising Young Newcomer".[15][16]
+
+A year later, Grint again starred as Ron in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), the second instalment of the series. The film opened to positive reviews and critics generally enjoyed the lead actors' performances. Both Los Angeles Times and New York Magazine observed that Grint and his peers had matured between films,[17] with the latter pointing out that Grint had become "more proficient" and said they missed "the amateurish ardour" the actor and Watson carried in Philosopher's Stone.[18] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) was released on 31 May in the UK. The film sees all three of its lead characters hover on the brink of adolescence, "and while they look braver and more capable than before, the dangers they face seem far more grave and their own vulnerability more intense."[19] Then Academy Award-nominee Alfonso Cuarón took over direction for Prisoner of Azkaban which remains the lowest-grossing Harry Potter film with US$795 million in revenue.[13][20] Nonetheless it was the second highest-grossing movie of 2004 behind Shrek 2.[21]
+
+In 2005, Grint reprised his role for the fourth film in the series –  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The adaptation, unlike previous films, explored romantic elements and included more humour.[22] In a 2005 interview with IGN, all three lead actors singled out the humour as being a reason for the film's success.[22] This project was directed by Mike Newell. According to the actor, the director was "really loud and not afraid to swear at you, but he was really cool."[23] Goblet of Fire stands as one of the best reviewed instalments within the series, and is noted for the maturity and sophistication of its characters, darker and more complex plotline, writing and performances of the lead actors.[24] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film in the Harry Potter franchise, was released to cinemas in 2007. A huge financial success, Order of the Phoenix set a record worldwide opening-weekend gross of US$394 million, superseding Spider-Man 3 as the title holder.[25] This entry was directed by a new filmmaker, David Yates,[26] who would continue to direct all of the following movies.
+Grint said the laid back director was "really good" and helped keep the material fresh.[23] As the fame of the actor and the series continued, Grint and fellow Harry Potter cast members left imprints of their hands, feet and wands in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.[27]
+
+On 15 July 2009, the series' sixth instalment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was released and set box office records.[28][29] In its total theatrical run, Half-Blood Prince totalled in US$933 million ticket sales.[13] Also, Half-Blood Prince remains one of the most positively reviewed entries within the series among film critics, who praised the film's "emotionally satisfying" story, direction, cinematography, visuals and music.[30][31] Grint observed a change in Ron in this entry, pointing out that his once insecure, often overshadowed character started to become more secure and even began to show a dark side of himself. The actor found it fun to personify a more emotional Ron.[6] Between 2009 and 2010, his work received three nominations, including one win –  an Otto Award from the German magazine Bravo.[32]
+
+Despite the success of the past films, the future of the franchise was put into question as all three lead actors were unsure about signing on to continue their roles for the final two films.[33] However, by March 2007, Grint agreed to return for the last instalments.[34] For financial and scripting reasons, the last book was divided into two films which were shot back to back,[35] with filming concluding in June 2010.[36] After completing the final film he said: "I mean it literally has been my childhood and suddenly it all came down to really just one random scene, with us jumping through a fireplace, and then it was over. [...] it's very odd. Because suddenly it was all over, just like that. It was really emotional for all of us, realising that we're never going to be doing this again."[6]
+
+Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) was released in November and made over US$950 million.[13] It set several box office records[37] and opened to mostly favourable reviews in the media.[14] His portrayal of Ron again earned him critical praise. Reviewing the adaption in Slate, Dana Stevens called all three of the leads "terrific."[38] Despite giving Deathly Hallows – Part 1 a negative rating, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal publication stated "Grint has grown up to be a skilful actor who knows the value of a slow burn".[39] New York Post writer Lou Lumenick, however, observed that both Grint and Radcliffe had grown weary of playing the same characters and expressed it in their performances.[40] Grint's performance scored him nominations from the MTV Movie Awards and National Movie Awards for Best Fight and Performance of the Year in 2011.[41][42] Grint reprised his role for the eighth time, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the last Harry Potter installment. This film picked up from where the previous film left off and included a lot of action, whereas the first part had focused more on character development.[43] Rupert, along with the film,[14] was critically acclaimed: Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post asked, "Who could have predicted that Radcliffe, Grint and Watson would turn out to be good actors?".[44] The film broke several box office records, including biggest midnight release,[45] biggest first-day opening,[45] and biggest opening-weekend.[46] Deathly Hallows – Part 2 got up to the 4th highest-grossing film of all time.
+Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling gave a speech during the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 on 7 July 2011 in London, England. She announced that there are seven Harry Potter film series cast members, to whom she refers as "The Big Seven," and she named Grint as one of the seven members, alongside Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Tom Felton, Matthew Lewis, Evanna Lynch and Bonnie Wright.[47]
+
+In 2002, Grint starred in his first non-Harry Potter film, Thunderpants, which revolves around Patrick (played by Bruce Cook) whose remarkable capacity for flatulence scores him a job as an astronaut. In this film, Grint portrayed the co-lead role of Alan, an anosmic boy who is Patrick's only friend. It was generally ignored by critics and audiences alike. Most of the critics that did take notice of Thunderpants did not respond well to it, with one writing: "This film should be shown in prisons so that inmates have a good reason to never return."[48] Another film he appeared in was Driving Lessons, a comedy-drama released in 2006, where he starred opposite Julie Walters. The film was met with a mixed reception by critics, but his portrayal of an oppressed teenaged boy was generally praised. "Grint, on the other hand, is a revelation", who "displays an innate naturalness mixed with personal charisma that turn a potentially pathetic Christian freak into a humorous, thoroughly likable – if more than a little awkward – young man", wrote Alt Film Guide's Andre Soares.[49]
+
+In July 2008, it was announced that Grint would star in the drama film Cherrybomb with Robert Sheehan and Kimberley Nixon. Grint found shooting this film very different from the Harry Potter films since he had to adjust to doing a dozen scenes per day.[50] Grint's character –  Malachy, a worker at Belfast –  goes to great lengths to impress his boss's daughter, with whom he is infatuated. This film, like his next project, would involve him playing violent roles.[50] Despite premiering at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival, the film was initially unable to find a distributor. An online campaign by Grint's fans was credited with helping to secure a deal for distribution in the UK in 2010.[51]
+
+Jonathan Lynn directed Grint in Wild Target, a 2010 comedy thriller film, which he starred in alongside Emily Blunt and Bill Nighy. A remake of the 1993 French film Cible Emouvante, Wild Target was made on a relatively small production budget of US$8 million.[52] However, it was a commercial failure, only earning back US$3.4 million.[53] It also garnered mostly negative reviews in the media, which criticised it for dishonouring the original film and wasting the comedic potential of its cast,[54] but Grint also attracted some positive notice: "It’s nice to see Rupert Grint perform well in a role other than that of Ron Weasley, and it’s clear that he’s got a career ahead of him."[55]
+
+In January 2011, Grint made a cameo appearance in BBC popular comedy show Come Fly with Me starring comedy duo Matt Lucas and David Walliams (Little Britain).[56] In March 2011, Grint was cast as the lead character in the small-budget anti-war Norwegian film Into the White, which was directed by Petter Næss.[57] Principal photography started in April, and the project, which was shot on location,[58] was released in 2012. Into the White is based on a real incident that took place on 27 April 1940, when German Luftwaffe pilot Horst Schopis's bomber was shot down at Grotli by a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua, which then crash-landed. The several German and British crew members found shelter by chance during a harsh winter there.[58]
+
+In August 2011, Grint did a photo shoot with his friend and Harry Potter co-star Tom Felton in Los Angeles for the autumn/winter collection of the fashion label Band of Outsiders.[59] In September 2011, it was announced that Grint would voice a character in the film adaptation of Postman Pat along with David Tennant, Stephen Mangan and Jim Broadbent; the film was released in May 2014.[60] Grint also appears in the music video for Ed Sheeran's song "Lego House"; the video was released on 20 October 2011.[61]
+
+In March 2012, the "Visit Britain" TV ad was released, which features Grint alongside Julie Walters, Michelle Dockery and Stephen Fry. The TV ad promotes holidaying at home in the UK.
+
+On 14 March 2012, Variety reported that Grint had been cast alongside Chloë Grace Moretz in The Drummer, a biopic film about drummer Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. On the same day, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed this and announced filming was scheduled to begin on 15 June 2012 in California and Savannah, Georgia[62][63]
+
+On 25 July 2012, Grint carried the 2012 London Olympic torch during the Olympic Torch Relay, part of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. In interviews, Rupert told the BBC News that it was an "overwhelming" experience that he hoped to remember forever,[64] and told The Daily Telegraph "It was amazing, it was really overwhelming. It's just such an honour to be a part of this. I'm really proud".[65]
+
+In October 2012, Grint narrated We Are Aliens, a 25min 3D Planetarium Fulldome film about the possibility of other intelligent life in our Universe.[66]
+
+On 13 February 2013, The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed announced that Grint would star in a television show on CBS called Super Clyde.[67] "Grint will play the title role of Clyde, the well-meaning and sweet yet slightly neurotic guy who never feels like he really fits in. The avid comic book reader considers himself a borderline agoraphobic with mild to severe anxiety issues who wishes he were a super hero himself. When Clyde inherits a $100,000 a month inheritance from his long-dead eccentric Uncle Bill, he decides that the cash will be his secret super power and will use it only for good and reward the good-hearted."
+
+In July 2013, it was confirmed that Grint will be making his stage debut in Jez Butterworth's second run of his black comedy, Mojo, playing the role as a minor hood called Sweets who pops amphetamines like Smarties and does a sort of double act, full of comic menace. Grint will be starring alongside actors Brendan Coyle, Ben Whishaw and Daniel Mays. The play is based on real-life events and ran from 26 October 2013 until 8 February 2014 at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London.[68] He won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best London Newcomer for his role in this play.[69]
+
+In September 2013, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that in an adaptation of Macbeth called Enemy of Man, Grint will be starring with Sean Bean, Charles Dance, Jason Flemyng, James D’Arcy, Neil Maskell and Joe Gilgun, directed by Vincent Regan.[70] The filming production began in January 2014 in the United Kingdom.[71][72]
+
+In June 2014, it was announced that Grint would make his Broadway debut as Frank Finger in the play It's Only a Play at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, appearing alongside Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Stockard Channing, and Megan Mullally. Grint's first performance was on 28 August 2014 and his last performance was on 4 January 2015.[73][74]
+
+In 2019, he starred in the TV series Servant on Apple TV+, for which he also served as an executive producer.
+
+Grint is involved with various charities, having donated items such as clothes[75] to charity auctions, as well as participating in the Wacky Rally in 2010 (with James and Oliver Phelps), which raised money for Britain's Royal National Lifeboat Institution.[76] He was one of more than 40 participants to produce designs for Chrysalis Collection for Keech Hospice Care in Luton. His piece, a painted butterfly, was auctioned on eBay in March 2010.[77][78]
+
+In May 2011, along with other celebrities, Grint took part in the ad campaign for "Make Mine Milk" to promote drinking milk daily. His ads could be seen on the sides of thousands of buses and posters across the United Kingdom.[79] Grint supports Little Star Award since 2011 in support of Cancer Research UK. "I think that it's wonderful that Cancer Research UK is helping to bring a little bit of magic to the children's lives in this way," said Grint.[80]
+
+In 2012, as part of the London Olympics, Rupert participated in the Olympic torch relay and carried the torch through Hendon in North West London to outside Middlesex University.[81]
+
+Grint has been in a relationship with actress Georgia Groome since 2011.[82] In April 2020, it was announced that the couple were expecting their first child together.[83] In May 2020, Groome gave birth to their daughter. [84]
+

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+Russian (русский язык, tr. rússkij jazýk) is an East Slavic language, which is an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, as well as being widely used throughout Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, the Caucasus and Central Asia.[23][24] Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages, one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages alongside, and part of the larger Balto-Slavic branch. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian.
+
+Russian was the de facto language of the Soviet Union until its dissolution on 26 December 1991.[25] Russian is used in official capacity or in public life in all the post-Soviet nation-states. Large numbers of Russian speakers can also be found in other countries, such as Israel and Mongolia.
+
+Russian is the largest native language in Europe and the most geographically widespread language in Eurasia.[26] It is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, with 144 million speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the seventh-most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers and the eighth-most spoken language in the world by total number of speakers.[27] The language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second-most widespread language on the Internet, after English.[28]
+
+Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. Almost every consonant has a hard or a soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Stress, which is unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically[29] though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress, such as to distinguish between homographic words, for example замо́к (zamók - a lock) and за́мок (zámok - a castle), or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names.
+
+Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family. It is a descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus', a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid 13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn,[30] the other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, as well as because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian.[31] In the 19th century (in Russia until 1917), the language was often called "Great Russian" to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called "White Russian" and Ukrainian, then called "Little Russian".
+
+The vocabulary (mainly abstract and literary words), principles of word formations, and, to some extent, inflections and literary style of Russian have been also influenced by Church Slavonic, a developed and partly russified form of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic language used by the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with many different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language.
+
+Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin, Polish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, and English,[32] and to a lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic, Turkic,[33][34] Persian,[35][36] and Arabic, as well as Hebrew.[37]
+
+According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency.[38] It is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a "hard target" language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in U.S. world policy.
+
+Feudal divisions and conflicts as well as other obstacles to the exchange of goods and ideas that ancient Russian principalities have suffered from before and especially during the Mongol yoke strengthened dialectical differences and for a while prevented the emergence of the standardized national language.  The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in 15th and 16th centuries and the gradual (re)emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space have created the need for a common standard language.  The initial impulse for the standardization came from the government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem.  The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language.[when?] Since then the underlying logic of language reforms in Russia reflected primarily the considerations of standardizing and streamlining language norms and rules in order to ensure the Russian language's role as a practical tool of communication and administration.[39]
+
+The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language (современный русский литературный язык - "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose in the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter the Great, and developed from the Moscow (Middle or Central Russian) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language.
+
+Mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755; in 1783 the Russian Academy's first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. During the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, a period known as the "Golden Age", the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation of the Russian language was stabilized and standardized, and it became the nationwide literary language; meanwhile, Russia's world-famous literature flourished.
+
+Until the 20th century, the language's spoken form was the language of only the upper noble classes and urban population, as Russian peasants from the countryside continued to speak in their own dialects. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the compulsory education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features (such as fricative [ɣ] in Southern Russian dialects) are still observed in colloquial speech.
+
+In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi-Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic and Portuguese.[40][41][42]
+
+Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics.[43]
+
+In Belarus, Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus.[44] 77% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[45]
+
+In Estonia, Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook.[46] and is officially considered a foreign language.[44]
+
+In Latvia, Russian is officially considered a foreign language.[44] 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[45] On 18 February 2012, Latvia held a constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language.[47] According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%.[48] Beginning in 2019, instruction in Russian language will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, as well as general instruction in Latvian public high schools.[49][50]
+
+In Lithuania, Russian is not official, but it still retains the function of a lingua franca.[44] In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008).[51]
+
+In Moldova, Russian is considered to be the language of inter-ethnic communication under a Soviet-era law.[44] 50% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[45]
+
+According to the 2010 census in Russia, Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of the respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents).[52]
+
+In Ukraine, Russian is seen as a language of inter-ethnic communication, and a minority language, under the 1996 Constitution of Ukraine.[44] According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers.[53] 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[45] On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed a new education law which bars primary education to all students in any language but Ukrainian.[54] The law faced criticism from officials in Russia.[55][56]
+
+In the 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey,[57] fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular those where the people speak a Slavic language and thereby have an edge in learning Russian (namely, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria).
+
+Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in Western Europe. These have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the 20th century, each with its own flavor of language. The United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Norway, and Austria have significant Russian-speaking communities.
+
+In Armenia, Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.[44] 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[45]
+
+In Azerbaijan, Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country.[44] 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[45]
+
+In China, Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang province.
+
+In Georgia, Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.[44] Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook.[58] Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language.[59]
+
+In Kazakhstan, Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration.[44] The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of the population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, as well as understand the spoken language.[60]
+
+In Kyrgyzstan, Russian is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan.[44] The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population.[61] Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group.[61]
+
+In Tajikistan, Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under the Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation.[44] 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work.[45] The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business.[46]
+
+In Turkmenistan, Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996.[44] Russian is spoken by 12% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook.[46] Nevertheless, the Turkmen state press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there is the Russian-language newspaper Neytralny Turkmenistan, the television channel TV4, and there are schools like Joint Turkmen-Russian Secondary School.
+
+In Uzbekistan, Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication.[7][8][9] It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite.[44][62] Russian is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook.[46]
+
+In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia,[63] and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006.[64]
+
+Russian is also spoken in Israel. The number of native Russian-speaking Israelis numbers around 1.5 million Israelis,[65]  15% of the population.[66] The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in the country.[67] There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus. See also Russian language in Israel.
+
+Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan.[68]
+
+In Vietnam, Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English.[69]
+
+The language was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left.[70] In Nikolaevsk, Alaska Russian is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the U.S. and Canada, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane, Toronto, Baltimore, Miami, Chicago, Denver, and Cleveland. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to the United States Census, in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States.[71]
+
+In the second half of the 20th century, Russian was the most popular foreign language in Cuba. Besides being taught at universities and schools, there were also educational programs on the radio and TV. However, starting January 2019 the Cuban television opens an educational program devoted to the Russian language. This project is fully entitled to be called an anticipated one, because the Russian – Cuban collaboration is a strategic direction actively developed as more and more young people are interested in the Russian language, the Education navigator informs. The Havana State University has started a bachelor's specialization called the Russian Language and the Second Foreign Language. There is also the Russian language department, where students can scrutinize e-books without internet connection. Additional courses on the Russian language are open at two schools of the Cuban capital city.
+[72] An estimated 200,000 people speak the Russian language in Cuba, on the account that more than 23,000 Cubans who took higher studies in the former Soviet Union and later in Russia, and another important group of people who studied at military schools and technologists, plus the nearly 2,000 Russians residing in Cuba and their descendants.[73]
+
+Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following:
+
+
+
+The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to the Apollo-Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975.
+
+In March 2013 it was announced that Russian is now the second-most used language on the Internet after English. People use the Russian language on 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian is used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su. The websites of former Soviet Union nations also use high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian is the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese.[74]
+
+Russian is a rather homogeneous language, in terms of dialectal variation, due to the early political centralization under Moscow's rule, compulsory education, mass migration from rural to urban areas in the 20th century, as well as other factors. The standard language is used in written and spoken form almost everywhere in the country, from Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg in the West to Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the East, the enormous distance between notwithstanding.
+
+Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between the two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern, Central (or Middle), and Southern, with Moscow lying in the Central region.[75][76] All dialects are also divided into two main chronological categories: the dialects of primary formation (the territory of Muscovy roughly consists of the modern Central and Northwestern Federal districts) and secondary formation (other territories where Russian was brought by migrants from primary formation territories or adopted by the local population). Dialectology within Russia recognizes dozens of smaller-scale variants. The dialects often show distinct and non-standard features of pronunciation and intonation, vocabulary, and grammar. Some of these are relics of ancient usage now completely discarded by the standard language.
+
+The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye (оканье).[76] Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic *ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/.[76] Another Northern dialectal morphological feature is a post-posed definite article -to, -ta, -te similarly to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian.[76]
+
+In the Southern Russian dialects, instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to [ɪ] (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced [a] in such positions (e.g. несли is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi], not [nʲɪsˈlʲi]) – this is called yakanye (яканье).[76][77]
+Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/, a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/, whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/, /v/, and final /l/ and /f/, respectively.[76]
+The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects).[76][78] Some of these features such as akanye and yakanye, a debuccalized or lenited /ɡ/, a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs are also present in modern Belarusian and some dialects of Ukrainian (Eastern Polesian), indicating a linguistic continuum.
+
+The city of Veliky Novgorod has historically displayed a feature called chokanye or tsokanye (чоканье or цоканье), in which /tɕ/ and /ts/ were switched or merged. So, цапля (tsaplya, 'heron') has been recorded as чапля (chaplya). Also, the second palatalization of velars did not occur there, so the so-called ě² (from the Proto-Slavic diphthong *ai) did not cause /k, ɡ, x/ to shift to /ts, dz, s/; therefore, where Standard Russian has цепь ('chain'), the form кепь [kʲepʲ] is attested in earlier texts.
+
+Among the first to study Russian dialects was Lomonosov in the 18th century. In the 19th, Vladimir Dal compiled the first dictionary that included dialectal vocabulary. Detailed mapping of Russian dialects began at the turn of the 20th century. In modern times, the monumental Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language (Диалектологический атлас русского языка - Dialektologichesky atlas russkogo yazyka), was published in three folio volumes 1986–1989, after four decades of preparatory work.
+
+Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their upper case forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound:
+
+Older letters of the Russian alphabet include ⟨ѣ⟩, which merged to ⟨е⟩ (/je/ or /ʲe/); ⟨і⟩ and ⟨ѵ⟩, which both merged to ⟨и⟩ (/i/); ⟨ѳ⟩, which merged to ⟨ф⟩ (/f/); ⟨ѫ⟩, which merged to ⟨у⟩ (/u/); ⟨ѭ⟩, which merged to ⟨ю⟩ (/ju/ or /ʲu/); and ⟨ѧ⟩ and ⟨ѩ⟩, which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨я⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/. While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ъ⟩ and ⟨ь⟩ originally indicated the pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/, /ĭ/.
+
+Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz, and  мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš'. Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding, which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet.  Free programs leveraging this Unicode extension are available which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards.[79]
+
+The Russian alphabet has many systems of character encoding. KOI8-R was designed by the Soviet government and was intended to serve as the standard encoding. This encoding was and still is widely used in UNIX-like operating systems. Nevertheless, the spread of MS-DOS and OS/2 (IBM866), traditional Macintosh (ISO/IEC 8859-5) and Microsoft Windows (CP1251) meant the proliferation of many different encodings as de facto standards, with Windows-1251 becoming a de facto standard in Russian Internet and e-mail communication during the period of roughly 1995–2005.
+
+All the obsolete 8-bit encodings are rarely used in the communication protocols and text-exchange data formats, having been mostly replaced with UTF-8. A number of encoding conversion applications were developed. "iconv" is an example that is supported by most versions of Linux, Macintosh and some other operating systems; but converters are rarely needed unless accessing texts created more than a few years ago.
+
+In addition to the modern Russian alphabet, Unicode (and thus UTF-8) encodes the Early Cyrillic alphabet (which is very similar to the Greek alphabet), as well as all other Slavic and non-Slavic but Cyrillic-based alphabets.
+
+The current spelling follows the major reform of 1918, and the final codification of 1956. An update proposed in the late 1990s has met a hostile reception, and has not been formally adopted. The punctuation, originally based on Byzantine Greek, was in the 17th and 18th centuries reformulated on the French and German models.[citation needed]
+
+According to the Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent (знак ударения) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress. For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к (zamók - "lock") – за́мок (zámok - "castle"), сто́ящий (stóyashchy - "worthwhile") – стоя́щий (stoyáshchy - "standing"), чудно́ (chudnó - "this is odd") – чу́дно (chúdno - "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц (molodéts - "well done!") – мо́лодец (mólodets - "fine young man"), узна́ю (uznáyu - "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ (uznayú - "I recognize it"), отреза́ть (otrezát - "to be cutting") – отре́зать (otrézat - "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра (aféra, "scandal, affair"), гу́ру (gúru, "guru"), Гарси́я (García), Оле́ша (Olésha), Фе́рми (Fermi), and to show which is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? (Tý syel pechenye? - "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? (Ty syél pechenye? - "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? (Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners.
+
+The phonological system of Russian is inherited from Common Slavonic; it underwent considerable modification in the early historical period before being largely settled around the year 1400.
+
+The language possesses five vowels (or six, under the St. Petersburg Phonological School), which are written with different letters depending on whether the preceding consonant is palatalized. The consonants typically come in plain vs. palatalized pairs, which are traditionally called hard and soft. The hard consonants are often velarized, especially before front vowels, as in Irish and Marshallese. The standard language, based on the Moscow dialect, possesses heavy stress and moderate variation in pitch. Stressed vowels are somewhat lengthened, while unstressed vowels tend to be reduced to near-close vowels or an unclear schwa. (See also: vowel reduction in Russian.)
+
+The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using a formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows:
+
+(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)
+
+However, Russian has a constraint on syllabification such that syllables cannot span multiple morphemes.
+
+Clusters of four consonants are not very common, especially within a morpheme. Some examples are: взгляд (vzglʲat vzglyad, 'glance'), государств (gəsʊˈdarstf gosudarstv, 'of the states'), строительств (strɐˈitʲɪlʲstf stroitelstv, 'of the constructions').
+
+Russian is notable for its distinction based on palatalization of most of its consonants. While /k, ɡ, x/ do have palatalized allophones [kʲ, ɡʲ, xʲ], only /kʲ/ might be considered a phoneme, though it is marginal and generally not considered distinctive. The only native minimal pair that argues for /kʲ/ being a separate phoneme is это ткёт ([ˈɛtə tkʲɵt] eto tkyot - "it weaves") – этот кот ([ˈɛtət kot], etot kot - "this cat"). Palatalization means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. In the case of /tʲ/ and /dʲ/, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds; cf. Belarusian ць, дзь, or Polish ć, dź). The sounds /t, d, ts, s, z, n, rʲ/ are dental, that is, pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the alveolar ridge.
+
+Russian has five or six vowels in stressed syllables, /i, u, e, o, a/ and in some analyses /ɨ/, but in most cases these vowels have merged to only two to four vowels when unstressed: /i, u, a/ (or /ɨ, u, a/) after hard consonants and /i, u/ after soft ones.
+
+Russian has preserved an Indo-European synthetic-inflectional structure, although considerable levelling has taken place.
+Russian grammar encompasses:
+
+The spoken language has been influenced by the literary one but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features,[81] some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language.
+
+The Church Slavonic language (not to be confused with Old Church Slavonic which was introduced during the Christianization of the Kievan Rus'  in the 10th century) was introduced to Moskovy in the late 15th century and was adopted as official language for correspondence for convenience. Firstly with the newly conquered southwestern regions of former Kyivan Rus and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later, when Moskovy cut its ties with the Golden Horde, for communication between all newly consolidated regions of Moskovy.
+
+In terms of actual grammar, there are three tenses in Russian - past, present, and future - and each verb has two aspects (perfective and imperfective).  Russian nouns each have a gender - either feminine, masculine, or neuter, indicated by spelling at the end of the word.  Words change depending on both their gender and function in the sentence. Russian has six cases: Nominative (for the subject of the sentence), Accusative (for direct objects), Dative (for indirect objects), Genitive (to indicate possession), Instrumental (to indicate 'with' or 'by means of'), and Prepositional (used after a preposition).  Verbs of motion in Russian - such as 'go', 'walk', 'run', 'swim', and 'fly' - use the imperfective or perfective form to indicate a single or return trip, and also use a multitude of prefixes to add more meaning to the verb.
+
+See History of the Russian language for an account of the successive foreign influences on Russian.
+
+The number of listed words or entries in some of the major dictionaries published during the past two centuries, and the total vocabulary of Alexander Pushkin (who is credited with greatly augmenting and codifying literary Russian), are as follows:[82][83]
+
+The history of the Russian language may be divided into the following periods:[85]
+
+Judging by the historical records, by approximately 1000 AD the predominant ethnic group over much of modern European Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus was the Eastern branch of the Slavs, speaking a closely related group of dialects. The political unification of this region into Kievan Rus' in about 880, from which modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus trace their origins, established Old East Slavic as a literary and commercial language. It was soon followed by the adoption of Christianity in 988 and the introduction of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic as the liturgical and official language. Borrowings and calques from Byzantine Greek began to enter the Old East Slavic and spoken dialects at this time, which in their turn modified the Old Church Slavonic as well.
+
+Dialectal differentiation accelerated after the breakup of Kievan Rus' in approximately 1100. On the territories of modern Belarus and Ukraine emerged Ruthenian and in modern Russia medieval Russian. They became distinct since the 13th century, i.e. following the division of the land between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Poland in the west and independent Novgorod and Pskov feudal republics plus numerous small duchies (which came to be vassals of the Tatars) in the east.
+
+The official language in Moscow and Novgorod, and later, in the growing Muscovy, was Church Slavonic, which evolved from Old Church Slavonic and remained the literary language for centuries, until the Petrine age, when its usage became limited to biblical and liturgical texts. Russian developed under a strong influence of Church Slavonic until the close of the 17th century; afterward the influence reversed, leading to corruption of liturgical texts.
+
+The political reforms of Peter the Great (Пётр Вели́кий, Pyótr Velíky) were accompanied by a reform of the alphabet, and achieved their goal of secularization and Westernization. Blocks of specialized vocabulary were adopted from the languages of Western Europe. By 1800, a significant portion of the gentry spoke French daily, and German sometimes. Many Russian novels of the 19th century, e.g. Leo Tolstoy's (Лев Толсто́й) War and Peace, contain entire paragraphs and even pages in French with no translation given, with an assumption that educated readers would not need one.
+
+The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of Alexander Pushkin (Алекса́ндр Пу́шкин) in the first third of the 19th century. Pushkin revolutionized Russian literature by rejecting archaic grammar and vocabulary (so-called высо́кий стиль — "high style") in favor of grammar and vocabulary found in the spoken language of the time. Even modern readers of younger age may only experience slight difficulties understanding some words in Pushkin's texts, since relatively few words used by Pushkin have become archaic or changed meaning. In fact, many expressions used by Russian writers of the early 19th century, in particular Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov (Михаи́л Ле́рмонтов), Nikolai Gogol (Никола́й Го́голь), Aleksander Griboyedov (Алекса́ндр Грибое́дов), became proverbs or sayings which can be frequently found even in modern Russian colloquial speech.
+
+Зи́мний ве́чер IPA: [ˈzʲimnʲɪj ˈvʲetɕɪr] (Zímny vécher,)
+Бу́ря мгло́ю не́бо кро́ет, Russian pronunciation: [ˈburʲə ˈmɡɫoju ˈnʲɛbə ˈkroɪt] (Búrya mglóyu nébo króyet,)
+Ви́хри сне́жные крутя́; Russian pronunciation: [ˈvʲixrʲɪ ˈsʲnʲɛʐnɨɪ krʊˈtʲa] (Víkhri snézhnyye krutyá,)
+То, как зверь, она́ заво́ет, Russian pronunciation: [ˈto kaɡ zvʲerʲ ɐˈna zɐˈvoɪt] (To, kak zver, oná zavóyet,)
+То запла́чет, как дитя́, Russian pronunciation: [ˈto zɐˈpɫatɕɪt, kaɡ dʲɪˈtʲa] (To zapláchet, kak dityá,)
+То по кро́вле обветша́лой Russian pronunciation: [ˈto pɐˈkrovlʲɪ ɐbvʲɪtˈʂaɫəj] (To po króvle obvetsháloy)
+Вдруг соло́мой зашуми́т, Russian pronunciation: [ˈvdruk sɐˈɫoməj zəʂʊˈmʲit] (Vdrug solómoy zashumít,)
+То, как пу́тник запозда́лый, Russian pronunciation: [ˈto ˈkak ˈputʲnʲɪɡ zəpɐˈzdaɫɨj] (To, kak pútnik zapozdály)
+К нам в око́шко застучи́т. Russian pronunciation: [ˈknam vɐˈkoʂkə zəstʊˈtɕit] (K nam v okóshko zastuchít.)
+
+The political upheavals of the early 20th century and the wholesale changes of political ideology gave written Russian its modern appearance after the spelling reform of 1918. Political circumstances and Soviet accomplishments in military, scientific, and technological matters (especially cosmonautics), gave Russian a worldwide prestige, especially during the mid-20th century.
+
+During the Soviet period, the policy toward the languages of the various other ethnic groups fluctuated in practice. Though each of the constituent republics had its own official language, the unifying role and superior status was reserved for Russian, although it was declared the official language only in 1990.[86] Following the break-up of the USSR in 1991, several of the newly independent states have encouraged their native languages, which has partly reversed the privileged status of Russian, though its role as the language of post-Soviet national discourse throughout the region has continued.
+
+The Russian language in the world declined after 1991 due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and decrease in the number of Russians in the world and diminution of the total population in Russia (where Russian is an official language), however this has since been reversed.[40][87][88]
+
+According to figures published in 2006 in the journal "Demoskop Weekly" research deputy director of Research Center for Sociological Research of the Ministry of Education and Science (Russia) Arefyev A. L.,[89] the Russian language is gradually losing its position in the world in general, and in Russia in particular.[87][90][91][92] In 2012, A. L. Arefyev published a new study "Russian language at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries", in which he confirmed his conclusion about the trend of weakening of the Russian language after the Soviet Union's collapse in various regions of the world (findings published in 2013 in the journal "Demoskop Weekly").[40][93][94][95] In the countries of the former Soviet Union the Russian language was being replaced or used in conjunction with local languages.[40][96] Currently, the number of speakers of Russian in the world depends on the number of Russians in the world and total population in Russia.[40][87][88]
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+The Soviet Union,[d] officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics[e] (USSR),[f] was a federal socialist state in Northern Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics,[g] in practice its government and economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian SFSR. Other major urban centers were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Tashkent, Alma-Ata and Novosibirsk. It was the largest country in the world by surface area,[18] spanning over 10,000 kilometers (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones and over 7,200 kilometers (4,500 mi) north to south. Its territory included much of Eastern Europe as well as part of Northern Europe and all of Northern and Central Asia. It had five climate zones such as tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains. Its diverse population was collectively known as Soviet people.
+
+The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, headed by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government that had earlier replaced the monarchy. They established the Russian Soviet Republic[h], beginning a civil war between the Bolshevik Red Army and many anti-Bolshevik forces across the former Empire, among whom the largest faction was the White Guard. The disastrous distractive effect of the war and the Bolshevik policies led to 5 million deaths during the 1921–1922 famine in the region of Povolzhye. The Red Army expanded and helped local Communists take power, establishing soviets, repressing their political opponents and rebellious peasants through the policies of Red Terror and War Communism. In 1922, the Communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics. The New Economic Policy (NEP) which was introduced by Lenin led to a partial return of a free market and private property, resulting in a period of economic recovery.
+
+Following Lenin's death in 1924, a troika and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all political opposition to his rule inside the Communist Party, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism, ended the NEP, initiating a centrally planned economy. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and forced collectivization, which led to a significant economic growth, but also created a man-made famine of 1932–1933 and expanded the Gulag labour camp system founded back in 1918. Stalin also fomented political paranoia and conducted the Great Purge to remove opponents of his from the Party through the mass arbitrary arrest of many people (military leaders, Communist Party members and ordinary citizens alike) who were then sent to correctional labor camps or sentenced to death.
+
+On 23 August 1939, after unsuccessful efforts to form an anti-fascist alliance with Western powers, the Soviets signed the non-aggression agreement with Nazi Germany. After the start of World War II, the formally neutral Soviets invaded and annexed territories of several Eastern European states, including eastern Poland and the Baltic states. In June 1941 the Germans invaded, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the cost of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at intense battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin and won World War II in Europe on 9 May 1945. The territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged in 1947 as a result of a post-war Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe, where the Eastern Bloc confronted the Western Bloc that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949.
+
+Following Stalin's death in 1953, a period known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchev Thaw occurred under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. The country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took an early lead in the Space Race with the first ever satellite and the first human spaceflight. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, but tensions resumed when the Soviet Union deployed troops in Afghanistan in 1979. The war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters.
+
+In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to further reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost and perestroika. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing economic stagnation. The Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well. Central authorities initiated a referendum—boycotted by the Baltic republics, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova—which resulted in the majority of participating citizens voting in favor of preserving the Union as a renewed federation. In August 1991, a coup d'état was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a high-profile role in facing down the coup, resulting in the banning of the Communist Party. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the remaining twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states. The Russian Federation (formerly the Russian SFSR) assumed the Soviet Union's rights and obligations and is recognized as its continued legal personality.
+
+The USSR produced many significant social and technological achievements and innovations of the 20th century, including the world's first ministry of health, first human-made satellite, the first humans in space and the first probe to land on another planet, Venus. The country had the world's second-largest economy and the largest standing military in the world.[19][20][21] The USSR was recognized as one of the five nuclear weapons states. It was a founding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as well as a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the World Federation of Trade Unions and the leading member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact.
+
+The word soviet is derived from the Russian word sovet (Russian: совет), meaning "council", "assembly", "advice", "harmony", "concord",[note 1] ultimately deriving from the proto-Slavic verbal stem of vět-iti ("to inform"), related to Slavic věst ("news"), English "wise", the root in "ad-vis-or" (which came to English through French), or the Dutch weten ("to know"; cf. wetenschap meaning "science"). The word sovietnik means "councillor".[22]
+
+Some organizations in Russian history were called council (Russian: совет). In the Russian Empire, the State Council which functioned from 1810 to 1917 was referred to as a Council of Ministers after the revolt of 1905.[22]
+
+During the Georgian Affair, Vladimir Lenin envisioned an expression of Great Russian ethnic chauvinism by Joseph Stalin and his supporters, calling for these nation-states to join Russia as semi-independent parts of a greater union which he initially named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia (Russian: Союз Советских Республик Европы и Азии, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Respublik Evropy i Azii).[23] Stalin initially resisted the proposal but ultimately accepted it, although with Lenin's agreement changed the name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), albeit all the republics began as socialist soviet and did not change to the other order until 1936. In addition, in the national languages of several republics, the word council or conciliar in the respective language was only quite late changed to an adaptation of the Russian soviet and never in others, e.g. Ukraine.
+
+СССР (in Latin alphabet: SSSR) is the abbreviation of USSR in Russian. It is written in Cyrillic alphabets. The Soviets used the Cyrillic abbreviation so frequently that audiences worldwide became familiar with its meaning. Notably, both Cyrillic letters used have orthographically-similar (but transliterally distinct) letters in Latin alphabets. Because of widespread familiarity with the Cyrillic abbreviation, Latin alphabet users in particular almost always use the orthographically-similar Latin letters C and P (as opposed to the transliteral Latin letters S and R) when rendering the USSR's native abbreviation.
+
+After СССР, the most common short form names for the Soviet state in Russian were Советский Союз (transliteration: Sovetskiy Soyuz) which literally means Soviet Union, and also Союз ССР (transliteration: Soyuz SSR) which, after compensating for grammatical differences, essentially translates to Union of SSR's in English.
+
+In the English language media, the state was referred to as the Soviet Union or the USSR. In other European languages, the locally translated short forms and abbreviations are usually used such as Union soviétique and URSS in French, or Sowjetunion and UdSSR in German. In the English-speaking world, the Soviet Union was also informally called Russia and its citizens Russians,[24] although that was technically incorrect since Russia was only one of the republics.[25] Such misapplications of the linguistic equivalents to the term Russia and its derivatives were frequent in other languages as well.
+
+With an area of 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), the Soviet Union was the world's largest country, a status that is retained by the Russian Federation.[26] Covering a sixth of Earth's land surface, its size was comparable to that of North America.[27] Two other successor states, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, rank among the top 10 countries by land area, and the largest country entirely in Europe, respectively. The European portion accounted for a quarter of the country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and, except some areas in Central Asia, was much less populous. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains.
+
+The USSR had the world's longest border, like Russia, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or ​1 1⁄2 circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it was a coastline. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The country bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey from 1945 to 1991.
+
+The country's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak) in Tajikistan, at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The USSR also included most of the world's largest lakes; the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran), and Lake Baikal, the world's largest (by volume) and deepest freshwater lake that is also an internal body of water in Russia.
+
+Modern revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire began with the 1825 Decembrist revolt. Although serfdom was abolished in 1861, it was done on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A parliament—the State Duma—was established in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but Tsar Nicholas II resisted attempts to move from absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Social unrest continued and was aggravated during World War I by military defeat and food shortages in major cities.
+
+A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated in the February Revolution and the toppling of Nicholas II and the imperial government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government, which intended to conduct elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue fighting on the side of the Entente in World War I.
+
+At the same time, workers' councils, known in Russian as "Soviets", sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. On 7 November 1917, the Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, ending the rule of the Provisional Government and leaving all political power to the Soviets.[30] This event would later be officially known in Soviet bibliographies as the Great October Socialist Revolution. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Central Powers, though by February 1918, fighting had resumed. In March, the Soviets ended involvement in the war and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
+
+A long and bloody Civil War ensued between the Reds and the Whites, starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the Reds' victory. It included foreign intervention, the execution of the former tsar and his family, and the famine of 1921, which killed about five million people.[31] In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established republics of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
+
+On 28 December 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR[32] and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.[33] These two documents were confirmed by the first Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations,[34] Mikhail Kalinin, Mikhail Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petrovsky, and Alexander Chervyakov,[35] on 30 December 1922. The formal proclamation was made from the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.
+
+An intensive restructuring of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was done according to the Bolshevik Initial Decrees, government documents signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most prominent breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, which envisioned a major restructuring of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country.[36] The plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was fulfilled by 1931.[37] After the economic policy of "War communism" during the Russian Civil War, as a prelude to fully developing socialism in the country, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist alongside nationalized industry in the 1920s, and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax.
+
+From its creation, the government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks).[38] The stated purpose was to prevent the return of capitalist exploitation, and that the principles of democratic centralism would be the most effective in representing the people's will in a practical manner. The debate over the future of the economy provided the background for a power struggle in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" consisting of Grigory Zinoviev of the Ukrainian SSR, Lev Kamenev of the Russian SFSR, and Joseph Stalin of the Transcaucasian SFSR.
+
+On 1 February 1924, the USSR was recognized by the United Kingdom. The same year, a Soviet Constitution was approved, legitimizing the December 1922 union. Despite the foundation of the Soviet state as a federative entity of many constituent republics, each with its own political and administrative entities, the term "Soviet Russia" – strictly applicable only to the Russian Federative Socialist Republic – was often applied to the entire country by non-Soviet writers and politicians.
+
+On 3 April 1922, Stalin was named the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Lenin had appointed Stalin the head of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, which gave Stalin considerable power. By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating and outmanoeuvring his rivals within the party, Stalin became the undisputed leader of the country and, by the end of the 1920s, established a totalitarian rule. In October 1927, Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky were expelled from the Central Committee and forced into exile.
+
+In 1928, Stalin introduced the first five-year plan for building a socialist economy. In place of the internationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the Revolution, it aimed to build Socialism in One Country. In industry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization. In agriculture, rather than adhering to the "lead by example" policy advocated by Lenin,[39] forced collectivization of farms was implemented all over the country.
+
+Famines ensued as a result, causing deaths estimated at three to seven million; surviving kulaks were persecuted, and many were sent to Gulags to do forced labor.[40][41] Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s. Despite the turmoil of the mid-to-late 1930s, the country developed a robust industrial economy in the years preceding World War II.
+
+Closer cooperation between the USSR and the West developed in the early 1930s. From 1932 to 1934, the country participated in the World Disarmament Conference. In 1933, diplomatic relations between the United States and the USSR were established when in November, the newly elected President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, chose to recognize Stalin's Communist government formally and negotiated a new trade agreement between the two countries.[42] In September 1934, the country joined the League of Nations. After the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, the USSR actively supported the Republican forces against the Nationalists, who were supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.[43]
+
+In December 1936, Stalin unveiled a new constitution that was praised by supporters around the world as the most democratic constitution imaginable, though there was some skepticism.[i] Stalin's Great Purge resulted in the detainment or execution of many "Old Bolsheviks" who had participated in the October Revolution with Lenin. According to declassified Soviet archives, the NKVD arrested more than one and a half million people in 1937 and 1938, of whom 681,692 were shot.[45] Over those two years, there were an average of over one thousand executions a day.[46][j]
+
+In 1939, the Soviet Union made a dramatic shift toward Nazi Germany. Almost a year after Britain and France had concluded the Munich Agreement with Germany, the Soviet Union made agreements with Germany as well, both militarily and economically during extensive talks. The two countries concluded the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the German–Soviet Commercial Agreement in August 1939. The former made possible the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and eastern Poland. In late November, unable to coerce the Republic of Finland by diplomatic means into moving its border 25 kilometres (16 mi) back from Leningrad, Stalin ordered the invasion of Finland. In the east, the Soviet military won several decisive victories during border clashes with the Empire of Japan in 1938 and 1939. However, in April 1941, the USSR signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact with Japan, recognizing the territorial integrity of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state.
+
+Germany broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 starting what was known in the USSR as the Great Patriotic War. The Red Army stopped the seemingly invincible German Army at the Battle of Moscow, aided by an unusually harsh winter. The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from late 1942 to early 1943, dealt a severe blow to Germany from which they never fully recovered and became a turning point in the war. After Stalingrad, Soviet forces drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945. The German Army suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front.[50] Harry Hopkins, a close foreign policy advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt, spoke on 10 August 1943 of the USSR's decisive role in the war.[k]
+
+In the same year, the USSR, in fulfilment of its agreement with the Allies at the Yalta Conference, denounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945[52] and invaded Manchukuo and other Japan-controlled territories on 9 August 1945.[53] This conflict ended with a decisive Soviet victory, contributing to the unconditional surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.
+
+The USSR suffered greatly in the war, losing around 27 million people.[54] Approximately 2.8 million Soviet POWs died of starvation, mistreatment, or executions in just eight months of 1941–42.[55][56] During the war, the country together with the United States, the United Kingdom and China were considered the Big Four Allied powers,[57] and later became the Four Policemen that formed the basis of the United Nations Security Council.[58] It emerged as a superpower in the post-war period. Once denied diplomatic recognition by the Western world, the USSR had official relations with practically every country by the late 1940s. A member of the United Nations at its foundation in 1945, the country became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, which gave it the right to veto any of its resolutions.
+
+During the immediate post-war period, the Soviet Union rebuilt and expanded its economy, while maintaining its strictly centralized control. It took effective control over most of the countries of Eastern Europe (except Yugoslavia and later Albania), turning them into satellite states. The USSR bound its satellite states in a military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955, and an economic organization, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance or Comecon, a counterpart to the European Economic Community (EEC), from 1949 to 1991.[59] The USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted war reparations from East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. It also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favor the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin.[m] Later, the Comecon supplied aid to the eventually victorious Communist Party of China, and its influence grew elsewhere in the world. Fearing its ambitions, the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, became its enemies. In the ensuing Cold War, the two sides clashed indirectly in proxy wars.
+
+Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Without a mutually agreeable successor, the highest Communist Party officials initially opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly through a troika headed by Georgy Malenkov. This did not last, however, and Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the ensuing power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956, he denounced Stalin's use of repression and proceeded to ease controls over the party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.
+
+Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a critically vital buffer zone for the forward defence of its western borders, in case of another major invasion such as the German invasion of 1941. For this reason, the USSR sought to cement its control of the region by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and subservient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.
+
+In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the Soviet rapprochement with the West, and what Mao Zedong perceived as Khrushchev's revisionism, led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement, with the governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia choosing to ally with China.
+
+During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the USSR continued to realize scientific and technological exploits in the Space Race, rivaling the United States: launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.[61]
+
+Khrushchev initiated "The Thaw", a complex shift in political, cultural and economic life in the country. This included some openness and contact with other nations and new social and economic policies with more emphasis on commodity goods, allowing a dramatic rise in living standards while maintaining high levels of economic growth. Censorship was relaxed as well. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive. In 1962, he precipitated a crisis with the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. An agreement was made with the United States to remove nuclear missiles from both Cuba and Turkey, concluding the crisis. This event caused Khrushchev much embarrassment and loss of prestige, resulting in his removal from power in 1964.
+
+Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of collective leadership ensued, consisting of Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary, Alexei Kosygin as Premier and Nikolai Podgorny as Chairman of the Presidium, lasting until Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent Soviet leader.
+
+In 1968, the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia to halt the Prague Spring reforms. In the aftermath, Brezhnev justified the invasion along with the earlier invasions of Eastern European states by introducing the Brezhnev Doctrine, which claimed the right of the Soviet Union to violate the sovereignty of any country that attempted to replace Marxism–Leninism with capitalism.
+
+Brezhnev presided throughout détente with the West that resulted in treaties on armament control (SALT I, SALT II, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) while at the same time building up Soviet military might.
+
+In October 1977, the third Soviet Constitution was unanimously adopted. The prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion to change. The long period of Brezhnev's rule had come to be dubbed one of "standstill", with an ageing and ossified top political leadership. This period is also known as the Era of Stagnation, a period of adverse economic, political, and social effects in the country, which began during the rule of Brezhnev and continued under his successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.
+
+In late 1979, the Soviet Union's military intervened in the ongoing civil war in neighboring Afghanistan, effectively ending a détente with the West.
+
+Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in Beyond Oil that the Reagan administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit selling their oil, and resulted in the depletion of the country's hard currency reserves.[62]
+
+Brezhnev's next two successors, transitional figures with deep roots in his tradition, did not last long. Yuri Andropov was 68 years old and Konstantin Chernenko 72 when they assumed power; both died in less than two years. In an attempt to avoid a third short-lived leader, in 1985, the Soviets turned to the next generation and selected Mikhail Gorbachev. He made significant changes in the economy and party leadership, called perestroika. His policy of glasnost freed public access to information after decades of heavy government censorship. Gorbachev also moved to end the Cold War. In 1988, the USSR abandoned its war in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its forces. In the following year, Gorbachev refused to interfere in the internal affairs of the Soviet satellite states, which paved the way for the Revolutions of 1989. With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and with East and West Germany pursuing unification, the Iron Curtain between the West and Soviet-controlled regions came down.
+
+At the same time, the Soviet republics started legal moves towards potentially declaring sovereignty over their territories, citing the freedom to secede in Article 72 of the USSR constitution.[63] On 7 April 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for it in a referendum.[64] Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as the "War of Laws". In 1989, the Russian SFSR convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. Boris Yeltsin was elected its chairman. On 12 June 1990, the Congress declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the Soviet laws. After a landslide victory of Sąjūdis in Lithuania, that country declared its independence restored on 11 March 1990.
+
+A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on 17 March 1991 in nine republics (the remainder having boycotted the vote), with the majority of the population in those republics voting for preservation of the Union. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost. In the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty, which would have turned the country into a much looser Union, was agreed upon by eight republics. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup—an attempted coup d'état by hardline members of the government and the KGB who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin was seen as a hero for his decisive actions, while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared the restoration of their full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example). Gorbachev resigned as general secretary in late August, and soon afterwards, the party's activities were indefinitely suspended—effectively ending its rule. By the fall, Gorbachev could no longer influence events outside Moscow, and he was being challenged even there by Yeltsin, who had been elected President of Russia in July 1991.
+
+The remaining 12 republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. However, by December all except Russia and Kazakhstan had formally declared independence. During this time, Yeltsin took over what remained of the Soviet government, including the Moscow Kremlin. The final blow was struck on 1 December when Ukraine, the second-most powerful republic, voted overwhelmingly for independence. Ukraine's secession ended any realistic chance of the country staying together even on a limited scale.
+
+On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (formerly Byelorussia), signed the Belavezha Accords, which declared the Soviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the accords to do this, on 21 December 1991, the representatives of all Soviet republics except Georgia signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the accords. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as the President of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers that had been vested in the presidency over to Yeltsin. That night, the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time, and the Russian tricolor was raised in its place.
+
+The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body, voted both itself and the country out of existence. This is generally recognized as marking the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning state, and the end of the Cold War.[65] The Soviet Army initially remained under overall CIS command but was soon absorbed into the different military forces of the newly independent states. The few remaining Soviet institutions that had not been taken over by Russia ceased to function by the end of 1991.
+
+Following the dissolution, Russia was internationally recognized[66] as its legal successor on the international stage. To that end, Russia voluntarily accepted all Soviet foreign debt and claimed Soviet overseas properties as its own. Under the 1992 Lisbon Protocol, Russia also agreed to receive all nuclear weapons remaining in the territory of other former Soviet republics. Since then, the Russian Federation has assumed the Soviet Union's rights and obligations. Ukraine has refused to recognize exclusive Russian claims to succession of the USSR and claimed such status for Ukraine as well, which was codified in Articles 7 and 8 of its 1991 law On Legal Succession of Ukraine. Since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has continued to pursue claims against Russia in foreign courts, seeking to recover its share of the foreign property that was owned by the USSR.
+
+The dissolution was followed by a severe drop in economic and social conditions in post-Soviet states,[67][68] including a rapid increase in poverty,[69][70][71][72] crime,[73][74] corruption,[75][76] unemployment,[77] homelessness,[78][79] rates of disease,[80][81][82] demographic losses,[83] income inequality and the rise of an oligarchical class,[84][69] along with decreases in calorie intake, life expectancy, adult literacy, and income.[85] Between 1988/1989 and 1993/1995, the Gini ratio increased by an average of 9 points for all former socialist countries.[69] The economic shocks that accompanied wholesale privatization were associated with sharp increases in mortality. Data shows Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia saw a tripling of unemployment and a 42% increase in male death rates between 1991 and 1994.[86][87] In the following decades, only five or six of the post-communist states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist West while most are falling behind, some to such an extent that it will take over fifty years to catch up to where they were before the fall of the Soviet Bloc.[88][89]
+
+In summing up the international ramifications of these events, Vladislav Zubok stated: "The collapse of the Soviet empire was an event of epochal geopolitical, military, ideological, and economic significance."[90] Before the dissolution, the country had maintained its status as one of the world's two superpowers for four decades after World War II through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, military strength, economic strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research, especially in space technology and weaponry.[91]
+
+The analysis of the succession of states for the 15 post-Soviet states is complex. The Russian Federation is seen as the legal continuator state and is for most purposes the heir to the Soviet Union. It retained ownership of all former Soviet embassy properties, as well as the old Soviet UN membership and permanent membership on the Security Council.
+
+Of the two other co-founding states of the USSR at the time of the dissolution, Ukraine was the only one that had passed similar to Russia's laws that it is a state-successor of both the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR.[92] Soviet treaties laid groundwork for Ukraine's future foreign agreements as well as they led to Ukraine agreeing to undertake 16.37% of debts of the Soviet Union for which it was going to receive its share of USSR's foreign property. Although it had a tough position at the time, due to Russia's position as a "single continuation of the USSR" that became widely accepted in the West as well as a constant pressure from the Western countries, allowed Russia to dispose state property of USSR abroad and conceal information about it. Due to that Ukraine never ratified "zero option" agreement that Russian Federation had signed with other former Soviet republics, as it denied disclosing of information about Soviet Gold Reserves and its Diamond Fund.[93][94] Dispute over former Soviet property and assets between two former republics is still ongoing:
+
+The conflict is unsolvable. We can continue to poke Kiev handouts in the calculation of "solve the problem", only it won't be solved. Going to a trial is also pointless: for a number of European countries this is a political issue, and they will make a decision clearly in whose favor. What to do in this situation is an open question. Search for non-trivial solutions. But we must remember that in 2014, with the filing of the then Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, litigation with Russia resumed in 32 countries.
+
+Similar situation occurred with restitution of cultural property. Although on 14 February 1992 Russia and other former Soviet republics signed agreement "On the return of cultural and historic property to the origin states" in Minsk, it was halted by Russian State Duma that had eventually passed "Federal Law on Cultural Valuables Displaced to the USSR as a Result of the Second World War and Located on the Territory of the Russian Federation" which made restitution currently impossible.[96]
+
+There are additionally four states that claim independence from the other internationally recognised post-Soviet states but possess limited international recognition: Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Transnistria. The Chechen separatist movement of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria lacks any international recognition.
+
+During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise, Soviet foreign policy was set by the Commission on the Foreign Policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or by the party's highest body the Politburo. Operations were handled by the separate Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was known as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential spokesmen were Georgy Chicherin (1872–1936), Maxim Litvinov (1876–1951), Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986), Andrey Vyshinsky (1883–1954) and Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989). Intellectuals were based in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.[97]
+
+The Communist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and change directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions.[106]
+
+During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it was the Soviet responsibility to assist them. The Comintern was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the Hungarian Soviet Republic—lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help.
+
+By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became the duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the Treaty of Rapallo that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in the USSR.[107]
+
+Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of Winston Churchill and a few others about a continuing communist threat, and opened trade relations and de facto diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war tsarist debts, but it was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new Labour Party came to power in 1924.[108] All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. Henry Ford opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of a new profitable market.[109]
+
+In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Communist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-communist political parties, labor unions or other organizations on the left. Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with the Popular Front program that called on all Communist parties to join together with all anti-Fascist political, labor, and organizational forces that were opposed to fascism, especially of the Nazi variety.[110][111]
+
+In 1939, half a year after the Munich Agreement, the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain.[112] Adolf Hitler proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in the partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.[113]
+
+There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislature represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the government represented by the Council of Ministers, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only legal party and the final policymaker in the country.[114]
+
+At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952–1966), Secretariat and the General Secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the de facto highest office in the Soviet Union.[115] Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country[116] (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941).[117] They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.[118]
+
+The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership,[119] but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal head of state. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations.[120]
+
+However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party.[121] Nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned.[122]
+
+The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets and Central Executive Committee) was nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history,[123] at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the government budget.[124] The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium to wield its power between plenary sessions,[125] ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court,[126] the Procurator General[127] and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as the Council of People's Commissars), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society.[125] State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary.[128]
+
+The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Great Purge,[129] but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under Yuri Andropov, the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure,[130] culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[131]
+
+The constitution, which was promulgated in 1918, 1924, 1936 and 1977,[132] did not limit state power. No formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers[133] that represented executive and legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin[134] and Stalin,[135] as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal,[136] itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee.[137] All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov[138] and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party.[137]
+
+Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from the highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since the 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers.[139] In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union, concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government,[140] now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, to himself.[141]
+
+Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a coup attempt. The coup failed, and the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power "in the period of transition".[142] Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR.[143]
+
+The judiciary was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts (People's Court) and applied the law as established by the constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union used the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defence attorney collaborate to establish the truth.[144]
+
+Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as Ukraine or Byelorussia (SSRs), or federations, such as Russia or Transcaucasia (SFSRs),[114] all four being the founding republics who signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were formed from parts of Russia's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan SSRs. In 1929, Tajikistan was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan being elevated to Union Republics, while Kazakhstan and Kirghizia were split off from Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status.[145] In August 1940, Moldavia was formed from parts of Ukraine and Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (SSRs) were also admitted into the union which was not recognized by most of the international community and was considered an illegal occupation. Karelia was split off from Russia as a Union Republic in March 1940 and was reabsorbed in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below).[146]
+
+While nominally a union of equals, in practice the Soviet Union was dominated by Russians. The domination was so absolute that for most of its existence, the country was commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as "Russia". While the RSFSR was technically only one republic within the larger union, it was by far the largest (both in terms of population and area), most powerful, most developed, and the industrial center of the Soviet Union. Historian Matthew White wrote that it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was "window dressing" for Russian dominance. For that reason, the people of the USSR were usually called "Russians", not "Soviets", since "everyone knew who really ran the show".[147]
+
+Under the Military Law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of three components, namely the Land Forces, the Air Force, the Navy, Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU), and the Internal Troops.[148] The OGPU later became independent and in 1934 joined the NKVD, and so its internal troops were under the joint leadership of the defense and internal commissariats. After World War II, Strategic Missile Forces (1959), Air Defense Forces (1948) and National Civil Defense Forces (1970) were formed, which ranked first, third, and sixth in the official Soviet system of importance (ground forces were second, Air Force Fourth, and Navy Fifth).
+
+The army had the greatest political influence. In 1989, there served two million soldiers divided between 150 motorized and 52 armored divisions. Until the early 1960s, the Soviet navy was a rather small military branch, but after the Caribbean crisis, under the leadership of Sergei Gorshkov, it expanded significantly. It became known for battlecruisers and submarines. In 1989 there served 500 000 men. The Soviet Air Force focused on a fleet of strategic bombers and during war situation was to eradicate enemy infrastructure and nuclear capacity. The air force also had a number of fighters and tactical bombers to support the army in the war. Strategic missile forces had more than 1,400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed between 28 bases and 300 command centers.
+
+In the post-war period, the Soviet Army was directly involved in several military operations abroad. These included the suppression of the uprising in East Germany (1953), Hungarian revolution (1956) and the invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968). The Soviet Union also participated in the war in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.
+
+In the Soviet Union, general conscription applied.
+
+At the end of the 1950s, with the help of engineers and technologies captured and imported from defeated Nazi Germany, the Soviets constructed the first satellite - Sputnik 1 and thus overtook the United States. This was followed by other successful satellites and experimental dogs were sent. On April 12, 1961, the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, was sent to the space. He once flew around the Earth and successfully landed in the Kazakh steppe. At that time, the first plans for space shuttles and orbital stations were drawn up in Soviet design offices, but in the end personal disputes between designers and management prevented this.
+
+The first big fiasco for the USSR was the landing on the moon by the Americans, when the Russians were not able to respond to the Americans in time with the same project. In the 1970s, more specific proposals for the design of the space shuttle began to emerge, but shortcomings, especially in the electronics industry (rapid overheating of electronics), postponed the program until the end of the 1980s. The first shuttle, the Buran, flew in 1988, but without a human crew. Another shuttle, Ptichka, eventually ended up under construction, as the shuttle project was canceled in 1991. For their launch into space, there is today an unused superpower rocket, Energia, which is the most powerful in the world.
+
+In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union managed to build the Mir orbital station. It was built on the construction of Salyut stations and its tasks were purely civilian and research. In the 1990s, when the US Skylab was shut down due to lack of funds, it was the only orbital station in operation. Gradually, other modules were added to it, including American ones. However, the technical condition of the station deteriorated rapidly, especially after the fire, so in 2001 it was decided to bring it into the atmosphere where it burned down.
+
+The Soviet Union adopted a command economy, whereby production and distribution of goods were centralized and directed by the government. The first Bolshevik experience with a command economy was the policy of War communism, which involved the nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive requisition of agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate money circulation, private enterprises and free trade. After the severe economic collapse, Lenin replaced war communism by the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, legalizing free trade and private ownership of small businesses. The economy quickly recovered as a result.[149]
+
+After a long debate among the members of Politburo about the course of economic development, by 1928–1929, upon gaining control of the country, Stalin abandoned the NEP and pushed for full central planning, starting forced collectivization of agriculture and enacting draconian labor legislation. Resources were mobilized for rapid industrialization, which significantly expanded Soviet capacity in heavy industry and capital goods during the 1930s.[149] The primary motivation for industrialization was preparation for war, mostly due to distrust of the outside capitalist world.[150] As a result, the USSR was transformed from a largely agrarian economy into a great industrial power, leading the way for its emergence as a superpower after World War II.[151] The war caused extensive devastation of the Soviet economy and infrastructure, which required massive reconstruction.[152]
+
+By the early 1940s, the Soviet economy had become relatively self-sufficient; for most of the period until the creation of Comecon, only a tiny share of domestic products was traded internationally.[153] After the creation of the Eastern Bloc, external trade rose rapidly. However, the influence of the world economy on the USSR was limited by fixed domestic prices and a state monopoly on foreign trade.[154] Grain and sophisticated consumer manufactures became major import articles from around the 1960s.[153] During the arms race of the Cold War, the Soviet economy was burdened by military expenditures, heavily lobbied for by a powerful bureaucracy dependent on the arms industry. At the same time, the USSR became the largest arms exporter to the Third World. Significant amounts of Soviet resources during the Cold War were allocated in aid to the other socialist states.[153]
+
+From the 1930s until its dissolution in late 1991, the way the Soviet economy operated remained essentially unchanged. The economy was formally directed by central planning, carried out by Gosplan and organized in five-year plans. However, in practice, the plans were highly aggregated and provisional, subject to ad hoc intervention by superiors. All critical economic decisions were taken by the political leadership. Allocated resources and plan targets were usually denominated in rubles rather than in physical goods. Credit was discouraged, but widespread. The final allocation of output was achieved through relatively decentralized, unplanned contracting. Although in theory prices were legally set from above, in practice they were often negotiated, and informal horizontal links (e.g. between producer factories) were widespread.[149]
+
+A number of basic services were state-funded, such as education and health care. In the manufacturing sector, heavy industry and defence were prioritized over consumer goods.[155] Consumer goods, particularly outside large cities, were often scarce, of poor quality and limited variety. Under the command economy, consumers had almost no influence on production, and the changing demands of a population with growing incomes could not be satisfied by supplies at rigidly fixed prices.[156] A massive unplanned second economy grew up at low levels alongside the planned one, providing some of the goods and services that the planners could not. The legalization of some elements of the decentralized economy was attempted with the reform of 1965.[149]
+
+Although statistics of the Soviet economy are notoriously unreliable and its economic growth difficult to estimate precisely,[157][158] by most accounts, the economy continued to expand until the mid-1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s, it had comparatively high growth and was catching up to the West.[159] However, after 1970, the growth, while still positive, steadily declined much more quickly and consistently than in other countries, despite a rapid increase in the capital stock (the rate of capital increase was only surpassed by Japan).[149]
+
+Overall, the growth rate of per capita income in the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1989 was slightly above the world average (based on 102 countries).[citation needed] According to Stanley Fischer and William Easterly, growth could have been faster. By their calculation, per capita income in 1989 should have been twice higher than it was, considering the amount of investment, education and population. The authors attribute this poor performance to the low productivity of capital.[160] Steven Rosenfielde states that the standard of living declined due to Stalin's despotism. While there was a brief improvement after his death, it lapsed into stagnation.[161]
+
+In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform and revitalize the economy with his program of perestroika. His policies relaxed state control over enterprises but did not replace it by market incentives, resulting in a sharp decline in output. The economy, already suffering from reduced petroleum export revenues, started to collapse. Prices were still fixed, and the property was still largely state-owned until after the country's dissolution.[149][156] For most of the period after World War II until its collapse, Soviet GDP (PPP) was the second-largest in the world, and third during the second half of the 1980s,[162] although on a per-capita basis, it was behind that of First World countries.[163] Compared to countries with similar per-capita GDP in 1928, the Soviet Union experienced significant growth.[164]
+
+In 1990, the country had a Human Development Index of 0.920, placing it in the "high" category of human development. It was the third-highest in the Eastern Bloc, behind Czechoslovakia and East Germany, and the 25th in the world of 130 countries.[165]
+
+The need for fuel declined in the Soviet Union from the 1970s to the 1980s,[166] both per ruble of gross social product and per ruble of industrial product. At the start, this decline grew very rapidly but gradually slowed down between 1970 and 1975. From 1975 and 1980, it grew even slower,[clarification needed] only 2.6%.[167] David Wilson, a historian, believed that the gas industry would account for 40% of Soviet fuel production by the end of the century. His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR's collapse.[168] The USSR, in theory, would have continued to have an economic growth rate of 2–2.5% during the 1990s because of Soviet energy fields.[clarification needed][169] However, the energy sector faced many difficulties, among them the country's high military expenditure and hostile relations with the First World.[170]
+
+In 1991, the Soviet Union had a pipeline network of 82,000 kilometres (51,000 mi) for crude oil and another 206,500 kilometres (128,300 mi) for natural gas.[171] Petroleum and petroleum-based products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a variety of manufactured goods, primarily machinery, arms and military equipment, were exported.[172] In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn hard currency.[153] At its peak in 1988, it was the largest producer and second-largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia.[173]
+
+The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on science and technology within its economy,[174] however, the most remarkable Soviet successes in technology, such as producing the world's first space satellite, typically were the responsibility of the military.[155] Lenin believed that the USSR would never overtake the developed world if it remained as technologically backward as it was upon its founding. Soviet authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing massive networks, research and development organizations. In the early 1960s, the Soviets awarded 40% of chemistry PhDs to women, compared to only 5% in the United States.[175] By 1989, Soviet scientists were among the world's best-trained specialists in several areas, such as energy physics, selected areas of medicine, mathematics, welding and military technologies. Due to rigid state planning and bureaucracy, the Soviets remained far behind technologically in chemistry, biology, and computers when compared to the First World.
+
+Under the Reagan administration, Project Socrates determined that the Soviet Union addressed the acquisition of science and technology in a manner that was radically different from what the US was using. In the case of the US, economic prioritization was being used for indigenous research and development as the means to acquire science and technology in both the private and public sectors. In contrast, the USSR was offensively and defensively maneuvering in the acquisition and utilization of the worldwide technology, to increase the competitive advantage that they acquired from the technology while preventing the US from acquiring a competitive advantage. However, technology-based planning was executed in a centralized, government-centric manner that greatly hindered its flexibility. This was exploited by the US to undermine the strength of the Soviet Union and thus foster its reform.[176][177][178]
+
+Transport was a vital component of the country's economy. The economic centralization of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of Aeroflot, an aviation enterprise.[179] The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air.[171] However, due to inadequate maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World.[180]
+
+Soviet rail transport was the largest and most intensively used in the world;[180] it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts.[181] By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the burdens from the railways and to improve the Soviet government budget.[182] The street network and automotive industry[183] remained underdeveloped,[184] and dirt roads were common outside major cities.[185] Soviet maintenance projects proved unable to take care of even the few roads the country had. By the early-to-mid-1980s, the Soviet authorities tried to solve the road problem by ordering the construction of new ones.[185] Meanwhile, the automobile industry was growing at a faster rate than road construction.[186] The underdeveloped road network led to a growing demand for public transport.[187]
+
+Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still[when?] riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. Soviet authorities were unable to meet the growing demand for transport infrastructure and services.
+
+The Soviet merchant navy was one of the largest in the world.[171]
+
+Excess deaths throughout World War I and the Russian Civil War (including the postwar famine) amounted to a combined total of 18 million,[188] some 10 million in the 1930s,[47] and more than 26 million in 1941–5. The postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than it would have been if pre-war demographic growth had continued.[54] According to Catherine Merridale, "... reasonable estimate would place the total number of excess deaths for the whole period somewhere around 60 million."[189]
+
+The birth rate of the USSR decreased from 44.0 per thousand in 1926 to 18.0 in 1974, mainly due to increasing urbanization and the rising average age of marriages. The mortality rate demonstrated a gradual decrease as well – from 23.7 per thousand in 1926 to 8.7 in 1974. In general, the birth rates of the southern republics in Transcaucasia and Central Asia were considerably higher than those in the northern parts of the Soviet Union, and in some cases even increased in the post–World War II period, a phenomenon partly attributed to slower rates of urbanistion and traditionally earlier marriages in the southern republics.[190] Soviet Europe moved towards sub-replacement fertility, while Soviet Central Asia continued to exhibit population growth well above replacement-level fertility.[191]
+
+The late 1960s and the 1970s witnessed a reversal of the declining trajectory of the rate of mortality in the USSR, and was especially notable among men of working age, but was also prevalent in Russia and other predominantly Slavic areas of the country.[192] An analysis of the official data from the late 1980s showed that after worsening in the late-1970s and the early 1980s, adult mortality began to improve again.[193] The infant mortality rate increased from 24.7 in 1970 to 27.9 in 1974. Some researchers regarded the rise as mostly real, a consequence of worsening health conditions and services.[194] The rises in both adult and infant mortality were not explained or defended by Soviet officials, and the Soviet government stopped publishing all mortality statistics for ten years. Soviet demographers and health specialists remained silent about the mortality increases until the late-1980s, when the publication of mortality data resumed, and researchers could delve into the real causes.[195]
+
+Under Lenin, the state made explicit commitments to promote the equality of men and women. Many early Russian feminists and ordinary Russian working women actively participated in the Revolution, and many more were affected by the events of that period and the new policies. Beginning in October 1918, the Lenin's government liberalized divorce and abortion laws, decriminalized homosexuality (re-criminalized in the 1930s), permitted cohabitation, and ushered in a host of reforms.[196] However, without birth control, the new system produced many broken marriages, as well as countless out-of-wedlock children.[197] The epidemic of divorces and extramarital affairs created social hardships when Soviet leaders wanted people to concentrate their efforts on growing the economy. Giving women control over their fertility also led to a precipitous decline in the birth rate, perceived as a threat to their country's military power. By 1936, Stalin reversed most of the liberal laws, ushering in a pronatalist era that lasted for decades.[198]
+
+By 1917, Russia became the first great power to grant women the right to vote.[199] After heavy casualties in World War I and II, women outnumbered men in Russia by a 4:3 ratio.[200] This contributed to the larger role women played in Russian society compared to other great powers at the time.
+
+Anatoly Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissar for Education of Soviet Russia. In the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy. All left-handed kids were forced to write with their right hand in the Soviet school system.[201][202][203][204] Literate people were automatically hired as teachers.[citation needed] For a short period, quality was sacrificed for quantity. By 1940, Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated. Throughout the 1930s, social mobility rose sharply, which has been attributed to reforms in education.[205] In the aftermath of World War II, the country's educational system expanded dramatically, which had a tremendous effect. In the 1960s, nearly all children had access to education, the only exception being those living in remote areas. Nikita Khrushchev tried to make education more accessible, making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the needs of society. Education also became important in giving rise to the New Man.[206] Citizens directly entering the workforce had the constitutional right to a job and to free vocational training.
+
+The education system was highly centralized and universally accessible to all citizens, with affirmative action for applicants from nations associated with cultural backwardness. However, as part of the general antisemitic policy, an unofficial Jewish quota was applied[when?] in the leading institutions of higher education by subjecting Jewish applicants to harsher entrance examinations.[207][208][209][210] The Brezhnev era also introduced a rule that required all university applicants to present a reference from the local Komsomol party secretary.[211] According to statistics from 1986, the number of higher education students per the population of 10,000 was 181 for the USSR, compared to 517 for the US.[212]
+
+The Soviet Union was an ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991. According to a 1990 estimate, the majority were Russians (50.78%), followed by Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%).[213]
+
+All citizens of the USSR had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a person was chosen at the age of sixteen[214] by the child's parents. If the parents did not agree, the child was automatically assigned the ethnicity of the father. Partly due to Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were considered part of larger ones, such as the Mingrelians of Georgia, who were classified with the linguistically related Georgians.[215] Some ethnic groups voluntarily assimilated, while others were brought in by force. Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians shared close cultural ties, while other groups did not. With multiple nationalities living in the same territory, ethnic antagonisms developed over the years.[216][neutrality is disputed]
+
+Members of various ethnicities participated in legislative bodies. Organs of power like the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee etc., were formally ethnically neutral, but in reality, ethnic Russians were overrepresented, although there were also non-Russian leaders in the Soviet leadership, such as Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, Nikolai Podgorny or Andrei Gromyko. During the Soviet era, a significant number of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians migrated to other Soviet republics, and many of them settled there. According to the last census in 1989, the Russian "diaspora" in the Soviet republics had reached 25 million.[217]
+
+Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1941
+
+Number and share of Ukrainians in the population of the regions of the RSFSR (1926 census)
+
+Number and share of Ukrainians in the population of the regions of the RSFSR (1979 census)
+
+In 1917, before the revolution, health conditions were significantly behind those of developed countries. As Lenin later noted, "Either the lice will defeat socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice".[218] The Soviet principle of health care was conceived by the People's Commissariat for Health in 1918. Health care was to be controlled by the state and would be provided to its citizens free of charge, a revolutionary concept at the time. Article 42 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution gave all citizens the right to health protection and free access to any health institutions in the USSR. Before Leonid Brezhnev became General Secretary, the Soviet healthcare system was held in high esteem by many foreign specialists. This changed, however, from Brezhnev's accession and Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as leader, during which the health care system was heavily criticized for many basic faults, such as the quality of service and the unevenness in its provision.[219] Minister of Health Yevgeniy Chazov, during the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while highlighting such successes as having the most doctors and hospitals in the world, recognized the system's areas for improvement and felt that billions of Soviet rubles were squandered.[220]
+
+After the revolution, life expectancy for all age groups went up. This statistic in itself was seen by some that the socialist system was superior to the capitalist system. These improvements continued into the 1960s when statistics indicated that the life expectancy briefly surpassed that of the United States. Life expectancy started to decline in the 1970s, possibly because of alcohol abuse. At the same time, infant mortality began to rise. After 1974, the government stopped publishing statistics on the matter. This trend can be partly explained by the number of pregnancies rising drastically in the Asian part of the country where infant mortality was the highest while declining markedly in the more developed European part of the Soviet Union.[221]
+
+Under Lenin, the government gave small language groups their own writing systems.[222] The development of these writing systems was highly successful, even though some flaws were detected. During the later days of the USSR, countries with the same multilingual situation implemented similar policies. A serious problem when creating these writing systems was that the languages differed dialectally greatly from each other.[223] When a language had been given a writing system and appeared in a notable publication, it would attain "official language" status. There were many minority languages which never received their own writing system; therefore, their speakers were forced to have a second language.[224] There are examples where the government retreated from this policy, most notably under Stalin where education was discontinued in languages that were not widespread. These languages were then assimilated into another language, mostly Russian.[225] During World War II, some minority languages were banned, and their speakers accused of collaborating with the enemy.[226]
+
+As the most widely spoken of the Soviet Union's many languages, Russian de facto functioned as an official language, as the "language of interethnic communication" (Russian: язык межнационального общения), but only assumed the de jure status as the official national language in 1990.[227]
+
+Christianity and Islam had the highest number of adherents among the religious citizens.[228] Eastern Christianity predominated among Christians, with Russia's traditional Russian Orthodox Church being the largest Christian denomination. About 90% of the Soviet Union's Muslims were Sunnis, with Shias being concentrated in the Azerbaijan SSR.[228] Smaller groups included Roman Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, and a variety of Protestant denominations (especially Baptists and Lutherans).[228]
+
+Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire. The Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy and took part in carrying out official state functions.[229] The immediate period following the establishment of the Soviet state included a struggle against the Orthodox Church, which the revolutionaries considered an ally of the former ruling classes.[230]
+
+In Soviet law, the "freedom to hold religious services" was constitutionally guaranteed, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religion as incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism.[230] In practice, the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in fact utilized a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the activities of religious groups.[230]
+
+The 1918 Council of People's Commissars decree establishing the Russian SFSR as a secular state also decreed that "the teaching of religion in all [places] where subjects of general instruction are taught, is forbidden. Citizens may teach and may be taught religion privately."[231] Among further restrictions, those adopted in 1929 included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including meetings for organized Bible study.[230] Both Christian and non-Christian establishments were shut down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as many as 90% of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed.[232]
+
+Under the doctrine of state atheism, there was a "government-sponsored program of forced conversion to atheism" conducted by the Communists.[233][234][235] The regime targeted religions based on state interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.[236] In 1925, the government founded the League of Militant Atheists to intensify the propaganda campaign.[237] Accordingly, although personal expressions of religious faith were not explicitly banned, a strong sense of social stigma was imposed on them by the formal structures and mass media, and it was generally considered unacceptable for members of certain professions (teachers, state bureaucrats, soldiers) to be openly religious. As for the Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet authorities sought to control it and, in times of national crisis, to exploit it for the regime's own purposes; but their ultimate goal was to eliminate it. During the first five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled. Believers were harassed and persecuted. Most seminaries were closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open out of about 54,000 in existence before World War I.
+
+Convinced that religious anti-Sovietism had become a thing of the past, and with the looming threat of war, the Stalin regime began shifting to a more moderate religion policy in the late 1930s.[238] Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied to support the war effort during World War II. Amid other accommodations to religious faith after the German invasion, churches were reopened. Radio Moscow began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Sergius of Moscow was held in 1943. Stalin had the support of the majority of the religious people in the USSR even through the late 1980s.[238] The general tendency of this period was an increase in religious activity among believers of all faiths.[239]
+
+Under Nikita Khrushchev, the state leadership clashed with the churches in 1958–1964, a period when atheism was emphasized in the educational curriculum, and numerous state publications promoted atheistic views.[238] During this period, the number of churches fell from 20,000 to 10,000 from 1959 to 1965, and the number of synagogues dropped from 500 to 97.[240] The number of working mosques also declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade.[240]
+
+Religious institutions remained monitored by the Soviet government, but churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were all given more leeway in the Brezhnev era.[241] Official relations between the Orthodox Church and the government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored Orthodox Patriarch Alexy I with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.[242] A poll conducted by Soviet authorities in 1982 recorded 20% of the Soviet population as "active religious believers."[243]
+
+The culture of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the USSR's existence. During the first decade following the revolution, there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian people. On the other hand, hundreds of intellectuals, writers, and artists were exiled or executed, and their work banned, such as Nikolay Gumilyov who was shot for alleged conspiring against the Bolshevik regime, and Yevgeny Zamyatin.[244]
+
+The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky were active during this time. As a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, films received encouragement from the state, and much of director Sergei Eisenstein's best work dates from this period.
+
+During Stalin's rule, the Soviet culture was characterized by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of socialist realism, with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's works. Many writers were imprisoned and killed.[245]
+
+Following the Khrushchev Thaw, censorship was diminished. During this time, a distinctive period of Soviet culture developed, characterized by conformist public life and an intense focus on personal life. Greater experimentation in art forms was again permissible, resulting in the production of more sophisticated and subtly critical work. The regime loosened its emphasis on socialist realism; thus, for instance, many protagonists of the novels of author Yury Trifonov concerned themselves with problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. Underground dissident literature, known as samizdat, developed during this late period. In architecture, the Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to the highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch.
+
+In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost significantly expanded freedom of expression throughout the country in the media and the press.[246]
+
+Founded on 20 July 1924 in Moscow, Sovetsky Sport was the first sports newspaper of the Soviet Union.
+
+The Soviet Olympic Committee formed on 21 April 1951, and the IOC recognized the new body in its 45th session. In the same year, when the Soviet representative Konstantin Andrianov became an IOC member, the USSR officially joined the Olympic Movement. The 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki thus became first Olympic Games for Soviet athletes.
+
+The Soviet Union national ice hockey team won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991 and never failed to medal in any International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) tournament in which they competed.
+
+The advent[when?] of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the Eastern Bloc countries further eroded the ideology of the pure amateur, as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. The Soviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession – in reality, the state paid many of these competitors to train on a full-time basis.[247] Nevertheless, the IOC held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism.[248]
+
+A 1989 report by a committee of the Australian Senate claimed that "there is hardly a medal winner at the Moscow Games, certainly not a gold medal winner...who is not on one sort of drug or another: usually several kinds. The Moscow Games might well have been called the Chemists' Games".[249]
+
+A member of the IOC Medical Commission, Manfred Donike, privately ran additional tests with a new technique for identifying abnormal levels of testosterone by measuring its ratio to epitestosterone in urine. Twenty percent of the specimens he tested, including those from sixteen gold medalists, would have resulted in disciplinary proceedings had the tests been official. The results of Donike's unofficial tests later convinced the IOC to add his new technique to their testing protocols.[250] The first documented case of "blood doping" occurred at the 1980 Summer Olympics when a runner[who?] was transfused with two pints of blood before winning medals in the 5000 m and 10,000 m.[251]
+
+Documentation obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated before the decision to boycott the 1984 Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements. Dr. Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture prepared the communication, directed to the Soviet Union's head of track and field. Portugalov later became one of the leading figures involved in the implementation of Russian doping before the 2016 Summer Olympics.[252]
+
+Official Soviet environmental policy has always attached great importance to actions in which human beings actively improve nature. Lenin's quote "Communism is Soviet power and electrification of the country!" in many respects it summarizes the focus on modernization and industrial development. During the first five-year plan in 1928, Stalin proceeded to industrialize the country at all costs. Values such as environmental and nature protection have been completely ignored in the struggle to create a modern industrial society. After Stalin's death, they focused more on environmental issues, but the basic perception of the value of environmental protection remained the same.[253]
+
+The Soviet media has always focused on the vast expanse of land and the virtually indestructible natural resources. This made it feel that contamination and looting of nature were not a problem. The Soviet state also firmly believed that scientific and technological progress would solve all the problems. Official ideology said that under socialism environmental problems could easily be overcome, unlike capitalist countries, where they seemingly could not be solved. The Soviet authorities had an almost unwavering belief that man could transcend nature. However, when the authorities had to admit that there were environmental problems in the USSR in the 1980s, they explained the problems in such a way that socialism had not yet been fully developed; pollution in socialist society was only a temporary anomaly that would have been resolved if socialism had developed.[citation needed]
+
+The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was the first major accident at a civilian nuclear power plant, unparalleled in the world, when a large number of radioactive isotopes were released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses have scattered relatively far. The main health problem after the accident was 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer, but this led to a relatively low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005). However, the long-term effects of the accident are unknown. Another major accident is the Kyshtym disaster.[254]
+
+After the fall of the USSR, it was discovered that the environmental problems were greater than what the Soviet authorities admitted. The Kola Peninsula was one of the places with clear problems. Around the industrial cities of Monchegorsk and Norilsk, where nickel, for example, is mined, all forests have been killed by contamination, while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions. During the 1990s, people in the West were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned nuclear submarines, and the processing of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel. It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported radioactive material to the Barents Sea and Kara Sea, which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash of the K-141 Kursk submarine in 2000 in the west further raised concerns.[255] In the past, there were accidents involving submarines K-19, K-8 or K-129.[citation needed]
+
+1918–1924  Turkestan3
+1918–1941  Volga German4
+1919–1990  Bashkir
+1920–1925  Kirghiz2
+1920–1990  Tatar
+1921–1990  Adjar
+1921–1945  Crimean
+1921–1991  Dagestan
+1921–1924  Mountain
+
+1921–1990  Nakhchivan
+1922–1991  Yakut
+1923–1990  Buryat1
+1923–1940  Karelian
+1924–1940  Moldavian
+1924–1929  Tajik
+1925–1992  Chuvash
+1925–1936  Kazak2
+1926–1936  Kirghiz
+
+1931–1991  Abkhaz
+1932–1992  Karakalpak
+1934–1990  Mordovian
+1934–1990  Udmurt
+1935–1943  Kalmyk
+1936–1944  Checheno-Ingush
+1936–1944  Kabardino-Balkar
+1936–1990  Komi
+1936–1990  Mari
+
+1936–1990  North Ossetian
+1944–1957  Kabardin
+1956–1991  Karelian
+1957–1990  Checheno-Ingush
+1957–1991  Kabardino-Balkar
+1958–1990  Kalmyk
+1961–1992  Tuva
+1990–1991  Gorno-Altai
+1991–1992  Crimean

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+The Soviet Union,[d] officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics[e] (USSR),[f] was a federal socialist state in Northern Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics,[g] in practice its government and economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian SFSR. Other major urban centers were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Tashkent, Alma-Ata and Novosibirsk. It was the largest country in the world by surface area,[18] spanning over 10,000 kilometers (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones and over 7,200 kilometers (4,500 mi) north to south. Its territory included much of Eastern Europe as well as part of Northern Europe and all of Northern and Central Asia. It had five climate zones such as tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains. Its diverse population was collectively known as Soviet people.
+
+The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, headed by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government that had earlier replaced the monarchy. They established the Russian Soviet Republic[h], beginning a civil war between the Bolshevik Red Army and many anti-Bolshevik forces across the former Empire, among whom the largest faction was the White Guard. The disastrous distractive effect of the war and the Bolshevik policies led to 5 million deaths during the 1921–1922 famine in the region of Povolzhye. The Red Army expanded and helped local Communists take power, establishing soviets, repressing their political opponents and rebellious peasants through the policies of Red Terror and War Communism. In 1922, the Communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics. The New Economic Policy (NEP) which was introduced by Lenin led to a partial return of a free market and private property, resulting in a period of economic recovery.
+
+Following Lenin's death in 1924, a troika and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all political opposition to his rule inside the Communist Party, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism, ended the NEP, initiating a centrally planned economy. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and forced collectivization, which led to a significant economic growth, but also created a man-made famine of 1932–1933 and expanded the Gulag labour camp system founded back in 1918. Stalin also fomented political paranoia and conducted the Great Purge to remove opponents of his from the Party through the mass arbitrary arrest of many people (military leaders, Communist Party members and ordinary citizens alike) who were then sent to correctional labor camps or sentenced to death.
+
+On 23 August 1939, after unsuccessful efforts to form an anti-fascist alliance with Western powers, the Soviets signed the non-aggression agreement with Nazi Germany. After the start of World War II, the formally neutral Soviets invaded and annexed territories of several Eastern European states, including eastern Poland and the Baltic states. In June 1941 the Germans invaded, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the cost of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at intense battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin and won World War II in Europe on 9 May 1945. The territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged in 1947 as a result of a post-war Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe, where the Eastern Bloc confronted the Western Bloc that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949.
+
+Following Stalin's death in 1953, a period known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchev Thaw occurred under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. The country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took an early lead in the Space Race with the first ever satellite and the first human spaceflight. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, but tensions resumed when the Soviet Union deployed troops in Afghanistan in 1979. The war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters.
+
+In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to further reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost and perestroika. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing economic stagnation. The Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well. Central authorities initiated a referendum—boycotted by the Baltic republics, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova—which resulted in the majority of participating citizens voting in favor of preserving the Union as a renewed federation. In August 1991, a coup d'état was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a high-profile role in facing down the coup, resulting in the banning of the Communist Party. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the remaining twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states. The Russian Federation (formerly the Russian SFSR) assumed the Soviet Union's rights and obligations and is recognized as its continued legal personality.
+
+The USSR produced many significant social and technological achievements and innovations of the 20th century, including the world's first ministry of health, first human-made satellite, the first humans in space and the first probe to land on another planet, Venus. The country had the world's second-largest economy and the largest standing military in the world.[19][20][21] The USSR was recognized as one of the five nuclear weapons states. It was a founding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as well as a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the World Federation of Trade Unions and the leading member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact.
+
+The word soviet is derived from the Russian word sovet (Russian: совет), meaning "council", "assembly", "advice", "harmony", "concord",[note 1] ultimately deriving from the proto-Slavic verbal stem of vět-iti ("to inform"), related to Slavic věst ("news"), English "wise", the root in "ad-vis-or" (which came to English through French), or the Dutch weten ("to know"; cf. wetenschap meaning "science"). The word sovietnik means "councillor".[22]
+
+Some organizations in Russian history were called council (Russian: совет). In the Russian Empire, the State Council which functioned from 1810 to 1917 was referred to as a Council of Ministers after the revolt of 1905.[22]
+
+During the Georgian Affair, Vladimir Lenin envisioned an expression of Great Russian ethnic chauvinism by Joseph Stalin and his supporters, calling for these nation-states to join Russia as semi-independent parts of a greater union which he initially named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia (Russian: Союз Советских Республик Европы и Азии, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Respublik Evropy i Azii).[23] Stalin initially resisted the proposal but ultimately accepted it, although with Lenin's agreement changed the name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), albeit all the republics began as socialist soviet and did not change to the other order until 1936. In addition, in the national languages of several republics, the word council or conciliar in the respective language was only quite late changed to an adaptation of the Russian soviet and never in others, e.g. Ukraine.
+
+СССР (in Latin alphabet: SSSR) is the abbreviation of USSR in Russian. It is written in Cyrillic alphabets. The Soviets used the Cyrillic abbreviation so frequently that audiences worldwide became familiar with its meaning. Notably, both Cyrillic letters used have orthographically-similar (but transliterally distinct) letters in Latin alphabets. Because of widespread familiarity with the Cyrillic abbreviation, Latin alphabet users in particular almost always use the orthographically-similar Latin letters C and P (as opposed to the transliteral Latin letters S and R) when rendering the USSR's native abbreviation.
+
+After СССР, the most common short form names for the Soviet state in Russian were Советский Союз (transliteration: Sovetskiy Soyuz) which literally means Soviet Union, and also Союз ССР (transliteration: Soyuz SSR) which, after compensating for grammatical differences, essentially translates to Union of SSR's in English.
+
+In the English language media, the state was referred to as the Soviet Union or the USSR. In other European languages, the locally translated short forms and abbreviations are usually used such as Union soviétique and URSS in French, or Sowjetunion and UdSSR in German. In the English-speaking world, the Soviet Union was also informally called Russia and its citizens Russians,[24] although that was technically incorrect since Russia was only one of the republics.[25] Such misapplications of the linguistic equivalents to the term Russia and its derivatives were frequent in other languages as well.
+
+With an area of 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), the Soviet Union was the world's largest country, a status that is retained by the Russian Federation.[26] Covering a sixth of Earth's land surface, its size was comparable to that of North America.[27] Two other successor states, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, rank among the top 10 countries by land area, and the largest country entirely in Europe, respectively. The European portion accounted for a quarter of the country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and, except some areas in Central Asia, was much less populous. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains.
+
+The USSR had the world's longest border, like Russia, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or ​1 1⁄2 circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it was a coastline. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The country bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey from 1945 to 1991.
+
+The country's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak) in Tajikistan, at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The USSR also included most of the world's largest lakes; the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran), and Lake Baikal, the world's largest (by volume) and deepest freshwater lake that is also an internal body of water in Russia.
+
+Modern revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire began with the 1825 Decembrist revolt. Although serfdom was abolished in 1861, it was done on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A parliament—the State Duma—was established in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but Tsar Nicholas II resisted attempts to move from absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Social unrest continued and was aggravated during World War I by military defeat and food shortages in major cities.
+
+A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated in the February Revolution and the toppling of Nicholas II and the imperial government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government, which intended to conduct elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue fighting on the side of the Entente in World War I.
+
+At the same time, workers' councils, known in Russian as "Soviets", sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. On 7 November 1917, the Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, ending the rule of the Provisional Government and leaving all political power to the Soviets.[30] This event would later be officially known in Soviet bibliographies as the Great October Socialist Revolution. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Central Powers, though by February 1918, fighting had resumed. In March, the Soviets ended involvement in the war and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
+
+A long and bloody Civil War ensued between the Reds and the Whites, starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the Reds' victory. It included foreign intervention, the execution of the former tsar and his family, and the famine of 1921, which killed about five million people.[31] In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established republics of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
+
+On 28 December 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR[32] and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.[33] These two documents were confirmed by the first Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations,[34] Mikhail Kalinin, Mikhail Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petrovsky, and Alexander Chervyakov,[35] on 30 December 1922. The formal proclamation was made from the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.
+
+An intensive restructuring of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was done according to the Bolshevik Initial Decrees, government documents signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most prominent breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, which envisioned a major restructuring of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country.[36] The plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was fulfilled by 1931.[37] After the economic policy of "War communism" during the Russian Civil War, as a prelude to fully developing socialism in the country, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist alongside nationalized industry in the 1920s, and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax.
+
+From its creation, the government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks).[38] The stated purpose was to prevent the return of capitalist exploitation, and that the principles of democratic centralism would be the most effective in representing the people's will in a practical manner. The debate over the future of the economy provided the background for a power struggle in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" consisting of Grigory Zinoviev of the Ukrainian SSR, Lev Kamenev of the Russian SFSR, and Joseph Stalin of the Transcaucasian SFSR.
+
+On 1 February 1924, the USSR was recognized by the United Kingdom. The same year, a Soviet Constitution was approved, legitimizing the December 1922 union. Despite the foundation of the Soviet state as a federative entity of many constituent republics, each with its own political and administrative entities, the term "Soviet Russia" – strictly applicable only to the Russian Federative Socialist Republic – was often applied to the entire country by non-Soviet writers and politicians.
+
+On 3 April 1922, Stalin was named the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Lenin had appointed Stalin the head of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, which gave Stalin considerable power. By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating and outmanoeuvring his rivals within the party, Stalin became the undisputed leader of the country and, by the end of the 1920s, established a totalitarian rule. In October 1927, Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky were expelled from the Central Committee and forced into exile.
+
+In 1928, Stalin introduced the first five-year plan for building a socialist economy. In place of the internationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the Revolution, it aimed to build Socialism in One Country. In industry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization. In agriculture, rather than adhering to the "lead by example" policy advocated by Lenin,[39] forced collectivization of farms was implemented all over the country.
+
+Famines ensued as a result, causing deaths estimated at three to seven million; surviving kulaks were persecuted, and many were sent to Gulags to do forced labor.[40][41] Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s. Despite the turmoil of the mid-to-late 1930s, the country developed a robust industrial economy in the years preceding World War II.
+
+Closer cooperation between the USSR and the West developed in the early 1930s. From 1932 to 1934, the country participated in the World Disarmament Conference. In 1933, diplomatic relations between the United States and the USSR were established when in November, the newly elected President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, chose to recognize Stalin's Communist government formally and negotiated a new trade agreement between the two countries.[42] In September 1934, the country joined the League of Nations. After the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, the USSR actively supported the Republican forces against the Nationalists, who were supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.[43]
+
+In December 1936, Stalin unveiled a new constitution that was praised by supporters around the world as the most democratic constitution imaginable, though there was some skepticism.[i] Stalin's Great Purge resulted in the detainment or execution of many "Old Bolsheviks" who had participated in the October Revolution with Lenin. According to declassified Soviet archives, the NKVD arrested more than one and a half million people in 1937 and 1938, of whom 681,692 were shot.[45] Over those two years, there were an average of over one thousand executions a day.[46][j]
+
+In 1939, the Soviet Union made a dramatic shift toward Nazi Germany. Almost a year after Britain and France had concluded the Munich Agreement with Germany, the Soviet Union made agreements with Germany as well, both militarily and economically during extensive talks. The two countries concluded the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the German–Soviet Commercial Agreement in August 1939. The former made possible the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and eastern Poland. In late November, unable to coerce the Republic of Finland by diplomatic means into moving its border 25 kilometres (16 mi) back from Leningrad, Stalin ordered the invasion of Finland. In the east, the Soviet military won several decisive victories during border clashes with the Empire of Japan in 1938 and 1939. However, in April 1941, the USSR signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact with Japan, recognizing the territorial integrity of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state.
+
+Germany broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 starting what was known in the USSR as the Great Patriotic War. The Red Army stopped the seemingly invincible German Army at the Battle of Moscow, aided by an unusually harsh winter. The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from late 1942 to early 1943, dealt a severe blow to Germany from which they never fully recovered and became a turning point in the war. After Stalingrad, Soviet forces drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945. The German Army suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front.[50] Harry Hopkins, a close foreign policy advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt, spoke on 10 August 1943 of the USSR's decisive role in the war.[k]
+
+In the same year, the USSR, in fulfilment of its agreement with the Allies at the Yalta Conference, denounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945[52] and invaded Manchukuo and other Japan-controlled territories on 9 August 1945.[53] This conflict ended with a decisive Soviet victory, contributing to the unconditional surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.
+
+The USSR suffered greatly in the war, losing around 27 million people.[54] Approximately 2.8 million Soviet POWs died of starvation, mistreatment, or executions in just eight months of 1941–42.[55][56] During the war, the country together with the United States, the United Kingdom and China were considered the Big Four Allied powers,[57] and later became the Four Policemen that formed the basis of the United Nations Security Council.[58] It emerged as a superpower in the post-war period. Once denied diplomatic recognition by the Western world, the USSR had official relations with practically every country by the late 1940s. A member of the United Nations at its foundation in 1945, the country became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, which gave it the right to veto any of its resolutions.
+
+During the immediate post-war period, the Soviet Union rebuilt and expanded its economy, while maintaining its strictly centralized control. It took effective control over most of the countries of Eastern Europe (except Yugoslavia and later Albania), turning them into satellite states. The USSR bound its satellite states in a military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955, and an economic organization, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance or Comecon, a counterpart to the European Economic Community (EEC), from 1949 to 1991.[59] The USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted war reparations from East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. It also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favor the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin.[m] Later, the Comecon supplied aid to the eventually victorious Communist Party of China, and its influence grew elsewhere in the world. Fearing its ambitions, the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, became its enemies. In the ensuing Cold War, the two sides clashed indirectly in proxy wars.
+
+Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Without a mutually agreeable successor, the highest Communist Party officials initially opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly through a troika headed by Georgy Malenkov. This did not last, however, and Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the ensuing power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956, he denounced Stalin's use of repression and proceeded to ease controls over the party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.
+
+Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a critically vital buffer zone for the forward defence of its western borders, in case of another major invasion such as the German invasion of 1941. For this reason, the USSR sought to cement its control of the region by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and subservient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.
+
+In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the Soviet rapprochement with the West, and what Mao Zedong perceived as Khrushchev's revisionism, led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement, with the governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia choosing to ally with China.
+
+During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the USSR continued to realize scientific and technological exploits in the Space Race, rivaling the United States: launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.[61]
+
+Khrushchev initiated "The Thaw", a complex shift in political, cultural and economic life in the country. This included some openness and contact with other nations and new social and economic policies with more emphasis on commodity goods, allowing a dramatic rise in living standards while maintaining high levels of economic growth. Censorship was relaxed as well. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive. In 1962, he precipitated a crisis with the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. An agreement was made with the United States to remove nuclear missiles from both Cuba and Turkey, concluding the crisis. This event caused Khrushchev much embarrassment and loss of prestige, resulting in his removal from power in 1964.
+
+Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of collective leadership ensued, consisting of Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary, Alexei Kosygin as Premier and Nikolai Podgorny as Chairman of the Presidium, lasting until Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent Soviet leader.
+
+In 1968, the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia to halt the Prague Spring reforms. In the aftermath, Brezhnev justified the invasion along with the earlier invasions of Eastern European states by introducing the Brezhnev Doctrine, which claimed the right of the Soviet Union to violate the sovereignty of any country that attempted to replace Marxism–Leninism with capitalism.
+
+Brezhnev presided throughout détente with the West that resulted in treaties on armament control (SALT I, SALT II, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) while at the same time building up Soviet military might.
+
+In October 1977, the third Soviet Constitution was unanimously adopted. The prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion to change. The long period of Brezhnev's rule had come to be dubbed one of "standstill", with an ageing and ossified top political leadership. This period is also known as the Era of Stagnation, a period of adverse economic, political, and social effects in the country, which began during the rule of Brezhnev and continued under his successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.
+
+In late 1979, the Soviet Union's military intervened in the ongoing civil war in neighboring Afghanistan, effectively ending a détente with the West.
+
+Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in Beyond Oil that the Reagan administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit selling their oil, and resulted in the depletion of the country's hard currency reserves.[62]
+
+Brezhnev's next two successors, transitional figures with deep roots in his tradition, did not last long. Yuri Andropov was 68 years old and Konstantin Chernenko 72 when they assumed power; both died in less than two years. In an attempt to avoid a third short-lived leader, in 1985, the Soviets turned to the next generation and selected Mikhail Gorbachev. He made significant changes in the economy and party leadership, called perestroika. His policy of glasnost freed public access to information after decades of heavy government censorship. Gorbachev also moved to end the Cold War. In 1988, the USSR abandoned its war in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its forces. In the following year, Gorbachev refused to interfere in the internal affairs of the Soviet satellite states, which paved the way for the Revolutions of 1989. With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and with East and West Germany pursuing unification, the Iron Curtain between the West and Soviet-controlled regions came down.
+
+At the same time, the Soviet republics started legal moves towards potentially declaring sovereignty over their territories, citing the freedom to secede in Article 72 of the USSR constitution.[63] On 7 April 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for it in a referendum.[64] Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as the "War of Laws". In 1989, the Russian SFSR convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. Boris Yeltsin was elected its chairman. On 12 June 1990, the Congress declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the Soviet laws. After a landslide victory of Sąjūdis in Lithuania, that country declared its independence restored on 11 March 1990.
+
+A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on 17 March 1991 in nine republics (the remainder having boycotted the vote), with the majority of the population in those republics voting for preservation of the Union. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost. In the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty, which would have turned the country into a much looser Union, was agreed upon by eight republics. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup—an attempted coup d'état by hardline members of the government and the KGB who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin was seen as a hero for his decisive actions, while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared the restoration of their full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example). Gorbachev resigned as general secretary in late August, and soon afterwards, the party's activities were indefinitely suspended—effectively ending its rule. By the fall, Gorbachev could no longer influence events outside Moscow, and he was being challenged even there by Yeltsin, who had been elected President of Russia in July 1991.
+
+The remaining 12 republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. However, by December all except Russia and Kazakhstan had formally declared independence. During this time, Yeltsin took over what remained of the Soviet government, including the Moscow Kremlin. The final blow was struck on 1 December when Ukraine, the second-most powerful republic, voted overwhelmingly for independence. Ukraine's secession ended any realistic chance of the country staying together even on a limited scale.
+
+On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (formerly Byelorussia), signed the Belavezha Accords, which declared the Soviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the accords to do this, on 21 December 1991, the representatives of all Soviet republics except Georgia signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the accords. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as the President of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers that had been vested in the presidency over to Yeltsin. That night, the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time, and the Russian tricolor was raised in its place.
+
+The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body, voted both itself and the country out of existence. This is generally recognized as marking the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning state, and the end of the Cold War.[65] The Soviet Army initially remained under overall CIS command but was soon absorbed into the different military forces of the newly independent states. The few remaining Soviet institutions that had not been taken over by Russia ceased to function by the end of 1991.
+
+Following the dissolution, Russia was internationally recognized[66] as its legal successor on the international stage. To that end, Russia voluntarily accepted all Soviet foreign debt and claimed Soviet overseas properties as its own. Under the 1992 Lisbon Protocol, Russia also agreed to receive all nuclear weapons remaining in the territory of other former Soviet republics. Since then, the Russian Federation has assumed the Soviet Union's rights and obligations. Ukraine has refused to recognize exclusive Russian claims to succession of the USSR and claimed such status for Ukraine as well, which was codified in Articles 7 and 8 of its 1991 law On Legal Succession of Ukraine. Since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has continued to pursue claims against Russia in foreign courts, seeking to recover its share of the foreign property that was owned by the USSR.
+
+The dissolution was followed by a severe drop in economic and social conditions in post-Soviet states,[67][68] including a rapid increase in poverty,[69][70][71][72] crime,[73][74] corruption,[75][76] unemployment,[77] homelessness,[78][79] rates of disease,[80][81][82] demographic losses,[83] income inequality and the rise of an oligarchical class,[84][69] along with decreases in calorie intake, life expectancy, adult literacy, and income.[85] Between 1988/1989 and 1993/1995, the Gini ratio increased by an average of 9 points for all former socialist countries.[69] The economic shocks that accompanied wholesale privatization were associated with sharp increases in mortality. Data shows Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia saw a tripling of unemployment and a 42% increase in male death rates between 1991 and 1994.[86][87] In the following decades, only five or six of the post-communist states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist West while most are falling behind, some to such an extent that it will take over fifty years to catch up to where they were before the fall of the Soviet Bloc.[88][89]
+
+In summing up the international ramifications of these events, Vladislav Zubok stated: "The collapse of the Soviet empire was an event of epochal geopolitical, military, ideological, and economic significance."[90] Before the dissolution, the country had maintained its status as one of the world's two superpowers for four decades after World War II through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, military strength, economic strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research, especially in space technology and weaponry.[91]
+
+The analysis of the succession of states for the 15 post-Soviet states is complex. The Russian Federation is seen as the legal continuator state and is for most purposes the heir to the Soviet Union. It retained ownership of all former Soviet embassy properties, as well as the old Soviet UN membership and permanent membership on the Security Council.
+
+Of the two other co-founding states of the USSR at the time of the dissolution, Ukraine was the only one that had passed similar to Russia's laws that it is a state-successor of both the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR.[92] Soviet treaties laid groundwork for Ukraine's future foreign agreements as well as they led to Ukraine agreeing to undertake 16.37% of debts of the Soviet Union for which it was going to receive its share of USSR's foreign property. Although it had a tough position at the time, due to Russia's position as a "single continuation of the USSR" that became widely accepted in the West as well as a constant pressure from the Western countries, allowed Russia to dispose state property of USSR abroad and conceal information about it. Due to that Ukraine never ratified "zero option" agreement that Russian Federation had signed with other former Soviet republics, as it denied disclosing of information about Soviet Gold Reserves and its Diamond Fund.[93][94] Dispute over former Soviet property and assets between two former republics is still ongoing:
+
+The conflict is unsolvable. We can continue to poke Kiev handouts in the calculation of "solve the problem", only it won't be solved. Going to a trial is also pointless: for a number of European countries this is a political issue, and they will make a decision clearly in whose favor. What to do in this situation is an open question. Search for non-trivial solutions. But we must remember that in 2014, with the filing of the then Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, litigation with Russia resumed in 32 countries.
+
+Similar situation occurred with restitution of cultural property. Although on 14 February 1992 Russia and other former Soviet republics signed agreement "On the return of cultural and historic property to the origin states" in Minsk, it was halted by Russian State Duma that had eventually passed "Federal Law on Cultural Valuables Displaced to the USSR as a Result of the Second World War and Located on the Territory of the Russian Federation" which made restitution currently impossible.[96]
+
+There are additionally four states that claim independence from the other internationally recognised post-Soviet states but possess limited international recognition: Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Transnistria. The Chechen separatist movement of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria lacks any international recognition.
+
+During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise, Soviet foreign policy was set by the Commission on the Foreign Policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or by the party's highest body the Politburo. Operations were handled by the separate Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was known as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential spokesmen were Georgy Chicherin (1872–1936), Maxim Litvinov (1876–1951), Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986), Andrey Vyshinsky (1883–1954) and Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989). Intellectuals were based in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.[97]
+
+The Communist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and change directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions.[106]
+
+During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it was the Soviet responsibility to assist them. The Comintern was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the Hungarian Soviet Republic—lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help.
+
+By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became the duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the Treaty of Rapallo that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in the USSR.[107]
+
+Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of Winston Churchill and a few others about a continuing communist threat, and opened trade relations and de facto diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war tsarist debts, but it was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new Labour Party came to power in 1924.[108] All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. Henry Ford opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of a new profitable market.[109]
+
+In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Communist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-communist political parties, labor unions or other organizations on the left. Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with the Popular Front program that called on all Communist parties to join together with all anti-Fascist political, labor, and organizational forces that were opposed to fascism, especially of the Nazi variety.[110][111]
+
+In 1939, half a year after the Munich Agreement, the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain.[112] Adolf Hitler proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in the partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.[113]
+
+There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislature represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the government represented by the Council of Ministers, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only legal party and the final policymaker in the country.[114]
+
+At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952–1966), Secretariat and the General Secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the de facto highest office in the Soviet Union.[115] Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country[116] (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941).[117] They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.[118]
+
+The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership,[119] but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal head of state. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations.[120]
+
+However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party.[121] Nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned.[122]
+
+The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets and Central Executive Committee) was nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history,[123] at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the government budget.[124] The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium to wield its power between plenary sessions,[125] ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court,[126] the Procurator General[127] and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as the Council of People's Commissars), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society.[125] State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary.[128]
+
+The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Great Purge,[129] but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under Yuri Andropov, the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure,[130] culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[131]
+
+The constitution, which was promulgated in 1918, 1924, 1936 and 1977,[132] did not limit state power. No formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers[133] that represented executive and legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin[134] and Stalin,[135] as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal,[136] itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee.[137] All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov[138] and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party.[137]
+
+Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from the highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since the 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers.[139] In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union, concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government,[140] now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, to himself.[141]
+
+Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a coup attempt. The coup failed, and the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power "in the period of transition".[142] Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR.[143]
+
+The judiciary was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts (People's Court) and applied the law as established by the constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union used the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defence attorney collaborate to establish the truth.[144]
+
+Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as Ukraine or Byelorussia (SSRs), or federations, such as Russia or Transcaucasia (SFSRs),[114] all four being the founding republics who signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were formed from parts of Russia's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan SSRs. In 1929, Tajikistan was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan being elevated to Union Republics, while Kazakhstan and Kirghizia were split off from Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status.[145] In August 1940, Moldavia was formed from parts of Ukraine and Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (SSRs) were also admitted into the union which was not recognized by most of the international community and was considered an illegal occupation. Karelia was split off from Russia as a Union Republic in March 1940 and was reabsorbed in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below).[146]
+
+While nominally a union of equals, in practice the Soviet Union was dominated by Russians. The domination was so absolute that for most of its existence, the country was commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as "Russia". While the RSFSR was technically only one republic within the larger union, it was by far the largest (both in terms of population and area), most powerful, most developed, and the industrial center of the Soviet Union. Historian Matthew White wrote that it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was "window dressing" for Russian dominance. For that reason, the people of the USSR were usually called "Russians", not "Soviets", since "everyone knew who really ran the show".[147]
+
+Under the Military Law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of three components, namely the Land Forces, the Air Force, the Navy, Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU), and the Internal Troops.[148] The OGPU later became independent and in 1934 joined the NKVD, and so its internal troops were under the joint leadership of the defense and internal commissariats. After World War II, Strategic Missile Forces (1959), Air Defense Forces (1948) and National Civil Defense Forces (1970) were formed, which ranked first, third, and sixth in the official Soviet system of importance (ground forces were second, Air Force Fourth, and Navy Fifth).
+
+The army had the greatest political influence. In 1989, there served two million soldiers divided between 150 motorized and 52 armored divisions. Until the early 1960s, the Soviet navy was a rather small military branch, but after the Caribbean crisis, under the leadership of Sergei Gorshkov, it expanded significantly. It became known for battlecruisers and submarines. In 1989 there served 500 000 men. The Soviet Air Force focused on a fleet of strategic bombers and during war situation was to eradicate enemy infrastructure and nuclear capacity. The air force also had a number of fighters and tactical bombers to support the army in the war. Strategic missile forces had more than 1,400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed between 28 bases and 300 command centers.
+
+In the post-war period, the Soviet Army was directly involved in several military operations abroad. These included the suppression of the uprising in East Germany (1953), Hungarian revolution (1956) and the invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968). The Soviet Union also participated in the war in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.
+
+In the Soviet Union, general conscription applied.
+
+At the end of the 1950s, with the help of engineers and technologies captured and imported from defeated Nazi Germany, the Soviets constructed the first satellite - Sputnik 1 and thus overtook the United States. This was followed by other successful satellites and experimental dogs were sent. On April 12, 1961, the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, was sent to the space. He once flew around the Earth and successfully landed in the Kazakh steppe. At that time, the first plans for space shuttles and orbital stations were drawn up in Soviet design offices, but in the end personal disputes between designers and management prevented this.
+
+The first big fiasco for the USSR was the landing on the moon by the Americans, when the Russians were not able to respond to the Americans in time with the same project. In the 1970s, more specific proposals for the design of the space shuttle began to emerge, but shortcomings, especially in the electronics industry (rapid overheating of electronics), postponed the program until the end of the 1980s. The first shuttle, the Buran, flew in 1988, but without a human crew. Another shuttle, Ptichka, eventually ended up under construction, as the shuttle project was canceled in 1991. For their launch into space, there is today an unused superpower rocket, Energia, which is the most powerful in the world.
+
+In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union managed to build the Mir orbital station. It was built on the construction of Salyut stations and its tasks were purely civilian and research. In the 1990s, when the US Skylab was shut down due to lack of funds, it was the only orbital station in operation. Gradually, other modules were added to it, including American ones. However, the technical condition of the station deteriorated rapidly, especially after the fire, so in 2001 it was decided to bring it into the atmosphere where it burned down.
+
+The Soviet Union adopted a command economy, whereby production and distribution of goods were centralized and directed by the government. The first Bolshevik experience with a command economy was the policy of War communism, which involved the nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive requisition of agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate money circulation, private enterprises and free trade. After the severe economic collapse, Lenin replaced war communism by the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, legalizing free trade and private ownership of small businesses. The economy quickly recovered as a result.[149]
+
+After a long debate among the members of Politburo about the course of economic development, by 1928–1929, upon gaining control of the country, Stalin abandoned the NEP and pushed for full central planning, starting forced collectivization of agriculture and enacting draconian labor legislation. Resources were mobilized for rapid industrialization, which significantly expanded Soviet capacity in heavy industry and capital goods during the 1930s.[149] The primary motivation for industrialization was preparation for war, mostly due to distrust of the outside capitalist world.[150] As a result, the USSR was transformed from a largely agrarian economy into a great industrial power, leading the way for its emergence as a superpower after World War II.[151] The war caused extensive devastation of the Soviet economy and infrastructure, which required massive reconstruction.[152]
+
+By the early 1940s, the Soviet economy had become relatively self-sufficient; for most of the period until the creation of Comecon, only a tiny share of domestic products was traded internationally.[153] After the creation of the Eastern Bloc, external trade rose rapidly. However, the influence of the world economy on the USSR was limited by fixed domestic prices and a state monopoly on foreign trade.[154] Grain and sophisticated consumer manufactures became major import articles from around the 1960s.[153] During the arms race of the Cold War, the Soviet economy was burdened by military expenditures, heavily lobbied for by a powerful bureaucracy dependent on the arms industry. At the same time, the USSR became the largest arms exporter to the Third World. Significant amounts of Soviet resources during the Cold War were allocated in aid to the other socialist states.[153]
+
+From the 1930s until its dissolution in late 1991, the way the Soviet economy operated remained essentially unchanged. The economy was formally directed by central planning, carried out by Gosplan and organized in five-year plans. However, in practice, the plans were highly aggregated and provisional, subject to ad hoc intervention by superiors. All critical economic decisions were taken by the political leadership. Allocated resources and plan targets were usually denominated in rubles rather than in physical goods. Credit was discouraged, but widespread. The final allocation of output was achieved through relatively decentralized, unplanned contracting. Although in theory prices were legally set from above, in practice they were often negotiated, and informal horizontal links (e.g. between producer factories) were widespread.[149]
+
+A number of basic services were state-funded, such as education and health care. In the manufacturing sector, heavy industry and defence were prioritized over consumer goods.[155] Consumer goods, particularly outside large cities, were often scarce, of poor quality and limited variety. Under the command economy, consumers had almost no influence on production, and the changing demands of a population with growing incomes could not be satisfied by supplies at rigidly fixed prices.[156] A massive unplanned second economy grew up at low levels alongside the planned one, providing some of the goods and services that the planners could not. The legalization of some elements of the decentralized economy was attempted with the reform of 1965.[149]
+
+Although statistics of the Soviet economy are notoriously unreliable and its economic growth difficult to estimate precisely,[157][158] by most accounts, the economy continued to expand until the mid-1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s, it had comparatively high growth and was catching up to the West.[159] However, after 1970, the growth, while still positive, steadily declined much more quickly and consistently than in other countries, despite a rapid increase in the capital stock (the rate of capital increase was only surpassed by Japan).[149]
+
+Overall, the growth rate of per capita income in the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1989 was slightly above the world average (based on 102 countries).[citation needed] According to Stanley Fischer and William Easterly, growth could have been faster. By their calculation, per capita income in 1989 should have been twice higher than it was, considering the amount of investment, education and population. The authors attribute this poor performance to the low productivity of capital.[160] Steven Rosenfielde states that the standard of living declined due to Stalin's despotism. While there was a brief improvement after his death, it lapsed into stagnation.[161]
+
+In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform and revitalize the economy with his program of perestroika. His policies relaxed state control over enterprises but did not replace it by market incentives, resulting in a sharp decline in output. The economy, already suffering from reduced petroleum export revenues, started to collapse. Prices were still fixed, and the property was still largely state-owned until after the country's dissolution.[149][156] For most of the period after World War II until its collapse, Soviet GDP (PPP) was the second-largest in the world, and third during the second half of the 1980s,[162] although on a per-capita basis, it was behind that of First World countries.[163] Compared to countries with similar per-capita GDP in 1928, the Soviet Union experienced significant growth.[164]
+
+In 1990, the country had a Human Development Index of 0.920, placing it in the "high" category of human development. It was the third-highest in the Eastern Bloc, behind Czechoslovakia and East Germany, and the 25th in the world of 130 countries.[165]
+
+The need for fuel declined in the Soviet Union from the 1970s to the 1980s,[166] both per ruble of gross social product and per ruble of industrial product. At the start, this decline grew very rapidly but gradually slowed down between 1970 and 1975. From 1975 and 1980, it grew even slower,[clarification needed] only 2.6%.[167] David Wilson, a historian, believed that the gas industry would account for 40% of Soviet fuel production by the end of the century. His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR's collapse.[168] The USSR, in theory, would have continued to have an economic growth rate of 2–2.5% during the 1990s because of Soviet energy fields.[clarification needed][169] However, the energy sector faced many difficulties, among them the country's high military expenditure and hostile relations with the First World.[170]
+
+In 1991, the Soviet Union had a pipeline network of 82,000 kilometres (51,000 mi) for crude oil and another 206,500 kilometres (128,300 mi) for natural gas.[171] Petroleum and petroleum-based products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a variety of manufactured goods, primarily machinery, arms and military equipment, were exported.[172] In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn hard currency.[153] At its peak in 1988, it was the largest producer and second-largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia.[173]
+
+The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on science and technology within its economy,[174] however, the most remarkable Soviet successes in technology, such as producing the world's first space satellite, typically were the responsibility of the military.[155] Lenin believed that the USSR would never overtake the developed world if it remained as technologically backward as it was upon its founding. Soviet authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing massive networks, research and development organizations. In the early 1960s, the Soviets awarded 40% of chemistry PhDs to women, compared to only 5% in the United States.[175] By 1989, Soviet scientists were among the world's best-trained specialists in several areas, such as energy physics, selected areas of medicine, mathematics, welding and military technologies. Due to rigid state planning and bureaucracy, the Soviets remained far behind technologically in chemistry, biology, and computers when compared to the First World.
+
+Under the Reagan administration, Project Socrates determined that the Soviet Union addressed the acquisition of science and technology in a manner that was radically different from what the US was using. In the case of the US, economic prioritization was being used for indigenous research and development as the means to acquire science and technology in both the private and public sectors. In contrast, the USSR was offensively and defensively maneuvering in the acquisition and utilization of the worldwide technology, to increase the competitive advantage that they acquired from the technology while preventing the US from acquiring a competitive advantage. However, technology-based planning was executed in a centralized, government-centric manner that greatly hindered its flexibility. This was exploited by the US to undermine the strength of the Soviet Union and thus foster its reform.[176][177][178]
+
+Transport was a vital component of the country's economy. The economic centralization of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of Aeroflot, an aviation enterprise.[179] The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air.[171] However, due to inadequate maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World.[180]
+
+Soviet rail transport was the largest and most intensively used in the world;[180] it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts.[181] By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the burdens from the railways and to improve the Soviet government budget.[182] The street network and automotive industry[183] remained underdeveloped,[184] and dirt roads were common outside major cities.[185] Soviet maintenance projects proved unable to take care of even the few roads the country had. By the early-to-mid-1980s, the Soviet authorities tried to solve the road problem by ordering the construction of new ones.[185] Meanwhile, the automobile industry was growing at a faster rate than road construction.[186] The underdeveloped road network led to a growing demand for public transport.[187]
+
+Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still[when?] riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. Soviet authorities were unable to meet the growing demand for transport infrastructure and services.
+
+The Soviet merchant navy was one of the largest in the world.[171]
+
+Excess deaths throughout World War I and the Russian Civil War (including the postwar famine) amounted to a combined total of 18 million,[188] some 10 million in the 1930s,[47] and more than 26 million in 1941–5. The postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than it would have been if pre-war demographic growth had continued.[54] According to Catherine Merridale, "... reasonable estimate would place the total number of excess deaths for the whole period somewhere around 60 million."[189]
+
+The birth rate of the USSR decreased from 44.0 per thousand in 1926 to 18.0 in 1974, mainly due to increasing urbanization and the rising average age of marriages. The mortality rate demonstrated a gradual decrease as well – from 23.7 per thousand in 1926 to 8.7 in 1974. In general, the birth rates of the southern republics in Transcaucasia and Central Asia were considerably higher than those in the northern parts of the Soviet Union, and in some cases even increased in the post–World War II period, a phenomenon partly attributed to slower rates of urbanistion and traditionally earlier marriages in the southern republics.[190] Soviet Europe moved towards sub-replacement fertility, while Soviet Central Asia continued to exhibit population growth well above replacement-level fertility.[191]
+
+The late 1960s and the 1970s witnessed a reversal of the declining trajectory of the rate of mortality in the USSR, and was especially notable among men of working age, but was also prevalent in Russia and other predominantly Slavic areas of the country.[192] An analysis of the official data from the late 1980s showed that after worsening in the late-1970s and the early 1980s, adult mortality began to improve again.[193] The infant mortality rate increased from 24.7 in 1970 to 27.9 in 1974. Some researchers regarded the rise as mostly real, a consequence of worsening health conditions and services.[194] The rises in both adult and infant mortality were not explained or defended by Soviet officials, and the Soviet government stopped publishing all mortality statistics for ten years. Soviet demographers and health specialists remained silent about the mortality increases until the late-1980s, when the publication of mortality data resumed, and researchers could delve into the real causes.[195]
+
+Under Lenin, the state made explicit commitments to promote the equality of men and women. Many early Russian feminists and ordinary Russian working women actively participated in the Revolution, and many more were affected by the events of that period and the new policies. Beginning in October 1918, the Lenin's government liberalized divorce and abortion laws, decriminalized homosexuality (re-criminalized in the 1930s), permitted cohabitation, and ushered in a host of reforms.[196] However, without birth control, the new system produced many broken marriages, as well as countless out-of-wedlock children.[197] The epidemic of divorces and extramarital affairs created social hardships when Soviet leaders wanted people to concentrate their efforts on growing the economy. Giving women control over their fertility also led to a precipitous decline in the birth rate, perceived as a threat to their country's military power. By 1936, Stalin reversed most of the liberal laws, ushering in a pronatalist era that lasted for decades.[198]
+
+By 1917, Russia became the first great power to grant women the right to vote.[199] After heavy casualties in World War I and II, women outnumbered men in Russia by a 4:3 ratio.[200] This contributed to the larger role women played in Russian society compared to other great powers at the time.
+
+Anatoly Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissar for Education of Soviet Russia. In the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy. All left-handed kids were forced to write with their right hand in the Soviet school system.[201][202][203][204] Literate people were automatically hired as teachers.[citation needed] For a short period, quality was sacrificed for quantity. By 1940, Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated. Throughout the 1930s, social mobility rose sharply, which has been attributed to reforms in education.[205] In the aftermath of World War II, the country's educational system expanded dramatically, which had a tremendous effect. In the 1960s, nearly all children had access to education, the only exception being those living in remote areas. Nikita Khrushchev tried to make education more accessible, making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the needs of society. Education also became important in giving rise to the New Man.[206] Citizens directly entering the workforce had the constitutional right to a job and to free vocational training.
+
+The education system was highly centralized and universally accessible to all citizens, with affirmative action for applicants from nations associated with cultural backwardness. However, as part of the general antisemitic policy, an unofficial Jewish quota was applied[when?] in the leading institutions of higher education by subjecting Jewish applicants to harsher entrance examinations.[207][208][209][210] The Brezhnev era also introduced a rule that required all university applicants to present a reference from the local Komsomol party secretary.[211] According to statistics from 1986, the number of higher education students per the population of 10,000 was 181 for the USSR, compared to 517 for the US.[212]
+
+The Soviet Union was an ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991. According to a 1990 estimate, the majority were Russians (50.78%), followed by Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%).[213]
+
+All citizens of the USSR had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a person was chosen at the age of sixteen[214] by the child's parents. If the parents did not agree, the child was automatically assigned the ethnicity of the father. Partly due to Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were considered part of larger ones, such as the Mingrelians of Georgia, who were classified with the linguistically related Georgians.[215] Some ethnic groups voluntarily assimilated, while others were brought in by force. Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians shared close cultural ties, while other groups did not. With multiple nationalities living in the same territory, ethnic antagonisms developed over the years.[216][neutrality is disputed]
+
+Members of various ethnicities participated in legislative bodies. Organs of power like the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee etc., were formally ethnically neutral, but in reality, ethnic Russians were overrepresented, although there were also non-Russian leaders in the Soviet leadership, such as Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, Nikolai Podgorny or Andrei Gromyko. During the Soviet era, a significant number of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians migrated to other Soviet republics, and many of them settled there. According to the last census in 1989, the Russian "diaspora" in the Soviet republics had reached 25 million.[217]
+
+Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1941
+
+Number and share of Ukrainians in the population of the regions of the RSFSR (1926 census)
+
+Number and share of Ukrainians in the population of the regions of the RSFSR (1979 census)
+
+In 1917, before the revolution, health conditions were significantly behind those of developed countries. As Lenin later noted, "Either the lice will defeat socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice".[218] The Soviet principle of health care was conceived by the People's Commissariat for Health in 1918. Health care was to be controlled by the state and would be provided to its citizens free of charge, a revolutionary concept at the time. Article 42 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution gave all citizens the right to health protection and free access to any health institutions in the USSR. Before Leonid Brezhnev became General Secretary, the Soviet healthcare system was held in high esteem by many foreign specialists. This changed, however, from Brezhnev's accession and Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as leader, during which the health care system was heavily criticized for many basic faults, such as the quality of service and the unevenness in its provision.[219] Minister of Health Yevgeniy Chazov, during the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while highlighting such successes as having the most doctors and hospitals in the world, recognized the system's areas for improvement and felt that billions of Soviet rubles were squandered.[220]
+
+After the revolution, life expectancy for all age groups went up. This statistic in itself was seen by some that the socialist system was superior to the capitalist system. These improvements continued into the 1960s when statistics indicated that the life expectancy briefly surpassed that of the United States. Life expectancy started to decline in the 1970s, possibly because of alcohol abuse. At the same time, infant mortality began to rise. After 1974, the government stopped publishing statistics on the matter. This trend can be partly explained by the number of pregnancies rising drastically in the Asian part of the country where infant mortality was the highest while declining markedly in the more developed European part of the Soviet Union.[221]
+
+Under Lenin, the government gave small language groups their own writing systems.[222] The development of these writing systems was highly successful, even though some flaws were detected. During the later days of the USSR, countries with the same multilingual situation implemented similar policies. A serious problem when creating these writing systems was that the languages differed dialectally greatly from each other.[223] When a language had been given a writing system and appeared in a notable publication, it would attain "official language" status. There were many minority languages which never received their own writing system; therefore, their speakers were forced to have a second language.[224] There are examples where the government retreated from this policy, most notably under Stalin where education was discontinued in languages that were not widespread. These languages were then assimilated into another language, mostly Russian.[225] During World War II, some minority languages were banned, and their speakers accused of collaborating with the enemy.[226]
+
+As the most widely spoken of the Soviet Union's many languages, Russian de facto functioned as an official language, as the "language of interethnic communication" (Russian: язык межнационального общения), but only assumed the de jure status as the official national language in 1990.[227]
+
+Christianity and Islam had the highest number of adherents among the religious citizens.[228] Eastern Christianity predominated among Christians, with Russia's traditional Russian Orthodox Church being the largest Christian denomination. About 90% of the Soviet Union's Muslims were Sunnis, with Shias being concentrated in the Azerbaijan SSR.[228] Smaller groups included Roman Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, and a variety of Protestant denominations (especially Baptists and Lutherans).[228]
+
+Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire. The Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy and took part in carrying out official state functions.[229] The immediate period following the establishment of the Soviet state included a struggle against the Orthodox Church, which the revolutionaries considered an ally of the former ruling classes.[230]
+
+In Soviet law, the "freedom to hold religious services" was constitutionally guaranteed, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religion as incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism.[230] In practice, the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in fact utilized a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the activities of religious groups.[230]
+
+The 1918 Council of People's Commissars decree establishing the Russian SFSR as a secular state also decreed that "the teaching of religion in all [places] where subjects of general instruction are taught, is forbidden. Citizens may teach and may be taught religion privately."[231] Among further restrictions, those adopted in 1929 included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including meetings for organized Bible study.[230] Both Christian and non-Christian establishments were shut down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as many as 90% of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed.[232]
+
+Under the doctrine of state atheism, there was a "government-sponsored program of forced conversion to atheism" conducted by the Communists.[233][234][235] The regime targeted religions based on state interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.[236] In 1925, the government founded the League of Militant Atheists to intensify the propaganda campaign.[237] Accordingly, although personal expressions of religious faith were not explicitly banned, a strong sense of social stigma was imposed on them by the formal structures and mass media, and it was generally considered unacceptable for members of certain professions (teachers, state bureaucrats, soldiers) to be openly religious. As for the Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet authorities sought to control it and, in times of national crisis, to exploit it for the regime's own purposes; but their ultimate goal was to eliminate it. During the first five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled. Believers were harassed and persecuted. Most seminaries were closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open out of about 54,000 in existence before World War I.
+
+Convinced that religious anti-Sovietism had become a thing of the past, and with the looming threat of war, the Stalin regime began shifting to a more moderate religion policy in the late 1930s.[238] Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied to support the war effort during World War II. Amid other accommodations to religious faith after the German invasion, churches were reopened. Radio Moscow began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Sergius of Moscow was held in 1943. Stalin had the support of the majority of the religious people in the USSR even through the late 1980s.[238] The general tendency of this period was an increase in religious activity among believers of all faiths.[239]
+
+Under Nikita Khrushchev, the state leadership clashed with the churches in 1958–1964, a period when atheism was emphasized in the educational curriculum, and numerous state publications promoted atheistic views.[238] During this period, the number of churches fell from 20,000 to 10,000 from 1959 to 1965, and the number of synagogues dropped from 500 to 97.[240] The number of working mosques also declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade.[240]
+
+Religious institutions remained monitored by the Soviet government, but churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were all given more leeway in the Brezhnev era.[241] Official relations between the Orthodox Church and the government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored Orthodox Patriarch Alexy I with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.[242] A poll conducted by Soviet authorities in 1982 recorded 20% of the Soviet population as "active religious believers."[243]
+
+The culture of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the USSR's existence. During the first decade following the revolution, there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian people. On the other hand, hundreds of intellectuals, writers, and artists were exiled or executed, and their work banned, such as Nikolay Gumilyov who was shot for alleged conspiring against the Bolshevik regime, and Yevgeny Zamyatin.[244]
+
+The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky were active during this time. As a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, films received encouragement from the state, and much of director Sergei Eisenstein's best work dates from this period.
+
+During Stalin's rule, the Soviet culture was characterized by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of socialist realism, with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's works. Many writers were imprisoned and killed.[245]
+
+Following the Khrushchev Thaw, censorship was diminished. During this time, a distinctive period of Soviet culture developed, characterized by conformist public life and an intense focus on personal life. Greater experimentation in art forms was again permissible, resulting in the production of more sophisticated and subtly critical work. The regime loosened its emphasis on socialist realism; thus, for instance, many protagonists of the novels of author Yury Trifonov concerned themselves with problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. Underground dissident literature, known as samizdat, developed during this late period. In architecture, the Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to the highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch.
+
+In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost significantly expanded freedom of expression throughout the country in the media and the press.[246]
+
+Founded on 20 July 1924 in Moscow, Sovetsky Sport was the first sports newspaper of the Soviet Union.
+
+The Soviet Olympic Committee formed on 21 April 1951, and the IOC recognized the new body in its 45th session. In the same year, when the Soviet representative Konstantin Andrianov became an IOC member, the USSR officially joined the Olympic Movement. The 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki thus became first Olympic Games for Soviet athletes.
+
+The Soviet Union national ice hockey team won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991 and never failed to medal in any International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) tournament in which they competed.
+
+The advent[when?] of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the Eastern Bloc countries further eroded the ideology of the pure amateur, as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. The Soviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession – in reality, the state paid many of these competitors to train on a full-time basis.[247] Nevertheless, the IOC held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism.[248]
+
+A 1989 report by a committee of the Australian Senate claimed that "there is hardly a medal winner at the Moscow Games, certainly not a gold medal winner...who is not on one sort of drug or another: usually several kinds. The Moscow Games might well have been called the Chemists' Games".[249]
+
+A member of the IOC Medical Commission, Manfred Donike, privately ran additional tests with a new technique for identifying abnormal levels of testosterone by measuring its ratio to epitestosterone in urine. Twenty percent of the specimens he tested, including those from sixteen gold medalists, would have resulted in disciplinary proceedings had the tests been official. The results of Donike's unofficial tests later convinced the IOC to add his new technique to their testing protocols.[250] The first documented case of "blood doping" occurred at the 1980 Summer Olympics when a runner[who?] was transfused with two pints of blood before winning medals in the 5000 m and 10,000 m.[251]
+
+Documentation obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated before the decision to boycott the 1984 Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements. Dr. Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture prepared the communication, directed to the Soviet Union's head of track and field. Portugalov later became one of the leading figures involved in the implementation of Russian doping before the 2016 Summer Olympics.[252]
+
+Official Soviet environmental policy has always attached great importance to actions in which human beings actively improve nature. Lenin's quote "Communism is Soviet power and electrification of the country!" in many respects it summarizes the focus on modernization and industrial development. During the first five-year plan in 1928, Stalin proceeded to industrialize the country at all costs. Values such as environmental and nature protection have been completely ignored in the struggle to create a modern industrial society. After Stalin's death, they focused more on environmental issues, but the basic perception of the value of environmental protection remained the same.[253]
+
+The Soviet media has always focused on the vast expanse of land and the virtually indestructible natural resources. This made it feel that contamination and looting of nature were not a problem. The Soviet state also firmly believed that scientific and technological progress would solve all the problems. Official ideology said that under socialism environmental problems could easily be overcome, unlike capitalist countries, where they seemingly could not be solved. The Soviet authorities had an almost unwavering belief that man could transcend nature. However, when the authorities had to admit that there were environmental problems in the USSR in the 1980s, they explained the problems in such a way that socialism had not yet been fully developed; pollution in socialist society was only a temporary anomaly that would have been resolved if socialism had developed.[citation needed]
+
+The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was the first major accident at a civilian nuclear power plant, unparalleled in the world, when a large number of radioactive isotopes were released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses have scattered relatively far. The main health problem after the accident was 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer, but this led to a relatively low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005). However, the long-term effects of the accident are unknown. Another major accident is the Kyshtym disaster.[254]
+
+After the fall of the USSR, it was discovered that the environmental problems were greater than what the Soviet authorities admitted. The Kola Peninsula was one of the places with clear problems. Around the industrial cities of Monchegorsk and Norilsk, where nickel, for example, is mined, all forests have been killed by contamination, while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions. During the 1990s, people in the West were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned nuclear submarines, and the processing of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel. It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported radioactive material to the Barents Sea and Kara Sea, which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash of the K-141 Kursk submarine in 2000 in the west further raised concerns.[255] In the past, there were accidents involving submarines K-19, K-8 or K-129.[citation needed]
+
+1918–1924  Turkestan3
+1918–1941  Volga German4
+1919–1990  Bashkir
+1920–1925  Kirghiz2
+1920–1990  Tatar
+1921–1990  Adjar
+1921–1945  Crimean
+1921–1991  Dagestan
+1921–1924  Mountain
+
+1921–1990  Nakhchivan
+1922–1991  Yakut
+1923–1990  Buryat1
+1923–1940  Karelian
+1924–1940  Moldavian
+1924–1929  Tajik
+1925–1992  Chuvash
+1925–1936  Kazak2
+1926–1936  Kirghiz
+
+1931–1991  Abkhaz
+1932–1992  Karakalpak
+1934–1990  Mordovian
+1934–1990  Udmurt
+1935–1943  Kalmyk
+1936–1944  Checheno-Ingush
+1936–1944  Kabardino-Balkar
+1936–1990  Komi
+1936–1990  Mari
+
+1936–1990  North Ossetian
+1944–1957  Kabardin
+1956–1991  Karelian
+1957–1990  Checheno-Ingush
+1957–1991  Kabardino-Balkar
+1958–1990  Kalmyk
+1961–1992  Tuva
+1990–1991  Gorno-Altai
+1991–1992  Crimean

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+
+Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governor of Ohio. A lawyer and staunch abolitionist, he had defended refugee slaves in court proceedings during the antebellum years.
+
+The Republican Party nominated Hayes as its candidate for the presidency in 1876, where he won through the Compromise of 1877 that officially ended Reconstruction by leaving the South to govern itself. In office he withdrew military troops from the South, ending Army support for Republican state governments in the South and for the efforts of African-American freedmen to establish their families as free citizens. Hayes promoted civil-service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War of 1861–65 and the Reconstruction Era of 1865–77.
+
+An attorney in Ohio, Hayes served as city solicitor of Cincinnati from 1858 to 1861. When the Civil War began, he left a fledgling political career to join the Union Army as an officer. Hayes was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. He earned a reputation for bravery in combat and was promoted to the rank of brevet major general. After the war, he served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 as a Republican. Hayes left Congress to run for governor of Ohio and was elected to two consecutive terms, from 1868 to 1872. Later he served a third two-year term, from 1876 to 1877.
+
+In 1876 the Electoral College made Hayes president in one of the most contentious elections in U.S. history. He lost the popular vote to Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, but won an intensely disputed electoral-college vote after a Congressional commission awarded him 20 contested electoral votes. There resulted the Compromise of 1877, in which the Democrats acquiesced to Hayes's election on the condition that he withdraw remaining U.S. troops protecting Republican officeholders in the South, thus officially ending the Reconstruction era.
+
+Hayes believed in meritocratic government and in equal treatment without regard to wealth, social standing or race. He ordered federal troops to guard federal buildings and in doing so restored order during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Hayes implemented modest civil-service reforms that laid the groundwork for further reform in the 1880s and 1890s. He vetoed the Bland–Allison Act (1878), which put silver money into circulation and raised nominal prices, insisting that maintenance of the gold standard was essential to economic recovery. Hayes's policy toward Western Indians anticipated the assimilationist program of the Dawes Act of 1887.
+
+Hayes kept his pledge not to run for reelection, retired to his home in Ohio, and became an advocate of social and educational reform. Biographer Ari Hoogenboom said Hayes's greatest achievement was to restore popular faith in the presidency and to reverse the deterioration of executive power that had set in after Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865. Supporters have praised his commitment to civil-service reform and to the defense of civil rights,[1] but historians and scholars generally rank Hayes as an average or slightly below-average president.[2][3]
+
+Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, on October 4, 1822, to Rutherford Hayes, Jr. and Sophia Birchard. Hayes's father, a Vermont storekeeper, had taken the family to Ohio in 1817. He died ten weeks before Rutherford's birth. Sophia took charge of the family, raising Hayes and his sister, Fanny, the only two of the four children to survive to adulthood.[4] She never remarried,[5] and Sophia's younger brother, Sardis Birchard, lived with the family for a time.[6] He was always close to Hayes and became a father figure to him, contributing to his early education.[7]
+
+Through each of his parents, Hayes was descended from New England colonists.[8] His earliest immigrant ancestor came to Connecticut from Scotland in 1625.[9] Hayes's great-grandfather Ezekiel Hayes was a militia captain in Connecticut in the American Revolutionary War, but Ezekiel's son (Hayes's grandfather, also named Rutherford) left his Branford home during the war for the relative peace of Vermont.[10] His mother's ancestors migrated to Vermont at a similar time. Most of his close relatives outside Ohio continued to live there. John Noyes, an uncle by marriage, had been his father's business partner in Vermont and was later elected to Congress.[11] His first cousin, Mary Jane Mead, was the mother of sculptor Larkin Goldsmith Mead and architect William Rutherford Mead.[11] John Humphrey Noyes, the founder of the Oneida Community, was also a first cousin.[12]
+
+Hayes attended the common schools in Delaware, Ohio, and enrolled in 1836 at the Methodist Norwalk Seminary in Norwalk, Ohio.[13] He did well at Norwalk, and the next year transferred to the Webb School, a preparatory school in Middletown, Connecticut, where he studied Latin and Ancient Greek.[14] Returning to Ohio, he attended Kenyon College in Gambier in 1838.[15] He enjoyed his time at Kenyon, and was successful scholastically;[16] while there, he joined several student societies and became interested in Whig politics.[17] He graduated with highest honors in 1842 and addressed the class as its valedictorian.[18]
+
+After briefly reading law in Columbus, Ohio, Hayes moved east to attend Harvard Law School in 1843.[19] Graduating with an LL.B, he was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1845 and opened his own law office in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont).[20] Business was slow at first, but he gradually attracted clients and also represented his uncle Sardis in real estate litigation.[21] In 1847 Hayes became ill with what his doctor thought was tuberculosis. Thinking a change in climate would help, he considered enlisting in the Mexican–American War, but on his doctor's advice instead visited family in New England.[22] Returning from there, Hayes and his uncle Sardis made a long journey to Texas, where Hayes visited with Guy M. Bryan, a Kenyon classmate and distant relative.[23] Business remained meager on his return to Lower Sandusky, and Hayes decided to move to Cincinnati.[24]
+
+Hayes moved to Cincinnati in 1850, and opened a law office with John W. Herron, a lawyer from Chillicothe.[25][a] Herron later joined a more established firm and Hayes formed a new partnership with William K. Rogers and Richard M. Corwine.[27] He found business better in Cincinnati, and enjoyed its social attractions, joining the Cincinnati Literary Society and the Odd Fellows Club.[28] He also attended the Episcopal Church in Cincinnati but did not become a member.[28]
+
+Hayes courted his future wife, Lucy Webb, during his time there.[29] His mother had encouraged him to get to know Lucy years earlier, but Hayes had believed she was too young and focused his attention on other women.[30] Four years later, Hayes began to spend more time with Lucy. They became engaged in 1851 and married on December 30, 1852, at Lucy's mother's house.[29] Over the next five years, Lucy gave birth to three sons: Birchard Austin (1853), Webb Cook (1856), and Rutherford Platt (1858).[27] A Methodist, Lucy was a teetotaler and abolitionist. She influenced her husband's views on those issues, though he never formally joined her church.[31]
+
+Hayes had begun his law practice dealing primarily with commercial issues but won greater prominence in Cincinnati as a criminal defense attorney,[32] defending several people accused of murder.[33] In one case, he used a form of the insanity defense that saved the accused from the gallows; she was instead confined to a mental institution.[34] Hayes also defended slaves who had escaped and been accused under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.[35] As Cincinnati was just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a slave state, it was a destination for escaping slaves and many such cases were tried in its courts. A staunch abolitionist, Hayes found his work on behalf of fugitive slaves personally gratifying as well as politically useful, as it raised his profile in the newly formed Republican Party.[36]
+
+His political reputation rose with his professional plaudits. Hayes declined a Republican nomination for a judgeship in 1856.[37] Two years later, some Republicans proposed Hayes to fill a vacancy on the bench and he considered accepting the appointment until the office of city solicitor also became vacant.[38] The city council elected Hayes city solicitor to fill the vacancy, and voters elected him to a full two-year term in April 1859 with a larger majority than other Republicans on the ticket.[39]
+
+As the Southern states quickly began to secede after Lincoln's election to the presidency in 1860, Hayes was lukewarm about civil war to restore the Union. Considering that the two sides might be irreconcilable, he suggested that the Union "[l]et them go."[40] Though Ohio had voted for Lincoln in 1860, Cincinnati voters turned against the Republican party after secession. Its residents included many from the South, and they voted for the Democrats and Know-Nothings, who combined to sweep the city elections in April 1861, ejecting Hayes from the city solicitor's office.[41]
+
+Returning to private practice, Hayes formed a very brief law partnership with Leopold Markbreit, lasting three days before the war began.[41] After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, Hayes resolved his doubts and joined a volunteer company composed of his Literary Society friends.[42] That June, Governor William Dennison appointed several of the officers of the volunteer company to positions in the 23rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Hayes was promoted to major, and his friend and college classmate Stanley Matthews was appointed lieutenant colonel.[43] Joining the regiment as a private was another future president, William McKinley.[43]
+
+After a month of training, Hayes and the 23rd Ohio set out for western Virginia in July 1861 as a part of the Kanawha Division.[44] They did not meet the enemy until September, when the regiment encountered Confederates at Carnifex Ferry in present-day West Virginia and drove them back.[45] In November, Hayes was promoted to lieutenant colonel (Matthews having been promoted to colonel of another regiment) and led his troops deeper into western Virginia, where they entered winter quarters.[46] The division resumed its advance the following spring, and Hayes led several raids against the rebel forces, on one of which he sustained a minor injury to his knee.[47] That September, Hayes's regiment was called east to reinforce General John Pope's Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run.[48] Hayes and his troops did not arrive in time for the battle, but joined the Army of the Potomac as it hurried north to cut off Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, which was advancing into Maryland.[48] Marching north, the 23rd was the lead regiment encountering the Confederates at the Battle of South Mountain on September 14.[49] Hayes led a charge against an entrenched position and was shot through his left arm, fracturing the bone.[50] He had one of his men tie a handkerchief above the wound in an effort to stop the bleeding, and continued to lead his men in the battle. While resting, he ordered his men to meet a flanking attack, but instead his entire command moved backward, leaving Hayes lying in between the lines.
+
+Eventually, his men brought Hayes back behind their lines, and he was taken to hospital. The regiment continued on to Antietam, but Hayes was out of action for the rest of the campaign.[51] In October, he was promoted to colonel and assigned to command of the first brigade of the Kanawha Division as a brevet brigadier general.[52]
+
+The division spent the following winter and spring near Charleston, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), out of contact with the enemy.[53] Hayes saw little action until July 1863, when the division skirmished with John Hunt Morgan's cavalry at the Battle of Buffington Island.[54] Returning to Charleston for the rest of the summer, Hayes spent the fall encouraging the men of the 23rd Ohio to reenlist, and many did.[55] In 1864, the Army command structure in West Virginia was reorganized, and Hayes's division was assigned to George Crook's Army of West Virginia.[55] Advancing into southwestern Virginia, they destroyed Confederate salt and lead mines there.[56] On May 9, they engaged Confederate troops at Cloyd's Mountain, where Hayes and his men charged the enemy entrenchments and drove the rebels from the field.[56] Following the rout, the Union forces destroyed Confederate supplies and again successfully skirmished with the enemy.[56]
+
+Hayes and his brigade moved to the Shenandoah Valley for the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Crook's corps was attached to Major General David Hunter's Army of the Shenandoah and soon back in contact with Confederate forces, capturing Lexington, Virginia on June 11.[57] They continued south toward Lynchburg, tearing up railroad track as they advanced,[57] but Hunter believed the troops at Lynchburg were too powerful, and Hayes and his brigade returned to West Virginia.[57] Hayes thought Hunter lacked aggression, writing in a letter home that "General Crook would have taken Lynchburg."[57] Before the army could make another attempt, Confederate General Jubal Early's raid into Maryland forced their recall to the north. Early's army surprised them at Kernstown on July 24, where Hayes was slightly wounded by a bullet to the shoulder.[58] He also had a horse shot out from under him, and the army was defeated.[58] Retreating to Maryland, the army was reorganized again, with Major General Philip Sheridan replacing Hunter.[59] By August, Early was retreating up the valley, with Sheridan in pursuit. Hayes's troops fended off a Confederate assault at Berryville and advanced to Opequon Creek, where they broke the enemy lines and pursued them farther south.[60] They followed up the victory with another at Fisher's Hill on September 22, and one more at Cedar Creek on October 19.[61] At Cedar Creek, Hayes sprained his ankle after being thrown from a horse and was struck in the head by a spent round, which did not cause serious damage.[61] His leadership and bravery drew his superiors' attention, with Ulysses S. Grant later writing of Hayes, "[h]is conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than that of mere personal daring."[62]
+
+Cedar Creek marked the end of the campaign. Hayes was promoted to brigadier general in October 1864 and brevetted major general.[63] Around this time, Hayes learned of the birth of his fourth son, George Crook Hayes. The army went into winter quarters once more, and in spring 1865 the war quickly came to a close with Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox. Hayes visited Washington, D.C. that May and observed the Grand Review of the Armies, after which he and the 23rd Ohio returned to their home state to be mustered out of the service.[64]
+
+While serving in the Army of the Shenandoah in 1864, Hayes was nominated by Republicans for the House of Representatives from Ohio's 2nd congressional district.[65] Asked by friends in Cincinnati to leave the army to campaign, he refused, saying that an "officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped."[65] Instead, Hayes wrote several letters to the voters explaining his political positions and was elected by a 2,400-vote majority over the incumbent, Democrat Alexander Long.[65]
+
+When the 39th Congress assembled in December 1865, Hayes was sworn in as a part of a large Republican majority. Hayes identified with the party's moderate wing, but was willing to vote with the radicals for the sake of party unity.[66] The major legislative effort of the Congress was the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, for which Hayes voted and which passed both houses of Congress in June 1866.[67] Hayes's beliefs were in line with his fellow Republicans on Reconstruction issues: that the South should be restored to the Union, but not without adequate protections for freedmen and other black southerners.[68] President Andrew Johnson, who succeeded to office following Lincoln's assassination, to the contrary wanted to readmit the seceded states quickly without first ensuring that they adopted laws protecting the newly freed slaves' civil rights; he also granted pardons to many of the leading former Confederates.[68] Hayes, along with congressional Republicans, disagreed. They worked to reject Johnson's vision of Reconstruction and to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866.[69]
+
+Reelected in 1866, Hayes returned to the lame-duck session to vote for the Tenure of Office Act, which ensured that Johnson could not remove administration officials without the Senate's consent.[70] He also unsuccessfully pressed for a civil service reform bill that attracted the votes of many reform-minded Republicans.[71] Hayes continued to vote with the majority in the 40th Congress on the Reconstruction Acts, but resigned in July 1867 to run for governor of Ohio.[72]
+
+A popular Congressman and former Army officer, Hayes was considered by Ohio Republicans to be an excellent standard-bearer for the 1867 election campaign.[73] His political views were more moderate than the Republican party's platform, although he agreed with the proposed amendment to the Ohio state constitution that would guarantee suffrage to black male Ohioans.[73] Hayes's opponent, Allen G. Thurman, made the proposed amendment the centerpiece of the campaign and opposed black suffrage. Both men campaigned vigorously, making speeches across the state, mostly focusing on the suffrage question.[73] The election was mostly a disappointment to Republicans, as the amendment failed to pass and Democrats gained a majority in the state legislature.[74] Hayes thought at first that he, too, had lost, but the final tally showed that he had won the election by 2,983 votes of 484,603 votes cast.[74]
+
+As a Republican governor with a Democratic legislature, Hayes had a limited role in governing, especially since Ohio's governor had no veto power. Despite these constraints, he oversaw the establishment of a school for deaf-mutes and a reform school for girls.[75] He endorsed the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and urged his conviction, which failed by one vote in the United States Senate.[76] Nominated for a second term in 1869, Hayes campaigned again for equal rights for black Ohioans and sought to associate his Democratic opponent, George H. Pendleton, with disunion and Confederate sympathies.[77] Hayes was reelected with an increased majority, and the Republicans took the legislature, ensuring Ohio's ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guaranteed black (male) suffrage.[77] With a Republican legislature, Hayes's second term was more enjoyable. Suffrage was expanded and a state Agricultural and Mechanical College (later to become The Ohio State University) established.[78] He also proposed a reduction in state taxes and reform of the state prison system.[79] Choosing not to seek reelection, Hayes looked forward to retiring from politics in 1872.[80]
+
+As Hayes prepared to leave office, several delegations of reform-minded Republicans urged him to run for United States Senate against the incumbent Republican, John Sherman.[80] Hayes declined, preferring to preserve party unity and retire to private life.[80] He especially looked forward to spending time with his children, two of whom (daughter Fanny and son Scott) had been born in the past five years.[81][b] Initially, Hayes tried to promote railway extensions to his hometown, Fremont. He also managed some real estate he had acquired in Duluth, Minnesota.[83] Not entirely removed from politics, Hayes held out some hope of a cabinet appointment, but was disappointed to receive only an appointment as assistant U.S. treasurer at Cincinnati, which he turned down.[84] He agreed to be nominated for his old House seat in 1872 but was not disappointed when he lost the election to Henry B. Banning, a fellow Kenyon College alumnus.[85]
+
+In 1873, Lucy gave birth to another son, Manning Force Hayes.[86][c] That same year, the Panic of 1873 hurt business prospects across the nation, including Hayes's. His uncle Sardis Birchard died that year, and the Hayes family moved into Spiegel Grove, the grand house Birchard had built with them in mind.[88] That year Hayes announced his uncle's bequest of $50,000 in assets to endow a public library for Fremont, to be called the Birchard Library. It opened in 1874 on Front Street, and a new building was completed and opened in 1878 in Fort Stephenson State Park. (This site was per the terms of the bequest.) Hayes served as chairman of the library's board of trustees until his death.[89]
+
+Hayes hoped to stay out of politics in order to pay off the debts he had incurred during the Panic, but when the Republican state convention nominated him for governor in 1875, he accepted.[90] His campaign against Democratic nominee William Allen focused primarily on Protestant fears about the possibility of state aid to Catholic schools.[91] Hayes was against such funding and, while not known to be personally anti-Catholic, he allowed anti-Catholic fervor to contribute to the enthusiasm for his candidacy.[91] The campaign was a success, and on 12 October 1875 Hayes was returned to the governorship by a 5,544-vote majority.[91] The first person to earn a third term as governor of Ohio, Hayes reduced the state debt, reestablished the Board of Charities, and repealed the Geghan Bill, which had allowed for the appointment of Catholic priests to schools and penitentiaries.[92]
+
+Hayes's success in Ohio immediately elevated him to the top ranks of Republican politicians under consideration for the presidency in 1876.[93] The Ohio delegation to the 1876 Republican National Convention was united behind him, and Senator John Sherman did all in his power to get Hayes the nomination.[94] In June 1876, the convention assembled with James G. Blaine of Maine as the favorite.[95] Blaine started with a significant lead in the delegate count, but could not muster a majority. As he failed to gain votes, the delegates looked elsewhere for a nominee and settled on Hayes on the seventh ballot.[96] The convention selected Representative William A. Wheeler from New York for vice president, a man about whom Hayes had recently asked, "I am ashamed to say: who is Wheeler?"[97]
+
+The Democratic nominee was Samuel J. Tilden, the governor of New York. Tilden was considered a formidable adversary who, like Hayes, had a reputation for honesty.[98] Also like Hayes, Tilden was a hard-money man and supported civil service reform.[98] In accordance with the custom of the time, the campaign was conducted by surrogates, with Hayes and Tilden remaining in their respective hometowns.[99] The poor economic conditions made the party in power unpopular and made Hayes suspect he would lose the election.[100] Both candidates concentrated on the swing states of New York and Indiana, as well as the three southern states—Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida—where Reconstruction Republican governments still barely ruled, amid recurring political violence, including widespread efforts to suppress freedman voting.[101] The Republicans emphasized the danger of letting Democrats run the nation so soon after southern Democrats had provoked the Civil War and, to a lesser extent, the danger a Democratic administration would pose to the recently won civil rights of southern blacks.[102] Democrats, for their part, trumpeted Tilden's record of reform and contrasted it with the corruption of the incumbent Grant administration.[103]
+
+As the returns were tallied on election day, it was clear that the race was close: Democrats had carried most of the South, as well as New York, Indiana, Connecticut, and New Jersey.[104] In the Northeast, an increasing number of immigrants and their descendants voted Democratic. Although Tilden won the popular vote and claimed 184 electoral votes, Republican leaders challenged the results and charged Democrats with fraud and voter suppression of blacks (who would otherwise have voted Republican) in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina.[105] Republicans realized that if they held the three disputed unredeemed southern states together with some of the western states, they would emerge with an electoral college majority.[106]
+
+On November 11, three days after election day, Tilden appeared to have won 184 electoral votes, one short of a majority.[107] Hayes appeared to have 166, with the 19 votes of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina still in doubt.[107] Republicans and Democrats each claimed victory in the three latter states, but the results in those states were rendered uncertain because of fraud by both parties.[108] To further complicate matters, one of the three electors from Oregon (a state Hayes had won) was disqualified, reducing Hayes's total to 165, and raising the disputed votes to 20. [109][d] If Hayes was not awarded all 20 disputed votes, Tilden would be elected president.
+
+There was considerable debate about which person or house of Congress was authorized to decide between the competing slates of electors, with the Republican Senate and the Democratic House each claiming priority.[111] By January 1877, with the question still unresolved, Congress and President Grant agreed to submit the matter to a bipartisan Electoral Commission, which would be authorized to determine the fate of the disputed electoral votes.[112] The Commission was to be made up of five representatives, five senators, and five Supreme Court justices.[113] To ensure partisan balance, there would be seven Democrats and seven Republicans, with Justice David Davis, an independent respected by both parties, as the 15th member.[113] The balance was upset when Democrats in the Illinois legislature elected Davis to the Senate, hoping to sway his vote.[114] Davis disappointed Democrats by refusing to serve on the Commission because of his election to the Senate.[114] As all the remaining Justices were Republicans, Justice Joseph P. Bradley, believed to be the most independent-minded of them, was selected to take Davis's place on the Commission.[115] The Commission met in February and the eight Republicans voted to award all 20 electoral votes to Hayes.[116] Democrats, outraged by the result, attempted a filibuster to prevent Congress from accepting the Commission's findings.[117]
+
+As inauguration day neared, Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders met at Wormley's Hotel in Washington to negotiate a compromise. Republicans promised concessions in exchange for Democratic acquiescence to the Committee's decision. The main concession Hayes promised was the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and an acceptance of the election of Democratic governments in the remaining "unredeemed" southern states.[118] The Democrats agreed, and on March 2, the filibuster was ended. Hayes was elected, but Reconstruction was finished, and freedmen were left at the mercy of white Democrats who did not intend to preserve their rights.[119]  On April 3, Hayes ordered Secretary of War George W. McCrary to withdraw federal troops stationed at the South Carolina State House to their barracks. On April 20, he ordered McCrary to send the federal troops stationed at New Orleans's St. Louis Hotel to Jackson Barracks.[120][121]
+
+Because March 4, 1877, was a Sunday, Hayes took the oath of office privately on Saturday, March 3, in the Red Room of the White House, the first president to do so in the Executive Mansion. He took the oath publicly on March 5 on the East Portico of the United States Capitol.[122] In his inaugural address, Hayes attempted to soothe the passions of the past few months, saying that "he serves his party best who serves his country best".[123] He pledged to support "wise, honest, and peaceful local self-government" in the South, as well as reform of the civil service and a full return to the gold standard.[124] Despite his message of conciliation, many Democrats never considered Hayes's election legitimate and referred to him as "Rutherfraud" or "His Fraudulency" for the next four years.[125]
+
+Hayes had firmly supported Republican Reconstruction policies throughout his career, but the first major act of his presidency was an end to Reconstruction and the return of the South to "home rule".[126] Even without the conditions of the Wormley's Hotel agreement, Hayes would have been hard-pressed to continue his predecessors' policies. The House of Representatives in the 45th Congress was controlled by a majority of Democrats, and they refused to appropriate enough funds for the army to continue to garrison the South.[127] Even among Republicans, devotion to continued military Reconstruction was fading in the face of persistent Southern insurgency and violence.[128] Only two states were still under Reconstruction's sway when Hayes assumed the presidency and, without troops to enforce the voting rights laws, these soon fell to Democratic control.[129][e]
+
+Hayes's later attempts to protect the rights of southern blacks were ineffective, as were his attempts to rebuild Republican strength in the South.[131] He did, however, defeat Congress's efforts to curtail federal power to monitor federal elections.[132] Democrats in Congress passed an army appropriation bill in 1879 with a rider that repealed the Enforcement Acts, which had been used to suppress the Ku Klux Klan. Chapters had flourished across the South and it had been one of the insurgent groups that attacked and suppressed freedmen.[132] Those Acts, passed during Reconstruction, made it a crime to prevent someone from voting because of his race. Other paramilitary groups, such as the Red Shirts in the Carolinas, however, had intimidated freedmen and suppressed the vote. Hayes was determined to preserve the law protecting black voters, and vetoed the appropriation.[132]
+
+The Democrats did not have enough votes to override the veto, but they passed a new bill with the same rider. Hayes vetoed that bill too, and the process was repeated three times more.[132] Finally, Hayes signed an appropriation without the offensive rider, but Congress refused to pass another bill to fund federal marshals, who were vital to the enforcement of the Enforcement Acts.[132] The election laws remained in effect, but the funds to enforce them were curtailed for the time being.[133]
+
+Hayes tried to reconcile the social mores of the South with the recently passed civil rights laws by distributing patronage among southern Democrats. "My task was to wipe out the color line, to abolish sectionalism, to end the war and bring peace," he wrote in his diary. "To do this, I was ready to resort to unusual measures and to risk my own standing and reputation within my party and the country."[134] All his efforts were in vain; Hayes failed to persuade the South to accept legal racial equality or to convince Congress to appropriate funds to enforce the civil rights laws.[135]
+
+Hayes took office determined to reform the system of civil service appointments, which had been based on the spoils system since Andrew Jackson's presidency.[136][f] Instead of giving federal jobs to political supporters, Hayes wished to award them by merit according to an examination that all applicants would take.[138] Hayes's call for reform immediately brought him into conflict with the Stalwart, or pro-spoils, branch of the Republican party. Senators of both parties were accustomed to being consulted about political appointments and turned against Hayes. Foremost among his enemies was New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, who fought Hayes's reform efforts at every turn.[139]
+
+To show his commitment to reform, Hayes appointed one of the best-known advocates of reform, Carl Schurz, to be Secretary of the Interior and asked Schurz and Secretary of State William M. Evarts to lead a special cabinet committee charged with drawing up new rules for federal appointments.[140] Treasury Secretary John Sherman ordered John Jay to investigate the New York Custom House, which was stacked with Conkling's spoilsmen.[138] Jay's report suggested that the New York Custom House was so overstaffed with political appointees that 20% of the employees were expendable.[141]
+
+Although he could not convince Congress to prohibit the spoils system, Hayes issued an executive order that forbade federal office holders from being required to make campaign contributions or otherwise taking part in party politics.[141] Chester A. Arthur, the Collector of the Port of New York, and his subordinates Alonzo B. Cornell and George H. Sharpe, all Conkling supporters, refused to obey the order.[141] In September 1877, Hayes demanded the their resignations, which they refused to give. He submitted appointments of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., L. Bradford Prince, and Edwin Merritt—all supporters of Evarts, Conkling's New York rival—to the Senate for confirmation as their replacements.[142] The Senate's Commerce Committee, chaired by Conkling, voted unanimously to reject the nominees. The full Senate rejected Roosevelt and Prince by a vote of 31–25, and confirmed Merritt only because Sharpe's term had expired.[143]
+
+Hayes was forced to wait until July 1878, when he fired Arthur and Cornell during a Congressional recess and replaced them with recess appointments of Merritt and Silas W. Burt, respectively.[144][g] Conkling opposed confirmation of the appointees when the Senate reconvened in February 1879, but Merritt was approved by a vote of 31–25 and Burt by 31–19, giving Hayes his most significant civil service reform victory.[146]
+
+For the remainder of his term, Hayes pressed Congress to enact permanent reform legislation and fund the United States Civil Service Commission, even using his last annual message to Congress in 1880 to appeal for reform. Reform legislation did not pass during Hayes's presidency, but his advocacy provided "a significant precedent as well as the political impetus for the Pendleton Act of 1883," which was signed into law by President Chester Arthur.[147] Hayes allowed some exceptions to the ban on assessments, permitting George Congdon Gorham, secretary of the Republican Congressional Committee, to solicit campaign contributions from federal officeholders during the Congressional elections of 1878.[148] In 1880, Hayes quickly forced Secretary of Navy Richard W. Thompson to resign after Thompson accepted a $25,000 salary for a nominal job offered by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps to promote a French canal in Panama.[149]
+
+Hayes also dealt with corruption in the postal service. In 1880, Schurz and Senator John A. Logan asked Hayes to shut down the "star route" rings, a system of corrupt contract profiteering in the Postal Service, and to fire Second Assistant Postmaster-General Thomas J. Brady, the alleged ringleader.[150] Hayes stopped granting new star route contracts but let existing contracts continue to be enforced.[151] Democrats accused him of delaying proper investigation so as not to damage Republicans' chances in the 1880 elections but did not press the issue in their campaign literature, as members of both parties were implicated in the corruption.[150] Historian Hans L. Trefousse later wrote that Hayes "hardly knew the chief suspect [Brady] and certainly had no connection with the [star route] corruption."[152] Although Hayes and the Congress both investigated the contracts and found no compelling evidence of wrongdoing, Brady and others were indicted for conspiracy in 1882.[153] After two trials, the defendants were acquitted in 1883.[154]
+
+In his first year in office, Hayes was faced with the United States' largest labor uprising to date, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.[155] To make up for financial losses suffered since the panic of 1873, the major railroads had cut their employees' wages several times in 1877.[156] In July of that year, workers at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad walked off the job in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to protest their reduction in pay.[157] The strike quickly spread to workers of the New York Central, Erie, and Pennsylvania railroads, with the strikers soon numbering in the thousands.[158] Fearing a riot, Governor Henry M. Mathews asked Hayes to send federal troops to Martinsburg, and Hayes did so, but when the troops arrived there was no riot, only a peaceful protest.[159] In Baltimore, however, a riot did erupt on July 20, and Hayes ordered the troops at Fort McHenry to assist the governor in suppressing it.[158]
+
+Pittsburgh exploded into riots next, but Hayes was reluctant to send in troops without the governor's request.[158] Other discontented citizens joined the railroad workers in rioting.[160] After a few days, Hayes resolved to send in troops to protect federal property wherever it appeared to be threatened and gave Major General Winfield Scott Hancock overall command of the situation, marking the first use of federal troops to break a strike against a private company.[158] The riots spread further, to Chicago and St. Louis, where strikers shut down railroad facilities.[158]
+
+By July 29, the riots had ended and federal troops returned to their barracks.[161] No federal troops had killed any of the strikers, or been killed themselves, but clashes between state militia troops and strikers resulted in deaths on both sides.[162] The railroads were victorious in the short term, as the workers returned to their jobs and some wage cuts remained in effect. But the public blamed the railroads for the strikes and violence, and they were compelled to improve working conditions and make no further cuts.[163] Business leaders praised Hayes, but his own opinion was more equivocal; as he recorded in his diary:
+
+"The strikes have been put down by force; but now for the real remedy. Can't something [be] done by education of strikers, by judicious control of capitalists, by wise general policy to end or diminish the evil? The railroad strikers, as a rule, are good men, sober, intelligent, and industrious."[164]
+
+Hayes confronted two issues regarding the currency, the first of which was the coinage of silver, and its relation to gold. In 1873, the Coinage Act of 1873 stopped the coinage of silver for all coins worth a dollar or more, effectively tying the dollar to the value of gold. As a result, the money supply contracted and the effects of the Panic of 1873 grew worse, making it more expensive for debtors to pay debts they had contracted when currency was less valuable.[165] Farmers and laborers, especially, clamored for the return of coinage in both metals, believing the increased money supply would restore wages and property values.[166] Democratic Representative Richard P. Bland of Missouri proposed a bill to require the United States to coin as much silver as miners could sell the government, thus increasing the money supply and aiding debtors.[167] William B. Allison, a Republican from Iowa, offered an amendment in the Senate limiting the coinage to two to four million dollars per month, and the resulting Bland–Allison Act passed both houses of Congress in 1878.[167] Hayes feared the Act would cause inflation that would be ruinous to business, effectively impairing contracts that were based on the gold dollar, as the silver dollar proposed in the bill would have an intrinsic value of 90 to 92 percent of the existing gold dollar.[168] He also believed that inflating the currency was dishonest, saying, "[e]xpediency and justice both demand an honest currency."[168] He vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode his veto, the only time it did so during his presidency.[167]
+
+The second issue concerned United States Notes (commonly called greenbacks), a form of fiat currency first issued during the Civil War. The government accepted these notes as valid for payment of taxes and tariffs, but unlike ordinary dollars, they were not redeemable in gold.[167] The Specie Payment Resumption Act of 1875 required the treasury to redeem any outstanding greenbacks in gold, thus retiring them from circulation and restoring a single, gold-backed currency.[167] Sherman agreed with Hayes's favorable opinion of the Act, and stockpiled gold in preparation for the exchange of greenbacks for gold.[168] But once the public was confident that they could redeem greenbacks for specie (gold), few did so; when the Act took effect in 1879, only $130,000 of the outstanding $346,000,000 in greenbacks were actually redeemed.[169] Together with the Bland–Allison Act, the successful specie resumption effected a workable compromise between inflationists and hard money men and, as the world economy began to improve, agitation for more greenbacks and silver coinage quieted down for the rest of Hayes's presidency.[170]
+
+Most of Hayes's foreign-policy concerns involved Latin America. In 1878, following the Paraguayan War, he arbitrated a territorial dispute between Argentina and Paraguay.[171] Hayes awarded the disputed land in the Gran Chaco region to Paraguay, and the Paraguayans honored him by renaming a city (Villa Hayes) and a department (Presidente Hayes) in his honor.[171] Hayes became concerned over the plans of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal, to construct a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, then part of Colombia.[172] Worried about a repetition of French adventurism in Mexico, Hayes interpreted the Monroe Doctrine firmly.[173] In a message to Congress, Hayes explained his opinion on the canal: "The policy of this country is a canal under American control ... The United States cannot consent to the surrender of this control to any European power or any combination of European powers."[173]
+
+The Mexican border also drew Hayes's attention. Throughout the 1870s, "lawless bands" often crossed the border on raids into Texas.[174] Three months after taking office, Hayes granted the Army the power to pursue bandits, even if it required crossing into Mexican territory.[174] Mexican president Porfirio Díaz protested the order and sent troops to the border.[174] The situation calmed as Díaz and Hayes agreed to jointly pursue bandits and Hayes agreed not to allow Mexican revolutionaries to raise armies in the United States.[175] The violence along the border decreased, and in 1880 Hayes revoked the order allowing pursuit into Mexico.[176]
+
+Outside the Western hemisphere, Hayes's biggest foreign-policy concern dealt with China. In 1868 the Senate had ratified the Burlingame Treaty with China, allowing an unrestricted flow of Chinese immigrants into the United States. As the economy soured after the Panic of 1873, Chinese immigrants were blamed in the American West for depressing workmen's wages.[177] During the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, anti-Chinese riots broke out in San Francisco, and a third party, the Workingman's Party, formed with an emphasis on stopping Chinese immigration.[177] In response, Congress passed a Chinese Exclusion Act in 1879, abrogating the 1868 treaty.[178][179] Hayes vetoed the bill, believing that the United States should not abrogate treaties without negotiation.[179] The veto drew praise from eastern liberals, but Hayes was bitterly denounced in the West.[179] In the subsequent furor, Democrats in the House of Representatives attempted to impeach him, but narrowly failed when Republicans prevented a quorum by refusing to vote.[180] After the veto, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward suggested that the countries work together to reduce immigration, and he and James Burrill Angell negotiated with the Chinese to do so.[180] Congress passed a new law to that effect, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, after Hayes had left office.[180]
+
+Interior Secretary Carl Schurz carried out Hayes's American Indian policy, beginning with preventing the War Department from taking over the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[181] Hayes and Schurz carried out a policy that included assimilation into white culture, educational training, and dividing Indian land into individual household allotments.[182] Hayes believed his policies would lead to self-sufficiency and peace between Indians and whites.[183] The allotment system under the Dawes Act, later signed by President Cleveland in 1887, was favored by liberal reformers at the time, including Schurz, but instead proved detrimental to American Indians. They lost much of their land through sales of what the government classified as "surplus lands", and more to unscrupulous white speculators who tried to get the Indians to sell their allotments.[184] Hayes and Schurz reformed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to reduce fraud and gave Indians responsibility for policing their reservations, but they were generally understaffed.[185]
+
+Hayes dealt with several conflicts with Indian tribes. The Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph, began an uprising in June 1877 when Major General Oliver O. Howard ordered them to move to a reservation. Howard's men defeated the Nez Perce in battle, and the tribe began a 1,700-mile retreat to Canada.[186] In October, after a decisive battle at Bear Paw, Montana, Chief Joseph surrendered and William T. Sherman ordered the tribe transported to Indian Territory in Kansas, where they were forced to remain until 1885.[187] The Nez Perce war was not the last conflict in the West, as the Bannock rose up in spring 1878 in Idaho and raided nearby settlements before being defeated by Howard's army in July.[181] War with the Ute tribe broke out in Colorado in 1879 when some Ute killed Indian agent Nathan Meeker, who had been attempting to convert them to Christianity. The subsequent White River War ended when Schurz negotiated peace with the Ute and prevented white settlers from taking revenge for Meeker's death.[188]
+
+Hayes also became involved in resolving the removal of the Ponca tribe from Nebraska to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) because of a misunderstanding during the Grant administration. The tribe's problems came to Hayes's attention after its chief, Standing Bear, filed a lawsuit to contest Schurz's demand that they stay in Indian Territory. Overruling Schurz, Hayes set up a commission in 1880 that ruled the Ponca were free to return to their home territory in Nebraska or stay on their reservation in Indian Territory. The Ponca were awarded compensation for their land rights, which had been previously granted to the Sioux.[189] In a message to Congress in February 1881, Hayes insisted he would "give to these injured people that measure of redress which is required alike by justice and by humanity."[190]
+
+In 1880, Hayes embarked on a 71-day tour of the American West, becoming the second sitting president to travel west of the Rocky Mountains. (Hayes's immediate predecessor, Ulysses Grant, visited Utah in 1875.) Hayes's traveling party included his wife and William T. Sherman, who helped organize the trip. Hayes began his trip in September 1880, departing from Chicago on the transcontinental railroad. He journeyed across the continent, ultimately arriving in California, stopping first in Wyoming and then Utah and Nevada, reaching Sacramento and San Francisco. By railroad and stagecoach, the party traveled north to Oregon, arriving in Portland, and from there to Vancouver, Washington. Going by steamship, they visited Seattle, and then returned to San Francisco. Hayes then toured several southwestern states before returning to Ohio in November, in time to cast a vote in the 1880 presidential election.[191]
+
+Hayes and his wife Lucy were known for their policy of keeping an alcohol-free White House, giving rise to her nickname "Lemonade Lucy."[192] The first reception at the Hayes White House included wine,[193] but Hayes was dismayed at drunken behavior at receptions hosted by ambassadors around Washington, leading him to follow his wife's temperance leanings.[194] Alcohol was not served again in the Hayes White House. Critics charged Hayes with parsimony, but Hayes spent more money (which came out of his personal budget) after the ban, ordering that any savings from eliminating alcohol be used on more lavish entertainment.[195] His temperance policy also paid political dividends, strengthening his support among Protestant ministers.[194] Although Secretary Evarts quipped that at the White House dinners, "water flowed like wine," the policy was a success in convincing prohibitionists to vote Republican.[196]
+
+Hayes appointed two Associate Justices to the Supreme Court. The first vacancy occurred when David Davis resigned to enter the Senate during the election controversy of 1876. On taking office, Hayes appointed John Marshall Harlan to the seat. A former candidate for governor of Kentucky, Harlan had been Benjamin Bristow's campaign manager at the 1876 Republican convention, and Hayes had earlier considered him for attorney general.[197] Hayes submitted the nomination in October 1877, but it aroused some dissent in the Senate because of Harlan's limited experience in public office.[197] Harlan was nonetheless confirmed and served on the court for 34 years, voting (usually in the minority) for aggressive enforcement of the civil rights laws.[197] In 1880, a second seat became vacant upon the resignation of Justice William Strong. Hayes nominated William Burnham Woods, a carpetbagger Republican circuit court judge from Alabama.[198] Woods served six years on the Court, ultimately proving a disappointment to Hayes as he interpreted the Constitution in a manner more similar to that of Southern Democrats than to Hayes's own preferences.[199]
+
+Hayes unsuccessfully attempted to fill a third vacancy in 1881. Justice Noah Haynes Swayne resigned with the expectation that Hayes would fill his seat by appointing Stanley Matthews, a friend of both men.[200] Many senators objected to the appointment, believing that Matthews was too close to corporate and railroad interests, especially those of Jay Gould,[201] and the Senate adjourned without voting on the nomination.[200] The following year, when James A. Garfield entered the White House, he resubmitted Matthews's nomination to the Senate, which this time confirmed Matthews by one vote, 24 to 23.[200] Matthews served for eight years until his death in 1889. His opinion in Yick Wo v. Hopkins in 1886 advanced his and Hayes's views on the protection of ethnic minorities' rights.[202]
+
+Hayes declined to seek re-election in 1880, keeping his pledge that he would not run for a second term.[203] He was gratified with the election of fellow Ohio Republican James A. Garfield to succeed him, and consulted with him on appointments for the next administration.[204] After Garfield's inauguration, Hayes and his family returned to Spiegel Grove.[205] In 1881, he was elected a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He served as commander-in-chief (national president) of the Loyal Legion from 1888 until his death in 1893. Although he remained a loyal Republican, Hayes was not too disappointed in Grover Cleveland's election to the presidency in 1884, approving of the New York Democrat's views on civil service reform.[206] He was also pleased at the progress of the political career of William McKinley, his army comrade and political protégé.[207]
+
+Hayes became an advocate for educational charities, advocating federal education subsidies for all children.[208] He believed that education was the best way to heal the rifts in American society and allow individuals to improve themselves.[209] Hayes was appointed to the Board of Trustees of The Ohio State University, the school he helped found during his time as governor of Ohio, in 1887.[210] He emphasized the need for vocational, as well as academic, education: "I preach the gospel of work," he wrote, "I believe in skilled labor as a part of education."[211] He urged Congress, unsuccessfully, to pass a bill written by Senator Henry W. Blair that would have allowed federal aid for education for the first time.[212] Hayes gave a speech in 1889 encouraging black students to apply for scholarships from the Slater Fund, one of the charities with which he was affiliated.[213] One such student, W. E. B. Du Bois, received a scholarship in 1892.[213] Hayes also advocated better prison conditions.[214]
+
+In retirement, Hayes was troubled by the disparity between the rich and the poor, saying in an 1886 speech that "free government cannot long endure if property is largely in a few hands and large masses of people are unable to earn homes, education, and a support in old age."[215] The following year, Hayes recorded his thoughts on that subject in his diary:
+
+In church it occurred to me that it is time for the public to hear that the giant evil and danger in this country, the danger which transcends all others, is the vast wealth owned or controlled by a few persons. Money is power. In Congress, in state legislatures, in city councils, in the courts, in the political conventions, in the press, in the pulpit, in the circles of the educated and the talented, its influence is growing greater and greater. Excessive wealth in the hands of the few means extreme poverty, ignorance, vice, and wretchedness as the lot of the many. It is not yet time to debate about the remedy. The previous question is as to the danger—the evil. Let the people be fully informed and convinced as to the evil. Let them earnestly seek the remedy and it will be found. Fully to know the evil is the first step towards reaching its eradication. Henry George is strong when he portrays the rottenness of the present system. We are, to say the least, not yet ready for his remedy. We may reach and remove the difficulty by changes in the laws regulating corporations, descents of property, wills, trusts, taxation, and a host of other important interests, not omitting lands and other property.[216]
+
+Hayes was greatly saddened by his wife's death in 1889.[217] When she died, he wrote, "the soul had left [Spiegel Grove]".[217] After Lucy's death, Hayes's daughter Fanny became his traveling companion, and he enjoyed visits from his grandchildren.[218] In 1890, he chaired the Lake Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question, a gathering of reformers that met in upstate New York to discuss racial issues.[219] Hayes died of complications of a heart attack at his home on January 17, 1893, at the age of 70.[220] His last words were "I know that I'm going where Lucy is."[220] President-elect Cleveland and Ohio Governor William McKinley led the funeral procession that followed Hayes's body until Hayes was interred in Oakwood Cemetery.[221]
+
+Following the donation of his home to the state of Ohio for the Spiegel Grove State Park, he was reinterred there in 1915.[222] The next year the Hayes Commemorative Library and Museum, the country's first presidential library, opened on the site, funded by contributions from the state of Ohio and Hayes's family.[223]
+
+An 1878 dispute between Argentina and Paraguay that Hayes had arbitrated and decided in favor of Paraguay, giving Paraguay 60% of its current territory, later led to the naming of a province in the region after him: Presidente Hayes Department (capital: Villa Hayes); an official holiday: Laudo Hayes Firm Day, the anniversary of the decision, celebrated in Presidente Hayes province; a local soccer team: Club Presidente Hayes (also known as "Los Yanquis"), based in the national capital, Asuncion; a postage stamp, the design of which was chosen in a contest run by the U.S. Embassy; and even a young girl's wish: a girl who came out of a coma got her fondest wish—a trip to the Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio.[224]
+
+Also named for Hayes is Hayes County, Nebraska.[225]
+
+Hayes was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1890.[226]
+
+Rutherford B. Hayes High School in Hayes's hometown of Delaware, Ohio, was named in his honor.
+
+Hayes Hall, built in 1893, at the Ohio State University is also named in his honor. It is the campus's oldest remaining building, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 1970, due to its front facade, which remains virtually untouched from its original appearance. Hayes knew the building would be named in his honor, but he did not live to see it completed.[227]
+

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+Coordinates: 1°57′S 29°52′E / 1.950°S 29.867°E / -1.950; 29.867
+
+– in Africa (light blue & dark grey)– in the African Union (light blue)
+
+Rwanda (/ruˈɑːndə, -ˈæn-/ (listen); Kinyarwanda: u Rwanda [u.ɾɡwaː.nda] (listen)), formerly Ruanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda (Kinyarwanda: Repubulika y'u Rwanda; Swahili: Jamhuri ya Rwanda; French: République du Rwanda), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley where the African Great Lakes region and East Africa converge.  One of the smallest countries on the African mainland, its capital city is Kigali. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is highly elevated with its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year. Rwanda has a population of over 12.6 million[7] living on 26,338 km2 (10,169 mi2) of land, and  is the most densely populated mainland African country.
+
+The population is young and predominantly rural, with a density among the highest in Africa. Rwandans are drawn from just one cultural and linguistic group, the Banyarwanda, although within this group there are three subgroups: the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Twa are a forest-dwelling pygmy people and are often considered descendants of Rwanda's earliest inhabitants. Scholars disagree on the origins of and differences between the Hutu and Tutsi; some believe differences are derived from former social castes within a single people, while others believe the Hutu and Tutsi arrived in the country separately, and from different locations. Christianity is the largest religion in the country; the principal language is Kinyarwanda, spoken by most Rwandans, with English and French serving as additional official languages. The sovereign state of Rwanda has a presidential system of government. The president is Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), who has served continuously since 2000. Today, Rwanda has low levels of corruption compared with neighbouring countries, although human rights organisations report suppression of opposition groups, intimidation and restrictions on freedom of speech. The country has been governed by a strict administrative hierarchy since precolonial times; there are five provinces delineated by borders drawn in 2006. Rwanda is one of only three countries in the world with a female majority in the national parliament, the two other countries being Bolivia and Cuba.
+
+Hunter-gatherers settled the territory in the Stone and Iron Ages, followed later by Bantu peoples. The population coalesced first into clans and then into kingdoms. The Kingdom of Rwanda dominated from the mid-eighteenth century, with the Tutsi kings conquering others militarily, centralising power and later enacting anti-Hutu policies. Germany colonised Rwanda in 1884 as part of German East Africa, followed by Belgium, which invaded in 1916 during World War I. Both European nations ruled through the kings and perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy. The Hutu population revolted in 1959. They massacred numerous Tutsi and ultimately established an independent, Hutu-dominated republic in 1962. A 1973 military coup saw a change of leadership, but the pro-Hutu policy remained. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a civil war in 1990. The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, both Hutus, were killed when their aircraft was shot down on 6 April 1994. Social tensions erupted in the 1994 genocide that followed, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu. The RPF ended the genocide with a military victory.
+
+Rwanda's developing economy suffered heavily in the wake of the 1994 genocide, but has since strengthened. The economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture. Coffee and tea are the major cash crops for export. Tourism is a fast-growing sector and is now the country's leading foreign exchange earner. Rwanda is one of only two countries in which mountain gorillas can be visited safely, and visitors pay high prices for gorilla tracking permits. Music and dance are an integral part of Rwandan culture, particularly drums and the highly choreographed intore dance. Traditional arts and crafts are produced throughout the country, including imigongo, a unique cow dung art.
+
+Rwanda has been governed as a unitary presidential system with a bicameral parliament ruled by the Rwandan Patriotic Front since 1994. The country is member of the African Union, the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, COMESA, OIF and the East African Community.
+
+Modern human settlement of what is now Rwanda dates from, at the latest, the last glacial period, either in the Neolithic period around 8000 BC, or in the long humid period which followed, up to around 3000 BC.[8] Archaeological excavations have revealed evidence of sparse settlement by hunter-gatherers in the late Stone Age, followed by a larger population of early Iron Age settlers, who produced dimpled pottery and iron tools.[9][10] These early inhabitants were the ancestors of the Twa, aboriginal pygmy hunter-gatherers who remain in Rwanda today.[11] Between 700 BC and 1500 AD, a number of Bantu groups migrated into Rwanda, clearing forest land for agriculture.[11][12] The forest-dwelling Twa lost much of their habitat and moved to the mountain slopes.[13] Historians have several theories regarding the nature of the Bantu migrations; one theory is that the first settlers were Hutu, while the Tutsi migrated later to form a distinct racial group, possibly of Nilo-hamitic origin.[14] An alternative theory is that the migration was slow and steady, with incoming groups integrating into rather than conquering the existing society.[11][15] Under this theory, the Hutu and Tutsi distinction arose later and was a class distinction rather than a racial one.[16][17]
+
+The earliest form of social organisation in the area was the clan (ubwoko).[18] The clans were not limited to genealogical lineages or geographical area, and most included Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa.[19] From the 15th century, the clans began to coalesce into kingdoms;[20] by 1700 around eight kingdoms existed in present-day Rwanda.[21] One of these, the Kingdom of Rwanda, ruled by the Tutsi Nyiginya clan, became increasingly dominant from the mid-eighteenth century.[22] The kingdom reached its greatest extent during the nineteenth century under the reign of King Kigeli Rwabugiri. Rwabugiri conquered several smaller states, expanded the kingdom west and north,[22][23] and initiated administrative reforms; these included ubuhake, in which Tutsi patrons ceded cattle, and therefore privileged status, to Hutu or Tutsi clients in exchange for economic and personal service,[24] and uburetwa, a corvée system in which Hutu were forced to work for Tutsi chiefs.[23] Rwabugiri's changes caused a rift to grow between the Hutu and Tutsi populations.[23] The Twa were better off than in pre-Kingdom days, with some becoming dancers in the royal court,[13] but their numbers continued to decline.[25]
+
+The Berlin Conference of 1884 assigned the territory to Germany as part of German East Africa, marking the beginning of the colonial era. The explorer Gustav Adolf von Götzen was the first European to significantly explore the country in 1894; he crossed from the south-east to Lake Kivu and met the king.[26][27] The Germans did not significantly alter the social structure of the country, but exerted influence by supporting the king and the existing hierarchy and delegating power to local chiefs.[28][29] Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi in 1916, during World War I, beginning a period of more direct colonial rule.[30] Belgium ruled both Rwanda and Burundi as a League of Nations mandate called Ruanda-Urundi. The Belgians also simplified and centralised the power structure,[31] and introduced large-scale projects in education, health, public works, and agricultural supervision, including new crops and improved agricultural techniques to try to reduce the incidence of famine.[32] Both the Germans and the Belgians promoted Tutsi supremacy, considering the Hutu and Tutsi different races.[33] In 1935, Belgium introduced identity cards labelling each individual as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or Naturalised. While it had previously been possible for particularly wealthy Hutu to become honorary Tutsi, the identity cards prevented any further movement between the classes.[34]
+
+Belgium continued to rule Ruanda-Urundi (of which Rwanda formed the northern part) as a UN Trust Territory after the Second World War, with a mandate to oversee eventual independence.[35][36] Tensions escalated between the Tutsi, who favoured early independence, and the Hutu emancipation movement, culminating in the 1959 Rwandan Revolution: Hutu activists began killing Tutsi and destroying their houses,[37] forcing more than 100,000 people to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.[38][39] In 1961, the suddenly pro-Hutu Belgians held a referendum in which the country voted to abolish the monarchy. Rwanda was separated from Burundi and gained independence on 1 July 1962,[40] which is commemorated as Independence Day, a national holiday.[41] Cycles of violence followed, with exiled Tutsi attacking from neighbouring countries and the Hutu retaliating with large-scale slaughter and repression of the Tutsi.[42] In 1973, Juvénal Habyarimana took power in a military coup. Pro-Hutu discrimination continued, but there was greater economic prosperity and a reduced amount of violence against Tutsi.[43] The Twa remained marginalised, and by 1990 were almost entirely forced out of the forests by the government; many became beggars.[44] Rwanda's population had increased from 1.6 million people in 1934 to 7.1 million in 1989, leading to competition for land.[45]
+
+In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed of nearly 500,000 Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from their base in Uganda, initiating the Rwandan Civil War.[46] The group condemned the Hutu-dominated government for failing to democratize and confront the problems facing these refugees. Neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage in the war,[47] but by 1992 it had weakened Habyarimana's authority; mass demonstrations forced him into a coalition with the domestic opposition and eventually to sign the 1993 Arusha Accords with the RPF.[48] The cease-fire ended on 6 April 1994 when Habyarimana's plane was shot down near Kigali Airport, killing him.[49] The shooting down of the plane served as the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide, which began within a few hours. Over the course of approximately 100 days, between 500,000 and 1,000,000[50] Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed in well-planned attacks on the orders of the interim government.[51] Many Twa were also killed, despite not being directly targeted.[44]
+
+The Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive, and took control of the country methodically, gaining control of the whole country by mid-July.[52] The international response to the genocide was limited, with major powers reluctant to strengthen the already overstretched UN peacekeeping force.[53] When the RPF took over, approximately two million Hutu fled to neighbouring countries, in particular Zaïre, fearing reprisals;[54] additionally, the RPF-led army was a key belligerent in the First and Second Congo Wars.[55] Within Rwanda, a period of reconciliation and justice began, with the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the reintroduction of Gacaca, a traditional village court system.[56] Since 2000 Rwanda's economy,[57] tourist numbers,[58] and Human Development Index have grown rapidly;[59] between 2006 and 2011 the poverty rate reduced from 57% to 45%,[60] while life expectancy rose from 46.6 years in 2000[61] to 59.7 years in 2015.[62]
+
+The President of Rwanda is the head of state,[63] and has broad powers including creating policy in conjunction with the Cabinet,[64] exercising the prerogative of mercy,[65] commanding the armed forces,[66] negotiating and ratifying treaties,[67] signing presidential orders,[68] and declaring war or a state of emergency.[66] The President is elected by popular vote every seven years,[69] and appoints the Prime Minister and all other members of Cabinet.[70] The incumbent president is Paul Kagame, who took office upon the resignation of his predecessor, Pasteur Bizimungu, in 2000. Kagame subsequently won elections in 2003 and 2010,[71][72] although human rights organisations have criticised these elections as being "marked by increasing political repression and a crackdown on free speech".[73] Article 101 of the constitution had previously limited presidents to two terms in office,[74] but this was changed in a 2015 referendum, which had been brought following receipt of a petition signed by 3.8 million Rwandans.[75] Through this change in the constitution, Kagame could stay on as president until 2034.[76] Kagame was elected for a third term in 2017 with 98.79% of the vote.[77][78]
+
+The constitution was adopted following a national referendum in 2003, replacing the transitional constitution which had been in place since 1994.[79] The constitution mandates a multi-party system of government, with politics based on democracy and elections.[80] However, the constitution places conditions on how political parties may operate. Article 54 states that "political organizations are prohibited from basing themselves on race, ethnic group, tribe, clan, region, sex, religion or any other division which may give rise to discrimination".[81] The government has also enacted laws criminalising genocide ideology, which can include intimidation, defamatory speeches, genocide denial and mocking of victims.[82] According to Human Rights Watch, these laws effectively make Rwanda a one-party state, as "under the guise of preventing another genocide, the government displays a marked intolerance of the most basic forms of dissent".[83] Amnesty International is also critical; in its 2014/15 report, Amnesty said that laws against inciting insurrection or trouble among the population had been used to imprison people "for the legitimate exercise of their rights to freedom of association or of expression".[84]
+
+The Parliament consists of two chambers. It makes legislation and is empowered by the constitution to oversee the activities of the President and the Cabinet.[85] The lower chamber is the Chamber of Deputies, which has 80 members serving five-year terms. Twenty-four of these seats are reserved for women, elected through a joint assembly of local government officials; another three seats are reserved for youth and disabled members; the remaining 53 are elected by universal suffrage under a proportional representation system.[86] Following the 2013 election, there are 51 female deputies,[87] up from 45 in 2008;[88] as of 2015[update], Rwanda is one of only two countries with a female majority in the national parliament.[89] The upper chamber is the 26-seat Senate, whose members are selected by a variety of bodies. A mandatory minimum of 30% of the senators are women. Senators serve eight-year terms.[90] (See also Gender equality in Rwanda.)
+
+Rwanda's legal system is largely based on German and Belgian civil law systems and customary law.[62] The judiciary is independent of the executive branch,[91] although the President and the Senate are involved in the appointment of Supreme Court judges.[92] Human Rights Watch have praised the Rwandan government for progress made in the delivery of justice including the abolition of the death penalty,[93] but also allege interference in the judicial system by members of the government, such as the politically motivated appointment of judges, misuse of prosecutorial power, and pressure on judges to make particular decisions.[94] The constitution provides for two types of courts: ordinary and specialised.[95] Ordinary courts are the Supreme Court, the High Court, and regional courts, while specialised courts are military courts[95] and a system of commercial courts created in 2011 to expedite commercial litigations.[96] Between 2004 and 2012, a system of Gacaca courts was in operation.[97] Gacaca, a Rwandan traditional court operated by villages and communities, was revived to expedite the trials of genocide suspects.[98] The court succeeded in clearing the backlog of genocide cases, but was criticised by human rights groups as not meeting legal fair standard.[99]
+
+Rwanda has low corruption levels relative to most other African countries; in 2014, Transparency International ranked Rwanda as the fifth cleanest out of 47 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and 55th cleanest out of 175 in the world.[100][101] The constitution provides for an Ombudsman, whose duties include prevention and fighting of corruption.[102][103] Public officials (including the President) are required by the constitution to declare their wealth to the Ombudsman and to the public; those who do not comply are suspended from office.[104]
+
+The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has been the dominant political party in the country since 1994. The RPF has maintained control of the presidency and the Parliament in national elections, with the party's vote share consistently exceeding 70%. The RPF is seen as a Tutsi-dominated party but receives support from across the country, and is credited with ensuring continued peace, stability, and economic growth.[105] Human rights organisation Freedom House claims that the government suppresses the freedoms of opposition groups; in its 2015 report, Freedom House alleged that the RPF had "prevented new political parties from registering and arrested the leaders of several existing parties, effectively preventing them from fielding candidates" in elections.[106] Amnesty International also claims that the RPF rules Rwanda "without
+any meaningful opposition".[107]
+
+Rwanda is a member of the United Nations,[108] African Union, Francophonie,[109] East African Community,[110] and the Commonwealth of Nations.[111] For many years during the Habyarimana regime, the country maintained close ties with France, as well as Belgium, the former colonial power.[112] Under the RPF government, however, Rwanda has sought closer ties with neighbouring countries in the East African Community and with the English-speaking world. Diplomatic relations with France were suspended in 2006 following the indictment of Rwandan officials by a French judge,[113] and despite their restoration in 2010, as of 2015[update] relations between the countries remain strained.[114] Relations with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were tense following Rwanda's involvement in the First and Second Congo Wars;[55] the Congolese army alleged Rwandan attacks on their troops, while Rwanda blamed the Congolese government for failing to suppress Hutu rebels in North and South Kivu provinces.[115][116] Relations soured further in 2012, as Kinshasa accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion, an insurgency in the eastern Congo.[117] As of 2015[update], peace has been restored and relations are improving.[118] Rwanda's relationship with Uganda was also tense for much of the 2000s following a 1999 clash between the two countries' armies as they backed opposing rebel groups in the Second Congo War,[119] but improved significantly in the early 2010s.[120][121] In 2019, relations between the two countries deteriorated, with Rwanda closing its borders with Uganda.[122][123]
+
+The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) is the national army of Rwanda. Largely composed of former Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) soldiers, it includes the Rwanda Land Force, Rwanda Air Force and specialised units.[124] After the successful conquest of the country in 1994 in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, the Rwandan Patriotic Front decided to split the RPF into a political division (which retained the RPF name) and the RDF, a military division which was to serve as the official army of the Rwandan state. Defence spending continues to represent an important share of the national budget, largely due to continuing security problems along the frontiers with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi and lingering concerns about Uganda's intentions towards its former ally. In 2010, the United Nations released a report accusing the Rwandan army of committing wide scale human rights violations and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the First and Second Congo Wars, charges denied by the Rwandan government.[125]
+
+Rwanda has been governed by a strict hierarchy since precolonial times.[126] Before colonisation, the King (Mwami) exercised control through a system of provinces, districts, hills, and neighbourhoods.[127] The current constitution divides Rwanda into provinces (intara), districts (uturere), cities, municipalities, towns, sectors (imirenge), cells (utugari), and villages (imidugudu); the larger divisions, and their borders, are established by Parliament.[128]
+
+The five provinces act as intermediaries between the national government and their constituent districts to ensure that national policies are implemented at the district level. The "Rwanda Decentralisation Strategic Framework" developed by the Ministry of Local Government assigns to provinces the responsibility for "coordinating governance issues in the Province, as well as monitoring and evaluation".[129] Each province is headed by a governor, appointed by the President and approved by the Senate.[130] The districts are responsible for coordinating public service delivery and economic development. They are divided into sectors, which are responsible for the delivery of public services as mandated by the districts.[131] Districts and sectors have directly elected councils, and are run by an executive committee selected by that council.[132] The cells and villages are the smallest political units, providing a link between the people and the sectors.[131] All adult resident citizens are members of their local cell council, from which an executive committee is elected.[132] The city of Kigali is a provincial-level authority, which coordinates urban planning within the city.[129]
+
+The present borders were drawn in 2006 with the aim of decentralising power and removing associations with the old system and the genocide. The previous structure of twelve provinces associated with the largest cities was replaced with five provinces based primarily on geography.[133] These are Northern Province, Southern Province, Eastern Province, Western Province, and the Municipality of Kigali in the centre.
+
+At 26,338 square kilometres (10,169 sq mi), Rwanda is the world's 149th-largest country,[134] and the fourth smallest on the African mainland after Gambia, Eswatini, and Djibouti.[134] It is comparable in size to Burundi, Haiti and Albania.[62][135] The entire country is at a high altitude: the lowest point is the Rusizi River at 950 metres (3,117 ft) above sea level.[62] Rwanda is located in Central/Eastern Africa, and is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, and Burundi to the south.[62] It lies a few degrees south of the equator and is landlocked.[136] The capital, Kigali, is located near the centre of Rwanda.[137]
+
+The watershed between the major Congo and Nile drainage basins runs from north to south through Rwanda, with around 80% of the country's area draining into the Nile and 20% into the Congo via the Rusizi River and Lake Tanganyika.[138] The country's longest river is the Nyabarongo, which rises in the south-west, flows north, east, and southeast before merging with the Ruvubu to form the Kagera; the Kagera then flows due north along the eastern border with Tanzania. The Nyabarongo-Kagera eventually drains into Lake Victoria, and its source in Nyungwe Forest is a contender for the as-yet undetermined overall source of the Nile.[139] Rwanda has many lakes, the largest being Lake Kivu. This lake occupies the floor of the Albertine Rift along most of the length of Rwanda's western border, and with a maximum depth of 480 metres (1,575 ft),[140] it is one of the twenty deepest lakes in the world.[141] Other sizeable lakes include Burera, Ruhondo, Muhazi, Rweru, and Ihema, the last being the largest of a string of lakes in the eastern plains of Akagera National Park.[142]
+
+Mountains dominate central and western Rwanda and the country is sometimes called "Pays des mille collines" in French ("Land of a thousand hills").[143] They are part of the Albertine Rift Mountains that flank the Albertine branch of the East African Rift, which runs from north to south along Rwanda's western border.[144] The highest peaks are found in the Virunga volcano chain in the northwest; this includes Mount Karisimbi, Rwanda's highest point, at 4,507 metres (14,787 ft).[145] This western section of the country lies within the Albertine Rift montane forests ecoregion.[144] It has an elevation of 1,500 to 2,500 metres (4,921 to 8,202 ft).[146] The centre of the country is predominantly rolling hills, while the eastern border region consists of savanna, plains and swamps.[147]
+
+Rwanda has a temperate tropical highland climate, with lower temperatures than are typical for equatorial countries because of its high elevation.[136] Kigali, in the centre of the country, has a typical daily temperature range between 12 and 27 °C (54 and 81 °F), with little variation through the year.[148] There are some temperature variations across the country; the mountainous west and north are generally cooler than the lower-lying east.[149] There are two rainy seasons in the year; the first runs from February to June and the second from September to December. These are separated by two dry seasons: the major one from June to September, during which there is often no rain at all, and a shorter and less severe one from December to February.[150] Rainfall varies geographically, with the west and northwest of the country receiving more precipitation annually than the east and southeast.[151] Global warming has caused a change in the pattern of the rainy seasons. According to a report by the Strategic Foresight Group, change in climate has reduced the number of rainy days experienced during a year, but has also caused an increase in frequency of torrential rains.[152] Both changes have caused difficulty for farmers, decreasing their productivity.[153] Strategic Foresight also characterise Rwanda as a fast warming country, with an increase in average temperature of between 0.7 °C to 0.9 °C over fifty years.[152]
+
+In prehistoric times montane forest occupied one-third of the territory of present-day Rwanda. Naturally occurring vegetation is now mostly restricted to the three National Parks, with terraced agriculture dominating the rest of the country.[154] Nyungwe, the largest remaining tract of forest, contains 200 species of tree as well as orchids and begonias.[155] Vegetation in the Volcanoes National Park is mostly bamboo and moorland, with small areas of forest.[154] By contrast, Akagera has a savanna ecosystem in which acacia dominates the flora. There are several rare or endangered plant species in Akagera, including Markhamia lutea and Eulophia guineensis.[156]
+
+The greatest diversity of large mammals is found in the three National Parks, which are designated conservation areas.[157] Akagera contains typical savanna animals such as giraffes and elephants,[158] while Volcanoes is home to an estimated one-third of the worldwide mountain gorilla population.[159] Nyungwe Forest boasts thirteen primate species including common chimpanzees and Ruwenzori colobus arboreal monkeys; the Ruwenzori colobus move in groups of up to 400 individuals, the largest troop size of any primate in Africa.[160] Rwanda's population of lions was destroyed in the aftermath of the genocide of 1994, as national parks were turned into camps for displaced people and remaining animals were poisoned by cattle herders. In June 2015, two South African parks donated seven lions to Akagera National Park, reestablishing a lion population in Rwanda.[161] The lions were held initially in a fenced off area of the park, and then collared and released into the wild a month later.[162]
+
+There are 670 bird species in Rwanda, with variation between the east and the west.[163] Nyungwe Forest, in the west, has 280 recorded species, of which 26 are endemic to the Albertine Rift;[163] endemic species include the Rwenzori turaco and handsome spurfowl.[164] Eastern Rwanda, by contrast, features savanna birds such as the black-headed gonolek and those associated with swamps and lakes, including storks and cranes.[163]
+
+Recent entomological work in the country has revealed a rich diversity of praying mantises,[165] including a new species Dystacta tigrifrutex, dubbed the "bush tiger mantis".[166]
+
+Rwanda's economy suffered heavily during the 1994 genocide, with widespread loss of life, failure to maintain infrastructure, looting, and neglect of important cash crops. This caused a large drop in GDP and destroyed the country's ability to attract private and external investment.[62] The economy has since strengthened, with per-capita GDP (PPP) estimated at $2,444 in 2019,[4] compared with $416 in 1994.[167] Major export markets include China, Germany, and the United States.[62] The economy is managed by the central National Bank of Rwanda and the currency is the Rwandan franc; in December 2019, the exchange rate was 910 francs to one United States dollar.[168] Rwanda joined the East African Community in 2007, and has ratified a plan for monetary union amongst the five member nations,[169] which could eventually lead to a common East African shilling.[170]
+
+Rwanda is a country of few natural resources,[136] and the economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture by local farmers using simple tools.[171] An estimated 90% of the working population farms, and agriculture constituted an estimated 32.5% of GDP in 2014.[62] Farming techniques are basic, with small plots of land and steep slopes.[172] Since the mid-1980s, farm sizes and food production have been decreasing, due in part to the resettlement of displaced people.[173][136] Despite Rwanda's fertile ecosystem, food production often does not keep pace with population growth, and food imports are required,[62]But in recent years, with the growth of agriculture, the situation has improved.
+
+Subsistence crops grown in the country include matoke (green bananas), which occupy more than a third of the country's farmland,[172] potatoes, beans, sweet potatoes, cassava, wheat and maize.[172] Coffee and tea are the major cash crops for export, with the high altitudes, steep slopes and volcanic soils providing favourable conditions.[172] Reports have established that more than 400,000 Rwandans make their living from coffee plantation.[174] Reliance on agricultural exports makes Rwanda vulnerable to shifts in their prices.[175] Animals raised in Rwanda include cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chicken, and rabbits, with geographical variation in the numbers of each.[176] Production systems are mostly traditional, although there are a few intensive dairy farms around Kigali.[176] Shortages of land and water, insufficient and poor-quality feed, and regular disease epidemics with insufficient veterinary services are major constraints that restrict output. Fishing takes place on the country's lakes, but stocks are very depleted, and live fish are being imported in an attempt to revive the industry.[177]
+
+The industrial sector is small, contributing 14.8% of GDP in 2014.[62] Products manufactured include cement, agricultural products, small-scale beverages, soap, furniture, shoes, plastic goods, textiles and cigarettes.[62] Rwanda's mining industry is an important contributor, generating US$93 million in 2008.[178] Minerals mined include cassiterite, wolframite, gold, and coltan, which is used in the manufacture of electronic and communication devices such as mobile phones.[178][179]
+
+Rwanda's service sector suffered during the late-2000s recession as bank lending, foreign aid projects and investment were reduced.[180] The sector rebounded in 2010, becoming the country's largest sector by economic output and contributing 43.6% of the country's GDP.[62] Key tertiary contributors include banking and finance, wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants, transport, storage, communication, insurance, real estate, business services and public administration including education and health.[180] Tourism is one of the fastest-growing economic resources and became the country's leading foreign exchange earner in 2007.[181] In spite of the genocide's legacy, the country is increasingly perceived internationally as a safe destination.[182] The number of tourist arrivals in 2013 was 864,000 people, up from 504,000 in 2010.[58] Revenue from tourism was US$303 million in 2014, up from just US$62 million in 2000.[183] The largest contributor to this revenue was mountain gorilla tracking, in the Volcanoes National Park;[183] Rwanda is one of only two countries in which mountain gorillas can be visited safely; the gorillas attract thousands of visitors per year, who are prepared to pay high prices for permits.[184] Other attractions include Nyungwe Forest, home to chimpanzees, Ruwenzori colobus and other primates, the resorts of Lake Kivu, and Akagera, a small savanna reserve in the east of the country.[185]
+
+The largest radio and television stations are state-run, and the majority of newspapers are owned by the government.[186] Most Rwandans have access to radio; during the 1994 genocide, the radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines broadcast across the country, and helped to fuel the killings through anti-Tutsi propaganda.[186] As of 2015[update], the state-run Radio Rwanda is the largest station and the main source of news throughout the country.[186] Television access is limited, with most homes not having their own set.[187] The government rolled out digital television in 2014, and a year later there were seven national stations operating, up from just one in the pre-2014 analogue era.[188] The press is tightly restricted, and newspapers routinely self-censor to avoid government reprisals.[186] Nonetheless, publications in Kinyarwanda, English, and French critical of the government are widely available in Kigali. Restrictions were increased in the run-up to the Rwandan presidential election of 2010, with two independent newspapers, Umuseso and Umuvugizi, being suspended for six months by the High Media Council.[189]
+
+The country's oldest telecommunications group, Rwandatel, went into liquidation in 2011, having been 80% owned by Libyan company LAP Green.[190] The company was acquired in 2013 by Liquid Telecom,[191] a company providing telecommunications and fibre optic networks across eastern and southern Africa.[192] As of 2015[update], Liquid Telecom provides landline service to 30,968 subscribers, with mobile operator MTN Rwanda serving an additional 15,497 fixed line subscribers.[193] Landlines are mostly used by government institutions, banks, NGOs and embassies, with private subscription levels low.[194] As of 2015[update], mobile phone penetration in the country is 72.6%,[195] up from 41.6% in 2011.[196] MTN Rwanda is the leading provider, with 3,957,986 subscribers, followed by Tigo with 2,887,328, and Bharti Airtel with 1,336,679.[193] Rwandatel has also previously operated a mobile phone network, but the industry regulator revoked its licence in April 2011, following the company's failure to meet agreed investment commitments.[197] Internet penetration is low but rising rapidly; in 2015 there were 12.8 internet users per 100 people,[195] up from 2.1 in 2007.[198] In 2011, a 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) fibre-optic telecommunications network was completed, intended to provide broadband services and facilitate electronic commerce.[199] This network is connected to SEACOM, a submarine fibre-optic cable connecting communication carriers in southern and eastern Africa. Within Rwanda the cables run along major roads, linking towns around the country.[199] Mobile provider MTN also runs a wireless internet service accessible in most areas of Kigali via pre-paid subscription.[200]
+
+In October 2019, Mara Corporation launched the first African made smartphone in Rwanda.[201]
+
+The Rwandan government prioritised funding of water supply development during the 2000s, significantly increasing its share of the national budget.[202] This funding, along with donor support, caused a rapid increase in access to safe water; in 2015, 74% of the population had access to safe water,[203] up from about 55% in 2005;[202] the government has committed to increasing this to 100% by 2017.[203] The country's water infrastructure consists of urban and rural systems that deliver water to the public, mainly through standpipes in rural areas and private connections in urban areas. In areas not served by these systems, hand pumps and managed springs are used.[204] Despite rainfall exceeding 750 millimetres (30 in) annually in most of the country,[205] little use is made of rainwater harvesting, and residents are forced to use water very sparingly, relative to usage in other African countries.[203] Access to sanitation remains low; the United Nations estimates that in 2006, 34% of urban and 20% of rural dwellers had access to improved sanitation.[206] Government policy measures to improve sanitation are limited, focusing only on urban areas.[206] The majority of the population, both urban and rural, use public shared pit latrines.[206]
+
+Rwanda's electricity supply was, until the early 2000s, generated almost entirely from hydroelectric sources; power stations on Lakes Burera and Ruhondo provided 90% of the country's electricity.[207] A combination of below average rainfall and human activity, including the draining of the Rugezi wetlands for cultivation and grazing, caused the two lakes' water levels to fall from 1990 onwards; by 2004 levels were reduced by 50%, leading to a sharp drop in output from the power stations.[208] This, coupled with increased demand as the economy grew, precipitated a shortfall in 2004 and widespread loadshedding.[208] As an emergency measure, the government installed diesel generators north of Kigali; by 2006 these were providing 56% of the country's electricity, but were very costly.[208] The government enacted a number of measures to alleviate this problem, including rehabilitating the Rugezi wetlands, which supply water to Burera and Ruhondo and investing in a scheme to extract methane gas from Lake Kivu, expected in its first phase to increase the country's power generation by 40%.[209] Only 18% of the population had access to electricity in 2012, though this had risen from 10.8% in 2009.[210] The government's Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy for 2013–18 aims to increase access to electricity to 70% of households by 2017.[211]
+
+The government has increased investment in the transport infrastructure of Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, with aid from the United States, European Union, Japan, and others. The transport system consists primarily of the road network, with paved roads between Kigali and most other major cities and towns in the country.[212] Rwanda is linked by road to other countries in the East African Community, namely Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya, as well as to the eastern Congolese cities of Goma and Bukavu; the country's most important trade route is the road to the port of Mombasa via Kampala and Nairobi, which is known as the Northern Corridor.[213] The principal form of public transport in the country is the minibus, accounting for more than half of all passenger carrying capacity.[214] Some minibuses, particularly in Kigali,[215] operate an unscheduled service, under a shared taxi system,[216] while others run to a schedule, offering express routes between the major cities. There are a smaller number of large buses,[214] which operate a scheduled service around the country. The principal private hire vehicle is the motorcycle taxi; in 2013 there were 9,609 registered motorcycle taxis in Rwanda, compared with just 579 taxicabs.[214] Coach services are available to various destinations in neighbouring countries. The country has an international airport at Kigali that serves several international destinations, the busiest routes being those to Nairobi and Entebbe;[217] there is one domestic route, between Kigali and Kamembe Airport near Cyangugu.[218] In 2017, construction began on the Bugesera International Airport, to the south of Kigali, which will become the country's largest when it opens, complementing the existing Kigali airport.[219] The national carrier is RwandAir, and the country is served by seven foreign airlines.[217] As of 2015[update] the country has no railways, but there is a project underway, in conjunction with Burundi and Tanzania, to extend the Tanzanian Central Line into Rwanda; the three countries have invited expressions of interest from private firms to form a public private partnership for the scheme.[220] There is no public water transport between the port cities on Lake Kivu, although a limited private service exists and the government has initiated a programme to develop a full service.[221] The Ministry of Infrastructure is also investigating the feasibility of linking Rwanda to Lake Victoria via shipping on the Akagera River.[221]
+
+As of 2015[update], the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda estimates Rwanda's population to be 11,262,564.[224] The 2012 census recorded a population of 10,515,973.[3] The population is young: in the 2012 census, 43.3% of the population were aged 15 and under, and 53.4% were between 16 and 64.[225] According to the CIA World Factbook, the annual birth rate is estimated at 40.2 births per 1,000 inhabitants in 2015, and the death rate at 14.9.[62] The life expectancy is 59.67 years (61.27 years for females and 58.11 years for males), which is the 26th lowest out of 224 countries and territories.[62][226] The overall sex ratio of the country is 95.9 males per 100 females.[62]
+
+At 445 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,150/sq mi),[224] Rwanda's population density is amongst the highest in Africa.[227] Historians such as Gérard Prunier believe that the 1994 genocide can be partly attributed to the population density.[45] The population is predominantly rural, with a few large towns; dwellings are evenly spread throughout the country.[228] The only sparsely populated area of the country is the savanna land in the former province of Umutara and Akagera National Park in the east.[229] Kigali is the largest city, with a population of around one million.[230] Its rapidly increasing population challenges its infrastructural development.[62][231][232] According to the 2012 census, the second largest city is Gisenyi, which lies adjacent to Lake Kivu and the Congolese city of Goma, and has a population of 126,000.[233] Other major towns include Ruhengeri, Butare, and Muhanga, all with populations below 100,000.[233] The urban population rose from 6% of the population in 1990,[231] to 16.6% in 2006;[234] by 2011, however, the proportion had dropped slightly, to 14.8%.[234]
+
+Rwanda has been a unified state since pre-colonial times,[33] and the population is drawn from just one cultural and linguistic group, the Banyarwanda;[235] this contrasts with most modern African states, whose borders were drawn by colonial powers and did not correspond to ethnic boundaries or pre-colonial kingdoms.[236] Within the Banyarwanda people, there are three separate groups, the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa.[237] The CIA World Factbook gives estimates that the Hutu made up 84% of the population in 2009, the Tutsi 15% and Twa 1%.[62] The Twa are a pygmy people who descend from Rwanda's earliest inhabitants, but scholars do not agree on the origins of and differences between the Hutu and Tutsi.[238] Anthropologist Jean Hiernaux contends that the Tutsi are a separate race, with a tendency towards "long and narrow heads, faces and noses";[239] others, such as Villia Jefremovas, believe there is no discernible physical difference and the categories were not historically rigid.[240] In precolonial Rwanda the Tutsi were the ruling class, from whom the kings and the majority of chiefs were derived, while the Hutu were agriculturalists.[241] The current government discourages the Hutu/Tutsi/Twa distinction, and has removed such classification from identity cards.[242] The 2002 census was the first since 1933[243] which did not categorise Rwandan population into the three groups.[244]
+
+The largest faith in Rwanda is Roman Catholicism, but there have been significant changes in the nation's religious demographics since the genocide, with many conversions to evangelical Christianity, and, to a lesser degree, Islam.[245] According to the 2012 census, Roman Catholics represented 43.7% of the population, Protestants (excluding Seventh-day Adventists) 37.7%, Seventh-day Adventists 11.8%, and Muslims 2.0%; 0.2% claimed no religious beliefs and 1.3% did not state a religion.[246] Traditional religion, despite officially being followed by only 0.1% of the population, retains an influence. Many Rwandans view the Christian God as synonymous with the traditional Rwandan God Imana.[247] Many Tutsis believe themselves to be Jews who are descendants of migrants from the Kingdom of Kush (modern-day Ethiopia).[248][249][250]
+
+The country's principal language is Kinyarwanda, which is spoken by nearly all Rwandans. The major European languages during the colonial era were German, though it was never taught or widely used, and then French, which was introduced by Belgium from 1916 and remained an official and widely spoken language after independence in 1962.[251] Dutch was spoken too. The return of English-speaking Rwandan refugees in the 1990s[251] added a new dimension to the country's linguistic diversity.[252] Kinyarwanda, English, French, and Swahili are all official languages. Kinyarwanda is the national language while English is the primary medium of instruction in secondary and tertiary education. Swahili, the lingua franca of the East African Community,[253] is also spoken by some as a second language, particularly returned refugees from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and those who live along the border with the DRC.[254] In 2015, Swahili was introduced as a mandatory subject in secondary schools.[253] Inhabitants of Rwanda's Nkombo Island speak Mashi, a language closely related to Kinyarwanda.[255]
+
+Homosexuality is generally considered a taboo topic, and there is no significant public discussion of this issue in any region of the country.[256]
+
+Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Rwanda, and some cabinet-level government officials have expressed support for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people.[257] However, Rwanda does not recognise same-sex marriages, civil unions or similar unions.[258]
+
+Music and dance are an integral part of Rwandan ceremonies, festivals, social gatherings and storytelling. The most famous traditional dance is a highly choreographed routine consisting of three components: the umushagiriro, or cow dance, performed by women;[259] the intore, or dance of heroes, performed by men;[259] and the drumming, also traditionally performed by men, on drums known as ingoma.[260] The best known dance group is the National Ballet. It was established by President Habyarimana in 1974, and performs nationally and internationally.[261] Traditionally, music is transmitted orally, with styles varying between the social groups. Drums are of great importance; the royal drummers enjoyed high status within the court of the King (Mwami).[262] Drummers play together in groups of varying sizes, usually between seven and nine in number.[263] The country has a growing popular music industry, influenced by African Great Lakes, Congolese, and American music. The most popular genre is hip hop, with a blend of dancehall, rap, ragga, R&B and dance-pop.[264]
+
+Traditional arts and crafts are produced throughout the country, although most originated as functional items rather than purely for decoration. Woven baskets and bowls are especially common.[265] Imigongo, a unique cow dung art, is produced in the southeast of Rwanda, with a history dating back to when the region was part of the independent Gisaka kingdom. The dung is mixed with natural soils of various colours and painted into patterned ridges to form geometric shapes.[266] Other crafts include pottery and wood carving.[267] Traditional housing styles make use of locally available materials; circular or rectangular mud homes with grass-thatched roofs (known as nyakatsi) are the most common. The government has initiated a programme to replace these with more modern materials such as corrugated iron.[268][269]
+
+Rwanda does not have a long history of written literature, but there is a strong oral tradition ranging from poetry to folk stories. Many of the country's moral values and details of history have been passed down through the generations.[270] The most famous Rwandan literary figure was Alexis Kagame (1912–1981), who carried out and published research into oral traditions as well as writing his own poetry.[271] The Rwandan Genocide resulted in the emergence of a literature of witness accounts, essays and fiction by a new generation of writers such as Benjamin Sehene. A number of films have been produced about the Rwandan Genocide, including the Golden Globe-nominated Hotel Rwanda, 100 Days, Shake Hands with the Devil, Sometimes in April, and Shooting Dogs, the last four having been filmed in Rwanda and having featured survivors as cast members.[272][273]
+
+Fourteen regular national holidays are observed throughout the year,[274] with others occasionally inserted by the government. The week following Genocide Memorial Day on 7 April is designated an official week of mourning.[275] The victory for the RPF over the Hutu extremists is celebrated as Liberation Day on 4 July. The last Saturday of each month is umuganda, a national morning of mandatory community service lasting from 8 am to 11 am, during which all able bodied people between 18 and 65 are expected to carry out community tasks such as cleaning streets or building homes for vulnerable people.[276] Most normal services close down during umuganda, and public transportation is limited.[276]
+
+The cuisine of Rwanda is based on local staple foods produced by subsistence agriculture such as bananas, plantains (known as ibitoke), pulses, sweet potatoes, beans, and cassava (manioc).[277] Many Rwandans do not eat meat more than a few times a month.[277] For those who live near lakes and have access to fish, tilapia is popular.[277] The potato, thought to have been introduced to Rwanda by German and Belgian colonialists, is very popular.[278] Ugali, locally known as Ubugari (or umutsima) is common, a paste made from cassava or maize and water to form a porridge-like consistency that is eaten throughout the African Great Lakes.[279] Isombe is made from mashed cassava leaves and served with dried fish.[278] Lunch is usually a buffet known as mélange, consisting of the above staples and sometimes meat.[280] Brochettes are the most popular food when eating out in the evening, usually made from goat but sometimes tripe, beef, or fish.[280] In rural areas, many bars have a brochette seller responsible for tending and slaughtering the goats, skewering and barbecuing the meat, and serving it with grilled bananas.[281] Milk, particularly in a fermented yoghurt form called ikivuguto, is a common drink throughout the country.[282] Other drinks include a traditional beer called Ikigage made from sorghum and urwagwa, made from bananas, which features in traditional rituals and ceremonies.[278] The major drinks manufacturer in Rwanda is Bralirwa, which was established in the 1950s, a Heineken partner, and is now listed on the Rwandan Stock Exchange.[283] Bralirwa manufactures soft drink products from The Coca-Cola Company, under license, including Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Sprite,[284] and a range of beers including Primus, Mützig, Amstel, and Turbo King.[285] In 2009 a new brewery, Brasseries des Mille Collines (BMC) opened, manufacturing Skol beer and a local version known as Skol Gatanu;[286] BMC is now owned by Belgian company Unibra.[287] East African Breweries also operate in the country, importing Guinness, Tusker, and Bell, as well as whisky and spirits.[288]
+
+The Rwandan government, through its Sports Development Policy, promotes sport as a strong avenue for "development and peace building",[290] and the government has made commitments to advancing the use of sport for a variety of development objectives, including education.[291] The most popular sports in Rwanda are association football, volleyball, basketball, athletics and Paralympic sports.[292] Cricket has been growing in popularity,[293] as a result of refugees returned from Kenya, where they had learned to play the game.[294] Cycling, traditionally seen largely as a mode of transport in Rwanda, is also growing in popularity as a sport;[295] and Team Rwanda have been the subject of a book, Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda's Cycling Team and a film, Rising from Ashes.[296][297]
+
+Rwandans have been competing at the Olympic Games since 1984,[298] and the Paralympic Games since 2004.[299] The country sent seven competitors to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, representing it in athletics, swimming, mountain biking and judo,[298] and 15 competitors to the London Summer Paralympics to compete in athletics, powerlifting and sitting volleyball.[299] The country has also participated in the Commonwealth Games since joining the Commonwealth in 2009.[300][301] The country's national basketball team has been growing in prominence since the mid-2000s, with the men's team qualifying for the final stages of the African Basketball Championship four times in a row since 2007.[302] The country bid unsuccessfully to host the 2013 tournament.[303][304] Rwanda's national football team has appeared in the African Cup of Nations once, in the 2004 edition of the tournament,[305] but narrowly failed to advance beyond the group stages.[306] The team have failed to qualify for the competition since, and have never qualified for the World Cup.[307] Rwanda's highest domestic football competition is the Rwanda National Football League;[308] as of 2015[update], the dominant team is APR FC of Kigali, having won 13 of the last 17 championships.[309] Rwandan clubs participate in the Kagame Interclub Cup for Central and East African teams, sponsored since 2002 by President Kagame.[310]
+
+Prior to 2012, the Rwandan government provided free education in state-run schools for nine years: six years in primary and three years following a common secondary programme.[311] In 2012, this started to be expanded to 12 years.[312] A 2015 study suggests that while enrollment rates in primary schools are "near ubiquity", rates of completion are low and repetition rates high.[313] While schooling is fee-free, there is an expectation that parents should contribute to the cost of their children's education by providing them with materials, supporting teacher development and making a contribution to school construction. According to the government, these costs should not be a basis for the exclusion of children from education, however.[312] There are many private schools across the country, some church-run, which follow the same syllabus but charge fees.[314] From 1994 until 2009, secondary education was offered in either French or English; because of the country's increasing ties with the East African Community and the Commonwealth, only the English syllabi are now offered.[315] The country has a number of institutions of tertiary education. In 2013, the public University of Rwanda (UR) was created out of a merger of the former National University of Rwanda and the country's other public higher education institutions.[316][317][318] In 2013, the gross enrollment ratio for tertiary education in Rwanda was 7.9%, from 3.6% in 2006.[319] The country's literacy rate, defined as those aged 15 or over who can read and write, was 71% in 2009, up from 38% in 1978 and 58% in 1991.[320]
+
+The quality of healthcare in Rwanda has historically been very low, both before and immediately after the 1994 genocide.[321] In 1998, more than one in five children died before their fifth birthday,[322] often from malaria.[323]
+
+President Kagame has made healthcare one of the priorities for the Vision 2020 development programme,[324] boosting spending on health care to 6.5% of the country's gross domestic product in 2013,[325] compared with 1.9% in 1996.[326] The government has devolved the financing and management of healthcare to local communities, through a system of health insurance providers called mutuelles de santé.[327] The mutuelles were piloted in 1999, and were made available nationwide by the mid-2000s, with the assistance of international development partners.[327] Premiums under the scheme were initially US$2 per annum; since 2011 the rate has varied on a sliding scale, with the poorest paying nothing, and maximum premiums rising to US$8 per adult.[328] As of 2014[update], more than 90% of the population was covered by the scheme.[329] The government has also set up training institutes including the Kigali Health Institute (KHI), which was established in 1997[330] and is now part of the University of Rwanda. In 2005, President Kagame also launched a program known as The Presidents' Malaria Initiative.[331] This initiative aimed to help get the most necessary materials for prevention of malaria to the most rural areas of Rwanda, such as mosquito nets and medication.
+
+In recent years Rwanda has seen improvement on a number of key health indicators. Between 2005 and 2013, life expectancy increased from 55.2 to 64.0,[332] under-5 mortality decreased from 106.4 to 52.0 per 1,000 live births,[333] and incidence of tuberculosis has dropped from 101 to 69 per 100,000 people.[334] The country's progress in healthcare has been cited by the international media and charities. The Atlantic devoted an article to "Rwanda's Historic Health Recovery".[335] Partners In Health described the health gains "among the most dramatic the world has seen in the last 50 years".[328]
+
+Despite these improvements, however, the country's health profile remains dominated by communicable diseases,[336] and the United States Agency for International Development has described "significant health challenges",[337] including the rate of maternal mortality, which it describes as "unacceptably high",[337] as well as the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic.[337] According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, travelers to Rwanda are highly recommended to take preventive malaria medication as well as make sure they are up to date with vaccines such as yellow fever.[338]
+
+Rwanda also has a shortage of medical professionals, with only 0.84 physicians, nurses, and midwives per 1,000 residents.[339] The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is monitoring the country's health progress towards Millennium Development Goals 4–6, which relate to healthcare. A mid-2015 UNDP report noted that the country was not on target to meet goal 4 on infant mortality, despite it having "fallen dramatically";[340] the country is "making good progress" towards goal 5, which is to reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio,[341] while goal 6 is not yet met as HIV prevalence has not started falling.[342]
+

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+A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses.[1][2][3]
+
+Savannas maintain an open canopy despite a high tree density.[4] It is often believed that savannas feature widely spaced, scattered trees. However, in many savannas, tree densities are higher and trees are more regularly spaced than in forests.[5][6][7][8] The South American savanna types cerrado sensu stricto and cerrado dense typically have densities of trees similar to or higher than that found in South American tropical forests,[5][7][8] with savanna ranging from 800–3300 trees per hectare (trees/ha) and adjacent forests with 800–2000 trees/ha. Similarly Guinean savanna has 129 trees/ha, compared to 103 for riparian forest,[6] while Eastern Australian sclerophyll forests have average tree densities of approximately 100 per hectare, comparable to savannas in the same region.[9]
+
+Savannas are also characterised by seasonal water availability, with the majority of rainfall confined to one season; they are associated with several types of biomes, and are frequently in a transitional zone between forest and desert or grassland. Savanna covers approximately 20% of the Earth's land area.[10]
+
+The word originally entered English in 1555[11] as the Latin Zauana,[13] equivalent in the orthography of the times to zavana (see history of V). Peter Martyr reported it as the local name for the plain around Comagre, the court of the cacique Carlos in present-day Panama. The accounts are inexact,[15] but this is usually placed in present-day Madugandí[16] or at points on the nearby Guna Yala coast opposite Ustupo[17] or on Point Mosquitos.[18] These areas are now either given over to modern cropland or jungle.[19]
+
+Many grassy landscapes and mixed communities of trees, shrubs, and grasses were described as savanna before the middle of the 19th century, when the concept of a tropical savanna climate became established. The Köppen climate classification system was strongly influenced by effects of temperature and precipitation upon tree growth, and his oversimplified assumptions resulted in a tropical savanna classification concept which resulted in it being considered as a "climatic climax" formation. The common usage meaning to describe vegetation now conflicts with a simplified yet widespread climatic concept meaning. The divergence has sometimes caused areas such as extensive savannas north and south of the Congo and Amazon Rivers to be excluded from mapped savanna categories.[20]
+
+"Barrens" has been used almost interchangeably with savanna in different parts of North America. Sometimes midwestern savanna were described as "grassland with trees". Different authors have defined the lower limits of savanna tree coverage as 5–10% and upper limits range as 25–80% of an area.[21]
+
+Two factors common to all savanna environments are rainfall variations from year to year, and dry season wildfires.[citation needed] In the Americas, e.g. in Belize, Central America, savanna vegetation is similar from Mexico to South America and to the Caribbean.[22]
+
+Over many large tropical areas, the dominant biome (forest, savanna or grassland) can not be predicted only by the climate, as historical events plays also a key role, for example, fire activity.[23] In some areas, indeed, it is possible for there to be multiple stable biomes.[24]
+
+Savannas are subject to regular wildfires and the ecosystem appears to be the result of human use of fire. For example, Native Americans created the Pre-Columbian savannas of North America by periodically burning where fire-resistant plants were the dominant species.[25] Pine barrens in scattered locations from New Jersey to coastal New England are remnants of these savannas. Aboriginal burning appears to have been responsible for the widespread occurrence of savanna in tropical Australia and New Guinea,[26] and savannas in India are a result of human fire use.[27] The maquis shrub savannas of the Mediterranean region were likewise created and maintained by anthropogenic fire.[28]
+
+These fires are usually confined to the herbaceous layer and do little long term damage to mature trees. However, these fires either kill or suppress tree seedlings, thus preventing the establishment of a continuous tree canopy which would prevent further grass growth. Prior to European settlement aboriginal land use practices, including fire, influenced vegetation[29] and may have maintained and modified savanna flora.[3][26] It has been suggested by many authors[29][30] that aboriginal burning created a structurally more open savanna landscape. Aboriginal burning certainly created a habitat mosaic that probably increased biodiversity and changed the structure of woodlands and geographic range of numerous woodland species.[26][29] It has been suggested by many authors[30][31] that with the removal or alteration of traditional burning regimes many savannas are being replaced by forest and shrub thickets with little herbaceous layer.
+
+The consumption of herbage by introduced grazers in savanna woodlands has led to a reduction in the amount of fuel available for burning and resulted in fewer and cooler fires.[32] The introduction of exotic pasture legumes has also led to a reduction in the need to burn to produce a flush of green growth because legumes retain high nutrient levels throughout the year, and because fires can have a negative impact on legume populations which causes a reluctance to burn.[33]
+
+The closed forest types such as broadleaf forests and rainforests are usually not grazed owing to the closed structure precluding grass growth, and hence offering little opportunity for grazing.[34] In contrast the open structure of savannas allows the growth of a herbaceous layer and are commonly used for grazing domestic livestock.[35] As a result, much of the world's savannas have undergone change as a result of grazing by sheep, goats and cattle, ranging from changes in pasture composition to woody weed encroachment.[36]
+
+The removal of grass by grazing affects the woody plant component of woodland systems in two major ways. Grasses compete with woody plants for water in the topsoil and removal by grazing reduces this competitive effect, potentially boosting tree growth.[37] In addition to this effect, the removal of fuel reduces both the intensity and the frequency of fires which may control woody plant species.[38] Grazing animals can have a more direct effect on woody plants by the browsing of palatable woody species. There is evidence that unpalatable woody plants have increased under grazing in savannas.[39] Grazing also promotes the spread of weeds in savannas by the removal or reduction of the plants which would normally compete with potential weeds and hinder establishment.[29] In addition to this, cattle and horses are implicated in the spread of the seeds of weed species such as Prickly Acacia (Acacia nilotica) and Stylo (Stylosanthes spp.).[32] Alterations in savanna species composition brought about by grazing can alter ecosystem function, and are exacerbated by overgrazing and poor land management practices.
+
+Introduced grazing animals can also affect soil condition through physical compaction and break-up of the soil caused by the hooves of animals and through the erosion effects caused by the removal of protective plant cover. Such effects are most likely to occur on land subjected to repeated and heavy grazing.[40] The effects of overstocking are often worst on soils of low fertility and in low rainfall areas below 500 mm, as most soil nutrients in these areas tend to be concentrated in the surface so any movement of soils can lead to severe degradation. Alteration in soil structure and nutrient levels affects the establishment, growth and survival of plant species and in turn can lead to a change in woodland structure and composition.
+
+Large areas of Australian and South American savannas have been cleared of trees, and this clearing is continuing today. For example, until recently 480,000 ha of savanna were cleared annually in Australia alone primarily to improve pasture production.[29] Substantial savanna areas have been cleared of woody vegetation and much of the area that remains today is vegetation that has been disturbed by either clearing or thinning at some point in the past.
+
+Clearing is carried out by the grazing industry in an attempt to increase the quality and quantity of feed available for stock and to improve the management of livestock. The removal of trees from savanna land removes the competition for water from the grasses present, and can lead to a two to fourfold increase in pasture production, as well as improving the quality of the feed available.[41] Since stock carrying capacity is strongly correlated with herbage yield, there can be major financial benefits from the removal of trees,[42] such as assisting with grazing management: regions of dense tree and shrub cover harbors predators, leading to increased stock losses, for example,[43] while woody plant cover hinders mustering in both sheep and cattle areas.[44]
+
+A number of techniques have been employed to clear or kill woody plants in savannas. Early pastoralists used felling and girdling, the removal of a ring of bark and sapwood, as a means of clearing land.[45] In the 1950s arboricides suitable for stem injection were developed. War-surplus heavy machinery was made available, and these were used for either pushing timber, or for pulling using a chain and ball strung between two machines. These two new methods of timber control, along with the introduction and widespread adoption of several new pasture grasses and legumes promoted a resurgence in tree clearing. The 1980s also saw the release of soil-applied arboricides, notably tebuthiuron, that could be utilised without cutting and injecting each individual tree.
+
+In many ways "artificial" clearing, particularly pulling, mimics the effects of fire and, in savannas adapted to regeneration after fire as most Queensland savannas are, there is a similar response to that after fire.[46] Tree clearing in many savanna communities, although causing a dramatic reduction in basal area and canopy cover, often leaves a high percentage of woody plants alive either as seedlings too small to be affected or as plants capable of re-sprouting from lignotubers and broken stumps. A population of woody plants equal to half or more of the original number often remains following pulling of eucalypt communities, even if all the trees over 5 metres are uprooted completely.
+
+A number of exotic plants species have been introduced to the savannas around the world. Amongst the woody plant species are serious environmental weeds such as Prickly Acacia (Acacia nilotica), Rubbervine (Cryptostegia grandiflora), Mesquite (Prosopis spp.), Lantana (Lantana camara and L. montevidensis) and Prickly Pear (Opuntia spp.) A range of herbaceous species have also been introduced to these woodlands, either deliberately or accidentally including Rhodes grass and other Chloris species, Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris), Giant rat's tail grass (Sporobolus pyramidalis) parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus) and stylos (Stylosanthes spp.) and other legumes. These introductions have the potential to significantly alter the structure and composition of savannas worldwide, and have already done so in many areas through a number of processes including altering the fire regime, increasing grazing pressure, competing with native vegetation and occupying previously vacant ecological niches.[46][47]
+Other plant species include: white sage, spotted cactus, cotton seed, rosemary.
+
+Human induced climate change resulting from the greenhouse effect may result in an alteration of the structure and function of savannas. Some authors[48] have suggested that savannas and grasslands may become even more susceptible to woody plant encroachment as a result of greenhouse induced climate change. However, a recent case described a savanna increasing its range at the expense of forest in response to climate variation, and potential exists for similar rapid, dramatic shifts in vegetation distribution as a result of global climate change, particularly at ecotones such as savannas so often represent.[49]
+
+Savanna ecoregions are of several different types:

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+
+
+
+The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whale suborder Mysticeti. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 meters (98 feet) and weight of 173 tonnes (190 tons),[3] it is the largest animal known to have ever existed.[4] The blue whale’s long and slender body can be various shades of grayish-blue dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath.
+
+There are currently five subspecies of blue whale, recognized by the Society for Marine Mammalogy's Committee on Taxonomy: 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, and B. m. unnamed subsp. in the waters off Chile. The blue whale diet consists almost exclusively of euphausiids (krill).
+
+The blue whale was once abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the end of the 19th century. It was hunted almost to the point of extinction by whaling until the International Whaling Commission banned all hunting of blue whales in 1967. The International Whaling Commission catch database estimates that 382,595 blue whales were caught between 1868 and 1978. The global blue whale population abundance is estimated to be 10,000-25,000 blue whales, roughly 3-11% of the population size estimated in 1911.[5] There remain only much smaller concentrations in the Eastern North Pacific (1,647),[6] Central North Pacific (63-133),[7][8] North Atlantic (1,000-2,000),[9] Antarctic (2,280),[10] New Zealand (718),[11] Northern Indian Ocean (270),[12] and Chile (570-760).[13]
+
+Blue whales have long, slender mottled grayish-blue bodies, although they appear blue underwater.[14][15][16]
+
+The mottling pattern is highly variable and the unique pigmentation pattern along the back in the region of the dorsal fin can be used to identify known individuals.[17][18][19]
+
+Additional distinguishing features of the blue whale include a broad, flat head, which appears U-shaped from above; 270–395 entirely black baleen plates on each side of their upper jaw; 60–88 expandable throat pleats; long, slender flippers; a small (up to 13 inches (33 cm)) falcate dorsal fin positioned far back toward the tail; a thick tail stock; and a massive, slender fluke.[14][15][16][20][21]
+
+Their pale underside can accumulate a yellowish diatom coat,[14][15][16] which historically earned them the nickname sulphur bottom.[22][23] The blue whale’s two blowholes (the analogue of human nostrils) create a tall, columnar spray, which can be seen 30–40 ft (9–12 m) above the water’s surface.[14][16][21]
+
+The blue whale is the largest known animal.[24][14][25][26] In the International Whaling Commission (IWC) whaling database, 88 individuals longer than 30 m were reported, including one up to 33.0 m, but problems with how the measurements were made suggest that measurements longer than 30.5 m are somewhat suspect.[27] The Discovery Committee reported lengths up to 102 ft (31.1 m);[28] however, the longest scientifically measured (e.g., from rostrum tip to tail notch) individual blue whale was 98 ft (29.9 m).[3] Female blue whales are larger than males.[16][29] Hydrodynamic models suggest that a blue whale could not exceed 108 ft (33 m) due to metabolic and energy constraints.[30]
+
+The average length of sexually mature female blue whales is 72.1 ft (22.1 m) for Eastern North Pacific blue whales, 79 ft (24.1 m) for central and western North Pacific blue whales, 92 ft (28.1 m) for North Atlantic blue whales, 83.4–86.3 ft (25.4–26.6 m) for Antarctic blue whales, 77.1 ft (23.5 m) for Chilean blue whales, and 69.9 ft (21.3 m) for pygmy blue whales.[16][31][32]
+
+In the Northern Hemisphere, males weigh an average 100 tons (200,000 lb) and females 112 tons (224,000 lb). Eastern North Pacific blue whale males average 88.5 tons (177,000 lb) and females 100 tons (200,000 lb). Antarctic males averaged 112 tons (224,000 lb) and females 130 tons (260,000 lb). Pygmy blue whale males average 83.5 (167,000 lb) and 99 tons (198,000 lb).[33] The largest heart weight measured from a stranded North Atlantic blue whale was 0.1985 tons (397 lb), the largest known in any animal.[34]
+
+The most reliable age estimations are from ear plugs. Blue whales secrete earwax (cerumen) throughout their lives forming long, multilayered plugs. Each chronologically deposited light and dark layer (lamina) indicate a switch between fasting during migration and feeding, and one set is laid down per year, and thus the number of these layers can be used as an indicator of age.[35][36][37] The maximum age determined from earplug laminae for a pygmy whale is 73 years (n=1133).[38] Prior to the development of ear plugs as an ageing method, layers in baleen plates were used, but these wear down and are not a reliable measure. In addition, the ovaries of female blue whales form a permanent record of the number of ovulations (or perhaps pregnancies), in the form of corpora albicantia. These fibrous masses are permanent scars that have been used in the past as an indication of age.[39] In pygmy blue whales, one corpus albicans is formed every 2.6 years on average,[38] which matches the two- to three-year interval between calves.
+
+Mounted blue whale skeletons can be found prominently in the cathedral-like entrance hall to the Natural History Museum (London, UK); the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at Long Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz (California); the Melbourne Museum (Australia); Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (California); New Bedford Whaling Museum (Massachusetts); North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, NC); Iziko South African Museum (Cape Town, South Africa); Canadian Museum of Nature (Ottawa); Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, Canada); Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada); Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia); Iceland Husavik Museum (Húsavík, Iceland), the Museum of South-East Sulawesi (Kendari, Indonesia), the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Wellington, New Zealand) and the Marine Science Museum at Tokai University (Tokyo, Japan). Skulls are kept in the Paris Museum of Paleontology (France), Phan Tiet City, Vietnam, and the Regional Museum of Ancud (Chile).
+
+The Göteborg Natural History Museum (Sweden) contains the only taxidermized blue whale in the world, a 52 ft (16 m) juvenile killed after stranding alive in 1865, with its skeleton mounted beside the mount.[40]
+
+The five blue whale subspecies recognized by the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s Committee on Taxonomy[41][42] are distributed in all major ocean basins, except the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, although blue whales have been sighted near the ice edge in the North Atlantic.[41][42][43]
+
+The distributions of the five subspecies of blue whale are outlined below. Some of these blue whale subspecies have been further divided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, resulting in at least nine recognized management units,[42] based largely on unique song types.[44]
+
+1. The northern subspecies, B. m. musculus [45] is found in the North Pacific and North Atlantic, although given the geographic separation and genetic differences, populations in these two regions are unlikely to be closely linked.
+
+2.The Antarctic subspecies, B. m. intermedia [66] is found mostly south of the Antarctic Convergence Zone in austral summer, but spread widely from the Southern ocean to the equator in all oceans during the austral winter[51][52][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78]
+
+3.The pygmy subspecies, B. m. brevicauda ,[79] is found in the waters off Indonesia, Australia, Madagascar, and New Zealand[79][80][5]
+
+4.The Northern Indian Ocean subspecies, B. m. indica [93] is found from Somalia to southern Arabia to the southwest coast of India, and off the coasts of Sri Lanka and the Maldives,[94] with an apparent breeding season six months out of phase from pygmy blue whales.[95] However, this putative subspecies is the subject of an unresolved debate, with many suggesting they are pygmy blue whales, given that their song type is heard considerably south of the equator,[77][96] that the description in Blyth[93] is insufficient to distinguish them from pygmy blue whales, that they are of similar size to pygmy blue whales (e.g.[97]), and that Soviet whalers did not distinguish between B. m. indica and B. m. brevicauda despite catching thousands of each. Northern Indian Ocean blue whales may be separated into one or more populations as songs are collected from more areas in this region.
+
+In the North Pacific, blue whales can be seen in large numbers in Monterey Bay, CA from July through October. They may also be seen off San Diego, CA in July and August, and off Baja California Sur, Mexico and in the Sea of Cortez from January through March. In the North Atlantic, blue whales can be seen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence June through September, especially in the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park in Canada. Blue whales can best be found off Reykjavík and Húsavík in Iceland from May to August. Around the Azores, the best chance to see blue whales is February to March. In the Indian Ocean, blue whales can be seen off Mirissa, Sri Lanka in March and April. In the Southern Hemisphere, blue whales can be seen in Gulf of Corcovado between Guaitecas Archipelago, Chiloé Island, and the Chilean mainland, and off the west coast of Chiloe Island from December through March.[98][99]) In Australia, blue whales and pygmy blue whales can be seen from March through May in the Perth Canyon,[100] and in Bass Strait between Victoria and Tasmania from November to May.[101] In New Zealand, blue whales and pygmy blue whales may be seen in Kaikōura on the South Island between July and August.[102]
+
+The International Whaling Commission’s whale watching guidelines,[103] mirror these recommendations to minimize risk and adverse impacts on whales, including noise disturbance. They also provide a whale watch handbook,[104] providing more detailed guidelines for managers, regulators, operators, and anyone interested in whale watching.
+
+In the United States, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service[105] suggests that while whale watching, be alert and avoid disturbing whales from changing their normal behaviors and stay at least 100 yards (the length of a football field) away from a whale. Operate at a no-wake speeds and do not move into the path of a whale, move faster than a whale, make erratic speed or directional changes unless to avoid collision, get between two whales, chase, feed, or touch the whales.
+
+The mechanism behind modern whale migration is debated.[106][107][108] Migration may function to reduce parasitism, pathogens, and competition,[109][110] provide greater access to prey in the spring and summer, reduce calf predation from orcas, and optimize thermoregulation for growth in the winter.[106][107][111][112] For many baleen whales, such as humpback and grey whales, a general migration pattern can be defined as to-and-fro migration between feeding grounds at higher latitudes and breeding habitats at lower latitudes on an annual basis.[113] However, blue whales are not as specific in their movement patterns, and there is substantial evidence of alternative strategies, such as year-round residency, partial or differential migration, and anomalous habits such as feeding on breeding grounds.[114] For Antarctic blue whales, for example, some remain year-round in the Antarctic, some remain year-round in northerly grounds, and most disperse throughout the Southern Hemisphere in the austral winter months.
+
+Northern subspecies (B. m. musculus) – Eastern North Pacific population: This population migrates annually to the U.S. West Coast in the summer and fall to feed.[18][48][115][116] Their documented migration to secondary feeding areas off Oregon, Washington,[117] the Alaska Gyre, and the Aleutian Islands.[58][118] The northern extent can seasonally overlap with the Central North Pacific population in the Gulf of Alaska.[54][58] The Eastern North Pacific population migrates in the winter to their breeding grounds in the Gulf of California[18][50][119] and the Costa Rica Dome in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.[49][50] Acoustic recordings suggest that some individuals may remain on their feeding grounds[120][121][122] and on their breeding grounds year-round.[49][51][52][58]
+
+Northern subspecies (B. m. musculus) – Western and Central North Pacific population:  Little is known about the migration of this population. In the summer, this population migrates to their feeding grounds southwest of Kamchatka, south of the Aleutian Islands, to the Gulf of Alaska,[53][54] and to waters off Vancouver Island, Canada.[97][123][124][125] In the winter, they migrate to low-latitude waters, including Hawaii.[55][56][58][7] Acoustic data suggests that some individuals may remain on their feeding grounds year-round.[53][54][126]
+
+Northern subspecies (B. m. musculus) – North Atlantic population: Little is known about the winter distribution and migration patterns of this population in the North Atlantic.[127] In the Western North Atlantic, blue whales migrate to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the summer to feed, but some may remain year-round. Sightings in the Gulf of St. Lawrence peak late August-early September[128] and tagging suggests they migrate as far south as the Mid-Atlantic Bight coastal from Delaware to North Carolina and South Carolina.[129] In the Eastern North Atlantic, blue whales have been documented south of the Azores[130] and off northwest Africa in the winter,[131] in the Azores in late spring,[132] and in Iceland in the summer.[133] There has been one photograph-identification match between an individual blue whale in Iceland and Mauritania[134] and one match between an individual blue whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Azores,[134] suggesting connectivity among blue whales in the region.
+
+Antarctic subspecies (B. m. intermedia): Acoustic recordings indicate that this population is distributed around Antarctica and south of the Antarctic Convergence Zone in the summer, and then move into mid- and low-latitude habitats in fall and winter.[52][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][135] Antarctic blue whale calls have been acoustically detected in the Eastern Tropical Pacific in May–September.[69] Most migrate annually; however, year-round acoustic detections near the West Antarctic Peninsula,[68][136] the Weddell Sea and along the Greenwich meridian,[137] eastern Antarctica,[70][136] and year-round catches around South Georgia[138][139] suggest a small portion may remain in Antarctica year-round.[82][140]
+
+Pygmy subspecies (B. m. brevicauda) – Madagascar population: This population is found off the Seychelles and Amirante Islands, through the Mozambique Channel to the Crozet Islands and Prince Edward Islands in the spring and summer, with a nearly continuous distribution in sub-Antarctic waters in the Indian Ocean in the summer.[82] In the fall they were caught on the Madagascar Plateau[87] and sighted there in December in substantial numbers in recent decades.[141] Vocalizations have been recorded north near Diego Garcia in May–July,[142] in the Mozambique Channel in November–December[143] and Madagascar Basin south of La Reunion Island in March–June,[77] southwest of Amsterdam Island in December–May,[77] off Crozet Island in December–June.[86] Pygmy blue whales typically remain north of 52°S,[82][144] except on rare occasions, e.g. one was acoustically detected at 61.5° S near the Antarctic continental shelf.[88]
+
+Pygmy subspecies (B. m. brevicauda) – Western Australia/Indonesia population: This population feeds in Perth Canyon off Western Australia[83] and between the Great Australian Bight and Bass Strait off South Australia and Victoria[81][145] in the summer before migrating to waters off Indonesia to breed in the winter.[81][82][83][84][85] Acoustic data indicate that they are distributed in the sub-Antarctic waters of the southern Indian Ocean in summer and fall, including near the Crozet Islands and Amsterdam Island.[77][86] Like the Madagascar population, this population’s distribution remains north of 52°S.[82][144]
+
+Pygmy subspecies (B. m. brevicauda) – Eastern Australia/New Zealand population: Data from strandings, sightings, and acoustic detections suggest that this population is present in New Zealand waters nearly year-round.[11] They have also been detected as far south as 52°S in summer[90] and in the Tasman Sea and Lau Basin near Tonga in winter,[92] and likely range farther afield in the south-western Pacific. Major feeding grounds have been identified in the South Taranaki Bight between the North and South Islands, along the east coast of Northland (North Island), and off the east and west coasts of the South Island and the Hauraki Gulf.[89][91]
+
+Northern Indian Ocean subspecies (B. m. indica): Although its taxonomic status is in flux, historical catches were taken from waters off Somalia and southern Arabia from May–October, and they are thought to then disperse to the east coast of Sri Lanka, west of the Maldives, the Indus Canyon, and the southern Indian Ocean in December–March.[94] Sighting and stranding data[57][82][94][146] suggest that most remain in the central northern Indian Ocean year-round[147][148] Acoustic evidence of Sri Lanka song types suggest some travel to sub-Antarctic waters around Crozet Islands in late summer and early fall.[86] Recent evidence of a new song type off Oman and north-west Madagascar (and the absence of the Sri Lanka song type there) suggests there might be a separate north-western Indian Ocean population making “Oman” calls and a central Indian Ocean population making “Sri Lanka” calls.[149]
+
+Chilean population In summer and fall, Chilean blue whales feed along the west coast of South America, particularly the Chiloense Ecoregion, including the Corcovado Gulf, Pacific and northwest coasts of Chiloé Island, and inner sea of Chiloe Archipelago.[99][98][150][151] The whales then migrate to lower latitude areas including the Galapagos Islands and the Eastern Tropical Pacific.[99][152][153] Acoustic recordings in the Eastern Tropical Pacific may be year-round but generally peak in June[154] and are infrequently detected from September to March.[51][155]
+
+Data from individual satellite tagged Eastern North Pacific blue whales suggest leisurely traveling rates of 4 knots, or 4.6 mph (7.41 km/h),[156] with a minimum average speed of 1.55 ± 1.68 mph (2.49 ± 2.7 km/h).[157] With additional satellite tagged animals (n=10),[50] reported mean swim speeds of 108 ± 33.3 km/day, ranging 58–172 km/day. That would translate to 2.79 ± 0.86 mph (4.5 ± 1.39 km/h), ranging from 1.5–4.45 mph (2.42–7.17 km/h). Lagerquist et al.[158] reported mean swim speed using only high-quality satellite locations as 2.55 ± 1.43 mph (4.1 ± 2.3 km/h) from 11 tagged blue whales. A pygmy blue whale tagged off Perth Canyon, Western Australia traveled at mean speeds of 2.8 ± 2.2 km/h. There are regular reports of much faster migration speeds and rapid sustained bursts of speeds; notably their swimming speeds were too fast for whalers until the modern era of whaling introduced steam-powered boats and explosive-tipped harpoons. The maximum speed of a blue whale while being chased or harassed has been reported at 20 to 48 km/h (10–25 knots).[57]
+
+The blue whale diet consists almost exclusively of euphausiids (krill) except off Sri Lanka. Blue whales have been observed near Magdalena Bay (along the western coast of Baja California, Mexico) feeding on pelagic red crabs.[159][160][161] However, this has not been confirmed by recent observations or fecal samples. Other accidental or opportunistic consumption of copepods and amphipods have been documented.[162][163] Blue whales feed on krill at the surface and at depths greater than 328 ft (100 m), following their prey’s diel vertical migration through the water column.[16][164][165][166] The main prey species of krill targeted by blue whales varies among habitat in the different ocean basins.
+
+Blue whales capture krill through lunge feeding, a bulk filter-feeding strategy that involves accelerating toward a prey patch at high speeds,[183][184][185] opening the mouth 80–90°,[186][187] and inverting the tongue, creating a large sac.[188] This allows them to engulf a large volume of krill-laden water,[176][189][190] up to 220 tons of water at one time.[191] The water is then squeezed out through their baleen plates with pressure from the ventral pouch and tongue, and the remaining krill are swallowed.[186][189][192] Blue whales have been recorded making 180° rolls during lunge-feeding, allowing them to engulf krill patches while inverted; and they rolled while searching for prey between lunges, which has been hypothesized as allowing them to visually process the prey field find the densest prey patches.[193]
+
+The Eastern North Pacific population of blue whales have been well studied. The greatest dive depth reported from tagged blue whales was 315 meters.[192] Their theoretical aerobic dive limit was estimated at 31.2 min,[194] however, the longest dive duration measured was 15.2 minutes.[192] The deepest confirmed dive from a pygmy blue whale was 1,660 ft (506 m).[195]
+
+Blue whales maximize the intake of energy by increasing the number of lunges they make during a dive while targeting dense krill patches. This allows them to acquire the energy necessary for sustaining basic metabolic maintenance costs while storing additional energy necessary for migration and reproduction. Because of the high cost of lunge feeding, it has been estimated that blue whales must target densities greater than 100 krill/m3.[192][196] They can consume 34,776–1,912,680 kJ (~480,000 kilocalories) from one mouthful of krill, which can provide up to 240 times more energy than used in a single lunge.[192] Energetic models have estimated that the daily prey biomass requirement for an average-sized blue whale is 1,120 ± 359 kg krill.[197][198]
+
+Using the number of earwax lamina deposited in the earplug and development of sexual organs from dead whales,[57] it has been determined blue whales reach sexual maturity at about 10 years old and at an average length of 23.5 m for female Antarctic blue whales.[26][57][97][199][200] Another method for determining age at sexual maturity, involves measurements of testosterone from the baleen of male blue whales.[201][202] Testosterone concentrations measured from baleen suggest that the age at sexual maturity for one blue whale was 9 years.[201] Male pygmy blue whales averaged 61.4 ft (18.7 m) at sexual maturity.[203][204] Female pygmy blue whales are 68.9–71.2 ft (21.0–21.7 m) in length[31] and roughly 10 years old at age of sexual maturity.[31][97][32]
+
+Blue whales exhibit no well-defined social structure[205] other than mother-calf bonds from birth until weaning.[206] They are generally solitary or found in small groups.[207] Little is known about mating behavior, or breeding and birthing areas.[26][200] As a traveling pair, a male blue whale typically trails a female,[166][208] and is generally successful at repelling an intruder male after a short and vigorous battle.[209] Blue whale anatomy, specifically a small testis-to-body weight ratio[210] and documented visual observations of a second male joining the traveling pair,[211] suggest a polygynous, antagonistic male-male competition strategy.[200][211] Mating is thought to occur fall through winter.[26][200]
+
+Female blue whales give birth every two to three years, depending on body condition and lactation period.[38][57][199][211][212][213] Pygmy blue whales were estimated to give birth every 2.6 years (95% CI=2.2–3.0).[38] Pregnant females gain roughly 4% of their body weight daily,[174] amounting to 60% of their overall body weight throughout summer foraging periods.[199] Gestation lasts 10–11 months. No records of natural births are known,[211] although a blue whale that ended up in Trincomalee harbor gave birth to a calf before being towed back to sea the following day.[214]
+
+For Antarctic blue whales, a single calf is born at 23 ft (7 m) in length and weighs 2.8-3 tons (2540–2722 kg).[26][113] There is a 6–8 month weaning period until the calf is 53 ft (16 m) in length.[26][16][113][200][211][215][216]
+
+Blue whale milk is roughly (g/100 g) 45–48 water, 39–41 fat, 11–12 protein, 7.4 carbohydrates and 1.3 sugar,[217][218] thus containing 12 times more fat than whole milk from cows. The amount of milk transferred from mother to calf has not been measured. Blue whale milk contains 18 megajoules (MJ) per kg, which is roughly 4,302 Kilocalorie/kg.[219] Blue whale calves gain roughly 37,500 lb (17,000 kg) during the weaning period.[25] Estimates suggest that because calves require 2–4 kg milk per kg of mass gain, blue whales likely produce 220 kg milk/d (ranging from 110–320 kg milk/d).[220] The first video of a calf thought to be nursing was filmed in New Zealand in 2016.[221] Additional videos of blue whale calves nursing have been captured by drones, including off Dana Point, CA and off the South Coast of Sri Lanka.
+
+There is reference to a “well-documented” humpback-blue whale hybrid in the South Pacific, attributed to marine biologist Dr. Michael Poole,[21][222] however no published proof exists. Hybridization between blue and fin whales has been documented across multiple ocean basins. The earliest description of a possible hybrid between a blue and fin whale was a 65 ft anomalous female whale with the features of both the blue and the fin whales taken in the North Pacific.[223] In 1983 a 65 ft (19.8 m) long male specimen taken was 65 ft long and sexually immature. Based upon the number of layers in the earwax, the age of the animal was determined to be seven years. In 1984, a female hybrid between a fin and a blue whale was caught by whalers off northwestern Spain. Molecular analyses revealed a blue whale mother and a fin whale father.[224] In 1986, a 70 ft (21.3 m) pregnant female whale was caught. Molecular analyses of the whale showed that it was a hybrid between a female blue whale and a male fin whale, and that the fetus had a blue whale father. It was the first example of any cetacean hybridization giving rise to a fertile offspring.[225] Two live blue-fin whale hybrids have since been documented in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada and in the Azores (Portugal).[226] DNA tests done in Iceland of a blue whale killed July 7, 2018 by the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf, found that the whale was a hybrid of a fin whale father and a blue whale mother;[227] however, the results are pending independent testing and verification of the samples. Because blue whales are classed as a “Protection Stock” by the International Whaling Commission, trading their meat is illegal, and the kill is an infraction that must be reported.[228] Blue-fin hybrids have also been detected from genetic analysis of whale meat samples taken from Japanese markets.[229]
+
+There are no direct measurements of the hearing sensitivity of blue whales. Hearing predictions are inferred from anatomical studies,[223][230][231][232] vocalization ranges,[233][234][235] and behavioral responses to sound.[236][237] Blue whale inner ears appear well adapted for detecting low-frequency sounds.[238][239][240][241] Their vocalizations are also predominantly low frequency; thus, their hearing is presumably best at detecting those frequency ranges.[233] Southall et al.[242] estimated the hearing range of cetaceans to extend from approximately 7 Hz to 22 kHz.
+
+Blue whale vocalizations are among the loudest and lowest frequency sounds made by any animal.[42][243] The source level of blue whales off Chile in the 14 to 222 Hz band were estimated to be 188 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m,[243] 189 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m for Antarctic blue whales,[244] and 174 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m for pygmy blue whales.[86]
+
+The fundamental frequency for blue whale vocalizations ranges from 8 to 25 Hz.[245] Blue whale song types were initially divided into nine song types,[74] although ongoing research suggests at least 13 song types.[246] The correlation between song types and genetic subdivisions is unknown, but song types are currently used as the primary method of separating blue whale populations because they are stable in shape over multiple decades for each region. The characteristics of specific call types vary with respect to fundamental frequency, bandwidth, and duration, among others. The production of vocalizations may vary by region, season, behavior, and time of day. The purpose of vocalization is unknown, but songs produced only by males appear to have a sexually related purpose, while “D-calls” and other non-repeating calls are produced during feeding by both sexes.
+
+Possible reasons for calling include:
+
+Vocalizations produced by the Eastern North Pacific population have been well studied. This population produces long-duration, low frequency pulses (“A”) and tonal calls (“B”), upswept tones that precede type B calls (“C”), moderate-duration downswept tones (“D”), and variable amplitude-modulated and frequency-modulated sounds.[247][248][249][250] A and B calls are often produced in repeated co-occurring sequences as song only by males, suggesting a reproductive function.[250][165] D calls are produced by both sexes during social interactions while foraging and may considered multi-purpose contact calls.[165][251][252] Because the calls have also been recorded from blue whale trios from in a putative reproductive context, it has been recently suggested that this call has different functions.[209] The blue whale call recorded off Sri Lanka is a three‐unit phrase. The first unit is a pulsive call ranging 19.8 to 43.5 Hz, lasting 17.9 ± 5.2 s. The second unit is a FM upsweep 55.9 to 72.4 Hz lasting 13.8 ± 1.1 s. The final unit is a long (28.5 ± 1.6 s) tone that sweeps from 108 to 104.7 Hz.[253] The blue whale call recorded off Madagascar, a two‐unit phrase,[254] starts with 5–7 pulses with a center frequency of 35.1 ± 0.7 Hz and duration of 4.4 ± 0.5 s followed by a 35 ± 0 Hz tone lasting 10.9 ± 1.1 s.[253] In the Southern Ocean, blue whales calls last roughly 18 seconds and consist of a 9-s-long, 27 Hz tone, followed by a 1-s downsweep to 19 Hz, and another downsweep to 18 Hz.[68][71] They also produce short, 1–4 s duration, frequency-modulated calls ranging in frequency between 80 and 38 Hz.[71][255]
+
+At least seven blue whale song types have been shifting linearly downward in tonal frequency over time, though at different rates.[256][257][258]
+
+The Eastern North Pacific blue whale tonal frequency is 31% lower than it was in the early 1960s.[256][257] The frequency of pygmy blue whales in the Antarctic has steadily decreased at a rate of a few tenths of hertz per year since 2002.[258] One hypothesis is that as blue whale populations recover from whaling, this is increasing sexual selection pressure (i.e., lower frequency indicates larger body size),[257] although given the difficulties in measuring length from living whales, there is little evidence for changes in body size since whaling ended.
+
+The genus name, Balaenoptera, means winged whale[21] while the species name, musculus, could mean “muscle” or a diminutive form of “mouse”, potentially a clever pun by Carl Linnaeus,[15][21] who named the species in Systema Naturae.[45] One of the first published descriptions of a blue whale comes from Robert Sibbald’s Phalainologia Nova,[259] after Sibbald found a stranded whale in the estuary of the Firth of Forth 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.[260]
+
+Blue whales were referred to as ‘Sibbald’s rorqual’, after Robert Sibbald, who first described the species.[259] Herman Melville called the blue whale "sulphur bottom" in his novel Moby Dick[22] due to the accumulation of diatoms creating a yellowish appearance on their pale underside.[15][16]
+
+The name  rorqual  comes from the Norwegian word rørhval, a reference to the whale’s throat grooves, which are an elastic structure of blubber and muscle also known as the ventral grove blubber[188][261][262][263] extending from the chin to the umbilicus.[264][265]
+
+Blue whales are rorquals, in the family Balaenopteridae[266] whose extant members include the fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis), Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera brydei), Eden's whale (Balaenoptera edeni), common minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis), Omura's whale (Balaenoptera omurai), and humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).[267]
+
+Molecular evidence places blue whales in the Superorder Cetartiodactyla, which includes the Orders Cetacea (under which blue whales are classified) and Artiodactyla, even-toed ungulates. This classification is supported by evidence of morphological homology between cetaceans and artiodactyls in two described archaic whales.[268][269]
+
+The phylogeny of the blue whales is still debated because their placement varies depending on the molecular markers and phylogenetic analysis used.[270][271][272][273][274][275] The most recent analysis estimates that the Balaenopteridae family diverged from other families in the late Miocene, between 10.48 and 4.98 million years ago.[275]
+
+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.[276] The Australian pygmy blue whale diverged during the Last Glacial Maximum. Their more recent divergence has resulted the subspecies to have a relatively low genetic diversity,[277] and New Zealand blue whales have even lower genetic diversity.[11]
+
+Molecular evidence has suggested that common and pygmy hippopotamus, extant members of the family Hippopotamidae, are the closest living relatives to the order Cetacea.[278][279] This monophyletic clade is nested in Cetartiodactyla, which includes the even-toed ungulates.[280] Whole genome sequencing of blue whales and other rorqual species suggests that blue whales are most closely related to sei whales with grey whales as a sister group,[275] which is curious given the most common hybrids are with fin whales. This study also found significant gene flow between minke whales and the ancestors of the blue and sei whale. Blue whale also displayed a high degree of genetic variability (i.e., heterozygosity).[275]
+
+There are four subspecies of blue whale,[41][42] recognized by the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s Committee on Taxonomy:
+
+Some of these blue whale subspecies have been further divided, resulting in nine recognized management units:[42]
+
+Northern subspecies
+
+There are three populations in the Northern subspecies B. m. musculus. It was previously thought that blue whales in the North Pacific belonged to at least five separate populations;[216] however, evidence from movement data derived from satellite tags,[50][281] photograph-identification,[18] and acoustic data[54][58][74] supports two populations in the North Pacific—the Eastern and Central and Western North Pacific populations, with divisions according to acoustic calls being estimated by Monnahan et al.[282]
+
+The third population, the western North Atlantic population, is the only population currently recognized in the North Atlantic. However, it is thought that these whales should be split into eastern and western North Atlantic populations[59][283][284] based on photo-identification data.
+
+Antarctic subspecies
+
+Despite having the greatest haplotype diversity of any subspecies,[285] the Antarctic subspecies of blue whales is recognized as one stock for management purposes. Additionally, only one blue whale call type has been recorded in the Southern Ocean,[71][74][136][286] and mark-recapture data suggests movements of individuals entirely around the Antarctic.[82]
+
+Pygmy subspecies
+
+The pygmy blue whale subspecies, B. m. brevicauda, has three populations corresponding with acoustic populations, including a Madagascar population, Eastern Australia/New Zealand population, and Western Australia/Indonesia population.[287] Although the Western Australia/Indonesia population and the Eastern Australia/New Zealand population are morphologically similar and not genetically separated,[288] there are no photograph-identification matches between the two populations,[289] and mitochondrial DNA haplotype frequencies suggest a high degree of genetic isolation of the New Zealand population.[11] An acoustic boundary between the Western Australia/Indonesia population and the Eastern Australia/New Zealand population has been identified as the junction of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.[92][96]
+
+Northern Indian Ocean subspecies
+
+B. m. indica is currently considered a blue whale subspecies.[41][94][290] Evidence includes a breeding season asynchronous with Southern Hemisphere blue whales,[95] a distinct Sri Lanka call type,[74][147] a slightly smaller total length at maturity,[97] and potential year-round residency.[147][148] However, the Sri Lanka call has not been detected west of Sri Lanka, and there is another call type in the western North Indian Ocean, off Oman and north-western Madagascar, termed the Oman call[149] suggesting a central Indian Ocean population.
+
+Chilean subspecies
+
+Evidence suggesting that blue whales off the Chilean coast are a separate subspecies includes discrete geographic separation (latitudinally from Antarctic blue whales and longitudinally from pygmy blue whales), a difference in the mean length of mature females,[31][32] significant genetic differentiation,[31][152][285][291] and unique song types.[243][292][293] 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[294] and are unlikely to be interbreeding; however, the genetic differentiation is lesser with Eastern North Pacific blue whale, there may gene flow between hemispheres.[294]
+
+Blue whales were nearly hunted to extinction in the 19th and 20th centuries by commercial whalers until the International Whaling Commission banned the taking of blue whales in 1967.[295] The International Whaling Commission catch database estimates that 382,595 blue whales that were caught between 1868 and 1978, including 7,973 in the North Pacific (2.09%), 10,442 in the North Atlantic (2.73%), 5,383 in the South Pacific (1.41%), and in the Southern Ocean, 13,022 pygmy blue whales (3.40%) and 345,775 Antarctic blue whales (90.40%).[296] The Soviet Union continued to illegally hunt blue whales in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere through to 1973,[87][297][298][299] and Spanish vessels caught occasional blue whales up until 1978. The global blue whale population abundance is estimated to be 10,000–25,000 blue whales, roughly 3–11% of the population size estimated in 1911.[5] Recovery and current population sizes vary regionally and by subspecies.
+
+North Pacific (B. m. musculus)
+
+The reported take of all North Pacific blue whales by commercial whalers totaled 9,773 between 1905 and 1977.[282]
+
+North Atlantic (B. m. musculus)
+
+Roughly 15,000 blue whales may have inhabited the North Atlantic before whaling began.[305][306][307] In the western North Atlantic, there were an estimated 1,100–1,500 prior to modern whaling,[305][306] and in the eastern North Atlantic, estimates range from a “few thousand” to 10,000 blue whales in the Denmark Strait and 2,500 from northern Norway.[307] Little is known about the population trends outside of the Gulf of St. Lawrence area. Between 1979 and 2009, 440 blue whales were photo-identified in the Gulf of St. Lawrence estuary and northwestern Gulf of St. Lawrence.[128] Researchers speculate that there may be between 400 and 1,500 individuals.[3][64][308] A summer shipboard survey in 1987 resulted in a maximum estimate of 442 blue whales off Iceland.[284] Sightings from ship-based surveys in the Central and Northeast Atlantic in 1987, 1989, 1995 and 2001 provided abundances estimates ranging from 222 (CI=115–440) in 1987 to 979 (CI=137-2,542) in 1995.[133] The most recent estimate is between 1,000–2,000[9] off the east coast of Greenland, Denmark Strait, Iceland, Jan Mayen, Faroe Islands, west coast of Ireland, and north of the United Kingdom.
+
+Antarctic population (B. m. intermedia)
+
+Catches of Antarctic blue whales (345,775 whales) reduced the population from 239,000 (95% CI=202,000–311,000) in the 1920s to a low of 360 (150–840) animals in the early 1970s, which is 0.15% (0.07–0.29%) of pre-exploitation levels.[309] The best abundance estimate for Antarctic blue whales is 2,280 individuals (CV=0.36) based on the International Whaling Commission International Decade of Cetacean Research and the Southern Ocean Whale Ecosystem Research (SOWER) annual summer surveys from 1991/92 through 2003/04, which covered 99.7% of the area between the pack ice and 60° S.[10] The population is estimated to be increasing, at a rate of 7.3% per year (95% CI=1.4–11.6%) but the most recent abundance estimate is less than 1% of pre-exploitation levels,[309] although if population growth has continued at 7.3% per year, there may now be as many as 10,000 individuals. In 2020, during a 23-day survey, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) detected a population of 55 blue whales near a sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. Prior to the survey, only a couple of animals have been observed in this area after mass hunting in the early 20th century.[310]
+
+Pygmy subspecies (B. m. brevicauda)
+
+Few reliable estimates exist for population status of pygmy blue whales. Given historical catches, pre-exploitation abundance estimates must have been at least 7,598 individuals for the Madagascar population, and 2,900 individuals for the Australia/Indonesia population.[87] There is no abundance estimate for overall pygmy blue whale abundance, which includes the Madagascar population, Western Australia/Indonesia population, and Eastern Australia/New Zealand population. Best[141] suggest a minimum abundance of 424 (CV=0.42) pygmy blue whales on the Madagascar Plateau, or 472 (CV=0.48). Kato et al.[311] estimated 671 (279–1613) pygmy blue whales from a line-transect survey of a small area off the southern coast of Australia. Acoustic monitoring during migrations of Australian pygmy whales in the southeastern Indian Ocean resulted in an estimate of 660–1,750 whales.[84][145][312] The estimate of pygmy blue whale off New Zealand from mark-recapture data is 718 (95% CI=279-1926, SD=433).[11]
+
+Northern Indian Ocean subspecies (B. m. indica)
+
+Roughly 1,300 blue whales were caught illegally by Soviet Union whalers from 1963–1966 in the Arabian Sea.[95] Models from a number of surveys in 2014 from a small area 150 km east–west and 50 km north–south just south of Sri Lanka suggest an abundance estimate of 270 blue whales (CV=0.09, 95%, CI=226–322).[12]
+
+Chilean population
+
+The Chilean blue whale is found in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, especially the Chiloé-Corcovado region (,[31][99] and lower latitude areas including Peru, the Galapagos Islands and the southern portions of the Eastern Tropical Pacific[99][152][153][155]
+
+Roughly 5,728 blue whales from the Chilean subspecies were killed by whalers in the Southeast Pacific,[313] 4,288 off Chile.[314] The minimum pre-exploitation abundance was estimated at 1,500–5,000.[313][315] The best abundance estimates from open population models off Isla Grande de Chiloé spanning 2004-2012 suggest that ~570-760 whales are feeding seasonally in this region.[13] Closed population models for the same feeding grounds in 2012 estimate 762 (95% CI=638–933) and 570 (95% CI=475–705) for photographs of left and right sides of the animals, respectively.[13]
+
+Blue whales were initially tough to hunt because of their size and speed.[42] Large-scale takes did not begin until 1864, when the Norwegian Svend Foyn invented the exploding harpoon gun and by using them with steam and diesel-powered ships.[389][390] From 1866–1978, more than 380,000 blue whales were taken, mostly from Antarctic waters.[296] Blue whale takes peaked in 1931 when over 29,000 blue whales were killed. The International Whaling Commission banned all hunting of blue whales in 1966 and gave them worldwide protection. However, the Soviet Union continued illegal whaling into the 1970s,[95][297] and the last catch was taken by a Spanish expedition in 1978.
+
+Blue whales were protected in areas of the Southern Hemisphere starting in 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.[391][392] The protected status of North Atlantic blue whales was not recognized by Iceland until 1960.[393]
+
+Blue whales are formally classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Act[394] and considered depleted and strategic under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.[318][395] The International Union for Conservation of Nature[396] has listed blue whales as endangered.
+
+They are also listed on Appendix I under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora[397] and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.[398] 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).[77][399]

en/5220.html.txt

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+
+
+
+
+Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. It is defined by size, being finer than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type; i.e., a soil containing more than 85 percent sand-sized particles by mass.[2]
+
+The composition of sand varies, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz. The second most common type of sand is calcium carbonate, for example, aragonite, which has mostly been created, over the past half billion years, by various forms of life, like coral and shellfish. For example, it is the primary form of sand apparent in areas where reefs have dominated the ecosystem for millions of years like the Caribbean.
+
+Sand is a non-renewable resource over human timescales, and sand suitable for making concrete is in high demand.[3] Desert sand, although plentiful, is not suitable for concrete. 50 billion tons of beach sand and fossil sand is used each year for construction.[4]
+
+The exact definition of sand varies. The scientific Unified Soil Classification System used in engineering and geology corresponds to US Standard Sieves,[5] and defines sand as particles with a diameter of between 0.074 and 4.75 millimeters. By another definition, in terms of particle size as used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 mm (or ​1⁄16 mm) to 2 mm. An individual particle in this range size is termed a sand grain. Sand grains are between gravel (with particles ranging from 2 mm up to 64 mm by the latter system, and from 4.75 mm up to 75 mm in the former) and silt (particles smaller than 0.0625 mm down to 0.004 mm). The size specification between sand and gravel has remained constant for more than a century, but particle diameters as small as 0.02 mm were considered sand under the Albert Atterberg standard in use during the early 20th century. The grains of sand in Archimedes' The Sand Reckoner written around 240 BCE, were 0.02 mm in diameter. A 1938 specification of the United States Department of Agriculture was 0.05 mm.[6] A 1953 engineering standard published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials set the minimum sand size at 0.074 mm. Sand feels gritty when rubbed between the fingers. Silt, by comparison, feels like flour.
+
+ISO 14688 grades sands as fine, medium, and coarse with ranges 0.063 mm to 0.2 mm to 0.63 mm to 2.0 mm. In the United States, sand is commonly divided into five sub-categories based on size: very fine sand (​1⁄16 – ​1⁄8 mm diameter), fine sand (​1⁄8 mm – ​1⁄4 mm), medium sand (​1⁄4 mm – ​1⁄2 mm), coarse sand (​1⁄2 mm – 1 mm), and very coarse sand (1 mm – 2 mm). These sizes are based on the Krumbein phi scale, where size in Φ = -log2D; D being the particle size in mm. On this scale, for sand the value of Φ varies from −1 to +4, with the divisions between sub-categories at whole numbers.
+
+The most common constituent of sand, in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings, is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz, which, because of its chemical inertness and considerable hardness, is the most common mineral resistant to weathering.
+
+The composition of mineral sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions. The bright white sands found in tropical and subtropical coastal settings are eroded limestone and may contain coral and shell fragments in addition to other organic or organically derived fragmental material, suggesting that sand formation depends on living organisms, too.[7] The gypsum sand dunes of the White Sands National Park in New Mexico are famous for their bright, white color. Arkose is a sand or sandstone with considerable feldspar content, derived from weathering and erosion of a (usually nearby) granitic rock outcrop. Some sands contain magnetite, chlorite, glauconite, or gypsum. Sands rich in magnetite are dark to black in color, as are sands derived from volcanic basalts and obsidian. Chlorite-glauconite bearing sands are typically green in color, as are sands derived from basaltic lava with a high olivine content. Many sands, especially those found extensively in Southern Europe, have iron impurities within the quartz crystals of the sand, giving a deep yellow color. Sand deposits in some areas contain garnets and other resistant minerals, including some small gemstones.
+
+Rocks erode or weather over a long period of time, mainly by water and wind, and their sediments are transported downstream. These sediments continue to break apart into smaller pieces until they become fine grains of sand. The type of rock the sediment originated from and the intensity of the environment gives different compositions of sand. The most common rock to form sand is granite, where the feldspar minerals dissolve faster than the quartz, causing the rock to break apart into small pieces. In high energy environments rocks break apart much faster than in more calm settings. For example, Granite rocks this means more Feldspar minerals in the sand because it wouldn't have had time to dissolve. The term for sand formed by weathering is epiclastic.[8]
+
+Sand from rivers are collected either from the river itself or its flood plain and accounts for the majority of the sand used in the construction industry. Because of this, many small rivers have been depleted, causing environmental concern and economic losses to adjacent land. The rate of sand mining in such areas greatly outweighs the rate the sand can replenish, making it a non-renewable resource.[9]
+
+Sand dunes are a consequence of dry conditions or wind deposition. The Sahara Desert is very dry because of its geographic location and is known for its vast sand dunes. They exist here because very little vegetation is able to grow and there's not a lot of water. Over time, wind blows away all the fine particles, such as clay and dead organic matter, leaving only sand and larger rocks. Only 15% of the Sahara is sand dunes, while 70% is bare rock.[10] The wind is responsible for creating these different environments and shaping the sand to be round and smooth. These properties make desert sand unusable for construction.[11]
+
+Beach sand is also formed by erosion. Over thousands of years, rocks are eroded near the shoreline from the constant motion of waves and the sediments build up. Weathering and river deposition also accelerate the process of creating a beach, along with marine animals interacting with rocks, such as eating the algae off of them. Once there is a sufficient amount of sand, the beach acts as a barrier to keep the land from eroding any further. This sand is ideal for construction as it is angular and of various sizes.[12]
+
+Marine sand (or ocean sand) comes from sediments transported into the ocean and the erosion of ocean rocks. The thickness of the sand layer varies, however it is common to have more sand closer to land; this type of sand is ideal for construction and is a very valuable commodity. Europe is the main miners of marine sand, which greatly hurts ecosystems and local fisheries.[9]
+
+The study of individual grains can reveal much historical information as to the origin and kind of transport of the grain.[13] Quartz sand that is recently weathered from granite or gneiss quartz crystals will be angular. It is called grus in geology or sharp sand in the building trade where it is preferred for concrete, and in gardening where it is used as a soil amendment to loosen clay soils. Sand that is transported long distances by water or wind will be rounded, with characteristic abrasion patterns on the grain surface. Desert sand is typically rounded.
+
+People who collect sand as a hobby are known as arenophiles. Organisms that thrive in sandy environments are psammophiles.[14]
+
+Only some sands are suitable for the construction industry, for example for making concrete. Because of the growth of population and of cities and the consequent construction activity there is a huge demand for these special kinds of sand, and natural sources are running low. In 2012 French director Denis Delestrac made a documentary called "Sand Wars" about the impact of the lack of construction sand. It shows the ecological and economic effects of both legal and illegal trade in construction sand.[17][18][19]
+
+To retrieve the sand, the method of hydraulic dredging is used. This works by pumping the top few meters of sand out of the water and filling it into a boat, which is then transported back to land for processing. Unfortunately, all marine life mixed in with the extracted sand is killed and the ecosystem can continue to suffer for years after the mining is complete. Not only does this affect marine life, but also the local fishing industries because of the loss of life, and communities living close to the water's edge. When sand is taken out of the water it increases the risk of landslides, which can lead to loss of agricultural land and/or damage to dwellings.[20]
+
+Sand's many uses require a significant dredging industry, raising environmental concerns over fish depletion, landslides, and flooding.[21] Countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia ban sand exports, citing these issues as a major factor.[22] It is estimated that the annual consumption of sand and gravel is 40 billion tons and sand is a US$70 billion global industry.[23]
+
+The global demand for sand in 2017 was 9.55 billion tons as part of a $99.5 billion industry.[24]
+
+While sand is generally non-toxic, sand-using activities such as sandblasting require precautions. Bags of silica sand used for sandblasting now carry labels warning the user to wear respiratory protection to avoid breathing the resulting fine silica dust. Safety data sheets for silica sand state that "excessive inhalation of crystalline silica is a serious health concern".[25]
+
+In areas of high pore water pressure, sand and salt water can form quicksand, which is a colloid hydrogel that behaves like a liquid. Quicksand produces a considerable barrier to escape for creatures caught within, who often die from exposure (not from submersion) as a result.
+
+Manufactured sand (M sand) is sand made from rock by artificial processes, usually for construction purposes in cement or concrete. It differs from river sand by being more angular, and has somewhat different properties.[26]
+
+In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the use of sand has been very demanding in the construction of infrastructure and creating new islands. They used up their own reserves and now import most of their sand from Australia. There have been three projects to create artificial islands needing more than 835 million tonnes of sand, which cost more than US$26 billion.[27]

en/5221.html.txt

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+
+
+Clogs are a type of footwear made in part or completely from wood. Clogs are used worldwide and although the form may vary by culture, within a culture the form often remained unchanged for centuries.
+
+Traditional clogs remain in use as protective footwear in agriculture and in some factories and mines. Although clogs are sometimes negatively associated with cheap and folkloric footwear of farmers and the working class, some types of clogs are considered fashion wear today, such as Swedish träskor or Japanese geta.
+
+Clogs are also used in several different styles of dance. When worn for dancing, an important feature is the sound of the clog against the floor. This is one of the fundamental roots of tap, but with the tap shoes the taps are free to click against each other and produce a different sound from clogs.
+
+The Oxford English Dictionary[1] defines a clog as a "thick piece of wood", and later as a "wooden soled overshoe" and a "shoe with a thick wooden sole".
+
+Welsh traditional clog maker Trefor Owen identified three main varieties of clogs: wooden upper, wooden soled and overshoes.[2]
+
+These divisions are not fixed: some overshoes look more like whole foot clogs, like Spanish albarca, whilst other wooden soled clogs raise and protect clothing in the way that overshoes do, such as Japanese geta.
+
+The type of upper determines how the clogs are worn. Whole foot clogs need to be close fitting and can be secured by curling the toes. In contrast wooden soled clogs are fastened by laces or buckles on the welt and therefore the toes are relaxed as in shoes. Half open clogs may either be secured like whole foot clogs, or have an additional strap over the top of the foot. Some sandal types, and in particular toe peg styles, are worn more like "flip-flops" and rely on the grip between the big and next toe.
+
+As they are primarily made from wood, clogs cannot flex under the ball of the foot as softer shoes do. To allow the foot to roll forward most clogs have the bottom of the toe curved up, known as the cast.[3] Some styles of clogs have "feet", such as Spanish albarca. The clog rotates around the front edge of the front "feet". Some Japanese and Indian clogs have "teeth" or very high pegs attached to the soles. The clog can rotate around the front edge of the front "tooth" as the wearer strides forward. Some medieval pattens were in two pieces, heel through to ball and ball to toes. Joining the two was a leather strip forming a hinge, thus allowing the shoe above to flex.[4]  Klompen may have a carefully placed ease (space left around the foot), which allows the foot to bend, and the heel to lift within or out of the clog. Thick, springy wool socks provide flexibility in the fit.
+
+This cowherd appears to be wearing thick white wool socks and black leather turnshoes under her wooden overshoes, which are eased.
+
+Here the rearmost portion of the vamp is elastic leather, and the shoe rotates using the cast of the toe.
+
+Albarcas have three feet
+
+They rotate around the front clog-feet, located under the ball of the human foot.
+
+Geta rotate around the front tooth, which must be placed under the ball of the foot.
+
+Tengu geta have only one tooth.
+
+These wooden pattens are hinged at the ball of the foot.
+
+The origin of wooden footwear in Europe is not precisely known. De Boer-Olij makes reference to the high, thick-soled boots of the Greek tragedy actors in Antiquity (the buskin) and to the shoes worn by Roman soldiers (the caligae).[5]  However, there is a possibility that the Celtic and Germanic peoples from Southern and Northern Europe were familiar with some sort of wooden foot covering. Archaeological finds of these are not known. Wooden footwear often ended up as firewood and, because of its nature, wood will rot away in the long run. The oldest surviving wooden footwear in Europe is found in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and dates from 1230 and 1280.[6] These finds look very similar to the wooden shoes that are still worn in The Netherlands.
+
+Since wooden footwear was a hand-made product, the shape of the footwear, as well as its production process showed great local and regional diversity in style. At the beginning of the 20th century machine-made wooden footwear was introduced. After WW2, in particular, wooden shoes disappeared from sight. They were replaced by more fashionable all-leather and synthetic footwear. At present, only the so-called Swedish clogs (wooden bottom and leather top) is still seen as a trendy fashion item, often as ladies’ high-heeled boots. Nevertheless, traditional wooden footwear is still popular in several regions in Europe and in some occupations, for its practical use. Some historic local variations have recently been replaced by uniform national models.
+
+More information on the various methods of manufacture can be found from the gallery below.
+
+Presented below are typical clogs from the countries where they are found. Like many folk items, the boundaries of manufacture and use are regional and therefore do not always exactly follow those of modern states. So, in some countries two or more different types can be found. It is also possible that one type can be found in bordering countries. For example, Danish, German, Dutch, Belgian and clogs from Northwest France look quite similar. The links provide access to pages dealing with the different types of clog, their design, origin and manufacture.
+
+Belgian sabot from Belgium
+
+Træsko from Denmark
+
+Sabot from France
+
+Holzschuh from Germany
+
+Clogs of the North Sea coasts in surf; they are waterproof.
+
+Zoccolo from Italy
+
+Klumpės from Lithuania
+
+Klomp from the Netherlands
+
+Tamanco from Portugal
+
+Asturian madreñas from Spain
+
+Cantabrian albarcas from Spain
+
+Träskor from Sweden
+
+Zoggeli from Switzerland
+
+English clog from the United Kingdom
+
+World's biggest clog from one piece of wood, in Enter (Netherlands)
+
+Tai-Ping boots from China
+
+Paduka from India
+
+Bakiak [id] from Indonesia
+
+Geta from Japan
+
+Okobo from Japan
+
+Namaksin from Korea
+
+Terompah from Malaysia
+
+Bakya from the Philippines
+
+Takunya from Turkey
+
+In the 1970s and 1980s, Swedish clogs became popular fashion accessories for both sexes. They were usually worn without socks and were considered suitable attire for the avant-garde man.
+
+In the 1980s and 1990s, clogs based on Swedish clogs returned in fashion for women. Platform clogs or sandals, often raised as high as 6 or even 8 inches right through between sole and insole, were worn in many western countries. The large mid layer was often made of solid cork, although some were merely of plastic with a cork covering. The sole, more often than not, was made of a light sandy-colored rubber. Some of the platforms of these clogs were encompassed about with a string-laced effect.
+
+In 2007, Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf introduced high heeled Dutch clogs on the catwalk, with their winter collection of 2007/08.[7][8]  In 2010, Swedish clogs for women returned again in Chanel's and Louis Vuitton's Spring / Summer 2010 collection.[9]

en/5222.html.txt

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+
+
+From version 10.0 to version 10.15:
+
+From version 11.0:
+
+Safari is a graphical web browser developed by Apple, based on the WebKit engine. First released on desktop in 2003 with Mac OS X Panther, a mobile version has been bundled with iOS devices since the iPhone's introduction in 2007. Safari is the default browser on Apple devices. A Windows version was available from 2007 to 2012.[6]
+
+Until 1997, Apple's Macintosh computers shipped with the Netscape Navigator and Cyberdog web browsers only. Internet Explorer for Mac was later included as the default web browser for Mac OS 8.1 and later,[7] as part of a five-year agreement between Apple and Microsoft. During that time, Microsoft released three major versions of Internet Explorer for Mac that were bundled with Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9, though Apple continued to include Netscape Navigator as an alternative. Microsoft ultimately released a Mac OS X edition of Internet Explorer for Mac, which was included as the default browser in all Mac OS X releases from Mac OS X DP4[8] up to and including Mac OS X v10.2.[9]
+
+On January 7, 2003, at Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had developed its own web browser, called Safari. It was based on Apple's internal fork of the KHTML rendering engine, called WebKit.[10] The company released the first beta version, available only for Mac OS X, later that day. A number of official and unofficial beta versions followed, up until version 1.0 was released on June 23, 2003.[11] Initially only available as a separate download for Mac OS X 10.2, Safari was bundled with Mac OS X v10.3 on October 24, 2003 as the default browser, with Internet Explorer for Mac included only as an alternative browser. Version 1.0.3, released on August 13, 2004 was the last version to support Mac OS X 10.2, while 1.3.2, released on January 12, 2006 was the last version to support Mac OS X 10.3. However, 10.3 received security updates through 2007.
+
+In April 2005, Dave Hyatt, one of the Safari developers at Apple, documented his study by fixing specific bugs in Safari, thereby enabling it to pass the Acid2 test developed by the Web Standards Project. On April 27, 2005, he announced that his development version of Safari now passed the test, making it the first web browser to do so.[12]
+
+Safari 2.0 was released on April 29, 2005, as the only web browser included with Mac OS X 10.4. This version was touted by Apple as possessing a 1.8x speed boost over version 1.2.4, but did not yet include the Acid2 bug fixes. The necessary changes were initially unavailable to end-users unless they downloaded and compiled the WebKit source code themselves or ran one of the nightly automated builds available at OpenDarwin.org.[13] Apple eventually released version 2.0.2 of Safari, which included the modifications required to pass Acid2, on October 31, 2005.
+
+In June 2005, after some criticism from KHTML developers over lack of access to change logs, Apple moved the development source code and bug tracking of WebCore and JavaScriptCore to OpenDarwin.org. WebKit itself was also released as open source. The source code for non-renderer aspects of the browser, such as its GUI elements, remains proprietary.
+
+The final stable version of Safari 2, Safari 2.0.4, was released on January 10, 2006 for Mac OS X. It was only available as part of Mac OS X Update 10.4.4. This version addressed layout and CPU usage issues, among other improvements.[14] Safari 2.0.4 was the last version to be released exclusively on Mac OS X.
+
+On January 9, 2007, at Macworld SF, Jobs announced the iPhone. The device's operating system (later called iPhone OS and subsequently renamed to iOS) used a mobile version of the Safari browser and was able to display full, desktop-class websites.[15]
+
+On June 11, 2007, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Jobs announced Safari 3 for Mac OS X 10.5, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. During the announcement, he ran a benchmark based on the iBench browser test suite comparing the most popular Windows browsers,[16] hence claiming that Safari was the fastest browser. Later third-party tests of HTTP load times would support Apple's claim that Safari 3 was indeed the fastest browser on the Windows platform in terms of initial data loading over the Internet, though it was found to be only negligibly faster than Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox when loading static content from local cache.[17]
+
+The initial Safari 3 beta version for Windows, released on the same day as its announcement at WWDC 2007, had several known bugs[18] and a zero day exploit that allowed remote execution.[19] The addressed bugs were then corrected by Apple three days later on June 14, 2007, in version 3.0.1 for Windows. On June 22, 2007, Apple released Safari 3.0.2 to address some bugs, performance issues and other security issues. Safari 3.0.2 for Windows handles some fonts that are missing in the browser but already installed on Windows computers, such as Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, and others.
+
+The iPhone was formally released on June 29, 2007. It included a version of Safari based on the same WebKit rendering engine as the desktop version, but with a modified feature set better suited for a mobile device. The version number of Safari as reported in its user agent string is 3.0,[20] in line with the contemporary desktop versions of Safari.
+
+The first stable, non-beta release of Safari for Windows, Safari 3.1, was offered as a free download on March 18, 2008. In June 2008, Apple released version 3.1.2,[21][22] addressing a security vulnerability in the Windows version where visiting a malicious web site could force a download of executable files and execute them on the user's desktop.[23]
+
+Safari 3.2, released on November 13, 2008, introduced anti-phishing features using Google Safe Browsing and Extended Validation Certificate support. The final version of Safari 3 is 3.2.3, released on May 12, 2009.
+
+On June 2, 2008, the WebKit development team announced SquirrelFish,[24] a new JavaScript engine that vastly improves Safari's speed at interpreting scripts.[25] The engine is one of the new features in Safari 4, released to developers on June 11, 2008. The new JavaScript engine quickly evolved into SquirrelFish Extreme, featuring even further improved performance over SquirrelFish,[26] and was eventually marketed as Nitro. A public beta of Safari 4 was released on February 24, 2009, with new features such as the Top Sites tool (similar to Opera's Speed Dial feature), which displays the user's most visited sites on a 3D wall.[27] Cover Flow, a feature of Mac OS X and iTunes, was also implemented in Safari. In the public beta versions, tabs were placed in the title bar of the window, similar to Google Chrome. The tab bar was moved back to its original location, below the URL bar, in the final release.[28] The Windows version adopted a native Windows theme, rather than the previously employed Mac OS X-style interface. Also Apple removed the blue progress bar located in the address bar (later reinstated in Safari 5). Safari 4.0.1 was released for Mac on June 17, 2009 and fixed problems with Faces in iPhoto '09. Safari 4 in Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard" has 64-bit support, which can make JavaScript loading up to 50% faster. It also has built-in crash resistance unique to Snow Leopard; crash resistance will keep the browser intact if a plug-in like Flash player crashes, such that the other tabs or windows will be unaffected.[29] Safari 4.0.4, released on November 11, 2009 for both OS X and Windows, further improves JavaScript performance.[30]
+
+Safari was one of the twelve browsers offered to EU users of Microsoft Windows in 2010. It was one of the five browsers displayed on the first page of browser choices along with Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera.[31][32]
+
+Beginning with Safari 4, the address bar has been completely revamped:
+
+Safari on Mac OS X and Windows was made to look more similar to Safari on iPhone than previous versions.
+
+Safari 4 also includes the following new features:
+
+Apple released Safari 5 on June 7, 2010, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction (based on Arc90's Readability tool[34]), and a 30 percent JavaScript performance increase over Safari 4. Safari 5 includes improved developer tools and supports more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies, focused on interoperability. With Safari 5, developers can now create secure Safari Extensions to customize and enhance the browsing experience.[35] Apple also re-added the progress bar behind the address bar in this release. Safari 5.0.1 enabled the Extensions PrefPane by default; previously, users had to enable it via the Debug menu.
+
+Apple also released Safari 4.1 concurrently with Safari 5, exclusively for Mac OS X Tiger. The update included the majority of the features and security enhancements found in Safari 5. It did not, however, include Safari Reader or Safari Extensions.
+Together with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple released Safari 5.1 for both Windows and Mac on July 20, 2011, with the new function 'Reading List' and a faster browsing experience. Apple simultaneously released Safari 5.0.6 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, excluding Leopard users from the new functions in Safari 5.1.
+
+Safari 5.1.7 has become the last version of Safari developed for Windows.
+
+Safari 5 includes the following new features:
+
+Additionally, the blue inline progress bar has returned to the address bar, in addition to the spinning bezel and loading indicator introduced in Safari 4. Top Sites view now has a button to switch to Full History Search. Other features include Extension builder for developers of Safari Extensions, which are built using web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.
+
+Safari 6.0 was previously known as Safari 5.2 until Apple announced the change at WWDC 2012. The stable release of Safari 6 coincided with the release of OS X Mountain Lion on July 25, 2012, and is integrated into the OS.[39] As Apple integrated it with Mountain Lion, it is no longer available for download from the Apple website or other sources. Apple released Safari 6 via Software Update for users of OS X Lion. It has not been released for OS X versions prior to Lion or for Windows. Regarding the unavailability of Safari 6 on Windows, Apple has stated "Safari 6 is available for Mountain Lion and Lion. Safari 5 continues to be available for Windows."[40] Microsoft removed Safari from its BrowserChoice page.
+
+On June 11, 2012, Apple released a developer preview of Safari 6.0 with a feature called iCloud Tabs, which allows users to 'sync' their open tabs with any iOS or other OS X device running the latest software. Safari 6 also included new privacy features, including an "Ask websites not to track me" preference, and the ability for websites to send OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion users notifications, although it removed RSS support.[41] Safari 6 has the Share Sheets capability in OS X Mountain Lion. The Share Sheet options are: Add to Reading List, Add Bookmark, Email this Page, Message, Twitter and Facebook. Users can now see tabs with full page previews available.[42]
+
+Safari 6 introduced the following features, many of which are only available on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion:[43]
+
+Additionally various features were removed, including, but not limited to, Activity Window, separate Download Window, direct support for RSS feeds in the URL field and bookmarks. The separate search field is also no longer available as a toolbar configuration option.
+
+Announced at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on June 10, 2013, the Safari 7/6.1[44] developer preview brought improvements in JavaScript performance and memory usage, as well as a new look for Top Sites and the Sidebar, and a new Shared Links feature. Additionally, a new Power Saver feature pauses Plugins which are not in use.[45] Safari 7 for OS X Mavericks and Safari 6.1 (for Lion and Mountain Lion) were released along with OS X Mavericks in an Apple special event on October 22, 2013.[46]
+
+Safari 8 was announced at WWDC 2014 and released with OS X Yosemite. It included WebGL support, stronger privacy features, increased speed and efficiency, enhanced iCloud integration, and updated design.[47][48]
+
+Safari 8 introduced the following features, available on OS X Yosemite:[49]
+
+Safari 9 was announced at WWDC 2015 and released with OS X El Capitan. It included muting tabs and pinned tabs.
+
+Safari 10 was released alongside macOS Sierra 10.12 for OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan.[50] It does not include all of the new features available in macOS Sierra, like Apple Pay on the web and picture-in-picture support for videos, but the update includes the following new functions:
+
+Safari 10 also includes a number of security updates, including fixes for six WebKit vulnerabilities and issues related to Reader and Tabs.
+First version of Safari 10 was released in September 20, 2016 and last version 10.1.2 was released on July 19, 2017.
+
+Safari 11 was released as a part of macOS High Sierra but was also made available for OS X El Capitan and macOS Sierra on September 19, 2017.[51] Safari 11 included several new features such as Intelligent Tracking Prevention[52] which aims to prevent cross-site tracking by placing limitations on cookies and other website data.[53]
+
+Safari 12 was released in the lead up to macOS Mojave but was also made available for macOS Sierra and macOS High Sierra on September 17, 2018. Safari 12 includes several new features such as Icons in tabs, Automatic Strong Passwords, and Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0.[54] An updated Safari version 12.0.1 was released on October 30, 2018 as part of macOS Mojave 10.14.1 release, and Safari 12.0.2 was released on December 5, 2018, alongside macOS 10.14.2.
+
+Support for developer-signed classic Safari Extensions has been dropped. This version will also be the last one that supports the official Extensions Gallery, and Apple encourages extension authors to switch to Safari App Extensions. This move triggered negative feedback in the community.[55][56]
+
+Safari 13 was announced alongside macOS Catalina at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019. Safari 13 includes several new features such as prompting users to change weak passwords, FIDO2 USB security key authentication support, Sign in with Apple support, Apple Pay on the Web support, and increased speed and security.[57] Safari 13 was released on September 20, 2019 on macOS Mojave and macOS High Sierra.[58]
+
+In June 2020 it was announced that macOS Big Sur will include Safari 14.[59] Safari 14 introduces new privacy features, including Privacy Report showing blocked content and privacy information on web pages. Users will also receive a monthly report on trackers that Safari has blocked. Extensions can also be enabled or disabled on a site-by-site basis.[60] Safari also now supports the WebExtension API used in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Opera, meaning developers can now more easily port their extensions from those web browsers to Safari.[61] Support for Adobe Flash Player will also be dropped from Safari.[62]
+
+Safari Technology Preview was first released alongside OS X El Capitan 10.11.4.  Safari Technology Preview releases include the latest version of WebKit, incorporating Web technologies to be incorporated in future stable releases of Safari, so that developers and users can install the Technology Preview release on a Mac, test those features, and provide feedback.[63]
+
+On macOS, Safari is a Cocoa application.[64] It uses Apple's WebKit for rendering web pages and running JavaScript. WebKit consists of WebCore (based on Konqueror's KHTML engine) and JavaScriptCore (originally based on KDE's JavaScript engine, named KJS). Like KHTML and KJS, WebCore and JavaScriptCore are free software and are released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. Some Apple improvements to the KHTML code are merged back into the Konqueror project. Apple also releases additional code under an open source 2-clause BSD-like license.
+
+Until Safari 6.0, it included a built-in web feed aggregator that supported the RSS and Atom standards. Current features include Private Browsing (a mode in which no record of information about the user's web activity is retained by the browser),[65] the ability to archive web content in WebArchive format, the ability to email complete web pages directly from a browser menu, the ability to search bookmarks, and the ability to share tabs between all Mac and iOS devices running appropriate versions of software via an iCloud account.
+
+iOS-specific features for Safari enable:
+
+WebKit2 has a multiprocess API for WebKit, where the web-content is handled by a separate process than the application using WebKit. Apple announced WebKit2 in April 2010.[73] Safari for OS X switched to the new API with version 5.1.[74] Safari for iOS switched to WebKit2 with iOS 8.[75]
+
+Apple maintains a plugin blacklist that it can remotely update to prevent potentially dangerous or vulnerable plug-ins from running on Safari. Initially, Apple had blocked versions of Flash and Java in earlier versions of Safari. Since Safari 12 support for NPAPI plugins (except for Flash) have been completely dropped. Starting with the release of Safari 14, support for Adobe Flash Player will be dropped altogether.[62]
+
+The license has common terms against reverse engineering, copying and sub-licensing, except parts that are open source, and it disclaims warranties and liability.[76]
+
+Apple tracks use of the browser. Windows users may not opt out of tracking since their license omits the opening If clause.[77] Other users may opt out, and all users can opt out of location tracking by not using location services. "If you choose to allow diagnostic and usage collection, you agree that Apple and its subsidiaries and agents may collect... usage and related information... to provide ... services to you (if any) related to the Apple Software... in a form that does not personally identify you... Apple may also provide any such partner or third party developer with a subset of diagnostic information that is relevant to that partner’s or developer’s software... Apple and its partners, licensees, third party developers and website may transmit, collect, maintain, process and use your location data... and location search queries... in a form that does not personally identify you ... You may withdraw this consent at any time..."[76]
+
+Apple thinks "personal" does not cover "unique device identifiers" such as serial number, cookie number, or IP address, so they use these where allowed by law.[78] "We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-personal information for any purpose. The following are some examples of non-personal information that we collect ... unique device identifier... We treat information collected by cookies and other technologies as non‑personal information. However, to the extent that Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or similar identifiers are considered personal information by local law, we also treat these identifiers as personal information."[78]
+
+In September 2017 Apple announced that it will use artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the ability of advertisers to track Safari users as they browse the web. Cookies used for tracking will be allowed for 24 hours, then disabled, unless AI judges the user wants the cookie.[79] Major advertising groups objected, saying it will reduce the free services supported by advertising, while other experts praised the change.[80]
+
+An overview and detailed information about Safari exploits are listed by CVE Details.
+
+In the PWN2OWN contest at the 2008 CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, an exploit of Safari caused Mac OS X to be the first OS to fall in a hacking competition. Participants competed to find a way to read the contents of a file located on the user's desktop in one of three operating systems: Mac OS X Leopard, Windows Vista SP1, and Ubuntu 7.10. On the second day of the contest, when users were allowed to physically interact with the computers (the prior day permitted only network attacks), Charlie Miller compromised Mac OS X through an unpatched vulnerability of the PCRE library used by Safari.[81] Miller was aware of the flaw before the conference and worked to exploit it unannounced, as is the common approach in these contests.[81] The exploited vulnerability and other flaws were patched in Safari 3.1.1.[82]
+
+In the 2009 PWN2OWN contest, Charlie Miller performed another exploit of Safari to hack into a Mac. Miller again acknowledged that he knew about the security flaw before the competition and had done considerable research and preparation work on the exploit.[83][84] Apple released a patch for this exploit and others on May 12, 2009 with Safari 3.2.3.[85][86][permanent dead link]
+
+Safari 6.0 requires a Mac running Mac OS X v10.7.4 or later.[87] Safari 5.1.7 requires a Mac running Mac OS X v10.6.8 or any PC running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.[88][89] Safari 5.0.6 requires a Mac running on Mac OS X 10.5.8.[90]
+
+The version of Safari included in Mac OS X v10.6 (and later versions) is compiled for 64-bit architecture. Apple claims that running Safari in 64-bit mode will increase rendering speeds by up to 50%.
+
+On 64-bit devices, iOS and its stock apps are 64-bit builds including Safari.[91][92]
+
+An earlier version of Apple Software Update (bundled with Safari, QuickTime, and iTunes for Microsoft Windows) selected Safari for installation from a list of Apple programs to download by default, even when an existing installation of Safari was not detected on a user's machine. John Lilly, former CEO of Mozilla, stated that Apple's use of its updating software to promote its other products was "a bad practice and should stop." He argued that the practice "borders on malware distribution practices" and "undermines the trust that we're all trying to build with users."[93] Apple spokesman Bill Evans sidestepped Lilly's statement, saying that Apple was only "using Software Update to make it easy and convenient for both Mac and Windows users to get the latest Safari update from Apple."[94] Apple also released a new version of Apple Software Update that puts new software in its own section, though still selected for installation by default.[95] By late 2008, Apple Software Update no longer selected new installation items in the new software section by default.[citation needed]
+
+Software security firm Sophos detailed how Snow Leopard and Windows users were not supported by the Safari 6 release at the time,[96] while there were over 121 vulnerabilities left unpatched on those platforms.[97] Since then, Snow Leopard has had only three minor version releases (the most recent in September 2013[98]), and Windows has had none.[99] While no official word has been released by Apple, the indication is that these are the final versions available for these operating systems, and both retain significant security issues.[100][101]
+
+While Safari pioneered several now standard HTML5 features (such as the Canvas API) in its early years, it has come under attack[102] for failing to keep pace with some modern web technologies. In the past, Apple did not allow third party web browsers under iOS,[103] but since the 2015 opening of iOS to 3rd party web browsers, there are plenty of web browsers available for iOS, including Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Edge, however they are all forced to use the underlying WebKit browser, and inherit its limitations- the actual browsers are merely cosmetic re-branding of Safari.[104]
+
+Beginning in 2018, Apple made technical changes to Safari's content blocking functionality which prompted backlash from users[105] and developers[106] of ad blocking extensions, who said the changes made it impossible to offer a similar level of user protection found in other browsers. Internally, the update limited the number of blocking rules[107] which could be applied by third-party extensions, preventing the full implementation of community-developed blocklists. In response, several developers of popular ad and tracking blockers announced their products were being discontinued[108], as they were now incompatible with Safari's newly-limited content blocking features. As a matter of policy, Apple requires the use of WebKit,[109] Safari's underlying rendering engine, in all browsers developed for its iOS platform, preventing users from installing any competing product which offers full ad blocking functionality. Beginning with Safari 13, popular extensions such as UBlock Origin will no longer work.
+
+The Safari Developer Program was a free program for writers of extensions and HTML5 websites. It allowed members to develop extensions for Apple's Safari web browser. Since WWDC 2015 it is part of the unified Apple Developer Program, which costs $99 a year.

en/5223.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
+
+
+From version 10.0 to version 10.15:
+
+From version 11.0:
+
+Safari is a graphical web browser developed by Apple, based on the WebKit engine. First released on desktop in 2003 with Mac OS X Panther, a mobile version has been bundled with iOS devices since the iPhone's introduction in 2007. Safari is the default browser on Apple devices. A Windows version was available from 2007 to 2012.[6]
+
+Until 1997, Apple's Macintosh computers shipped with the Netscape Navigator and Cyberdog web browsers only. Internet Explorer for Mac was later included as the default web browser for Mac OS 8.1 and later,[7] as part of a five-year agreement between Apple and Microsoft. During that time, Microsoft released three major versions of Internet Explorer for Mac that were bundled with Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9, though Apple continued to include Netscape Navigator as an alternative. Microsoft ultimately released a Mac OS X edition of Internet Explorer for Mac, which was included as the default browser in all Mac OS X releases from Mac OS X DP4[8] up to and including Mac OS X v10.2.[9]
+
+On January 7, 2003, at Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had developed its own web browser, called Safari. It was based on Apple's internal fork of the KHTML rendering engine, called WebKit.[10] The company released the first beta version, available only for Mac OS X, later that day. A number of official and unofficial beta versions followed, up until version 1.0 was released on June 23, 2003.[11] Initially only available as a separate download for Mac OS X 10.2, Safari was bundled with Mac OS X v10.3 on October 24, 2003 as the default browser, with Internet Explorer for Mac included only as an alternative browser. Version 1.0.3, released on August 13, 2004 was the last version to support Mac OS X 10.2, while 1.3.2, released on January 12, 2006 was the last version to support Mac OS X 10.3. However, 10.3 received security updates through 2007.
+
+In April 2005, Dave Hyatt, one of the Safari developers at Apple, documented his study by fixing specific bugs in Safari, thereby enabling it to pass the Acid2 test developed by the Web Standards Project. On April 27, 2005, he announced that his development version of Safari now passed the test, making it the first web browser to do so.[12]
+
+Safari 2.0 was released on April 29, 2005, as the only web browser included with Mac OS X 10.4. This version was touted by Apple as possessing a 1.8x speed boost over version 1.2.4, but did not yet include the Acid2 bug fixes. The necessary changes were initially unavailable to end-users unless they downloaded and compiled the WebKit source code themselves or ran one of the nightly automated builds available at OpenDarwin.org.[13] Apple eventually released version 2.0.2 of Safari, which included the modifications required to pass Acid2, on October 31, 2005.
+
+In June 2005, after some criticism from KHTML developers over lack of access to change logs, Apple moved the development source code and bug tracking of WebCore and JavaScriptCore to OpenDarwin.org. WebKit itself was also released as open source. The source code for non-renderer aspects of the browser, such as its GUI elements, remains proprietary.
+
+The final stable version of Safari 2, Safari 2.0.4, was released on January 10, 2006 for Mac OS X. It was only available as part of Mac OS X Update 10.4.4. This version addressed layout and CPU usage issues, among other improvements.[14] Safari 2.0.4 was the last version to be released exclusively on Mac OS X.
+
+On January 9, 2007, at Macworld SF, Jobs announced the iPhone. The device's operating system (later called iPhone OS and subsequently renamed to iOS) used a mobile version of the Safari browser and was able to display full, desktop-class websites.[15]
+
+On June 11, 2007, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Jobs announced Safari 3 for Mac OS X 10.5, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. During the announcement, he ran a benchmark based on the iBench browser test suite comparing the most popular Windows browsers,[16] hence claiming that Safari was the fastest browser. Later third-party tests of HTTP load times would support Apple's claim that Safari 3 was indeed the fastest browser on the Windows platform in terms of initial data loading over the Internet, though it was found to be only negligibly faster than Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox when loading static content from local cache.[17]
+
+The initial Safari 3 beta version for Windows, released on the same day as its announcement at WWDC 2007, had several known bugs[18] and a zero day exploit that allowed remote execution.[19] The addressed bugs were then corrected by Apple three days later on June 14, 2007, in version 3.0.1 for Windows. On June 22, 2007, Apple released Safari 3.0.2 to address some bugs, performance issues and other security issues. Safari 3.0.2 for Windows handles some fonts that are missing in the browser but already installed on Windows computers, such as Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, and others.
+
+The iPhone was formally released on June 29, 2007. It included a version of Safari based on the same WebKit rendering engine as the desktop version, but with a modified feature set better suited for a mobile device. The version number of Safari as reported in its user agent string is 3.0,[20] in line with the contemporary desktop versions of Safari.
+
+The first stable, non-beta release of Safari for Windows, Safari 3.1, was offered as a free download on March 18, 2008. In June 2008, Apple released version 3.1.2,[21][22] addressing a security vulnerability in the Windows version where visiting a malicious web site could force a download of executable files and execute them on the user's desktop.[23]
+
+Safari 3.2, released on November 13, 2008, introduced anti-phishing features using Google Safe Browsing and Extended Validation Certificate support. The final version of Safari 3 is 3.2.3, released on May 12, 2009.
+
+On June 2, 2008, the WebKit development team announced SquirrelFish,[24] a new JavaScript engine that vastly improves Safari's speed at interpreting scripts.[25] The engine is one of the new features in Safari 4, released to developers on June 11, 2008. The new JavaScript engine quickly evolved into SquirrelFish Extreme, featuring even further improved performance over SquirrelFish,[26] and was eventually marketed as Nitro. A public beta of Safari 4 was released on February 24, 2009, with new features such as the Top Sites tool (similar to Opera's Speed Dial feature), which displays the user's most visited sites on a 3D wall.[27] Cover Flow, a feature of Mac OS X and iTunes, was also implemented in Safari. In the public beta versions, tabs were placed in the title bar of the window, similar to Google Chrome. The tab bar was moved back to its original location, below the URL bar, in the final release.[28] The Windows version adopted a native Windows theme, rather than the previously employed Mac OS X-style interface. Also Apple removed the blue progress bar located in the address bar (later reinstated in Safari 5). Safari 4.0.1 was released for Mac on June 17, 2009 and fixed problems with Faces in iPhoto '09. Safari 4 in Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard" has 64-bit support, which can make JavaScript loading up to 50% faster. It also has built-in crash resistance unique to Snow Leopard; crash resistance will keep the browser intact if a plug-in like Flash player crashes, such that the other tabs or windows will be unaffected.[29] Safari 4.0.4, released on November 11, 2009 for both OS X and Windows, further improves JavaScript performance.[30]
+
+Safari was one of the twelve browsers offered to EU users of Microsoft Windows in 2010. It was one of the five browsers displayed on the first page of browser choices along with Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera.[31][32]
+
+Beginning with Safari 4, the address bar has been completely revamped:
+
+Safari on Mac OS X and Windows was made to look more similar to Safari on iPhone than previous versions.
+
+Safari 4 also includes the following new features:
+
+Apple released Safari 5 on June 7, 2010, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction (based on Arc90's Readability tool[34]), and a 30 percent JavaScript performance increase over Safari 4. Safari 5 includes improved developer tools and supports more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies, focused on interoperability. With Safari 5, developers can now create secure Safari Extensions to customize and enhance the browsing experience.[35] Apple also re-added the progress bar behind the address bar in this release. Safari 5.0.1 enabled the Extensions PrefPane by default; previously, users had to enable it via the Debug menu.
+
+Apple also released Safari 4.1 concurrently with Safari 5, exclusively for Mac OS X Tiger. The update included the majority of the features and security enhancements found in Safari 5. It did not, however, include Safari Reader or Safari Extensions.
+Together with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple released Safari 5.1 for both Windows and Mac on July 20, 2011, with the new function 'Reading List' and a faster browsing experience. Apple simultaneously released Safari 5.0.6 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, excluding Leopard users from the new functions in Safari 5.1.
+
+Safari 5.1.7 has become the last version of Safari developed for Windows.
+
+Safari 5 includes the following new features:
+
+Additionally, the blue inline progress bar has returned to the address bar, in addition to the spinning bezel and loading indicator introduced in Safari 4. Top Sites view now has a button to switch to Full History Search. Other features include Extension builder for developers of Safari Extensions, which are built using web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.
+
+Safari 6.0 was previously known as Safari 5.2 until Apple announced the change at WWDC 2012. The stable release of Safari 6 coincided with the release of OS X Mountain Lion on July 25, 2012, and is integrated into the OS.[39] As Apple integrated it with Mountain Lion, it is no longer available for download from the Apple website or other sources. Apple released Safari 6 via Software Update for users of OS X Lion. It has not been released for OS X versions prior to Lion or for Windows. Regarding the unavailability of Safari 6 on Windows, Apple has stated "Safari 6 is available for Mountain Lion and Lion. Safari 5 continues to be available for Windows."[40] Microsoft removed Safari from its BrowserChoice page.
+
+On June 11, 2012, Apple released a developer preview of Safari 6.0 with a feature called iCloud Tabs, which allows users to 'sync' their open tabs with any iOS or other OS X device running the latest software. Safari 6 also included new privacy features, including an "Ask websites not to track me" preference, and the ability for websites to send OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion users notifications, although it removed RSS support.[41] Safari 6 has the Share Sheets capability in OS X Mountain Lion. The Share Sheet options are: Add to Reading List, Add Bookmark, Email this Page, Message, Twitter and Facebook. Users can now see tabs with full page previews available.[42]
+
+Safari 6 introduced the following features, many of which are only available on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion:[43]
+
+Additionally various features were removed, including, but not limited to, Activity Window, separate Download Window, direct support for RSS feeds in the URL field and bookmarks. The separate search field is also no longer available as a toolbar configuration option.
+
+Announced at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on June 10, 2013, the Safari 7/6.1[44] developer preview brought improvements in JavaScript performance and memory usage, as well as a new look for Top Sites and the Sidebar, and a new Shared Links feature. Additionally, a new Power Saver feature pauses Plugins which are not in use.[45] Safari 7 for OS X Mavericks and Safari 6.1 (for Lion and Mountain Lion) were released along with OS X Mavericks in an Apple special event on October 22, 2013.[46]
+
+Safari 8 was announced at WWDC 2014 and released with OS X Yosemite. It included WebGL support, stronger privacy features, increased speed and efficiency, enhanced iCloud integration, and updated design.[47][48]
+
+Safari 8 introduced the following features, available on OS X Yosemite:[49]
+
+Safari 9 was announced at WWDC 2015 and released with OS X El Capitan. It included muting tabs and pinned tabs.
+
+Safari 10 was released alongside macOS Sierra 10.12 for OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan.[50] It does not include all of the new features available in macOS Sierra, like Apple Pay on the web and picture-in-picture support for videos, but the update includes the following new functions:
+
+Safari 10 also includes a number of security updates, including fixes for six WebKit vulnerabilities and issues related to Reader and Tabs.
+First version of Safari 10 was released in September 20, 2016 and last version 10.1.2 was released on July 19, 2017.
+
+Safari 11 was released as a part of macOS High Sierra but was also made available for OS X El Capitan and macOS Sierra on September 19, 2017.[51] Safari 11 included several new features such as Intelligent Tracking Prevention[52] which aims to prevent cross-site tracking by placing limitations on cookies and other website data.[53]
+
+Safari 12 was released in the lead up to macOS Mojave but was also made available for macOS Sierra and macOS High Sierra on September 17, 2018. Safari 12 includes several new features such as Icons in tabs, Automatic Strong Passwords, and Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0.[54] An updated Safari version 12.0.1 was released on October 30, 2018 as part of macOS Mojave 10.14.1 release, and Safari 12.0.2 was released on December 5, 2018, alongside macOS 10.14.2.
+
+Support for developer-signed classic Safari Extensions has been dropped. This version will also be the last one that supports the official Extensions Gallery, and Apple encourages extension authors to switch to Safari App Extensions. This move triggered negative feedback in the community.[55][56]
+
+Safari 13 was announced alongside macOS Catalina at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019. Safari 13 includes several new features such as prompting users to change weak passwords, FIDO2 USB security key authentication support, Sign in with Apple support, Apple Pay on the Web support, and increased speed and security.[57] Safari 13 was released on September 20, 2019 on macOS Mojave and macOS High Sierra.[58]
+
+In June 2020 it was announced that macOS Big Sur will include Safari 14.[59] Safari 14 introduces new privacy features, including Privacy Report showing blocked content and privacy information on web pages. Users will also receive a monthly report on trackers that Safari has blocked. Extensions can also be enabled or disabled on a site-by-site basis.[60] Safari also now supports the WebExtension API used in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Opera, meaning developers can now more easily port their extensions from those web browsers to Safari.[61] Support for Adobe Flash Player will also be dropped from Safari.[62]
+
+Safari Technology Preview was first released alongside OS X El Capitan 10.11.4.  Safari Technology Preview releases include the latest version of WebKit, incorporating Web technologies to be incorporated in future stable releases of Safari, so that developers and users can install the Technology Preview release on a Mac, test those features, and provide feedback.[63]
+
+On macOS, Safari is a Cocoa application.[64] It uses Apple's WebKit for rendering web pages and running JavaScript. WebKit consists of WebCore (based on Konqueror's KHTML engine) and JavaScriptCore (originally based on KDE's JavaScript engine, named KJS). Like KHTML and KJS, WebCore and JavaScriptCore are free software and are released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. Some Apple improvements to the KHTML code are merged back into the Konqueror project. Apple also releases additional code under an open source 2-clause BSD-like license.
+
+Until Safari 6.0, it included a built-in web feed aggregator that supported the RSS and Atom standards. Current features include Private Browsing (a mode in which no record of information about the user's web activity is retained by the browser),[65] the ability to archive web content in WebArchive format, the ability to email complete web pages directly from a browser menu, the ability to search bookmarks, and the ability to share tabs between all Mac and iOS devices running appropriate versions of software via an iCloud account.
+
+iOS-specific features for Safari enable:
+
+WebKit2 has a multiprocess API for WebKit, where the web-content is handled by a separate process than the application using WebKit. Apple announced WebKit2 in April 2010.[73] Safari for OS X switched to the new API with version 5.1.[74] Safari for iOS switched to WebKit2 with iOS 8.[75]
+
+Apple maintains a plugin blacklist that it can remotely update to prevent potentially dangerous or vulnerable plug-ins from running on Safari. Initially, Apple had blocked versions of Flash and Java in earlier versions of Safari. Since Safari 12 support for NPAPI plugins (except for Flash) have been completely dropped. Starting with the release of Safari 14, support for Adobe Flash Player will be dropped altogether.[62]
+
+The license has common terms against reverse engineering, copying and sub-licensing, except parts that are open source, and it disclaims warranties and liability.[76]
+
+Apple tracks use of the browser. Windows users may not opt out of tracking since their license omits the opening If clause.[77] Other users may opt out, and all users can opt out of location tracking by not using location services. "If you choose to allow diagnostic and usage collection, you agree that Apple and its subsidiaries and agents may collect... usage and related information... to provide ... services to you (if any) related to the Apple Software... in a form that does not personally identify you... Apple may also provide any such partner or third party developer with a subset of diagnostic information that is relevant to that partner’s or developer’s software... Apple and its partners, licensees, third party developers and website may transmit, collect, maintain, process and use your location data... and location search queries... in a form that does not personally identify you ... You may withdraw this consent at any time..."[76]
+
+Apple thinks "personal" does not cover "unique device identifiers" such as serial number, cookie number, or IP address, so they use these where allowed by law.[78] "We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-personal information for any purpose. The following are some examples of non-personal information that we collect ... unique device identifier... We treat information collected by cookies and other technologies as non‑personal information. However, to the extent that Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or similar identifiers are considered personal information by local law, we also treat these identifiers as personal information."[78]
+
+In September 2017 Apple announced that it will use artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the ability of advertisers to track Safari users as they browse the web. Cookies used for tracking will be allowed for 24 hours, then disabled, unless AI judges the user wants the cookie.[79] Major advertising groups objected, saying it will reduce the free services supported by advertising, while other experts praised the change.[80]
+
+An overview and detailed information about Safari exploits are listed by CVE Details.
+
+In the PWN2OWN contest at the 2008 CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, an exploit of Safari caused Mac OS X to be the first OS to fall in a hacking competition. Participants competed to find a way to read the contents of a file located on the user's desktop in one of three operating systems: Mac OS X Leopard, Windows Vista SP1, and Ubuntu 7.10. On the second day of the contest, when users were allowed to physically interact with the computers (the prior day permitted only network attacks), Charlie Miller compromised Mac OS X through an unpatched vulnerability of the PCRE library used by Safari.[81] Miller was aware of the flaw before the conference and worked to exploit it unannounced, as is the common approach in these contests.[81] The exploited vulnerability and other flaws were patched in Safari 3.1.1.[82]
+
+In the 2009 PWN2OWN contest, Charlie Miller performed another exploit of Safari to hack into a Mac. Miller again acknowledged that he knew about the security flaw before the competition and had done considerable research and preparation work on the exploit.[83][84] Apple released a patch for this exploit and others on May 12, 2009 with Safari 3.2.3.[85][86][permanent dead link]
+
+Safari 6.0 requires a Mac running Mac OS X v10.7.4 or later.[87] Safari 5.1.7 requires a Mac running Mac OS X v10.6.8 or any PC running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.[88][89] Safari 5.0.6 requires a Mac running on Mac OS X 10.5.8.[90]
+
+The version of Safari included in Mac OS X v10.6 (and later versions) is compiled for 64-bit architecture. Apple claims that running Safari in 64-bit mode will increase rendering speeds by up to 50%.
+
+On 64-bit devices, iOS and its stock apps are 64-bit builds including Safari.[91][92]
+
+An earlier version of Apple Software Update (bundled with Safari, QuickTime, and iTunes for Microsoft Windows) selected Safari for installation from a list of Apple programs to download by default, even when an existing installation of Safari was not detected on a user's machine. John Lilly, former CEO of Mozilla, stated that Apple's use of its updating software to promote its other products was "a bad practice and should stop." He argued that the practice "borders on malware distribution practices" and "undermines the trust that we're all trying to build with users."[93] Apple spokesman Bill Evans sidestepped Lilly's statement, saying that Apple was only "using Software Update to make it easy and convenient for both Mac and Windows users to get the latest Safari update from Apple."[94] Apple also released a new version of Apple Software Update that puts new software in its own section, though still selected for installation by default.[95] By late 2008, Apple Software Update no longer selected new installation items in the new software section by default.[citation needed]
+
+Software security firm Sophos detailed how Snow Leopard and Windows users were not supported by the Safari 6 release at the time,[96] while there were over 121 vulnerabilities left unpatched on those platforms.[97] Since then, Snow Leopard has had only three minor version releases (the most recent in September 2013[98]), and Windows has had none.[99] While no official word has been released by Apple, the indication is that these are the final versions available for these operating systems, and both retain significant security issues.[100][101]
+
+While Safari pioneered several now standard HTML5 features (such as the Canvas API) in its early years, it has come under attack[102] for failing to keep pace with some modern web technologies. In the past, Apple did not allow third party web browsers under iOS,[103] but since the 2015 opening of iOS to 3rd party web browsers, there are plenty of web browsers available for iOS, including Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Edge, however they are all forced to use the underlying WebKit browser, and inherit its limitations- the actual browsers are merely cosmetic re-branding of Safari.[104]
+
+Beginning in 2018, Apple made technical changes to Safari's content blocking functionality which prompted backlash from users[105] and developers[106] of ad blocking extensions, who said the changes made it impossible to offer a similar level of user protection found in other browsers. Internally, the update limited the number of blocking rules[107] which could be applied by third-party extensions, preventing the full implementation of community-developed blocklists. In response, several developers of popular ad and tracking blockers announced their products were being discontinued[108], as they were now incompatible with Safari's newly-limited content blocking features. As a matter of policy, Apple requires the use of WebKit,[109] Safari's underlying rendering engine, in all browsers developed for its iOS platform, preventing users from installing any competing product which offers full ad blocking functionality. Beginning with Safari 13, popular extensions such as UBlock Origin will no longer work.
+
+The Safari Developer Program was a free program for writers of extensions and HTML5 websites. It allowed members to develop extensions for Apple's Safari web browser. Since WWDC 2015 it is part of the unified Apple Developer Program, which costs $99 a year.

en/5224.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
+Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.[1] Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment,[2] and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.[3][4]
+
+Wisdom has been defined in many different ways,[2][5][3] including several distinct approaches to assess the characteristics attributed to wisdom.[6][7]
+
+The Oxford English Dictionary defines wisdom as "Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct; soundness of judgement in the choice of means and ends; sometimes, less strictly, sound sense, esp. in practical affairs: opp. to folly;" also "Knowledge (esp. of a high or abstruse kind); enlightenment, learning, erudition."[8] Charles Haddon Spurgeon defined wisdom as "the right use of knowledge".[9] Robert I. Sutton and Andrew Hargadon defined the "attitude of wisdom" as "acting with knowledge while doubting what one knows". In social and psychological sciences, several distinct approaches to wisdom exist,[3] with major advances made in the last two decades with respect to operationalization[2] and measurement[7] of wisdom as a psychological construct. Wisdom is the capacity to have foreknowledge of something, to know the consequences (both positive and negative) of all the available course of actions, and to yield or take the options with the most advantage either for present or future implication.
+
+The ancient Greeks considered wisdom to be an important virtue, personified as the goddesses Metis and Athena. Metis was the first wife of Zeus, who, according to Hesiod's Theogony, had devoured her pregnant; Zeus earned the title of Mêtieta ("The Wise Counselor") after that, as Metis was the embodiment of wisdom, and he gave birth to Athena, who is said to have sprung from his head.[10][11] Athena was portrayed as strong, fair, merciful, and chaste.[12] Apollo was also considered a god of wisdom, designated as the conductor of the Muses (Musagetes),[13] who were personifications of the sciences and of the inspired and poetic arts; According to Plato in his Cratylus, the name of Apollo could also mean "Ballon" (archer) and "Omopoulon" (unifier of poles [divine and earthly]), since this god was responsible for divine and true inspirations, thus considered an archer who was always right in healing and oracles: “he is an ever-darting archer”.[14] Apollo was considered the god who prophesied through the priestesses (Pythia) in the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), where the aphorism “know thyself" (gnōthi seauton)[a] was inscribed (part of the wisdom of the Delphic maxims).[15] He was contrasted with Hermes, who was related to the sciences and technical wisdom, and, in the first centuries after Christ, was associated with Thoth in an Egyptian syncretism, under the name Hermes Trimegistus.[16] Greek tradition recorded the earliest introducers of wisdom in the Seven Sages of Greece.[17]
+
+To Socrates and Plato, philosophy was literally the love of wisdom (philo-sophia). This permeates Plato's dialogues; in The Republic the leaders of his proposed utopia are philosopher kings who understand the Form of the Good and possess the courage to act accordingly. Aristotle, in Metaphysics, defined wisdom as understanding why things are a certain way (causality), which is deeper than merely knowing things are a certain way.[18] He was the first to make the distinction between phronesis and sophia.[5]
+
+According to Plato and Xenophon, the Pythia of the Delphic Oracle answered the question "who is the wisest man in Greece?" by stating Socrates was the wisest.[19][20] According to Plato's Apology, Socrates decided to investigate the people who might be considered wiser than him, concluding they lacked true knowledge:
+
+[…] οὗτος μὲν οἴεταί τι εἰδέναι οὐκ εἰδώς, ἐγὼ δέ, ὥσπερ οὖν οὐκ οἶδα, οὐδὲ οἴομαι [I am wiser than this man; for neither of us really knows anything fine and good, but this man thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas I, as I do not know anything, do not think I do either.]
+
+Thus it became popularly immortalized in the phrase "I know that I know nothing" that it is wise to recognize one's own ignorance[21] and to value epistemic humility.[22]
+
+The ancient Romans also valued wisdom which was personified in Minerva, or Pallas. She also represents skillful knowledge and the virtues, especially chastity. Her symbol was the owl which is still a popular representation of wisdom, because it can see in darkness. She was said to be born from Jupiter's forehead.[23]
+
+Wisdom is also important within Christianity. Jesus emphasized it.[24][25] Paul the Apostle, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, argued that there is both secular and divine wisdom, urging Christians to pursue the latter. Prudence, which is intimately related to wisdom, became one of the four cardinal virtues of Catholicism. The Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas considered wisdom to be the "father" (i.e. the cause, measure, and form) of all virtues.
+
+In Buddhist traditions, developing wisdom plays a central role where comprehensive guidance on how to develop wisdom is provided.[26][27] In the Inuit tradition, developing wisdom was one of the aims of teaching. An Inuit Elder said that a person became wise when they could see what needed to be done and did it successfully without being told what to do.
+
+In many cultures, the name for third molars, which are the last teeth to grow, is etymologically linked with wisdom, e.g., as in the English wisdom tooth. It has its nickname originated from the classical tradition, which in the Hippocratic writings has already been called sóphronistér (in Greek, related to the meaning of moderation or teaching a lesson), and in Latin dens sapientiae (wisdom tooth), since they appear at the age of maturity in late adolescence and early adulthood.[28]
+
+Public schools in the US have an approach to character education. Eighteenth century thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin, referred to this as training wisdom and virtue. Traditionally, schools share the responsibility to build character and wisdom along with parents and the community.[29]
+
+Nicholas Maxwell, a contemporary philosopher in the United Kingdom, advocates that academia ought to alter its focus from the acquisition of knowledge to seeking and promoting wisdom.[30] This he defines as the capacity to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others.[31] He teaches that new knowledge and technological know-how increase our power to act. Without wisdom though, Maxwell claims this new knowledge may cause human harm as well as human good.
+
+Psychologists have begun to gather data on commonly held beliefs or folk theories about wisdom.[32] Initial analyses indicate that although "there is an overlap of the implicit theory of wisdom with intelligence, perceptiveness, spirituality and shrewdness, it is evident that wisdom is an expertise in dealing with difficult questions of life and adaptation to the complex requirements."[33]
+
+Such implicit theories stand in contrast to the explicit theories and empirical research on resulting psychological processes underlying wisdom.[34]
+[3] Opinions on the exact psychological definitions of wisdom vary,[3] but there is some consensus that critical to wisdom are certain meta-cognitive processes affording life reflection and judgment about critical life matters.[35][2] These processes include recognizing the limits of one’s own knowledge, acknowledging uncertainty and change, attention to context and the bigger picture, and integrating different perspectives of a situation. Cognitive scientists suggest that wisdom requires coordinating such reasoning processes, as they may provide insightful solutions for managing one’s life.[36] Notably, such reasoning is both theoretically and empirically distinct from general intelligence. Robert Sternberg[37] has suggested that wisdom is not to be confused with general (fluid or crystallized) intelligence. In line with this idea, researchers have shown empirically that wise reasoning is distinct from IQ.[38][39] Several more nuanced characterizations of wisdom are listed below.
+
+Baltes and colleagues in Wisdom: its structure and function in regulating lifespan successful development[40] defined wisdom as "the ability to deal with the contradictions of a specific situation and to assess the consequences of an action for themselves and for others. It is achieved when in a concrete situation, a balance between intrapersonal, inter- personal and institutional interests can be prepared".[41] Balance itself appears to be a critical criterion of wisdom. Empirical research started to provide support to this idea, showing that wisdom-related reasoning is associated with achieving balance between intrapersonal and interpersonal interests when facing personal life challenges, and when setting goals for managing interpersonal conflicts.[7][42]
+
+Researchers in the field of positive psychology have defined wisdom as the coordination of "knowledge and experience" and "its deliberate use to improve well being."[43] Under this definition, wisdom is further defined with the following facets:[44]
+
+This theoretical model has not been tested empirically, with an exception of a broad link between wisdom-related reasoning and well-being.[45][46][47]
+
+Grossmann and colleagues have synthesized prior psychological literature, indicating that in the face of ill-defined life situations wisdom involves certain cognitive processes affording unbiased, sound judgment: (i) intellectual humility or recognition of limits of own knowledge; (ii) appreciation of perspectives broader than the issue at hand; (iii) sensitivity to the possibility of change in social relations; and (iv) compromise or integration of different perspectives.[48][49] Importantly, Grossmann highlights the fundamental role of contextual factors, including the role of culture, experiences, and social situations for understanding, development, and propensity of showing wisdom, with implications for training and educational practice.[2][48] This situated account of wisdom ushered a novel phase of wisdom scholarship, using rigorous evidence-based methods to understand contextual factors affording sound judgment. For instance, Grossmann and Kross have identified a phenomenon they called "the Solomon's paradox" - wiser reflections on other people's problems as compared to one's own. It is named after King Solomon, the third leader of the Jewish Kingdom, who has shown a great deal of wisdom when making judgments about other people's dilemmas but lacked insight when it came to important decisions in his own life.[50]
+
+Empirical scientists have also begun to focus on the role of emotions in wisdom.[51] Most researchers would agree that emotions and emotion regulation would be key to effectively managing the kinds of complex and arousing situations that would most call for wisdom. However, much empirical research has focused on the cognitive or meta-cognitive aspects of wisdom, assuming that an ability to reason through difficult situations would be paramount. Thus, although emotions would likely play a role in determining how wisdom plays out in real events and on reflecting on past events, only recently has empirical evidence started to provide robust evidence on how and when different emotions improve or harm a person’s ability to deal wisely with complex events. One notable finding concerns the positive relationship between diversity of emotional experience and wise reasoning, irrespective of emotional intensity.[52]
+
+Measurement of wisdom often depends on researcher’s theoretical position about the nature of wisdom. A major distinction here concerning either viewing wisdom as a stable personality trait or rather as a context-bound process[53] The former approach often capitalizes on single-shot questionnaires. However, recent studies indicated that such single-shot questionnaires produce biased responses.,[7][54] which is antithetical to the wisdom construct,[55] and neglects the notion that wisdom is best understood in the contexts when it is most relevant, namely in complex life challenges. In contrast, the latter approach advocates for measuring wisdom-related features of cognition, motivation, and emotion on the level of a specific situation.[56][53] Use of such state-level measures provides less biased responses as well as greater power in explaining meaningful psychological processes.[7] Furthermore, a focus on the level of the situation has allowed wisdom researchers to develop a fuller understanding of the role of context itself for producing wisdom.[53] Specifically, studies showed evidence of cross-cultural[57] and within-cultural variability[58] and systematic variability in reasoning wisely across contexts[7][50] and in daily life.[46]
+
+Many, but not all, studies find that adults' self-ratings of perspective/wisdom do not depend on age.[44][59] This belief stands in contrast to the popular notion that wisdom increases with age.[59] The answer to the question of age-wisdom association depends on how one defines wisdom, and the methodological framework used to evaluate theoretical claims. Most recent work suggests that the answer to this question also depends on the degree of experience in a specific domain, with some contexts favoring older adults, others favoring younger adults, and some not differentiating age groups.[53] Notably, rigorous longitudinal work is necessary to fully unpack the question of age-wisdom relationship and such work is still outstanding, with most studies relying on cross-sectional observations.
+
+Sapience is closely related to the term "sophia" often defined as "transcendent wisdom", "ultimate reality", or the ultimate truth of things.[5][4][60] Sapiential perspective of wisdom is said to lie in the heart of every religion, where it is often acquired through intuitive knowing.[5][4] This type of wisdom is described as going beyond mere practical wisdom and includes self-knowledge, interconnectedness, conditioned origination of mind-states and other deeper understandings of subjective experience.[26][5][4] This type of wisdom can also lead to the ability of an individual to act with appropriate judgement, a broad understanding of situations and greater appreciation/compassion towards other living beings.[26]
+
+The word sapience is derived from the Latin sapientia, meaning "wisdom".[61] 
+The corresponding verb sapere has the original meaning of "to taste", hence "to perceive, to discern" and "to know"; its present participle sapiens was chosen by Carl Linnaeus for the Latin binomial for the human species, Homo sapiens.
+
+In Mesopotamian religion and mythology, Enki, also known as Ea, was the God of wisdom and intelligence. Divine Wisdom allowed the provident designation of functions and the ordering of the cosmos, and it was achieved by humans in following me-s (in Sumerian, order, rite, righteousness), restoring the balance.[62] In addition to hymns to Enki or Ea dating from the third millennium BC., there is amongst the clay tablets of Abu Salabikh from 2600 BC, considered as being the oldest dated texts, an "Hymn to Shamash", in which it is recorded written:[63]
+
+Wide is the courtyard of Shamash night chamber, (just as wide is the womb of) a wise pregnant woman! Sin, his warrior, wise one, heard of the offerings and came down to his fiesta. He is the father of the nation and the father of intelligence
+
+The concept of Logos or manifest word of the divine thought, a concept also present in the philosophy and hymns of Egypt and Ancient Greece[64] (being central to the thinker Heraclitus), and substantial in the Abrahamic traditions, seems to have been derived from Mesopotamian culture.[65]
+
+Sia represents the personification of perception and thoughtfulness in the traditional mythology adhered to in Ancient Egypt. Thoth, married to Maat (in ancient Egyptian, meaning order, righteousness, truth), was also important and regarded as a national introducer of wisdom.[66][64]
+
+In the Avesta hymns traditionally attributed to Zoroaster, the Gathas, Ahura Mazda means "Lord" (Ahura) and "Wisdom" (Mazda), and it is the central deity who embodies goodness, being also called "Good Thought" (Vohu Manah).[67] In Zoroastrianism in general, the order of the universe and morals is called Asha (in Avestan, truth, righteousness), which is determined by the designations of this omniscient Thought and also considered a deity emanating from Ahura (Amesha Spenta); it is related to another ahura deity, Spenta Mainyu (active Mentality).[68] It says in Yazna 31:[69]
+
+To him shall the best befall, who, as one that knows, speaks to me Right's truthful word of Welfare and of Immortality; even the Dominion of Mazda which Good Thought shall increase for him. About which he in the beginning thus thought, "let the blessed realms be filled with Light", he it is that by his wisdom created Right.
+
+The word wisdom (חכם) is mentioned 222 times in the Hebrew Bible. It was regarded as one of the highest virtues among the Israelites along with kindness (חסד) and justice (צדק). Both the books of Proverbs and Psalms urge readers to obtain and to increase in wisdom.[citation needed]
+
+In the Hebrew Bible, wisdom is represented by Solomon, who asks God for wisdom in 2 Chronicles 1:10. Much of the Book of Proverbs, which is filled with wise sayings, is attributed to Solomon. In Proverbs 9:10, the fear of the Lord is called the beginning of wisdom. In Proverbs 1:20, there is also reference to wisdom personified in female form, "Wisdom calls aloud in the streets, she raises her voice in the marketplaces." In Proverbs 8:22–31, this personified wisdom is described as being present with God before creation began and even taking part in creation itself.
+
+The Talmud teaches that a wise person is a person who can foresee the future. Nolad is a Hebrew word for "future," but also the Hebrew word for birth, so one rabbinic interpretation of the teaching is that a wise person is one who can foresee the consequences of his/her choices (i.e. can "see the future" that he/she "gives birth" to).[70]
+
+In Christian theology, "wisdom" (From Hebrew: חכמה transliteration: chokmâh pronounced: khok-maw', Greek: Sophia, Latin: Sapientia) describes an aspect of God, or the theological concept regarding the wisdom of God.[citation needed]
+
+There is an oppositional element in Christian thought between secular wisdom and Godly wisdom. Paul the Apostle states that worldly wisdom thinks the claims of Christ to be foolishness. However, to those who are "on the path to salvation" Christ represents the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:17–31) Wisdom is considered one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit according to Anglican, Catholic, and Lutheran belief.[71] 1 Corinthians 12:8–10 gives an alternate list of nine virtues, among which wisdom is one.
+
+The book of Proverbs in the Old Testament of the Bible primarily focuses on wisdom, and was primarily written by one of the wisest kings according to Jewish history, King Solomon. Proverbs is found in the Old Testament section of the Bible and gives direction on how to handle various aspects of life; one's relationship with God, marriage, dealing with finances, work, friendships and persevering in difficult situations faced in life.[72]
+
+[73] According to King Solomon, wisdom is gained from God, "For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding" Proverbs 2:6. And through God's wise aide, one can have a better life: "He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones" Proverbs 2:7-8. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight" Proverbs 3:5-6. Solomon basically states that with the wisdom one receives from God, one will be able to find success and happiness in life.
+
+[74] There are various verses in Proverbs that contain parallels of what God loves, which is wise, and what God does not love, which is foolish. For example in the area of good and bad behaviour Proverbs states, "The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But He loves him who pursues righteousness (Proverbs 15:9). In relation to fairness and business it is stated that, "A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, But a just weight is His delight" (Proverbs 11:1; cf. 20:10,23). On the truth it is said, "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, But those who deal faithfully are His delight" (12:22; cf. 6:17,19). These are a few examples of what, according to Solomon, are good and wise in the eyes of God, or bad and foolish, and in doing these good and wise things, one becomes closer to God by living in an honorable and kind manner.
+
+[73] King Solomon continues his teachings of wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes, which is considered one of the most depressing books of the Bible. Solomon discusses his exploration of the meaning of life and fulfillment, as he speaks of life's pleasures, work, and materialism, yet concludes that it is all meaningless. "‘Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher [Solomon]. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless’…For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, the more knowledge, the more grief" (Ecclesiastes 1:2,18) Solomon concludes that all life's pleasures and riches, and even wisdom, mean nothing if there is no relationship with God.
+
+[75] The book of James, written by the apostle James, is said to be the New Testament version of the book of Proverbs, in that it is another book that discusses wisdom. It reiterates Proverbs message of wisdom coming from God by stating, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." James 1:5. James also explains how wisdom helps one acquire other forms of virtue, "But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere." James 3:17. In addition,through wisdom for living James focuses on using this God-given wisdom to perform acts of service to the less fortunate.
+
+Apart from Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and James, other main books of wisdom in the Bible are Job, Psalms, and 1 and 2 Corinthians, which give lessons on gaining and using wisdom through difficult situations.
+
+In the Indian traditions, wisdom can be called prajña or vijñana.
+
+Developing wisdom is of central importance in Buddhist traditions, where the ultimate aim is often presented as “seeing things as they are” or as gaining a “penetrative understanding of all phenomena,” which in turn is described as ultimately leading to the “complete freedom from suffering.”[26][27] In Buddhism, developing wisdom is accomplished through an understanding of what are known as the Four Noble Truths and by following the Noble Eightfold Path.[26][27] This path lists mindfulness as one of eight required components for cultivating wisdom.[26]
+
+Buddhist scriptures teach that a wise person is usually endowed with good and maybe bodily conduct, and sometimes good verbal conduct, and good mental conduct.(AN 3:2) A wise person does actions that are unpleasant to do but give good results, and doesn’t do actions that are pleasant to do but give bad results (AN 4:115). Wisdom is the antidote to the self-chosen poison of ignorance. The Buddha has much to say on the subject of wisdom including:
+
+To recover the original supreme wisdom of self-nature (Buddha-nature or Tathagata) covered by the self-imposed three dusty poisons (the kleshas: greed, anger, ignorance) Buddha taught to his students the threefold training by turning greed into generosity and discipline, anger into kindness and meditation, ignorance into wisdom. As the Sixth Patriarch of Chán Buddhism, Huineng, said in his Platform Sutra,"Mind without dispute is self-nature discipline, mind without disturbance is self-nature meditation, mind without ignorance is self-nature wisdom." In Mahayana and esoteric buddhist lineages, Mañjuśrī is considered as an embodiment of Buddha wisdom.
+
+In Hinduism, wisdom is considered a state of mind and soul where a person achieves liberation.
+
+The god of wisdom is Ganesha and the goddess of knowledge is Saraswati.[citation needed]
+
+The Sanskrit verse to attain knowledge is:
+
+असतो मा सद्गमय । Asatō mā sadgamaya
+तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय । tamasō mā jyōtirgamaya
+मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय । mr̥tyōrmā amr̥taṁ gamaya
+ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ
+- Br̥hadāraṇyakopaniṣat 1.3.28
+
+Wisdom in Hinduism is knowing oneself as the truth, basis for the entire Creation, i.e., of Shristi.[clarification needed] In other words, wisdom simply means a person with Self-awareness as the one who witnesses the entire creation in all its facets and forms. Further it means realization that an individual through right conduct and right living over an unspecified period comes to realize their true relationship with the creation and the Paramatma.[citation needed]
+
+The Arabic term corresponding to Hebrew Chokmah is حكمة ḥikma.
+The term occurs a number of times in the Quran, notably in Sura 2:269:
+"He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been given much good. And none will remember except those of understanding." (Quran 2:269).
+and Sura 22:46: "Have they not travelled in the land, and have they hearts wherewith to feel and ears wherewith to hear? For indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are within the bosoms, that grow blind."Quran 22:46
+Sura 6: 151: "Say: "Come, I will rehearse what Allah (God) hath (really) prohibited you from": Join not anything as equal with Him; be good to your parents; kill not your children on a plea of want;― We provide sustenance for you and for them;― come not nigh to shameful deeds, whether open or secret; take not life, which Allah hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus doth He command you, that ye may learn wisdom" (Quran 6:151).
+
+The sufi philosopher Ibn Arabi considers al-Hakim ("The Wise") as one of the names of the Creator.[80] Wisdom and truth, considered divine attributes, were concepts related and valued in the Islamic sciences and philosophy since their beginnings, and the first Arab philosopher, Al-Kindi says at the beginning of his book:[81]
+
+We must not be ashamed to admire the truth or to acquire it, from wherever it comes. Even if it should come from far-flung nations and foreign peoples, there is for the student of truth nothing more important than the truth, nor is the truth demeaned or diminished by the one who states or conveys it; no one is demeaned by the truth, rather all are ennobled by it.
+
+The Buddhist term Prajñā was translated into Chinese as
+智慧 (pinyin zhìhuì, characters 智 "knowledge" and 慧 "bright, intelligent").
+
+According to the Doctrine of the Mean, Confucius said:
+
+"Love of learning is akin to wisdom. To practice with vigor is akin to humanity. To know to be shameful is akin to courage (zhi, ren, yong.. three of Mengzi's sprouts of virtue)."[citation needed]
+
+Compare this with the Confucian classic Great Learning, which begins with: "The Way of learning to be great consists in manifesting the clear character, loving the people, and abiding in the highest good." One can clearly see the correlation with the Roman virtue prudence, especially if one interprets "clear character" as "clear conscience". (From Chan's Sources of Chinese Philosophy).[citation needed]
+
+In Taoism, wisdom is construed as adherence to the Three Treasures (Taoism): charity, simplicity, and humility.[citation needed]
+"He who knows other men is discerning [智]; he who knows himself is intelligent [明]." (知人者智，自知者明。Tao Te Ching 33)[82]
+
+In Norse mythology, the god Odin is especially known for his wisdom, often acquired through various hardships and ordeals involving pain and self-sacrifice. In one instance he plucked out an eye and offered it to Mímir, guardian of the well of knowledge and wisdom, in return for a drink from the well.[83]
+In another famous account, Odin hanged himself for nine nights from Yggdrasil, the World Tree that unites all the realms of existence, suffering from hunger and thirst and finally wounding himself with a spear until he gained the knowledge of runes for use in casting powerful magic.[84] He was also able to acquire the mead of poetry from the giants, a drink of which could grant the power of a scholar or poet, for the benefit of gods and mortals alike.[83]
+
+In Bahá'í scripture, 
+"The essence of wisdom is the fear of God, the dread of His scourge and punishment, and the apprehension of His justice and decree."[85] Wisdom is seen as a light, that casts away darkness, and "its dictates must be observed under all circumstances".[86] One may obtain knowledge and wisdom through God, his Word, and his Divine Manifestation and the source of all learning is the knowledge of God.[87]
+
+In the Star Wars universe, wisdom is valued in the narrative of the films, in which George Lucas figured issues of spirituality and morals, recurrent in mythological and philosophical themes; one of his inspirations was Joseph Campbell's The Hero of a Thousand Faces.[88] Master Yoda is generally considered a popular figure of wisdom, evoking the image of an "Oriental Monk",[89][90] and he is frequently quoted, analogously to Chinese thinkers or Eastern sages in general.[91][92][93] Psychologist D. W. Kreger's book "The Tao of Yoda" adapts the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching in relation to Yoda's thinking.[93] Knowledge is canonically considered one of the pillars of the Jedi, which is also cited in the non-canon book The Jedi Path,[94][95] and wisdom can serve as a tenet for Jediism. The Jedi Code also states: "Ignorance, yet knowledge."[96] In a psychology populational study published by Grossmann and team in 2019, master Yoda is considered wiser than Spock, another fictional character (from the Star Trek series), due to his emodiversity trait, which was positively associated to wise reasoning in people:[97] "Yoda embraces his emotions and aims to achieve a balance between them. Yoda is known to be emotionally expressive, to share a good joke with others, but also to recognize sorrow and his past mistakes".[98]
+

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+
+
+The Sahara (/səˈhɑːrə/, /səˈhærə/; Arabic: الصحراء الكبرى‎, aṣ-ṣaḥrāʼ al-kubrá, 'the Greatest Desert') is a desert located on the African continent. With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic. [1][2][3] The name 'Sahara' is derived from the Arabic word for "desert", ṣaḥra (صحرا /ˈsˤaħra/).[4][5][6][7]
+
+The desert comprises much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan. It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south, it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan Region of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Sahara can be divided into several regions, including the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Aïr Mountains, the Ténéré desert, and the Libyan Desert.
+
+For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000 year cycle[8] caused by the precession of the Earth's axis as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African Monsoon. The area is next expected to become green in about 15,000 years (17,000 CE).
+
+The Sahara covers large parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia. It covers 9 million square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi), amounting to 31% of Africa. If all areas with a mean annual precipitation of less than 250 mm were included, the Sahara would be 11 million square kilometres (4,200,000 sq mi). It is one of three distinct physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division.
+
+The Sahara is mainly rocky hamada (stone plateaus); ergs (sand seas – large areas covered with sand dunes) form only a minor part, but many of the sand dunes are over 180 metres (590 ft) high.[9] Wind or rare rainfall shape the desert features: sand dunes, dune fields, sand seas, stone plateaus, gravel plains (reg), dry valleys (wadi), dry lakes (oued), and salt flats (shatt or chott).[10] Unusual landforms include the Richat Structure in Mauritania.
+
+Several deeply dissected mountains, many volcanic, rise from the desert, including the Aïr Mountains, Ahaggar Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti Mountains, Adrar des Iforas, and the Red Sea Hills. The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi, a shield volcano in the Tibesti range of northern Chad.
+
+The central Sahara is hyperarid, with sparse vegetation. The northern and southern reaches of the desert, along with the highlands, have areas of sparse grassland and desert shrub, with trees and taller shrubs in wadis, where moisture collects. In the central, hyperarid region, there are many subdivisions of the great desert: Tanezrouft, the Ténéré, the Libyan Desert, the Eastern Desert, the Nubian Desert and others. These extremely arid areas often receive no rain for years.
+
+To the north, the Sahara skirts the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya, but in Cyrenaica and the Maghreb, the Sahara borders the Mediterranean forest, woodland, and scrub eco-regions of northern Africa, all of which have a Mediterranean climate characterized by hot summers and cool and rainy winters. According to the botanical criteria of Frank White[11] and geographer Robert Capot-Rey,[12][13] the northern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the northern limit of date palm cultivation and the southern limit of the range of esparto, a grass typical of the Mediterranean climate portion of the Maghreb and Iberia. The northern limit also corresponds to the 100 mm (3.9 in) isohyet of annual precipitation.[14]
+
+To the south, the Sahara is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of dry tropical savanna with a summer rainy season that extends across Africa from east to west. The southern limit of the Sahara is indicated botanically by the southern limit of Cornulaca monacantha (a drought-tolerant member of the Chenopodiaceae), or northern limit of Cenchrus biflorus, a grass typical of the Sahel.[12][13] According to climatic criteria, the southern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the 150 mm (5.9 in) isohyet of annual precipitation (this is a long-term average, since precipitation varies annually).[14]
+
+Important cities located in the Sahara include Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset, Ouargla, Béchar, Hassi Messaoud, Ghardaïa, and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; Ghat in Libya; and Faya-Largeau in Chad.
+
+The Sahara is the world's largest low-latitude hot desert. It is located in the horse latitudes under the subtropical ridge, a significant belt of semi-permanent subtropical warm-core high pressure where the air from upper levels of the troposphere tends to sink towards the ground. This steady descending airflow causes a warming and a drying effect in the upper troposphere. The sinking air prevents evaporating water from rising, and therefore prevents adiabatic cooling, which makes cloud formation extremely difficult to nearly impossible.[15]
+
+The permanent dissolution of clouds allows unhindered light and thermal radiation. The stability of the atmosphere above the desert prevents any convective overturning, thus making rainfall virtually non-existent. As a consequence, the weather tends to be sunny, dry and stable with a minimal chance of rainfall. Subsiding, diverging, dry air masses associated with subtropical high-pressure systems are extremely unfavorable for the development of convectional showers. The subtropical ridge is the predominant factor that explains the hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh) of this vast region. The descending airflow is the strongest and the most effective over the eastern part of the Great Desert, in the Libyan Desert: this is the sunniest, driest and the most nearly "rainless" place on the planet, rivaling the Atacama Desert, lying in Chile and Peru.
+
+The rainfall inhibition and the dissipation of cloud cover are most accentuated over the eastern section of the Sahara rather than the western. The prevailing air mass lying above the Sahara is the continental tropical (cT) air mass, which is hot and dry. Hot, dry air masses primarily form over the North-African desert from the heating of the vast continental land area, and it affects the whole desert during most of the year. Because of this extreme heating process, a thermal low is usually noticed near the surface, and is the strongest and the most developed during the summertime. The Sahara High represents the eastern continental extension of the Azores High,[citation needed] centered over the North Atlantic Ocean. The subsidence of the Sahara High nearly reaches the ground during the coolest part of the year, while it is confined to the upper troposphere during the hottest periods.
+
+The effects of local surface low pressure are extremely limited because upper-level subsidence still continues to block any form of air ascent. Also, to be protected against rain-bearing weather systems by the atmospheric circulation itself, the desert is made even drier by its geographical configuration and location. Indeed, the extreme aridity of the Sahara is not only explained by the subtropical high pressure: the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia also help to enhance the aridity of the northern part of the desert. These major mountain ranges act as a barrier, causing a strong rain shadow effect on the leeward side by dropping much of the humidity brought by atmospheric disturbances along the polar front which affects the surrounding Mediterranean climates.
+
+The primary source of rain in the Sahara is the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a continuous belt of low-pressure systems near the equator which bring the brief, short and irregular rainy season to the Sahel and southern Sahara. Rainfall in this giant desert has to overcome the physical and atmospheric barriers that normally prevent the production of precipitation. The harsh climate of the Sahara is characterized by: extremely low, unreliable, highly erratic rainfall; extremely high sunshine duration values; high temperatures year-round; negligible rates of relative humidity; a significant diurnal temperature variation; and extremely high levels of potential evaporation which are the highest recorded worldwide.[16]
+
+The sky is usually clear above the desert, and the sunshine duration is extremely high everywhere in the Sahara. Most of the desert has more than 3,600 hours of bright sunshine per year (over 82% of daylight hours), and a wide area in the eastern part has over 4,000 hours of bright sunshine per year (over 91% of daylight hours). The highest values are very close to the theoretical maximum value. A value of 4300 hours (98%) of the time would be[clarification needed] recorded in Upper Egypt (Aswan, Luxor) and in the Nubian Desert (Wadi Halfa).[17] The annual average direct solar irradiation is around 2,800 kWh/(m2 year) in the Great Desert. The Sahara has a huge potential for solar energy production.
+
+The high position of the Sun, the extremely low relative humidity, and the lack of vegetation and rainfall make the Great Desert the hottest large region in the world, and the hottest place on Earth during summer in some spots. The average high temperature exceeds 38 to 40 °C or 100.4 to 104.0 °F during the hottest month nearly everywhere in the desert except at very high altitudes. The world's highest officially recorded average daily high temperature[clarification needed] was 47 °C or 116.6 °F in a remote desert town in the Algerian Desert called Bou Bernous, at an elevation of 378 metres (1,240 ft) above sea level,[17] and only Death Valley, California rivals it.[18] Other hot spots in Algeria such as Adrar, Timimoun, In Salah, Ouallene, Aoulef, Reggane with an elevation between 200 and 400 metres (660 and 1,310 ft) above sea level get slightly lower summer average highs, around 46 °C or 114.8 °F during the hottest months of the year. Salah, well known in Algeria for its extreme heat, has average high temperatures of 43.8 °C or 110.8 °F, 46.4 °C or 115.5 °F, 45.5 °C or 113.9 °F and 41.9 °C or 107.4 °F in June, July, August and September respectively. There are even hotter spots in the Sahara, but they are located in extremely remote areas, especially in the Azalai, lying in northern Mali. The major part of the desert experiences around three to five months when the average high strictly[clarification needed] exceeds 40 °C or 104 °F; while in the southern central part of the desert, there are up to six or seven months when the average high temperature strictly[clarification needed] exceeds 40 °C or 104 °F. Some examples of this are Bilma, Niger and Faya-Largeau, Chad. The annual average daily temperature exceeds 20 °C or 68 °F everywhere and can approach 30 °C or 86 °F in the hottest regions year-round. However, most of the desert has a value in excess of 25 °C or 77 °F.
+
+Sand and ground temperatures are even more extreme. During daytime, the sand temperature is extremely high: it can easily reach 80 °C or 176 °F or more.[19] A sand temperature of 83.5 °C (182.3 °F) has been recorded in Port Sudan.[19] Ground temperatures of 72 °C or 161.6 °F have been recorded in the Adrar of Mauritania and a value of 75 °C (167 °F) has been measured in Borkou, northern Chad.[19]
+
+Due to lack of cloud cover and very low humidity, the desert usually has high diurnal temperature variations between days and nights. However, it is a myth that the nights are especially cold after extremely hot days in the Sahara.[citation needed] On average, nighttime temperatures tend to be 13–20 °C (23–36 °F) cooler than in the daytime. The smallest variations are found along the coastal regions due to high humidity and are often even lower than a 10 °C or 18 °F difference, while the largest variations are found in inland desert areas where the humidity is the lowest, mainly in the southern Sahara. Still, it is true that winter nights can be cold, as it can drop to the freezing point and even below, especially in high-elevation areas.[clarification needed] The frequency of subfreezing winter nights in the Sahara is strongly influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), with warmer winter temperatures during negative NAO events and cooler winters with more frosts when the NAO is positive.[20] This is because the weaker clockwise flow around the eastern side of the subtropical anticyclone during negative NAO winters, although too dry to produce more than negligible precipitation, does reduce the flow of dry, cold air from higher latitudes of Eurasia into the Sahara significantly.[21]
+
+The average annual rainfall ranges from very low in the northern and southern fringes of the desert to nearly non-existent over the central and the eastern part. The thin northern fringe of the desert receives more winter cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of low pressure systems over the Mediterranean Sea along the polar front, although very attenuated by the rain shadow effects of the mountains and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4 in) to 250 millimetres (10 in). For example, Biskra, Algeria, and Ouarzazate, Morocco, are found in this zone. The southern fringe of the desert along the border with the Sahel receives summer cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of the Intertropical Convergence Zone from the south and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4 in) to 250 millimetres (10 in). For example, Timbuktu, Mali and Agadez, Niger are found in this zone. The vast central hyper-arid core of the desert is virtually never affected by northerly or southerly atmospheric disturbances and permanently remains under the influence of the strongest anticyclonic weather regime, and the annual average rainfall can drop to less than 1 millimetre (0.04 in). In fact, most of the Sahara receives less than 20 millimetres (0.8 in). Of the 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi) of desert land in the Sahara, an area of about 2,800,000 square kilometres (1,100,000 sq mi) (about 31% of the total area) receives an annual average rainfall amount of 10 millimetres (0.4 in) or less, while some 1,500,000 square kilometres (580,000 sq mi) (about 17% of the total area) receives an average of 5 millimetres (0.2 in) or less.[22] The annual average rainfall is virtually zero over a wide area of some 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) in the eastern Sahara comprising deserts of: Libya, Egypt and Sudan (Tazirbu, Kufra, Dakhla, Kharga, Farafra, Siwa, Asyut, Sohag, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Wadi Halfa) where the long-term mean approximates 0.5 millimetres (0.02 in) per year.[22] Rainfall is very unreliable and erratic in the Sahara as it may vary considerably year by year. In full contrast to the negligible annual rainfall amounts, the annual rates of potential evaporation are extraordinarily high, roughly ranging from 2,500 millimetres (100 in) per year to more than 6,000 millimetres (240 in) per year in the whole desert.[23] Nowhere else on Earth has air been found as dry and evaporative as in the Sahara region. However, at least two instances of snowfall have been recorded in Sahara, in February 1979 and December 2016, both in the town of Ain Sefra.[24]
+
+One theory for the formation of the Sahara is that the monsoon in Northern Africa was weakened because of glaciation during the Quaternary period, starting two or three million years ago. Another theory is that the monsoon was weakened when the ancient Tethys Sea dried up during the Tortonian period around 7 million years.[25]
+
+The climate of the Sahara has undergone enormous variations between wet and dry over the last few hundred thousand years,[26] believed to be caused by long-term changes in the North African climate cycle that alters the path of the North African Monsoon – usually southward. The cycle is caused by a 41000-year cycle in which the tilt of the earth changes between 22° and 24.5°.[22] At present (2000 ACE), we are in a dry period, but it is expected that the Sahara will become green again in 15000 years (17000 ACE). When the North African monsoon is at its strongest annual precipitation and subsequent vegetation in the Sahara region increase, resulting in conditions commonly referred to as the "green Sahara". For a relatively weak North African monsoon, the opposite is true, with decreased annual precipitation and less vegetation resulting in a phase of the Sahara climate cycle known as the "desert Sahara".[27]
+
+The idea that changes in insolation (solar heating) caused by long-term changes in the Earth's orbit are a controlling factor for the long-term variations in the strength of monsoon patterns across the globe was first suggested by Rudolf Spitaler in the late nineteenth century,[28] The hypothesis was later formally proposed and tested by the meteorologist John Kutzbach in 1981.[29] Kutzbach's ideas about the impacts of insolation on global monsoonal patterns have become widely accepted today as the underlying driver of long term monsoonal cycles. Kutzbach never formally named his hypothesis and as such it is referred to here as the "Orbital Monsoon Hypothesis" as suggested by Ruddiman in 2001.[28]
+
+During the last glacial period, the Sahara was much larger than it is today, extending south beyond its current boundaries.[30]  The end of the glacial period brought more rain to the Sahara, from about 8000 BCE to 6000 BCE, perhaps because of low pressure areas over the collapsing ice sheets to the north.[31] Once the ice sheets were gone, the northern Sahara dried out. In the southern Sahara, the drying trend was initially counteracted by the monsoon, which brought rain further north than it does today. By around 4200 BCE, however, the monsoon retreated south to approximately where it is today,[32] leading to the gradual desertification of the Sahara.[33]  The Sahara is now as dry as it was about 13,000 years ago.[26]
+
+The Lake Chad is the remnant of a former inland sea, paleolake Mega-Chad, which existed during the African humid period. At its largest extent, sometime before 5000 BC, Lake Mega-Chad was the largest of four Saharan paleolakes, and is estimated to have covered an area of 350,000 km2.[34]
+
+The Sahara pump theory describes this cycle. During periods of a wet or "Green Sahara", the Sahara becomes a savanna grassland and various flora and fauna become more common. Following inter-pluvial arid periods, the Sahara area then reverts to desert conditions and the flora and fauna are forced to retreat northwards to the Atlas Mountains, southwards into West Africa, or eastwards into the Nile Valley. This separates populations of some of the species in areas with different climates, forcing them to adapt, possibly giving rise to allopatric speciation.
+
+It is also proposed that humans accelerated the drying out period from 6,000–2,500 BCE by pastoralists overgrazing available grassland.[35]
+
+The growth of speleothems (which requires rainwater) was detected in Hol-Zakh, Ashalim, Even-Sid, Ma'ale-ha-Meyshar, Ktora Cracks, Nagev Tzavoa Cave, and elsewhere, and has allowed tracking of prehistoric rainfall. The Red Sea coastal route was extremely arid before 140 and after 115 kya. Slightly wetter conditions appear at 90–87 kya, but it still was just one tenth the rainfall around 125 kya. In the southern Negev Desert speleothems did not grow between 185–140 kya (MIS 6), 110–90 (MIS 5.4–5.2), nor after 85 kya nor during most of the interglacial period (MIS 5.1), the glacial period and Holocene. This suggests that the southern Negev was arid to hyper-arid in these periods.[36]
+
+During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Sahara desert was more extensive than it is now with the extent of the tropical forests being greatly reduced,[37]  and the lower temperatures reduced the strength of the Hadley Cell. This is a climate cell which causes rising tropical air of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to bring rain to the tropics, while dry descending air, at about 20 degrees north, flows back to the equator and brings desert conditions to this region. It is associated with high rates of wind-blown mineral dust, and these dust levels are found as expected in marine cores from the north tropical Atlantic. But around 12,500 BCE the amount of dust in the cores in the Bølling/Allerød phase suddenly plummets and shows a period of much wetter conditions in the Sahara, indicating a Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) event (a sudden warming followed by a slower cooling of the climate).  The moister Saharan conditions had begun about 12,500 BCE, with the extension of the ITCZ northward in the northern hemisphere summer, bringing moist wet conditions and a savanna climate to the Sahara, which (apart from a short dry spell associated with the Younger Dryas) peaked during the Holocene thermal maximum climatic phase at 4000 BCE when mid-latitude temperatures seem to have been between 2 and 3 degrees warmer than in the recent past.  Analysis of Nile River deposited sediments in the delta also shows this period had a higher proportion of sediments coming from the Blue Nile, suggesting higher rainfall also in the Ethiopian Highlands.  This was caused principally by a stronger monsoonal circulation throughout the sub-tropical regions, affecting India, Arabia and the Sahara.[citation needed] Lake Victoria only recently became the source of the White Nile and dried out almost completely around 15 kya.[38]
+
+The sudden subsequent movement of the ITCZ southwards with a Heinrich event (a sudden cooling followed by a slower warming), linked to changes with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle, led to a rapid drying out of the Saharan and Arabian regions, which quickly became desert. This is linked to a marked decline in the scale of the Nile floods between 2700 and 2100 BCE.[39]
+
+The Sahara comprises several distinct ecoregions. With their variations in temperature, rainfall, elevation, and soil, these regions harbor distinct communities of plants and animals.
+
+The Atlantic coastal desert is a narrow strip along the Atlantic coast where fog generated offshore by the cool Canary Current provides sufficient moisture to sustain a variety of lichens, succulents, and shrubs. It covers an area of 39,900 square kilometers (15,400 sq mi) in the south of Morocco and Mauritania.[40]
+
+The North Saharan steppe and woodlands is along the northern desert, next to the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions of the northern Maghreb and Cyrenaica. Winter rains sustain shrublands and dry woodlands that form a transition between the Mediterranean climate regions to the north and the hyper-arid Sahara proper to the south. It covers 1,675,300 square kilometers (646,840 sq mi) in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.[41]
+
+The Sahara Desert ecoregion covers the hyper-arid central portion of the Sahara where rainfall is minimal and sporadic. Vegetation is rare, and this ecoregion consists mostly of sand dunes (erg, chech, raoui), stone plateaus (hamadas), gravel plains (reg), dry valleys (wadis), and salt flats. It covers 4,639,900 square kilometres (1,791,500 sq mi) of: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Sudan.[10]
+
+The South Saharan steppe and woodlands ecoregion is a narrow band running east and west between the hyper-arid Sahara and the Sahel savannas to the south. Movements of the equatorial Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) bring summer rains during July and August which average 100 to 200 mm (4 to 8 in) but vary greatly from year to year. These rains sustain summer pastures of grasses and herbs, with dry woodlands and shrublands along seasonal watercourses. This ecoregion covers 1,101,700 square kilometres (425,400 sq mi) in Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Sudan.[42]
+
+In the West Saharan montane xeric woodlands, several volcanic highlands provide a cooler, moister environment that supports Saharo-Mediterranean woodlands and shrublands. The ecoregion covers 258,100 square kilometres (99,650 sq mi), mostly in the Tassili n'Ajjer of Algeria, with smaller enclaves in the Aïr of Niger, the Dhar Adrar of Mauritania, and the Adrar des Iforas of Mali and Algeria.[43]
+
+The Tibesti-Jebel Uweinat montane xeric woodlands ecoregion consists of the Tibesti and Jebel Uweinat highlands. Higher and more regular rainfall and cooler temperatures support woodlands and shrublands of date palm, acacias, myrtle, oleander, tamarix, and several rare and endemic plants. The ecoregion covers 82,200 square kilometres (31,700 sq mi) in the Tibesti of Chad and Libya, and Jebel Uweinat on the border of Egypt, Libya, and Sudan.[44]
+
+The Saharan halophytics is an area of seasonally flooded saline depressions which is home to halophytic (salt-adapted) plant communities. The Saharan halophytics cover 54,000 square kilometres (21,000 sq mi) including: the Qattara and Siwa depressions in northern Egypt, the Tunisian salt lakes of central Tunisia, Chott Melghir in Algeria, and smaller areas of Algeria, Mauritania, and the southern part of Morocco.[45]
+
+The Tanezrouft is one of the harshest regions on Earth as well as one of the hottest and driest parts of the Sahara, with no vegetation and very little life. It is along the borders of Algeria, Niger, and Mali, west of the Hoggar mountains.
+
+The flora of the Sahara is highly diversified based on the bio-geographical characteristics of this vast desert. Floristically, the Sahara has three zones based on the amount of rainfall received – the Northern (Mediterranean), Central and Southern Zones. There are two transitional zones – the Mediterranean-Sahara transition and the Sahel transition zone.[46]
+
+The Saharan flora comprises around 2800 species of vascular plants. Approximately a quarter of these are endemic. About half of these species are common to the flora of the Arabian deserts.[47]
+
+The central Sahara is estimated to include five hundred species of plants, which is extremely low considering the huge extent of the area. Plants such as acacia trees, palms, succulents, spiny shrubs, and grasses have adapted to the arid conditions, by growing lower to avoid water loss by strong winds, by storing water in their thick stems to use it in dry periods, by having long roots that travel horizontally to reach the maximum area of water and to find any surface moisture, and by having small thick leaves or needles to prevent water loss by evapotranspiration. Plant leaves may dry out totally and then recover.
+
+Several species of fox live in the Sahara including: the fennec fox, pale fox and Rüppell's fox. The addax, a large white antelope, can go nearly a year in the desert without drinking. The dorcas gazelle is a north African gazelle that can also go for a long time without water. Other notable gazelles include the rhim gazelle and dama gazelle.
+
+The Saharan cheetah (northwest African cheetah) lives in Algeria, Togo, Niger, Mali, Benin, and Burkina Faso. There remain fewer than 250 mature cheetahs, which are very cautious, fleeing any human presence. The cheetah avoids the sun from April to October, seeking the shelter of shrubs such as balanites and acacias. They are unusually pale.[48][49] The other cheetah subspecies (northeast African cheetah) lives in Chad, Sudan and the eastern region of Niger. However, it is currently extinct in the wild in Egypt and Libya. There are approximately 2000 mature individuals left in the wild.
+
+Other animals include the monitor lizards, hyrax, sand vipers, and small populations of African wild dog,[50] in perhaps only 14 countries[51] and red-necked ostrich. Other animals exist in the Sahara (birds in particular) such as African silverbill and black-faced firefinch, among others. There are also small desert crocodiles in Mauritania and the Ennedi Plateau of Chad.[52]
+
+The deathstalker scorpion can be 10 cm (3.9 in) long. Its venom contains large amounts of agitoxin and scyllatoxin and is very dangerous; however, a sting from this scorpion rarely kills a healthy adult. The Saharan silver ant is unique in that due to the extreme high temperatures of their habitat, and the threat of predators, the ants are active outside their nest for only about ten minutes per day.[53]
+
+Dromedary camels and goats are the domesticated animals most commonly found in the Sahara. Because of its qualities of endurance and speed, the dromedary is the favourite animal used by nomads.
+
+Human activities are more likely to affect the habitat in areas of permanent water (oases) or where water comes close to the surface. Here, the local pressure on natural resources can be intense. The remaining populations of large mammals have been greatly reduced by hunting for food and recreation. In recent years development projects have started in the deserts of Algeria and Tunisia using irrigated water pumped from underground aquifers. These schemes often lead to soil degradation and salinization.
+
+Researchers from Hacettepe University (Yücekutlu, N. et al., 2011) have reported that Saharan soil may have bio-available iron and also some essential macro and micro nutrient elements suitable for use as fertilizer for growing wheat.[54]
+
+People lived on the edge of the desert thousands of years ago,[55] since the end of the last glacial period. The Sahara was then a much wetter place than it is today. Over 30,000 petroglyphs of river animals such as crocodiles[56] survive, with half found in the Tassili n'Ajjer in southeast Algeria. Fossils of dinosaurs,[57] including Afrovenator, Jobaria and Ouranosaurus, have also been found here. The modern Sahara, though, is not lush in vegetation, except in the Nile Valley, at a few oases, and in the northern highlands, where Mediterranean plants such as the olive tree are found to grow. It was long believed that the region had been this way since about 1600 BCE, after shifts in the Earth's axis increased temperatures and decreased precipitation, which led to the abrupt desertification of North Africa about 5,400 years ago.[32]
+
+The Kiffian culture is a prehistoric industry, or domain, that existed between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago in the Sahara, during the Neolithic Subpluvial. Human remains from this culture were found in 2000 at a site known as Gobero, located in Niger in the Ténéré Desert.[58] The site is known as the largest and earliest grave of Stone Age people in the Sahara desert.[59] The Kiffians were skilled hunters. Bones of many large savannah animals that were discovered in the same area suggest that they lived on the shores of a lake that was present during the Holocene Wet Phase, a period when the Sahara was verdant and wet.[59] The Kiffian people were tall, standing over six feet in height.[58] Craniometric analysis indicates that this early Holocene population was closely related to the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and early Holocene Capsians of the Maghreb, as well as mid-Holocene Mechta groups.[60] Traces of the Kiffian culture do not exist after 8,000 years ago, as the Sahara went through a dry period for the next thousand years.[61] After this time, the Tenerian culture colonized the area.
+
+Gobero was discovered in 2000 during an archaeological expedition led by Paul Sereno, which sought dinosaur remains. Two distinct prehistoric cultures were discovered at the site: the early Holocene Kiffian culture, and the middle Holocene Tenerian culture. The Kiffians were a prehistoric people who preceded the Tenerians and vanished approximately 8000 years ago, when the desert became very dry. The desiccation lasted until around 4600 BCE, when the earliest artefacts associated with the Tenerians have been dated to. Some 200 skeletons have been discovered at Gobero. The Tenerians were considerably shorter in height and less robust than the earlier Kiffians. Craniometric analysis also indicates that they were osteologically distinct. The Kiffian skulls are akin to those of the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians, early Holocene Capsians, and mid-Holocene Mechta groups, whereas the Tenerian crania are more like those of Mediterranean groups.[62][63] Graves show that the Tenerians observed spiritual traditions, as they were buried with artifacts such as jewelry made of hippo tusks and clay pots. The most interesting find is a triple burial, dated to 5300 years ago, of an adult female and two children, estimated through their teeth as being five and eight years old, hugging each other. Pollen residue indicates they were buried on a bed of flowers. The three are assumed to have died within 24 hours of each other, but as their skeletons hold no apparent trauma (they did not die violently) and they have been buried so elaborately – unlikely if they had died of a plague – the cause of their deaths is a mystery.
+
+Uan Muhuggiag appears to have been inhabited from at least the 6th millennium BCE to about 2700 BCE, although not necessarily continuously.[64] The most noteworthy find at Uan Muhuggiag is the well-preserved mummy of a young boy of approximately ​2 1⁄2 years old. The child was in a fetal position, then embalmed, then placed in a sack made of antelope skin, which was insulated by a layer of leaves.[65] The boy's organs were removed, as evidenced by incisions in his stomach and thorax, and an organic preservative was inserted to stop his body from decomposing.[66] An ostrich eggshell necklace was also found around his neck.[64] Radiocarbon dating determined the age of the mummy to be approximately 5600 years old, which makes it about 1000 years older than the earliest previously recorded mummy in ancient Egypt.[67] In 1958–59, an archaeological expedition led by Antonio Ascenzi conducted anthropological, radiological, histological and chemical analyses on the Uan Muhuggiag mummy. The specimen was determined to be that of a 30-month old child of uncertain sex, who possessed Negroid features. A long incision on the specimen's abdominal wall also indicated that the body had been initially mummified by evisceration and later underwent natural desiccation.[68] One other individual, an adult, was found at Uan Muhuggiag, buried in a crouched position.[64] However, the body showed no evidence of evisceration or any other method of preservation. The body was estimated to date from about 7500 BP.[69]
+
+During the Neolithic Era, before the onset of desertification around 9500 BCE, the central Sudan had been a rich environment supporting a large population ranging across what is now barren desert, like the Wadi el-Qa'ab. By the 5th millennium BCE, the people who inhabited what is now called Nubia, were full participants in the "agricultural revolution", living a settled lifestyle with domesticated plants and animals. Saharan rock art of cattle and herdsmen suggests the presence of a cattle cult like those found in Sudan and other pastoral societies in Africa today.[70] Megaliths found at Nabta Playa are overt examples of probably the world's first known archaeoastronomy devices, predating Stonehenge by some 2,000 years.[71] This complexity, as observed at Nabta Playa, and as expressed by different levels of authority within the society there, likely formed the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and the Old Kingdom of Egypt.[72]
+
+By 6000 BCE predynastic Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and constructing large buildings. Subsistence in organized and permanent settlements in predynastic Egypt by the middle of the 6th millennium BCE centered predominantly on cereal and animal agriculture: cattle, goats, pigs and sheep. Metal objects replaced prior ones of stone. Tanning of animal skins, pottery and weaving were commonplace in this era also. There are indications of seasonal or only temporary occupation of the Al Fayyum in the 6th millennium BCE, with food activities centering on fishing, hunting and food-gathering. Stone arrowheads, knives and scrapers from the era are commonly found.[73] Burial items included pottery, jewelry, farming and hunting equipment, and assorted foods including dried meat and fruit. Burial in desert environments appears to enhance Egyptian preservation rites, and the dead were buried facing due west.[74]
+
+By 3400 BCE, the Sahara was as dry as it is today, due to reduced precipitation and higher temperatures resulting from a shift in the Earth's orbit.[32] As a result of this aridification, it became a largely impenetrable barrier to humans, with the remaining settlements mainly being concentrated around the numerous oases that dot the landscape. Little trade or commerce is known to have passed through the interior in subsequent periods, the only major exception being the Nile Valley. The Nile, however, was impassable at several cataracts, making trade and contact by boat difficult.
+
+The people of Phoenicia, who flourished from 1200–800 BCE, created a confederation of kingdoms across the entire Sahara to Egypt. They generally settled along the Mediterranean coast, as well as the Sahara, among the people of ancient Libya, who were the ancestors of people who speak Berber languages in North Africa and the Sahara today, including the Tuareg of the central Sahara.
+
+The Phoenician alphabet seems to have been adopted by the ancient Libyans of north Africa, and Tifinagh is still used today by Berber-speaking Tuareg camel herders of the central Sahara.
+
+Sometime between 633 BCE and 530 BCE, Hanno the Navigator either established or reinforced Phoenician colonies in Western Sahara, but all ancient remains have vanished with virtually no trace.
+
+By 500 BCE, Greeks arrived in the desert. Greek traders spread along the eastern coast of the desert, establishing trading colonies along the Red Sea. The Carthaginians explored the Atlantic coast of the desert, but the turbulence of the waters and the lack of markets caused a lack of presence further south than modern Morocco. Centralized states thus surrounded the desert on the north and east; it remained outside the control of these states. Raids from the nomadic Berber people of the desert were of constant concern to those living on the edge of the desert.
+
+An urban civilization, the Garamantes, arose around 500 BCE in the heart of the Sahara, in a valley that is now called the Wadi al-Ajal in Fezzan, Libya.[26] The Garamantes achieved this development by digging tunnels far into the mountains flanking the valley to tap fossil water and bring it to their fields. The Garamantes grew populous and strong, conquering their neighbors and capturing many slaves (who were put to work extending the tunnels). The ancient Greeks and the Romans knew of the Garamantes and regarded them as uncivilized nomads. However, they traded with them, and a Roman bath has been found in the Garamantes' capital of Garama. Archaeologists have found eight major towns and many other important settlements in the Garamantes' territory. The Garamantes' civilization eventually collapsed after they had depleted available water in the aquifers and could no longer sustain the effort to extend the tunnels further into the mountains.[75]
+
+Between the first century BC and the fourth century AD, several Roman expeditions into the Sahara were conducted by groups of military and commercial units of Romans.
+
+The Berber people occupied (and still occupy with Arabs) much of the Sahara. The Garamantes Berbers built a prosperous empire in the heart of the desert.[76] The Tuareg nomads continue to inhabit and move across wide Sahara surfaces to the present day.
+
+The Byzantine Empire ruled the northern shores of the Sahara from the 5th to the 7th centuries. After the Muslim conquest of Arabia, specifically the Arabian peninsula, the Muslim conquest of North Africa began in the mid-7th to early 8th centuries and Islamic influence expanded rapidly on the Sahara. By the end of 641 all of Egypt was in Muslim hands. Trade across the desert intensified, and a significant slave trade crossed the desert. It has been estimated that from the 10th to 19th centuries some 6,000 to 7,000 slaves were transported north each year.[77]
+
+In the 16th century the northern fringe of the Sahara, such as coastal regencies in present-day Algeria and Tunisia, as well as some parts of present-day Libya, together with the semi-autonomous kingdom of Egypt, were occupied by the Ottoman Empire. From 1517 Egypt was a valued part of the Ottoman Empire, ownership of which provided the Ottomans with control over the Nile Valley, the east Mediterranean and North Africa. The benefit of the Ottoman Empire was the freedom of movement for citizens and goods. Traders exploited the Ottoman land routes to handle the spices, gold and silk from the East, manufactured goods from Europe, and the slave and gold traffic from Africa. Arabic continued as the local language and Islamic culture was much reinforced. The Sahel and southern Sahara regions were home to several independent states or to roaming Tuareg clans.
+
+European colonialism in the Sahara began in the 19th century. France conquered the regency of Algiers from the Ottomans in 1830, and French rule spread south from French Algeria and eastwards from Senegal into the upper Niger to include present-day Algeria, Chad, Mali then French Sudan including Timbuktu (1893), Mauritania, Morocco (1912), Niger, and Tunisia (1881). By the beginning of the 20th century, the trans-Saharan trade had clearly declined because goods were moved through more modern and efficient means, such as airplanes, rather than across the desert.[78]
+
+The French took advantage of long-standing animosity between the Chaamba Arabs and the Tuareg. The newly raised Méhariste camel corps were originally recruited mainly from the Chaamba nomadic tribe. In 1902, the French penetrated Hoggar Mountains and defeated Ahaggar Tuareg in the battle of Tit.
+
+The French Colonial Empire was the dominant presence in the Sahara. It established regular air links from Toulouse (HQ of famed Aéropostale), to Oran and over the Hoggar to Timbuktu and West to Bamako and Dakar, as well as trans-Sahara bus services run by La Compagnie Transsaharienne (est. 1927).[79] A remarkable film shot by famous aviator Captain René Wauthier documents the first crossing by a large truck convoy from Algiers to Tchad, across the Sahara.[80]
+
+Egypt, under Muhammad Ali and his successors, conquered Nubia in 1820–22, founded Khartoum in 1823, and conquered Darfur in 1874. Egypt, including the Sudan, became a British protectorate in 1882. Egypt and Britain lost control of the Sudan from 1882 to 1898 as a result of the Mahdist War. After its capture by British troops in 1898, the Sudan became an Anglo-Egyptian condominium.
+
+Spain captured present-day Western Sahara after 1874, although Rio del Oro remained largely under Sahrawi influence. In 1912, Italy captured parts of what was to be named Libya from the Ottomans. To promote the Roman Catholic religion in the desert, Pope Pius IX appointed a delegate Apostolic of the Sahara and the Sudan in 1868; later in the 19th century his jurisdiction was reorganized into the Vicariate Apostolic of Sahara.
+
+Egypt became independent of Britain in 1936, although the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 allowed Britain to keep troops in Egypt and to maintain the British-Egyptian condominium in the Sudan. British military forces were withdrawn in 1954.
+
+Most of the Saharan states achieved independence after World War II: Libya in 1951; Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia in 1956; Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger in 1960; and Algeria in 1962. Spain withdrew from Western Sahara in 1975, and it was partitioned between Mauritania and Morocco. Mauritania withdrew in 1979; Morocco continues to hold the territory.
+
+In the post–World War II era, several mines and communities have developed to utilize the desert's natural resources. These include large deposits of oil and natural gas in Algeria and Libya, and large deposits of phosphates in Morocco and Western Sahara.
+
+A number of Trans-African highways have been proposed across the Sahara, including the Cairo–Dakar Highway along the Atlantic coast, the Trans-Sahara Highway from Algiers on the Mediterranean to Kano in Nigeria, the Tripoli – Cape Town Highway from Tripoli in Libya to N'Djamena in Chad, and the Cairo – Cape Town Highway which follows the Nile. Each of these highways is partially complete, with significant gaps and unpaved sections.
+
+The people of the Sahara are of various origins. Among them the Amazigh including the Tuareg, various Arabized Amaziɣ groups such as the Hassaniya-speaking Sahrawis, whose populations include the Znaga, a tribe whose name is a remnant of the pre-historic Zenaga language. Other major groups of people include the: Toubou, Nubians, Zaghawa, Kanuri, Hausa, Songhai, Beja, and Fula/Fulani (French: Peul; Fula: Fulɓe).
+
+Arabic dialects are the most widely spoken languages in the Sahara. Arabic, Berber and its variants now regrouped under the term Amazigh (which includes the Guanche language spoken by the original Berber inhabitants of the Canary Islands) and Beja languages are part of the Afro-Asiatic or Hamito-Semitic family.[citation needed] Unlike neighboring West Africa and the central governments of the states that comprise the Sahara, the French language bears little relevance to inter-personal discourse and commerce within the region, its people retaining staunch ethnic and political affiliations with Tuareg and Berber leaders and culture.[81] The legacy of the French colonial era administration is primarily manifested in the territorial reorganization enacted by the Third and Fourth republics, which engendered artificial political divisions within a hitherto isolated and porous region.[82] Diplomacy with local clients was conducted primarily in Arabic, which was the traditional language of bureaucratic affairs. Mediation of disputes and inter-agency communication was served by interpreters contracted by the French government, who, according to Keenan, "documented a space of intercultural mediation," contributing much to preserving the indigenous cultural identities in the region.[83]

en/5226.html.txt

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+Coordinates: 17°20′N 62°45′W / 17.333°N 62.750°W / 17.333; -62.750
+
+Saint Kitts and Nevis (/-ˈkɪts ... ˈniːvɪs/ (listen)), officially known as the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis,[6] is an island country in the West Indies. Located in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population.[1] The country is a Commonwealth realm, with Elizabeth II as Queen and head of state.[1][7]
+
+The capital city is Basseterre on the larger island of Saint Kitts[1] and on the smaller island, Nevis, the capital city is Charlestown. The smaller island of Nevis lies approximately 3 km (2 mi) to the southeast across a shallow channel called The Narrows.[1]
+
+The British dependency of Anguilla was historically also a part of this union, which was then known collectively as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla.  However, Anguilla chose to secede from the union and remains a British overseas territory.[1] To the north-northwest lie the islands of Sint Eustatius, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten and Anguilla. To the east and northeast are Antigua and Barbuda, and to the southeast is the small uninhabited island of Redonda (part of Antigua and Barbuda) and the island of Montserrat.
+
+Saint Kitts and Nevis were among the first islands in the Caribbean to be colonized by Europeans. Saint Kitts was home to the first British and French colonies in the Caribbean, and thus has also been titled "The Mother Colony of the West Indies".[8] It is also the most recent British territory in the Caribbean to become independent, gaining independence in 1983.
+
+Saint Kitts was named Liamuiga, which roughly translates as 'fertile land', by the Kalinago who originally inhabited the island.[9] The name is preserved via St. Kitts's tallest peak, Mount Liamuiga. Nevis's pre-Columbian name was Oualie, meaning "land of beautiful waters".[citation needed]
+
+It is thought that Christopher Columbus, the first European to see the islands in 1493, named the larger island San Cristóbal, after Saint Christopher, his patron saint and the patron hallow of travellers. New studies suggest that Columbus named the island Sant Yago (Saint James), and that the name San Cristóbal was in fact given by Columbus to the island now known as Saba, 32 km (20 mi) northwest. It seems that San Cristóbal came to be applied to the island of St. Kitts only as of the result of a mapping error.[citation needed] No matter the origin of the name, the island was well documented as San Cristóbal by the 17th century.[1] The first English colonists kept the English translation of this name, and dubbed it St. Christopher's Island. In the 17th century, a common nickname for Christopher was Kit(t), hence the island came to be informally referred to as Saint Kitt's Island, later further shortened to Saint Kitts.[1]
+
+Columbus gave Nevis the name San Martín.[9] The current name Nevis is derived from a Spanish name Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, meaning 'Our Lady of the Snows'.[1] It is not known who chose this name for the island, but it is a reference to the story of a 4th-century Catholic miracle: a summertime snowfall on the Esquiline Hill in Rome.[10] It is thought that the white clouds which usually wreathe the top of Nevis Peak reminded someone of the story of a miraculous snowfall in a hot climate.[1] The island of Nevis, upon first British settlement, was referred to as Dulcina, a name meaning 'sweet one' in Spanish.[citation needed] Eventually, the original Spanish name was restored and used in the shortened form, Nevis.
+
+Today the Constitution refers to the state as both Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Christopher and Nevis, but the former is the one most commonly used.
+
+The name of the first inhabitants, pre-Arawakan peoples who settled the islands perhaps as early as 3000 years ago, is not known.[11] They were followed by the Arawak peoples, or Taíno, about 1000 BC.[citation needed] The warlike Island Caribs invaded about 800 AD.[12]:10
+
+Christopher Columbus was the first European to sight the islands in 1493.[13][7] The first settlers were the English in 1623, led by Thomas Warner, who established a settlement at Old Road Town on the west coast of St Kitts after achieving an agreement with the Carib chief Ouboutou Tegremante.[12]:15–18[7] The French later also settled on St Kitts in 1625 under Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc.[7] As a result, both parties agreed to partition the island into French and English sectors. From 1628 onward the English also began settling on Nevis.[7]
+
+The French and English, intent on self-enrichment through exploitation of the island's natural resources,[14] soon encountered resistance, with the native Caribs (Kalinago) waging war throughout the first three years of the settlements' existence.[15][16] The Europeans thus resolved to rid themselves of this problem once and for all. To facilitate this objective, an ideological campaign was waged by colonial chroniclers, dating back to the Spanish, as they produced literature which systematically denied Kalinago humanity (a literary tradition carried through the late-seventeenth century by such authors as Jean-Baptiste du Tertre and Pere Labat).[16] In 1626 the Anglo-French settlers joined forces to massacre the Kalinago at a place that became known as Bloody Point, allegedly to pre-empt an imminent Carib plan to expel or kill all European settlers.[17][18] With the native population thus pacified, the English and French began to establish large sugar plantations which were worked by vast numbers of imported African slaves. This system created enormous wealth for the planter-colonists whilst also drastically changing the islands' demographics as black slaves soon came to outnumber Europeans by some margin.[13][12]:26–31
+
+A Spanish expedition of 1629 sent to enforce Spanish claims destroyed the English and French colonies and deported the settlers back to their respective countries. As part of the war settlement in 1630, the Spanish permitted the re-establishment of the English and French colonies.[12]:19–23 Spain later formally recognised Britain's claim to St Kitts with the Treaty of Madrid (1670), in return for British cooperation in the fight against piracy.[19]
+
+As Spanish power went into decline, Saint Kitts became the premier base for English and French expansion into the wider Caribbean. From St. Kitts the British settled the islands of Antigua, Montserrat, Anguilla and Tortola, and the French settled Martinique, the Guadeloupe archipelago and Saint Barthélemy. During the late-17th century France and England fought for control over St Kitts and Nevis, fighting wars in 1667,[12]:41–50 1689–90[12]:51–55 and 1701–13. The French renounced their claim to the islands with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.[12]:55–60[7] The islands' economy, already shattered by years of war, was further devastated by natural disasters: in 1690 an earthquake destroyed Jamestown, capital of Nevis, forcing the construction of a new capital at Charlestown; further damage was caused by a hurricane in 1707.[20]:105–108
+
+The colony had recovered by the turn of the 18th century, and by the close of the 1700s St. Kitts had become the richest British Crown Colony per capita in the Caribbean as result of its slave-based sugar industry.[21] The 18th century also saw Nevis, formerly the richer of the two islands, being eclipsed by St Kitts in economic importance.[12]:75[20]:126,137
+
+As Britain became embroiled in war with its American colonies, the French decided to use the opportunity to re-capture St Kitts in 1782; however St Kitts was given back and recognised as British territory in the Treaty of Paris (1783).[7][13]
+
+The African slave trade was terminated within the British Empire in 1807, and slavery outlawed completely in 1834. A four-year "apprenticeship" period followed for each slave, in which they worked for their former owners for wages. On Nevis 8,815 slaves were freed in this way, while St. Kitts had 19,780 freed.[20]:174[12]:110,114–117
+
+Saint Kitts and Nevis, along with Anguilla, were federated in 1882. In the first few decades of the 20th century economic hardship and lack of opportunities led to the growth of a labour movement; the Great Depression led sugar workers to go on strike in 1935.[22] The 1940s saw the founding of the St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Labour Party (later renamed the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party, or SKNLP)[23] under Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw. Bradshaw later became Chief Minister and then Premier of the colony from 1966-1978; he sought to gradually bring the sugar-based economy under greater state control.[12]:151–152 The more conservative-leaning People's Action Movement party (PAM) was founded in 1965.[24]
+
+After a brief period as part of the West Indies Federation (1958–62), the islands became an associated state with full internal autonomy in 1967.[7] Both Nevis and Anguilla were unhappy at St Kitts' domination of the federation, with Anguilla unilaterally declaring independence in 1967.[13][7] In 1971 Britain resumed full control of Anguilla and it was formally separated in 1980.[25][12]:147–149[7] Attention then focused on Nevis, with the Nevis Reformation Party seeking to safeguard the smaller island's interests in any future independent state. Eventually it was agreed that the island would have a degree of autonomy with its own Premier and Assembly, as well as the constitutionally-protected right to unilaterally secede if a referendum on independence resulted in a two-thirds majority in favour.[26][27] St Kitts and Nevis achieved full independence on 19 September 1983.[7][13] Kennedy Simmonds of the PAM, Premier since 1980, duly became the country's first Prime Minister. St Kitts and Nevis opted to remain within the British Commonwealth, retaining Queen Elizabeth as Monarch, represented locally by a Governor-General.
+
+Kennedy Simmonds went on to win elections in 1984, 1989 and 1993, before being unseated when the SKNLP returned to power in 1995 under Denzil Douglas.[13][7]
+
+In Nevis, growing discontent with their perceived marginalisation within the federation[28] led to a referendum to separate from St. Kitts in 1998, which though resulting a 62% vote to secede, fell short of the required two-thirds majority to be legally enacted.[29][13][7]
+
+In late-September 1998, Hurricane Georges caused approximately $458,000,000 in damages and limited GDP growth for the year and beyond. Meanwhile, the sugar industry, in decline for years and propped up only by government subsidies, was closed completely in 2005.[7]
+
+The 2015 Saint Kitts and Nevis general election was won by Timothy Harris and his recently formed People's Labour Party, with backing from the PAM and the Nevis-based Concerned Citizens' Movement under the 'Team Unity' banner.[30]
+
+Saint Kitts and Nevis is a sovereign, democratic and federal state.[31] The Queen of Saint Christopher and Nevis, Elizabeth II, is its head of state.[1] The Queen is represented in the country by a Governor-General, who acts on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party of the House, and the cabinet conducts affairs of state. The country may also be described by the unofficial term, "Commonwealth realm", because it is a constitutional monarchy which shares the same monarch as fifteen other members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
+
+St. Kitts and Nevis has a unicameral legislature, known as the National Assembly. It is composed of fourteen members: eleven elected Representatives (three from the island of Nevis) and three Senators who are appointed by the Governor-General.[1] Two of the senators are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister, and one on the advice of the leader of the opposition. Unlike in other countries senators do not constitute a separate Senate or upper house of parliament, but sit in the National Assembly alongside representatives. All members serve five-year terms. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are responsible to the Parliament. Nevis also maintains its own semi-autonomous Assembly.
+
+Saint Kitts and Nevis has no major international disputes. Saint Kitts and Nevis is a full and participating member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and the Organisation of American States (OAS).[1]
+
+
+
+St. Kitts & Nevis entered the OAS system on 16 September 1984.[32]
+
+
+
+At a CARICOM Meeting, representative of St. Kitts and Nevis, Kennedy Simmons signed The Double Taxation Relief (CARICOM) Treaty 1994 on 6 July 1994.[33]
+
+The representatives of seven CARICOM countries signed similar agreements at Sherbourne Conference Centre, St. Michael, Barbados.[33] The countries whose representatives signed the treaties in Barbados were: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.[33] This treaty covered taxes, residence, tax jurisdictions, capital gains, business profits, interest, dividends, royalties and other areas.
+
+On 30 June 2014, St. Kitts and Nevis signed a Model 1 agreement with the United States of America in relation to Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).[34] At 28 April 2016, the status of the agreement went to "In Force".[citation needed]
+
+Saint Kitts and Nevis has a defence force of 300 personnel. It is mostly involved in policing and drug-trade interception.
+
+Male homosexuality is illegal in St. Kitts and Nevis.[35] In 2011, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis said it has no mandate from the people to abolish the criminalisation of homosexuality among consenting adults.[36]
+
+The federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is divided into fourteen parishes: nine divisions on Saint Kitts and five on Nevis.
+
+The country consists of two main islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, separated at a distance of 2 miles (3 km) by The Narrows strait.[7] Both are of volcanic origin, with large central peaks covered in tropical rainforest.[1] The majority of the population live along the flatter coastal areas.[1] St Kitts contains several mountain ranges (the North West Range, Central Range and South-West Range) in its centre, where the highest peak of the country, Mount Liamuiga 1,156 metres (3,793 ft) can be found.[7] Along the east coast can be found the Canada Hills and Conaree Hills. The land narrows considerably in the south-east, forming a much flatter peninsula which contains the largest body of water, the Great Salt Pond. To the southeast, in The Narrows, lies the small isle of Booby Island. There are numerous rivers descending from the mountains of both islands, which provide fresh water to the local population. Nevis, the smaller of the two main islands and roughly circular in shape, is dominated by Nevis Peak 985 metres (3,232 ft).[1]
+
+The national bird is the brown pelican.[37] There are 176 species of bird.[38]
+
+By the Köppen climate classification, St. Kitts has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) and Nevis has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am).[39] Mean monthly temperatures in Basseterre varies little from 23.9 °C (75.0 °F) to 26.6 °C (79.9 °F). Yearly rainfall is approximately 2,400 millimetres (90 in), although it has varied from 1,356 millimetres (53.4 in) to 3,183 millimetres (125.3 in) in the period 1901–2015.[40]
+
+Religion in Saint Kitts and Nevis (2001)[41]
+
+The population of Saint Kitts and Nevis is around 53,000 (July 2019 est.)[1] and has remained relatively constant for many years.[7] At the end of the nineteenth century there were 42,600 residents, the number slowly rising to a little over 50,000 by the mid-twentieth century.[citation needed] Between 1960 and 1990, the population dropped from 50,000 to 40,000, before rising again to its current level. Approximately three-quarters of the population live on Saint Kitts, with 15,500 of these living in the capital, Basseterre. Other large settlements include Cayon (population 3,000) and Sandy Point Town (3,000), both on Saint Kitts, and Gingerland (2,500) and Charlestown (1,900), both on Nevis.
+
+The population is primarily Afro-Caribbean (92.5%), with significant minorities of European (2.1%) and Indian (1.5%) descent (2001 estimate).[1]
+
+As of 2018[update], there were 52,441 inhabitants; their average life expectancy is 76.9 years. Emigration has historically been very high, so high that the total estimated population in 2007 was little changed from that in 1961.[42]
+
+Emigration from St. Kitts and Nevis to the United States:[37]
+
+Most inhabitants (82%) are Christians, mainly Anglicans and other Protestants denominations, with a smaller population of Catholics.[1] Roman Catholics are pastorally served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint John's–Basseterre, while the Anglicans by the Diocese of the North East Caribbean and Aruba.
+
+English is the sole official language. Saint Kitts Creole is also widely spoken.
+
+Saint Kitts and Nevis is known for a number of musical celebrations including Carnival (18 December to 3 January on Saint Kitts). The last week in June features the St Kitts Music Festival, while the week-long Culturama on Nevis lasts from the end of July into early August.[43]
+
+Additional festivals on the island of Saint Kitts include Inner City Fest, in February in Molineaux; Green Valley Festival, usually around Whit Monday in village of Cayon; Easterama, around Easter in village of Sandy Point; Fest-Tab, in July or August in the village of Tabernacle; and La festival de Capisterre, around Independence Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis (19 September), in the Capisterre region. These celebrations typically feature parades, street dances and salsa, jazz, soca, calypso and steelpan music.
+
+The 1985 film Missing in Action 2: The Beginning was filmed in Saint Kitts.[44]
+
+Cricket is common in Saint Kitts and Nevis. Top players can be selected for the West Indies cricket team. The late Runako Morton was from Nevis. Saint Kitts and Nevis was the smallest country to host 2007 Cricket World Cup matches.[45]
+
+Rugby and netball are also common in Saint Kitts and Nevis as well.
+
+The St. Kitts and Nevis national football team, also known as the "Sugar Boyz", has experienced some international success in recent years, progressing to the semi-final round of qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in the CONCACAF region. Led by Glence Glasgow, they defeated the US Virgin Islands and Barbados before they were outmatched by Mexico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Despite not representing the country, Marcus Rashford is of descent.
+
+The St. Kitts and Nevis Billiard Federation, SKNBF, is the governing body for cue sports across the two islands. The SKNBF is a member of the Caribbean Billiards Union (CBU) with the SKNBF President Ste Williams holding the post of CBU Vice-President.
+
+Kim Collins is the country's foremost track and field athlete. He has won gold medals in the 100 metres at both the World Championships in Athletics and Commonwealth Games, and at the 2000 Sydney Olympics he was the country's first athlete to reach an Olympic final. He and three other athletes represented St. Kitts and Nevis at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The four by one hundred metre relay team won a bronze medal in the 2011 world championships.
+
+American writer and former figure skater and triathlete Kathryn Bertine was granted dual citizenship in an attempt to make the 2008 Summer Olympics representing St. Kitts and Nevis in women's cycling. Her story was chronicled online at ESPN.com as a part of its E-Ticket feature entitled "So You Wanna Be An Olympian?" She ultimately failed to earn the necessary points for Olympic qualification.[46]
+
+St. Kitts and Nevis had two athletes ride in the time trial at the 2010 UCI Road World Championships: Reginald Douglas and James Weekes.[47]
+
+Saint Kitts and Nevis is a twin-island federation whose economy is characterised by its dominant tourism, agriculture, and light manufacturing industries.[1] Sugar was the primary export from the 1940s on, but rising production costs, low world market prices, and the government's efforts to reduce dependence on it have led to a growing diversification of the agricultural sector. In 2005, the government decided to close down the state-owned sugar company, which had experienced losses and was a significant contributor to the fiscal deficit.[7][1]
+
+St. Kitts and Nevis is heavily dependent upon tourism to drive its economy, a sector which has expanded significantly since the 1970s.[1][7] In 2009 there were 587,479 arrivals to Saint Kitts compared to 379,473 in 2007, an increase of just under 40% in a two-year period, however the tourist sector decreased during the Global financial crisis and has only recently returned to pre-crash levels.[1] In recent years the government has sought to diversify the economy via agriculture, tourism, export-oriented manufacturing, and offshore banking.[1]
+
+In July 2015, St Kitts & Nevis and the Republic of Ireland signed a tax agreement to "promote international co-operation in tax matters through exchange of information." The agreement was developed by the OECD Global Forum Working Group on Effective Exchange of Information, which consisted of representatives from OECD member countries and 11 other countries in the Caribbean and other parts of the world.[48]
+
+Saint Kitts and Nevis has two international airports. The larger one is Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport on the island of Saint Kitts with service outside to the Caribbean, North America, and Europe. The other airport, Vance W. Amory International Airport, is located on the island of Nevis and has flights to other parts of the Caribbean.
+
+The St. Kitts Scenic Railway is the last remaining running railroad in the Lesser Antilles.
+
+St. Kitts allows foreigners to obtain the status of St. Kitts citizen by means of a government sponsored investment programme called Citizenship-by-Investment.[49][1] Established in 1984, St. Kitts' citizenship programme is the oldest prevailing economic citizenship programme of this kind in the world. However, while the programme is the oldest in the world, it only catapulted in 2006 when Henley & Partners, a global citizenship advisory firm, became involved in the restructuring of the programme to incorporate donations to the country's sugar industry.[50]
+
+Citizenship-by-Investment Programmes have been criticised by some researchers due to the risks of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.[51] According to the official website of St. Kitts' Citizenship-by-Investment Programme they offer multiple benefits: "When you acquire citizenship under the St. Kitts & Nevis citizenship programme, you and your family enjoy full citizenship for life, which can be passed on to future generations by descent. As citizens of St. Kitts & Nevis, you and your family are issued with passports which allow visa-free travel to more than 140 countries and territories worldwide, including all of the EU. Of course you have the right to take up residence in St. Kitts & Nevis as well as in most of the CARICOM member countries at any time and for any length of time".[52]
+
+Each candidate must go through several legal steps and make a qualifying investment into the country[52] and should complete certain legal requirements to qualify for citizenship under the investment programme. There is a minimum investment that has to be made by the applicant, in either an approved real estate or in the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation (a public charity), to qualify for the economic citizenship of St. Kitts and Nevis.[citation needed][53]
+
+According to Henley & Partners, the requirements are as follows:[54][55]
+
+According to Imperial & Legal, from 1 April 2018 St Kitts and Nevis government implemented a new investment option – Contribution to Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF). To qualify for citizenship of St Kitts & Nevis, applicants who choose to invest in SGF will need to make a one-off non-refundable contribution of $150,000 plus due diligence fees.[56]
+
+There are eight publicly administered high and secondary level schools in St Kitts and Nevis, and several private secondary schools. Education is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16.[7]
+
+Click on a coloured area to see an article about English in that country or region

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+Saint Denis may refer to:
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+Other Communes in France:
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+In Belgium
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+In Italy:
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+In Canada:
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+In United States:

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+
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+Coordinates: 13°53′N 60°58′W / 13.883°N 60.967°W / 13.883; -60.967
+
+in the Caribbean (light yellow)
+
+Saint Lucia (UK: /sənt luˈsiːə, -ˈluː.ʃə/ (listen), US: /seɪnt ˈluːʃə/ (listen); French: Sainte-Lucie) is a sovereign island country in the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean.[7] The island was previously called Iyonola, the name given to the island by the native Amerindians and later, Hewanorra, the name given by the native Caribs. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 617 km2 (238 square miles) and reported a population of 165,595 in the 2010 census.[8] Its capital is Castries.
+
+The French were the first Europeans to settle on the island. They signed a treaty with the native Island Caribs in 1660. England took control of the island from 1663 to 1667. In ensuing years, it was at war with France fourteen times, and the rule of the island changed frequently (it was ruled seven times each by the French and British). In 1814, the British took definitive control of the island. Because it switched so often between British and French control, Saint Lucia was also known as the "Helen of the West Indies" after the Greek mythological character, Helen of Troy.
+
+Representative government came about in 1840 (universal suffrage was established in 1953). From 1958 to 1962, the island was a member of the West Indies Federation. On 22 February 1979, Saint Lucia became an independent state and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.[7] Saint Lucia is a mixed jurisdiction,[9] meaning that it has a legal system based in part on both the civil law and English common law. The Civil Code of St. Lucia of 1867 was based on the Quebec Civil Code of 1866, as supplemented by English common law-style legislation. It is also a member of Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.[10]
+
+One of the Windward Islands, Saint Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse (AD 283 – 304).[11] It is one of two countries in the world named after a woman (Ireland is named after the Celtic goddess of fertility Eire)[12] and the only country named after a historical woman. St. Helena, another island, is also named for an historical woman—the mother of Emperor Constantine—but St. Helena is a Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom and is not a sovereign nation.  Legend states French sailors were shipwrecked at St. Lucia on 13 December, the feast day of St. Lucy, naming the island in honor of Sainte Lucie.[13]
+
+The first proven inhabitants were the Arawaks, though there may have been other native peoples prior to this. The Arawak are believed to have come from northern South America sometime around 200–400 AD, as there are numerous archaeological sites on the island where specimens of their well-developed pottery have been found. There is evidence to suggest that the Arawak called the island Iouanalao, meaning 'Land of the Iguanas', due to the island's high number of iguanas.[14]
+
+The more aggressive Caribs arrived around 800 AD, and seized control from the Arawaks by killing their men and assimilating the women into their own society.[14] They called the island Hewanarau, and later Hewanorra (Ioüanalao, or "there where iguanas are found").[15]
+
+Christopher Columbus may have sighted the island during his fourth voyage in 1502, since he made landfall on Martinique, yet he does not mention the island in his log. Juan de la Cosa noted the island on his map of 1500, calling it El Falcon, and another island to the south Las Agujas. A Spanish cédula from 1511 mentions the island within the Spanish domain, and a globe in the Vatican made in 1520, shows the island as Sancta Lucia.
+
+In the late 1550s, the French pirate François le Clerc (known as Jambe de Bois, due to his wooden leg) set up a camp on Pigeon Island, from where he attacked passing Spanish ships. In 1605, an English vessel called the Oliphe Blossome was blown off-course on its way to Guyana, and the 67 colonists started a settlement on Saint Lucia, after initially being welcomed by the Carib chief Anthonie. By 26 September 1605 only 19 survived following continued attacks by the Carib chief Augraumart, so the settlers fled the island.[16]
+
+In 1664, Thomas Warner (son of Sir Thomas Warner, the governor of St Kitts) claimed Saint Lucia for England. He brought 1,000 men to defend it from the French, but after two years, only 89 survived with the rest dying mostly due to disease. In 1666, the French West India Company resumed control of the island, which in 1674 was made an official French crown colony as a dependency of Martinique.[17]
+
+Both the British and the French found the island attractive after the slave-based sugar industry developed, and during the 18th century the island changed ownership or was declared neutral territory a dozen times, although the French settlements remained and the island was a de facto French colony well into the eighteenth century.
+
+In 1722, George I of Great Britain granted both Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent to The 2nd Duke of Montagu. He in turn appointed Nathaniel Uring, a merchant sea captain and adventurer, as deputy-governor. Uring went to the islands with a group of seven ships, and established settlement at Petit Carenage. Unable to get enough support from British warships, he and the new colonists were quickly run off by the French.[18]
+
+During the Seven Years' War, Britain occupied Saint Lucia for a year. Britain handed the island back to the French at the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Like the English and Dutch on other islands, the French began to develop the land for the cultivation of sugar cane as a commodity crop on large plantations in 1765.
+
+In January 1791, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly sent four commissaires to St Lucia to spread their revolutionary philosophy. By August 1791, slaves began to abandon their estates and Governor de Gimat fled.  In December 1792, Lt. Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse arrived with revolutionary pamphlets, and the impoverished whites and free people of color began to arm themselves as patriots. On 1 February 1793, France declared war on England and Holland, and General Nicolas Xavier de Ricard took over as Governor.  The National Convention abolished enslavement on 4 February 1794, but St. Lucia fell to a British invasion led by Vice Admiral John Jervis on 1 April 1794. Morne Fortune became Fort Charlotte. Soon, a patriot army of resistance, L'Armee Française dans les Bois, began to fight back.  Thus started the First Brigand War.[19]
+
+A short time later the British invaded the island as a part of the war with France that had recently broken out. On 21 February 1795 a group of locals under the nominal control of Victor Hugues defeated a battalion of British troops at Vieux Fort and Rabot. In 1796, Castries was burned as part of the conflict. General John Moore retook Fort Charlotte in 1796 with the 27th Inniskilling Fusiliers after two days of bitter fighting. As an honour, the Fusiliers' regimental colour was displayed on the flagstaff of the captured fortress at Morne Fortune for an hour before being replaced by the Union Jack.[20] Moore would then participate in British efforts to repress the slave rebels until falling ill of yellow fever, upon which he returned to Britain before 1798.
+
+In 1803, the British regained control of the island. Many of the rebels escaped into the thick rainforest where they evaded capture and established maroon communities.[21]
+
+The slavery on the island was continued for a short time, but anti-slavery sentiment was rising in Britain. The British stopped the import of slaves by anyone, white or coloured, when they abolished the slave trade in 1807.
+
+France and Great Britain continued to contest Saint Lucia until the British secured it in 1814, as part of the Treaty of Paris ending the Napoleonic Wars. Thereafter, Saint Lucia was considered part of the British Windward Islands colony.
+
+The institution of slavery was abolished on the island in 1836, as it was throughout the British Empire. After abolition, all former slaves had to serve a four-year "apprenticeship," to accustom them to the idea of freedom. During this period, they worked for their former masters for at least three-quarters of the work week. Full freedom was duly granted by the British in 1838. By that time, people of African ethnicity greatly outnumbered those of ethnic European background. Some people of Carib descent also comprised a minority on the island.
+
+Castries' harbour was protected by a system of 60 surrounding forts. Along the top of Morne Fortune there are six military sites, building work by the French started in 1768, and the British completed the work by 1890. They include Fort Charlotte (Old Morne Fortress), the Apostle's Battery (1888–1890), The Powder Magazine built by the French in the 1750s, Provost's Redoubt (1792) built as a lookout point, and the Combermere barracks.[22]
+
+The best preserved installation is a battery at La Toc Point, completed in 1888 it was not abandoned till 1905. This fort in particular was built by the British to repel any attack from the United States on the then valuable coaling harbour of Castries.[23]
+
+The Second World War visited the island directly during the Battle of the Caribbean, when a German U-boat attacked and sank two British ships in Castries harbour on 9 March 1942.[24][25]
+
+In the mid-twentieth century, Saint Lucia joined the West Indies Federation (1958–1962) when the colony was dissolved. In 1967, Saint Lucia became one of the six members of the West Indies Associated States, with internal self-government. In 1979, it gained full independence under Sir John Compton of the conservative United Workers party (UWP). The new country chose to remain within the British Commonwealth and to retain Queen Elizabeth as Monarch, represented locally by a Governor-General.
+
+Compton's initial term as Prime Minister lasted only a few months, as he was defeated by the left-leaning Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) under Allan Louisy in the 1979 Saint Lucian general election.[26] The SLP sought to improve ties with socialist countries in the region such as Cuba, though the economy was severely affected by Hurricane Allen in 1980.[27] Louisy was replaced as Prime Minister by Winston Cenac in 1981. The SLP government faced a series of strikes and Cenac agreed to stand down, with Michael Pilgrim of the Progressive Labour Party briefly serving as Acting Prime Minister until the 1982 Saint Lucian general election.[28] This election was won by the UWP under John Compton, who proceeded to rule the country uninterrupted until 1996;[29][30] he was succeeded by Vaughan Lewis, who ruled for just over a year before losing the 1997 Saint Lucian general election to the SLP under Kenny Anthony. During this era the UWP adopted a generally pro-Western, pro-business outlook, seeking to diversify the economy away from over-reliance on bananas and boosting the tourism sector.[27] Compton was also a keen advocate of regional integration.[30]
+
+Kenny remained in power until 2006 when the UWP, again led by Compton, won control of parliament. Compton pledged to boost the economy and tackle the rising crime rate.[31] Police attempts to curb crime were criticised in 2015 when it emerged that several suspects had been unlawfully shot by police and the circumstances of their deaths covered up.[27] In May 2007, after Compton suffered a series of small strokes,[32][33] Finance and External Affairs Minister Stephenson King became acting prime minister and succeeded Compton as Prime Minister when the latter died in September 2007. In November 2011, Kenny Anthony was re-elected as prime minister for a third time.[34] In the June 2016 election the United Worker's Party (UWP) assumed power again, with Allen Chastanet becoming prime minister.[35]
+
+The volcanic island of Saint Lucia is more mountainous than most Caribbean islands, with the highest point being Mount Gimie, at 950 metres (3,120 feet) above sea level.[11][27] Two other mountains, the Pitons, form the island's most famous landmark.[11][27] They are located between Soufrière and Choiseul on the western side of the island. Saint Lucia is the only island in the world that contains a drive-in volcano.[dubious  – discuss] Forests cover about 77% of the land area.[11]
+
+There are a number of small islands off the coast, the largest of which are the Maria Islands in the south-east.
+
+The capital city of Saint Lucia is Castries (population 60,263) where 32.4% of the population lives. Other major towns include Gros Islet, Soufrière, and Vieux Fort. The population tends to be concentrated around the coast, with the interior more sparsely populated, due to the presence of dense forests.[11][27]
+
+The local climate is tropical, specifically a tropical rainforest climate under the Köppen climate classification, moderated by northeast trade winds, with a dry season from 1 December to 31 May, and a wet season from 1 June to 30 November (referred to by locals as the hurricane season).
+
+Average daytime temperatures are around 30 °C (86.0 °F), and average nighttime temperatures are around 24 °C (75.2 °F). Since it is fairly close to the equator, the temperature does not fluctuate much between winter and summer. Average annual rainfall ranges from 1,300 mm (51.2 in) on the coast to 3,810 mm (150 in) in the mountain rainforests.
+
+The geology of St. Lucia can be described as composing three main areas.  The oldest, 16–18 Ma, volcanic rocks are exposed from Castries northward and consist of eroded basalt and andesite centres.  The middle, central highlands, portion of the island consists of dissected andesite centres, 10.4 to 1 Mya, while the lower southwest portion of the island contains recent activity from the Soufriere Volcanic Centre (SVC).  This SVC, centered about the Qualibou depression, contains pyroclastic flow deposits, lava flows, domes, block and ash flow deposits, and explosion craters.  This depression's perimeter includes the town of Soufriere, Mount Tabac, Mt. Gimie, Morne Bonin, and Gros Piton.  At 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) in diameter, though the western portion is open towards the Grenada basin, the depression formed as recently as 100 kya.  The depression is noted for its geothermal activity, especially at Sulphur Springs and Soufrière Estates, a phreatic eruption in 1776, and recent seismic activity (2000–2001).[37]
+
+Eroded andesitic stratovolcanoes to the north east of the depression include Mt. Gimie, Piton St Esprit, and Mt. Grand Magazin, all greater than 1 Ma in age.  Andesitic and dacite pyroclastic flows from these volcanoes are found at Morne Tabac dome (532 ka), Morne Bonin dome (273 kya), and Bellevue (264 kya). Avalanche deposits from the formation of the Qualibou depression are found offshore, and in the massive blocks of Rabot, Pleisance, and Coubaril.  The dacitic domes of Petit Piton (109 kya) and Gros Piton (71 kya) were then extruded onto the depression floor accompanied by the Anse John (104 kya) and La Pointe (59.8 kya) pyroclastic flows.  Later, pyroclastic flows include pumice-rich Belfond and Anse Noir (20 kya).  Finally, the dacitic domes of Terre Blanche (15.3 kya) and Belfond (13.6 kya) formed within the depression.[37]
+
+Saint Lucia is a Commonwealth realm. Elizabeth II is Queen of Saint Lucia, represented on the island by a governor-general. The prime minister[38] is normally the head of the party commanding the support of the majority of the members of the House of Assembly, which has 17 seats.[39] The other chamber of Parliament, the Senate, has eleven appointed members.
+
+Saint Lucia is a two-party parliamentary democracy. Three political parties participated in the 6 June 2016 General Election. The United Workers Party, led by Allen Chastanet, won eleven of the seventeen seats.[40]
+
+Saint Lucia maintains friendly relations with the major powers active in the Caribbean, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and France. Saint Lucia has no current international disputes.
+
+Saint Lucia is a full and participating member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and La Francophonie. Saint Lucia is a Commonwealth Realm.
+
+Saint Lucia became the 152nd member of the United Nations on 9 December 1979.[41] As of January 2018, Cosmos Richardson, who presented his credentials on 22 February 2017, was Saint Lucia's representative to the United Nations.[42]
+
+The Charter of the OAS was signed in Bogota in 1948 and was amended by several protocols which were named after the city and the year in which the protocol was signed, such as Managua in 1993 forming part of the name of the protocol.[43]
+
+Saint Lucia entered the OAS system on 22 February 1979.[44]
+
+At a CARICOM Meeting, the representative of St. Lucia, John Compton signed The Double Taxation Relief (CARICOM) Treaty 1994 on 6 July 1994.[45]
+
+The representatives of seven CARICOM countries signed similar agreements at Sherbourne Conference Centre, St. Michael, Barbados.[45] The countries whose representatives signed the treaties in Barbados were Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.[45]
+
+This treaty covered taxes, residence, tax jurisdictions, capital gains, business profits, interest, dividends, royalties and other areas.
+
+On 30 June 2014, Saint Lucia signed a Model 1 agreement with the United States of America in relation to Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).[46] As of 1 September 2016, the status of the agreement is listed as "in force".
+
+Preceding the 2014 FATCA agreement is one which was entered into on 30 January 1987 between the United States of America and Saint Lucia according to Paragraph 2 of the Model 1 agreement, the purpose of which was to exchange tax Information.[47]
+
+Saint Lucia has no regular military force. A Special Service Unit and the Coast Guard are both under the command of the Royal Saint Lucia Police.[48][49]
+
+In 2018, Saint Lucia signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.[50]
+
+The districts of the island, established by the French colonial government and continued by the British, are:
+
+An additional area is the Forest Reserve Area Quarter (78.3 km²).
+
+The United Nations categorizes Saint Lucia as a Small Island Developing State, a designation similar to a developing country with a few substantial differences due to Saint Lucia's island nature.[51][52] The services sector accounted for 82.8% of GDP, followed by industry and agriculture at 14.2% and 2.9%, respectively.[2]
+
+An educated workforce and improvements in roads, communications, water supply, sewerage, and port facilities have attracted foreign investment in tourism and in petroleum storage and transshipment. However, with the US, Canada, and Europe in recession, tourism declined by double digits in early 2009. The recent change in the European Union import preference regime and the increased competition from Latin American bananas have made economic diversification increasingly important in Saint Lucia.
+
+Saint Lucia has been able to attract foreign business and investment, especially in its offshore banking and tourism industries, which is Saint Lucia's main source of revenue.[53] The manufacturing sector is the most diverse in the Eastern Caribbean area, and the government is trying to revitalise the banana industry. Despite negative growth in 2011, economic fundamentals remain solid, and GDP growth should recover in the future.
+
+Inflation has been relatively low, averaging 5.5 percent between 2006 and 2008. Saint Lucia's currency is the East Caribbean Dollar (EC$), a regional currency shared among members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECU). The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCL) issues the EC$, manages monetary policy, and regulates and supervises commercial banking activities in member countries. In 2003, the government began a comprehensive restructuring of the economy, including elimination of price controls and privatization of the state banana company.[54]
+
+Tourism is vital to Saint Lucia's economy. Its economic importance is expected to continue to increase as the market for bananas have become more competitive. Tourism tends to be more substantial during the dry season (January to April), often referred to as the tourist season. Saint Lucia tends to be popular due to its tropical weather and scenery and its numerous beaches and resorts.
+
+Other tourist attractions include a drive-in volcano, Sulphur Springs (in Soufrière), zip lining in beautiful Sault Falls, Dennery, the Botanical Gardens, the Majestic twin Peaks "The Pitons", a world heritage site, the rain forests, several options of boat trips, Frigate Island Nature Reserve (Operated by the St. Lucia National Trust), Dennery, and Pigeon Island National Park, which is home to Fort Rodney, an old British military base.
+
+The majority of tourists visit Saint Lucia as part of a cruise. Most of their time tends to be spent in Castries, although Soufriere, Marigot Bay, Rodney Bay and Gros Islet are popular locations to visit.
+
+The current Minister of Tourism is Dominic Fedee, he has been in his role since 2016.
+
+Saint Lucia reported a population of 165,595 in the 2010 national census.[8] In 2018, the United Nations Population Division estimated Saint Lucia's population at 181,889.[3][4] The country's population is evenly divided between urban and rural areas, with more than a third living in the capital, Castries.
+
+Despite a high emigration rate, the population is growing rapidly at about 1.2% per year. Migration from Saint Lucia is primarily to Anglophone countries, with the United Kingdom having almost 10,000 Saint Lucian-born citizens, and over 30,000 of Saint Lucian heritage. The second most popular destination for Saint Lucian émigrés is the United States, where a combined (foreign and national-born Saint Lucians) almost 14,000 reside. Canada is home to a few thousand Saint Lucians.[56]
+
+Saint Lucia's population is predominantly of African and mixed African-European-Carib descent, with a small Indo-Caribbean minority (3%). Members of other or unspecified ethnic groups, account for about 2% of the population.
+
+The official language is English.[1][57] Saint Lucian French Creole (Kwéyòl), which is colloquially referred to as Patois ("Patwa"), is spoken by 95% of the population.[58] This Antillean Creole is used in literature and music, and is gaining official acknowledgement.[58] As it developed during the early period of French colonisation, the creole is derived chiefly from French and West African languages, with some vocabulary from the Island Carib language and other sources. Antillean Creole is also spoken in Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and (to a lesser extent) St. Vincent and Grenada; it also resembles the creoles spoken in French Guiana, Haiti, Mauritius and the Seychelles. Saint Lucia is a member of La Francophonie.[59]
+
+Religion in Saint Lucia (2015)[2]
+
+About 61.5% of the population is Roman Catholic. Another 25.5% belong to Protestant denominations, (includes Seventh Day Adventist 10.4%, Pentecostal 8.9%, Baptist 2.2%, Anglican 1.6%, Church of God 1.5%, other Protestant 0.9%). Evangelicals comprise 2.3% of the population and 1.1% are Jehovah's Witnesses. In addition, about 1.9% of the population adheres to the Rastafari movement. Other religions include Islam, Bahá'í Faith, Judaism, and Buddhism.
+
+See Health in Saint Lucia
+
+In 2017, Saint Lucia recorded 60 homicides, the highest in the country's history.[60]
+
+The culture of Saint Lucia has been influenced by African, East Indian, French, and English heritage. One of the secondary languages is Saint Lucian French Creole or Kwéyòl, spoken by almost all of the population.[1][57]
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+Saint Lucia boasts the second highest ratio of Nobel laureates produced with respect to the total population of any sovereign country in the world. Two winners have come from Saint Lucia: Sir Arthur Lewis won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979, and the poet Derek Walcott received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.
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+Saint Lucian cultural festivals include La Rose and La Marguerite, the first representing a native Saint Lucian fraternal society known as the Order of the Rose that is fashioned in the mould of Rosicrucianism, and the second representing its traditional rival, the native Saint Lucian equivalent of Freemasonry known as the Order of the Marguerite.[61] References to their origins as versions of pre-existing external secret societies can be seen in a mural painted by Dunstan St Omer, depicting the holy trinity of Osiris, Horus, and Isis.
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+The biggest festival of the year is the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival.  Held in early May at multiple venues throughout the island, it draws visitors and musicians from around the world. The grand finale or main stage is held at the Pigeon Island[62] which is located to the North of the Island.
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+Traditionally in common with other Caribbean countries, Saint Lucia held a carnival before Lent. In 1999, the government moved Carnival to mid-July to avoid competing with the much larger Trinidad and Tobago carnival and so as to attract more overseas visitors.
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+In May 2009, Saint Lucians commemorated the 150th Anniversary of West Indian Heritage on the island.
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+The Windward Islands cricket team includes players from Saint Lucia and plays in the West Indies regional tournament. Daren Sammy became the first Saint Lucian to represent the West Indies on his debut in 2007, and since 2010 has captained the side.[63] In an international career spanning 2003 to 2008, and including 41 ODIs and one Test, Nadine George MBE became the first woman to score a Test century for the team.[64] Sammy and George were recognised by the Saint Lucian government as Sportsman of the Year and Sportswoman of the Year respectively for 2004.[65]
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+For sailing enthusiasts, the annual Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) race begins in the Canary Islands and ends in Saint Lucia. The year 2015 marked the ARC's 30th year of existence. Every November, the race attracts over 200 boats and 1,200 people to sail across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.
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+In 2019 a modern state of the art horse racing facility will open.  One of the main contributors will be The China Horse Club, operators of race tracks in Asia.
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+Together with Caribbean music genres such as Calypso, Soca, Dancehall, Reggae, Compas, Zouk, and Salsa, Saint Lucia has a strong indigenous folk music tradition. Each May since 1991, Saint Lucia has hosted an internationally renowned Jazz Festival.  In 2013, the festival was re-branded The Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival which encompassed culture, visual art, alternative music, education, fashion, and food.
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+Dancing in Saint Lucia is inspired by Caribbean culture and enjoys an active following. A popular folk dance is the Kwadril.
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+Caribbean Cinemas operates in Saint Lucia. The cinema is located at Choc Estate in Castries.There is also an ATM, Domino's Pizza outlet, &  a cafe near the Cinema.
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+Much of the scenery for the film Dr. Dolittle was shot in Saint Lucia in 1967.[66] Water was shot on the island,[67] as were parts of Firepower.
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+The Education Act provides for free and compulsory education in Saint Lucia from the ages of 5 to 15.[68][69] Public spending on education was at 5.8% among the 2002–2005 GDP.[68]
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+Saint Lucia has a community college (Sir Arthur Lewis Community College[70]), one university campus operated by the University of the West Indies Open Campus,[71] and a few medical schools – American International Medical University, International American University − College of Medicine, Destiny University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the oldest of which is Spartan Health Sciences University.
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+Monroe College, a private for-profit college and graduate school based in New York City, established a campus in Saint Lucia in 2007. Formerly based at Barnard Hill in Castries, the campus is now located at Vide Bouteille, Castries. The college was founded in 1933 and also has campuses in the Bronx and New Rochelle, with an extension site in Manhattan. The college is named after James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States. Monroe College is regionally accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.[72]
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+Saint Lucia's national dish is green figs and saltfish.
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+The island's cuisine is a unique blend of West African[citation needed], European (mainly British and French) and Indian cuisine; this creates dynamic meal dishes such as macaroni pie, Stew chicken, rice and peas, fish broth or fish water, and soups packed full with fresh locally produced vegetables. Typical essential foodstuffs are potatoes, onions, celery, thyme, coconut milk, the very hot scotch bonnet peppers, flour, and cornmeal. All mainstream meat and poultry are eaten in St. Lucia; meat and seafood are normally stewed and browned to create a rich gravy sometimes served over ground provisions or rice. The island is also home to the famous fried dough, known by many as a bake or Johnny Cake. These bakes can be served with different sides, such as saltfish which is either sautéed or lightly fried along with red, green peppers, onions, and seasoned well. This is the most common way for bake to be prepared, though it can also be served with meats such as stewed chicken or beef.
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+One popular Saint Lucian dessert is the pastry called a turnover. The pastry is made with sweetened coconut that is boiled with spices, some sugar, and whatever is satisfying. It is boiled until cooked to a light or dark brown colour; then the mixture is separated into various size portions placed on a rolled out piece of dough. The dough size may vary too depending on how much is desired, and lastly, it is baked in the oven until the colour of the turnover is nicely browned.
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+Due to Saint Lucia's Indo-Caribbean population, curry is very popular; however due to the blend of cooking styles, curry dishes have a distinct Caribbean twist. Roti is typically served as a fast food meal: the bread itself is very flat (sometimes very thin) and is wrapped around curried vegetables such as chickpeas and potato, seafood such as shrimp and conch, or meats such as chicken, beef, goat, and liver.
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+Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people living in Saint Lucia face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT members of the population.[73] Saint Lucia prohibits male-on-male sexual activity, punishing those found guilty with 10 years in jail. Saint Lucia was also the only UN member in the Americas to formally oppose the UN declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity.[74]
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+A species of lizard, Anolis luciae, is named for and is endemic to Saint Lucia.[75][76]
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+Toraille Waterfall – July 2016
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+Gros Piton seen from the Ladera Hotel restaurant – September 2007
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+Petit Piton seen from the Ladera Hotel restaurant – December 2004
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+Soufrière Bay – February 2006
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+Aerial view of resort – June 2006
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+Typical sight in Canaries: houses on hills, June 2006
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+St Lucia beach – February 2006
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+View from the Le Sport  resort – March 2006
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+A view of Soufrière
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+Click on a coloured area to see an article about English in that country or region